After these words, Saturday, Eleven, and Sixteen also cast peculiar glances at Qi Xia.
If it had been anyone else, Qi Xia’s words would have been enough to provoke a rebuttal from them. But Turtle was an exception. While no one in “Cat” could tolerate outsiders bullying their own, no one wanted to speak up for Turtle either.
“Am I sowing discord…?” Qi Xia nodded. “Fine, let’s follow your logic. I have a few questions for you.”
“What questions?”
“First, every time we send out a teammate, even if they manage to bring back ‘food,’ the maximum is three pieces. How can we ensure the ‘satiety value’ for all five of us?”
“I…” Turtle’s eyes darted around. “This is just my initial plan! Later, we’ll send out two people each time!”
“Two people?”
“Yeah! If both succeed, we can get six fruits per round. Even if one fails, we still get three.” Turtle emphasized, “I refuse to believe our luck is so bad that both ‘mice’ get caught by the cat.”
“But based on what we just saw, each room only has four fruits.” Qi Xia narrowed his eyes. “The first ‘mouse’ can take three, but from the second visit onward, they can only take one at most. Even if we ignore the failure rate, if both bring back fruit, the maximum is two. Yet we still have five people—who will you let ‘starve’?”
“Moreover…” Qi Xia shifted his tone. “We can’t even confirm whether the remaining rooms all have four fruits.”
Turtle scratched his head and, upon careful consideration, realized this was indeed a problem.
“This—this was just a spur-of-the-moment plan! Of course it’s not perfect, which is why we’re discussing it!” Turtle glanced at the others, as if hoping someone would back him up. “I just wanted to maximize our teammates’ survival—is that wrong?”
“That brings me to the second issue.” Qi Xia said. “If we send out a ‘mouse’ alone and they don’t return, where do you plan to rescue them from?”
“The ‘Cat’s Room,’ of course!” Turtle retorted. “What’s the problem?”
“No problem, but what if they’re trapped by a ‘mousetrap’?”
“Ah…”
Turtle suddenly recalled the game rule: a ‘mouse’ caught by a ‘mousetrap’ would be locked in a room until rescued by a teammate or taken by the ‘cat.’
“Given the current setup, when the ‘cat’ is active, we’re locked in our rooms. How do you determine whether our teammate was taken by the ‘cat’ or trapped in the room they searched?” Qi Xia raised five fingers. “A fifty percent chance of being wrong—should we just guess? One wrong guess triggers a chain reaction. We might lose teammates and have to attempt ‘rescues,’ each with only a fifty percent success rate. Are you willing to gamble?”
Hearing Qi Xia lay out such a detailed analysis in such a short time, Turtle’s expression darkened.
“Fine… even if… even if you’ve thought more…” Turtle gritted his teeth. “Even if you’re better than me… then tell us, what should we do?”
“Since you can’t figure it out, you’ll have to follow my lead.” Qi Xia declared. “For the first round, we send out four people to ‘search,’ targeting any four rooms at random.”
“Four…?” Saturday frowned. “Tsk, I’d understand sending one or five… But what’s the point of ‘four’?”
“We need a ‘commander’ among the ‘mice.'” Qi Xia explained. “This game has a classic blind spot—due to the ‘prisoner’s dilemma,’ once a ‘mouse’ enters a room, they lose contact with the others. This makes it hard to decide what to do from the second round onward.”
“Wait, tsk… what?” Saturday blinked. “Prisoner’s dilemma?”
“Exactly. If a ‘mouse’ doesn’t return the next day, we can’t determine where to ‘rescue’ them. The mole anticipated this, pushing us into ‘mutual rescues.’ Whether we succeed or fail, it’s bad for us.” Qi Xia said. “Luckily, you’re a seasoned team. If we were strangers, with some wanting to rescue and others not, it’d be even messier.”
Eleven, after a moment of silence, asked, “So what do you mean by ‘commander’…?”
“We need a ‘mouse’ who doesn’t participate in actions to oversee everything.” Qi Xia said. “This ‘mouse’ will be our eyes and control hub, tracking the ‘cat’s’ every move.”
“Huh?” The group froze in unison. The idea felt off, but they couldn’t pinpoint why.
“W-wait…” Turtle spoke up first. “That doesn’t make sense… How would they observe the ‘cat’s’ actions? If you’re saying they need to stand in the hallway to see which room the ‘cat’ enters, that’s not one of the three options for ‘mice.'”
Qi Xia, as if ignoring Turtle entirely, swiftly shifted his gaze away and asked the others, “Anyone have a question that actually makes sense?”
“You—!” Turtle glared at Qi Xia. “Answer me!”
“Uh…” Sixteen also seemed skeptical. “Assuming someone *could* stand in the hallway and watch the ‘cat’… how would this ‘mouse’ function as a ‘commander’?”
“That’s simple.” Qi Xia replied. “Other teams could exchange intel back in the ‘Mouse Room’ the next night, but we have a more efficient method…”
He turned to Saturday. “As long as Saturday’s here, we should know the ‘cat’s’ movements immediately.”
“Tsk, using ‘telepathy’…?” Saturday frowned. “I’ve never used ‘telepathy’ in a game before… Not sure if that’s allowed…”
“Allowed…? What exactly are the limits of your ‘telepathy’?” Qi Xia asked. “Can you communicate with all four of us from anywhere?”
“Tsk, well… yeah.” Saturday nodded. “So I’d be the ‘commander’?”
“No.” Qi Xia shook his head. “Anyone can do it. As long as you can talk to the ‘commander,’ the message can theoretically reach all of us.”
Saturday nodded, though he didn’t fully grasp it.
“Each night, we’ll designate one person to stand in the hallway as the ‘commander,’ while the other four search for food.” Qi Xia continued. “The ‘commander’s’ job is to confirm which room the ‘cat’ entered, who they took, and then guide the remaining ‘mice’ to rescue them in the next round.”
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage