Chapter 40
The white wall was more than three metres high, separating the two teams.
Tang Mo looked up and saw Pinocchio lying lazily on the wall, humming the Merry Christmas song. Tang Mo listened carefully for a while. It wasn’t to Pinocchio’s bad song but to the opponent’s voices.
Strangely enough, the wall didn’t completely seal the space between both sides but he still couldn’t hear any sound from the opposing team.
Once the white wall fell, no sound could be heard and the people couldn’t be seen.
After confirming that the opposite side couldn’t hear his voice, Tang Mo turned to look at his three companions. The female high school student tried to reach out and touch the edge of the grid. Then she spoke with surprise. “It disappeared. I can get out of the grid.
All four of them tried it.
The four grids were connected in a line. Originally, everyone was confined to their own grid and couldn’t go one step further. But once the white wall fell, the three invisible walls in the middle of the four grids disappeared. Tang Mo still couldn’t get out of the grid area but he could walk freely between the four grids.
The four people stood in the middle of the grids and looked at each other.
The young man spoke first. “Then we are teammates. Let’s get to know each other first. My name is Zhao Wenbin. I was a junior high school teacher before the earth went online.”
The other two apparently had experience with introducing themselves. The female student didn’t fully disclose her identity. “You can call me Xiao Lu.”
The middle-aged man also said, “You can call me Brother Qiang.”
It was Tang Mo’s turn. “My surname is Mo.”
The young man nodded and looked at the four cards on their side. “You heard the game rules. First of all, we certainly can’t follow the rule of sending out the slave card first.” No one objected to his words. Even Tang Mo calmly listened as he continued saying, “This is a classic type of prisoner’s dilemma game. You might not have heard of it but it doesn’t matter. It is the same as the card game we are going to play. The black tower said that the correct rules of the Underground Kingdom is sending out the slave, knight, minister and then king/queen. But do you think we can send out the slaves?”
The female high school student didn’t even think of it. “They also can’t send out the slave. If we use the slave card, they will certainly use other cards to suppress us and eliminate us.”
The middle-aged man also said. “The slave is a fool. We absolutely can’t send it out. If our slave card is gone, there is no way to deal with their king card. We will lose.”
Tang Mo listened quietly and didn’t say anything.
Zhao Wenbin glanced at him and seemed to think he was an insignificant, ordinary person. He continued saying to the other two teammates, “Then we have to decide which card, apart from the slave card, that we will send.”
The three people were in deep thought.
Tang Mo turned and stared at the queen card. He stared at the crowned woman with long hair, gradually frowning. At this time, Zhao Wenbin said, “Since everyone has no opinion, I will say it first. I think we should use the minister card in this round.”
The middle-aged man asked, “Why?”
“It is very simple. First of all, we won’t use the slave card because we are afraid of being beaten by the opponent in the first round. The slave card can be restrained by the minister card and the knight card. The odds of the other side beating our slave card is 50%. As long as they aren’t fools, no team will send out the slave card in the first round of the game. Zhao Wenbin analyzed, “Secondly, the next impossible card is the king and queen.”
The female student understood this very well and agreed. “Yes. The king card and slave card are too important. It is almost life and death. It is better to leave them to later. If the king card is eliminated in the first round, it will be too difficult to play the game later on.”
Once these words came out, the middle-aged man thought, “Then we will use the minister card!”
Zhao Wenbin nodded. “Yes, we should use the minister card. The opposite side will think the same as us. They won’t take a risk in the first game. They can only play the minister card or knight card. The minister restrains the knight. We certainly won’t lose if we choose the minister. At most, we will both play the minister card and the two cards will become void. This way, both sides will have three cards left. The odds of the slave card being played will also increase from one quarter to one third.”
Both the female student and middle-aged man agreed with Zhao Wenbin’s words.
Tang Mo looked at the queen card while listening to Zhao Wenbin.
Zhao Wenbin’s words weren’t unreasonable. This was a classic prisoner’s dilemma game. Under normal circumstances, no one would play the slave and king card in the first game. These two cards were too important. If one of the tickets was lost in the first round, they would lose their initiative in the next game and become passive.
Of the four cards, the most important one wasn’t the king card but the slave card.
Once the slave card was lost, the other side only needed to play the king card forever since it was a higher priority than the minister and knight cards. The team that lost all their cards first was a failure. Then Tang Mo’s team would have no chance of victory.
Thus, the first round definitely wouldn’t be the slave card.
But it didn’t necessarily have to be the minister card.
“That…Mr. Mo, do you agree that we should use the minister card?”
Tang Mo turned to look at Zhao Wenbin. “I would prefer to play the queen card.”
