God's Imitator-Chapter 429: Two Strategies

"Time limit: 5 minutes." Yang Yuting glanced at the time and added.

Zheng Jie and Dai Yifan began contemplating strategies, making paper slips and writing specific amounts on them.

Their expressions varied; Zheng Jie appeared confident, while Dai Yifan frowned, pausing occasionally to think.

After 5 minutes, Yang Yuting looked at the time, "Alright, time’s about up.

"Both of you will play as the attack and defense sides respectively. Who wants to start?"

Zheng Jie volunteered and said, "I’ll start as the defense side!"

He laid out his five paper slips in order, then randomly shuffled them to mix them up.

"Alright, now I don’t even remember which is which.

"Choose whichever you like."

Dai Yifan did not pick the most convenient one but chose a rather awkward position from the middle.

He opened the slip, and it read ’10000’.

"Hmm... swap."

Dai Yifan finished speaking, refolded the paper slip, and handed it back. Zheng Jie reached out to take it and placed it in front of him.

The paper slips that have been picked can’t be chosen again, and must be kept by the ’defense side’.

Dai Yifan chose another paper slip, opened it again, and found it still read ’10000’.

"Hmm?"

Dai Yifan was slightly surprised, his brow furrowed in thought.

Yang Yuting said, "You can express your thoughts and reasoning process out loud since the numbers on the paper slips are already written."

Dai Yifan, thinking aloud, said, "According to the game rules, each paper slip satisfies ’among the other 4 paper slips, at least one is its 10 times or 1/10’.

"So, having slips with the same amount is possible.

"Also, among the five slips, at most one says 100,000, or there may be none at all.

"Given the confident look on Zheng Jie’s face, it seems he’s sure of winning. If he did write a 100,000, it would be quite disadvantageous for him.

"Because I can open a slip twice, swap a slip twice, viewing four in total, if I find a slip that says ’100,000’, I’ve definitely won.

"As the defense, he would significantly likely lose.

"Therefore, he surely didn’t write ’100,000’.

"But then I suddenly realized, doesn’t this mean there’s a ’Sure-win Method’?

"There are five slips, and no matter if the attacker swaps or not, they can take at most 2 slips, while the defender can keep 3 slips.

"Considering the principle of the ’Two-envelope Paradox’, whether to swap or not yields the same outcome, so it’s the defense side with a higher expected benefit.

"Hence, he most likely wrote four ’10,000’ and one ’1,000’, which also complies with the game rules.

"If I first draw a ’10,000’ and then, in search of the nonexistent ’100,000’, swap to ’1,000’, I am bound to lose.

"Even without swapping, drawing two ’10,000’, he can retain three slips, which always will be two ’10,000’ and one ’1,000’, always gaining more than I do."

Zheng Jie spread his hands, "Wow, you’re pretty clever, that’s indeed the case.

"But it’s too late now that you’ve figured it out, as if you didn’t use this strategy, your overall net gain is likely to lose to mine."

Yang Yuting said, "Let’s finish the game first."

Dai Yifan drew another slip, again ’10,000’.

This time, he didn’t choose to swap.

As the remaining slips were ’10,000’ and ’1,000’, swapping to 1,000 would be even worse.

Theoretically, it could also be four ’10,000’ and one ’100,000’, but based on Dai Yifan’s previous analysis, the defense side would at least pick three times, and if a ’100,000’ was drawn once, the game ends, so there was no reason for Zheng Jie to make such a decision.

After drawing, Zheng Jie also revealed the remaining slips.

Indeed, they were four ’10,000’ and one ’1,000’.

Yang Yuting, as the host, announced the result, "Alright, in this round, Zheng Jie, as the ’defense’, used the Sure-win Method, securely gaining a net profit of 1000.

"Next, switch to Dai Yifan as the defense side."

Dai Yifan did not shuffle the five slips previously written, but carefully arranged them in order in front of Zheng Jie.

Zheng Jie thought for a moment, "Well, I’ll just pick the most awkward position first."

He chose the second slip from his left hand.

Upon opening it, it showed the number ’1000’.

"Huh? I choose to swap."

Zheng Jie handed the ’1000’ slip back, thought again, and took the first slip from his left hand.

Upon seeing the number, he was taken aback.

’10’.

"What is this...?"

Zheng Jie was slightly confused because he had already swapped once, so this slip would definitely be kept.

This meant that he and Dai Yifan had confirmed a 990 net revenue difference, which also led to his total net revenue only leading by 10.

Moreover, Zheng Jie realized an even bigger problem.

According to the game rules, each slip satisfies ’among the other 4 slips, at least one is its 10 times or 1/10’, simultaneously having 10 and 1000 means a 100 must be among the remaining slips.

The scenarios for the remaining two slips were plenty.

It could be any among 1, 10, 100, 1000, 10,000, 100,000, these six different numbers.

Zheng Jie scratched his head, "So, for now, I need to determine whether there could be a 100,000 in the remaining slips.

"If there’s a 100,000, there’s only one possibility:

"The five slips are 10, 100, 1000, 10,000, and 100,000.

"Based on the prior analysis, since the attacker can realistically review four slips, if a 100,000 was picked, it’d be a direct loss, hence I reckon you wouldn’t have placed a 100,000.

"If you indeed placed one, I’d refuse to accept it because only in the Community you dared to do so, whereas in a life-and-death game, you wouldn’t, so even if this made me lose, I wouldn’t accept..."

Qin Yao was somewhat surprised, "Huh, how can you conduct a mental attack on opponents while discussing your thoughts?"

Zheng Jie continued, "If you truly played as if it were a life-and-death game, not placing a 100,000, my current goal is...to find at least another 1000 among the remaining slips, otherwise, I’d still lose..."

As Zheng Jie spoke, he drew another slip.

Upon opening it, he was slightly disappointed as it read ’100’.

Dai Yifan asked, "Will you swap this time?"

Zheng Jie tried to read Dai Yifan’s expression, clearly, Dai Yifan knew the specific values on all slips, so the question could be an implied tactic.

If one were a master of micro-expressions, perhaps they could decipher an opponent’s mind?

But evidently, that scenario was more akin to a fictional plot, Zheng Jie pieced together nothing even after a lengthy observation.

But no matter what, ’100’ seemed too little.

Zheng Jie pondered, "Let’s swap."

He swapped another slip, opening it once more.

It was still ’100’.

Zheng Jie, a bit deflated, scratched his head, finding it hard to digest the results.

Dai Yifan revealed all the slips, which were 1000, 100, 100, 10, 10.

Yang Yuting declared the final result, "The slips Dai Yifan retained were 1000, 100, 10, while the slips Zheng Jie took were 100, 10.

"Dai Yifan’s net gain is 1000; hence both results end in a draw."

Zheng Jie, slightly embarrassed, "What are we, rookies pecking at each other?

"But your way of making these slips is very strange! The largest value is 1000? Are you even human?"