San Tian Liang Jiao

Chapter 326 Invading Brain Cells (27)

“Let me continue.” Sherlock Holmes said, temporarily setting down his pipe and looking at the table. “Deduction – Professor Moriarty is an idiot.”

His words gave the four players the illusion of "Did I just mishear that?"

Only Professor Moriarty himself remained unperturbed.

"Nice try," Moriarty said casually.

Holmes laughed and shrugged, imitating Feng Bujue's tone from earlier. "Doesn't cost anything to try."

The players had no idea what these two were up to, but the cards on the table moved as expected. A card with the word "Deduction" printed on the back moved in front of Holmes.

The great detective didn't pick up the card, but simply flipped it over on the table, revealing the picture on the front.

The card…depicted a bomb. The kind of black, spherical bomb that often appears in cartoons.

Holmes glanced at the card, then stood up and took a few steps back, putting some distance between himself and the table.

He began searching his pockets. When he touched the left pocket of his coat, his expression changed slightly. "Oh, here it is," he said, taking out a black sphere slightly larger than an orange – a bomb.

The bomb looked exactly like the one on the card, and the fuse was lit. The moment it was taken out of his pocket, the fuse was almost completely burned.

Bang—

Before the four players could react, the explosion occurred. Three were stunned, while Feng Bujue wore a smile…

The bomb's power was average, only affecting a radius of about a meter. A spherical cloud of black smoke enveloped Holmes' upper body, obscuring everyone's vision.

Moriarty sat firmly, not even bothering to look back.

Soon, the smoke cleared, and Holmes stood there unharmed. He dusted himself off and strode back to the table, picking up his pipe. "Gentlemen, please continue."

"Hey…what's the meaning of this! Your punishment is just a smokescreen?" Qiufeng said unhappily.

"No, that was a real explosion," Holmes replied. "If I had stayed at the table, it might have affected you all."

"Hmph…if it's not a smokescreen, then it shows they're very powerful in this space, and the punishments can't hurt them," Honghu said.

"Indeed," Holmes said, nodding slightly with his pipe in his mouth.

"Excuse me," Ji Chang said. "I suddenly thought of a crucial question you haven't explained." He looked at Moriarty and Holmes. "How do you win this game?"

Moriarty replied, "If any one of you four deduces the truth, you win."

"And if all four of us die before learning the truth, then it's a victory for the 'informed'," Feng Bujue continued, echoing the professor's words to Ji Chang.

"Good to know. It's your turn," Moriarty said, looking at Feng Bujue.

"Since the round when the uninformed enter is considered 'hint' by default…" Feng Bujue put down his knife and leaned forward. "Then from this round onwards, before I say a 'word,' I have to declare whether it's a 'question,' 'speculation,' or 'deduction,' right?"

"Correct," Moriarty replied.

"Just asking," Feng Bujue added, "what happens if I declare 'hint' again now?"

"Before the fifth round, your 'repeated declaration' will be considered invalid," Moriarty replied. "Your turn will continue until you declare a valid option."

"Oh…and one more thing," Feng Bujue pointed at the table, "reaching out to flip these unopened cards, or tearing them up, destroying them…"

"Just death," Holmes interrupted him in a leisurely tone.

Hearing this, Feng Bujue shook his head and rambled for a while, then suddenly slapped the table and shouted, "Question!"

"Ask if you want to ask, why the sudden outburst…" Honghu said.

"Yeah, I have a weak heart," Qiufeng said, pointing to the sword hilt in his chest.

Feng Bujue ignored them and threw out his question: "What exactly are the rules of this space?"

Jue-ge's question was basically equivalent to "Tell me, so I can win." He knew it wouldn't be that simple, but he tried it anyway, as a way to pave the way for his teammates' turns.

Sure enough, after he asked, none of the cards on the table moved.

The professor explained at the appropriate time, "When you ask a question, the players of the opposing team can choose to answer or not answer."

Holmes added, "If we choose not to answer, you gain a punishment exemption."

Moriarty said, "And if we answer this question, the round table will begin to judge…" He paused for a second, "If the questioner himself can discern useful information from our answer, the question is considered valuable. Otherwise, it's a meaningless question, and the questioner will be punished."

Holmes took another puff of his pipe while the professor was speaking, then added, "Also, the same question cannot be asked twice. Changing the wording while keeping the meaning the same is also prohibited, or you will be punished."

Moriarty shrugged. "As for your current question, we naturally…won't answer."

