Zhou Lin

"Ah...it's indeed locked..."

Although Oni and Inaba had already tried, Sakaki still went to the door himself and pulled the door handle a few times to confirm that the door really couldn't be opened.

"I have a proposal." After Sakaki finished his inspection, the ghost attendant continued, "The three of us..." he said, his eyes swept over the faces of Sakaki and Inaba, "...let's cooperate."

"Oh?" Sakaki looked at the other party with interest and replied, "What kind of cooperation method?"

"Yes~" Inaba also said, "Now this is a game of competition, Oni Samurai-kun."

The ghost waiter smiled calmly and continued: "As you can see, this room has no windows, and the only exit is this door, but it is now locked; there are only two ways to escape through 'solving puzzles' There are two possibilities: one: find a hidden exit, and two: find a way to open the door." He paused, "However, this room is very big, there are many things, and twenty minutes is very short. ...In fact, one minute has passed now. If we don't cooperate with each other and go our own way... maybe someone can win in the end, but the greater probability will be... total destruction."

"Then what you mean is..." Inaba continued, "The three of us will search together, share the clues we found, and see who can solve the mystery first?" She picked up the cigarette rod in her hand and took a puff. , "Fu—Ghost Shijun, it's not good to lie to people."

"Haha..." Ghost Waiter sneered, "Of course I also know that making such a request... no matter how you look at it, it seems like you want to deceive the clues found by the other two people, and then be the first to escape." He continued, "So, I suggest that we make another agreement - for example... if anyone sees the clues and conceals it, but is discovered later, he will automatically lose his qualification as a 'winner'."

The Ghost Waiter's words were full of traps, the most obvious one being the condition "if discovered later", but even if he knew this, his proposal was still very tempting; because objectively speaking, even at the risk of being deceived, If you cooperate with each other regardless of the risk, the probability of successfully solving the puzzle is higher than if you work alone.

"This proposal is acceptable. If Mr. Arai is willing to help us with the notarization, it will be feasible." After thinking briefly, Sakaki continued.

He didn't know if the other two people had figured out Axiu's identity, so he still called them "Arai" here.

"You should be able to hear our conversation, right? Mr. Arai." A second later, Sakaki raised his voice and said again.

"Ah... you can hear it." Immediately afterwards, Axiu's voice came from the ceiling. It seemed that there was a communicator with amplification function hidden on it. If you conceal the clues, then this person will lose his qualification as a winner even if he wins.'... If you are willing to accept this, I can do the notarization for you." He paused, "Oh, by the way, this There are many surveillance cameras with radio functions installed in the room, I hope you won’t break them during the search.”

"How about it?" After getting Axiu's consent, the smile on the ghost waiter's face became even brighter, "If you agree, the three of us will divide the room into three areas to search separately, and share the information we found. Clues... Of course, they are just 'clues'. 'Inference' and 'conclusion' do not need to be shared; in this form, whoever can find the way out first, the other two will be willing to admit defeat. .”

The ghost servant thought that the two people would at least hesitate for a while before giving an answer, but unexpectedly...

"I agree." The next second, Sakaki agreed, "Then I will be responsible for finding this piece." With that, he turned around and started searching.

"Hey... Sakaki-kun, you are too hasty." Upon seeing this, Aunt Inaba immediately responded in that aunty voice, "You will be taken advantage of by some evil-minded uncles. "

"The time is too short and the space is too big. Compared with refusing to cooperate... sharing clues has a higher success rate. Besides, Mr. Arai has promised to be fair, so I think that's it." Sakaki explained in a few very simple sentences. He explained his reasons for agreeing to cooperate and added, "Inaba-senpai, if you insist on working alone, you can do it, but in that case... we will naturally not bring you with us when exchanging information. The two-on-one situation will be more difficult for you." It’s not good.”

"Hey..." Inaba heard this, secretly spat, and took another puff of cigarette, "Okay, okay~ I just agree." After that, she also moved to one side of the room and started to check.

