Chapter 118
20 minutes had passed since Mr. Rabbit’s truth clock game began. In the first 20 minutes, the black rabbit shortened the distance to Tang Mo and was catching up to him. Now the gap between the two had increased to the original number, 30 squares.
The truth clock was a circle that could be broadly divided form 1~60, connected end to end in a closed loop.
Counterclockwise was forward and clockwise was backwards.
In this game, if there was no advance then you would retreat. Suppose that after a few rounds, Tang Mo had advanced 15 squares and the black rabbit retreated 15 squares. Then he would’ve caught the rabbit and the rabbit would fall into the black hole of truth.
Tang Mo sat cross-legged on the ground. He narrowed his eyes as he gazed at the original 59th square where the black rabbit had been standing to the 3rd square where it was now standing. The black rabbit had moved back four squares.
“There were 16 items in the round just now. If everything was eliminated, it was eight pairs of items and a total of eight points. It moved back four squares, which meant it answered six pairs of items incorrectly and two pairs of items correctly. Thus, it only moved back four squares.” Tang Mo’s face was calm but he was inwardly calculating things. “Out of those 16 items, three pairs were very simple and the single truth between them was obvious. It shouldn’t have made a mistake with them. So…”
The black rabbit, like Tang Mo, chose to give up on eliminating an item.
Rule number 6: If there are any items on the clock that haven’t been eliminated when you open Schrodinger’s box, you will go back two squares.
Yes, in Mr. Rabbit’s truth clock game, there were a maximum of 58 items and a minimum of 2 items. If the elimination is wrong, move back one square. If the elimination is correct, move forward one square. There were four different penalties depending on the fallacy of the elimination mistake. Let’s suppose that the player was very ignorant about two items and couldn’t find the truth buried in them. The choices they could make at this time was to casually say a truth to eliminate the two objects or to give up on eliminating them by staying silent.
The probability of getting it right when casually saying a truth was close to zero. There was a good chance of moving back one square and triggering a fallacy.
Giving up on eliminating the item wouldn’t trigger a fallacy punishment but the player would have to move back two squares.
Among the 16 items that just appeared, there were three items Tang Mo had never seen. He thought carefully before deciding to give up on eliminating them. He would rather go back four squares than experience an unknown punishment. To his surprise, the black rabbit moved back so many squares. It was highly likely that the black rabbit also didn’t eliminate all items, causing it to move backwards by so much.
“Then what is it happy about…” Tang Mo whispered.
The interval between items was 10 minutes.
In the previous round, both Tang Mo and the black rabbit triggered a level three grey fallacy. Coping with the black vortex took some effort and the two of them didn’t speak afterwards as they rested. Tang Mo was immersed in his thoughts. He recalled the 16 items he had just seen and the four items he saw in the first round.
These items shouldn’t appear again in the future but he wanted to get some clues about the individual truth.
For example, this time Tang Mo moved back two squares. This showed that since giving up on four items made him move back four squares, he really only moved forward two squares. The remaining 12 items could be divided into six pairs for six points. Tang Mo correctly answered four pairs of items correctly and guessed two pairs incorrectly. This allowed him to advance two squares. (0 + 4(Correct) – 2(Incorrect) – 4(Give up) = -2)
Finding the place where he made a mistake meant it would be easier to analyse what the black tower recognised as an individual truth.
Tang Mo reached out a hand and drew on the truth clock. His hand pressed against the blue clock and it flashed softly with the movements of his fingers. The black rabbit was standing opposite him and staring angrily at Tang Mo. Once it saw that Tang Mo had been bowing his head and ignoring it, a strange look passed through its eyes.
While Tang Mo wasn’t looking at it, the black rabbit sighed heavily and a tired look crossed its ugly face.
The next second, Tang Mo suddenly looked up. The black rabbit was startled and its face cramped up. Then it opened its mouth and shouted angrily, “You, you stupid human! Don’t think that I can’t shorten this distance between us and eat you. Once I catch up to you, I will take your eyeballs and eat them with wine!”
Tang Mo stared at the black rabbit as it kept yelling at him. Once it was tired, Tang Mo stated in a calm voice, “The time is approaching.”
The black rabbit was stunned for a moment., “You looked at me because of this?”
Tang Mo didn’t answer as 12 lights flashed on the centre of the truth clock. Tang Mo and the black rabbit once again stared at the clock.
In the third round, 12 items appeared on the truth clock. Tang Mo moved forward two squares and the black rabbit moved forward three squares. This time the black rabbit had the advantage of one square and the difference between them was 29 squares.
The black rabbit grinned. “Hey, I’m catching you again…”
Tang Mo didn’t care. He saw on the ground and thought about the six pairs of objects he had just eliminated. He answered four correctly and made two wrong guesses. He answered four points correctly and answered two wrong points.
“Which two pairs were wrong?”
