Chapter 1918 U: Transcending Major Events (Seven)_1

The atmosphere within the wooden cabin was so tense it was palpable.

Firstly, Shiller stood directly facing the door, or in other words at twelve o'clock, while to his left, at three o'clock was the Joker, across from him at six o'clock was Shadow Cat Kitty, and on his right, at nine o'clock was Carol.

Going by the rules of the game, starting at twelve o'clock and moving clockwise, Shiller would be the first one to throw a matchstick, followed by the Joker, then Kitty, and finally Carol.

Immediately after the rules were explained, a small pile of matchsticks suddenly appeared before them. When Carol picked them up, she found there were precisely ten matchsticks.

This was a simple math problem. Assuming everyone tosses three matchsticks each round to win, after a full round starting with Shiller, each player would be left with seven matchsticks. After the second round, each would have four remaining, and after the third, just a single matchstick each.

From then on, as soon as Shiller tossed his matchstick, he would win. The Joker, who would then throw second, could also avoid elimination, followed by Kitty. However, Carol, being the last in line, would inevitably be eliminated.

This seemed like a completely unfair game. The first player to throw could never lose, while the last player was always eliminated.

If the last player didn't want to be eliminated, they would have no choice but to hope the people in the lead wouldn't throw three matchsticks each round. Only then would the last round avoid being a death sentence.

The maximum number of matchsticks thrown was three. If the other three players had fewer than three by the last round, Carol would undoubtedly be eliminated.

Since the other players threw before Carol, if they had three or fewer matches, they could throw them all in before Carol, and she would still be eliminated.

In other words, if Carol wanted to avoid elimination, she had to make sure the three players in front of her had at least four matchsticks left by the final round, meaning they had to either skip a round or throw one fewer stick each time, thus leaving them with at least four matchsticks by the end.

Carol was extremely angry, shouting out her thoughts. "What kind of a crap game is this that's entirely down to luck?! If the last one in is automatically out, what's the point of the game? Why not just eliminate the person who enters the room last?!"

The Joker, who seemed to be impatient, picked at his ear, but Shiller politely replied to Carol, "Madam, you should consider why we're using matchsticks."

Carol flinched and instinctively looked down at the charcoal in the brazier, her gaze falling onto the thin matchsticks in her hand. Suddenly, she yelled out.

"Yes! Matches can ignite charcoal and light a fire. Did you hear what he said? Everything in this room is made of wood. If you make the fire too big, we'll all be burned alive!!!"

At this moment, Kitty mumbled to the side, "But as long as no one skips, the brazier won't rise, so it won't burn the ceiling."

Carol paused once again, but this time she realized. She shrieked, wildly, "No matter what, if we play normally, I will definitely lose. I'll skip my turns at the start, then the brazier will rise, and no one will survive!"

Kitty looked at Carol, a.k.a Captain Marvel, in shock. "Captain, what's wrong with you? How could you..."

"Because this is inherently unfair to me!" Carol raised her voice, "Would you like to switch places?"

Kitty fell silent. It was clear to everyone that those in fourth place were naturally disadvantaged. As long as the others played by the rules, they would win. Only the fourth player would undeniably lose if they followed the norm.

Kitty glanced at the brazier on the table again. It was a semicircular brass brazier with a narrow rim at the top. There were four holes in the rim, and four chains hung from the ceiling and secured the brazier through those holes.

The bottom of the brazier was flat, so it sat stable on the table when placed down. When placed on the table, the chains slacked a bit and didn't fully tighten.

Kitty looked up at the ceiling again. Without a measuring tool, her estimation might have been off, but thankfully she could use her own height as a reference.

Kitty was a white woman with petite stature, standing only 168cm tall, relatively unremarkable among other white women.

She didn't look up at the ceiling entirely, as it was too conspicuous. She quickly glanced over at Carol. Carol was much taller than her, roughly estimated to be about 180cm. The man, a doctor, seating across from her was even taller. Kitty guessed he might be somewhere between 187-190cm.

Because Shiller was directly in front of her, Kitty was able to estimate the distance between his head and ceiling. If she used her estimation method, she guessed the height of the ceiling to be around 260cm.

Then she calculated the height of the table, which resembled a bar counter more than a table. When she stood straight, the tabletop was at her chest, approximately 1.2m in height.