Seeing that the situation developed according to his own vision and went more smoothly than he expected, Oni Samurai immediately smiled in his heart and said: "Hmph... very good, since everyone has taken the bait, then I have basically won; that kid named Sakaki has the brains Soon, as soon as I finished speaking, he settled the account, and I had to keep an eye on him... lest he solve the puzzle and run out quickly; as for the old lady Inaba, she was not a threat in the first place, her cigarette I have long figured out that there are several hypnotic and poisonous gases hidden in the rod. As long as you are prepared, that kind of thing is useless."

As he thought about it, he walked to the rest of the room and started searching.

With 16 minutes left in the game, the three seemingly inseparable people officially began to solve the puzzle.

In less than two minutes, Sakaki said loudly: "There are numbers on the furniture." He paused for half a second, "And each one has a number."

"Ah, you said so." Inaba actually found a few numbers half a minute ago, but she didn't say them out. Now that Sakaki mentioned it, she pretended to continue, "On the furniture over here. It seems there is."

It was something that could not be concealed once it was revealed. Seeing that the other two people had mentioned it, Ghost Warrior had no need to hide it: "Well, I have it here too." He said while pointing his finger. After a few clicks, "The lamp pole of this desk lamp has '5' engraved on it, and the corner of that slot machine has '67' engraved on it... If nothing else, it must be on other things too."

He guessed right. Almost every piece of furniture, accessories, etc. in this room has a number engraved on the corner. It is difficult to find it if you don't deliberately observe it. Of course, if you don't know this place, A "puzzle game" is going on, so even if someone accidentally finds one or two numbers, they won't take it too seriously.

"Let's write down the names and numbers of the objects we can find that are engraved with numbers." Sakaki quickly made another suggestion, "Then put the three pieces of information together and see if we can draw any conclusions. .”

After saying this, he casually picked up the paper and pen placed on a gambling table and started writing on his own.

Onishi and Inaba saw this kid being so active and secretly laughed at his naivety. However, they remained calm on the surface and followed Sakaki's suggestion.

Seven minutes later, the three of them placed the names of the items they had copied down and the numerical tables they compared with them on the same table, and started studying them together.

The number of items they finally listed was quite large, because everything from a sofa and a slot machine to a book or a small ornament...all had numbers.

For those numbers that do not exceed one hundred, there are basically several numbers jumping between each one, and there are many repetitions; for example, the table lamp on the east side of the room and the ornaments on the west side are both '5', while the sofa on the west side of the room The tables on the south side are both '41', and there are several such duplicates.

As they ponder the meaning of those numbers, time passes...

Although Ghost Attendant and Inaba tried their best to restrain themselves, there was still a hint of anxiety in their eyes. Only Sakaki was concentrating on the information on the paper without saying a word.

"I said, Sakaki-kun..." With six minutes left, the ghost attendant couldn't help it anymore, "Do you have an idea?"

"What?" Sakaki replied coldly, "A man with a very quick mind is helpless when faced with a real puzzle?"

"You..." The ghost waiter was just about to scream and get angry, but then he realized that the other party might be provoking. He quickly suppressed his anger and continued, "Huh... I'm not clueless." He knew that what happened was coming. Now, I have to reveal a bit of my reasoning. If everyone fails to solve the puzzle in the end, then his "layout" will be meaningless. "Just think of it as the special treatment given to you by senior, I Just remind you...those numbers, and weight..."

"It has something to do with 'weight', right..." Sakaki said before he could finish his words, "I've discovered this a long time ago. Objects with similar weights have the same numbers." He paused, "By the way, One sentence...I also discovered that Inaba-senpai intentionally wrote a few wrong numbers on the paper."

"Ah? What?" Hearing this, Inaba immediately began to pretend to be confused, "Ahhhhhhh... As this person gets older, his eyesight becomes difficult to use. He must have seen it wrong~OHOHOHO~"

Although the three of them had reached an agreement that if information was concealed, the winner would be disqualified, Inaba still did such a thing and planned to use this excuse to excuse him.

