Chapter 173: Darwin Testing.

An hour later, Tang Mo closes the door softly behind him. He turned his head to find the remaining six people already waiting in the hall.

Tang Mo walks unobtrusively to Fu Wenduo's side. There is no furniture in the central hall, only a clock suspended in the air, but everyone's room is fully furnished. Someone has taken the chairs out of the room, leaving only the one next to Fu Wenduo empty, and Tang Mo goes over and sits down.

The seven chairs sit in a circle, subtly, with the three returnees sitting together and the four Tang Mo's sitting together.

The game has just started, and the players are already clumping together.

The seven men looked at each other in silence and after a few moments, the young man among the returnees spoke up, "Since we are in the same game, we are teammates now. This game is not a PK game, so if we work together, we should be able to get through it better. Let's get to know each other. I'm Dunder, the Returner." He pointed to the golden number on his neck.

The time charts no longer change, but the numbers around their necks do not disappear. Unless they are the "meat pigs" of the returnees, anyone who looks at them will know they are a returnee.

The returnees had already been introduced and Tang Mo said, " Tang Mo ."

Female returnee: " Xing Siqi ."

Chen Shanshan :" Chen Shanshan ."

......

All seven men introduced themselves. Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo did not hide their names, as they were revealed by The black tower at the beginning. They were facing the Returnees, not Jackass. The returnees had been through many games, so there was no point in hiding them, they must have known who they were. Still, the three returnees' faces changed when they heard Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo's names.

Eve's game, eliminating Fu Wenduo and Tang Mo, opens a direct reward for gaining the respect of the Underlander and the Circus Master, including and not limited to the manner of play.

The young man took a deep breath and said, "Okay, we all know each other, so I'll go ahead and say that I'm the top link in this food chain, no one has any questions, right?" He had a number "4" stamped on his face, the highest rank of any player present. "The game is very simple, as Wang Xiaotian says, violence is forbidden and not necessary. As long as we find our own complete food chain, we can win."

Is it easy?

Tang Mo : "How do you figure out the food chain?"

The young man stared warily at Tang Mo : "Each of us has been given a clue, and based on that, I think we all have a guess at the food chain."

Tang Mo didn't have a clue about the food chain, not even a clue with that comment of his. Pretending not to know anything, he said lightly, "No one can eat you, so what do you want to do?"

Young man: "The best way to verify if the next level is part of your food chain is to eat it. My clues have told me what my next level is, so I can eat the other side of the blob."

"Are you sure you know what your next level is?"

A low female voice rang out and all eyes turned to Chen Shanshan.

The young man didn't even notice Chen Shanshan and kept his eyes peeled for Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo. When he saw the ordinary-looking girl, he was unimpressed, "I'm percentage sure who my next level is."

"Percentage sure. ......" Chen Shanshan's voice was calm: "Do you know what the food chain is."

The young man didn't understand what Chen Shanshan meant: "Of course I know, it's a predatory chain, where the big fish eat the small fish and the small fish eat the shrimp."

Chen Shanshan: "Eat the wrong person and you'll die of food poisoning. The black tower and Cinderella don't say what happens to the wrong person, but there is no doubt that you will die if you eat the wrong person. I've seen my clues and I'm pretty sure I can't find my food chain with this simple clue, I'm not even sure who my next level is or if I have a previous level. The game has just started and the clues given by The black tower shouldn't be so simple as to allow you to discover your next level."

The young man's face paled slightly, "What do you mean."

Fu Wensheng whispered, "It means you're stupid. Even Sister Shanshan couldn't find the food chain with the clues, so how could you?"

The child's voice was so small that Fu Wenduo could only hear him. Fu Wenduo gave his brother a quick glance, and Fu Wensheng immediately shut up and sat still, not daring to speak.

Chen Shanshan : "I mean, is there something wrong with you for being so sure of the answer. Do you really know what a food chain is?"

The young man's face was a little embarrassed at being contradicted by such a young child. He was about to say, "I don't know," when Chen Shanshan pulled out a small book from behind him. On the cover of the book is a photo of Wang Xiaotian, with Cinderella smiling sweetly at the camera, so it is clear that the young girl took this book directly from her room.

Opening the book, Chen Shanshan said: "A food chain consists of at least two classes, producers and consumers. In other words, A → B, which is a complete food chain. There are seven of us, and there are four types of numbers on the small ball. If you classify the seven people by ABCD, it would be A1, A2, B1, B2 ...... and finally you, you are the only D."

