"Perhaps Faith was one step ahead in predicting the formation of alliances—or perhaps he even formed an alliance himself."

Looking at the current situation, Cyrus finally noticed that the ten players had vaguely split into four groups.

Two alliances, and two solo players: himself and Kain.

"Kain, the one I excluded from the danger zone from the start—what role does he play in this?"

Cyrus recalled Kain’s unconscious behavior earlier—a rare sense of relief that shouldn’t have appeared, especially not now.

"This only happens when everything is guaranteed—when that person named Kain is certain of the final victory without having to do anything."

Cyrus realized that to thoroughly crush the Sword Family in this game without being detected, aside from draining all the gold coins from the treasury, Faith also needed to completely overturn the ratio of gold in everyone’s treasuries. The more skewed the ratio, the better.

And for Faith, there were two heavy weights that had completely distorted this.

First, Cyrus’s original plan. Assuming that at turn 50, he would win and have about 250 gold coins in his treasury, while others were either forced to share the failed sum or didn’t have much money. Let’s assume the other nine people only had 100 gold coins each.

Thus, when the resources were distributed, the amount the Bethel Family received would account for more than 20% of the total 100%, and the remaining nine Families could only split the nearly 80% left, meaning each Family would only get about 8% to 9%.

In this situation, if only Faith decided to "take a risk" and had previously drained his entire 100 gold coins from the treasury, plus an assumed 50 coins in hand, this "all-in" move to steal the 500 coins in Cyrus’s treasury—which didn’t exist—would ultimately result in a loss to Cyrus. The gold would be distributed evenly, leaving the Sword Family ’s treasury with a mere 15 coins.

Upon settlement, the resources allocated to the Sword Family would only range from 1% to 2%—and that’s the most conservative case, assuming only Faith decided to gamble.

And now, the second factor was the real clincher.

Kain’s 500-coin "boulder" was the most devastating blow.

Continuing the assumption above, if Kain maintained his accumulation from start to finish, then right after the round where Faith lost nearly all his gold, Kain would win an auction with 500 gold coins into his treasury.

At that point, the gold ratios would truly explode.

The Egretta Family would immediately be allocated nearly 35% of the resources, while the Sword Family ...

1% of the resources, unable to move up.

This was just an assumption with the driest data possible, and the best-case scenario for the Sword Family , because the ratio would likely be even lower!

However, this perfect plan was broken just like that by an unintentional gesture from Kain.

And that was also Cyrus’s opportunity.

...

Bidding result of turn 5:

​Sword Family bidded 0 gold coins, 40 gold coins remaining in hand.

​Bethel Family bidded 0 gold coins, 40 gold coins remaining in hand.

​Zento Family bidded 0 gold coins, 20 gold coins remaining in hand.

​Acer Family bidded 0 gold coins, 30 gold coins remaining in hand.

​Flamed Family bidded 0 gold coins, 20 gold coins remaining in hand.

​Madea Family bidded 0 gold coins, 33 gold coins remaining in hand.

​Raymon Family bidded 0 gold coins, 28 gold coins remaining in hand.

​Nostag Family bidded 0 gold coins, 37 gold coins remaining in hand.

​Don Family bidded 20 gold coins, 28 gold coins remaining in hand.

​Egretta Family bidded 0 gold coins, 50 gold coins remaining in hand.

​As expected, the representative of the Don Family bidded 20 gold coins to win the bid. And these 20 gold coins, barring any surprises, would flow directly into the treasury of the Don Family, forming the situation that the Zento alliance wanted.

​And in the next turn, turn 6 of the game, Cyrus would carry out the most important step of the fat sheep strategy. In "common" perception, Cyrus—a novice who saw as many as two people from the Raymon and Don families previously bidding large amounts which he guessed were put into the treasury—would do the same in the hope that he too would not be targeted.

​That was the perfect cover for Cyrus to act.

​And that was also what happened in bidding turn 6.

​Here, everyone bidded 0 gold coins, except for two people.

​Bethel Family bidded 20 gold coins.

​Zento Family bidded 10 gold coins.

