Chapter 921: Chapter 877: Not Asking for the Same Year, Month, and Day of Updates, Only Asking to Procrastinate Together
Gu Mian and Liu Ruyan were still discussing the motives of Group Three, while Group Four had already begun their move.
Apparently aware of the irregularity in Group Three’s direction, Group Four’s Chess Player hesitated for a long time before making a choice this round.
The best way to guard against an ambush from Group Three on Group Four’s Chess Player is to withdraw the pieces back to near the starting room to protect the Chess Player.
However, the pieces cannot enter rooms they have already been to. To withdraw near the starting room, they cannot return the way they came; they must either detour or directly engage the pieces in the room where Group Three’s pieces are present.
For some reason, Group Four’s Chess Player did not make such arrangements, and from 007’s report, Gu Mian learned that Group Four’s pieces moved one square downward and did not return.
All of Group Four’s pieces finished their moves, and the halftime commenced.
"The motives of Group Three are so clear, I suppose the Chess Player in Room Four’s starting room should understand Group Three’s intent too," Liu Ruyan contemplated on Group Four’s pieces’ movements this round. "If I were the Chess Player of Group Four, I would immediately send the pieces to the room where Group Three’s pieces are and eliminate them before they can deal with me."
This would indeed be the optimal solution for Group Four’s Chess Player, yet he didn’t take such action.
This leaves two possibilities.
"Perhaps Group Four’s Chess Player is someone with high combat prowess, confident in defeating Group Three’s pieces in under a minute," Liu Ruyan speculated. "However, looking at the profession choices of this instance, the best solution would be for the person with the highest intelligence to remain in the starting room arranging routes as the Chess Player. During preparation, both Group Three and Four swiftly made their profession choices, so I believe they decisive left the smartest person as the Chess Player."
"If that’s the case, then Group Four’s Chess Player is both highly powerful and sharp-minded; such individuals are rare in the game," Liu Ruyan noted, describing people she had seen. "Among those I know, the intelligent ones are weak and frail-looking while wearing glasses, while the strong ones are bulky but only know how to eat."
Gu Mian felt she was subtly including Chu Changge and Fatty in her comments.
Liu Ruyan continued, "Of course, there could be another reason why Group Four doesn’t let their own pieces directly engage Group Three’s: maybe the piece of Group Four present is too weak, sending him to fight others would be tantamount to a death sentence."
Gu Mian nodded, from the trajectory of Group Four’s pieces in previous rounds, it’s clear the Chess Player of Group Four is avoiding having their pieces encounter others, suggesting a high possibility their pieces’ combat prowess is dreadful.
Speaking of, the Honest Ghost that Group Four encountered in the last square was still beside Group Four’s pieces, not sure what the outcome was. Gu Mian went on to check the information 007 posted in the group.
"Honest Ghost... once it follows, it won’t leave?" 007 in the starting room kept a close watch on the square where Group Four’s pieces currently were.
This time, Group Four’s pieces entered an empty room, a rarity, it should be the first truly empty square since the instance started.
Naturally, the Honest Ghost from the previous round followed Group Four’s pieces into this square.
The steps answered by Group Four’s pieces in the previous round were evidently correct, as the empty square now displayed a message stating the player answered truthfully and earned a reward.
However, after this message appeared, the originally empty square underwent a change, turning into an Honest Square, and the square’s information transitioned to the introduction of the Honest Square—
[The room contains an Honest Ghost who does not permit deceit against itself. Pieces entering this room must answer within a minute how many steps they will move in the next round. In the next round, the Honest Ghost will move alongside the piece, if the answer matches the steps taken, a reward will be given by the Honest Ghost, if not, the deceived Honest Ghost will claim the piece’s life]
re-read this introduction thoroughly again, finally mulling over "In the next round, the Honest Ghost will move alongside the piece."
"Is that it?" 007 once more looked at the square Group Four’s pieces occupied in the previous round, that square was originally an Honest Square, but because the Honest Ghost left, the square turned into an empty square.
It seems the Honest Ghost will always follow encountered pieces until they die. Once the Honest Ghost leaves the original room, the former Honest Squares also become empty squares due to the ghost’s loss.
Group Four’s luck is truly poor, stepping into a trap from the first move, and the second piece sent out got stuck with the Honest Ghost.
realized that Group Four’s pieces now are fully in a gambling state, each round he must gamble against the Honest Square, betting on the next step count.
As long as one answer is wrong, death awaits. How many consecutive correct answers can he manage?
pondered that Group Four’s pieces likely won’t survive the next three rounds, with a fifty percent chance, the probability of answering correctly three consecutive times is already slim.
This time, Group Four’s piece stepped onto an empty square, what if he steps into another square with a ghost or a teleportation-like functional room next time? He entered an empty square this time, next should not be an empty square, then they will know what happens to the City Ghost when entering other squares.
At this point, Gu Mian with Liu Ruyan among the Arithmetic Ghost also learned about the situation between Group Four’s pieces and the Honest Ghost.
"It’s a ghost that moves, if you guess the steps you’ll move in the next round correctly, there’s a reward, equivalent to a ghost who gives money every round accompanying you," Liu Ruyan recalled the properties of the Honest Ghost.
"Only if you guess right do you get money, guessing wrong leads to death," Gu Mian corrected her.
