“Let me continue,” Holmes said as he temporarily put down the pipe and looked at the table. “Assumption—Professor Moriarty is an idiot.”
His statement gave the four players a feeling that they had heard him wrong. Only the professor himself appeared unfazed.
“Nice try,” Moriarty replied with ease.
Holmes chuckled and shrugged as he mimicked Feng Bujue’s tone. “It does not cost anything to try.”
The players had no idea what these two were up to, but the cards on the table moved. A card with ’assumption’ printed on the back moved to stop before Holmes. The detective did not pick up the card but turned it over directly on the table to show the front of it. It was… printed with a bomb, a black round picture of a cartoon bomb. Holmes looked at the card and then stood up. He took several steps back away from the table. He checked his pockets, and when he reached into his left pocket, his expression changed. “Oh, here it is.”
He took out a black bomb as big as an orange from his pocket. The bomb looked just like its printed version, and the twine was lit. When it was taken out, the twine had reached its end.
Boom!
Before the four players realized what happened, it exploded. The three were stunned while Feng Bujue smiled.
This explosion was not that strong, with only a one-meter radius. A thick ball of black smoke covered Holmes’ upper body, shrouding him from view. Moriarty sat calmly; he did not even turn back to look. Soon, the smoke dispersed, and Holmes stood there unscathed. He patted the dust away and walked back to the table to pick up the pipe. “Gentlemen, do continue.”
“Hey… what’s the meaning of this? Does the punishment not work on you? Was the bomb a fake?” Autumn Zither groused.
“No, that was a real bomb,” Holmes replied. “If I stayed at the table, the explosion might’ve injured the rest of you.”
“Humph… If that was real, then it can only mean that they are very powerful in this space, and the punishments won’t harm them in any way,” Ambitionist concluded.
“Indeed.” Holmes bit on the pipe and nodded slightly.
“I’m sorry,” Weighty Words said, looking at Holmes and Moriarty. “I suddenly realized there is one key problem that you haven’t explained. How does one win this game?”
“As long as any one of you can analyze the truth, then the victory is yours,” Moriarty replied.
“And if the four of us all die before we realize the truth, then it will be the victory for them who know the truth.” Feng Bujue picked up what the professor said.
“Correct,” Moriarty concurred.
“Just a side question,” Feng Bujue added. “If I ask for another ’hint’, what will happen?”
“Before the fifth round, your ’repeated request’ will be nullified,” Moriarty answered. “Your round will continue until you choose a viable choice.”
“Oh… there’s one more thing.” Feng Bujue pointed at the table. “If I reach out to tear or destroy these unturned cards…”
“Death, it’ll be,” Holmes answered in a casual tone.
Hearing that, Feng Bujue shook his head in thought and suddenly slammed the table. “Question!”
“Just ask the question then. Why are you being so dramatic about it?” Ambitionist complained.
“That’s right. You know I shouldn’t be spooked at a moment like this.” Autumn Zither pointed at the blade in his chest.
Feng Bujue ignored them and tossed out his question.
“What is the rule of this space?” The question was basically “Tell me the way to win.”
He knew that things would not be so simple, but he wanted to give it a try, and well, someone had to do it. As he expected, even after he asked the question, none of the cards moved.
The professor explained, “When you start a question, the other party can choose whether to answer or not.”
Holmes added, “If we choose not to answer, you will be exempted from punishment.”
“And if we answer this question, the round table will decide…” Moriarty paused. “Assuming the questioner can get valuable information from our answer, then this question will be viewed as valuable. In contrast, if it’s a meaningless question, the questioner will be punished.”
While the professor spoke, Holmes took a puff of smoke and added, “Other than that, you cannot ask the same question twice. Paraphrasing is meaningless; any attempt will lead to punishment.”
Moriarty shrugged. “And the question that you have just asked, naturally, we chose… not to answer.”
A card that had ’question’ printed on the back turned over and moved to Feng Bujue. The front of the card had no picture, but the following was written on it—exemption.
“Hey, hey hey…” Autumn Zither could not help but interrupt them. “If you keep on refusing to answer until all the useful questions are over, won’t ’question’ turn into a wasted option for us?”
