Here was a highway.
Visually estimated to be about 3.5 ters wide, there were no yellow or white lines in the middle.
There were no road signs whatsoever either.
On the left and right sides were deserts, and the scene had no reference points. Chen Ran tried to leave the highway and go into the right-side desert, but found that he was blocked by an invisible wall and could not leave the highway.
There was another problem: Chen Ran's bag didn't co down with him. He reached into his pocket; his cigarettes and lighter were still there.
He first lit a cigarette.
Then he slowly pondered.
'First, since I can't leave the highway, I have to either walk forward or backward.'
'Second, as far as Common Sense is concerned, highways in the middle of nowhere are all two-way roads with one lane in each direction.'
'Lastly, on a two-way road, one must drive on the right. Since I appeared on the right side, I should walk forward along the highway.'
'However, my bag is gone, and the deserts on both sides offer no reference points. How should I...'
'How should I make marks?'
Chen Ran tossed his cigarette on the ground. The cigarette butt was like a ginseng fruit hitting the ground; it disappeared in the blink of an eye, making it impossible to leave a mark.
He looked at his Watch again. As expected, the second hand had already stopped moving.
Fortunately, it wasn't a digital Watch. He pulled the crown out—the thing used to adjust the hands. This way, he could manually record the ti.
He first adjusted the hour and minute hands to 12 o'clock.
Then he started walking forward.
At the sa ti, he counted silently in his heart. Every ti a minute passed, he would turn the minute hand by one tick.
After walking for about 83 seconds.
Chen Ran saw a bulletin board. There was no text on it, just a skull pattern.
'The walking speed of an adult is about 1.2 to 1.4 ters per second.'
The skull pattern made Chen Ran frown.
However, he leaned more towards the idea that this was just a marker for 100 ters of distance covered.
After all, there was no relevant evidence to corroborate the skull pattern.
'In other words, I've walked just about 100 ters, and a bulletin board appeared.'
He continued walking forward.
He walked for another 83 seconds.
He saw a second bulletin board, which had a little girl pattern on it.
'200 ters.'
He continued walking forward.
He walked for another 83 seconds.
Chen Ran once again saw a skull bulletin board.
He stopped in his tracks.
'Then here cos the question.'
'Did I walk to 300 ters, or did I return to the 100-ter position?'
He looked at his Watch. The ti on it was:
12:04.
Although the second hand couldn't be adjusted, he had been counting silently the whole ti.
It should be 9 seconds.
460 9=249=833.
'This ans I have maintained my consciousness all along, walking forward, without losing any mory midway. Therefore, this is the 300-ter position.'
So, he continued walking forward.
Another 83 seconds.
He saw the little girl bulletin board.
After confirming the ti and walking distance.
'In other words, the odd hundreds of ters are all skull patterns, and the even hundreds of ters are all bulletin boards with little girl patterns.'
Just like that.
For the next half an hour, Chen Ran kept walking forward. It was either skull patterns or little girl pattern bulletin boards, and there were never any other clues, nor any relevant information on when he would reach the finish line.
He realized sothing was wrong.
If he kept walking like this, he would die of exhaustion.
He thought for a mont.
He went to the left lane. On a two-way road, whether in the left or right lane, you drive on the right; it's just that the directions are different.
Being on the right side of the left lane ant walking backward.
Every ti a minute passed, he would turn the minute hand back by one tick. Along the way, he also only saw skull and little girl patterns.
The ti was adjusted exactly back to...
12:00.
aning he had returned to the starting point.
But!
The 100-ter bulletin board right before returning to the starting point had a little girl pattern!
'This is not the starting point!'
'I started from the starting point, walked 100 ters, and encountered a skull pattern. But when returning, at the position 100 ters away from the starting point, I encountered a little girl pattern. Why is this?'
'In terms of ti, however far I walked when setting out, I walked that sa distance when coming back.'
'After all, every minute I walked, I adjusted the minute hand by one tick. Therefore, the distance for my round trip should be exactly the sa.'
'My current position, relative to my initial starting point, is either positive 2n-1 hundred ters or negative 2n-1 hundred ters.'
(N: The number of tis the skull board appeared.)
Simply put, either he was currently 100 ters, 300 ters, 500 ters... away from the starting point.
Or he had gone past the starting point by 100 ters, 300 ters, 500 ters, 700 ters...
Chen Ran lit a cigarette.
'Whether it's distance from the starting point or going past the starting point, the distance is 2n-1 hundred ters.'
'There are two situations.'
'One: The bulletin board changes. For example, it's a skull this second, and a little girl the next.'
'Two: Without noticing, soone controlled my body to walk in the opposite direction. For example, I walked 200 ters, and that person controlled my body to walk back 100 ters.'
The first possibility was easy to rule out.
Chen Ran walked forward 100 ters, ca before a bulletin board with a little girl pattern, and quietly watched to see if the bulletin board would change.
Just now, a round trip had taken him about 68 minutes, so the change must have happened within these 68 minutes.
Therefore, he only needed to wait here for 68 minutes and observe whether the bulletin board changed.
Thinking of this.
He silently smoked his cigarette, quietly waiting for ti to pass. However, as ti went by.
Chen Ran's mouth grew dry, and he didn't even dare to smoke anymore. He didn't understand—there was no Sun in the sky, so why was it so hot?
Pure torture!
Finally, when the 68 minutes were up, the bulletin board had not changed at all.
'It's the second possibility!'
'Soone controlled my body and walked in the opposite direction. Who is this person?'
'I don't care anymore!'
Chen Ran drew his Gun and pointed it at the sky.
"Ghost Whisperer·Eternal Kingdom!"
The sky instantly turned black. After all, two hours had already passed on this highway. If Hua Changsheng was playing tricks, he would fire off an Eternal Kingdom first and deal with the rest later. To be honest, he had never fought such a luxurious battle in previous Instances.
He'd enjoy it first.
When the light returned, he looked at the bulletin board—no change. He looked at the surrounding scene—also no change.
'It must be Qiu Yinong!'
'After all, this ga is a cooperative ga that requires the two of us to work together. If it were an Instance chanism, there would be multiple possibilities, and without complete clues, anyone would face certain death. An Instance that violates the Decryption Protocol cannot be created.'
'But, if it's her controlling my body to walk back, the sll of smoke is so heavy...'
'Can't she sll it?'
'If it's the other way around, and I controlled her body to walk back from her perspective.'
'Then... there isn't any sll of Chewing Gum either... ahem.'
'Judging from the plot, the adult and the third person are two people sharing the sa body.'
'In other words, the current situation between and Qiu Yinong is the sa as theirs.'
Chen Ran looked at the highway.
'Without any reference points, it really is impossible to determine who is walking forward and who is walking backward.'
'For example, for , I am walking forward, and Qiu Yinong is walking backward; for Qiu Yinong, she is walking forward, while I am the one walking backward.'
'No wonder it's a two-way road.'
'So what we need to do now is for one person to stand still while the other walks forward to the finish line; once that person reaches the finish line, the one who didn't move can then start walking forward.'
'But there's a problem here. We have no way to notify each other.'
'Hm? Wait!'
Chen Ran looked at the bulletin board. Logically, he had been standing here for a long ti. If Qiu Yinong had controlled his body, why hadn't she walked forward during this period?
After all, as long as Qiu Yinong controlled Chen Ran's body to walk forward, she would very likely stop in front of a skull bulletin board, and then the bulletin board currently in front of Chen Ran would definitely turn into...
A skull pattern!
However, for over an hour, the pattern on the bulletin board had remained a little girl.
Why was this?
Chen Ran put on his Mask of Agony.
…
Ti rewound to more than two hours ago.
Qiu Yinong appeared on the highway.
Like Chen Ran, she first observed the surrounding environnt, and then, based on her standing position and the fact that one drives on the right on a two-way road, she deduced that she should walk forward.
But there were no signs.
She could only look at her Watch, use it to record her walking ti, and then calculate her walking distance based on an adult's speed.
Like Chen Ran, she adjusted the two hands to 12 o'clock while silently counting in her heart.
After walking for about 83 seconds.
She saw the first bulletin board. It had no text, just a little girl pattern.
'100 ters.'
(Emphasis added.)
She continued walking forward.
Another 83 seconds passed.
She saw the second bulletin board, which also had a little girl pattern.
'How strange. If they're all little girl patterns, what's the point of the bulletin boards?'
'After all, if the bulletin boards just simply represent a 100-ter distance, wouldn't it be simpler to just write the text "100 ters" directly?'
'Also, since this ga requires players to walk forward, there will definitely be a finish line. I have to keep walking forward!'
She walked for about 20 minutes.
All she saw were little girl bulletin boards and an endless highway.
'Is there a possibility that this highway is actually only 100 ters long, and I have been looping within this 100 ters the entire ti?'
