Chapter 39 - Game Theory
translator: xiin
editors: apricot & juurensha
The time before trainees made their debut and started their careers was long and boring.
Besides eating and sleeping, it was all training.
They alternated between the various training rooms, doing 8 hours of urban hip hop, 3 hours of popping and locking, day after day, every day, all for the sake of the day of their debut––
No, it was all for the sake of dodging gunfire!!!
Wu Jin performed an unexpected flip and splayed himself against the glacier with a splat. The bullet brushed past him with only a millimeter of s.p.a.ce to spare!
The two Dolma Entertainment trainees gaped in surprise.
“That was an evasive maneuver?”
“Doesn’t look like it. How about I shoot again––”
Wu Jin struggled desperately to push himself up. The flexible, agile boy band group lead dancer danced and tumbled in the soft snow, “Wait––!”
The trainee who was holding the sniper rifle saw this and felt guilty again.
Being a survival show trainee was a decent profession. They lived with dignity and died with pride and ambition. How could there be someone who rolled around in the snow until they became a rabbit s...o...b..ll… He immediately offered, “How about you rest for a while before we execute you?”
Wu Jin gasped for breath, his eyes closed tight as his brain calculated swiftly.
Knowing that he didn’t have much time left, he spoke quickly:
“You started from the southwest and went through ten rooms. Before you came in, you encountered a moth instance. Even before that was a safe zone––the fifth grid was also a safe zone, and the fourth room had b.u.t.terflies––”
The trainee who’d spoken earlier froze suddenly.
Wu Jin looked at the map. His right hand, which had been clenched tight as he did his calculations, was white at the knuckles. “The second grid… was also a b.u.t.terfly room.”
The information he had on hand wasn’t enough for him to infer the full route of Dolma Entertainment, so Wu Jin only cautiously reported a timeline that he could be 100% certain of.
The other party soon entered into a heated discussion, and one of them looked excited, “Completely correct. He really knows the rules of the map!”
While they were talking, the man with the sniper rifle put down his gun.
The four people from Dolma Entertainment had all entered the arena after Thin Fire. After the well-coordinated team encountered the mutated peac.o.c.k moth followed by the poisonous swallowtail b.u.t.terfly, only two of them remained.
As the compet.i.tion moved towards the end, the ‘ding dong’ tone that represented the time limit for each instance’s clearance, had become shorter and shorter. The pressure for clearing instances had increased dramatically and cracking the rules of the map had become an elusive golden prize for making it through the map.
Soon, one of the men held a shotgun in hand and came over to Wu Jin’s side. “Put down your gun and give me the map.”
Wu Jin didn’t object and did as he was told.
“What direction should we go next?”
Wu Jin blinked, then pointed towards a direction. “Safe zone.”
“And after that?”
Wu Jin shut up.
The burly trainee immediately raised his eyebrows. He spoke with his teammate, “He’s only willing to report one step at a time for the sake of protecting his own life. It’s not a problem to bring him with us if we don’t give him a gun. As soon as the survival number reaches three, we’ll execute him immediately.”
Wu Jin could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
The b.u.t.terfly instance with the transparent b.u.t.terfly wings was soon cleared through the cooperation between the two teammates. Wu Jin stood quietly to the side, like a captive who’d given up on resisting.
It wasn’t until the four corridors opened up, and the three of them entered the safe zone according to Wu Jin’s deductionsk2013;k2013;Wu Jin then gestured for the two men to give him back the map, his eyes anxious and eager.
“961 squares. I can’t remember them all.” Wu Jin’s voice was soft.
After a little discussion, the two of them ultimately handed over the map with all its markings.
Wu Jin’s calculations were done very slowly. The Dolma Entertainment trainees crouched to one side, staring blankly at each other.
“… It’s impossible for him to memorize it. It’s not like it’s nine squares. If he could memorize it, he would go to the Azure brain talent show. Why would he come here to play the great escape?”
“… Look at his face. He could go and partic.i.p.ate in an idol show, but didn’t he still choose to come over here? Maybe he’s a survival show enthusiast…”
When Wu Jin returned the map to them, his knuckles were even paler than before.
However, n.o.body noticed this detail.
“Left, safe zone. I don’t know about the other places. We need to head towards the middle.” Wu Jin pointed to the middle of the map. “Only this square is special.”