"Hey..." The ghost attendant was too lazy to talk nonsense to this old man. He didn't want to waste time, so he still said to Sakaki, "Sakaki-kun... Since you have seen through everything, you are very close to the answer to the mystery, right?"

"Ah...probably." Sakaki responded leisurely, then walked to the middle of the room and lifted up a large piece of carpet there.

Under the carpet, there is a floor, but it is not an ordinary floor.

The floor here is different from the rest of the room. It is made up of four lighter-colored metal plates that look like sliders.

"Mr. Ghost Samurai has figured out a little bit, but only a little bit." Sakaki said as he walked to the corner of the room and picked up a metronome placed on the piano. "The point of this puzzle is Screening of 'invalid information' or 'interfering information', and the 'interfering information' itself can actually serve as a reminder."

When he said this, he placed the metronome on one of the four metal plates, raised his eyes and looked at Inaba and said: "This object with the number '2' engraved on it, by chance... was killed by Inaba-senpai." You 'misread' it and wrote it as 12, so it caused some interference to my reasoning. Fortunately, I realized this immediately and my thoughts were straightened out."

"What's been straightened out?" Ghost Waiter still couldn't understand, "What's going on with these four boards?"

"These four boards are all pressure-sensitive boards." Sakaki continued, "The way to solve the puzzle is to place designated items on each of these four boards."

While explaining, he did not stop walking, constantly walking around the room and moving things in the middle.

"After correcting the erroneous information, it's actually not a difficult puzzle overall." Sakaki said while moving a chair, "We can think of the intersection lines of the four sensor boards on the ground as The dividing line divides this room into four areas: southeast, northwest, and southeast; within these four areas, everything that originally belongs to this room (the late-night snacks eaten by Axiu and the things they brought in are not included), the weight of Whole objects weighing more than kilograms and that can be moved (single mahjong tiles, dice, playing cards, or loose objects such as coins are naturally not included) have numbers on them... even on the carpet; but... There are four things that are exceptions.”

As soon as Sakaki said these words, Onishi and Inaba's expressions changed; their powers of observation were also extraordinary, and after Sakaki's reminder, some information was immediately reflected in their minds.

"You have undoubtedly noticed that in the four corners of this room, there are four animal specimens, namely "Eagle", "Duck", "Dog" and "Deer"; these four are obviously Moving things, but there are no numbers on their surfaces." Sakaki's narration continued, "Few gamblers today probably know...many years ago, before the world's languages ​​and writings were unified into Chinese and English. In this era, the same gambling project will not only have different rules depending on the region, but there will even be situations where the rules are exactly the same but the terminology used is completely different."

Onishi and Inaba listened to Sakaki's explanation with uncertain expressions on their faces; it was obvious that they knew nothing about this part of the knowledge, so they could not tell whether Sakaki was telling the truth or deceiving them.

"For example, in Black Hawk County in the 15th century, there was a card game called 'Stuttgart Poker'. Although there were 13 cards of each suit, the suits used were not the familiar ones of 'spade' and 'heart'. Instead of ', diamonds, and clubs', it's 'falcon, duck, hunting dog, and stag.'" When Sakaki said this, he had already moved five things to the center. "After knowing this, the four specimens were placed in four areas of the room, and there was no meaning of numbers engraved on them... You can roughly guess it, right?"

Before he finished speaking, Ghost Warrior and Inaba rushed to the table and stared at the three comparison tables with items and numbers written on them.

"Don't look for it. There is no item with 13 written on it in the whole room." Sakaki looked at their reactions and said with a smile, "Since there are only three of us and the room is divided into three areas to search, so The final statistics are a bit confusing, but if we break it into four parts, the situation becomes very clear...

"In the four areas of East, West, North and South, the number of objects engraved with numbers in each area is the same - nineteen items, that is, there are a total of seventy-six available objects in the room; all the numbers engraved on these objects are are the prime numbers in the S1 interval, which are the nineteen numbers 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59, 61, 67, and 71 The number is missing only one '13'.

