Doomsday Wonderland

Chapter 877: Unity

"I did," Lin Sanjiu replied, retracting her gaze from the pocket dimension owner across the way. "What were you doing just now?" Bohemia asked while also casting a glance at the pocket dimension owner.

Lin Sanjiu stared at the ball for a moment, seemingly lost in thought. After a few seconds, she spoke softly, "That guy didn\'t turn around to look at his own ball."

"Huh?" Bohemia was taken aback. "I thought he finished looking..."

"No, he didn\'t move at all. He was just observing our reactions."

"Does that mean he knows what\'s in his ball?" Bohemia realized. "He\'s really cheating, isn\'t he?"

"We can\'t conclude that based on this alone. After all, he is a pocket dimension creature, and this could be something he can naturally do."

Although it wasn\'t a good situation, Lin Sanjiu\'s gentle and calm tone somehow reassured Bohemia. As the two turned around, the pocket dimension owner smiled at them. "Did you see clearly?"

In the first round, Lin Sanjiu\'s side had the following items in their balls: a halved watermelon, an empty chair, and a commercial refrigerated warehouse. These items couldn\'t be matched for a three-combo, but it seemed like their luck was not too bad at the start. It was a stroke of misfortune that they could count as a blessing. However, Bohemia glanced at Lin Sanjiu and saw her expression remain calm and indifferent, not revealing anything, so she also put on a serious face.

The black ball used for disguise quickly floated over and stopped in front of them.

Option one: honey

Option two: a large dumbbell

Option three: a poet

After looking at the options for disguises, the text changed to the three ball options for their team:

Option one: the first light green ball on the left

Option two: the white ball in the middle

Option three: the sky-blue ball on the right

Since the actual content inside the balls had no resemblance to them, logically speaking, it shouldn\'t matter which disguise they chose. However, when Bohemia looked up, she saw Lin Sanjiu still staring at the options, her brows furrowed tightly as if the decision in front of her was extremely difficult. After hesitating for a moment, she glanced at the pocket dimension owner, who was staring straight at them. She used her telepathic abilities to send a low voice wrapped in consciousness to Lin Sanjiu\'s ear, "What are you considering?"

Caught off guard by the voice suddenly sounding right next to her, Lin Sanjiu was startled and jumped like a rabbit before realizing, "Huh? Oh, oh... I didn\'t know we could communicate like this."

In an instant, she understood how Bohemia had managed it and immediately sent her next sentence, "It\'s a bit strange... We\'d better take some time to think and make a choice."

"Why?" Bohemia asked.

"Every moment we have to think is extremely precious. In the first round, we definitely won\'t get a three-combo, so this is a great opportunity... It gives me a chance to organize my thoughts."

Bohemia looked at her skeptically. It was the same voice, but because of the change in tone, pronunciation, and the rhythm of speech, she sounded like a completely different person.

"If we make our choice too quickly, it\'s also a way of revealing information. For example, if we casually choose a disguise without any concern, it will inform the pocket dimension owner that either our balls don\'t have any items with similar traits or they definitely have at least one."

"Whether we have it or not, isn\'t it the same as not revealing anything to him?" After pondering for a moment, Bohemia suddenly realized and became a little resentful. "You\'re just talking nonsense."

Instead of engaging in their usual banter, Lin Sanjiu sighed lightly and smiled wryly, "Usually, what I just said would indeed be nonsense. But take another look at the balls in front of us. Don\'t you find it a bit unnatural?"

Bohemia stared at the black ball for a while, looking left and right, then raised her head, "What\'s unnatural about it?"

However, before she could get an answer, the pocket dimension owner on the other side grew impatient and furrowed his brow, revealing two bare patches of skin. He urged them, "Whether you\'ve finished discussing or not, it\'s time to make a choice now!"

Bohemia\'s eyebrows lifted as if she immediately switched into battle mode. Just before she could retort, Lin Sanjiu grabbed her and whispered, "He can\'t hear our voices, but he seems even more impatient than before. It\'s okay, I have an idea."

Bohemia was taken aback, and indeed, her anger subsided quite a bit. She glanced at the pocket dimension owner and then coldly waved her hand to the person beside her, saying, "Then you make the choice."

