Darkstone Code

As they were talking, the show officially began. The opening was shot from a bird’s‑eye view high in the sky, showing the convoy carrying the contestants slowly driving toward the TV station.

A light experimental aircraft was used for this shoot. The institute was pushing forward the development of reconnaissance planes – a type of light aircraft with only simple offensive capabilities, but much faster.

This shooting method and angle were something completely new to the entire Federation, a first.

People had filmed from hot‑air balloons before, but those slow, drifting balloons were nothing like a plane in terms of speed.

All of this also reflected how special this competition was.

Each contestant was reintroduced after a short highlight reel.

Harry, as the first month’s champion, had been frantically cramming these past few months. He read a lot, so many books he couldn’t even count them.

In fact, even without that Wealth, without the champion’s title, his life had already changed.

People were asking him to do endorsements, to front certain paid knowledge products.

There were also film companies planning to base a movie on him and inviting him to take part in the shooting. Nothing is more attractive than a "Millionaire born in the slums".

After all, the real main force at the box office now is the bottom of society. They need dreams, they need self‑anesthesia, and this theme gives them everything they need.

All kinds of opportunities appeared in front of him. He wasn’t dazed; he turned down almost all commercial collaborations, only taking part in commercial events that wouldn’t affect him too much.

Like attending the opening ceremony of some bookstore, or serving as a guest at a signing event for some publisher’s new book.

He knew very clearly that if he could win to the end, what he would get would be several times, even dozens of times more than what these people were offering him now.

If he failed, they would take it back in exactly the same way they had given it.

This was a smart big kid. He knew what he really needed, and he hadn’t let the things in front of him blind him.

Next came the other three months’ champions. They were all gathered together now: four people, competing for the final million‑dollar prize.

"Will you really give the winner a million?" Before the competition started, Catherine asked another question.

She kept asking "why" like a curious little girl, bursting with a strong desire to know.

Lynch nodded, then quickly shook his head. "It’s true that the total prize is one million, but it won’t necessarily go to just one person. If you’ve watched the previous rounds, you’ll know there’s a rule..."

"Those who give up can get a share of the money, even though it’s very little!" Catherine suddenly shouted, as if something had just occurred to her.

Lynch nodded. "Yes. If someone quits midway, the money they take away is also deducted from that one million."

Watching Catherine seriously think this over, Lynch couldn’t help but speak. "But have you thought about this? After four months of brutal elimination, making it all the way here, with only one last step between them and the million, will they really give up of their own accord?"

Lynch turned to look at the contestants. "They’re all heaven’s favorites. And they firmly believe that."

"Look, out of millions of people in the draw, they were the ones selected, and they each ended up winning their own stage of the competition. Now the four people with the best luck and the strongest ability are standing together."

"Who’s willing to give up?"

"No, no one will choose to give up. Even if they understand that out of the four, only one can stand to the end, they’ll still believe that one is themselves."

Lynch’s words left Catherine slightly absent‑minded. To be honest... this wasn’t quite what she had imagined.

It also made her think of that first girl, the one who said that if everyone could compromise, then each of them could get some money.

Looking at it now, that really was a good plan. If the four of them cooperated, they could split that million.

The problem is... greed is original sin.

If they can’t overcome their own greed, they won’t compromise. They’ll fight to eliminate the others to seize that final prize.

From the very first round, the competition was filled with "killing intent".

The rules for the first round were very special. The host wouldn’t state any of the questions out loud, but around each question there would be a set of seventeen cards.

You can think of them as playing cards. These seventeen cards would be shuffled. Each of the four contestants would receive three cards, and the host would hold five.

No one knew what cards—what clues—the others held.

The clues were all highly abstract, yet faintly pointed toward the answer. Only by collecting more clues could one accurately arrive at the answer.

At the beginning, the host would reveal three of his cards as community cards. In other words, each contestant would have their three in hand plus the revealed ones, giving them five clues.

They could write their answer on the answer board and try to answer, or they could go to the next round.

If someone answered and got it right, twenty thousand would be split equally among those correct.

