“So that’s how it is?” Saturday frowned, about to say something when he noticed the pomegranate in Qixia’s hand. “Tsk, then why did you bring the fruit out from the ‘Mouse Room’?”
“I…” Qixia furrowed his brow and glanced toward the direction of the “Cat Room,” sensing that some things weren’t appropriate to discuss now. “Saturday, you go into Room Two. Luo Shiyi, you take Room Four.”
“Huh? What about our fruit?” Luo Shiyi asked.
As soon as he finished speaking, Turtle’s door also opened, and he walked over holding an orange.
“You guys…” Turtle looked at the other three with confusion. “What are you doing here?”
“We…” Saturday and Luo Shiyi both forced a bitter smile. “We honestly don’t know what we’re doing. We’ve just been following Qixia’s lead, listening to his arrangements…”
“Hmph…” Turtle snorted coldly. “Fine, just listen to him then. From now on, he’s Qiba.”
Qixia almost laughed at Turtle’s remark but could only sigh. “I have no interest in your eighth position. And like I said before, I was deliberately provoking you earlier. You can’t keep holding a grudge.”
“I know. I’m just annoyed.” Turtle pursed his lips. “Here, take the orange. I’m going back to rest.”
“Don’t give it to me.” Qixia shook his head. “Take your orange, along with their dragon fruit and pomegranate—three fruits in total—back to the ‘Mouse Room.'”
“Wait, that’s allowed?” Turtle froze, then thought carefully. The rules did indeed state that if one person triggered the “carry” action, they could move all the “fruits” found by the others at once.
Luo Shiyi and Saturday handed their fruits to Turtle, then glanced toward the “Mouse Room,” where Qiu Shiliu was peering out in confusion.
“Do I… do I not need to do anything this round?” Qiu Shiliu asked.
“No,” Qixia shook his head. “This round doesn’t require a ‘Commander.’ Just three ‘Searching’ mice will suffice.”
Saturday pondered for a moment before asking, “Tsk, now that all three of us are in the rooms… based on your prediction, what’s the probability we’ll get caught next round?”
Qixia stroked his chin. “Approximately zero.”
“Zero?” Luo Shiyi was stunned. “Who has a zero percent chance of being caught?”
“If I’m not mistaken, all three of us have a zero percent chance,” Qixia replied.
Seeing that the others still didn’t understand, Qixia simply shook his head and motioned for everyone to proceed with their respective plans.
As soon as he stepped into the third room, Qixia curled his lips into a faint smile.
“Just as I thought—’papayas.'”
At the center of the table lay four golden-yellow papayas. This room was like a hidden paradise, untouched from the very beginning.
“Everything aligns with my deductions.” Qixia walked to the wall and pressed the “Search” button.
No red light lit up in the room.
“The ‘Cat’ didn’t set a mousetrap…” Qixia mused. “Then you must be ‘patrolling.’ Right now, aside from Rooms One and Five, every room has a ‘mouse’…”
With that thought, Qixia reached out and took all the papayas from the plate, replacing them with a single pomegranate.
As the pomegranate settled onto the plate, Qixia distinctly felt the plate sink slightly, as though the weight of the fruit had just activated some hidden mechanism.
The plate descended to its lowest point, then abruptly flipped over. When it righted itself, the fruit had vanished.
“So, it’s a ‘counteraction,'” Qixia murmured. “But what exactly happens when there’s a ‘counteraction’?”
– **First Room**: Dark green door, representing **Wood**. Since Wood begets Fire, the room contained **dragon fruit**.
– **Second Room**: Dark yellow door, representing **Metal**. Since Metal begets Water, the room held **peaches**.
– **Third Room**: Deep blue door, representing **Water**. Since Water begets Wood, the room displayed **papayas**.
– **Fourth Room**: Crimson door, representing **Fire**. Since Fire begets Earth, the room featured **pomegranates**.
– **Fifth Room**: Dark brown door, representing **Earth**. Since Earth begets Metal, the room housed **kumquats**.
“You’re a clever one, Groundhog,” Qixia nodded in satisfaction. “If this game were treated as just an ordinary ‘cat-and-mouse’ chase, the ‘mice’ would gradually realize the food shortage in later stages and choose to abandon saving others, prioritizing their own survival. That way, you could effortlessly claim the lives of several participants. Sure, you lose five ‘Tao’ and fresh fruits every round, but you’d steadily eliminate players. And in the worst-case scenario…”
Qixia knew that if luck wasn’t on the “mice’s” side, there was a high probability of total annihilation.
After all, once only two or three “mice” remained, the “cat” could “patrol” every turn, searching two rooms at once, drastically increasing the odds of catching a “mouse.”
“And you deliberately omitted the most crucial detail…” Qixia frowned. “The ‘cat’ can perform more than one action per turn—as long as it has ‘satiety points,’ it can keep acting.”
The biggest clue lay in the single remaining pomegranate in the “Cat Room.”
If the “cat” followed the same rules as the “mice,” it should have brought back three pomegranates. So where were the other two?
The answer was that, in the same turn, it had set a **mousetrap** and conducted a **search**, consuming two satiety points. To ensure safety for the next round, it had to eat two fruits. After all, when explaining the rules, the “cat” had said, *”I will choose my actions each turn.”* It never specified being limited to **one** action.
“In other words, your ‘satiety’ cap is at least three points, allowing you to act twice with confidence…” After some thought, Qixia nodded again. “Such a well-designed game, yet you claim you won’t immediately kill the ‘mice’… I think I misjudged you, Groundhog. Are you going easy on us? If I were you… **no one** would leave this game alive.”
**Click!**
A dull sound echoed in the room. The altar table by the wall shuddered, then began to move.
Seconds later, a pitch-black secret passage emerged behind it.
“So that’s it…” Qixia nodded. “When a fruit counters a room, the room loses its ‘lock’ function, failing to contain the ‘mouse.’ Meaning… if the ‘mice’ are clever enough, they can dig their way out.”
But where exactly did this tunnel lead?
Qixia gathered all the papayas from the table, then crouched and stepped into the passage.
At this point, he no longer needed to worry about the “only carry three” rule—because this turn, he hadn’t chosen “carry” at all.
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