Early on, the Man in Black Robe introduced this fundamental rule.
The entire castle floor is made up of Light Panels. If no player is standing on them, everything appears quite ordinary. However, when a player stands on them, the Light Panels beneath each player will light up, displaying a number.
This number indicates the count of nearby Puppets—whether they are Benevolent Automatons or Malevolent Automatons.
So tonight, after the game begins, the significance of this number is actually quite low. Because within the castle now, there are too many Puppets and players; it’s impossible for there to be no one else within a three-hundred-meter radius. Therefore, this number usually fluctuates between at least single digits and even dozens. Aside from determining whether there is danger nearby, it doesn’t do much to eliminate Puppets.
Of course, if players within three hundred meters can cooperate and inform each other of their numbers, they can use methods like exclusion to combine these numbers for distance and quantity calculations, thus determining the range of the Puppets. But this requires complete cooperation and trust among players, which is impossible to achieve.
However, as the density of players and Puppets decreases, this number becomes extremely important.
Yan Wei does not want such a situation to arrive quickly, and “Yan Wei” does not want it either.
In the hall on the first floor, in front of the wall, a huge power box leans against the wall, yet no one pays it any attention.
The clock hanging from the ceiling ticks away the time, marking the slow passage of game time. Apart from the sound of the pendulum swinging, “Yan Wei” can only hear his own breathing.
The players are all on the second and third floors.
He and “he” are the first to think of the function of the Number Light Panels.
“Yan Wei” stands in front of the power box, his fingertips lightly brushing over the Black Ring, exchanging an invitation letter for a miniature Timed Item Bomb.
He sets the bomb’s timer for four hours later, glances around to ensure no one is nearby, and then stuffs the miniature bomb into a gap in the power box.
After that, the young man turns around and leaves the first floor without hesitation.
On the second floor of the castle.
Yan Wei has already come down from the top floor with Yan Mingguang and Lin Zhen, walking towards the place where they are staying on the second floor.
Lin Zhen is quite puzzled: “Didn’t you say you’ve already deduced that the other you would destroy the power box? Hey, hey, hey, what’s going on now? Are we just going back to our room to sleep? Not fighting? … The Number Lamp is still here?”
Yan Wei is a bit annoyed by Lin Zhen’s barrage of questions. He rolls his eyes at Lin Zhen and says, “Because I’m injured and need to rest to recover. If he can deduce that I’m verifying the scoring method, then I can deduce that his next step is to think at the same time that this Number Light Panels must be destroyed. Naturally, he can know just like I do—our synchronized actions have already saved time, moving faster than everyone else. But if we destroy the power box now, it will inevitably cause greater chaos, and I’m injured, so it’s not suitable for something to happen at this time.”
Yan Mingguang says, “The power box will be destroyed after you’ve rested enough.”
“Right, and one more thing—this instance, to get to this point, and even to utilize ‘self,’ there must be more than just me. There will always be other seed players who have reached the same conclusion, even collaborating with their Benevolent Automatons or themselves. But Yan Mingguang is right; these people won’t want the power box to be destroyed; they even prefer this method of killing and elimination because it’s safe and quick.”
“This is a relative logic. I can guess that someone can progress at the same pace as me, and others can make the same assumption. So our first step is to destroy the power box of the Number Light Panels. Other players who can guess this will take their first step to check if anyone is tampering with the power box or if there’s an issue with the power lines. If the power box has an issue at this time, these tricky players will know that someone is at their pace, and they will act immediately, speeding up the killing. But if the power box doesn’t have an issue at this time, they will think that only they have guessed this, thus lowering their guard.”
The Puppet Castle instance is an Arena Instance. What needs to be done is not just one’s own progress but also to consider the thoughts and progress of other players. This is a deduction about oneself and the enemy, which is the stage Yan Wei excels at.
At this moment, when all players are negligent, if the power box is destroyed, it will catch all players off guard and delay the pace of killing. Yan Wei can also gain time to recover from his injuries and prepare for the next battle.
He doesn’t even need to communicate with the other him; he knows what the other will think.
Because he is “he.”
As he takes this step, the other him can deduce the next step, and while he is taking this step, the other can simultaneously proceed to the next step. He can also predict the other’s next step, allowing him to immediately execute the subsequent step.
One can never defeat their current self, but the inability to defeat oneself also represents an impeccable understanding.
Gambling Tower District.
Everything remains the same in front of the other Gambling Tower Projections, except for one Gambling Tower Projection, which is orderly filled with people.
Arena Instances are fixed to open at regular intervals. Various organizations arrange for the strongest seed players below the forty-ninth floor in their current organization to enter the instance for the upcoming period’s instance reward bonuses and various additional strength and item rewards. Such instances are bound to meet the conditions for opening the Gambling Tower before they even begin.
The Gambling Tower Projection of the Arena Instance is quite special.
