Chapter 4: The Five-Million-Yuan Prize (4)

This time, Chi Wei was the one turned into an ornamental fish in a glass tank, a living actor on the big screen.

She stood in the newly opened space. The scene before her looked like a telephone booth from an old British or American street. Within that space was another, smaller one.

A door with a handle stood before her, waiting for her to open it.

Only a few broad instructions were written on it:

Welcome to the Saint’s Game.

Difficulty levels: wolf < tiger < elephant

Current difficulty: elephant

Please enter!

It seemed she’d have to go through the door to see the rules for the actual game.

The separate Saint’s Game space was bright as day. Outside, the rest of the room remained as dark as a movie theater with the lights off. From the corner of her eye, Chi Wei saw nothing but blackness.

She was immersed in the only patch of light, while the other eight players watched her every move.

The two spaces were cleverly designed, she had to admit.

The dyed-haired man laughed and asked the one-eyed man, “Hey, are you still going to vote ‘Rescue’ this time?”

The one-eyed man clenched his fists, his face twisted with rage. He didn’t want to answer.

The programmer spoke evenly. “Don’t get ahead of yourself. Maybe she’ll get lucky.”

In his heart, though, he was already calculating how much money he’d get if Chi Wei failed. Her personal prize was now five million yuan. Split among eight people, that would give him at least 625,000 yuan.

I could renovate a few dozen more square meters of my new home with that.

In the brilliantly lit space, Chi Wei turned the handle and entered the smaller room.

A long white wall stood before her. Two rows of picture frames hung on it, ten in each row, evenly spaced. The arrangement looked like a meticulously curated gallery.

Except there were no pictures in any of the frames.

The room held no other props, furniture, or decoration. It was so clean it might as well have been empty.

Chi Wei looked back at the only thing in the room: the white wall.

The only other difference was that the ten frames in the top row had gold borders, while those in the bottom row had silver ones.

Probably just a way to tell them apart. Nothing special.

After about ten seconds, the rules slowly appeared in the blank spaces on the wall.

Outside, the programmer pushed his glasses up his nose several times. He couldn’t help staring, mouth hanging open.

Game name: Did You Forget Rock-Paper-Scissors Again?

Game description 1: The Saint agreed to play a game of rock-paper-scissors with his dear friend. This time, he decided to send the traveler to play in his place. But the Saint’s friend is an old man with magic powers, and the traveler worried about losing, so the game was entrusted to you. This is a simple game of rock-paper-scissors: rock beats scissors, scissors beat paper, and paper beats rock.

The Magician has already hidden the shapes of the hands he will play in the gold frames above. Next, you must leave your chosen hand in the corresponding silver frame below.

Game description 2: You may enter this room ten times. Each time, you may turn over a total of ten frames of your choice. When you play rock-paper-scissors, however, you may not choose a frame belonging to the Magician that you turned over during that visit.

For example: If you turn over the Magician’s frames 1 through 9 the first time you enter, you may play only against frame 10.

Each time you enter the room, you may leave your hand in one—and only one—silver frame. Your chosen hand will then be turned face down.

Game description 3: Once you have entered the room for the last time and left your hand, all the results will be revealed at once.

The Saint has made a bold claim, so you must win at least seven out of ten games to achieve final victory. Leaving no hand or tying also counts as a win for the Magician!

Chi Wei: “…”

The Saint makes a big promise and then outsources the game. That’s rich.

But from what she could see, the game wasn’t difficult at all. She only needed to enter the room once, memorize the hands in nine frames, and then she’d have a sure win when she came back.

So Chi Wei was certain there had to be another rule.

Sure enough!

The real meaning of the game’s name—and the real difficulty—was here:

Game description 4: The Magician has cast a spell of forgetfulness on you. Each time you leave the room, you will forget everything that happened inside. You will even forget that you entered the room at all!

Game start!

Countdown until you are forcibly removed from the room: 07:59

So she had only eight minutes each time?

Unfortunately, there was no real sense of time in the space she was in.

The room was also devoid of any objects she could use to make a mark. Its stark, almost total emptiness left her with nowhere to write or leave a clue.

If she was going to forget even that she’d entered the room, the first thing she needed to figure out was: which time was this?

Because after her tenth visit, the game would end.

If this was her first visit, how could she play to win at least seven times?

There were ten silver frames. She couldn’t leave an answer blank, and she couldn’t tie with the Magician’s hand above…

Outside, the programmer felt as if his mental CPU were overheating.

If she relied on luck alone, she had only a one-in-three chance of winning each round.

And to win at least seven out of ten, the probability—calculated using the binomial distribution—was about… one point six percent!

The real chance was even lower, since his calculations didn’t include the possibility of leaving a frame blank.

After all, she couldn’t directly see what she’d left in a frame, or how many times she’d left an answer. It was entirely possible she’d forget one by accident.

No wonder this was an “elephant” level game!

The programmer sat at the conference table and felt a rush of relief that it hadn’t chosen him.

She’s as good as dead.

He might as well think about how to spend the extra tens of thousands on his renovations.

The woman with dreadlocks folded her arms. “Damn, I can’t even understand the question.”

She too was thinking, Damn, damn, damn. Thank goodness I didn’t get picked. I’d be dead for sure.