The three returnees looked up at Chen Shanshan in surprise at the contents of the book.

With only an hour to spare, how did this unimpressive little girl manage to draw such a complex diagram.

For a moment, all three returnees dared not underestimate Chen Shanshan again, eyeing her cautiously.

The first rule of the game is that the number on each person's puck is determined by the maximum food chain level the other person is at. So between me and that ......", Chen Shanshan looked at the older man, "and me and Liao Feng, one of us must be below you. But that doesn't mean you're not in the rest of the food chain."

Tang Mo had already thought of this, but of the three returnees, the younger and middle-aged men paled, and Fu Wensheng froze for a moment.

Chen Shanshan: "You are a D rank, yes, but you could also be in another food chain, a third C rank in it. So your next level would be Fu Wenduo or Xing Siqi, e.g. Tang Mo → Fu Wenduo → you. You could also be the second rank B in another food chain, and your next rank would be Tang Mo or Fu Wensheng, e.g. Tang Mo → you. It's even possible that there are six of us, each of us is your next rank, and you can eat each of us. It's a food chain game, but the food chain is never singular, it's a network."

The young woman's mouth grew as he understood what Chen Shanshan meant. His face turned ugly as he thought about his clue. To his further surprise, however, a calm female voice continued, "Let me make an analogy, your clue was 'your subordinate is a female'."

Dunder looked up with a startled look at Chen Shanshan.

In the middle of the spacious room, the plain-looking girl sits right next to the clock. She had been gazing at Dunder silently for some time. Finding Dunder looking up at her in disbelief, with a rare glint of amusement in those quiet, dark eyes, Chen Shanshan curled her lips and finally said, childlike, "I was just making an analogy, I didn't read your clues and you didn't tell me."

Dunder's heart was beating extremely fast as he calmed his surging mixed emotions and he heard himself say calmly, "...... I know."

Chen Shanshan smiled and continued, "This clue looks like it's telling you that I'm the next level up from you. Because within the C level, I am the only girl. But it doesn't tell you whether it is referring to the third or the second level. You might have two food chains, the first: Tang Mo → Fu Wenduo → Liao Feng → you, and the second Fu Wensheng → Xing Siqi → you. At this point your next level would not be me, but her," the young girl pointed to the young woman, "who is also your next level, and a female. In this way, if you eat me, you will die of food poisoning. Now ...... are you sure you know who your subordinate is?"

Dunder opened his mouth as if to speak, but no sound came out.

Tang Mo watched the scene in silence, the corners of his mouth curling slightly.

The young woman looked on for a long time and spoke out, "We all know what you mean, and it occurred to me that the number on each person's blob does not mean that he belongs to that level only. Any player above level three could have other levels of status. I can't see a way through this game at the moment, but there's no doubt that the clue in the blob is the key."

Middle-aged man: " The black tower does not allow us to tell anyone else about the clues in the blob, and no one else can know about it; both the teller and the told are obliterated."

The young woman gave him a look, "No clues from the blob, but you can reveal some other things. I'll go first, my clues tell me the odds are high that my next level is this little boy."

Fu Wenduo's low voice rang out, "Is this secondary reasoning?"

The young woman did not deny it.

Fu Wenduo raises an eyebrow, "My next level is Tang Mo ." After a moment, he added, "The probability is high."

The middle-aged man said honestly, "I am the third rank, and according to what you have just said, all four people below me could be my subordinates, so I can't be sure who my subordinates are."

Chen Shanshan said, "There is no point in saying what I deduced from my clues."

The young man did not speak either.

Tang Mo said directly, "My clues don't make any sense either."

The three returnees gave Tang Mo a wary glance, and it was clear that none of them believed him.

Finally it was Fu Wensheng's turn.

The little boy looked firmly at Fu Wenduo, his fingers clenched and his lips a little white: "I think my next level is big brother."

The next second, a female voice suddenly said, "You're lying! Your superior is me!" The young woman's eyes lit up and Fu Wensheng's lips quivered at the sound of her voice and she retorted straight away, "No, my superior is Big Brother, that's what the clue suggests to me."

The young woman licked her lower lip and smiled, "Little friend, do you not know what my powers are."

Tang Mo's heart went cold.

The young woman laughed, "You're lying, I know about this, I'm 100% sure of it. My clues don't actually tell me that accurately that you are my subordinate. But obviously ...... your clues tell you that your superior is probably me, and the odds of that are perhaps more than 70 percent. That kind of probability is worth giving a shot at ......"

The young woman smiles slightly as she pulls her small ball out of her pocket, the large "2" on it piercing Fu Wensheng's eyes.

Just as she opened her mouth to say a second word, suddenly a cold dagger was pressed against her neck. The young woman was silenced and her eyes flickered to the man in black. She did not see when Fu Wenduo came up behind her from across the room, the dagger dead in front of her throat, which could have been cut with the slightest movement.

The young woman said as calmly as she could, "What are you doing!"

Chen Shanshan stood up, "You want to eat him?"

The young woman's face changed, "I didn't."

Chen Shanshan : "You want to do that."

"......"

After a long time, the young woman said angrily, "It was supposed to be, and without eating him, how can I be sure if he is my next level. Do I have to just name my food chain? As long as one of the food chains I name is incorrect, I am considered a failure. Are you not going to eat the next level when you learn of it to be sure of the truth? It is certainly better to verify first when there is only one uncertainty than many uncertainties. Why else would there be such a rule as 'eat' in this game! And I just ate his ball to verify the answer, I didn't want to do anything to him." Then she turned to Fu Wenduo and said, "You want to kill me? Do it, the game forbids violence and you will be wiped out by The black tower!"

It is rare to find someone so unafraid of death, and Fu Wenduo seemed to find some amusement in that, giving a low chuckle.

The young woman sneered, "If you are not afraid to die, you will come. The black tower will obliterate you the moment you use violence against me."

Tang Mo suddenly understood, "You think he can't kill you before he's obliterated by The black tower ......?"

The young woman's eyes twitched and she did not speak.

"There are at least nineteen ways to kill you in one moment." The cold dagger pressed against the woman's neck, Fu Wenduo's distance so well controlled that with every breath the woman felt the dagger about to slice her neck, but not pierce it. She held her breath, then heard the man's low laugh: "Want to try?" ,

With the dagger drawn away, the young woman's heart still palpitates as she watches Fu Wenduo step back to Tang Mo's side.

The moment Fu Wenduo drew his dagger, something was singled out -

The four Earth players are unlikely to let the Returners eat themselves at will, and the Returners will not let the Earth players eat themselves.

They split into two teams and stood guard over each other.

The matter was at a standstill. There were so few clues, so few clues, that even Chen Shanshan could not find the right food chain. Fu Wenduo looks down and asks in Tang Mo's ear, "No point?"

He was asking about what Tang Mo had said earlier and his clues didn't make sense.

Tang Mo could not tell Fu Wenduo the contents of his clues, and he could not be sure how far he could go. He pondered for a moment and said, "God is very discriminatory, because it is 3NT that is made, and so a direct deduction is unknown."

Fu Wenduo froze slightly. In retrospect, he probably understood what Tang Mo meant.

Fu Wenduo : "We rarely do 3NT, right?"

This time it was Tang Mo's turn to freeze. He used bridge as an analogy to give a brief explanation of the clues he had received.

Tang Mo recalls, "Well, I think we did it a total of three or four times 3NT ...... was there three times?"

Fu Wenduo said with certainty, "No, twice, it was you who did it."

Tang Mo smiles helplessly.

In the rules of bridge, 3NT is generally the smallest contract. Even if you win a game, you will get fewer points if you make a 3NT contract. Fu Wenduo is very ambitious and never makes 3NT. He prefers to make 4S with the most points and sometimes goes for the grand slam. Tang Mo, on the other hand, is a steady player. They play together a lot and are well known on a Chinese bridge website, but their points are not particularly high, as Fu Wenduo's style of play either scores a lot of points or loses a lot of points.

At the time Tang Mo was looking through his computer and always thought that the guy on the other side of the screen was a very impulsive and arrogant guy. So when he and Fu Wenduo met and teamed up for a long time, he didn't realise that Fu Wenduo would be Viktor.

Fu Wenduo is not as ambitious as the others.

...... Does it mean that people can't look like people?

Tang Mo sized up Fu Wenduo quietly. This man may be really ambitious.

...... He's ambitious? What is his ambition?

As Tang Mo reminisced about their previous card games, Fu Wenduo was also thinking about something. After thinking for a while, the two decided to put the matter aside for the time being. The players had clearly split into two small teams, and Tang Mo didn't hold back. The four of them got together and, in a roundabout way, gave a general overview of their clues.

Before Fu Wensheng could say anything, Chen Shanshan said, "Keep your voice down, you don't have to say anything. We can probably guess what your clue is, and secondly to prevent you from accidentally saying too much." Not in the right measure.

