Day of Imprisonment

"We're here!" Ke Lan pointed to an intersection ahead. "Turn left there, then stop up ahead."

Wu Rui, who was driving, immediately turned and parked in a roadside parking space.

The group got out of the car and entered a subway entrance通道. There were some small shops underground, including convenience stores and shops selling drinks and phone cards. In a more secluded spot at the back was a shop called 'Blind Box Shop'.

Ke Lan led the way inside.

The shop didn't look big from the outside, but the inside was quite spacious. The entire shop was divided into two areas, front and back. The front area had ordinary open display cabinets filled with various blind boxes of different sizes and types, with varying prices.

Walking further inside, there was an entrance. Ke Lan walked straight through. The clerk at the counter only glanced up before ignoring them.

There was no obstruction, allowing them to walk in.

Clearly, the outside was for receiving the memory-lost, while the inside was the level scene for receiving Memory Retrievers.

Compared to the outside decor, the inside was more minimalist.

Gone were the fancy stickers and decorations. There was a long counter, over ten meters long, with partitions serving as dividers. Behind the counter stood a middle-aged man with a blank expression.

He was probably the manager of this level scene.

At this moment, several Memory Retrievers were playing the guess-the-box game in the partitioned areas, with occasional shouts and curses.

Just then, a scream suddenly came from one of the partitions.

The next moment, it was as if some mechanism had been triggered. With a few 'pfft' sounds, a cloud of blood mist erupted from inside, followed by the sound of someone falling.

"Someone picked the 'Death' box. What a unlucky ghost!"

Someone nearby snickered.

The middle-aged man behind the counter rolled up his sleeves and went over to clean up. Because the deceased Memory Retrievers all had card rings, the bodies would disappear quickly, leaving only some blood. Relatively speaking, it was easier to clean. Just wipe away the blood with a mop, spray some detergent, and keep wiping, and it would be very clean.

Luo Xi and the others found the rule instructions, which were the same as what Ke Lan had said.

Each player needed to operate in a separate partition. Inside was a machine. Before the game, the player must stand in the corresponding position. After inserting the card to officially start the game, the Memory Retriever player would be fixed in place by the machine.

At the bottom and middle, there would be a buckle-like device to secure the player's legs and waist, presumably to prevent the player from escaping midway or deliberately running away to avoid punishment when drawing a 'Trap Box'.

It must be said, this game is very elaborate.

Inside the partition was an operating table with mechanical arms on the left and right, used to push out the boxes or replace them with new ones. In short, the entire operation process was transparent and very 'humanized'.

"The partitions have curtains. After entering, people outside can't see the operations inside, so I can't demonstrate it for everyone. However, the gameplay is actually very simple. You can ask me questions now, or we can ask the manager together," Ke Lan said.

"I understand. It's about finding the only 'Jackpot Box' from nine boxes. I can try it. There shouldn't be any problems," Mao Ge was the type of person who was very serious about everything he did.

Moreover, Mao Ge wasn't stupid. After learning the gameplay, he already knew what to do, at least he wouldn't make low-level mistakes.

Wu Rui was even more eager to try.

"In short, our goal is to clear this game in the shortest amount of time. Because our goal is [Wraith], we don't care about expenditure and income. Even if we lose money, we must ensure a safe passage. I will provide all the cards used in the game, so don't worry about that. Just try to win the game as much as possible."

Luo Xi actually had quite a lot of cards.

In addition to the cards he originally obtained from various levels, he had even more taken from other Memory Retrievers, especially in the last round, he basically stripped all the cards from those people from 'Eternal Assembly'.

These members of the Eternal Assembly each had a large number of cards, and the total number of [Memory] alone exceeded ninety.

Luo Xi took them all out and distributed them to Mao Ge and the others.

"Remember, don't care about expenditure and income. Buy 'hints' as much as possible to narrow down the selection range. Also, don't use cards to eliminate 'Empty Boxes' from the beginning. Eliminating Empty Boxes in the early stage of the game is a trap in itself. Prematurely eliminating Empty Boxes will lead to the possibility that the boxes that are replenished after accidentally triggering a 'Trap Box' are all 'Trap Boxes'. The gameplay of this game requires choosing tactics based on the actual situation. In short, the probability of clearing the game is very high if you don't consider the cost."

Luo Xi specifically instructed.

Several people, including Ke Lan, nodded.

"Let's start."

Luo Xi walked into a partition.

Ke Lan and Wu Rui chose the partition next to them, while Mao Ge chose the other partition and walked in.

“I must say, it's quite nerve-wracking.”

