Chapter 427: The Yellow Door

"On the other end is the 'Mao Wu,'" Di Shu said, "which is my room."

"Do you have a room too?"

"Yes," Di Shu nodded. "You can rest assured, I won't lie in the rules. Our rooms are at opposite ends of the hall, with excellent soundproofing. I can't hear your discussions at all, and I won't enter your room."

Qi Xia glanced again at the 'Mao Wu' on the far right. It had a white door and was separated from the 'Shu Wu' by five rooms, so even without good soundproofing, it would be hard to hear anything from the other room.

"The middle five rooms plus this hall are our game area," Di Shu explained. "All the main activities will take place in this space."

As he spoke, Di Shu walked over to a yellow door and pushed it open.

The room inside was very spacious. At the far end stood a wine-red altar table with a white porcelain plate on it. The plate held several fruits stacked like offerings, which upon closer inspection appeared to be huo long guo.

This was certainly a rare item in the Zhong Yan Zhi Di.

"Tsk, that's really unlucky, like something for worshiping the dead..." Zhou Liu said. "Who taught you to stack the fruits with three at the bottom and one on top?"

"Unlucky...?" Di Shu smirked without real amusement. "We're already in a place like this—who cares about lucky or unlucky?"

He stepped forward and pointed to the huo long guo on the table. "These fruits can fill your stomachs... but only in the literal sense."

"What?"

"Dear leaders, for the next part, you'll need to put on the collars to continue the explanation," Di Shu gestured with his hand toward the group.

Qi Xia exchanged glances with the others, knowing they had come to play the game and couldn't avoid this moment. Without another word, they put the collars around their necks.

Once all the collars were connected, lights lit up on the left and right sides of each one, totaling two lights per person.

"Everyone... the lights on your necks represent your 'Bao Fu Zhi,'" Di Shu said, realizing his explanation might not be clear, so he added, "With two bars now, that means you're 'full.'"

"When do we lose 'Bao Fu Zhi'?" Qi Xia asked.

"It decreases by one point automatically each round," Di Shu replied. "Leader, I'll reiterate: each round is divided into 'black night' and 'daytime' phases. After both phases pass, your Bao Fu Zhi will decrease by one point for everyone."

Seeing the group nod, Di Shu continued, "Each time you 'steal' food, you can gain one point of Bao Fu Zhi. Each fruit can add one point for a 'Shu,' up to a maximum of two points."

Qi Xia mentally calculated: each person started with two points of Bao Fu Zhi, totaling ten points for the group. Each round, everyone would lose one point, so over six rounds, that would use up thirty points.

Subtracting the initial ten points, they theoretically needed to find twenty more pieces of food.

The room in front of them had four fruits, and if the other rooms each had four as well, the five rooms would total twenty—exactly the right amount.

Luo Shi Yi murmured to himself after hearing this, "So, we're really supposed to act like rats stealing food?"

"That's exactly it, Leader. Your Bao Fu Zhi can drop to zero, but if it goes below zero, your collars will explode," Di Shu glanced at him and went on. "During each 'black night,' the 'Shu' faction has three choices: search, transport, or rescue, and each person can only choose one. I'll explain these in detail next."

He went over to the wall and found something like a switch there. He said to the group, "There's a button here. Enter a room and press it, and the door will lock, counting as the 'Shu' deciding to search that room. The next day, you can take the fruits inside, but remember, under any circumstances, each 'Shu' can only transport three fruits."

"How do we 'transport' them?" Qi Xia asked.

"To trigger 'transport,' a 'Shu' must stay in the room for a full round. Then, in the next round, you can transport. Also, if someone triggers it, they can transport items for their companions, but the limit is still three fruits."

"This is getting a bit complicated..." Luo Shi Yi scratched his head. "You've explained search and transport—what's the other one?"

"There's also 'rescue,'" Di Shu said. "To trigger 'rescue,' we have to talk about the 'Mao's actions."

He paused and said to the people in front of him, "For the 'Mao,' there are also three actions: one is 'search,' two is 'set up a blockade,' and three is 'patrol.'"

"You have 'search' too?" Qi Xia asked.

"Yes, but my search isn't for fruits—it's for 'Shu'," Di Shu explained. "Once you choose 'search,' the door locks. During the daytime, I'll randomly pick a room to search. If there's a 'Shu' in it, I've caught them."

"What happens if they're caught?" Qi Xia's most pressing question finally came up. "Are they eliminated right away?"

"It's not that unreasonable," Di Shu said. "As a 'Mao,' when I catch prey, I don't eat it immediately—I toy with it first. So, I'll take them to the 'Mao Wu' and eliminate them at the start of the next round. But you can choose to enter the 'Mao Wu' for a rescue during the night, and even though I'm in there, I won't interfere. After six rounds, any 'Shu' who are still alive and not in the 'Mao Wu' are considered victors."

"We can rescue people? Then how do you win?" Luo Shi Yi asked. "Don't you know what kind of team we are?"

"Ha, no problem—go ahead and rescue, leaders," Di Shu said with a dry laugh. "From the bottom of my heart, I hope you all help each other."

Qi Xia's expression gradually darkened, sensing that this game had some depth to it.

If a 'Shu' was caught, and the others chose to rescue... was that really a good idea?

In other words, one 'Shu' would have to give up a chance to search and use up one point of Bao Fu Zhi to save them. That round, the team would need other members to bring back at least one extra fruit to make up for the loss.

But it wasn't that simple. The rescued person would have gone at least one day without food and would need to replenish fruits immediately. If there weren't enough fruits, rescuing could just speed up the team's overall deaths.

This Di Shu game was clearly very different from the Di Gou game... it didn't require overly close cooperation. It focused on 'hiding' and 'searching,' and the five 'Shu' could even act independently, with just one surviving counting as a victory.