Chapter 442: The Real Blind Alley
In the greenhouse, armed attacks were forbidden.
"What kind of rule was that?" chided Lin Sanjiu before she turned to Baldhead, "I hope you don"t mind. I just want to keep you under control."
As she spoke, she coiled the [Female Slave Bondage Rope] around Baldhead"s left wrist. The [Female Slave Bondage] was no doubt a convenient weapon. It didn"t fail its name as the product of technology from the Garden of Eden as it automatically formed a tight knot when the two ends of the rope met one another, "If I use too much force, it will be considered an armed attack; if I use too little, you will run away."
Baldhead lowered his gaze to scrutinize the rope. He tried to turn his wrist a bit, but the rope instead bit deeper into his skin. He raised his head and said, "Don"t worry! Say it, what do you want to know? I will tell you everything."
Though he made it looks like he had nothing to hide, the way he reclined the right side of his body toward the back suggested otherwise. It seemed as if he was trying to increase the distance between his right hand from Lin Sanjiu. He had buried his right hand deep inside his pocket, but such a maneuver was nothing more than just to comfort himself. According to Harry, they would still die after being touched even if they wore gloves on their right hand, so what could a flimsy layer of trouser fabric do?
Lin Sanjiu paid no mind to such a trivial action.
"We can"t talk here," she smiled to Baldhead and picked up Fatty"s left hand and turned it into a card, "Your members must know you laid a trap here. It will be a huge mess for me if they arrive later. Follow me; I know a nice cozy spot where we can continue our conversation comfortably."
She had come across a path before she arrived at her current zone. After walking there for a couple of hours, she saw n.o.body. Hence, she thought that might be the perfect spot for an interrogation.
Baldhead openly expressed his unwillingness when he heard Lin Sanjiu wanted to s.h.i.+ft venue, but the circ.u.mstance at hand left him with no other alternative but to follow her. He mumbled something under his breath after Lin Sanjiu tugged at the rope and dragged him forward. Soon, both of the figures disappeared into the dense layers of leaves and branches.
After a short while of walking, Lin Sanjiu had her eyes set on a hanging vine. The vine was suspended in the air, hence the perfect location to block any onlookers and she could take note of anyone who approached immediately. She climbed up to a tender leaf behind the vine, patted at the spot beside her and said, "Come, have a seat here. You can place your right hand underneath you if you don"t feel secure enough."
"Oh, you"re right," Baldhead contemplated the practicability of Lin Sanjiu"s suggestion for a brief second. Right after he had sat firmly on top of his hand, he sighed, "What do you want to know, gal?"
"I"m from cl.u.s.ter 5," Lin Sanjiu narrowed her eyes and threw Baldhead a smile, "There are so many things I want to know. Hmm, why don"t you begin with your cl.u.s.ter? Which cl.u.s.ter are you in?"
"I"m from cl.u.s.ter 2," Baldhead said as he blinked, "... Since our cl.u.s.ter came in earlier, I have more of a low-down than you about the other cl.u.s.ters."
"He is from cl.u.s.ter 2?"
Lin Sanjiu frowned slightly.
The earlier a cl.u.s.ter came, the more time they had to find the indigo flower—
"Go on, tell me everything you know. Tell me chapter and verse. Don"t force me to go harsh on you."
"Erm, there are eight members in my cl.u.s.ter. We all thrived through both seed and germination phase as one, and we arrived at the greenhouse for the last maturation stage without losing anyone," Suddenly, Baldhead paused. A shadow of darkness crawled upon his face, and his voice deepened, "... At least n.o.body died the moment we arrived in the greenhouse."
"Oh?"
"By the time Harry finished his briefing, we all have a quick discussion among ourself. All of my members unanimously agreed that we should look for the indigo flower. This is because even though we won"t actively harm the other cl.u.s.ters, would the others do the same and not harm us?" Baldhead sighed, "Hence, we dispersed throughout the greenhouse and started looking for the indigo flower. All just to save our necks should any adversaries came trying to kill us.