Liu Ruyan glanced at the Arithmetic Ghost on the ground still pretending to be fainted, only to see the Arithmetic Ghost’s eyelids slightly peek open a slit at them, upon being discovered by Liu Ruyan quickly shut tightly again.
"The rule in this room still suggests no correct answer leads to death, aren’t you dead yet?"
Not dead.
"Is it because the ghost in this room is kind-hearted, thus mercifully spared us, right?" said Gu Mian also glancing at the fallen Arithmetic Ghost.
The Arithmetic Ghost remained motionless, feigning unconsciousness, eyes tightly shut.
Gu Mian calculated her position on the chessboard and the four 605 rooms, their current position needed only one more step downward to reach the first 605 room.
Would the Evil God be inside?
"Did you see? Now, aren’t the two pieces in the Arithmetic Square from Group One still active? Why aren’t they dead yet?" Passerby A in Group Three’s starting room still kept a close eye on Gu Mian at the Arithmetic Square, utterly puzzled.
Their answer time limit has long been exceeded, hasn’t the ghost inside killed them yet? At least kill one of them, yet the two inside still seem lively and animated.
Passerby A saw the two small figures representing chess pieces occasionally move a bit within the Arithmetic Ghost Square.
I’m the Best in the World was also confused; he felt that this pair of chess pieces was really strange. They started the game together, landed on four empty squares successively, and finally hit a square with a ghost. However, they had clearly surpassed the ghost’s time limit, yet both remained unharmed.
He really wanted to see what was happening in the Arithmetic Ghost Square, but sadly he couldn’t.
"Keep Iron Pot Stewed Chicken away from that pair in Group One, I feel we’re a bit too close to them right now. It feels like encountering those two is not a good thing," I’m the Best in the World was quite wary of the two chess pieces from Group One.
Actually, their pieces were closer to Group Four’s pieces now, but I’m the Best in the World saw that Group Four was already entangled with the Honest Ghost, knowing Group Four wouldn’t last long and thus didn’t fear them.
As for Group Three, they were far from them for now, and it seemed that Group Three didn’t intend to move toward their pieces, so they didn’t need to be concerned with Group Three for now.
"Alright, I’ll see how we should move next round. Hey, where exactly do you think the treasure chest on this board is hidden? We’ve walked so many steps with four groups of people, yet haven’t seen a hair of the treasure chest."
"We’ve only moved this much, not even a quarter yet. But I guess the treasure chest should be in the central area; it wouldn’t be too close to the four starting rooms for us to get easily."
As the two were speaking, the mid-game break ended.
The fifth round began.
This time 007 rolled a one.
Gu Mian, as he wished, moved down one square and arrived at the square where Room 605 was located.
The Evil God was not there.
Not only did he fail to meet the Evil God, but his feet were also shackled with a strange device.
The moment Gu Mian stepped into this room, he felt his feet sink, and looking down, he saw a pair of heavy shackles had unknowingly been attached to him. Liu Ruyan, beside him, was the same.
This room didn’t have a ghost; it was a functional square.
"Kuibu Square," read the panel description in the room, "In the next three rounds, you can only move one step forward per round."
Group Three had previously entered this square, and they didn’t expect to hit it, nor did they expect to wear shackles in this square.
Who designed this was full of quirky mischief.
As the shackles were extremely heavy, it was difficult to take big steps, and now Gu Mian could only move inch by inch, which led to being mocked by Liu Ruyan.
But she wasn’t much better off; her movements resembled a caterpillar.
Gu Mian seriously observed the shackles on his feet, trying to find clues left by the Evil God, after all, this was one of the four Room 605s.
But he couldn’t find any clues on the shackles. It turned out to be just an ordinary shackle restricting their movement.
By now, Group Two’s chess pieces had started to move, and 007 was watching their movements intently at the chessboard.
Group Two moved forward to the right this time.
He stepped forward into a trap square, but the Group Two piece didn’t stop at the trap square, continuing forward into the next square to stop. It seems the Group Two Chess Player rolled a two.
Not stopping on the trap square, luck wasn’t too bad, 007 thought about the trajectory of Group Two’s piece.
But soon she felt it was better for them to have stayed in the trap square.
She saw an introduction appear on the square where Group Two’s piece was now, a previously unseen, jaw-dropping square.
[Shared Death Square]
[Wow, you’ve uncovered the most dangerous square on the board]
[Can’t live the same year, month, and day, but seek to die in the same year, month, and day! The room holds a historical ghost filled with wrath, cursing everyone in this square, causing the whole group of the cursed to die together]
"What..." 007 struggled to absorb the introduction of the Shared Death Square.
There was actually such a square where once a piece stopped in it, the entire group would die together.
As 007 was in shock, the piece in the Shared Death Square was already marked with an ’X’, its color dimmed.
This meant death.
Looking at the lower-left corner, the two small figures in Room Two were also dead.
This change happened so fast that 007 couldn’t react in time.
The Player of Group Three in the lower right hadn’t reacted either, and as Group Two’s piece had finished moving, it was now Group Three Player’s turn, yet there was no action from Group Three, clearly rocked by the new Shared Death Square.
With time approaching a minute, 007 finally saw a Group Three piece move.
Group Three piece moved one square upward, arriving at a Gold Coin Square yet again.