As if comforting her, Lin Sanjiu smiled gently at her, the gleam in her eyes reminiscent of a cold lake just thawed in the spring breeze. It was a look she had never had before. Just as Bohemia started to feel suspicious, Lin Sanjiu suddenly seemed undecided, turned to look at the balls behind her for a moment, and then raised her voice, "I\'ve made my choice."

She chose the "Poet" disguise and placed it inside the "Half-Cut Watermelon."

Now, if the pocket dimension owner happened to peek into the watermelon ball, he would see the "Poet." Bohemia realized this and couldn\'t help but exclaim softly, her excitement evident, "So disguises can be used like this?"

Disguises not only conceal "similar items," but they can also transform unrelated items into "similar items" to attract the opponent\'s move. If the opponent happens to peek into the disguise, falls into the trap, and opens the ball, and the actual answer cannot form a three-combo, then they would safely pass one round!

"I know what you\'re thinking," Lin Sanjiu glanced at her, her tone calm and gentle, but it still made Bohemia inexplicably annoyed. "But unfortunately, the game is far more complex than you think. Due to the pocket dimension owner awakening self-awareness, this Candy Crush is now filled with traps."

"Just who do you think you are?" Bohemia muttered, watching as the pocket dimension owner chose to peek into the middle ball—a vacant chair—and couldn\'t help but feel disappointed.

As they looked at the empty chair, the pocket dimension owner fell into silent contemplation for a while.

"In the first round, I think he would choose a relatively conservative and cautious tactic, just like me." While the pocket dimension owner stared at the balls, Lin Sanjiu also stared at him. Using her telepathic abilities to wrap her voice, she ensured that it wouldn\'t be transmitted into the surrounding air, making it convenient and safe. "... Which means, he will open the other ball, not the empty chair."

Before Bohemia could ask, "Why?" the opponent on the other side indeed shouted loudly, "I\'ll open the first pink-green ball on your left!"

"Do you remember our test at the bureau?"

As the pink-green ball gradually revealed the half-cut watermelon, Lin Sanjiu explained understandingly, "The opened ball disappears and is replaced by a new ball, while the peeked ball remains and retains its transparent appearance. Think about it, if we play one round like this, the three balls will become known, unknown, unknown. If we use this tactic again after the second round ends, it will become known, known, unknown—among the three balls, only the content of one ball is unknown. With this approach, isn\'t it much easier to choose?"

Bohemia couldn\'t help but be shocked, "Then in the third round, won\'t all three balls become known?"

"No, they won\'t. You forgot that there is always one ball that was just replenished, so it will always remain unknown."

Bohemia was stunned for a moment before she found her voice, "But... he has the priority! He will always be one step ahead of us. Once he sees the content of two out of the three balls, what chance do we have left..."

Rarely did she sound so unsure of herself, devoid of her usual arrogance and flamboyance.

"That\'s why I said this game is actually very complex and full of traps," Lin Sanjiu comforted softly. "To win the game in this inherently unfair situation, there is one prerequisite you must pay attention to."

"All right, it\'s your turn to peek," the pocket dimension owner said calmly, "I didn\'t expect you to have such good luck in the first round."

Bohemia had long lost her own ideas and unconsciously became completely reliant on Lin Sanjiu. When Lin Sanjiu also chose to peek into the middle ball of the opponent, Bohemia asked in a low voice, "What prerequisite should we pay attention to?"

"Do you know the phrase \'words within words\'?"

As the ball lost its color and opened from the center, Lin Sanjiu replied, "Similarly, to win this Candy Crush game, you must deduce hidden messages from the explicit rules and find the lurking \'hidden rules\' that haven\'t surfaced."

While the two were speaking, the ball on the opposite side had already revealed something irregular in shape, seemingly covered in numerous small protrusions. For children of the Twelve Realms, this thing looked extremely strange, and they couldn\'t identify what it was. But Lin Sanjiu recognized it at a glance and furrowed her brows slowly.

"What\'s wrong?" Bohemia noticed her expression and quickly tugged at her sleeve. "What is that?"

"That\'s bacteria."

The pocket dimension owner laughed, and his chubby cheeks swelled slowly. "That\'s right, even though it\'s been magnified many times, it\'s still a bacteria."

"Don\'t laugh so awkwardly," Bohemia scolded, then looked at Lin Sanjiu with a hesitant and questioning gaze. "He definitely has bacteria on him... but that\'s not considered the same essence, right?"

Lin Sanjiu shook her head.