"Before we could see any clue regarding the location of the flower, cl.u.s.ter 3 arrived, and Harry repeated the same instruction. By the way, don"t you think that he should be bored after repeating the same thing again and again? At that time, we already knew the instruction, so we didn"t bother him and continued to look for the flower. And, that"s when something bad happened. About five minutes after Harry finished his briefing, somebody died. Whenever a person dies, Harry makes an announcement. That was the first announcement, and truly, it stunned me."
"Was the casualty from cl.u.s.ter 3?" Lin Sanjiu queried.
"Yes, their cl.u.s.ter only had five members," Baldhead cleared his throat and continued, "At that time, we still didn"t have any flowers yet, so I think it had to have been cl.u.s.ter 1 who committed such an atrocity."
Lin Sanjiu looked at him, and she sighed inwardly.
This baldie kept beating around the bushes, giving Lin Sanjiu some intel that he self-proclaimed as unworthy, but little did he know that the deets were what actually Lin Sanjiu went after.
"So who attacked us?"
"I guess cl.u.s.ter 4 was the culprit. The death from cl.u.s.ter 3 thrust us all into chaos," Baldhead smacked his thigh and grimaced, "Everybody was so busy das.h.i.+ng around looking for the flower. And then we lost one of us, and cl.u.s.ter 4 lost another one in the twinkling of an eye. I think they must be desperate, so they attacked your cl.u.s.ter when you guys knew nothing about how things work in here."
"That means right now only cl.u.s.ter 1 has a perfect score?" Lin Sanjiu asked sternly, "Have you seen any from cl.u.s.ter 1?"
"Nope, not even a single one," Baldhead shook his head, "They were the first to arrive here, so they had the advantages of exploration. G.o.d knows where they are hiding."
Lin Sanjiu nodded. She didn"t have to worry about if Baldhead would lie to her as Harry announced every time a person was dead. She just needed to confirm with Harry after everything was over.
"So let"s see," She parted her lips slowly as she tried to put her thoughts into words, "According to the rules, there are two requirements that we need to fulfill if we wish to leave Harry"s Farm unscathed after we have matured. The first requirement is we must avoid death from happening to our own cl.u.s.ter member. Once we can warrant this requirement, then comes the second requirement: we have to increase the death count in other cl.u.s.ters.
"Right as of this moment, cl.u.s.ter 1 has no casualties while the other three cl.u.s.ters have contributed one each to the death count. So that makes them the first while all of us are tied at the second?" Lin Sanjiu furrowed when she reached this point. "So like this..."
"No, that"s not right, gal."
Raising his head, Baldhead interrupted Lin Sanjiu, and his face was filled with question, "You still haven"t grasped the whole concept yet?"
Lin Sanjiu was stunned, she returned, "What? What concept?"
"The starting point, of course!" Baldhead pursed his lips. His broad face was a mixture of sympathy and alertness, "The cl.u.s.ters that come in later have bigger disadvantages. Now, your cl.u.s.ter is ranked the last."
"Why?" Lin Sanjiu sat as stiff as a ramrod, "What makes you say that?"
"Gee, how should I put this. This is so hard to say," Baldhead scratched his forehead, his face circled through a few complicated expressions, "Come nearer, let me show you how to do the math.
"Let say, our default nutrient absorption rate is 1x," As Baldhead said, he bent over and scribbled something on the surface of the leaf with his left hand while struggling to maintain his right hand underneath him, "The nutrient absorption rate of cl.u.s.ter 1 is 1x, that"s the same for us cl.u.s.ter 2 when we arrived.
"Then cl.u.s.ter 3 is here, and likewise, their rate starts at 1x as well, but one of them is dead. Now, think back what Harry had said earlier, the nutrient absorption rate of cl.u.s.ter 3 would become 1.5x while the rate for cl.u.s.ter 1 and 2 doubled to 2x."
