Chapter 220 - Unfair game?
There is a creaking sound, and beneath Tang Mo's feet the short clock hand begins to slide slowly to the left. It slides clockwise four times in quick succession, finally landing firmly on frame 24. Tang Mo lifts his foot and walks into frame 24. At the other end of the truth clock, the minute hand slides backwards under the black rabbit's feet. It moves back two squares and should go into the 60th square, but the black rabbit does not move when the minute hand points past.
The cold voice of the Truth Clock rang out, "Will the 0-point player please enter the correct grid."
The black rabbit then stomped hard to the ground and jumped up to the 60th frame.
The huge Russia Black Rabbit set hit the ground with a heavy thud and the earth trembled slightly. The round ends with neither the Black Rabbit nor Tang Mo being punished. The black rabbit retreats two squares, apparently giving up on eliminating the item, but Tang Mo retreats a full four squares.
How does this figure look wrong.
"Last time it was a fifth level of non-universal truth ... What is the reason for this time?" Tang Mo's calm voice rang out.
The black rabbit looked up, staring coldly at Tang Mo, without speaking.
Tang Mo's mouth curled up and he said no more.
If one were to look around now, one would see that the black rabbit seems to be a completely different person from before. From the moment Tang Mo met the Russian black rabbit, he was an irritable, brutal and violent figure. As soon as he walks up to the truth clock, he threatens to eat Tang Mo and dip Tang Mo's eyeballs in sugar.
In the mouth of the black rabbit, which has passed the truth clock, it has eaten countless humans.
This black rabbit is similar to every The black tower monster Tang Mo has ever seen. Neurotic, sinister and vicious, with a 'eat' attitude towards humans, and a penchant for humming off-key ditties and saying creepy things. If there's one difference, it's that the black rabbit is slightly more than superficial. Both Mario and Pinocchio like to act. Their greatest pleasure is watching human players being played by themselves.
A man and a rabbit stared silently at each other on the truth clock, and after a long time a hoarse male voice came out of the black rabbit's Russia set body: "... When did you find out."
"In the beginning."
The black rabbit's eyes widened in dismay, and it took a long time before he said, "At first?!"
In the silence of black space, Tang Mo looked at the Russia set not far away and said faintly, "Before the game had even begun, I fell straight through the air and onto the Truth Clock because I had grabbed Mr Rabbit's tail. I had no choice, I was forced to stand on this clock, locked in its invisible cage, unable to leave. But ..." After a pause, Tang Mo looked steadily at the black rabbit and said, "You came up here on your own."
The black rabbit's face was all amazed, and its eyes rolled as it kept thinking. After a minute, as if it finally understood where it was wrong, it laughed bitterly twice.
Yes, from the very beginning Tang Mo was wondering what the purpose of this black rabbit was.
The Black Rabbit walks up to the Truth Clock of its own accord. Before walking on the Truth Clock, his body is not restricted by the Truth Clock and he can move freely (including choosing to walk on it). After walking on the Truth Clock, he is trapped in the same small, less than one square metre space as Tang Mo. It says it has played the Truth Clock game and has eaten many humans with this magical clock. It also does know how to turn on the Truth Clock and has always acted as if it knows the Truth Clock game.
But after walking up to this clock, there is no guarantee that anyone will not die in this game, which is controlled by the clock of truth. Where did the black rabbit get the confidence that it would win Tang Mo and not lose the game and fall into the black hole of truth itself?
There are two possibilities. The first is that it's just so arrogant that it doesn't take human players like Tang Mo seriously. But more likely, it really does have something to fall back on.
What is this leverage that allows the Black Rabbit to confidently walk up the truth clock and play a game with Tang Mo with his life?
For the first half hour Tang Mo pondered this question. He had thought it was some kind of special prop, or that the Black Rabbit was really clever and good at this game. Until that time, when a total of 48 items appeared and both Tang Mo and the Black Rabbit tried their best to eliminate them. In the end, Tang Mo advanced seven squares while the black rabbit went backwards a full ten squares.
