Just as Lin Sanjiu finished her sentence, several people rushed to the other two rooms at the edge of the hall. Lin Sanjiu crossed her arms and glanced at Number 42 before following behind them.
Number 42 also walked over. His face was as solemn as a rock.
"No!"
Number 44 and Number 47 were the first to rush into the second room. Not long after they entered, Number 44's voice, which was a little sharp for a man, came from the corridor, "Even though this room is the same, it's also empty. There's nothing here!"
Lin Sanjiu was stunned.
"The third room is also empty!" someone else shouted from the other side.
Immediately, everyone turned to look at Lin Sanjiu. Not far away, Number 42 snorted softly, "Pfft."
"Number 49, do you know what you are doing?" Number 47 frowned and asked coldly, "You made it sound so clear and logical just now …"
"That's strange. According to Ji Shanqing's analysis, there should be water droplets in the other two rooms."
Lin Sanjiu didn't expect that her grand prize's guess would be wrong. She was stunned for a moment. She rushed to the door of the other two rooms. Just when she was trying to figure out what went wrong, she looked up and saw Number 45 walking out from the third room. Behind her were Number 46 and Number 48.
"Really?" Lin Sanjiu sighed inwardly. Even if she didn't use her [Consciousness Mimicry], she understood what had happened.
"Number 45," she called out, "Are there no water droplets in the third room?"
"No," Number 45 replied in a disgruntled tone, "I mean, you —"
"Did you see it with your own eyes or did you hear from them that the room is empty?" Lin Sanjiu interrupted her.
Number 45 was stunned. As she stammered, her expression slowly changed. "Y-It was Number 46 who told me that the chamber was empty … I saw Number 48 coming out of the chamber at the same time, so there's no need for us to go any further …"
"The second room is also empty!" Number 44 shouted, "You don't believe us?"
"No, I think the second room is indeed empty … But …" Lin Sanjiu laughed self-deprecatingly. Then, she walked towards the third room.
Even though she did not say anything, the way she glanced at the crowd was enough to tell them what she meant. The moment she moved, someone followed her. Number 45 turned around hastily.
"You guys … are really annoying."
Number 42's cold voice stopped everyone in their tracks.
Number 45 did not realize that Number 42 had sneaked up behind her. She was so shocked that she took two steps back and asked, "What — what are you doing?"
Interesting.
As everyone gasped, a thought flashed across Lin Sanjiu's mind.
Just a moment ago, Number 42 looked like a calm, serious, and reliable middle-aged man, but now, Number 42, who was squatting in front of the door, seemed to have undergone a subtle change. The slight change made him look like a completely different person. If one took a closer look, it was hard to tell whether he was a middle-aged man or not.
When he squinted his eyes and scratched his face, someone asked doubtfully, "Is that Number 42?"
Number 42 snorted when he heard that. If one had to describe his expression, it would be the expression of an adult who was tired of babysitting at home. He curled his lips disinterestedly.
Truth be told, if it wasn't for the fact that Number 42's clothes remained the same, Lin Sanjiu wouldn't be sure that this was the same person.
"Amazing," Lin Sanjiu looked at Number 42 coldly and praised him softly, "I have never seen such an ingenious disguise. It's just a change of expression, and you look like a completely different person. "
Clap! Clap! Two crisp claps came from Number 42's palms.
"You know what's good for you," he squinted his eyes and smiled, "I didn't expect that my acting skills, which I couldn't even get a role in, would come in handy after the apocalypse …"
"Did you really do it? There are water droplets in the third chamber? " A loud male voice rang out from the crowd. It was Number 44, "Get out of the way!"
"Why did you do this?" Someone turned to Number 46 and Number 48 and questioned, "Why did both of you lie to us?"
"Also, the second chamber is indeed empty. What's going on?"
The crowd's questions came one after another. Soon, the hall was filled with a cacophony of voices. Lin Sanjiu waved her hand and let out a sigh of relief when she saw that the crowd had quietened down.
