Chapter 182 The Power of Belief

After saying that, Moriarty paused for two seconds, then continued, "Oh, as for your inquiry." He looked at Honghu and said, "Obviously, we decline to answer."

As he made this pronouncement, an inquiry card on the table automatically flipped over and moved in front of Honghu. The front of the card also bore the word "Exemption."

From this moment on, it was Qiufeng's turn.

"Let me think..." Qiufeng said.

Ji Chang reminded him from the other end of the table, "This round, it's best to choose 'Inquire' and draw an exemption card as a safety net."

Honghu agreed with Ji Chang's view, and added, "That's right, we still know very little information, speculation is unsafe, and presumption is likely to cause penalties."

At this moment, Moriarty spoke, "Let me clarify that, in terms of intensity, the penalty for Suggestion ranges from mild to moderate. If Inquiring or Speculating are penalized, the damage will be from moderate to severe. But the penalty for Presumption is between severe and fatal."

"According to conventional strategy," Holmes added, "the uninformed should choose Suggestion to enter the game, then choose Inquire in the second round to obtain exemption, and then try Presumption in the third round. Even if the Presumption is wrong, you can use the exemption to offset the penalty." He took another puff of his pipe, "Hoo... Of course, if you have enough confidence in your ability to Speculate, you can also choose to Speculate in the third round. But if your Speculation is completely unrelated to the truth, then the exemption will be consumed by the Speculation... By the fourth round, you will have to make a Presumption without any insurance measures."

"Hey... we are opponents," Qiufeng said, "what do you mean by analyzing so diligently for us?"

"What I said is just the most basic strategy," Holmes replied, "I believe that any of you, after a little thought, will also arrange the order of Suggestion, Inquire, Presumption, and Speculate to deal with the first four rounds."

"If you think that the well-intentioned reminders given by Holmes and I are misleading, you don't have to follow what we say," Moriarty said.

"They're right," Ji Chang turned to Qiufeng and said, "Reaching the fifth round alive is our primary goal. And Mr. Holmes' strategy is the most correct and safest."

Honghu interjected, "They are just stating the strategies that we could have thought of and are very likely to implement anyway, so it's not really helping." He pushed up his glasses, "If you go against them out of a rebellious mentality, you will fall for their trick."

After hearing this, Qiufeng thought for a while, and then said, "Inquire..." He looked at the Professor and Holmes, "Besides the complete death of the uninformed and unraveling the rules of the space, are there any other ways to end this game?"

The two Bosses looked at each other, and this time, they chose to answer.

Holmes smiled and said, "Yes, you can try to kill the Professor."

Moriarty added, "If you can kill me, this game and this room will disappear."

Their answers ended, and an inquiry card on the table moved in front of Qiufeng.

Qiufeng took a deep breath and flipped the card over, only to find that the front was blank.

"You should have more confidence in yourself, young man," Moriarty said, "That was a good question."

Qiufeng let out a long breath, "Seeing how confident you two are, I naturally guessed something..." He looked at his teammates, "Obviously, with our strength, we can't kill the Professor at all, but, if we deduce the rules of this space, we will have a chance to do so..."

Honghu continued, "But... since we have already deduced the rules of the space, there is no need to risk fighting, just say it in the form of 'Presumption' and win the game."

"It can't be ruled out... that among the four of us, someone clearly knows the truth, but doesn't make a Presumption and insists on killing the Professor," Feng Bujue suddenly said.

In that instant, three teammates cast meaningful glances at him.

"What?" Feng Bujue leaned back in his chair and spread his hands out.

"Brother Feng, I think only you would do such a thing..." Ji Chang said.

Qiufeng and Honghu also nodded, expressing their agreement.

"Then let's not play, I'll try the killing method first." As Feng Bujue spoke, he actually took something out of his bag.

"What!" The other three were shocked when they saw Feng Bujue reaching into his bag.

Because the bags of the three of them had reverted to their sealed state after arriving in this room. Logically speaking, everyone was a player, and there was no reason for Feng Bujue to be an exception.

But, Feng Bujue picked up the Anti-Gravity Catapult, took out the Nokia phone from his pocket as ammunition, and aimed at Professor Moriarty, "Any last words? Professor."

"Hahahaha..." Holmes laughed beside him, put down his pipe, and applauded Feng Bujue.

Moriarty was still very calm, he sat at the table without moving, and calmly asked, "Unbelievable... only halfway through the second round, and you have already completed the reasoning."

"Opponents who are too weak or too strong will deprive the game of its fun, won't they?" Feng Bujue laughed.

"What exactly is going on?" Honghu said, "Brother Feng... what exactly..."

"The rules of this space are..." Feng Bujue confidently continued, "Believing is seeing."

"What the heck... how did you come up with that..." This time, Qiufeng completely lost track of Jue-Ge's thinking.