Zhao Wenbin looked at him with astonishment, while the female student and middle-aged man were also amazed.
Zhao Wenbin thought for a moment and shook his head. “No, it is too dangerous. What if the opposite side really uses the slave card? Although they won’t be able to see our card, they will see that we were restrained by their slave card and know that we had lost the queen card.”
Tang Mo said lightly, “I am just inclined towards the queen card. If you want to play the minister card then I won’t object.”
“Then it is settled.”
In this type of game, most teams would choose to play the minister’s card in the beginning. There was a great possibility that the opposite side would also play the minister card. This was the safest thing and both sides would sail smoothly through the opening. They would have a better understanding of each other’s thoughts. Then they could judge the opponent’s thoughts and determine what card they would play next.
The reason why Tang Mo wanted to play the queen card was because he was 80% certain the slave card wouldn’t emerge. There was only a 20% chance that their queen card would be restrained. Such a probability was worth a gamble. The side that lost one card first would be at a disadvantage.
Another reason was due to this queen card.
The black tower’s eighth rule stated that the queen card could trigger the ‘Go home and kneel on the washboard’ effect, allowing them to ask the other party a question.
Zhao Wenbin said, “We have the queen card so we can ask a question to the opposite side at any time. Should we think about what question to ask? The question can’t be related to the content of the card. The opposite side can only answer yes or no.”
The female student immediately said, “Do you remember, the black tower said that we will win if the opposite side lies. That…we can ask a question they don’t know. It is likely that they will get it wrong and lie.”
The middle-aged man said, “It makes sense to win this way.”
Tang Mo, who was looking at the queen card again and standing one metre away from the three, calmly disagreed. “The black tower won’t give us such an obvious loophole. There is a 99% chance that we will only waste the question and the black tower will view the question as invalid. Do you really want to waste it?”
Tang Mo was still calculating. As he stood at a distance, the high school student had been sneaking glances at him. Once he spoke such cold words, the female student glared at him with dissatisfaction and never looked at him again.
Zhao Wenbin also said, “We will think of a more important question. But we don’t need to worry too much now. Just wait and observe the opposite side to understand their personality and then decide.”
At this moment, a loud voice rang out in the white world.
“Ding dong! The first round of Pinocchio’s Honest Card Game is about to begin. We will now shuffle the cards.”
The white world made a loud noise and the earth started to shake. He saw the four iron cards fly up, floating half a metre away from the ground. Then the four cards quickly changed positions. The four cards changed positions very quickly. Tang Mo’s dynamic vision could follow it in the beginning but soon he couldn’t make out the contents of the cards.
10 seconds later.
Bang!
The four cards stopped in four grids. A silver light shot out from the centre of the card, connecting to the eyebrows of Tang Mo and the other three people. Each card was connected to the person who stood in the grid. But the cards themselves had changed.
Zhao Wenbin’s card was originally a knight and now it was a slave.
The female student was originally a slave and now it was a minister.
The middle-aged man was a knight and Tang Mo was the queen.
After the shuffle, the black tower issued a reminder.
“Ding dong! After three minutes, all players are asked to stand in the grid of a card. The card in the grid will be the card shown in the next game.”
Zhao Wenbin and the middle-aged man started to walk to the minister’s grid. The female student saw that her card had changed from a slave to a minister. She stood hesitantly in the same place, not moving. Zhao Wenbin turned and looked at her. “What’s wrong. Let’s stand together in the minister’s grid.”
The female high school student clenched her fingers. “…I am the minister.”
The middle-aged man understood her words and spoke bluntly. “Before I was the minister. I didn’t disagree with agreeing to play the card. This is the first round. What are you afraid of? The opposite side will also play the minister. The two cards will become void and a duel won’t be triggered.”
The female student still had some hesitation. Zhao Wenbin said, “Don’t be afraid. It is almost impossible for the opposite side to send out the king to suppress you. Like us, they won’t want to take such a big risk in the first round.”
As if she was persuaded by Zhao Wenbin, the female student looked at his smile before moving to the minister’s grid.
Tang Mo looked at them, his hands in his pocket. Then he walked to a grid on the other side.
The three people looked at him in astonishment.
Zhao Wenbin asked, “Mr. Mo, what do you mean by this?”
“Nothing, I am just experimenting. If the choices of the four of us are difference, what will the black tower decide? If it decides there is a problem with the card, I will stand with you.” Tang Mo calmly stood in the queen’s grid.
The female student and middle-aged man were dissatisfied. They looked at Tang Mo with cold expressions but didn’t say anything.
After three minutes, the child’s voice was heard.