Lin Sanjiu suddenly saw the light as she understood everything—
"Since cl.u.s.ter 4 was not here when the guy from cl.u.s.ter 3 has died, they began their rate at 1x. After that, each of our cl.u.s.ters lost one member. In other words, the ranking for the nutrient absorption rate should look something like this.
"The nutrient absorption rate for cl.u.s.ter 1 is 5x while our cl.u.s.ter and cl.u.s.ter 3 tied at 4.5x. Next to the last is cl.u.s.ter 4 that has a 3.5x and the tailender, that"s your cl.u.s.ter, cl.u.s.ter 5 has a rate of only 1.5x."
Lin Sanjiu"s face turned ugly, and she frowned even deeper.
"You cl.u.s.ter 5 just arrived not long ago, so it"s normal that you guys didn"t know about that. However, for those who have arrived at the greenhouse earlier, we have already figured it all out," Baldhead studied Lin Sanjiu"s expression as he raised his guard. He inched his body away from her and said, "Calm down gal, don"t do anything rash."
Lin Sanjiu gave him a sidelong glance and she was thankful for the rules that forbade them from employing any armed attack. If weren"t for the rule, Baldhead would never tell her so much intel. He had to secure his own life first before he poured everything out to Lin Sanjiu.
However, looking from another angle, it seemed like the idea that cl.u.s.ter 5 was a goner had rooted deep in Baldhead"s heart. That might also be the other explanation for why he would nonchalantly tell Lin Sanjiu everything.
But, that was strange, wasn"t it?
"It"s true that we are at rock-bottom position now, and we might need to put in extra effort, but it"s not over until the fat lady sings," Lin Sanjiu had an inkling that Baldhead had not finished talking, so she tried to goad him to tell her more, feigning as an ignorant girl before asking, "As long as we vanquish the all the five members from cl.u.s.ter 4, they would become the last..."
"The cl.u.s.ter 4 has only five members," Baldhead interjected. He threw Lin Sanjiu an apologetic gaze as if he was looking at a patient whose feet was one step away from the grave, "... Nothing will change even if you eliminated the entire cl.u.s.ter 4 and your absorption rate increases. Your cl.u.s.ter is still in the last place."
Lin Sanjiu did the math in her heart and beads of sweats starting to form on her forehead.
Since cl.u.s.ter 5 was lagging far behind the other cl.u.s.ters, dispersing their remaining members to hunt down the member of the other cl.u.s.ters was not a wise approach. In order to ensure their survivability, what cl.u.s.ter 5 should do right now was focused their firepower on killing every member from the cl.u.s.ter that had the closest absorption rate and brought them down to the bottom, granted that she was willing to commit such a holocaust. However, when she looked at the total members of each cl.u.s.ter, she found out that the number was not enough for them to raise themselves to the penultimate.
Hence, either they would remain the last in the line, or they dragged some of the cl.u.s.ters down to join them in their rank.
"Gal, do you understand now?" Baldhead sighed as if he felt sorry for Lin Sanjiu, "The trap I had set up earlier is to maintain the ranking of my cl.u.s.ter. Killing one more or one less won"t tilt the entire situation to anybody favor. Although I don"t understand why Harry has to do this, the fact that your cl.u.s.ter is the last to arrive here means that the fate of your cl.u.s.ter has already been decided."
Lin Sanjiu turned a deaf ear to his speech as she was too into her brain into forming the best strategy to help her cl.u.s.ter to beat this game of death. She did the calculation over and over and over again, yet she couldn"t come up with a solution that could increase the nutrient absorption rate of her cl.u.s.ter into the second last in place.
Although she fully knew what kind of answer Harry would give, she still raised her head and asked, with a dread-laden voice, "Harry, what would happen if two cl.u.s.ters are tied at the last place?"