His question was the same across the other players.
“Therefore, you’d better make use of the question card to gain the exemption right before all the useful questions are asked,” Moriarty said.
Holmes also added in an open and free attitude, “You can try to lay down traps and use seemingly meaningless questions to lure us to give you useful information. There is no need to worry about us lying. Once we choose to answer, we will have to speak the truth.”
“Then… do you mind tell us the situation about Conjectures and Assumptions before I pick my card?” Ambitionist asked.
“Conjectures, as the name suggests, mean to come up with a conjecture,” Holmes replied. “If the content of the conjecture has nothing to do with the truth, the person who selected the card will draw a punishment card. And reasonable and helpful conjectures will turn over a white card. Then, the professor and I will have to respond to your conjectures… and answer whether you are ’correct’, ’wrong’, or ’imprecise’.”
“Assumptions mean to come up with a ’conclusion’, and the Round Table will decide whether it is right or wrong. If it’s right, then the card will be white, and if you’re wrong… the punishment might be deadly,” Moriarty added. “Of course, Holmes was punished because the conclusion he gave had nothing to do with the ’truth’. As you predicted earlier, a ’hint’ is meaningless for those not knowing the truth, and when the people who know the truth pick the ’assumption’ card, they can only give conclusions that are unrelated or false.”
After hearing the explanation, the room was dipped in silence. The four players dissected it from all sides. They knew how treacherous this ’game’ was. They had not experienced a game so complicated and difficult as this round table game before, and their two adversaries were the greatest minds in fiction. They were practically godlike in this scenario. To win, they had to use ’language’ to obtain more than enough information within the limited time and limitation of the rules, then use that to pinpoint the ’truth’ or the rhythm that controlled this dimension.
“L… Let me ask the question.” Ambitionist did not think for too long. He knew how precious it was. For this round, he decided to go for an exemption card first. The teammates understood his intention, but Autumn Zither was already bleeding, so dragging this out was not beneficial for them. And with the loss of each person, it would mean the ’non-knowers’ would have one less go at the game.
“Question—Mr. Holmes, why did you not die from the bomb explosion?” Strategist Ambitionist lived up to his name. This question would guarantee him the exemption card. Because the power of these two bosses were closely related to the rules of this dimension, they definitely would not answer his question.
“Ha… This is amusing.” Holmes turned to Moriarty and commented, “Professor, the guests that you have invited today are all quite interesting…”
He sucked on the pipe and pointed at Ambitionist. “Like this gentleman here. Not only is he brilliant, he has a unique observation skill and analytical power.”
“Indeed, not to be outshone is that kid,” Moriarty replied in an even tone. He turned to Feng Bujue. “Like you, he is sharper than most. His brain is logically aligned, but he’s extremely conceited, casual, and lives above the rules.”
“Are you going to answer or not?” Ambitionist urged. He did not think it was any honor being praised by two virtual characters. He knew, with this banter, more time would be lost.
“Hey! Don’t rush them,” Autumn Zither said. “Next, they’re probably going to praise me and Weighty Words, so let them finish.”
“Brother Autumn, you sure are not afraid of death…” Weighty Words pulled at his luscious hair. “If not for the blade that sticks out from your chest, we wouldn’t need to rush this.”
“Hahaha…” Autumn Zither could not help but laugh again. “Please don’t talk to me. Seeing you in this state will only make me laugh.”
Holmes turned his face to look at Autumn Zither next to him. “Looks like they’re worried about that…”
He lifted his finger. Suddenly, the blade pulled itself out of Autumn Zither’s chest. It floated in the air for two seconds before dropping to the ground. Autumn Zither reacted quickly and pressed his hands over his wound. He opened the menu and observed it for a minute. He realized that even though the bleeding status was still there, his Life Points had stopped dropping. It looked like as long as he did not let go, he would be fine.
Moriarty took a glance at Holmes. “Was there a need to do that?”
“Panicking adversaries will only make the game lose its innate fun,” Holmes replied with a smile.
“Humph…” Moriarty scoffed and told the players, “Gentleman, you heard him. Please do take your time to make your consideration. There is no need to rush.”