Chapter 122
Chapter 122
The moment the young woman finished speaking, a system notification sounded in every player’s mind.
[Welcome to the gods’ horror game. Special fourth-floor vampire instance–*Vampires*.]
[Starting the Gods’ Livestream. Automatically connecting to the livestream pool.]
[Timed mission announced: Solve the challenge presented by Follower No. 3.]
[Players, enjoy the game to your hearts’ content. Entertainment above all!]
The young woman was clearly the key NPC mentioned by the system. The hall, so noisy moments before, became deathly silent as everyone watched Follower No. 3 with wary eyes.
Follower No. 3 raised a hand, and a numbered name tag appeared over the left side of every player’s chest.
Xiao Huai glanced at the number on his own tag: [100].
Xiao Qian’s was 52.
Follower No. 3 smiled. “These are your numbers. Don’t forget them. They’re very important.”
No one spoke, but after hearing her warning, they all hastily repeated their numbers several times in their minds, afraid they might forget.
Follower No. 3 looked toward the hall entrance. “I nearly forgot. Come in.”
When she finished, the doors opened. The first man to enter had a deep knife scar across his face, and the viciousness in his eyes made every player shudder.
The next man was packed with muscle and looked capable of sending someone to the emergency room with a single punch.
The first four newcomers were hulking men the players scarcely dared to look at.
But the final arrival, a young man thin as a bamboo pole, drew everyone’s gaze.
The fifth and final man was small and thin, with a pale face and a perpetually miserable expression. Head lowered and eyes darting, he trailed timidly behind the four strong men and looked even more frightened than the players.
Anyone who did not know better might have thought a kidnapped player had somehow been mixed into the group.
Once the five entered the hall, Follower No. 3 pressed a button on the remote in her hand. A platform concealed beneath the floorboards rose, carrying a wooden chest.
The four strong men’s eyes lit up. The thin young man did not dare raise his head for another glance.
Follower No. 3 opened the chest, and now even the players’ eyes widened.
It was filled with gold coins.
The sight seemed to trip a switch in the four men. They began shouting. “Mine! I stole them, so of course they’re mine!”
“Bullshit! You think I did nothing? I contributed the most, so I deserve the biggest share!”
The four immediately erupted into an argument. The thin young man stood behind Follower No. 3, neither speaking nor looking at the coins, doing everything possible to erase his presence.
Follower No. 3’s brow twitched at the noise. One man caught the irritation in the corner of her eye and promptly fell silent.
The others noticed someone had stopped, looked up at Follower No. 3, and immediately quieted as well.
At least they knew how to read the room.
Once silence returned to the hall, Follower No. 3’s expression eased, and she began explaining the challenge.
“I’ve encountered a problem recently. As you can all see, it’s about dividing the gold.”
She picked up a coin and rubbed it between her fingers. “There are one hundred gold coins here, but five killers. You must devise a reasonable way to divide them. More than half the killers must approve the proposal for it to pass. If it fails to win the support of half of them, the person proposing it will be killed. What will clever people like you choose?”
She laughed softly, her smile growing increasingly eerie.
The players below began to stir. This question!
It was a classic.
A famous economic model and an equally famous mathematical game.
The pirate gold distribution puzzle, except the pirates had been replaced by killers.
Follower No. 3 was not angered by the players’ whispers. Instead, she said,
“If you want to discuss it, you’d better do so now. Once ten minutes are up, I’ll call a number at random. Whoever I choose must come help me find the answer. If they fail, I’m afraid their fate will be exactly as stated in the question.”
[If it fails to win the support of half of them, the person proposing it will be killed.]
Someone would be chosen at random to answer. Failure meant death…
The game had gone for their throats from the start, binding every player together.
Any of them could be selected. Their best option was to work out the true answer as quickly as possible, or everyone would be doomed.
Some players sat on the floor with paper and pens, writing probability equations. They assigned numbers to each of the five men and calculated how the coins should be divided to win a majority.
“Wait, something’s wrong. Everyone wants more. In the pirate gold puzzle, any pirate who disagrees executes the pirate making the proposal,” someone realized.
Passing the proposal required more than half the votes, meaning three people had to agree.
But none of the men dividing the gold wanted anyone else to profit. The scale of their earlier quarrel made it seem as though each wanted to kill the others and take every coin.
“Why can’t they just divide it equally? Twenty coins each. That’s fair.”
“Are you joking? Split it equally? That’s far too idealistic. Everyone wants more. An equal split would never work.”
While everyone argued over how to frame the proposal, Xiao Huai sat lazily on the floor. His head tilted back, his Adam’s apple moving faintly with each breath.
From Xiao Qian’s angle, his thick black lashes cast a graceful silhouette beneath the light. His eyes seemed to possess their own gravity, drawing in anyone who looked at them.
Once their gazes met, it was difficult to look away from him.
Xiao Qian forced himself to turn his head and asked under his breath, “Aren’t you worried she’ll call your number?”
Xiao Huai closed his eyes. “Why should I be?”
“Have you already worked out a proposal?”
The moment Xiao Qian finished speaking, he heard a very soft laugh.
He looked back at Xiao Huai. A faint curve touched Xiao Huai’s lips, and a dangerous charm entered his eyes.
“Xiao Qian, she didn’t give us a proposal question. She gave us a multiple-choice question.”
A chill ran through Xiao Qian. It was like an electric current striking his whole body, numbing his skin while making his heart race.
What exactly had Follower No. 3 asked them to do?
[What will clever people like you choose?]
The trap had been present in the question from the beginning.
Even afterward, Follower No. 3 had not told them to devise a proposal. She had asked them to help her find the answer.
Help her find the answer.
The possible answers had been displayed in plain sight from the start.
Follower No. 3 simply would not tell them.
The choices had always been those five men.
Whether the puzzle involved pirates or killers, at its heart, it was a problem of violence.
Whoever could kill all the others would naturally take every coin, and that final victor would be the solution.
Designing a proposal was never the point. The real choice was–who did you think would win?