Darkstone Code

As the ratings continue to climb, the focus during primetime has shifted to "Millionaire." Even though many TV stations want to take action to turn the situation around, unfortunately, there’s nothing they can do.

Many people are clearly aware that as long as Darkstone Media TV truly hands out the million today, then an era of television belonging to Darkstone Media is about to arrive.

No one can resist the impact of a million, even if some TV stations want to imitate...

They simply can’t afford that much money.

Sometimes, it’s great to have money because money can solve almost all the troubles in this world!

As time goes by, contestants become more familiar with the way of the game; most of them have mastered the correct play style, and almost every round has more than two winners.

This keeps the points held by all contestants very close to each other, making it difficult to create a significant gap.

When the host announced the end of the first phase of the competition, the prize money accumulated by each contestant already reached nearly the level of eighty thousand.

This also means that more brutal fights between contestants are about to arrive.

Harry glanced at his scoreboard; he had 198,500 points, a score two thousand points less than the first-place contestant.

Although it seems like a lot, at this stage, it’s not enough to cause an irreparable gap.

After the commercials ended, the camera cut back, and when the on-site director told the host they could continue, the host began the introduction of the final game rules.

"If anyone wants to quit... now is the time to raise your hand."

"If contestants quit, they can take away a part of the prize money, while the remaining part will be added to the final prize pool to be awarded to the winner of the last competition."

"So, is there anyone who wants to leave now?"

Due to the competition’s rules limitations, quitting means they can’t take all the prize money, so some people might only take away a few thousand dollars.

In the early stages of the competition, such as the monthly matches, these prizes may have been attractive to these contestants.

They are not sure if they will be the one to reach the finish line, so in a scenario where the probability of success is almost invisible, leaving with a few thousand dollars may only make their lives slightly comfortable, though it holds no future significance, but at least it’s worthwhile.

But now, everyone has a 25% chance of being the one to take away the million. Compared to the million, who would willingly give up?

Compared to a million, this seemingly large amount of several thousand dollars becomes insignificant to them.

In the silence, the host slightly nodded, "Great, no one is quitting, the upcoming competition will determine who takes away the million today. Its rules are very simple..."

"In the four months of competition, you may have personally experienced or watched many interesting and varied competitions."

"You should also know that these competitions themselves do not require any academic qualifications on your part."

"Whether or not you are literate, whether or not you have a broad reading environment, it generally doesn’t impact the victory or defeat, because the answers often lie around us, just not getting our attention."

"Now, in the final round of this season, let’s return to the essence, make everything simple."

"The rules for this competition are very simple: each of you can choose a card pack, each card pack contains twelve cards, you can freely select three of them to hold as your answers."

"Above is your ’answers’ that you possess, and what you need to do is guess what the answers of others are through inquiry!"

"Each time only one answer is effective, each round, each person has three free inquiry opportunities; once the three free inquiry opportunities are used up, each inquiry thereafter requires different points to be paid to the respondent."

"The fourth inquiry requires you to pay 2,000 points, the fifth inquiry requires 4,000 points, the sixth inquiry requires 8,000 points..."

"Then it’s 16,000 points, 32,000 points, 64,000 points..."

"This time, there’s no limit to the number of inquiries; as long as you have enough points, you can keep asking!"

"Each round, everyone can only ask one question to others, or they can give up asking, but cannot ask more."

"If someone’s answer is guessed correctly, the person holding the answer must transfer one-third of their total points to the person who guessed correctly and activate the second answer."

"If someone has all three answer cards guessed, they lose the chance to win the prize, and can only leave with a souvenir."

"All answers must comply with the answer rules, except for directly asking what the answer is, any question can be asked as long as it’s related to the program content."

"The respondent’s answer must match the answer, for example, if something is round, you can’t tell others it’s a different shape or not round."

"Those who guess others’ answers, and those whose answers are guessed by others can refresh the number of free inquiries."

"If none of you have enough points to continue asking questions, all of you are judged to lose once, reducing one-third of the points back to the prize pool for the final winner to get."

"By the way, all items described by the answers are basically around us."

"Any questions?"

The rules of the competition are actually very simple, much like some brain-teaser games, when asking small questions like "Can you ask different people?" and "Is there a clear pairing?" the host gave very relaxed answers.

Although his answers were simple, it suddenly made all the contestants nervous.

From the host’s answers, they realized this seemingly simple competition is actually not simple at all.

The reasoning is simple; if three people all ask one person, that person is unlikely to withstand it.

Nine questions, or even more, could easily eliminate someone first.

In other words, the lack of rules has become one of the scariest rules of this competition!

But similarly, the points this brings are also incredibly astonishing!

As long as a person can quickly and effectively form a "wall," there’s a chance to win!

Harry clenched his fist.

Following this, the game officially begins.

This time, no one asks a question first; instead, they observe each other, engaging in communication through eye contact.

Ultimately, three hostile gazes focus on the person with the highest points.

He also realizes he might be targeted, but at that moment, he suddenly looks at Harry, "What shape is your item?"

Harry did not expect to be the first one questioned; when the eyes of the other two turned to him, he realized he might be in some trouble.

He glanced at his card, which said baseball.

Yes, it exists right in his life.

He paused for a moment, "Round."

The questioner’s lips curled slightly, "It seems to be a ball..."

Harry cursed inwardly, although he managed his expression well, some still saw a hint of panic in his eyes.

Actually, picking baseball... was not a mistake because it has a lot of confusion value, sharing many commonalities with other items.

It’s just he didn’t expect to be the first questioned, and the question was so tricky; the opponent even supplemented with details—it looks like a ball!

People can be stupid at times; they believe what they see and hear, which explains why politicians and capitalists are always glamorous.

They always find ways to deceive people’s eyes and ears, but until the very end, people will never believe they are false.

After someone asked a question so close to the answer, the team formed by Harry and the other two through eye contact suddenly fell apart.

Before he had a chance to ask a question, someone else "launched an attack" on him again.

"I would like to ask the number one contestant, is the area where it’s used large?"

Harry, being January’s champion, is the number one contestant.

Another deadly question, everyone actually knows, the area of a baseball field is quite large, but the fortunate thing is, apart from baseball, there are concentrated sports fields that are large too.

This time, before the third person asked, Harry directly attacks the number four contestant, which is the person who initially asked the question.

"I want to ask number four contestant, is the item on your answer food?"

The fourth contestant managed his expression well, hesitating briefly before nodding, "Yes, it is food."

Harry’s smile widened; when number four initially interfered with him, the host didn’t speak up, indicating that speaking nonsense is allowed.

He looked like he was talking to himself, "At least I have to ask what color that thing is..."

The silent number three contestant froze for a moment, looking at Harry as Harry also looked at him.

Sometimes, people’s eyes are peculiar; you clearly see only a pair of eyeballs, yet you can feel the emotions or even the language expressed by the other’s eyes.

The number three contestant understood Harry’s implication; with number four having the most points, displaying strength all along, rather than eliminating Harry first, they should follow their initial plan to eliminate number four.

The number three contestant pondered slightly before asking, "Is it an animal?"

He didn’t ask about the color but posed a more direct question.

If not an animal, then it’s got to be fruit or vegetable, further narrowed down by color, essentially locking it down.

Number four’s eyelids involuntary twitched, as if attention returned to him anew, which isn’t a good sign.

He nodded, "Yes, it’s an animal..."

The first round of questions is completed.