'What is certain is that I've walked for so long without reaching the finish line, which ans there is sothing fishy about this highway.'
She pulled a piece of Chewing Gum out of her pocket.
'Two possibilities.'
'One: A loop.'
'Two: The distance between two little girl bulletin boards is more than 100 ters, and I only walked 100 ters of it, while soone else walked the rest of the distance for .'
Simply put.
Dividing the distance between two little girl patterns into three segnts, naly...
A to B.
B to C.
C to D.
Both A and D had little girl bulletin boards.
Qiu Yinong only walked two of these segnts, naly: A to B, and C to D. The combined distance of these two segnts was exactly 100 ters.
The middle segnt from B to C was walked by soone else.
Therefore, Qiu Yinong only saw little girl bulletin boards.
Of course, this was just her speculation.
'First is the loop.'
Very simple.
She continued walking forward. If it were a normal loop, she would enter the next loop at the 83rd second.
So, she stopped at the 82-second mark.
She took out the Chewing Gum wrapper from her pocket, crumpled it into a ball, and threw it forward with force.
The paper ball traveled in a parabolic trajectory in the air.
It finally landed at a spot five ters away.
'An adult woman's walking speed is about 1.2 ters per second, which ans...'
'If it is a loop, then the paper ball would disappear when it is 1.2 ters away from , enter the next loop, and appear at the starting point.'
'But the paper ball landed 5 ters away.'
'And it didn't land on the left side, so a forward loop and reverse loop can both be ruled out.'
'The first possibility is ruled out.'
'That leaves only the second possibility.'
'This deduction cos from... only seeing little girl patterns. If the little girl patterns had no aning, then this ga would have no clues. Since they are aningful, why are they all little girl patterns?'
'Therefore, I conclude: the distance between two little girl patterns... is being walked by this other person.'
'Who is this person?'
'There are also two possibilities.'
'One: Hua Changsheng.'
'Two: Chen Ran.'
'Actually, no matter who it is, it's the sa—they are helping walk the extra distance.'
'But I lean more towards it being Chen Ran. After all, if it were Hua Changsheng, there would be uncontrollable factors.'
'Naly, if she wanted to die, I would definitely die.'
'In this way, it would violate the Decryption Protocol, and an Instance that violates the Decryption Protocol is impossible to create.'
'Therefore, it can only be Chen Ran.'
'Furthermore, judging from the plot, the adult and the third person are two people, but they share the sa body, which matches the setting that the two of us must press the buttons on the Wooden n's backs simultaneously.'
Thinking of this.
She couldn't help but frown. Even if she deduced the result, she didn't know when Chen Ran took over this body.
Moreover...
She breathed into her palm, brought it close, and sniffed. There was no sll of smoke.
This made things difficult.
The deserts on both sides had no identifiers, things dropped on the ground would disappear, and even body odors were erased. Furthermore, in Qiu Yinong's vision, this body was hers.
In other words, she had no ans to contact Chen Ran at all.
'The stage-clearing plan should be: one person reaches the finish line first, and during this process, the other person stands still; after the forr reaches the finish line, the latter can then act and also walk to the finish line. This is how we can clear the stage.'
'But without being able to contact Chen Ran, how do we determine who walks and who stays still? And how do we confirm that the one who walked first has reached the finish line?'
Qiu Yinong put on her Mask of Agony.
…
Ti returned to normal.
Switching to Chen Ran's perspective, he was squatting on the right side of the highway, smoking silently.
'I've got it!'
'I can use the flaw of Heart Cultivation!'
'That ans, I just need to predict what Qiu Yinong is thinking next.'
'Under normal circumstances, in an Instance, I am the one drawing fire, while Qiu ii hides in a corner and abruptly launches a sneak attack.'
'Therefore, it should be walking first while Qiu Yinong stays in place. But...'
'The premise is that she must deduce the answer to the highway ga, and also deduce that I will choose to walk first, and furthermore deduce when I can reach the finish line.'
'Of course, there might be questions. If I don't care about anything and just bury my head in walking forward, eventually by blind luck, maybe at so point Qiu Yinong chooses to stop, and then won't I be able to reach the finish line? Or, if Qiu Yinong waits for a dozen hours, couldn't she confirm that I must have definitely reached the finish line?'
He wiped the sweat from his forehead. Keep walking forward the whole ti? For over ten hours?
Chen Ran: What a cruel way to kill soone!
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