"Ah...... Sure enough, it's locked......"

Although both the oni and Inaba had already tried it, Sakaki still came to the door himself and pulled the doorknob a few times, making sure that the door really couldn't be opened.

"I have an offer." When Sakaki was done, the ghost attendant answered, "The three of us ......," he said, his gaze sweeping over Sakaki and Inaba's faces, respectively...... Let's cooperate. ”

"Oh?" Sakaki looked at the other party with interest and responded, "What kind of cooperation method?" ”

"Yes~" Inaba also said, "Right now, this is a competitive game, Oni-kun." ”

The ghost attendant smiled indifferently and continued, "As you can see, this room has no windows, and the only exit is this door, but it is locked now; If you want to escape through the form of 'puzzle solving', there are only two possibilities, one is to find a hidden exit, and the other is to find a way to open the door. He paused, "But this room is big and full of things, and twenty minutes is a short time...... In fact, it's been a minute now. If we don't cooperate with each other, we will go our separate ways...... Maybe someone can win in the end, but the more likely it will be...... Completely extinguished. ”

"What do you mean...... then," Inaba continued, "the three of us search together, sharing clues we have found, and seeing who can solve the puzzle first?" She picked up the cigarette stick in her hand and took a puff, "Uh-ghost servant, it's not good to deceive people." ”

"Hehe...... "The ghost sneered, "Of course I know it, making such a request...... No matter how you look at it, it looks like you want to trick the other two people into finding clues, and then escape first. "So, I suggest we make another deal — say...... Whoever sees a clue and conceals it and does not report it, and is later discovered, will automatically lose the qualification of a 'winner'. ”

The ghost attendant's words are full of pitfalls, the most obvious being the condition of "if it is discovered afterwards", but even if he knew this, his proposal was very tempting; Because objectively speaking, even if you cooperate at the risk of being deceived, the probability of successfully solving the mystery in the end is higher than if you do it alone.

"It's a good proposal, but if Mr. Arai is willing to help us do the notarization, it will be feasible." After a brief thought, Sakaki continued.

He didn't know if the other two had figured out Ah Xiu's identity, so he still used "Arai" to call each other here.

"You should be able to hear our conversation, right? Mr. Arai. After a second, Sakaki raised her voice and said again.

"Ah...... Audible. Immediately afterward, Ah Xiu's voice came from the ceiling, and it seemed that there was a communicator with a PA function hidden on it, "Mr. Ghost Waiter's proposal, that is, 'If someone finds out afterwards that someone has seen the clue and concealed it, then even if this person wins, he will lose the qualification of the winner.'" ’…… If you are willing to accept this, I can notarize it for you. He paused, "Oh, by the way, there are a lot of surveillance probes in this room with radio functions, I hope you don't break them when you search." ”

"How?" After getting Ah Xiu's answer, the smile on the ghost waiter's face became even bigger, "If you agree, the three of us will divide the room into three areas to search separately and share the clues we found...... Of course, it's just a 'clue', and the 'reasoning' and 'conclusion' don't need to be shared; in this form, whoever can find a way out first, the other two should be willing to gamble and lose. ”

The ghost servant thought that the two would at least hesitate before giving an answer, but unexpectedly......

"I agreed." In the next second, Sakaki agreed, "Then I'll be responsible for finding this piece." With that, he turned and searched.

"Hey...... Sakaki-kun, you're too hasty, aren't you? Seeing this, Aunt Inaba immediately answered in that kind of aunty tone, "You will be used by some bad-hearted uncles like this." ”

"Time is too short and space is too much, rather than refusing to cooperate...... It's better to share clues with a higher success rate, and besides, Mr. Arai has already promised justice, so I think that's it. Sakaki explained the reason why he agreed to cooperate in a few very simple words, and added, "Inaba-senpai, it's okay if you insist on going it alone, but that's ...... Naturally, the two of us won't bring you with us when exchanging information, and the two-to-one situation is even more unfavorable to you. ”

"Hello ......" Inaba heard this, snorted secretly, and took another puff of cigarette, "Okay, okay~ People agree." With that, she moved to the side of the room and began to check.