“Ding dong! The card has been selected.”
The huge card in front of the three people slowly descended. It pressed against the ground, the back facing upwards. The moment the card fell to the ground, the silver light connected to the four people’s eyebrows gradually disappeared.
“It follows the principle of the majority…” Tang Mo muttered.
After deciding the card, Pinocchio jumped up and stood on top of the wall. He looked at Tang Mo’s side before turning to look at the other side. Pinocchio gave a sinister smile and patted the wall. “My good brother, it seems that these honest children have made a choice. You can take a break.”
The white wall made a loud sound and slowly rose upwards.
Tang Mo looked at the situation on the opposite side. The moment he saw it, he narrowed his eyes and looked at the black man standing opposite him.
The other person looked at Tang Mo, his lips slightly curved and smiled at Tang Mo.
The two of them didn’t speak. They just looked at each other quietly.
Tang Mos’ heart was filled with a strong sense of unease. He touched the match tattoo on his wrist and stared at the tall man in black.
The female student whispered, “How are they standing like us?”
Yes, on the opposite side, three people were standing in the same grid. Only the man in black stood alone in a grid, standing opposite to Tang Mo.
Was the man in black like Tang Mo, wanting to determine the rules of the card selection?
Pinocchio jumped down from the wall and clapped his hands happily. The sound of clapping echoed in the white world. Then the two fallen silver cards clung to the ground, moving backwards towards the black area in the centre of the two teams. Soon the cards were tightly attached together, so that the contents of the cards couldn’t be seen.
In the blink of an eye, Pinocchio ran to the card on Tang Mo’s side. He leaned over and touched the card with his hand. “It is a good card.”
Tang Mo didn’t react to his words.
The black tower started that Pinocchio couldn’t know the contents of the cards. These words were just nonsense.
Pinocchio ran to the card on the other side and touched it. His face was serious. “This is also a good card.”
This was the first official card. Apart from Pinocchio, no one in the two teams dared to joke around. They stared at each other. Tang Mo glanced at the three players standing opposite him. When he shifted his gaze, he found that the man in black was still watching him.
Tang Mo felt that there was something wrong with the man. He even came up with a possibility but subconsciously avoided the answer.
How could the four opposite people…play the king card?
Those three people would actually agree to play the king card?
It was impossible.
Pinocchio saw that the eight players were ignoring him. His mouth twitched and he sat down on the opposite side’s card.
“Let’s start playing cards. You people are no fun. You must have never heard the song of the most famous Pinocchio’s Honest Card Game in our Underground Kingdom!”
“Biu——”
Pinocchio quickly changed his words. “Well, this song isn’t famous at all but it is very nice…yes yes, it isn’t good to hear! Damn, stop this. I’m going to start singing!”
“A king went hunting, the queen looks in the mirror every day.”
“The minister runs with the king and the knight wants to see the princess…”
Pinocchio started a beat with his hands and feet, closing his eyes and immersing himself in the voice that was out of tune. “Where is the lovely slave? Oh, he is in a big pot under the kitchen!”
“Ding dong! In the first round, the players have played their cards.”
A dazzling white light flashed from the two cards. Pinocchio’s buttocks seemed to be burnt by something. He immediately stood up and walked aside, smiling at the hideous song he had created and watched the two glowing cards.
The white light became more and more dazzling, flooding the entire white space. The light shone so that everyone couldn’t close their eyes. Tang Mo tried to blink and look at the situation, but the strong light made him squint uncontrollably. Then he heard a crisp crack.
His body trembled as he understood what the sound was.
Snap.
The light disappeared and everyone saw the silver card on Tang Mo’s side crack. The crack started from the centre and spread out quickly. Finally, it was like a spider web over the card. At last…
Snap.
The card turned into white light and disappeared into the air.
Pinocchio covered his mouth without much surprise and deliberately asked in a surprised tone. “Damn, what card did you dishonest children play?” He spoke angrily but he was smiling as he looked at the eight players on both sides.
The four people on Tang Mo’s side concentrated on the place where the card disappeared.
The female student’s eyes opened with disbelief. She muttered, “Impossible” and walked backwards. At this moment, a silver light emerged from the place where the card disappeared and connected to the eyebrow of the female student. Tang Mo hurriedly looked at the other card that wasn’t broken.
The silver light shot out from the centre of the card and connected to the eyebrows of the man in black.
Tang Mo’s heart thumped as he stared at the man in black.
The man in black walked calmly to the blank area. Once he walked in, the silver light disappeared. He looked at the pale white female student and finally turned to look at Tang Mo. He smiled. “The effect of the duel field is triggered.”