The atmosphere in the cabin was tense to the point of solidification.

First of all, the four of them are standing with Schiller facing the door, that is, Schiller is exactly 12 o'clock, and on his left, that is, at 3 o'clock, is the Joker, opposite him is Katie the Phantom Cat at 6 o'clock, and on his right, at 9 o'clock, Carol.

If, according to the rules of the game, matches are thrown clockwise from twelve o'clock, then Schiller is the first, the Joker is the second, Katie is the third, and Carol is the fourth.

Just after introducing the rules, a small pile of matches suddenly appeared in front of the four of them, and Carol picked up the matches and found that there were exactly ten matches no more, no less.

It's a very simple math problem, if each person throws three matches per round in order to win, then after one lap from Schiller, everyone will have seven matches left, after the second round, everyone will have four matches left, and after the third round, everyone will have only one match left.

From this point on, Schiller threw the match into it, and he had already won, followed by the second throw, the clown who would avoid elimination, and finally Katie, who was in fourth place, would inevitably be eliminated.

In this way, this is a completely unfair game, the first person to throw will not be eliminated, and the last person will inevitably be eliminated.

If the last person doesn't want to be eliminated, then he must count on someone not to throw three matches in the first three laps, so that the last lap is not a mortal situation.

The upper limit for match throwing is three, and if the other three have less than three remaining on the final lap, then Carroll is still bound to be eliminated.

Because their position is before Carol, as long as the matches in their hands are less than or equal to three, they can throw the matches in before Carol, and Carol will still be eliminated.

In other words, if Carol wants to avoid being eliminated, she must have the three people in front of her have four or more matches left in the last lap, which means that she must find a way to make the other three people skip at least once in the first three laps, or throw one less match in each lap, so that they can have at least four matches left.

Carol was furious, and she yelled out her thoughts truthfully: "What kind of shit game rules are this, is it all up to luck?!" Whoever stands in the last place will inevitably be eliminated, so what is the need to play this game? Wouldn't it be okay to just choose the last person to enter the house and eliminate it?! ”

The clown plucked his ears and seemed very impatient, but Schiller nodded at Carol quite politely and said, "Ma'am, I think you should think about why matches." ”

Carol was stunned for a moment, she instinctively looked down at the brazier with charcoal, and her eyes fell on the thin match in her hand, and suddenly she shouted.

"That's right! Matches can be used to light an open flame of charcoal, and you heard him say that everything in this house is made of wood, and if you make the fire too big, we will all be burned!! ”

And then Katie whispered beside her, "But as long as no one jumps, the brazier won't rise, and it won't burn to the ceiling." ”

Carol was stunned again, but at this time she reacted, and shouted with a hideous face: "Anyway, if I play normally, I will definitely lose, then I will skip all the first few rounds, so that everyone can't live when the brazier rises!" ”

Katie looked at Captain Marvel with some shock, and she said, "Captain, what's wrong?" How can you ......"

"Because it's not fair to me in the first place!" Carol raised her voice and said, "Why don't we two change places?" ”

Katie snorted and didn't speak, anyone could see that being in the fourth place was a natural disadvantage, and the other people could win as long as they played normally according to the rules of the game, only the fourth place, if she continued according to the normal rules, she would definitely lose.

Katie glanced again at the brazier on the table, a semicircular brass brazier with a narrow rim on the top edge of the brazier, along which there were four holes, and four chains hung from the ceiling and held the brazier through the holes.

The bottom of the brazier is a flat surface, so it is stable when placed on the table, and when the brazier is placed on the table, the chain appears loose and not completely straightened.

Katie glanced up at the ceiling again, and it could be wrong to estimate the distance out of thin air without measuring tools, but fortunately she had her own height as a reference.

Katie is a white woman, but she is a petite type, only 168cm tall, which is not very conspicuous among the same group of white women.

She didn't look up at the ceiling completely, because that movement was too big, too noticeable, and she glanced at Captain Marvel next to her, Carol was much taller than her, roughly estimated to be 180cm, and the doctor across from her was taller, Katie guessed he might be 187-190cm.

And because Schiller was standing directly across from her, Katie could clearly see the distance between his head and the roof, and the height of the ceiling should be around 260cm using the head-to-body comparison method.

The height of the table was then calculated, and it was said that the table was more like a bar, and with Katie standing up straight, the table was just up to her chest, which was about 1.2 meters high.

Jumping over a brazier to rise 30 centimeters, while Carol only has three chances to jump at most, which means that the brazier can rise up to 90 centimeters, so 120 centimeters plus 90 centimeters is only 210 centimeters, and it is still half a meter away from the height of the ceiling.

