Chapter 429: Two Strategies

"Time limit is 5 minutes." Yang Yuting looked at the time and added.

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

Their expressions were quite different. Zheng Jie looked confident of victory, while Dai Yifan furrowed his brows, stopping from time to time to think.

After 5 minutes, Yang Yuting checked the time, "Alright, time's about up.

"You two will each serve as attacker and defender. Who goes first?"

Zheng Jie volunteered, "I'll be the defender first!"

He laid out his five slips in a row, then randomly shuffled them around, mixing up the order.

"Alright, now I don't remember which is which either.

"Choose randomly."

Dai Yifan didn't take the most convenient one but drew from an awkward position in the middle.

Opening the slip, it read '10000.'

"Mm... switch."

After Dai Yifan spoke, he refolded the slip and handed it back. Zheng Jie reached out to take it and placed it in front of himself.

Slips that had already been chosen couldn't be chosen again, so they had to be kept by the 'defender.'

Dai Yifan drew another slip. Opening it again, he found it still read '10000.'

"Hm?"

Dai Yifan was slightly surprised. He furrowed his brows and fell into thought.

Yang Yuting said, "You can also voice your thoughts and thinking process. The numbers on the slips are already written anyway."

Dai Yifan thought and spoke simultaneously, "According to the game rules, every slip must satisfy 'at least one of the other 4 slips is 10 times or 1/10 of it.'

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

"At the same time, at most one of the five slips can have 100,000 written on it, or there might be none.

"Looking at Zheng Jie's confident appearance, as if victory is assured, if he really wrote one with 100,000, that would clearly be unfavorable for him.

"Because I can open slips twice and switch twice, viewing four times total. If I find a slip with '100,000' written on it, I've definitely won.

"As the defender, he would very likely lose instead.

"So he definitely didn't write '100,000.'

"But I suddenly realize that in this case, doesn't a 'guaranteed win method' exist?

"There are five slips total. No matter whether the attacker switches or not, they can take at most 2 slips, while the defender can keep 3 slips.

"If we consider it from the principle of the 'Two Envelope Paradox,' switching or not switching makes no difference, so the defender definitely has higher expected returns.

"So he very likely wrote four '10,000s' and one '1,000.' This also conforms to the game rules.

"If I get '10,000' and then switch to '1,000' while searching for the nonexistent '100,000,' I'll definitely lose.

"And even if I don't switch and draw two '10,000s,' since he keeps three slips, it will always be two '10,000s' and one '1,000,' forever higher returns than mine."

Zheng Jie spread his hands, "Hey, pretty clever. That's exactly it.

"But realizing it now is probably too late, because if you didn't use this strategy for yours, the final total net return will most likely lose to mine."

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

Dai Yifan drew another slip. Still '10,000.'

However, this time he didn't choose to switch.

Because the remaining two slips were '10,000' and '1,000' respectively. If he switched to 1,000, he'd lose even more.

Although theoretically there could also be four '10,000s' and one '100,000,' according to Dai Yifan's previous analysis, the defender would draw at least 3 times. If they drew '100,000' once, the game would end directly, so Zheng Jie had no reason to make such a decision.

After drawing was complete, Zheng Jie also opened all the remaining slips.

Sure enough, it was four '10,000s' and one '1,000.'

Yang Yuting, as host, announced the result, "Alright, in this round, Zheng Jie used the guaranteed win method as 'defender' and stably obtained a net return of 1,000.

"Next, let Dai Yifan be the defender."

Dai Yifan didn't shuffle the five slips he had written but carefully arranged them in order in front of Zheng Jie.

Zheng Jie thought about it, "Mm, anyway, I'll first draw one from the most awkward position."

He chose the second slip from his left.

Opening it, the number '1000' was written on it.

"Huh? I choose to switch."

Zheng Jie handed back the '1,000' slip. After thinking, he took the first slip from his left.

Upon seeing the number on it, he was stunned.

'10.'

"Wait, your..."

Zheng Jie was somewhat confused for a moment because he had already switched once, so this slip was confirmed to be kept.

This meant he and Dai Yifan had confirmed a net return difference of 990, which meant in terms of total net returns, he was only ahead by 10.

Not only that, Zheng Jie also realized an even worse problem.

According to the game rules, every slip satisfied 'at least one of the other 4 slips is 10 times or 1/10 of it.' So with both 10 and 1000 appearing, it meant the remaining slips would definitely have 100.

And for the remaining two slips, there were too many possible situations.

They could be any of six different numbers: 1, 10, 100, 1000, 10,000, or 100,000.

Zheng Jie scratched his head, "So for me now, first I need to judge whether the number 100,000 might exist among the remaining slips.

"If there's 100,000, there's only one possibility:

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

"According to previous analysis, because the attacker can actually view four slips, if 100,000 is chosen they'll lose directly, so I think you shouldn't have put 100,000 either.

"If you really did, I won't accept it, because you only dared put it since we're playing around in the community. In a real life-or-death game, you definitely wouldn't dare, so even if I lose because of this, I won't acknowledge it..."

Qin Yao was somewhat shocked, "Huh, how can he launch mental attacks on his opponent while talking about his own psychological activity?"

Zheng Jie continued, "If you're really playing this as a life-or-death game and didn't put 100,000, then my goal is... to find at least another 1,000 among the remaining slips, otherwise I'll still lose..."

As Zheng Jie spoke, he drew another slip.

After opening it, he was somewhat disappointed. It read '100.'

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

Zheng Jie tried hard to observe Dai Yifan's expression. Clearly, Dai Yifan knew the specific values on all slips, so this kind of questioning might also be a strategy.

If one was an expert in micro-expressions, perhaps they could read the opponent's psychology?

But clearly, that was more like plots in TV dramas. Zheng Jie studied for a long time and gained nothing.

But in any case, '100' was a bit too little.

Zheng Jie thought about it, "I'll switch."

He switched to another slip and opened it again.

Still '100.'

Zheng Jie was somewhat deflated. He scratched his head, finding this result somewhat hard to accept.

Dai Yifan opened all the slips. They were 1000, 100, 100, 10, and 10.

Yang Yuting announced the final result, "The slips Dai Yifan kept are 1000, 100, and 10. The slips Zheng Jie took are 100 and 10.

"Dai Yifan's net return is 1000. The final result between the two is a draw."

Zheng Jie was somewhat embarrassed, "What is this, two noobs pecking at each other?

"But the way you made these slips is really strange! The largest number is 1000? Are you human?"