After a little discussion, the two of them finally agreed to Wu Jin’s proposal.
He was White Moonlight’s famous vase trainee. Without a gun or map, it was impossible for him to get up to any tricks within a 900 grid chaotic maze.
During the fourteenth time unit, the three of them entered a safe zone.
Fifteenth time unit. At Wu Jin’s suggestion, the three of them took a risk and headed towards the center, annihilating a group of terrible moths.
Sixteenth time unit, safe zone.
The time limit for the clearance of each instance within the maze was getting shorter and shorter. n.o.body knew what would happen if the instance wasn’t cleared in time, but the number of survivors shown on the wrist watch was getting smaller and smaller––countless rooms shifted along the tracks from time to time, making squeaky mechanical sounds as they moved. No matter how tough the contestants were, they were nothing but a drop in the ocean within this honeycomb-like maze.
By the seventeenth time unit, only 66 people were left.
In the instance where the moths and b.u.t.terflies were flying together chaotically, the trapped Caesar relied on his excellent close combat ability to survive for nearly ten rounds before leaving the instance with one last breath of life remaining, but he was taken by surprise and caught by someone as he left.
Thin Fire held up his shotgun and aimed it at Caesar, his eyes glittering, “Mask, sungla.s.ses, gas mask, helmet, silk stockings, or gauze mask… bring out any one of those, and I’ll let you go.”
Caesar flew into a rage, “I f*cking want beer, mineral water, cigarettes, melon seeds, and pork sausages!”
He abruptly raised his head, looked up, and laughed out loud. “Hahaha, what kind of messy painting is that? Your eyeliner’s smeared down to your nostrils!”
Thin Fire’s peach blossom eyes contracted, and he burst out hatefully, “Motherf*cker, how dare you laugh at your father, boyo, I’m going to destroy you right now––”
Caesar’s eyes were wide with fury, “When has your grandfather ever been afraid of you! Eat my gun, grandson––”
A fierce gunfight broke out in the corridor, and two life-saving capsules exploded out at the same time five minutes later. There were now 64 survivors left.
In the eighteenth time unit, Wen Lin blocked the door for Zoe but was unable to escape from the instance. At the same time, the number of survivors fell sharply, down to 58.
Wu Jin’s heartbeat suddenly accelerated.
At this time, his coordinates left him only one step away from the center of the entire maze.
With Wu Jin as their guide, Dolma Entertainment’s progress was unimpeded and smooth. The moment they stepped into the corridor––everyone’s breath caught at the same time.
n.o.body other than Wu Jin had thought that this would be the scene in front of them.
This was a transparent room.
It floated quietly in the dark and emitted a dazzling light, like a constant star shining in the pitch black universe.
Except for that room, every other grid was covered in metallic sheets. They weren’t standard cubes and instead had uneven surfaces––containing either safe zones or Lepidoptera.
After fighting in the maze for six hours, Wu Jin was finally able to see the entire structure illuminated by the light:
Numerous floating corridors were the links between the squares, and the tracks from his speculations really existed. The tracks were transparent and arranged horizontally, perpendicular to the corridor, like a pipeline or medium to convey life. Each track had two rooms in the grid, and they fluctuated slightly in the void, as though breathing or wriggling. Their shape was unusually familiar––
Wu Jin murmured, “… Cells.”
One of the trainees to the side was surprised, “What?”
Wu Jin shook his head and looked at the two closely connected rooms on each track.
One was a safe zone, and the other was filled with Lepidoptera.
One represented life, and the other represented death. The rooms rose and fell on the track, just like the cycle of rebirth.
961 squares representing the game theory of life and death.
Wu Jin took a deep breath and narrowed his eyes as he memorized the movements on the tracks around him with the help of the light source and completed the last part of the model in his head––
Wu Jin let out a long exhale.
Having cracked the rules, the entire maze was now completely open to him.
The safe zones represented life.
In the eight squares around a safe zone––if there was less than two ‘lives’, it would disappear because of loneliness. If there were more than three ‘lives’ around it, it would also die because of crowding. Life could reproduce, so when there were three safe zones around a grid, it would also become a safe zone––
“What’s the next step?” The Dolma Entertainment trainee looked at Wu Jin and asked.
“Left, down, then right, and down again.” Wu Jin quickly told them the next four steps.