"When very few items appeared, you always went ahead more than me and had the upper hand. But once a lot of items appeared, whether it was 48 items in the third round or 28 items in the eighth round, you advanced much less than me." Tang Mo's voice was calm, "With fewer items, you move more; with more items, you move less. This game is testing the player's brain, eyesight and memory ... to test the player's hard skills, and the more items there are, the more difficult the game becomes. This difficulty rises exponentially. Going through those two rounds of the game proved that you are not stronger than me, and much weaker than me."
Black Rabbit: "I just happen to have a few items I haven't seen before."
Tang Mo ignored it: "Especially with the 48 items in the third round, you went backwards too many frames. The advantage you had built up only in two rounds of the game all disappeared in that round, and even until now you have not made up for it. This shows that you and I are on equal footing when it comes to participating in the Truth Clock game, at least you don't have any props or treasures that would allow you to guarantee yourself more frames forward than me for sure. So here's the question ... why on earth did you walk up to the Truth Clock and start this game with me."
This is a game that is being played with lives that are not yet certain to be won. What is it about the Black Rabbit that makes him boldly walk the truth clock?
There is only one possibility.
"It's not that you want to walk up here, you're forced to walk up here as well." Tang Mo concludes categorically.
The black rabbit looked at Tang Mo with a complex and odd look, its body shifting slightly. After a few moments, it began to laugh. It said it was laughing, but it was laughing in a very tired manner, and it no longer had the same grumpy and furious look as before.
The black rabbit had thought a lot about how to act to fool this player since before he stepped on this truth clock. He did try his best, trying hard to intimidate Tang Mo, disguising himself and portraying himself as a mindless, manic, stupid rabbit, even Tang Mo was fooled by him, but he still lost.
"What I lost to was luck." The black rabbit said, "If I had known all four of the items that appeared in that round of High Truth just now, I would have been able to tell you the information to answer all four items, instead of choosing to answer only two of them and forgoing the other two, thus receiving no punishment. The tasty stowaway bun and the other cup is obviously human blood. You know at a glance how these two should be eliminated. It's just that the other two, the half-eaten biscuit and a pink scented capsule, are two I don't know what they are myself and can't give you a hint. So what you chose to do was to give up and not answer."
Game Rule #10: Only four items will appear on the Truth Clock every hour. The truth of that item is a High Truth.
The first time a difficult truth item appears, the black rabbit "inadvertently" reveals information about the delicious stowaway bun. In that round Tang Mo went back three frames and the Black Rabbit went back one frame. Tang Mo had no problem with the number of squares, so he could have interpreted that he got two items wrong and gave up eliminating two items, thus going back three squares.
But the thing is, he wasn't punished for anything. The black rabbit was quick on the uptake and immediately said that Tang Mo was exempt because it was a "level 5 non-universal truth". Some players might have believed him, but Tang Mo didn't. And ...
"The half-eaten little biscuit was Granny Wolf's favourite brand, and the pink scented bag that Granny Wolf in Monster Valley always kept by her bedside. That's the separate truth between them." Hearing this, the black rabbit looked at Tang Mo in shock, only to see Tang Mo smiling slightly, "Those are the two items I eliminated that round, and I forgo eliminating the bun and the blood."
Black Bunny: "You already know what buns and blood are, and you don't even go and eliminate them?!"
"You are my enemy. Will you believe the information your enemy reveals to you, even if nine times out of ten it is correct ...?"
Black Rabbit: "..."
Tang Mo pursed his lips at the black rabbit's frustrated and frustrated look.
In fact, there's a lot he hasn't said, and there's no need to say. This was a game in which the black rabbit had lost its biggest chip -
The Black Rabbit and Tang Mo, also two items that can be eliminated.
From the very beginning when Tang Mo says "The black rabbit is The black tower BOSS", the truth clock gives him a denial, implying that the black rabbit is not The black tower BOSS, or even that it is probably not The black tower monster. It is a human.
