“In fact, even as we speak, I've involuntarily imagined… each of us has characteristics that contradict its law, which means…” Feng Bujue paused to catch his breath. “Now, as long as I enter that thing's 'range of effect,' I'll be erased due to one of my own traits.” His gaze swept over the three people in front of him. “However, you three still 'don't know' the law of that thing, so you can approach and touch it while maintaining this state. So…”

“Wait…” Honghu had been following Feng Bujue's train of thought closely. Hearing this, he said, “According to you, for this object to 'take effect,' it needs someone who knows its properties to stand within its effective range.” He paused. “But currently, the only person who knows its properties… you, will die as soon as you enter that range.”

Qiufeng picked up the thread, saying, “Does that mean… you have to sacrifice yourself to trigger it?”

Ji Chang also said, “Also, you said that each of us has something about us that contradicts the object's law. That's the same as saying… no one can trigger this thing alive. Because when we don't know its properties, we can't trigger its effect, and once we do know, we'll be in the same situation as you.”

“That's right, that's the key. I have a way to make that object take effect while keeping everyone alive,” Feng Bujue replied.

The faces of his three teammates didn't show much surprise or doubt, only a look of concentration.

Feng Bujue was very satisfied with their reaction; talking to smart people was easy. He didn't need to explain much, and they could trust and understand his meaning.

“First, I need one of you to pick up that object and put it in a specific place. During this process, you need to clear your mind as much as possible and not think about too many things.” Feng Bujue directly began to explain his strategy. “After putting the thing in place, the person acting will listen to my instructions and walk to the edge of that object's effective range. At this time, I will say a sentence to them. The content of the sentence will be a description of some objective fact.” He paused for half a second, then continued, “If all goes according to plan, the object will take effect the moment that sentence is finished. And in those few seconds, the actor shouldn't have had time to realize what trait would cause them to be erased.”

“Understood,” Honghu responded. “As long as the actor immediately escapes the effective range of that thing after hearing you speak. Then, the object's effect will only affect the described information and will not erase the actor.”

“When the actor realizes their own contradiction with that item, they will already have left its range, so they'll be safe,” Qiufeng said thoughtfully. “Hmm… so, that object is triggered by the 'cognition' of an observer within a certain range…”

Ji Chang didn't offer an opinion; he remained silent for a few seconds before saying something else: “Crazy Bro… you can come up with a strategy like this in such a short amount of time, and you still call yourself a 'mediocre puzzle solver'?”

“I was just being polite with you guys…” Feng Bujue knew that it was no longer possible to continue playing dumb.

“You're being too humble…” Honghu pushed up his glasses. “Among the four of us, only you know the properties of that object, and that property cannot be easily told to others. That means… how to solve this step of the puzzle without casualties can only be planned by you alone.

“The Thriller Paradise script is randomly generated based on the data of all the players in the team. Our knowledge, strength, skills, equipment, etc., are all within the scope of consideration. From this, it can be seen that your strategic ability has been affirmed by the system. At least the optical brain believes that you have a 50% or higher chance of solving this puzzle independently.”

“Hmph… I guess Crazy Bro originally wanted to play it cool and just be a bystander behind us so-called 'big shots,'” Qiufeng said sharply, seeing through Jue-Ge's thoughts. “But after he saw that thing, he had no choice but to participate in solving the puzzle.”

“Ah… that's about right,” Feng Bujue readily admitted.

“Hahaha… in the end, it's actually our problem,” Ji Chang laughed, scratching his buzz cut. “From the beginning, the three of us naturally looked down on Crazy Bro, and the only reason was that the ID [Feng Bujue] wasn't famous.” He looked at Honghu and Qiufeng. “Putting myself in Crazy Bro's position, I would have reacted the same way. He's not going to praise himself and tell three people who don't know him how amazing he is.”

Honghu agreed, “That's true.”

Qiufeng said, “Then let's stop dwelling on this issue and discuss who should move the thing.”

Feng Bujue then said, “Ji Chang, Qiufeng, which of you two is better at math?”

Ji Chang said, “Math… I'm not bad.”

Qiufeng also said, “So-so. I returned what I learned in high school to the teacher a long time ago. I'm probably at middle school level now.”

“Then it's you,” Feng Bujue said.

“Huh?” Qiufeng was taken aback. “Why?”

“Why what? I can't explain before we're done, what's there to ask?” Feng Bujue raised his arm and pointed to that room, mimicking a young boy's voice, passionately shouting, “I choose you! Go! Pika-Qiufeng!”

Not only Qiufeng himself, but even Ji Chang and Honghu felt a little embarrassed after hearing Feng Bujue's incredibly painful joke.

“I can't believe I'm talking to an adult…” Qiufeng put on an extremely unhappy face and complained.

“Morality Beast super evolution~ No Morality Beast~” Feng Bujue shouted again in a drawn-out voice.

“Will you ever be done!” Qiufeng angrily roared, a mixture of shame and indignation.

“I'm distracting you,” Feng Bujue said seriously. “This can effectively improve your safety factor during the action.”

“Just tell me where to put it after I move the thing out of the door, don't say any unnecessary nonsense.”

“Okay.”