"Both of the cl.u.s.ters would stay, of course," Harry replied very quickly. His voice was filled with exuberant, "Even if it is three or four cl.u.s.ters, the answer is the same."
"Was the situation really like how this baldie has said?" Lin Sanjiu refused to believe the truth; hence she needed a confirmation from Harry, "That my cl.u.s.ter is at the end in the ranking?"
"Yes, it"s true. Your cl.u.s.ter has the least absorption rate. Each of you has only 150 micrograms."
"So doesn"t that means that our cl.u.s.ter 5 has no chance at all? No matter what we do we would be the one destined to stay behind?" Lin Sanjiu roared and Baldhead shuddered at the intensity of her anger. Just when Baldhead thought Lin Sanjiu might want to throw a tantrum, he saw her took a deep breath and forced herself to return to her sangfroid self. It was just that her countenance was still very pale.
"Nope, you"re wrong. If one cl.u.s.ter eliminated all the other cl.u.s.ters, the last standing cl.u.s.ter could leave my farm," Harry replied indifferently, "... Of course, there is another less b.l.o.o.d.y path. As long as all the cl.u.s.ters have the same absorption rate, you can leave my farm altogether. See? As I said, I"m very considerate."
The two ways suggested by Harry, one was more difficult than the last.
Harry"s dispa.s.sionate att.i.tude choked Lin Sanjiu and she didn"t know how to comment. When Harry was no longer talking, Baldhead, who was sitting beside her spoke and pulled Lin Sanjiu out of her thought.
"Gal," He looked likes some wrongdoing child, "I have already told you a lot of bad news today. The next thing I"m telling you is the last one, I promise."
Lin Sanjiu was at lost what to reply. A ridiculous thought suddenly occupied her brain, "Is there anything else that"s worse than my current condition?"
After she recomposed herself, she said, wheezing, "Go on."
"My cl.u.s.ter is superior in number, so we have covered a larger area during our search for the indigo flower compared to other cl.u.s.ters. We"ve found out something. But, of course, this is only our conjecture. You don"t have to believe me anyway," Baldhead lowered down his eyes, and the words the pa.s.sed through his lips were more than a whisper, "The indigo flower seems to have only four sp.a.w.ning points. After one is plucked, it sp.a.w.ns again, in the same location. All you need is wait. So, so..."
As if a slow-motion camera, Lin Sanjiu turned her head to face Baldhead. n.o.body could tell her expression from her amber eyes.
"Each of us has claimed a sp.a.w.ning point, so there are no indigo flowers in the greenhouse anymore."
After Baldhead finished speaking, he peered at Lin Sanjiu with his blinking eyes, fearing that she would suddenly go berserk.
"Gal? Are you okay? Since I have told you everything I know, can you let me go now?"
Lin Sanjiu closed her eyes and let out a sighed. At the same time, she waved her hand in the air and the [Female Slave Bondage Rope] unwinded itself from Baldhead"s wrist.
"You can go now," she said as she waved her hand, too beaten to cast a glance at Baldhead.
The leaf she was sitting trembled for a few minutes and when she no longer could sense Baldhead, she opened her eyes.
She didn"t even think about following Baldhead to the sp.a.w.ning point of the indigo flower. One was Baldhead wasn"t a knucklehead and two, the attack-forbidden rule was still in effect, so even if she followed him, she couldn"t s.n.a.t.c.h it. Pessimistically speaking, nothing would change even if they have one thousand indigo flower in their hands. After all, all of them were not dummies and n.o.body would stand obediently like a b.u.mp on the log waiting for her to kill them.
Besides, there were many lives. She couldn"t see any way out of this predicament.
Raising her head, Lin Sanjiu looked into the wild profusion of vegetation and murmured,
"... Ten more days,"
Ever since the extreme heat descended on her original living world, she knew that she had to fight for her life through earning, but she doubted would she able to survive in the next ten days.