​As a result, the representative of the Bethel Family, namely Cyrus, won this bid.

​Seeing this result, the representative of the Zento Family was slightly bewildered for a moment; based on his previous calculations and expectations, the bidding amount from some side should not have been set that high, should it?

​But he immediately recalled the developments of the last two turns, when the representatives of the Don Family and Raymon Family belonging to his alliance had successively won the bids with 20 gold coins.

​"That guy... don’t tell me he thought those two had fooled everyone else and is just copying them?"

​When this speculation sprang into his mind, the representative of the Zento Family almost laughed out loud.

​To be honest, he himself was very tense, as this was a game closely linked to the status of an aristocratic family as well as his own position in the Zento Family, and of course, he did not want to and did not have the right to fail.

​One could say that any player in this game was treading on thin ice, liable to fall through at any moment.

​Now, he could finally see a way out, a sheep, a fool who wanted to win in the stupidest way.

​A fool who thought he could hide under the eyes of everyone else, truly not knowing that everyone was looking forward to placing this sheep on the banquet table.

​However, the representative of the Zento Family also thought of other concerns.

​That was the other players; there were many wolves but little meat. While every wolf wanted to eat.

​This naturally included the other three people in his alliance. It was easy to understand; this alliance was not a firm relationship but something bound together by interests; they followed him because he gave them benefits, and the benefits would be divided equally. But once there was a hint of the possibility that he intended to swallow the sheep alone, this alliance would absolutely shatter.

​And once the alliance shattered, he could no longer control the situation of this game.

​The representative of the Zento Family fell into deep thought; he naturally wanted to lead his family to the number one position and occupy the highest proportion of resources, but there were too many obstacles, and to reduce the loss of interests, it was understandable that he had to divide resources.

​Then suddenly, he thought of a way...

​...

​Still within the scope of turn 6, in a deserted hallway in the mansion, three figures were standing opposite each other, namely the representative of the Raymon Family, the representative of the Don Family, and finally the representative of the Bethel Family—Cyrus.

​"What do you want with us?"

​The representative of the Raymon Family asked with some impatience. Cyrus put on a forced smile, took out a handkerchief to wipe his forehead, and said:

​"Forgive me for bothering you two, it’s just... I think we are facing the same problem, and that is why we should cooperate with each other."

​He spoke with an earnest voice, making both of the others frown. The representative of the Don Family replied:

​"Facing the same problem? What do you mean?"

​"That is... both of you have actually stored money in the treasury, right? Don’t... don’t look at me like that, to show my sincerity, I will also reveal a secret, which is that I did the same, just like you two."

​"Anyone can see that, you idiot."

​That was the sentence that appeared in the minds of the two players, as Cyrus placed his hand on his chest and looked proud as if his previous action was something noble.

​"But you still haven’t told us why you think we put money into the treasury and then did the same. Because if even someone like you knows, there’s no reason why the others wouldn’t know."

​"That... I am certain the others won’t know."

​"Why not?"

​"Because of intuition!"

​Cyrus puffed out his chest again, looking proud.

​"My intuition is very strong, I can feel it."

​"To prove what I say, in the next turn I will prove that my own treasury will not be robbed. If it is robbed, it proves they already knew I used the choice to put money into the treasury."

​Cyrus’s proposal seemed to have no problem on the surface; the logic presented was clear, and the intention was not without persuasion. But from the perspective of the two representatives, he was just talking nonsense, viewing the problem far too shallowly.

​First, the reason both of them were not robbed of their treasuries was not because the others didn’t know they had put money into the treasury, but because of much deeper overlapping reasons. Meanwhile, Cyrus reasoned the method backward, deducing from the result "no one robbed the treasury" that "no one knows the treasury has money"; this seemed like a balanced two-way logic on the surface, but in a game like this, it was a fatal error.

​It was a misinterpretation.

​Second, Cyrus’s test was another cognitive mistake; in the next turn, Cyrus would not be robbed, and then he would be convinced that he was not robbed because no one knew, completely unaware that it was precisely because everyone knew that everyone would not act.