Fu Wensheng nods dutifully.

After the conversation we just had, the clues for two of the seven players were already very obvious. The young man thought his next level was Chen Shanshan, and it is likely that his clue was "next level is female". Fu Wensheng's clue means that his next level would be the young woman, i.e. "Fu Wensheng → Xing Siqi". Of course, he could also be in two food chains, as well as "Fu Wensheng → Fu Wenduo".

Chen Shanshan : "Of the seven players, four of the first and second ranks can determine their position, in a total of nine orders. But the three of the third and fourth ranks could not determine their positions. Looking at the situation, apart from the female returnee," the child quietly glanced at Xing Siqi, "the other two returnees are not sure who is in their next rank."

Tang Mo nodded, "Well, with the information we've got so far, there's no way this game is going to pass."

There is too little information and too many possible sequences.

The food chain is not a single food chain; the seven people are divided into four classes, ABCD, and the three people in class CD may have multiple positions. Chen Shanshan, for example, has the number 3 on her face, but this does not mean that she is necessarily only the third rank, she could also be the second rank.

Tang Mo mused, "The food chain will be complicated when it forms a food web. The most important thing we need to do now is to get clues from others."

Fu Wensheng : "But The black tower said that it was not allowed to tell anyone else about their clues."

Tang Mo tightens his brow.

This game shouldn't be like this. If it did, there would be almost no way to get through the game. If it really comes to that, I'm afraid there's only one last way to get through. But that way ......

Tang Mo looks up and finds Fu Wenduo looking at him. He turns his head again and meets the eyes of Chen Shanshan.

The three men were silent in unison.

Tang Mo sighed softly as he gripped his small parasol and stood up. Just as he was about to get up, a dull bell rang out abruptly.

Buzz!

Twelve bells echoed through the room and the seven men immediately rose to their feet in alarm. The piercing sound of a carriage was coming through the door and Tang Mo looked in dismay at the clock in the middle of the room. Somehow, the clock had pointed to twelve.

Chen Shanshan exclaimed, "How could it be so fast?!"

Yes, how could it be so soon. They were all time-conscious people, and all of them understood what twelve midnight meant to Cinderella, so Chen Shanshan had been aware of the time from the very beginning. And yet, in the blink of an eye, it was twelve o'clock, even though no minutes had passed.

Fu Wenduo sank his face and stared indifferently at the huge door.

With a creak, the doors slowly opened. A gorgeous pumpkin carriage came slowly through the door and Tang Mo prepared herself as the door opened and a beautiful crystal shoe caught everyone's eye first. Tang Mo subconsciously sensed that something was wrong and when the beautiful young lady in the carriage got out, there was a moment of surprise for everyone.

Wang Xiaotian, dressed in a beautiful blue dress, covered her lips and smiled, "Wow, I love the look in your eyes right now. Think I'm going to meet you all in rags and tatters? Too many fairy tales! I'm Wang Xiaotian, the most popular hostess in the Kingdom of the Underlanders!" Cinderella walked to the centre of the crowd with her skirt in her hand, and she reached out and set the clock hand to eight o'clock again.

Having done this, she scanned the room for a week and smiled sweetly, "So you stinking humans, now you know your food chain. This is the first night, you have two more. When I, Wang Xiaotian, am crown princess I won't have time to play such childish games with you, so you'll be left to fend for yourselves in your rooms."

Chen Shanshan spoke directly: "This game is impossible to pass."

Wang Xiaotian's eyes widened: "What did you say?"

Chen Shanshan said calmly, "I'd say, with the clues we've got so far, I can't get through this game unless I'm lucky."

Wang Xiaotian said angrily, "You human, you blame my game for your own stupidity! Of course my game is passable, all of the Underlander Kingdom knows that I, Wang Xiaotian, never lie!"

Fu Wensheng muttered in a whisper, "Who knows if you're lying or not."

Tang Mo suddenly said, "How to get through."

Wang Xiaotian said reflexively, "Follow the clues to find out which food chain you're in, and you'll get through. ......" Suddenly covering her mouth, the playful young girl blinked, "Huh, what did I just say? "

Fu Wenduo : "We can only know our own clues, we can't know anyone else's. It's impossible to get through."

Wang Xiaotian justifiably asked, "Are you so unmotivated that you can't try to pass the Darwin test and get clues to other food chain locations?"

Tang Mo's eyes widened: " Darwin test?"