Feng Bujue temporarily put down the Catapult and said, "First of all, recall the most basic hint... Language is a power." He tapped his temples lightly with his fingers, "Do you remember those five messages?"

Without waiting for his teammates to respond, Feng Bujue continued, "These messages are not comments after things happen, but the reasons why things happen."

"So... those we saw during the ascent..." Honghu was the first to react.

Ji Chang continued, "The messages came first, and then the events happened..."

"When we jumped into the waterfall on the sixth floor, those five sentences had become part of our 'memory'," Feng Bujue continued, "Therefore, some of our experiences in the memory space fulfilled the messages."

Jue-Ge's gaze swept over his teammates, "If I'm not mistaken, the matches, pointed hat, broom, and apple that you are carrying were all consumed in the memory space to solve puzzles or advance the plot, right?"

The three of them nodded slightly, they had indeed used up all the plot items in their respective memory spaces.

"These few things have two things in common, one, they were all obtained inside the 'Test Building'; two, they were all used up before we entered this room for various reasons. Heh... this can't help but give me a hypothesis. Is there someone who doesn't want us to bring these things in here." As Feng Bujue spoke, he pointed to the phone suspended in front of the Catapult, "You see, the phone, knife, notebook, etc. that I got outside the Test Building... were all brought in."

"This is the final room, isn't it normal for those 'plot items' to be consumed before they come here?" Ji Chang said, "And Brother Feng's knives, notebooks, etc., are all 'tools' and 'equipment' that can be brought out of the script, not necessities to advance the plot."

"Yes, such an explanation seems reasonable, but..." Feng Bujue sneered, "The Professor said something to me earlier that made me very concerned. He said... 'This is not my own mental world, but a space composed of collective will'. Combining the current situation, I understand that the main purpose of that episode in the memory space was to make us consume those things that shouldn't be brought in."

"Why?" Qiufeng asked.

"Because those few things are 'creations' of other wills, and their appearance here will have some influence on the Professor," Honghu said thoughtfully, he barely kept up with Jue-Ge's thinking.

Feng Bujue laughed, "Professor, you don't deny that, do you?"

"That's right, those items can pose a certain threat to me. Of course, only if you know how to use them," Moriarty generously admitted.

"Hmph... anyway, the things are gone now, so it doesn't matter, right," Qiufeng snorted coldly.

"Let's talk about the situation after the Round Table Game started," Feng Bujue continued, "The four of us entered the game according to the rules and were injured by the power of 'language', there's nothing much to say about that. After that, it was the Professor's turn, and he immediately revealed a flaw."

"What are you saying?" Moriarty's tone changed slightly, and he frowned.

"No, no, no, what I say doesn't matter, the key is what you said." Feng Bujue repeated, "Suggestion – [There are no lies in this world]."

As soon as these words came out, Holmes' hand holding the pipe trembled slightly, and he said in a deep voice, "Hmph... it seems that the Professor's Suggestion was too obvious."

Moriarty said, "Did you guess the truth after hearing this sentence?"

"I had a Presumption, but I wasn't sure," Feng Bujue shrugged and sighed, "Hey... your Suggestion was not penalized, which means that the Suggestion is meaningful. Since you gave me a meaningful piece of information, I have to dig something out of it to be worthy of you."

Qiufeng continued, "Believing is seeing, which means... as long as you believe that something is true in your mind, it will become true."

Ji Chang also said, "So 'There are no lies in this world' may be true."

Combining Feng Bujue's conclusion, these two naturally understood the reasoning process as well.

"What brought me closer to the truth was Mr. Holmes' Presumption," Feng Bujue continued, "He said... 'Professor Moriarty is an idiot'." He smiled, "I tried to think from another angle... As an informed person, when 'Presuming', it is naturally impossible to say a correct conclusion that is related to the truth, because that would be equivalent to admitting defeat. Therefore, Mr. Holmes will definitely say a Presumption that is not related to the truth."

In fact, he could have completely said something like 'the sky is blue' or 'the snow is white', and then accepted the penalty. But he didn't... As you, Professor, said, Mr. Holmes is 'extremely conceited, casual, and unrestrained'."

So he said 'Professor Moriarty is an idiot'.

Heh... that's interesting. Why didn't he say 'Giraffes can breathe fire' or 'Pigs fly in the sky'? Because he knew... if he said such things, there was a certain probability that these things would become reality."

Feng Bujue stretched out a hand and pointed to the surroundings, "You two are very clear about the rules of this space, and you are already accustomed to manipulating these rules. You just need to convince your brain that something is true, and that thing will become true. Just like just now, as long as Mr. Holmes let himself 'believe' that the bomb would not cause any damage to him, then he would be unharmed."

"This method of self-hypnosis can become proficient through training, and it's not difficult for you," Jue-Ge tilted his head and said to the Professor, "And 'Professor Moriarty is an idiot' is a sentence that Mr. Holmes could not possibly convince himself to believe, so he said it with a joking attitude.

