“I was thinking like this…” I gestured with both hands, “Let’s start with Bai Yang’s game rules. Don’t you think there’s something off about this game?”
“Off? How?” Jiang Ruoxue asked. “It sounds like a great way to make a fortune. Both the ‘Zodiacs’ and the ‘participants’ have a chance to profit. Sounds good to me.”
“Right… as a ‘bank,’ it’s great…” I said. “But as a ‘Ground Sheep Game,’ it’s just too strange…”
“I don’t quite get it…” Jiang Ruoxue shook her head. “Maybe my brain’s still foggy…”
“No, no… it really is hard to grasp.” I carefully organized my thoughts and continued, “Ruoxue, listen. We’ve seen so many ‘Earth-level’ games now. We know their difficulty and that each ‘Zodiac’ has its own traits. But as a ‘Ground Sheep Game,’ this one has two oddities: first, it doesn’t ‘kill people,’ and second, there’s no ‘lying.'”
“Huh…?” Jiang Ruoxue pondered that for a moment, then nodded. “You’re right…”
“Earth-level Zodiacs need to kill to ascend, so their games must be designed for death. Bai Yang knows these rules better than I do—he wouldn’t make such a mistake.” I said. “So we have to think backward…”
“Think backward…?”
“Right. I borrowed your approach—starting from the ‘outcome.’ That means this game *can* kill, and Bai Yang *did* lie in it. We just didn’t notice.”
“But the core of this game is ‘Dao,'” Jiang Ruoxue said, confused. “How can he kill? Besides, the logic of the lights was set by me—they depend on nearby ‘Zodiacs.’ How could Bai Yang even lie?”
Yes… that’s the hidden truth of this game.
Bai Yang is a monster.
“Do you remember what Bai Yang said…?” My voice trembled slightly. “The twelve statues are built on the logic of the twelve nearby ‘Zodiac Games,’ and the display screen is built on the statues’ logic…”
“Yeah…”
Within three seconds, Jiang Ruoxue’s eyes widened.
“Dang it!” she shouted. “That damn Bai Yang… did he use ‘causality’ to rope all the nearby ‘Zodiac’ games into his own?!”
“Exactly…” I couldn’t stop my voice from shaking. “That’s the only explanation… If ‘participants’ try to control the ‘lights’ by joining nearby ‘Zodiac’ games, their deaths *all* count as Bai Yang’s achievements… because this was part of the game all along. Their ’cause of death’ may come from the ‘Zodiac’ running that game, but they were also in a *bigger* game… their actions were part of its mechanics, and that game is ‘Paradise Bank.'”
“Good grief!!” Jiang Ruoxue yelled. “So… Bai Yang didn’t just scheme against the ‘participants’… but also the twelve nearby ‘Zodiacs’?”
“No…” I swallowed hard and said slowly, “Not ‘twelve.’ It’s ‘eleven.'”
“Eleven…?”
“Ruoxue… guess which ‘sheep’ is closest to here?” I asked.
“Ah…” Cold sweat ran down Jiang Ruoxue’s face again—whether from weakness or shock, I couldn’t tell. “You mean… that ‘sheep’ statue *is* Bai Yang himself?”
“That’s what I call a ‘logic short-circuit,'” I said. “Ruoxue, part of your weakness comes from the ‘massive game area,’ but another part is from this ‘logic short-circuit.'”
“What *is* this logic short-circuit?” she asked.
“Ruoxue… based on your understanding, which of Bai Yang’s three mechanics—’gambling,’ ‘lottery,’ or ‘bank’—is the most profitable?”
After thinking for a while, Jiang Ruoxue answered, “Probably the ‘bank’? If it reaches a certain scale and handles ‘large orders’ daily, earning dozens or even hundreds of ‘Dao’ per day would be trivial.”
“Wrong,” I said. “Neither ‘gambling’ nor the ‘bank’ is Bai Yang’s most profitable venture. The only thing he *can’t lose* on is the ‘lottery.’ It’s absurd.”
“That can’t be right?” Jiang Ruoxue frowned. “Even with low odds, the ‘lottery’ could *eventually* pay out. No matter how slim the chance, it’s still possible. Bai Yang can’t be ‘guaranteed to profit.'”
“Have you noticed something?” I asked. “When Bai Yang explained the standard ‘gambling’ rules, every winner had to pay a ‘venue fee.’ But the ‘lottery’ doesn’t—winners take the entire prize pool, treated as Bai Yang breaking even. Why would he do that?”
“You mean…”
“Bai Yang’s odds of losing are *unimaginably* low,” I said. “Because with your ‘causality’ in play, *he is the eighth light.*”
“I still don’t quite follow…”
“Let me give you an example.” I gestured to Jiang Ruoxue. “Say I have incredible luck and guess all the other ‘Zodiacs’ colors correctly, leaving only the eighth light—the ‘sheep.’ How should I guess then?”
Jiang Ruoxue stayed silent, just watching me.
“If the ‘lottery’s’ eighth light is set to ‘red,’ that means I think ‘Ground Sheep wins.’ But if I’m right, Ground Sheep *can’t* win. When Ground Sheep believes he’s losing, the display *must* show a green light.”
“Wait, hold on…” Jiang Ruoxue pressed a hand to her forehead. “I’m getting confused…”
“It’s fine. Take your time. I’ll help sort it out.”
“Then… wouldn’t picking ‘green’ solve it? Choosing ‘green’ means we think ‘Ground Sheep loses,’ and he *does* lose because we guessed right.”
“That’s *exactly* the problem!” I nearly shouted. “Your ‘causality’ determines the light’s color based on the ‘Zodiac’s’ win/loss—but this game’s outcome is *entirely* up to him! He can decide he’s just ‘holding’ all the participants’ ‘Dao’ without taking a single coin, then return it all. That could even count as a ‘deposit-and-withdrawal’ in the ‘bank.’ I suspect that even if he *loses* all the ‘Dao,’ your display would just treat it as a ‘non-win, non-loss’ and show a *white light!*”
“Ah… so the ‘lottery’s’ earnings aren’t even logged—they’re left outside…” Jiang Ruoxue froze. “Meaning the ‘win/loss’ depends entirely on how the ‘Zodiac’ judges it… Guess red, get green. Guess green, get white. Then if you guess white…”
“If you guess white, Bai Yang can claim victory and turn it red,” I said. “No matter how you guess the eighth light, Bai Yang will sidestep your choice.”
“So it’s unsolvable?” Jiang Ruoxue asked.
“No… there’s one ridiculous solution,” I said. “Three people must guess the other eleven lights correctly, then for the eighth ‘sheep’ light, each picks ‘red,’ ‘white,’ and ‘green’—blocking all of Bai Yang’s paths. But pray this never happens, because it’d create a massive paradox. You’d probably pass out.”
“This…” Jiang Ruoxue sighed helplessly. “But honestly… even if someone went through all that trouble to win the ‘lottery,’ Bai Yang *still* wouldn’t lose anything…”
“Exactly. Those people would have to die countless times just to guess the other eleven lights correctly. That’s the colossal lie Bai Yang slipped into this game.”
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