“Number 500.”
Looking at the other party’s card, Kasha was stunned for a moment: “This number is quite special. According to normal logic, you should need number 501, right?”
“Yeah.”
The slightly fat freshman holding the number tag nodded.
Kasha began to rummage through the basket containing the number plates: “That’s right, I have number 501 here, you can take it.”
“Hmm?”
The fat freshman hesitated for a moment: “Give it to me directly?”
“Yes, go and see if you can open the door.”
After the fat freshman took the number plate “No. 501” from Kasha, he walked towards the iron gate under the strange looks of the freshmen.
He was obviously a little excited, and his chubby palm tightly grasped the number plate.
He still couldn’t believe that he got the number plate he needed so quickly.
His small eyes stared at Kasha, as if he was afraid that he would stop him.
“So I really tried it?”
“Go ahead.”
Soon, the fat freshman’s excitement was extinguished like a flame poured with a basin of cold water.
“Ding! Wrong number plate, can’t pass.”
“How could it be, like this…”
The fat freshman’s hands trembled.
Just now, he still didn’t believe what the red-haired boy who came to persuade him said.
The reason why he followed him was more because he couldn’t stand being hungry for a day, so he reluctantly agreed.
Now, it was proved that he couldn’t leave even if he got the corresponding number plate.
The fat freshman was a little panicked: “Then how do we get out? If we can’t go out, we will be eliminated!”
In the field, those who knew about it from the beginning sneered at the fat freshman’s performance.
Although they did not perform much better than the fat freshman when they followed the red-haired boy to do the experiment in the beginning, now that they faced that group of “ignorant” loners, they naturally felt a sense of pleasure in crushing them with their IQ.
“Don’t get excited yet.”
Kasha pressed down with both hands to calm the fat freshman down, and at the same time comforted the other lone travelers who had just confirmed the information: “I told you, there is a way for everyone to pass the level, so you go back first. Of course, it would be even better if you are willing to leave your card behind as well.”
The fat freshman clenched the two cards in his hands.
The sweat on his palms made him feel that the two cards became very slippery, but Kasha looked at him calmly, with his hands spread out empty.
This action seemed to have a kind of magic, and the panic that the fat freshman had just felt soon disappeared.
Finally, he came over and put his cards in the basket.
“Where are the others?”
Kasha looked at the other lone travelers.
This time he didn’t need to repeat the five previous agreements in order to gain their trust.
Under the gaze of Kasha and the original group members who had been waiting on the first floor, the lone travelers felt a little pressure and finally let down their guard. T
hey took out their number tags one after another, while Amon and several freshmen helped put the number tags in numerical order.
“Why do I know that I can’t leave after getting the corresponding number plate? Actually, I have to apologize first. I lied to you here. In fact, it’s not because my companions happened to get the number plate that I found out that I couldn’t leave, but because I’m number 999.”
Kasha took out the card representing himself again: “I have the worst qualifications among all people.”
“Number 999, the worst qualification?”
“Wait, what about number 1000?”
“I remember that we have a thousand people. If we arrange them by qualifications, there should be a number 1000 after number 999, right?!”
“Normally that’s the case, but that’s what the information I received told me.”
As soon as Kasha opened his mouth, everyone else subconsciously lowered their voices or even closed their mouths.
“I just asked other people, and the information you got was in the format of ‘According to your ranking among the freshmen candidates in this hall, your number plate is XXX, please take the card.’ I was different. What I saw was ‘You are ranked last among the freshmen candidates in this hall, so your number plate is 999, please take the card.’ In other words, except for me and Roel, you don’t know that there is no number 1000.”
“That means there aren’t actually a thousand people?”
The red-haired boy frowned.
“But that shouldn’t be the case. Unless the masked man wants to be expelled from the academy, he is simply asking for trouble by deceiving us.”
“Yes, he didn’t lie to us, but this was his trap, because my partner Roel, his number plate format is the same as mine, ‘You are ranked second among the freshmen candidates in this hall, so your number plate is No. 1, please take the card.’ In other words, there is a No. 0 above No. 1, so, in fact, the number sorting of our thousand people actually starts from 0, and this trap is just one of them. As long as any freshman with No. 999, No. 0 or No. 1 is willing to share it, this trap will be just a small problem.”
Kasha’s words invisibly beautified his and Roel’s image, because the “No. 0” has not appeared until now, and “No. 999” and “No. 1” have taken the initiative to reveal this secret to all freshmen.
In comparison, their images are undoubtedly much taller.
“You’re right. If you’re not willing to share this secret, we will all be self-righteous and work hard for the wrong goal, and then get the wrong number plates. Once this happens, after three days, even if some teams are very strong and get everyone’s number plates and try them one by one, only a few will be able to get out in the end.”
The red-haired boy narrowed his eyes and looked at Kasha: “You’re a good person.”
After receiving a “very good” evaluation, Kasha did not feel much sense of accomplishment.
He ignored the other party’s evaluation and refuted his previous sentence: “No, you are wrong. No one can get out in the end. Do you remember what I said on the third floor? The person who proposed this rule wants to eliminate all of us!”
“This can only be regarded as reducing the number of people who pass. It is impossible to eliminate all of them, right?”
Amon, who was sitting aside, found that he was almost not felt, so he asked the question that everyone present wanted to ask before the red-haired boy opened his mouth.
After all, the statement of eliminating all of them was too shocking.
“This brings us to the second trap set by the masked man.”
The red-haired boy was a person who refused to admit defeat.
Although he could not come up with the answer that the number plate sequence started from 0 due to the information in his hand, now that Kasha shared this secret, they were standing on the same starting line.
But why did Kasha say that the masked man was going to eliminate everyone?
The masked man only said a few words from the moment he appeared to the moment he disappeared.
The red-haired boy’s eyes suddenly lit up.
“That preferential condition!?”