Liu Mao walked into the partition. There was a small platform in front with a 'footprint' icon, indicating that he needed to stand on it.

He stepped onto it, and just as he stood still, he heard a 'click' sound.

His feet and waist were immediately secured by buckles that extended from the machine.

This made it impossible to leave.

After inserting a [Memory] card to start the game, two mechanical arms quickly retrieved nine boxes from below the platform and arranged them in front of him in a 4-3-2 formation.

Next to his hands were two buttons clearly labeled 'Purchase Hint' and 'Eliminate Empty Box'.

Corresponding to the buttons were two card-inserting devices.

“Game Start!”

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A sweet female voice sounded in his ears.

Liu Mao took a deep breath. He didn't know what choices the others in the neighboring partitions were making. To be honest, if he were playing this game according to his own ideas, he would definitely consider the input versus the output.

That is, if he spent too much [Memory] to win the game, it would obviously be a losing proposition.

It would be like buying a product for far more than its actual price.

Pure foolishness.

But the situation was different now. They had a goal and didn't care about the investment, which meant they were determined to be the 'fool'.

“So, following Luo Xi's advice, don't eliminate empty boxes right away. Prioritizing purchasing 'hints' to obtain important information is the key.” Thinking this, Mao Ge immediately pressed the 'Purchase Hint' button.

Immediately afterward, the sweet female voice prompted: “Please insert a [Memory] card to receive a hint.”

Liu Mao did as instructed.

The next moment, the sweet female voice gave a hint: “Listen carefully, the last row does not contain a 'Grand Prize Box'.”

“That's it?” Liu Mao was stunned after hearing this.

He looked at the boxes arranged in three rows on the platform, all looking identical. According to the 'hint' he purchased: the last row did not contain a grand prize. And the last row only had 2 boxes.

“In other words, buying a hint only eliminates two boxes, which means the original one-in-nine chance of selecting the grand prize has been increased to one-in-seven?” Liu Mao felt it was a bit of a loss.

But in reality, the same hint would elicit a reaction of incredible value from Luo Xi.

Increasing the probability by more than twenty percent with just one hint, what's not to be satisfied about?

“But what should I do next? If it were just me, I still wouldn't have a clue, wait a minute, wait a minute...” Liu Mao then thought of something, imitating Luo Xi's usual habit of rubbing his face.

“Hoo, rubbing my face really does make me feel more awake. I need to rub and knead more often in the future!” Liu Mao muttered to himself. He began to emulate Luo Xi's way of thinking, although he himself wasn't quite sure how to measure 'Luo Xi-style thinking'.

Qian Fatty was the one who came up with this idea and was considered the initiator, while Liu Mao himself, including Wu Rui and Guo Zening, were all responders.

Simply put, it means not panicking when things happen, forcibly stepping back from the original perspective of thinking about a problem, and thinking about the same problem from a different angle. The simplest method is to 'change the thinking target'. Corresponding to the current situation, according to Liu Mao's original way of thinking, after purchasing the first hint and eliminating the two boxes in the last row, he would definitely focus his attention on the remaining seven boxes.

But now, he applied the 'Luo Xi Thinking Formula' created by Qian Fatty, changing his thinking target, which meant shifting his attention from the remaining seven boxes to the two boxes that had already been eliminated.

“Since they are already eliminated boxes, then it's certain that the 'Grand Prize' isn't in them, so these two boxes can only be either 'Empty Boxes' or 'Trap Boxes'... Isn't that obvious? Is there any point in considering this? I really am just an ordinary person, unable to achieve Luo Xi's level of thinking.” Liu Mao immediately felt a little dejected after realizing that his analysis had only led to an inevitable conclusion.

“Wait a minute, no, it's actually still useful, because out of the nine boxes, leaving aside one 'Grand Prize Box', the remaining eight boxes are either 'Empty Boxes' or 'Trap Boxes'. Opening an empty box doesn't result in any punishment or negative effects, it's safe. And among the nine boxes, there must be some ratio between 'Empty Boxes' and 'Trap Boxes', there's at least one of each. The most ideal situation would be that seven out of the eight boxes are 'Empty Boxes', with only one 'Trap Box', but that's less likely. So if we assume the worst case scenario, which is that there's only one 'Empty Box' and the remaining seven are 'Trap Boxes', then if there aren't any empty boxes among the already eliminated boxes, it would be equivalent to eliminating two 'Trap Boxes' at once, which would be a major advantage.”

Liu Mao analyzed as calmly as possible.

He realized he had miscalculated one thing.

“I should have brought a piece of paper and a pen, otherwise my thoughts are getting messy.”

Thinking this, Liu Mao couldn't help but scratch his head.