When fewer items appear, the Black Rabbit has the upper hand; once more items appear, it is Tang Mo who gets the advantage. This is not because the black rabbit can only eliminate a relatively small number of items, which it cannot solve when there are more. Rather, the "two-frame advantage" that it has is lost when there are many items.
The Black Rabbit has a two-frame advantage. Because Tang Mo doesn't eliminate itself and the Black Bunny each round, it is two squares back each round. This is hard for Tang Mo to spot. For example, in the first round, out of six items, he was one square back. Tang Mo thought he had got two items right and four wrong, so he went one square forward and two squares back, and ended up with one square back. But now that I think about it, he actually got four items right. He advances two frames, goes back one frame, only to go back two frames again because he did not eliminate himself and the black rabbit. Add it all up and you end up one frame back.
Another example is the round where only two items appeared. This was a temptation for Tang Mo to eliminate the items and move on to the next round. But Tang Mo chose to give up. He didn't eliminate any of the items. Assuming he eagerly eliminates the items, he does advance one square by eliminating them, but then is forced to go back two more squares by not eliminating himself and the black rabbit. The result is one square back, which again can be explained by the fact that Tang Mo has answered the truth wrongly.
The only way to prove the existence of the "two items that can be eliminated but have never been eliminated" is if he goes back four squares. These two items are the Black Rabbit and Tang Mo.
There's a big bug in the rules of this game: if Tang Mo and the Black Rabbit eliminate all the items on the Truth Clock at the same time, which one of them is the winner?
There are three ways to pass the game: catching up with the opponent, the opponent's own death, or eliminating all items.
There can only be one winner on the Truth Clock, so when two players have eliminated all the items at the same time, who is the real winner? This biggest loophole in the rules of the game makes Tang Mo even more determined to give up eliminating those two items. Because there is only one answer to this loophole: the Black Rabbit's rules are different from his.
Tang Mo eliminates all items to pass the game, Black Rabbit eliminates all items to not pass the game.
Tang Mo identifies the black rabbit's true reliance with the abandonment of the elimination of two items.
Time passed by, and soon, ten minutes were up, and fourteen blue rays of light flashed up in the centre of the truth clock. Seeing these fourteen rays of light, the black rabbit seemed to suddenly realise something as it exclaimed, "I didn't lose!"
Tang Mo looks up at it.
The black rabbit's gaze was once again fierce, a hint of delight flashed across its face as it sneered, "Yes, the game has just begun, I haven't lost, and you don't necessarily win. As long as I catch up with you, you've lost! So what if you know about it, it's just a fair duel between us. I'll win for sure!"
The blue glow faded. Looking at the black rabbit's gritted teeth, Tang Mo curled his lips and said in a calm voice before the fourteen items were completely revealed: "I have guessed the general truth, but there is only one thing I am not sure of. The black tower can force players to participate in the game, and perhaps it can force the Underlanders, the black tower monsters, to participate in the game it has devised. At the time I entered this game, The black tower said this was my single player game. So ..."
The blue dissipates completely, fourteen items appear and the second hand of the truth clock walks again, it also makes a mechanical sound to remind the two players present to prepare for the elimination of the items.
Tang Mo's gaze grew cold over the undulating background sounds of the truth clock. He said, word for word, "The only thing I'm not sure of is ... are you a human player?"
The black rabbit's face changed expressions and the next second it suddenly burst out laughing wildly, "Stupid human, you actually think I'm human? That's the funniest joke I've heard all year. I will definitely eat you, hahahahaha, tear you into pieces and eat them all!"
Tang Mo curled his lips, "Oh, you really are a human player."
The black rabbit's laughter stops abruptly and he looks at Tang Mo incredulously. Tang Mo stopped looking at him and instead looked down at the fourteen items.
The black rabbit roared, " Tang Mo!!!"
Tang Mo froze for a moment and muttered with a raised eyebrow, "You even know my name? That would be a bit unfair, wouldn't it?"
The tenth round of the game, officially started.
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The author has something to say.
Tangtang: I want to report The black tower, it's not fair!
The black rabbit: QAQ I don't think it's fair!