"Number 42 couldn't have done this alone," Lin Sanjiu said. She swept her gaze across the three silent people in front of her. Her gaze lingered on Number 46's smooth and glossy hair for a few seconds. "… I think they're not a couple at all. They probably came here with Number 42, right?"
Number 48's tense expression finally snapped when he heard Lin Sanjiu's words. It seemed like he wanted to say something, but Number 46 grabbed his arm. After Number 46 stopped him, he turned to look at Lin Sanjiu coldly.
There was a strange silence between the two groups of people. In the end, Number 45's surprised voice broke the silence, "Number 49, what … what's going on?"
"Didn't you guys say that the second chamber is empty?" Lin Sanjiu didn't seem to mind that her back was exposed to Number 42 and the others. She turned around and explained to the crowd as if nothing had happened, "Number 48 has already moved the water droplets out of the second chamber. They are now on the ground in front of us. I thought that the water droplets from the first chamber would be in the second chamber, but I forgot that Number 42 has a storage device. "
"What? How do you know that these are water droplets from the second chamber? " Number 43 was obviously confused. He thought for a while before he asked, "I can't see any difference."
Lin Sanjiu smiled and a card appeared in her hand. She waved the card in front of the crowd and said, "If you just look at the appearance of the water droplets, I think you guys will notice that these water droplets are exactly the same. There is no difference between them. However, I'm very lucky because I have a way to number all the water droplets I found. The 24 water droplets I found earlier were numbered from 1 to 24. "
"However, when I converted the water droplets on the ground into cards, the number of water droplets that should be numbered 1 became 25." Lin Sanjiu turned around and looked at the three people behind her. She smiled and said, "In other words, the water droplets that I left here have been swapped."
"Swapped? When did he do it?"
"After we finished recording the water droplets and walked back to the first chamber, Number 48 started his operation."
"That's impossible," Number 47 couldn't help retorting softly, "After we went back, no one else came out. The cubicles were piled up to the ceiling. If he tried to walk to the door, the people searching for the water droplets would have found him immediately. "
"That's because he didn't go back to the chamber." Lin Sanjiu's gaze fell on Number 48, who was silent. He was an average-looking man. He did not even have the silky hair of Number 46. The only thing that could be seen was the beads of sweat that were slowly forming on his forehead.
"We did a headcount, didn't we?" Number 45 shouted. "Not a single person was missing!"
"Even if Number 42 lied when he did the headcount, I did see Number 48 in the chamber," Number 47 added, "I saw him when I was changing areas. Number 46 and Number 48 were there."
While Number 42 and the others deliberately kept quiet, the people on the other side unwittingly took on the role of refuting Lin Sanjiu. It was a little strange.
"Is that true?" Lin Sanjiu smiled. She wasn't in a hurry, "To be honest, I saw Number 48 too. Not only did I see him go into a cubicle, but I also saw his hair shining in the dark. It was because I saw his hair. It was obviously Number 46's hair, but he had the number tag of Number 48. I thought I was seeing things, but when I thought about it, the chamber was so dark that we couldn't see him clearly. We could only see the number tag, right? Besides, in order to avoid everyone's attention, the two of them didn't even hesitate to pretend to be a homosexual couple — "
"What are you talking about? Number 48 will die once the number tag leaves his body!" Number 45 covered her mouth, "Harry emphasized that!"
"Really? Why don't you bend down and try? " As Lin Sanjiu spoke, she bent down as a demonstration. The number tag with the number 49 on it dropped vertically from her chest, swinging in the air. "When we were searching for the water droplets, the number tag itself had left our body countless times … The only thing that didn't leave our body was the belt around our neck."
This statement shocked everyone. After some time, someone mumbled, "Could it be that … Number 48 removed his number tag and gave it to Number 46, leaving only the belt for himself?"
Number 48 suddenly sneered, "Why don't you remove it for me?"
"No, I don't think it's possible to remove the number tag." No one expected Lin Sanjiu to refute this statement, "Perhaps, it's not possible to remove the number tag. It is connected to the belt. Once the number tag is gone, I'm afraid the belt won't work. However, with this premise, Number 48 has a chance. "
"What chance?"