But the current situation cannot be seen in this way, Carol is the last to throw matches, there are three people in front of her, if each throws three matches, it is conservatively estimated that when the second throw, the flame will be lit.

Katie looked at the brazier's structure, she wasn't sure if the brazier's unique shape was designed to bring the flames together, but she knew that there was so much charcoal in the pot that once the flames were ignited, it wouldn't be long before the flames would go high.

In case the height of the flame exceeds 50 centimeters, then at the end of the fourth round, the house will be set on fire.

Katie thought again that even if the house was set on fire, it wouldn't burn so quickly, as long as she hurried to finish the fourth round of the game, there should still be time for it.

No, no, Katie looked left and right, and saw that the wooden house had windows, and the air flow here was okay, not completely closed, and the rules only said that charcoal was not allowed to be made out of the brazier, but it did not say that other means were not allowed to make the flame burn stronger.

Carol can only use the life-saving straw of the burning house to threaten others to throw fewer matches in a situation where she is bound to lose, so she will inevitably use various methods to make the fire burn higher and higher, such as blowing with her mouth, fanning the wind with her clothes, etc.

In this way, the fire may burn the house sooner than expected, and it is even possible that in the second round, the fire will burn.

But there's enough time left, but it's just a match thrown away, how long will it take? Katie thought.

Even if the house is burned down in the second round, then the remaining few people throw matches as fast as they can, and it doesn't take 10 seconds to throw them away, so isn't Carol still bound to lose?

Wait, Katie frowned and thought about it and found another suspicious point, when the brazier was pulled to the highest place, that is, about 2.1 meters, it was on top of everyone's heads, especially her height was relatively short, and the brazier would be 40-50 cm above her head at that time.

Katie looked around, remembering that the rule said that she couldn't leave the table within 1 meter, but she didn't know if the 1 meter was counted from the edge of the table or from the column that supported the table.

If you start from the edge of the table, they still have some room to move, but if you start from the column, there is less than half a meter of space left for each person, and there is basically no room for tossing and turning.

The rules are not clear, no one dares to take risks, and Katie does not dare, in case she takes a step to eliminate it, she will be wrongfully killed, so it is difficult for Katie to retreat.

But if she didn't step back, the brazier would be right above her head, and the brazier was a hemispherical body with a rim on the side, and it would be very difficult to throw a match into the brazier, almost like standing directly below the basket and getting the basketball into the basket in the normal way.

Katie suddenly realizes that this game is not good for her, she is the shortest of the four, and if Carol chooses to die together, skipping all the first few rounds, and the brazier is pulled higher and higher, the possibility of her not being able to throw a match increases.

Although the rules don't say what the consequences will be if you throw a match but don't throw it in, Katie doesn't dare to take this risk, what if the match falls to the ground and is eliminated? What if a match is lit but falls on the wooden floor?

Although Katie thought quickly, she immediately spoke out to reassure Carol: "Captain, don't say that, we won't leave you, there must be a fair way." ”

Suddenly, the clown snorted coldly, and he said in that voice that floated above the vocal organs, "Do you fools, think that if you throw a match in it, the flame will be ignited?" ”

He propped his hands on the table, stared gloomily at the brazier and laughed twice, raised his eyebrows, withdrew another hand, wiped his lips with the base of his palm, and then pointed to the corner of the brazier with his finger and said, "See that piece of charcoal?" Yes, the charcoal on the right that is crushed underneath, and the charcoal is obviously burning out, and if I can throw a match on it along the gap between the top few pieces of charcoal, it won't be so easy to ignite the fire. ”

Hearing this, both Carol and Katie looked at the place where the clown was pointing, and they really found a piece of charcoal that was slightly different in color from other charcoals.

The surface of this charcoal does not have so much gray-white floating ash, the color is darker, and the two ends will not be slightly red with the flow of air, so it does not look very hot.

It was pressed under three stacked pieces of cylindrical charcoal, but it was not completely covered, leaving a small opening in the middle and to the left of it, and if it had been aimed a little, it would have been possible to throw a match into it.

"Oh, I forgot to mention, I was a part-time clown in the circus for a while before I became a bank robber weirdo, and I was kicked out of the circus by my boss because I threw my darts too accurately." The clown relaxed his body, propped his elbows on the table, pouted, and said, "As long as the fire doesn't burn, it's useless to skip as many times as you want." ”

"You damn lunatic!" Carol scolded angrily, and just as she was about to say something, the clown covered her ears and shouted: "I can't hear it, I can't hear it, I can't hear it, I can only hear your screams when you are eliminated, hahahahaha!" ”

Carol's facial features became very hideous.

(End of chapter)