"And this... is not only a supplement to the clue of 'falcon, wild duck, hound and stag', but also hints that the answer to our mystery is to 'make up the number 13'... or in other words, it lies in making up the 'weight', but If there is no '13', how should we make it up? There is only one solution..."

Poof-boom!

When Sakaki said the last few words, there was a muffled sound and Inaba fell to the ground.

In those two seconds, while Inaba's eyes were still on the paper, Ghost Attendant hit her on the back of the head with an ashtray.

"Alas..." Sakaki looked at the ghost attendant with a disappointed look and sighed, "Is this what the so-called 'invincible man' does?"

"Hmph... stop talking nonsense." Ghost Warrior said, slowly approaching Sakaki, "In the world of gambling, in addition to the strength to 'win', there is also the strength to 'take away what you win alive' It's necessary; people who can't escape with what they won... Such people are still losers."

"Hmm...that makes sense." Sakaki continued, "Mr. Arai, you should agree with this, right?"

"Of course." Axiu's response immediately sounded from the ceiling, "You only agreed before that 'withholding information will result in loss of qualifications as a winner', but there was no agreement that 'using violence will result in loss of qualifications as a winner', so now Mr. Ghost Waiter's The behavior is completely allowed by the rules; in short... there is still more than one minute left, I hope you can solve it as soon as possible."

"Tch... after working on it for a long time, it turned out to be like this." Sakaki muttered with an unhappy look on his face.

"Brother, you and I have no grievances, so why don't I show you a clear path." As for the ghost servant, he approached and said with a murderous look on his face, "Anyway, everyone already knows the answer to the riddle - it is that the will be engraved with The eight items with the numbers '2' and '11' are placed on the four sensors respectively. I see... you have already placed seven items... As long as you put the vase on your hand now, and when the exit opens Just let me go out first, and I will let you live."

"Heh..." Sakaki sneered when he heard this, and then...

Bang bang bang bang...

In the shocked eyes of the ghost attendant, Sakaki threw the vase in his hand... and it broke.

"You... you bastard!" The ghost waiter yelled out in shock and anger, picked up the ashtray and rushed towards Sakaki.

But what he didn't expect was that with a snap of his fingers, a pattern of shoe soles appeared in front of his eyes. Then, his eyes went dark and he lost consciousness.

"It's you who don't understand the situation, Mr. Ghost Warrior..." Sakaki looked at the Ghost Warrior who was easily knocked unconscious by his condescending eyes, "Even if you are strong and have the experience and courage to kill, but this That’s not why you can definitely beat me.”

"Sakaki-kun." At this time, Axiu's voice came from the communicator again, "Although I want to congratulate you that you are safe and sound, but there are only ten seconds left. If I were you, I would get rid of those things as soon as possible. The fragments of the vase..."

"Ah~ah~ I know." Sakaki responded with an impatient tone, then leaned down to pick up a fragment of the vase, and squatted next to the ghost attendant.

"Hey... Sakaki-kun, what are you going to do?" Axiu saw this scene through the monitor, and was a little shocked at the time, "I didn't let you..."

"Inaba seems to be dying." Sakaki interrupted before he could finish, "If I were to give the ghost attendant some blood here... then he probably wouldn't be able to catch up with the 'gambling game' in two weeks. Alright?"

Axiu was silent.

About twenty seconds later, that is, after the "time limit" had expired, he spoke: "Okay, I understand." He paused, "Sakaki-kun, you are not a man who sticks to 'victory within the rules' ...There is no doubt that this game is your complete victory. You don't have to do unnecessary things, lest..."

"So that you don't end up like the Ghost Warrior?" Sakaki took over his words and said with a smile, "Ha... you are really a good person, Xiu."

A Xiu said nothing more.

In less than a minute, the door to the room was unlocked, and several men in suits and medical staff who were already on standby rushed in and carried away Ghost Waiter and Inaba respectively.

The night when Sakaki and Axiu met was over.

But the story of the winner and loser has just begun.