After he said this, a card with "Question" on the back flipped over and moved in front of Feng Bujue. The front of the card had no pattern, only the words "Exemption" written in black ink on white paper.

"Hey, hey, hey…" Qiufeng couldn't help but interrupt, "If you keep choosing not to answer, won't 'question' be useless to us after all the meaningful questions have been asked?" His question was also what the other players were thinking.

"Therefore, you'd better use 'question' to obtain exemptions as much as possible before all the meaningful questions are exhausted," Moriarty said.

Holmes also gave a fearless reminder, "You can also try to set traps, using seemingly meaningless questions to lure us into saying useful information." He smiled. "Don't worry about us lying. As long as we choose to answer, we must tell the truth."

"Then…can you two explain the situations for 'speculation' and 'deduction' before I choose a card?" Honghu asked.

"【Speculation】 is proposing a hypothesis," Holmes replied. "If the content of the speculation is completely unrelated to solving the truth, the speculator will directly draw a punishment card." He paused. "A reasonable, constructive speculation will reveal a blank card. At this point, the Professor and I must respond to your speculation…answering 'correct,' 'wrong,' or 'inaccurate.'"

"【Deduction】 is stating a 'conclusion,' judged by the round table to be correct or not. Get it right and it's a blank card, get it wrong…and you will receive a deadly punishment," Moriarty added. "Of course, Holmes was only punished because his conclusion was completely unrelated to the 'truth.' As you deduced earlier, the 'hints' of the uninformed are meaningless, and the informed can only say irrelevant or incorrect conclusions when 'deducting.'"

After this explanation, the room fell silent.

All four players were thinking as quickly as they could. They were well aware of how dire the situation was.

The complexity and difficulty of this round table game were unprecedented. And the two opponents they were playing against were god-level intellectuals, and were set up as near-invincible in the script.

To win, they had to use "words" to obtain enough information within a limited time and within the limitations of the rules, and then use this to deduce the "truth," that is, some kind of hidden rule in this space.

"I…I'll 'question'," Honghu didn't think too long. He knew time was precious, so he would just get a safe exemption card this round.

The teammates all understood his meaning, because Qiufeng was already bleeding, so wasting time could mean a reduction in personnel. And for every person lost, the "uninformed" team would have one less turn to act.

"Question – Mr. Holmes, what is the reason you weren't killed by the explosion just now?"

The wise general Honghu was indeed well-deserved. Asking this question would definitely get him an exemption, because the abilities of these two Bosses were closely related to the rules of this space, and they definitely couldn't answer this question.

"Ha…how delightful," Holmes said, turning to Moriarty beside him. "Professor, your guests today are truly interesting…" He took a puff of his pipe and pointed the stem at Honghu. "For example, this one, not only is he incredibly intelligent, but he also has unique observation skills and reasoning abilities."

Moriarty replied in a lukewarm tone, "Yes, and for example, that kid over there." His gaze turned to Feng Bujue. "He's a lot like you, quick-witted and methodical, but extremely arrogant, casual, and uninhibited."

"Answer, or not answer," Honghu urged. He didn't feel any honor in being praised by two virtual game characters. All he knew was that these two Bosses were talking about other things, which would waste time.

"Hey! Don't rush," Qiufeng actually interrupted at this time. "Next, they're probably going to praise me and Ji Chang for a few sentences, let them finish."

"Brother Qiufeng, you really don't know whether you're alive or dead…" Ji Chang flicked his incomparably dashing hair. "If you weren't stabbed by a sword, we wouldn't have to race against time."

"Hahahaha…" Qiufeng couldn't help but laugh again. "Don't talk to me, I can't stand seeing you like this."

"Hmph—" Holmes turned his face to look at Qiufeng in the next seat. "It seems they're worried about this…" As he spoke, he raised his hand and moved his fingers.

Suddenly, the sword in Qiufeng's chest flew out with a swish, floated in the air for two seconds, and then fell to the ground.

Qiufeng reacted quickly and pressed down on his wound. He opened the menu and observed for more than a minute, discovering that although the [Bleeding] status was still there, the loss of survival points had stopped. It seemed that as long as he didn't let go, the blood wouldn't flow.

Moriarty glanced at Holmes and said, "Was it necessary to do that?"

Holmes smiled and replied, "A flustered opponent makes the game lose its proper enjoyment."

"Hmph…" Moriarty sneered and looked at the players. "Gentlemen, you heard that, please take your time to consider, don't rush."