If two people got it right, each would get ten thousand. If all four answered correctly, each would get five thousand.

If someone filled in the answer board but got it wrong, they couldn’t answer again for that round; the chance would be left to others.

If no one answered correctly in that round and they moved to the next, the host would reveal another clue card, and the contestants could also choose to "pass a card".

Each contestant would choose one card from their hand and pass it to the next contestant on their left (counter‑clockwise). If a contestant felt all their clue cards were very important, they could pay three thousand from their Points to "stand pat" alone and skip the passing process.

The cost of standing pat would keep increasing: three thousand, six thousand, twelve thousand, twenty‑four thousand.

Ultimately, all those stand‑pat fees would be pooled into the prize pot and become extra money for the winners to split.

Once all the host’s cards were revealed and still no one had answered correctly, a new game would begin.

This was a very interesting kind of contest, because some clues might come very close to the truth, while others were highly misleading.

Simply put, not all clues were valid. Five of the cards were misused or misleading clues. Even though they all pointed to the same answer... some things just mislead people.

This made for a very interesting contest, especially during the card‑passing process. You had to tell whether the card from your previous player was useful or useless, and at the same time make sure that the card you passed to the next player, combined with the community cards, could have a reverse effect on them.

It sounded complicated, but after two simple demonstrations on the big screen, people basically understood how the game worked.

Catherine couldn’t help asking again, "Who came up with this?"

"Me!" Lynch answered decisively. "The production team hadn’t opened up their thinking yet. They were stuck on simple Q&A. I had to make it exciting instead of dull."

"Next, we’ll be collecting all kinds of interesting formats from the public. If someone’s idea is adopted, they’ll receive a certain amount of prize money..."

As they spoke, the competition had already started. Each contestant had a camera behind them, and through the on‑site internal live room, people could see the community cards and each contestant’s hand.

Catherine was immediately drawn in by these clues. She frowned tightly. These clues... were abstract as hell.

For example, the three cards Harry held were "Yellow", "Green", and "Box", while the community cards were "Supermarket" and "Soil".

What the hell is that supposed to mean?

But Harry already had some vague ideas. He clenched his fists; his palms were slick with sweat. Several possible answers flashed rapidly through his mind.

He was sure that one of them was what he needed, but he couldn’t be one hundred percent certain.

If he wrote the wrong answer, he’d miss this chance to score.

He had already realized that the further the competition went, the fiercer the struggle between players became. It also implied that, in the end, they might no longer be earning Points from the show, but from one another.

Which meant the more Points you had, the greater your advantage.

The host asked if anyone wanted to answer. In the first round, everyone said they would not. The host then told them to choose a card to hand to the participant on their right and at the same time took out one card and placed it face‑up in the community area.

"If no one is standing pat, you may now exchange cards."

The contestants exchanged cards according to the rules. Then the host flipped over the third community card: "Sunlight"!

It was some kind of fruit, or some kind of juice. There were still too few clues, but the range had already been narrowed.

Harry glanced casually at the player on his right. Whether by coincidence or not, all four monthly champions were male.

Their eyes met for a brief moment. Neither revealed anything and they quickly looked away.

Harry flipped his new card and froze for a second. It was "Medical"...

The known clues started combining in his head. Something that has yellow, has green, is related to soil and sunlight, has at least some medical effect, and is boxed and sold in a Supermarket?

It probably wasn’t juice; at least he’d never heard of a juice that could cure diseases.

But he still wasn’t completely sure. Maybe this was a misleading card.

He thought for a moment. Could it be oranges?

He took out his Handkerchief and wiped his hands. Both palms were sweaty. This was way harder than he’d imagined.

No, it wasn’t that it was hard. It was that you knew there were a few possible answers, but you could never be sure which one it really was.

He also realized now that the things the clues pointed to in later questions would definitely not be just one thing, but many. Every answer was essentially a gamble.

Out of several possible answers in his mind, he had to pick the one he thought most likely to be right.

In this round, everyone remained cautious. No one chose to answer. They went on passing cards...