Seeing that the situation was developing according to his own assumption and going more smoothly than he expected, the ghost attendant immediately smiled in his heart, "Hmph...... Very good, since they are all hooked, then I have basically won; The boy named Sakaki had a quick brain, and as soon as I finished speaking, he settled the accounts, and had to keep an eye on him for a while...... lest he solve the puzzle and run out quickly; As for the old lady Inaba, it wasn't a threat in the first place, I had already figured out that there were several hypnotic and poisonous gases hidden in her cigarette stick, and as long as I was on guard, that kind of thing would be useless. ”

As he thought, he walked over to the remaining area of the room and searched as well.

With 16 minutes left in the game, the three of them officially began to solve the puzzle.

It was only less than two minutes before Sakaki said in a loud voice, "The furniture is numbered." He paused for half a second, "And there is each one." ”

"Ahhh~ After you said so." Inaba had actually found a few numbers half a minute earlier, but she hadn't said it; At this moment, Sakaki brought it up, and she pretended to answer, "I seem to have it on the furniture here." ”

It was originally something that couldn't be hidden once it was revealed, but seeing that the other two people had said it, there was no need for the ghost servant to hide it: "Well, I also have it here." As he spoke, he pointed a few more times, "The pole of this table lamp has '5' engraved on it, and the corner of that slot machine has '67' engraved on it...... If nothing else, it's on everything else. ”

He guessed correctly, almost every piece of furniture, ornaments, etc., in this room, has a number engraved on the corner of the corner, and it is difficult to find it if you don't deliberately observe it; Of course, if you don't know that there's a "puzzle game" going on, you won't take it too seriously if someone stumbles upon a number or two.

"Let's write down the names of the objects we can find with the numbers engraved on them and the numbers." Sakaki quickly made another suggestion, "Then put the three pieces of information together and see if we can draw any conclusions." ”

After saying this, he casually picked up the paper and pen that were placed on a gambling table and wrote it on his own.

Seeing that this kid was so positive, the ghost attendant and Inaba secretly laughed at his innocence, but they remained silent on the surface and did as Sakaki suggested.

Seven minutes later, the three of them took the names of the items they had copied and their corresponding numbers to the same table, set them up, and studied them together.

They ended up listing a lot of objects, from sofas and slot machines to a book and a knickkn...... It's all numbers.

Those numbers do not exceed a hundred, and there are basically a few numbers jumping between each one, and there are many repetitions; For example, the lamp on the east side of the room and the ornament on the west side of the room are both '5', while the sofa on the west side of the room and the table on the south side are both '41', and so on.

As they pondered the meaning of those numbers, time was ticking......

Although the ghost attendant and Inaba tried their best to restrain themselves, there was still a bit of anxiety in their eyes, and only Sakaki looked at the information on the paper intently and didn't say a word.

I said, Sakaki-kun...... "When there were six minutes left, the ghost attendant couldn't help it, "Do you have a clue?" ”

"How?" Sakaki replied coldly, "A man with a crooked brain, but he is at a loss in the face of the real puzzle? ”

"You ......" The ghost waiter just wanted to tear his throat and get angry, but he realized that the other party might be provoking, he quickly suppressed his anger and continued, "Hmph...... I'm not clueless. He knew that now, he had to reveal a little of his reasoning, and if everyone couldn't solve the mystery in the end, then his "layout" would be meaningless, "Just take it as the special treatment of your predecessors, I'll remind you...... Those numbers, and heavy ......"

"It has something to do with 'weight', right......" Sakaki said before he could finish speaking, "I've already discovered that objects of similar weight have the same number." He paused, "By the way...... I also found out that Inaba-senpai deliberately wrote a few numbers wrong on the paper. ”

"Huh? What the? Hearing this, Inaba immediately began to pretend to be confused, "Ahhhh......h As soon as this person gets older, his eyes are not good, he must have seen it wrong~OHOHOHO~"

Although the trio had agreed to "disqualify the winner by withholding the information", Inaba did such a thing anyway and intended to use this reason to prevaricate.

