mtl008 Chapter 4666 Desperate Escape (38)
Chapter 4666 Desperate Escape (38)
Chapter 4666 A Desperate Escape (Thirty-Eight)
Since it's not revealed who was eaten and who wasn't in each round, everyone only knows their own situation and can roughly deduce the situation of their upstream and downstream players, but they can't deduce anything beyond that.
Since the person who is eliminated the most times is the one who gets preyed upon, in addition to trying to avoid being preyed upon yourself as much as possible, you can also try to increase the number of times others get preyed upon.
Now, if other animals fall into their hands, some people will feel that if they stay at home, they might be eaten by the animals that were passed to them by the previous owner when the animals are turned clockwise again. This increases the number of times others are preyed upon and also increases their own chances of winning.
So, this time three groups decided to stay, while the remaining three chose to go out. After they cast their votes, the agents went down to collect the ballots again, but this time they opened the box.
He glanced at the screen and realized it was three against three, meaning someone was bound to be eliminated. So, the detective pulled a dagger from his waist, sliced his palm, and then dipped the tip of the dagger in the blood to begin altering the tickets.
Logically speaking, English words are difficult to change, and you can't simply add or remove a stroke to alter their meaning. To change the meaning, you have to erase and rewrite it. But the strange thing is that the words on this piece weren't written with a professional pen, but with blood.
Blood doesn't clot that quickly, and it can be covered up by other blood. The agent wiped it with his injured hand, and the words became invisible. Then he flipped it over and rewrote it on the unwritten side.
However, there's another problem: he's unsure about these people's writing habits, since the organizers haven't provided a standard format. "Go out" might be written as "Go out," while others might simply write "Go" or "out."
The agent hadn't seen the notes from the first round and didn't know which word each group would write, but everyone else had. If the notes were different from the previous round, it would easily arouse suspicion.
However, the agent quickly had a flash of inspiration. Changing words related to going out was difficult, but changing words related to staying home was very simple, because staying home basically only had one expression: "Stay".
Of course, some people might write "Stay here" or "Stay put," which means "stay." However, this phrase is a bit long, and without a fine pen, people usually write it by hand or with a metal stick, so it's generally impossible to write it all out. The probability of just writing "Stay" is very high.
So the detective simply erased all the words related to going out and replaced them all with "staying home." The fact that there were bloodstains on the paper was very strange, but the detective had glanced at it earlier and there were quite a few bloodstains on the notes.
After all, people don't create new wounds just for writing; they mostly draw blood from old wounds. And the old wound is on the collarbone, which isn't a good place to draw blood—it's easy to make a mess everywhere.
Some groups had another person who wasn't injured write the notes, which was fine; but in some groups, the injured person had to do all the writing, sometimes with their hands covered in blood, almost soaking the entire note. Although this was the effect the organizers wanted, it also left a loophole—the tampering with the notes was hard to detect.
However, even the planners could hardly have imagined that someone would tamper with the note. After all, in the original plan, no one would have accessed the note beforehand; everything was handled by mechanisms. Who knew that the players ahead were so aggressive, scaring Stark into not lowering his mechanical arm, thus giving the agent the opportunity to steal it.
As for his purpose, it wasn't so much to sympathize with the players or hate the organizers; some people just wanted to see the world burn.
After the notes are handed over, they should be left unread for now. This makes it easier for the agents to disguise themselves, because by the time they read them, the blood on them will have dried completely, and it will be impossible to tell which one came first and which one came last.
This time the rotation was clockwise again, and the organizers' vote resulted in another single square. But the clown was already rubbing his hands together and chuckling, "Surely someone will choose to stay. I wonder who will get eaten?"
He excitedly opened the box. He opened one, but didn't go out; he opened another, but still didn't go out; he opened another, but still didn't go out. Everyone stayed home, and this round was another waste.
The Joker angrily slammed the box on the ground, yelling and screaming. He even wanted Batman to cut off his ear or finger—how could these guys not move?!
Actually, this is where their planning team fell short. If it were someone more arrogant, they should have been able to tell from the bloodstains that the blood had been covered up. But these guys aren't really serial killers.
Greed and Stark need no introduction; they're not Gotham people, they wouldn't have time to study these psychopaths. The Joker and Scarecrow should have been able to figure it out, but the Joker usually commits bombings, and Scarecrow poisonings, and neither of them studies the Scarecrow text. Mephisto, while a devil who occasionally uses human blood for art, doesn't have good control over the time and form of human blood coagulation, so no one noticed.