It is forcibly opened and cannot be decided by players regarding their perspective. The perspective of the Gambling Tower is arranged in every corner of the instance, composed of dozens of objective viewpoints covering the entire instance. These viewpoints remain fixed, similar to having cameras placed in every part of the instance.
—Its existence is not for the Gambling Tower but to provide organizational players with a full-angle record of every Arena Instance.
Therefore, when the instance begins, people from various organizations are already waiting in front of this projection, watching this contest of human hearts.
Lin Qing, in order to not expose his relationship with Yan Wei, is currently wearing a hat and mask, standing behind the Blackbird players, disguised as an ordinary Blackbird player. Gao Ming and Zhou Tian are also among them. They are just watching the action trajectories of the two Yan Weis, without speaking.
Yan Wei’s data and starting conditions are completely unremarkable among these seed players on the forty-something floors. Yet he repeatedly leads ahead of most players, causing quite a stir.
“Isn’t this Yan only at the nineteenth floor? With this strength and quality… he must be a future high-level player if he survives.”
“His clues are found way too quickly!”
“…”
At first, it was just amazement—after all, the Jungle Maze is only the first level, and for low-level players, this first level is a dead end. But those watching the Arena Instance are veterans; while they may be amazed, they don’t find it particularly experienced.
However, when Yan Wei discovers that “killing” players can directly seize points, the other Yan Wei has already stuffed the bomb into the power box of the Number Light Panels, and the venue suddenly falls silent.
An eerie silence maintains around the projection for a good ten minutes before it suddenly erupts into greater commotion.
“He actually gave up on deducing others and dealing with himself, instead starting to deduce himself! How meticulous must his thinking be to coordinate with another self step by step!??”
“Blackbird has actually held back a big one this time… where did they find such a dark horse? So far, only Xu Miaomiao and Yan Wei have reached this point, but Xu Miaomiao not only took a few minutes longer than Yan Wei but was also simultaneously calculated by both Yan Weis that she would go check the power box for anyone. Xu Miaomiao has never encountered an opponent below the fiftieth floor, right? Her skills and strength particularly fit this instance…”
“The most important thing in this instance is the deduction of human hearts and meticulous planning. Unless it’s a completely overwhelming Body Index, pure brute force doesn’t play a significant role in this instance. Whoever can calculate everyone can win. Yan might really be able to.”
“Hard to say, someone might have also reached a collaboration with another self.”
Among the crowd, Lin Qing hears these discussions and scoffs dismissively.
Inside the Puppet Castle instance.
After Yan Wei and Lin Zhen finish explaining, the three have already arrived at the door of the guest room they previously stayed in.
All four doors are open.
Yan Wei says, “So we need to quickly destroy the power box, but we can’t do it immediately. It must be after I’ve rested well and am fully prepared, after we’ve lulled those players who have also made similar guesses, catching them off guard.”
“Just attack directly,” Lin Zhen scoffs, “Why go through so many twists and turns?”
“They attacked directly during the maze; look at the result?”
Lin Zhen chokes.
Yan Wei was originally going to walk towards his previous room, but as he reaches Yu Feizhou’s door, he suddenly halts.
Yan Mingguang and Lin Zhen also look towards Yu Feizhou’s room with him.
Yan Wei suddenly understands why Yu Feizhou has been silent.
Compared to the slight traces of pursuit or fighting in their room, the room Yu Feizhou occupies remains as tidy as when he checked in. The vintage decorations are neatly arranged, and the old bronze mirror reflects the blurred figures of the people inside the room, with four identical silhouettes visible in the mirror.
By the bedside tea table, two Yu Feizhous sit opposite each other, with a chessboard placed in front of them.
“I know which step you’re going to take…” one Yu Feizhou picks up a chess piece and says, “If you take this step, I will take this one…”
The other Yu Feizhou interjects, “Then I also know your next step. Just like the last game, from the first piece that fell, I knew every step, even the final outcome of this game.”
“This is already the thirty-fourth game.”
“I know myself too well; for every step, every word, I can envision dozens of steps and dozens of words ahead in response. I can’t distinguish myself, so I can’t distinguish you either… sigh.” One Yu Feizhou smiles helplessly, his expression gentle, his demeanor calm, “This question actually can’t be pondered too deeply; the person we can never defeat is ourselves. The one we see most clearly and transparently is also ourselves, yet we can’t identify ourselves.”
The Yu Feizhou opposite him is very peaceful, smiling as he raises his hand to pour tea for both himself and the other. He slowly says, “We still can’t find our differences.”
“Another game?”
“Sure.”
Lin Zhen stands at the door, his mouth twitching: “… I almost thought we were on vacation in this instance.”
Yan Mingguang glances around the room, pulls out a cigarette, and slowly walks to the corner to light it.
Yan Wei: “…”
