"Let me continue," Holmes said, putting down his pipe temporarily and looking at the table. "Inference—Professor Moriarty is an idiot."

His words gave the four players the illusion of, "Did I just mishear that?"

Only Professor Moriarty himself remained unfazed.

"Nice try," Moriarty said casually.

Holmes laughed and shrugged, mimicking Feng Bujue's tone from earlier, "Doesn't cost anything to try."

The players had no idea what these two were up to, but the cards on the table moved as expected. A card with the word "Inference" printed on the back slid in front of Holmes.

The great detective didn't pick up the card, but simply flipped it over on the table, revealing the picture on the front.

On the card... was a bomb. The kind of black, spherical bomb that often appears in cartoons.

Holmes glanced at the card, then stood up and took a few steps back, putting some distance between himself and the table.

He began to rummage through his pockets, and when he reached the left pocket of his coat, his expression changed slightly. "Oh, here it is," he said, taking out a black sphere bomb, slightly larger than an orange, from that pocket.

The bomb's shape was exactly the same as the one on the card, and the fuse was lit. The moment it was taken out of his pocket, the fuse was already about to burn out.

Bang—

Before the four players could react to what was happening, the explosion occurred. Three of them were dumbfounded, while Feng Bujue had a smiling face...

The bomb's power was mediocre, only affecting a radius of about one meter. A spherical cloud of black smoke enveloped Holmes' upper body, blocking everyone's view.

Moriarty sat as steady as Mount Tai, not even bothering to turn his head.

Before long, the black smoke dissipated, and Holmes stood there unharmed. He dusted himself off, strode back to the table, picked up his pipe, and said, "Gentlemen, please continue."

"Hey... what's the meaning of this! Is your punishment just a smokescreen?" Qiufeng said unhappily.

"No, that was a real explosion," Holmes replied. "If I had stayed at the table, I might have affected you all."

"Hmph... if it's not a smokescreen, then it shows that they are very powerful in this space, and the punishment can't harm them," Honghu said.

"Indeed," Holmes said, biting his pipe and nodding slightly.

"Excuse me," Ji Chang said, "I suddenly thought of a crucial question that you haven't explained." He looked at Moriarty and Holmes and said, "How do you win this game?"

Moriarty replied, "As long as any one of you four deduces the truth, you win."

"And if all four of us are killed before we learn the truth, then it's a victory for them, the 'informed'," Feng Bujue continued Professor's words, speaking to Ji Chang.

"Good to know, it's your turn," Moriarty said, looking at Feng Bujue.

"Since the round when the uninformed enter the game is defaulted to be a hint..." Feng Bujue put down his knife and leaned forward, "Then from this round on, before I say a 'word,' I have to declare whether it's an 'inquiry,' 'speculation,' or 'inference,' right?"

"Correct," Moriarty replied.

"Just asking," Feng Bujue added, "What would happen if I declared 'hint' again now?"

"Before the fifth round, your 'repeated declaration' will be considered invalid," Moriarty replied. "Your turn will continue until you declare a valid option."

"Oh... and one more thing," Feng Bujue pointed to the table, "Reaching out to flip these unopened cards, or tearing them up, destroying them..."

"Only death awaits," Holmes interrupted him in a leisurely tone.

Hearing this, Feng Bujue shook his head and rambled for a while, then suddenly slammed the table and shouted, "Inquiry!"

"Just ask, what's with the sudden outburst..." Honghu said.

"Yeah, I have a bad heart," Qiufeng said, pointing to the hilt of the sword in his chest.

Feng Bujue ignored them and threw out his question, "What exactly is the law of this space?"

Jue Ge's question was basically equivalent to "Tell me, so I can win." He also knew that things wouldn't be that simple, but he was just trying, and it could also pave the way for his teammates' turns.

Sure enough, after he asked, none of the cards on the table moved.

The Professor explained in a timely manner, "When you make an inquiry, the opposing team's players can choose to answer or not to answer."

Holmes added, "If we choose not to answer, you get a one-time exemption from punishment."

Moriarty said, "And if we answer this question, the round table will begin to judge..." He paused for a second, "If the questioner themselves can glean useful information from our answer, the inquiry will be considered valuable. Conversely, it will be a meaningless inquiry, and the questioner will be punished."

While the Professor was speaking, Holmes took another puff of his pipe. Then he added, "Also, the same question cannot be asked twice. Changing the wording, but meaning the same thing, is also not allowed, otherwise you will be punished."

Moriarty shrugged, "As for your current question, we will naturally... not answer."