Countdown until you are forcibly removed from the room: 05:00

Chi Wei had been standing there without moving for a full three minutes.

The other players started to wonder whether she’d been scared stiff or had already given up.

Still, it wasn’t impossible to win…

The game was called the Lucky Game, after all. If Chi Wei had unbelievably good luck, she might win all ten rounds!

With the attitude of people watching someone else play the lottery before splitting the prize, the others actually began to enjoy the show.

Only the one-eyed man seemed worried for Chi Wei, hoping she wouldn’t fail and die too.

Countdown until you are forcibly removed from the room: 04:40

Chi Wei had paused for three minutes and twenty seconds. Her palm was damp, sweat beading against it.

But after reading through the rules again, she’d already found a way to beat the game.

The only risk in this game of forgetting was whether she and her own self would be in sync.

Or, more precisely, whether she would trust herself as she always did.

Trust her first thought, her first instinct, her first judgment.

The only sure way to win was to gamble on how well she knew herself.

By the way, what difficulty level was this game?

The screen hadn’t displayed a level, but Chi Wei guessed it had to be at least “tiger”—maybe even “elephant.”

She went to the wall and turned over the first silver frame.

[Contents: Blank]

So this was her first visit to the room.

The first thing she needed to know was settled.

She had nine frame flips left.

Chi Wei went to the far end of the wall, raised her head toward the Magician’s gold frames, and turned them over in reverse order.

The hands in frames 2 through 10 were, in order: scissors, scissors, paper, rock, paper, scissors, rock, rock, paper.

She’d used all nine remaining flips.

According to the rules, she could now play only against the first gold frame, which she hadn’t turned over.

Watching from outside, the one-eyed man murmured in disappointment, “That’s no use…”

The dyed-haired man thought the same. Right. What good does it do to look at nine frames? She’ll forget as soon as she leaves. She’ll have to look again when she comes back.

But looking again was pointless. The first frame she had to play against was one she hadn’t seen, so she could only guess. Her chance of winning was still tiny.

The student thought hard for a while before she finally understood Chi Wei’s predicament.

She stared, shocked. “This game… it’s a dead loop.”

She’d always forget which frames she’d looked at, and she could only play against a frame she hadn’t looked at during that visit!

That meant Chi Wei could only rely on luck.

Inside the Saint’s Game, Chi Wei made her choice in the first silver frame.

She chose rock.

Then she walked straight out of the room without looking back.

There was no point lingering over what was already done. If she was going to forget, why waste time thinking about it?

As spectators, the other players got to see the results for a few seconds after Chi Wei left.

[Gold frame 1: Paper]

[Silver frame 1: Rock]

The Magician wins!

So she’d lost after all.

Chi Wei really wasn’t lucky.

Now that she’d lost the first round, her chances of winning had shrunk even further.

Could she still win seven out of nine?

The one-eyed man punched the table. “Damn it!”

After thinking it over, he decided that anyone who went into that game would have died. Chi Wei was just unlucky today.

Little Fatty leaned over the table and started to doze.

There wasn’t much suspense left in the game. He might as well sleep until it was time to vote.

Chi Wei looked at the brief instructions on the door:

Welcome to the Saint’s Game.

Difficulty levels: wolf < tiger < elephant

Current difficulty: elephant

Please enter!

It seemed the details were hidden behind the door. She pushed it open and went inside.

The white wall looked like a gallery. Two rows of gold and silver frames—twenty in all—hung on it, and then the rules appeared line by line.

Each time she entered, she had to play rock-paper-scissors against the Magician.

Each time she entered, she could choose which frames to turn over. But there were twenty gold and silver frames in all, and she could only turn over ten per visit.

Game description 4: The Magician has cast a spell of forgetfulness on you. Each time you leave the room, you will forget everything that happened inside. You will even forget that you entered the room at all!

I’ll forget?

Which time was this?

…

Countdown until you are forcibly removed from the room: 05:22

Chi Wei stood facing the wall, tapping her forehead lightly with her index finger. She’d spent nearly three minutes thinking.

The warmth in her palm and the lingering sweat told her this definitely wasn’t her first visit.

She’d been nervous enough to sweat the last time.

So—

She might as well try the strategy she’d worked out with the most basic reasoning.

The eight-minute countdown meant there was no point choosing a more complicated approach.

Chi Wei went to the wall and turned over the silver frames in order.

[First frame: Rock]

[Second frame: Blank]

All right. Now she knew this was her second visit to the room.

With eight flips left, she chose to turn over the Magician’s gold frames three through ten.

The hands she saw were, in order: scissors, paper, rock, paper, scissors, rock, rock, paper.

She’d seen all the information she could. Her chances to flip frames were gone. According to the rules, she could now play only against the second gold frame.

Of course, if she wanted to court death, she could waste this chance by changing the hand she’d left in the first silver frame.

Chi Wei, naturally, wasn’t going to do that.

She left her choice in the second silver frame: scissors.

Then she left the room.

Outside the game space, the other players watched the results appear.

[Gold frame 2: Scissors]

[Silver frame 2: Scissors]

The Magician wins!

A tie, so the Magician won.

Chi Wei had lost again.