Skipping a turn caused the fire pot to rise 30 cm, and Carol only had three opportunities to skip, meaning the pot could only rise up to 90 cm at most. So, even if you added the 120 cm to 90 cm, it's only 210cm, which is still half a meter short of the ceiling height.

But the current situation needed a different perspective. Carol was the last to throw the matches, and there were three people before her. If each person threw three matches, the fire would likely be ignited by the second person's turn.

Katy studied the design of the fire pot. She wasn't certain if the unique structure was designed to concentrate the flames, but she knew that, with all the charcoal in the pot, the blaze, once ignited, would soon soar sky-high.

If the flame exceeded a height of 50 cm, the house would be set ablaze by the end of the fourth round.

Katy thought, even if the house was set on fire, it wouldn't burn immediately. As long as they completed the fourth round quickly, they should still have enough time.

No, that's not right. Katy looked around and noticed that the wooden house had windows. The airflow here was decent—not entirely enclosed. The stipulations restricted only the removal of charcoal from the fire pot, but didn't say anything about using other methods to fuel the flames.

In a no-win situation, Carol could only clutch at the straw of setting the house on fire to intimidate the others into throwing fewer matches. She would likely employ every possible method to make the fire burn higher and hotter, like blowing with her mouth or fanning it with clothes.

Considering this, the house could potentially catch fire sooner than anticipated, possibly even during the second round.

But that still left enough time. After all, how long could tossing a match take, Katy thought.

Even if the house started burning during the second round, the remaining players could throw their matches in less than 10 seconds, so wasn't Carol still destined to lose?

Wait, thinking further, Katy identified a potential problem. The fire pot, at its highest position of around 2.1 meters, would be right above their heads, particularly hers, since she was rather short. The pot would be just 40-50 cm above her head then.

Katy looked around as she remembered from the rules that they were not allowed to move more than one meter away from the table. But she wasn't entirely sure if the measurement started from the edge of the table or the column supporting it.

If it started from the edge of the table, they still had some room to move around. But if it started from the column, they'd each have only less than half a meter of space left—hardly enough room to maneuver.

The rules didn't specify, and no one dared to risk trying, including Katy. If just one step put her out of bounds and got her eliminated, it would be a real pity, so backtracking for Katy was difficult.

If she didn't retreat, the fire pot would be directly above her head. Given its hemispherical design and the raised edges, it would be quite challenging to throw a match into it, almost like standing directly under a basketball hoop and trying to score a basket from there.

Katy suddenly realized this game was at a disadvantage for her too. Among the four players, she was the shortest, and if Carol chose to go down in flames, skipping all previous rounds and making the firepot rise higher, then the possibility of Katy failing to throw in her match would increase.

Although the rules didn't specify the consequences of failing to land a match inside the fire pot, Katy didn't dare take that risk. What if a missed match resulted in elimination? Or what if an ignited match fell onto the wooden floor?

Despite her rapid train of thought, Katy immediately tried to reassure Carol, "Captain, don't talk like that. We won't abandon you. There must be a fair way."

Suddenly, Joker sneered, "You bunch of idiots, do you think that just throwing a match in will ignite the flames?" he asked with a voice that seemed to float above his vocal cords.

With both hands on the table, he stared at the fire pot and laughed a bit, then he raised an eyebrow, took back one hand and wiped his mouth. He pointed to a piece of charcoal in the fire pot, "See that charcoal? Yes, the one on the right that's nearly burned out. If I can throw my match into the gap above it, it wouldn't catch fire so easily."

Hearing this, both Carol and Katy looked towards the charcoal Joker pointed at. There indeed was a piece that looked different from the rest.

It didn't have as much ash on the surface, was darker in color, and its ends didn't glow red with the airflow. It looked relatively cooler.

It sat underneath three cylinder-shaped charcoals but was not entirely masked. There was a small opening in the middle and on the left, which should allow a match to be thrown in if aimed correctly.

"Oh, forgot to mention, before I became a bank-robbing oddball, I had a part-time job as a clown in a circus. I was kicked out by the boss because my darts were too accurate," Joker said casually, leaning his elbow on the table and smirking, "And if the fire doesn't ignite, it doesn't matter how many turns you skip."

"You damned lunatic!" Carol growled furiously. She was about to say something when Joker covered his ears and shouted, "Can't hear, can't hear, can't hear, all I can hear is your scream when you get eliminated, hahahaha."

Carol's face twisted with rage.