After he said this, a card with the word "Inquiry" on the back turned over by itself and moved in front of Feng Bujue. The front of the card had no pattern, just the words "Exemption" written in black and white.

"Hey, hey, hey..." Qiufeng couldn't help but interject, "If you guys keep choosing not to answer, then when all the meaningful questions are asked, won't 'Inquiry' be useless to us?" His question was what the other players were thinking as well.

"Therefore, you'd better use the inquiry to obtain exemptions as much as possible before all the meaningful questions are asked," Moriarty said.

Holmes also prompted with an air of confidence, "You can also try to set traps, using seemingly meaningless questions to inquire, to lure us into saying useful information." He smiled, "Don't worry about us lying, as long as we choose to answer, we must tell the truth."

"Then... can you two explain the situations for speculation and inference before I choose a card?" Honghu asked.

"[Speculation] is to propose a hypothesis," Holmes replied. "If the content of the speculation is completely unrelated to solving the truth, the speculator will directly draw a punishment card." He paused, "A reasonable and constructive speculation, when flipped over, will be a blank card. At this time, the Professor and I must respond to your speculation... answering 'correct,' 'incorrect,' or 'not accurate.'"

"[Inference] is to state a 'conclusion,' which is judged by the round table to be correct or not. If you say it right, it's a white card, if you say it wrong... you will be punished with death," Moriarty added. "Of course, Holmes was only punished because the conclusion he stated was completely unrelated to the 'truth.' Just as you speculated before, the 'hints' of the uninformed are meaningless, and the informed can only say irrelevant or incorrect conclusions when 'inferring.'"

After this explanation, the room fell silent.

All four players were doing their best to think quickly. They all knew how serious the situation was.

The complexity and difficulty of this round table game were unprecedented. And the two opponents they were playing against were even god-level wise men, and were set in the script as being almost invincible.

To win, they had to use "language" to obtain enough information within a limited time and within the limitations of the rules, and use this to deduce the "truth," that is, a certain hidden law of this space.

"I... let's inquire," Honghu didn't think for too long. He knew that time was precious, and he would take a stable exemption card first this round.

His teammates also understood what he meant, because Qiufeng was already bleeding, so wasting time could mean losing a member. And every time one person is lost, the number of rounds that the "uninformed" can act is reduced by one.

"Inquiry—Mr. Holmes, what is the reason why you weren't killed just now?"

The wise general Honghu was indeed well-deserved. Asking this question would definitely get him an exemption. Because the abilities of these two Bosses were closely related to the laws of this space, this question could not be answered.

"Ha... so delightful," Holmes turned his head to Moriarty beside him and said, "Professor, your guests today are really interesting..." He took a puff of his pipe and pointed the stem of his pipe at Honghu's direction, "For example, this one, not only has outstanding intelligence, but also has unique observation and reasoning abilities."

Moriarty replied in a lukewarm tone, "Yes, and that kid over there, for example." His gaze turned to Feng Bujue, "He's very similar to you, with keen and organized thinking, but extremely conceited, casual, and uninhibited."

"Answer, or not answer," Honghu urged. He didn't feel any honor in being praised by two virtual game characters. He only knew that these two Bosses were talking about other things, which would waste time.

"Hey! Don't be anxious," At this moment, Qiufeng actually interrupted, "Next, they're probably going to praise me and Ji Chang a few words, let them finish."

"Brother Qiufeng, you really don't know how to live or die..." Ji Chang brushed his incomparably dashing hairstyle, "If you weren't stabbed by a sword, we wouldn't have to race against time."

"Hahahaha..." Qiufeng couldn't help but laugh again, "Don't talk to me, I can't stand the sight of you now."

"Fuu..." Holmes turned his face and looked at Qiufeng in the next seat, "It seems that they are worried about this..." As he spoke, he raised his hand and moved his fingers.

Suddenly, the sword in Qiufeng's chest retreated with a swoosh, floated in the air for two seconds, and then fell to the ground.

Qiufeng reacted quickly and quickly pressed down on his wound. He opened the menu and observed for more than a minute, and found that although the [Bleeding] state was still there, the loss of Survival Value had stopped. It seemed that as long as he didn't let go, the blood wouldn't flow.

Moriarty glanced at Holmes and said, "Is there a need to do this?"

Holmes replied with a smile, "A flustered and uncertain opponent will make the game lose its proper fun."

"Hmph..." Moriarty sneered, looking at the players and said, "Everyone, you heard that, please consider it slowly, don't rush."