Although Feng Bujue's behavior was very embarrassing, it did work. After ending this rather awkward conversation, Qiufeng's mind was truly blank…

…………

Item #: ***-233

Object Class: Keter

Special Containment Procedures: ***-233 is to be stored within a concrete-lined cubic containment chamber with dimensions of 23x23x23 (any unit of measurement may be used, so long as the values are 23x23x23).

A 23-meter security zone is to be maintained around the object. No D-Class personnel who are not 23 years of age are permitted to cross the security zone. For research purposes, it is recommended that D-Class personnel with birthdays on the 23rd of the X month be utilized.

No firearms are allowed within the zone unless they utilize specialized ammunition with a .2323 caliber.

Staff shift changes must be scheduled for the .23 minute of the hour, with the final shift change occurring precisely at 23:23 Greenwich Mean Time.

Under no circumstances is ammunition of [REDACTED]mm to be used in the object's vicinity.

D-Class personnel born in the month of [REDACTED], or on the [REDACTED]th, the tenth of [REDACTED], or the twentieth of [REDACTED] are not to come into contact with the object.

Personnel working at the containment facility are to be specifically reminded to exercise extreme caution at [REDACTED] minutes past every hour, especially at [REDACTED] o'clock; this is the period of greatest activity for ***. All personnel should be evacuated beyond 23 meters during this period for optimal consideration.

Description: ***-233 is a 23-sided polyhedron, each face of which is an equilateral rectangle containing a straight line. Due to the object's anomalous spatial properties, it cannot be accurately modeled or replicated in 3D or 2D form.

***-233 has the property of altering mathematical laws in its vicinity, making conventional counting methods entirely incorrect unless utilizing base-23 numeration. Calculators utilizing base-23 numeration, however, are benefited by the ***, operating at 23 times their normal processing speed.

Proposals to destroy the *** are currently pending, as there exists the possibility of integrating it into [DATA EXPUNGED] applications. Despite the difficulty of converting binary to base-23, the device has shown its value to the organization.

Unfortunately, the appearance of the number [REDACTED] within the area of effect of ***-233 will cause it to exhibit an extremely violent effect. Anything affected by this effect will be rapidly chemically split due to the instantaneous decay of the atoms composing the material within 0.23 seconds.

It is worth noting that based on previous experience, ***-233 does not appear to be triggered by the physical properties of nearby objects, but rather by the cognition of surrounding observers. For example, it is safe to suspend ***-233 from a pole 2.74 meters long as long as no observers within the danger zone are aware that the pole is actually [REDACTED] feet long. The cause of this effect is unknown, but it may be related to the "observer effect" in classical quantum physics.

…………

Feng Bujue's knowledge of the *** series allowed him to recognize this "twenty-three-sided polyhedron." He also knew that 2.74 meters was approximately equal to 9 feet. In other words, this *** targeted the number "9".

As long as someone who knew its properties entered the area within twenty-three meters of ***-233, then, in that area, everything related to 9 in that person's mind would be erased.

Even as Feng Bujue shouted and retreated, he had already noticed a problem. Both "Feng" (封) and "Feng" (疯) were nine strokes, so let's not talk about that. In addition, the "Qiu" (秋) in Qiufeng Se (秋风瑟), and the "Yu" (语) in Yu Zhong Ji Chang (语重心长), were also all nine strokes, while Honghu's association with 9 was even more obvious, he was level 29.

No matter which of these three teammates moved the thing, as long as they heard his sentence, even if they didn't know the properties of ***-233, they would quickly understand that the problem lay with the number 9. Then, the faster the actor associated themselves with factors related to 9, the faster they would be erased…

If this were a terrible team, he would just find someone a little slow to be the actor. But right now, these four were all the type to think very quickly. Once information entered their brains, they would instinctively deduce.

Therefore, Feng Bujue decided to have the relatively mathematically weak Qiufeng go and tried his best to use words to interfere with the other party's thoughts. The course of action he came up with was also to minimize the teammate's thinking time and amount of information known.

This puzzle-solving strategy didn't seem complicated, but it actually fully demonstrated Feng Bujue's capabilities. Even those seemingly nonsensical actions of his were meaningful. All sorts of details were leak-proof.

“Where do I put it?” At this time, Qiufeng had already walked out of the white door and asked loudly.

The distance that Feng Bujue had retreated was enough. Even if that thing was moved out, where he was standing was still far beyond twenty-three meters.

“Over there!” While shouting, Jue-Ge pointed in a direction. “Just put it between those two pillars against the wall.”

After hearing this, Qiufeng responded and carried the twenty-three-sided polyhedron all the way there. This *** wasn't too heavy; for players whose physical abilities had been strengthened, it was easy to move.

Several tens of seconds later, Qiufeng put the thing in place: “Is it okay to put it here?”

“It’s fine,” Feng Bujue replied. “Now, walk towards me. Don’t go too fast, stop when I tell you to.”

Qiufeng did as he was told.

Feng Bujue visually estimated that the other party had walked about twenty meters and shouted, “Stop!” Then he said, “Alright, I’m going to say that information now. I’ll say it pretty fast. After I finish speaking, I’ll shout ‘Run’ again, and at that time, you run to our side as fast as possible, just thinking about the sentence I said in your mind.”