During the journey here, Wu Jin would stingily only report directions one step at a time. His generosity now stunned them both.
“You go first.” One of them gestured.
Wu Jin nodded, then suddenly looked to the right. “Over there, it seems…”
He turned around and walked over. The two trainees followed behind him suspiciously, then watched as Wu Jin suddenly stepped outside.
“You––”
The voice had only just rang out when Wu Jin abruptly dashed away at almost the precise time that the ‘ding dong’ elevator sound rang out and the door panels closed up.
The two trainees exchanged glances and a long time later, one of them finally squeezed out, “Follow what he said. We’ll go left.”
Wu Jin ran all the way to the end of the corridor before stopping and gasping for breath.
He hadn’t lied. There were a total of two safe zones next to the middle square. One was to the left, and the other was to the right.
The reason why he’d given Dolma Entertainment the next four steps was because they hadn’t shot him and had instead kept him for four extra moves.
He considered it to be repayment.
Wu Jin looked at his wrist watch. The map had been taken away by Dolma Entertainment, so he squinted slightly and recalled the grid in his mind.
He hadn’t memorized the full 961 squares and had instead focused on only the middle part. Adding on the rules he’d a.n.a.lyzed, it was enough for him to remain in the game until the end.
Six minutes later, he quickly walked over to the next safe zone.
Nineteenth time unit, 43 survivors.
Twentieth time unit, 36 survivors.
The time units ended faster and faster with each subsequent round. By the twenty sixth time unit, the ‘ding dong’ prompt was ringing almost every two minutes.
One person from Dolma Entertainment was eliminated.
There were 25 survivors left.
In one corner of the arena, Wei Shi’s gaze swept over the number of survivors, confirmed that he would qualify, and directly shot the chattering Red to send him out of the game before straightforwardly opening up his own life-saving capsule.
16 survivors.
Zoe’s physical strength ran out, and he left the game.
7 survivors.
In the Crosson Show’s live broadcast studio, Blood Pigeon was currently commentating on Wei Yan’s fight. “Clearing an S-level instance within 2 minutes. If he made his debut now, he would already be a professional player that the League would pay attention to… However, he used up too much of his physical strength during this round, and it’s likely that in the next round…”
Very soon, Ying Xiangxiang exclaimed in surprise once again, “Contestant Wei Yan has made it to the 29th round! Very admirable. Now, there are only two contestants left. If nothing unexpected happens––”
Ying Xiangxiang was stunned for a moment, and then showed an expression of disbelief, “…The, the other remaining contestant is Little Witch?!”
The director quickly switched cameras. Compared to Wei Yan who’d slaughtered a b.l.o.o.d.y path through, Wu Jin seemed to have made it through with ease, picking up his supplies every time the bell rang and rushing towards the next safe zone––
His swift speed and relaxed att.i.tude was just like a student who’d heard the school bell ring and picked up their school bag for the next cla.s.s, his small curls bouncing and flying as he ran.
Ying Xiangxiang: “……”
The scrolling comments that had originally been filled with crazy support for Wei Yan suddenly changed direction, “666666, Little Witch’s luck has changed!! His path is filled with safe zones!! Program group, thank you for saving Little Witch. There’s no need to say more, when the fan merchandise comes out, we’ll be buying them all as a show of respect!!”
On the other side of the camera screen, Wei Yan had been unlucky again, having encountered an A-level instance. If he wasn’t a walking combat machine, it was likely that he would’ve been eliminated as soon as he stepped foot inside.
In contrast, Wu Jin was running along the corridor again, dashing into the next safe zone and sitting there quietly.
“……” Ying Xiangxiang cleared her throat and finally opened her mouth, “Up until now in the compet.i.tion, out of the 961 squares, the density of safe zones is less than 8%. It’s definitely not due to luck that Little Witch is able to remain standing until now, however––judging from the aerial view, the safe zone closest to him will disappear from the map in the next round.”
“Little Witch will have to fight. He and Wei Yan will enter the next instance at the same time, and it’s also another A-level room.”
Blood Pigeon nodded, then sighed, “In that case, congratulations to Wei Yan in advance for winning the championship again. Little Witch is the runner-up––wait a minute, what?!”
Juurensha: Don’t underestimate Little Witch guys!
xiin: little Witch’s little rabbit spirit brain is working hard!