Tang Mo had long discovered that angering the black rabbit had little effect. The rabbit wasn’t as stupid as it looked. At the critical moment, it would calmly analyse the problem and participate in the truth clock game. Then the only rules that Tang Mo could take advantage of were ‘the black tower recognises the truth’ and the ‘truth clock can only have one winner.’
If the black rabbit died, he could clear this instance.
Tang Mo thought this and looked at the black rabbit. He didn’t know what the black rabbit was thinking. Perhaps it was worried after Tang Mo suddenly looked up at it and scared it. In the 10 minute interval between rounds, it stared angrily at Tang Mo, as if this was foolproof and wouldn’t allow Tang Mo to discover anything.
One human and one rabbit stared at each other. 10 minutes passed before countless lights appeared on the truth clock. Tang Mo was shocked when he saw all the items on the clock. Then the truth clock spoke in its unemotional voice.
“The time is 0:40. Location: the truth clock. 48 objects rich in truth have appeared.”
“After one minute, players 0 and 6 please eliminate the truths.”
Tang Mo, “…”
The black rabbit, “…”
Damn!
The long second hand moved and Tang Mo didn’t waste any time, quickly scanning every object on the field.
As stated in the rules, 2~58 items could appear on the truth clock. Tang Mo thought that ‘58 items wouldn’t allow the players to sort out the relationship between items’. He never imagined that he would encounter so many items so quickly and that the truth clock still gave them only one minute!
Tang Mo’s brain worked at an unprecedented rate as blue veins bulged on his forehead. His face turned red and he seemed to hear the sound of a nerve bursting in his brain. Once it was over, Tang Mo’s lips trembled and a hoarse voice emerged from his mouth.
“The first pair, the rubber band and tires. They are both rubber products. With the exception of these two, there are no other rubber products among the 46 items…”
His hoarse voice seemed to be affected by sandpaper and Tang Mo felt that his brain had reached its limit.
He was exhausted.
In the truth clock, he had to find the individual truth between A and B and be sure before eliminating them. For example, the rubber band and tires were the only items in the 48 items that had the ‘all rubber products’ truth and they could indeed be eliminated with this single truth. However, it was possible that in the other 46 items, the rubber band and rope could be eliminated because they were both ropes. The tires and steering wheel could be eliminated because they were part of the car.
Once Tang Mo eliminated the rubber band and tires, he could no longer eliminate the rope and steering wheel. Finally, the rope and steering wheel couldn’t be eliminated so Tang Mo would lose two squares.
There were too many things that Tang Mo needed to consider in one minute. It wasn’t just seeing an item and comparing it to another item. When Tang Mo saw the rubber band, he considered not only the tires but also the other 48 items.
“…The 22nd pair, the pile of glass fragments and the mirror. There is glass in the composition of the mirror. Except for these two items, all other items don’t contain glass. The last four items, I will give up.”
The blue wall rose slowly and Tang Mo looked at the black rabbit opposite him. The state of the black rabbit was just as bad as Tang Mo.
The black rabbit’s eyes were red and he was breathing roughly. The two of them looked at each other across a clock. Then a plain voice was heard.
“Player 0 has triggered a level two sophistry paradox and Player 6 has triggered a level three grey paradox. “Player 0 has moved back 10 squares and Player 6 has advanced seven squares.”
Tang Mo’s eyes slowly widened. The hour hand at his feet moved and landed on the 24th square. The minute hand at the black rabbit’s feet also moved and landed on the 10th square.
The black rabbit’s face became extremely ugly. It looked at Tang Mo with astonishment, horror and a touch of something that was hard to detect. It gritted its teeth, slammed hard against the ground and moved to the 10th square.
Tang Mo walked thoughtfully to the 24th square.
The two of them accepted their punishment.
The distance was reduced to 14 squares at once.
In the next two rounds of the game, not many items appeared on the truth clock. The black rabbit didn’t retreat 10 squares as it did before. Instead, every time it moved more squares then Tang Mo and the distance between them was widened to 19 squares. Once the sixth round of items appeared, Tang Mo stood on the 20th square and the black rabbit stood on the 1st square.
The voice of the truth clock was heard. “The time is 1:00. Location: the truth clock. 4 objects rich in truth have appeared.”
“After one minute, players 0 and 6 please eliminate the truths.”
The items that appeared this time were rich in difficult truths and it would be harder to find the individual truth between them. Tang Mo looked calmly at the four items, ready to analyse them. At this time, a startled voice was heard from the opposite side of the clock. “Oh, this is the best-selling delicious stowaway barbecue buns in the Underground Kingdom…”
The rabbit’s voice abruptly stopped and it looked up stiffly.
Tang Mo raised an eyebrow. He didn’t expect the black rabbit to reveal the information of the huge bun.
Tang Mo quietly looked at the black rabbit. The black rabbit had a variety of emotions on its face before it violently slammed against the wall. “Ahh, I want to eat you, I want to eat you!” It was the appearance of a violently angry rabbit.