Your 'nicetry' and his 'it doesn't cost anything to try', I understood as soon as I heard them. His behavior seemed to be trying to turn you into an idiot with language. And when he failed, you two jokingly said these two sentences.

At this point, I have basically confirmed the truth."

"Then why didn't you directly choose Presumption in your turn?" Holmes asked.

"Not safe," Feng Bujue replied, "What if I was wrong?" He waved his fingers, "At that time, all I needed was more time to verify my conclusion, so I chose Inquire first and asked a foolproof question."

"When you initiated the inquiry, I hadn't fully explained the rules of the inquiry yet, and you were able to ask such a question, which can be described as extremely careful," Moriarty commented.

"You flatter me," Feng Bujue replied, "In short... I am very clear that verifying my conclusion does not necessarily have to go through the rounds in the Round Table Game, I can complete it while sitting in my seat."

Honghu looked at Feng Bujue with an unbelievable expression and said, "You mastered the way to manipulate the rules without 'language' in such a short period of time?"

"This is indeed difficult, but not impossible," Feng Bujue said, "I silently gave myself a psychological suggestion, telling myself... I have two tongues."

"Huh?"

Including Moriarty, the expressions of everyone at the table changed drastically.

"It worked," Feng Bujue said, opening his mouth wide, and another identical tongue stretched out from under his original tongue, "This way, I have completely confirmed the truth – as long as I convince myself that something is 'true', then it will be realized."

"Uh... I say..." Qiufeng couldn't help but say, "Why didn't you use 'my face is intact' to experiment..."

"Wouldn't that be exposing it?" Feng Bujue asked back.

"Ha..." Moriarty grinned, "Therefore, after confirming that killing us can also end the game, you became murderous? Hehe... forgive me for speaking frankly, is this not a bit unwise?" He glanced at Ji Chang next to him, "Let your companion directly say the truth with Presumption, wouldn't that be winning?"

"Fu-" Holmes also smoked his pipe, "You can take items out of your dimensional pocket, which is indeed commendable, but do you really want to fight us?" His tone was still calm, "For us, rewriting the truth here with 'thought' and 'language' is already a common occurrence. In just a few seconds, I can convince myself that 'Feng Bujue is a stone' or 'Feng Bujue is crushed into minced meat'." He pointed to Jue-Ge, "And you, convincing yourself that 'my dimensional pocket can be used' has already taken a lot of time, right? How can you possibly win against us?"

"Brother Feng... it seems that they are advising us," Ji Chang said.

"They are just pretending to be calm, hmph... as long as I firmly believe that 'Feng Bujue will not die', nothing will happen," Feng Bujue laughed, "When the 'truth' believed by others contradicts the 'truth' believed by me, this is a simple contest of willpower."

"Brother Feng... why do you have to..." Honghu was also very confused, at this moment, as long as Ji Chang said the Presumption, the game would be won, why did Feng Bujue still insist on falling out with the two Bosses.

"Don't you understand?" Feng Bujue interrupted, "This place is just a mental world. That's why language and thought are so powerful here, even having the power to reverse order." The cuts on his face healed at this time, and his tongue also returned to one, "In reality, our bodies must already be in the 'Reasoning Club', but our spirits are imprisoned in this so-called 'Test Building'."

The Bosses could not hear what Feng Bujue said next, "I'll just ask you one question... do you want to clear the game quickly, or go with me to see the truth of this script?"

Honghu, Qiufeng and Ji Chang looked at each other.

As professional players, sometimes they need to make trade-offs between fun and efficiency. And the three of them also have something similar to Jue-Ge in their bones, that is, an almost morbid curiosity...

"Okay, let's do it according to your idea," Honghu said.

Ji Chang also said, "I'll risk my life and accompany the madman."

Qiufeng was still lying on the chair, "I'm trying to convince myself that 'there are no wounds on my chest', so I can't stop you."

"Hehe..." Feng Bujue smiled, he raised the [Anti-Gravity Catapult] again and aimed the Nokia shell at Moriarty, "Professor, I regret to tell you. No matter which dimension, no matter under which physical law, no matter in the cognition of which creature... being hit by this thing is bound to die!"

Whoosh-

The phone flew out with a whoosh under the action of the catapult, Professor Moriarty looked at the black shadow crashing towards his face in astonishment...

Almost at the same time as the attack took effect, system prompts rang out one after another: [Current task has been changed, main task has been updated]

[Worldview has been deciphered, player: Feng Bujue, has received 2700 Skill Points as reward, the team can now view the world rules of this script in the extended options of the task menu]

[Hidden plot flow has been entered.]

In the task bar, [Defeat Holmes and Moriarty in the "Round Table Game"] was crossed out, and a new task appeared below: [Defeat the real 'Boss', or escape the Reasoning Club.]