"Hey......" The ghost waiter didn't bother to talk nonsense with this old fritter, he didn't want to waste time, so he still said to Sakaki, "Sakaki-kun...... Now that you've seen it all, you're pretty close to the mystery, right? ”

"Ah...... Probably. Sakaki replied leisurely, then walked to the middle of the room and lifted a large carpet that was there.

Under the carpet, there is the floor, but it is not an ordinary floor.

The floor here is different from the rest of the room, made up of four lighter-colored, slider-like metal plates.

"Mr. Ghost Squire has caught a little bit of the doorway, but it's only a little bit." Sakaki said as he walked to a corner of the room and picked up a metronome placed on the piano, "The point of this puzzle is to filter out the 'invalid information' or 'distracting information', and the 'distracting information' itself can actually be used as a hint. ”

When he said this, he put the metronome on one of the four metal plates, looked up at Inaba, and said, "This object engraved with the number '2' is just in time...... I was 'misread' by Inaba-senpai and wrote it as 12, so it caused some interference in my reasoning, but fortunately I immediately realized this, and then my thinking was straightened out. ”

"What's straightened out?" The ghost waiter still didn't understand, "What the hell is going on with these four boards?" ”

"These four are all pressure-sensitive plates." "And the way to solve the puzzle is to put a few specific items on each of these four boards. ”

In addition to explaining, he continued to walk around the room, moving things in the middle.

"After correcting the wrong information, it's not too difficult to solve overall." As Sakaki moved a chair, he said, "We can consider the intersection of the four sensor panels on the floor as the dividing line, and divide the room into four areas: south, east, west, and north; In these four areas, all the objects that belong to this room (not counting the supper that Ah Xiu ate and the things they brought in), the whole objects that weigh more than a kilogram and can be carried (scattered objects such as single mahjong tiles, dice, cards, or coins are naturally not counted)'...... There are numbers all of them, even on the carpet; But...... There are four things that are exceptions. ”

As soon as Sakaki said this, the expressions of the ghost attendant and Inaba changed; The two of them were also very observant, and as soon as Sakaki reminded them, some information immediately came to mind.

"As you have undoubtedly noticed, in the four corners of this room are four taxidermy, "Eagle", "Duck", "Dog", and "Deer"; All four are clearly movable things, but they have no numbers on their surface. Sakaki's narrative continues, "Few gamblers today should know about it...... Many years ago, before the global language and script were unified into Chinese-English bilingualism, the same gambling project would not only have different rules depending on the region, but even the rules would be exactly the same, but the terminology used would be completely different. ”

The ghost attendant and Inaba listened to Sakaki's explanation, and the expressions on their faces were cloudy; Obviously, they don't know anything about this knowledge, so they can't tell if Sakaki is telling the truth or fooling them.

"For example, in the fifteenth-century county of Black Hawk, there was a card game called 'Stuttgart Poker,' which had 13 cards of each suit, but instead of the 'spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs' that we are familiar with, it was 'falcon, mallard, hound, and stag.'" By the time Sakaki said this, he had already moved five things to the middle. Knowing this, the four specimens were placed in each of the four areas of the room, and there was no meaning for the number engraved on them...... You can probably guess that, right? ”

Before he could finish speaking, the ghost attendant and Inaba rushed to the table, staring at the three tables of copied items and numbers.

"Don't look for it, there's not a single item in the room that says 13." Sakaki watched their reactions and said with a smile, "Since there were only three of us and the room was divided into three areas to search, the final statistics were a bit messy, but if you look at them in four parts, the situation is clear......

"In the four areas, east, west, north, and south, the number of objects engraved with numbers in each area is the same—nineteen, that is, there are seventy-six objects available in the room; The numbers engraved on these items are all prime numbers in the S1 interval, which are 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59, 61, 67, 71, and the only one missing is '13'.

