Chapter 1922 U: Beyond Major Events (11)_1

When Shiller returned to the camp, Natasha and Stark, who hadn't participated in the game, were both shocked by the burn on his hand.

Shiller didn't want to use Gray Mist, but with limited medical resources, it would undoubtedly be a waste not to use his own healing abilities. So, after showing Natasha and Stark his wound, he let the gray mist heal it.

"First, let's confirm the time flow. From the moment I left for the mission until the end of the game, the time I roughly calculated in my heart is about three hours."

Natasha looked at her watch and nodded, "That sounds about right. It appears that participating in the game doesn't affect the flow of time."

"Tell us what exactly happened." Stark said, sitting upright on the couch with his hands resting on each knee.

Shiller began his detailed narration. He explained the rules of the entire game clearly, then began his analysis.

As Shiller narrated, the matchstick tossing game slowly unfolded from his perspective.

In fact, Shiller was the second to arrive. The rules established by the organizer dictated that after deciding to participate in the game, players would make their own way to the game's location. Shiller guessed this might be to increase the possibility of duelists encountering each other, as a chance meeting en route could easily disrupt the progression of the game.

After the game began, the organizer gave no clues. Fortunately, Shiller simply walked in the direction of the room's door until the mark on the back of his hand began to heat up.

Shiller discovered that the mark on his hand would get hotter as he walked in the correct direction. Thus, he soon found the small cabin in the forest.

Upon entering, he found that Carol was already waiting there. Of course, Mystique, with her impeccable ability to mimic physical appearances, had a natural advantage. Unless she spoke, Shiller couldn't tell that she was a fake.

As the saying goes, a fake's biggest flaw is knowing that they're a fake. As soon as they know this, they'll try desperately to prove they're real. Mystique, also known as Riven, seemed to want to establish an ally for the upcoming game, so she initiated a conversation with Shiller.

Shiller didn't know much about Captain Marvel, Carol, other than what Nick had told him. But he noticed the changes in her composure and actions clearly.

If it was anyone else, they might just think that the other person changed their behavior pattern because of nerves or annoyance. But Shiller, his mind broadened by his experience with mental patients, wasn't like that.

Shiller immediately began to wonder, could this Captain Marvel be an imposter?

Just as he was considering this, the Joker entered. At the time, Shiller was standing directly opposite the door, and they made eye contact immediately.

The Joker hesitated, as did Shiller.

Neither of them had expected to encounter a familiar face in a game where 600 people participated, in the first round no less.

Both of them recognized the other as a confidant in the first second, but neither pointed this out. Instead, the Joker behaved like an unsociable vagrant, squatting silently in a corner after entering the room.

Katy was the last to arrive, and like Carol, she made quite an entrance, talking and laughing, trying to establish her persona with her actions. Shiller, of course, sensed that something was off.

The problem Shiller was facing was that he knew more intel than the others, specifically about the abilities of various characters in the Marvel and DC universes. However, there were simply too many characters who could mimic others, and he couldn't narrow it down in a short time.

When the game rules were announced, Shiller listened carefully. However, the rules were too simple, even the matches were only given 10, meaning that the game would be decided at most in four rounds. Even an average person with a bit of intelligence could easily understand it.

Essentially, the game was designed to apply pressure to the last player and also provide that player with a way to cause mutual destruction, while adding hidden unfavorable conditions to make the players doubt each other.

Yet instinctively, Shiller felt something was off about this game. Fundamentally, it shouldn't be this way—because it didn't meet either criterion.

As Stark said, there are many types of intelligence, and straight calculation ability is one of the most common, like mental arithmetic or complex calculations. These test the hard-solving capacity of the brain.

If there's hard-solving, then there's soft-solving—guessing your opponent's psychological habits, behavior patterns, and game theory knowledge actually tests a person's intelligence, not their emotional intelligence.

To give a simple example, a game of Rock Paper Scissors where lying is allowed is actually a classic game of strategy. If I say I'm going to play scissors, you have to guess whether I want you to play rock, so I can surprise you with paper, or whether I'm trying to double bluff, knowing that you'd see through my initial ruse and play scissors, and then I play rock.

Another classic example, is the lol of "I've predicted your prediction," which is a typical psychological strategy.

This tests how many layers a person's brain can calculate and is also a reflection of intelligence.

The reason why this matchstick tossing game does not fit into either category is because the rules are too simple for a hard-solving game, leaving little room for strategizing.

Simply put, with slight modifications, the difficulty of the game could be raised one level. For instance, change the total number of matches to 100, and raise the tossing limit to 10, but if the previous player throws a prime number of matches, the next player must throw a composite number adjacent to that prime number, and vice versa. Also, the total number of matches in odd rounds must be odd, while in even rounds it must be even. Violating these rules would cause the fire basin to explode.