Wang Xiaotian smiled, showing two little tiger teeth: "Ahhh, did I forget to tell you. Every night you can take the Darwin test to improve your position in the food chain. The food chain is set and won't change, but the people in each position can change. If a mouse eats a tiger, he becomes a tiger and a tiger becomes a mouse. You get first place in the Darwin test," Wang Xiaotian points to Tang Mo, "and you evolve into the highest rank, getting his little ball and the clues inside. Did I not say that? Ah, I must have been so busy that I forgot."

The gloating smile on Wang Xiaotian's face suggested that she hadn't forgotten about it at all, but had deliberately kept it to herself to admire the surprised expressions on these humans' faces.

The young woman said, "What is the Darwin test?"

Wang Xiaotian spits out her tongue, "Are you sure you want to participate?"

The seven men nodded without hesitation.

The game has been halted and without taking this Darwin test, there is no way they can get other clues to get through the game.

Wang Xiaotian smiles oddly, excited. That familiar smile made Fu Wenduo's eyes pop before he saw Wang Xiaotian clap her hands together and a huge camera suddenly dropped from the ceiling. No one knows when it was there, and there are three more thumps of lights on, a dazzling spotlight shining on the seven players in the centre of the room.

Wang Xiaotian's right hand moves and a diamond microphone appears in her hand. With a leap she sat on the roof of the pumpkin wagon. She stopped looking at the seven players and instead looked up at the huge camera.

"What are the nine unsolved mysteries of the Kingdom of the Underlanders?"

"Is it true that the circus master is broke?"

"Is Eve, the one all The black tower monsters are looking for, a returnee or a survivor of Earth?"

"Bam, bam, bam, it's all here on Happy Quiz! Hello everyone, I'm your favourite Kingdom TV Gold host Wang Xiaotian. It's time for another fun quiz, and for the 8341st episode of Happy Quiz, we're here with 'Cinderella's Food Chain Game'. Let's find out which lucky winners have managed to get into our game today?"

Wang Xiaotian looks into the camera and smiles sweetly: "Happy Quiz, a total of twelve quiz questions. Points for correct answers, no points for wrong answers."

Wang Xiaotian points his hand and the camera is pointed at the seven players in the centre of the room.

Apart from Fu Wenduo, the other six were all confused. Tang Mo quickly came back to his senses and narrowed his eyes. In front of each player, he saw a red quiz question rising from the floor. A total of seven questions hovered in front of the players, side by side.

Wang Xiaotian gave a cheeky laugh as she sat on the roof of the pumpkin wagon and shifted her legs, saying happily, "Today's episode is a special appearance on Happy Quiz, and I, Wang Xiaotian, am a gold medal host, so I always think of my lovely viewers when something good happens. Two of the seven players will be familiar to all the viewers in front of the TV, they are quite famous. As for who they are ......"

"I'll sell it and not tell you."

Although Wang Xiaotian wanted to talk more nonsense and mix up the length of the show, she looked at the clock and said regretfully, "Time is running out, so let's officially start~"

It all happened so suddenly. Wang Xiaotian appeared out of nowhere, a camera suddenly fell out of the sky, and a show called "Happy Quiz" that they had never heard of before. But Wang Xiaotian didn't give them any time to react, the players were still confused when Wang Xiaotian started to say: "Dang it, listen to the questions! First question, underground ......"

"Clang!"

Wang Xiaotian was startled: "That was fast!" She looked up at Tang Mo in surprise.

Even Fu Wenduo didn't react, but Tang Mo pressed the snatcher before Wang Xiaotian could say the question.

Wang Xiaotian was also a bit confused: "Guest Tang Mo, I haven't even said the question yet, so why are you pressing the snatcher? Do you know what question I'm going to ask?"

Tang Mo justified, "I don't know."

Wang Xiaotian : "Huh?"

Tang Mo : "You just said that there are points for correct answers and no points for wrong answers. You didn't say that there is a penalty for wrong answers ...... Is there a penalty for wrong answers?"

Wang Xiaotian : "...... no."

Tang Mo said lightly, "Then let's grab a question first."

The three returnees who have just responded: "......"

Does it still do that!!!

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The author has something to say.

Fu Xiaodi : wait what do you guys mean I don't understand at all ah ah ah ah begging big brother and sister-in-law not to make eye contact Shanshan sister you tell me ah!

# clearly a team of four people why am I the only one who looks like a fool, please other foolish teammates online QAQ!

The other three teammates: It's like we're not stupid [grin