"And that...... It is not only a supplement to the clue of 'falcon, mallard, hound and stag', but also a hint that the answer to our mystery is 'make up the number 13'...... In other words, if you don't have a '13', how can you make it up? There is only one solution......"

Poof!

As Sakaki said the last few words, there was a muffled sound, and Inaba fell to the ground.

In those two seconds, the ghost attendant took advantage of Inaba's gaze to stay on the paper, and easily smashed an ashtray on the back of her head.

"Alas......" Sakaki looked at the ghost attendant with a very disappointed look and sighed, "Is this the so-called 'undefeated man' approach?" ”

"Hmph...... Less nonsense. "In the world of gambling, in addition to the strength to 'win', the force of 'taking away what you have won' alive is also necessary...... Such people are still losers. ”

"Hmm...... Makes sense. Sakaki continued, "Mr. Arai, you should agree with that, right?" ”

"Of course." On the ceiling, Ah Xiu's response immediately sounded, "You only agreed before that 'you will lose the winner' by concealing the information, but you did not agree that 'you will lose the winner' by using violence, so now, Mr. Ghost's behavior is completely allowed by the rules......; There is still a little over a minute left, and I hope you can solve it soon. ”

"Cut...... After a long time, it turned into this situation. Sakaki looked unhappy and muttered.

"Brother, you and I have no grievances or hatreds, why don't I show you a clear way." As for the ghost attendant, as he approached, he said with a murderous face, "Anyway, everyone already knows the answer to the mystery by now - that is, put the eight items engraved with the numbers '2' and '11' on the four sensors, I see...... You've already put seven pieces in it...... As long as you put that vase in your hand now, and obediently let me go out first when the exit opens, I'll let you go. ”

"Heh......" Sakaki sneered when he heard this, and then ......

Pong Boom ......

In the shocked eyes of the ghost attendant, Sakaki threw the vase in his hand casually...... Broken.

"You...... You bastard! The enraged ghost squire shouted, picked up the ashtray and threw himself at Sakaki.

But what he didn't expect was that in a snap of his fingers, a pattern on the sole of a shoe appeared in front of his eyes, and then his eyes went black and he lost consciousness.

"It's you who don't know what's going on, Mr. Oni-squire......" Sakaki looked at the Oni-squire who was easily kicked by him with condescending eyes, "Even if you're strong, and have the experience and courage to kill, that's not a reason why you're sure to beat me." ”

"Sakaki-kun." At this time, Ah Xiu's voice came from the communicator again, "Although I really want to congratulate you on your safety, but there are only ten seconds left, if I were you, I would ...... the fragments of those vases as soon as possible."

"Ah~ah~ I know." Sakaki responded in an impatient tone, leaning over to pick up a fragment of a vase and crouching down beside the ghost attendant.

"Hey...... Sakaki-kun, what are you doing here? Ah Xiu saw this scene through the monitor, and was a little shocked at the time, "I didn't let you ......"

"Inaba looks like she's dying." Sakaki didn't wait for him to finish before interrupting, "If I put some blood on the ghost servant here...... Then he probably won't be able to catch up with the 'gamble' in two weeks, right? ”

Ah Xiu was silent.

About twenty seconds later, after the "time limit" had expired, he spoke: "Okay, I see. He paused, "Sakaki-kun, you're not a man who sticks to 'winning within the rules'...... There is no doubt that this game is a complete victory for you. You don't have to do anything superfluous, lest you ......"

"Lest you fall to the same level as the ghost servant?" Sakaki took his words and smiled, "Huh...... You're such a good person, Ah Xiu. ”

Ah Xiu didn't say anything more.

In less than a minute, the door to the room was unlocked, and several men in suits and medical staff who had been on standby for a long time rushed in, carrying away the oni attendant and Inaba respectively.

This is the end of the night when Sakaki and Axiu meet.

But the story of the winner and loser has just begun.