This isn't very difficult - it's just addition and subtraction within 10, but it does incorporate some game theory skills.

For instance, if a person throws 5, the next person can only throw 4 or 6. Throwing 6 benefits the thrower, but it forces the next person to only be able to throw 5 or 7. If the third person were to choose 7 to their advantage and the fourth person choose 8 to their advantage, the total would be 26, an even number which, if it was the first round, would cause the fire basin to explode.

But if after a round, the sum was not reset and started again at 8, then the first person could only choose 7 because 9 is not a prime number and the other numbers are not adjacent. But in doing so, they fall into a 7, 8 cycle and four players are bound to select a pair of 7s and 8s resulting in an even-numbered sum, guaranteeing a loss.

Such rules would greatly increase the quantity of calculations players need to make. Everyone must think ahead multiple rounds about their choice and errors are extremely costly. If someone selfishly thinks only of themselves, everyone loses.

If it were testing hard analytical skills, these rules would be a relatively basic way to play. Alternatively, relative conversion or inverse division could also be used. No matter what, they're all much more interesting than simple addition and subtraction within 10.

If the game leaned more towards game theory, the simplest would be to change from face-up to face-down - each person having a different number of matches between 10 to 20, with no one knowing how many matches the others had.

You could also set a limit of 20 matches, but secretly throw them under the table without any limit on the number thrown at once. But if the total exceeds 21, the basin will explode. After each person has thrown, they declare how many they threw but they could lie. This would definitely lead to a wild chaos of mutual deception.

If you look at the rules of the game as explained by the organizers, the required mental calculations aren't high, nor are strong psychological game theory skills necessary. So what exactly is the game about?

There is only one possibility - this is another trap by the host. Intelligence games might not just test intelligence.

They simply call it "Intelligence," but there are no rules that guarantee it's testing intelligence, or that it only tests intelligence.

If this is the case, then perhaps some violent means are allowed. But the rules specifically state that the activity space is very small, so a direct fight in the room is impossible.

It is also not feasible to pull or push others since everyone has matches which can light wood directly without needing charcoal. If one were to detect a sign of aggression and felt unable to resist, they might panic and directly set their match on fire to burn the house.

Even if you managed to push someone out of the zone, a fast thinker could still start a fire with their match. Judging by the final "warm tip" in the rules, the entire room's flammability is beyond imagination.

Since these unconventional methods won't work, we need to rely on the rules, which brings our focus back to the game's props.

We can't use matches to burn others because the risk is too high. The opponent may take the risk of being eliminated by burning the house down.

So, the only prop left to utilize is the fire basin.

In simple terms, Shiller, guessing from the kindergarten level of difficulty of the game, deduced that the focus of this game is definitely not intelligence, which led him to further speculate that there must be a key weapon - the scorching fire basin was the obvious choice.

Next is the decision of who to eliminate.

This was a unanimous decision between Shiller and Joker, made even before the game started.

As mentioned before, Shiller and Joker arrived before Katy. So why didn't Joker go crazy before Katy arrived? Why, after Katy arrived, did he grab Shiller's throat and talk about swapping skin for masks?

If he didn't like Shiller, he should have threatened him at first sight; why wait until another person came in?

The things Joker said like "I'll remove my mask, you take off your skin" implied that the person who came after them was also wearing a 'mask', and they intend to target him and remove his 'mask'.

Shiller guessed that the Joker might have recognized Clayface. As for how he recognized him, it's best not to delve too deep into Arkham Fan Club affairs.

So, Shiller and Joker made a deal with subtle language cues and quickly established their roles in the plan.

Joker played good cop, constantly using verbal attacks against Carol to create an atmosphere where it seemed like he wanted her eliminated at all costs. This created a sense of safety for the more vulnerable Katy.

Shiller played bad cop, both moderating the tension between Joker and Carol to allow the game to continue and constantly reinforcing his trustworthy image in Katy's mind.

Then, step by step, he lured Katy, or Clayface, making him believe that he could join the alliance between Shiller and Joker against Carol; leading him to anticipate Joker's next action in the following round and voluntarily allowing Joker to skip raising the fire basin.

As this decision was Katy's own, he was completely caught off guard when making it. This allowed Shiller to execute a critical hit with a regular attack.

This way, Shiller and Joker set a trap, eliminating the unlucky Clayface from a certain universe and also alerting the rest of the team that the type of game is likely a ruse.

Steve and Peter, who returned from another game, confirmed this speculation.