"Did you guys forget? A seed from the previous group died, "Lin Sanjiu said. When Lin Sanjiu said that, she couldn't help but admire Ji Shanqing's quick thinking, "Logically speaking, that Seedling should have a number tag on him."
"According to Harry, after a seed dies, there will be three situations. Firstly, if the seed lost his number tag and was crushed to death by the ground, he wouldn't care about the body. Secondly, if the seed didn't germinate successfully, he would slowly rot in the ground and Harry wouldn't dig him out. Take note, in this case, the seed still has a number tag on his body. Only in the last situation, if the seed was poisoned by the polluted water, would Harry dig him out along with his number tag. "
"I'm sure everyone knows what happened to the seeds of the previous group. In other words, other than the eight number tags, 42 to 49, there is a ninth number tag in this chamber. I believe that Number 42, who was the first to enter the cave, has obtained this number tag and passed it to Number 48. When Number 46 entered the chamber with two number tags, Number 48 stayed outside. He collected all the water droplets in the first chamber and replaced them with water droplets from the second chamber. All of Number 42's speculations, such as the secret passage and the growth of the water droplets, were just to buy time … For this, he purposely hid five water droplets for us to find. "
The hall was as quiet as a graveyard. No one spoke for a long time.
"Why … Why did he do that?" Finally, someone asked hesitantly.
This time, it wasn't Lin Sanjiu who answered the question. Number 42 suddenly stood up and hugged his head with both hands. He stretched his arms a few times before sighing, "Didn't Number 49 say that he wanted you guys to test the water droplets?"
Even though they knew that he had something to do with the water droplets, it still caused a commotion in the hall when he admitted it.
"I'll be straightforward," Number 42 laughed. Number 42 smirked. "You can't tell which water droplets are contaminated by just looking at their appearance. I'm sure you've noticed this, haven't you? When you were desperately looking for the water droplets in the first chamber, I had already come out once. At that time, I had checked three chambers, and finally found a clue. "
"What clue?"
When Number 42 heard the question, he smiled and didn't answer. He looked at Lin Sanjiu. Lin Sanjiu's face darkened as she sighed and said softly, "Are the structures of the three chambers and the distribution of the water droplets exactly the same?"
"That's right!" Number 42 clapped his hands and exclaimed, "I didn't expect that a muscular guy like you could think of this. You guys tried all kinds of methods but you couldn't figure out how to differentiate the water droplets. That's because I hid the only clue. "
This time, no one had the time to express their anger.
Lin Sanjiu said with a straight face, "If the water droplets are arranged differently in the chambers, you don't have to replace our water droplets. Besides, it's a little unnatural for you to ask us to search for the water droplets in different areas. After all, if we don't want to miss any water droplets, the safest way is to search through the chambers one by one. Let me guess, you must have divided the water droplets in the second chamber into different areas and redistributed them to everyone, am I right? "
"W-what do you mean?" Number 44 stuttered.
Lin Sanjiu sighed. "He noted down the distribution of the water droplets in the second chamber. For example, how many water droplets are in the first chamber in the first row and in what order are they placed under our names? Since the distribution of water droplets in all the chambers is the same, when we taste a water droplet that is pure, we know that the water droplet in the same position in the next two chambers is also pure. "
Number 42 burst into laughter. He looked very happy, "That's right!"
"Ironically, as I said before, the essence of this level is that all eight seeds have to work together in order to clear this level." Number 42 acted as if he couldn't see the people who were getting angrier and angrier. He smiled and said, "Since the distribution of the water droplets is the same, we can conclude that there are about 649 water droplets in the three chambers. In other words, the ratio of pure water droplets to polluted water droplets is 1: 1. Based on everyone's physique, they can definitely withstand this kind of trial and error. Even if our luck is really bad, we can still stop before we run out of energy. If one person has too many polluted water droplets, the other person will definitely have more pure water droplets. "
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