Chapter 433: Food Control

"Um...?" Zhou Liu didn't quite understand Qi Xia's words. "Are you preparing...?"

"I want to trigger a 'baonu'," Qi Xia said. "'Baitian shiduan' is about to end, so when it does, you tell her exactly what I said—that because Qiu Shiliu is emotionally unstable and 'huixiang' is useless, she's the first one I'm abandoning. That's the team leader's intention."

"Tsk, are you sure...?" Zhou Liu paused. "From what I know of Shiliu, something like 'betrayal' will absolutely infuriate her..."

"The more furious, the better." Qi Xia agreed and turned to Wang Ba. "Sorry for saying some harsh things earlier, but I should know what kind of person you are now. From now on, my real plan will unfold for all of you, so please follow my arrangements."

"You..."

"This 'game' isn't just for training," Qi Xia said. "First, I want to win; second, I want all of you to have 'huixiang'; third, I want you to know my capabilities; and fourth, I want to take down 'dishu'."

The three of them could only exchange glances after hearing Qi Xia's words. This person seemed perfectly normal, but was he actually crazy?

Normal people entering a provincial-level game wouldn't even say "I want to win"—they'd just say "I want to survive." Yet he was listing four goals and expecting to achieve them all in this confusing game.

"Never mind the rest for now..." Luo Shiyi frowned at Qi Xia. "You just said you want to take down 'dishu'...?"

"Yes." Qi Xia nodded. "I've basically figured out how we can all survive and win this game, but at the final stage... I want to corner 'dishu,' and for that, I'll need your help."

Luo Shiyi felt like his brain had frozen. From the time they heard the rules until now, it had been less than twenty minutes total.

Since everyone had twenty minutes, why could this man named Qi Xia think of so much?

"Luo Shiyi." Qi Xia called out, then glanced at the pomegranate in his hand. "Are you sure your room only had one fruit?"

"I'm sure." Luo Shiyi nodded. "When I went in, there was only one pomegranate on the plate."

Qi Xia turned to the other two. "What about you? How many fruits were in your rooms?"

"Four small oranges," Liu said. "These little oranges really worried me—I could grab them all with one hand, but I could only take three."

Wang Ba was silent for a moment before speaking. "You all saw my room—four pitayas, and I took three."

Qi Xia looked at the three peaches in his hand and felt this was bad news—the total fruits probably weren't enough for five people to survive.

Just as Qi Xia had anticipated from the start, for five people to avoid 'starving' over six rounds, they needed at least twenty fruits.

But one room only had one fruit.

Even if the other rooms all had four, the total would only be seventeen, meaning at least two 'shu' would starve.

But... could there be another possibility?

"Tsk, so the number of fruits in the rooms isn't fixed..." Zhou Liu thought for a moment and asked, "But there's still one room we haven't checked... Maybe that one has..."

"Probably not." Qi Xia shook his head. "Following your logic, the remaining room would need at least seven fruits to barely meet our survival needs, but that doesn't make sense."

Seeing Zhou Liu's confused expression, Qi Xia pointed to the small oranges in her hand. "These small fruits only had four, which shows that fruit size doesn't affect the number placed. 'Four' should be the standard."

"Then why did my room only have one pomegranate?" Luo Shiyi asked in confusion. "Isn't it because the pomegranate is too big?"

"We'll only know the answer once we see Qiu Shiliu," Qi Xia said. "In the next round, we need to seize the rooms."

"Tsk, how should we do that?" Zhou Liu said. "Should we try to enter the third room we haven't been to and take the four fruits inside?"

"No... That room will be the 'mao's' main focus next," Qi Xia said. "Whether it's 'bu shu jia' or 'sou xun,' one of their strategies will target the third room. From the 'shu's perspective, that room has the most to gain, so we have to avoid it for now and not act rashly."

"Then..."

"In the next round, two people will go for 'rescue,' and the other two will continue 'sou xun' in the rooms we've already searched," Qi Xia said.

"Two people for rescue?" Wang Ba was stunned. "We've already confirmed Qiu Shiliu is in the 'maowu'—why send two for rescue?"

Qi Xia thought for a few seconds. "I just have a guess, so I need to check the 'maowu' myself. If this guess works out, I can't do it alone—I need someone to coordinate with me."

The group fell silent again.

"Then I'll go with you," Luo Shiyi said.

"Good." Qi Xia nodded and turned to Zhou Liu and Wang Ba. "We'll handle bringing Qiu Shiliu back, and you two keep 'sou xun.' Remember, you can go to any room except number three."

"Tsk, but this time, we can only get two fruits at most," Zhou Liu said. "And if one of us gets caught, we'll only bring back one and lose a teammate—what do we do then?"

"You can't think of it that way," Qi Xia said. "According to the rules... as long as both of you aren't caught, we can still bring back at least two fruits."

"What?"

"The rules say that the person 'transporting fruits' can carry not only their own but also the fruits from everyone else's 'sou xun,'" Qi Xia explained. "That means even if one of you is caught or chased by the 'mao,' you should be able to hand over your fruits to your teammate... I can't think of any other scenario for transporting others' fruits."

Zhou Liu and Luo Shiyi both nodded, then looked at the fruits in their hands. In this round, they'd gotten ten fruits, enough to keep all the 'shu' full for two rounds. But what about the later ones?

Food would keep decreasing, and the 'shu's situation would get more dangerous.

"Should we use up the fruits now?" Luo Shiyi tentatively asked Qi Xia.

"No..." Qi Xia shook his head. "Just you and I will use them up; the others don't need to."

"What?" Luo Shiyi and Zhou Liu were stunned. "Logically, all five of us have declining fullness levels—are you only using two fruits?"

"You have to understand something," Qi Xia said. "Even real rats don't share food equally with every companion. If we want everyone fed, we won't win this game. Only the ones on the front lines get plenty of food."

"What about the others?" Luo Shiyi asked.

"Try to maintain one level of fullness," Qi Xia said. "'Dishu' said that even if fullness drops to zero, you won't die—as long as it doesn't go below zero, the collars won't explode. The best way to win this game is for all of us to have exactly zero fullness at the moment of victory."