If it were Arrogance, he would have immediately noticed that the blood was covered with a layer, indicating an abnormal seepage pattern. However, because he didn't see it, the agent's ticket alteration went unnoticed, and this hurdle was slipped through again.
However, the players below were all shrewd; after escaping arrest for two consecutive rounds, they realized something was amiss.
Putting everything else aside, they can see the direction and number of steps the mechanism is rotating. Two consecutive rounds with only one step—isn't that a bit too much of a coincidence?
Actually, one square is the best scenario because it's easier to deduce; you only need to consider the player before and after you. If there are more squares, the calculation becomes more difficult. But with such a favorable voting pattern for the players, this mole really went all out.
The mole was already this dedicated, so naturally they couldn't fall behind. Since it was Christmas Eve again, they could finally free up their time to figure out how to finally end this ordeal.
Of course, maintaining peace like this would be fine; it's only six rounds anyway, we can just tough it out. But nobody knows how long this mole can keep up his influence, and if things change, we might still be in trouble. There's no way out without finding some opportunistic tricks.
Pamela was the first to look up at the small opening above. She estimated that she could probably stick her hand out, because she was very thin, with a small frame, and her hands and forearms were very flat. Although the opening was small, she could at least stick out half of her forearm.
She estimated the length and figured it might be able to grab the robotic arm. However, if she suddenly lifted it upwards, her arm would definitely get stuck, and she might even have her skin and muscles peeled off. But at least it could hold the robotic arm in place for a while.
But what's the point of just jamming the robotic arm? Pamela looked at the seams in the ceiling; they seemed to be welded very tightly. Peeling the ceiling open wasn't realistic, so they'd have to find a way to pull the robotic arm down. But they weren't heavy enough to match the robotic arm's strength.
If one team isn't heavy enough, what if we add another team? If both teams pull together, will they be able to pull it down completely?
No, simply pulling them down in balance wouldn't really help. The mechanism is broken; they can fix it, or even force them to let go. They have to use the moment the robotic arm stops working, or do something during the tug-down moment. But what can they do?
Harley recalled the structure of the entire mechanism. The mechanism was a large ring, slightly smaller in diameter than the lower compartment but considerably larger than the lantern above. If one side of the ring was pulled down, the other side should rise, like a balance scale, to a height roughly reaching the lantern.
The problem is that none of them can get out, so it's impossible for them to launch an Alpha raid, jump into the lanterns, and wipe everyone out. Therefore, using the rings as a seesaw is unlikely.
But someone calculated it more precisely than him: Anatoly. Before even entering, he had already visually estimated the diameter of the ring, as well as the diameter of the bottom of the lantern and the ceiling above it. He was certain that even if the ring tilted up, it wouldn't hit the bottom of the lantern, because the diameter of the bottom of the lantern was smaller, and the ring wouldn't touch it.
However, the ring cannot be completely flipped over; instead, it will get stuck on the top of the lantern. The reason it's called a lantern is because the top is larger than the bottom, giving it a top-heavy appearance.
Trying to tip the lantern over by pushing it from the bottom is unlikely, as it's a lever that requires considerable effort. However, pushing it from the top makes it easy to knock over. As long as the pulled-down ring applies a lateral force to the lantern's lid, there are only two outcomes: either the ceiling is blown off, or the lantern falls over entirely. This depends on how secure the bottom connection is.
If it's the former, they at least have an escape route. Even if the ceiling suddenly disappears, it will take the players time to climb back up, and they might escape. But if the entire ceiling is blown up, then they'll be quite far from the escape route. Putting everything else aside, just the fall itself would be enough to leave them disoriented and unable to get up for a while.
However, since the players can't get out now, it means this plan can't proceed. Otherwise, even if you flip the lantern over, they could still escape through other doors. It has to be done in the final level.
Anatoly had already checked; the compartment was airtight, with no other passageway besides the door they had entered through. This meant it was impossible to enter from the side or from underneath. They would definitely have to be let out eventually, even if one at a time; there would inevitably be a moment when the door opened.
After much deliberation, Anatoly had a clear plan, but he needed to talk to his next-door neighbor first. During a break in the voting, he started knocking on the wall again.
As luck would have it, Harley was his next-door neighbor. Harley chose the tiger, while when he came in, both the wolf and the weasel had been chosen, and Anatoly's group had chosen the wolf. The tiger was right next to the wolf, and their rooms and ideas were similar.
(End of this chapter)