"The Riddle Game begins now."
Just at the time the three Simhas ended their speech, the timer appeared in Sethryn's Synapse and the countdown started.
The Riddle Game was scheduled to last for ten minutes after which the outcome would depend on whether Sethryn won the game or lost it.
If he won, the outcome was very much obvious to him. He would ascend to the next floor — 2nd Floor — but in the event that he lost...
Sethryn did not know what awaited him should that happen.
The outcome of a loss was known only to the Floor Keeper and host of his own riddle game — 1st Keeper, Simha.
The 1st Floor was guarded by two keepers, Nara and Simha, each one served as a host to the Riddle Game and that depended on which player met them.
Nara served as host to a player that encounters Simha and the reverse happens when a player meets Nara first as is the case with Sethryn.
...
...
...
Sethryn glanced at the timer that popped up in his notifications.
[ Riddle Game ]
[ Time Remaining: 00h : 09m : 48s ]
Twelve seconds had already been lost and more were being lost.
The Riddle Game was a simple yet complicated game.
It required that a player be as fast in his thinking as he was slow in thinking.
Too much rush to clear the floor would likely lead to a player's loss.
Also, a waste of time on the player's end was bound to lead to a loss as well.
Sethryn breathed in and out deeply to calm his nerves and relax his mind.
It was a riddle.
He had come across so many of them in the real world. This was his forte but he needed to think straight and calmly to prove that it was indeed a thing he excelled at doing.
Sethryn recalled every word of the Simhas' riddle in his head.
"One of us will always say the truth. One of us will always lie. One of us will always be on the fence, deciding to say the truth or lie however he deems fit."
Sethryn's tactic for tackling the task was to divide the riddle into parts and analyse those parts critically.
Of course, he knew that there would be loopholes to exploit as well as unspoken rules to be wary of, but if he could figure out an important loophole, then he had won the Riddle Game.
He had only one mission to accomplish.
Sethryn recalled the condition for passing the test. "To pass the Riddle Game, you must identify which of us is which — the Simha of Truth, the Simha of Lies and the Simha of Both."
Using the Expand option, he enlarged the blue notification screen so he could easily glance at the timer to keep track of the time.
[ Riddle Game ]
[ Time Remaining: 00h : 08m : 58s ]
A little over a minute had passed while he was thinking of a strategy. That was not much loss to bother about but he needed to be cautious from then.
"One will always say the truth," he muttered to himself.
"One will always lie."
"One can choose either to lie or to speak the truth."
Sethryn sighed.
The Riddle Game was beginning to look more difficult the deeper he thought about it.
He shut his eyes for a moment, thinking deeply about the riddle.
The clues that were probably hidden between the lines.
The loopholes and...
The unspoken rules.
He thought about it all.
...
...
...
[ Riddle Game ]
[ Time Remaining: 00h : 05m : 23s ]
Nearly half of the total time allotted to the Riddle Game was about to elapse.
Sethryn slowly opened his eyes as if he had found the answer to his riddle.
He glanced at the notification box again and it was exactly at the fifth-minute count.
Time was wasted but fortunately, Sethryn found a way... the only way.
The only way for him to figure out which Simha was which involved him asking them questions and they never mentioned anything against that.
Sethryn was willing to take the gamble along with the gains or the pains that came with it whatever the outcome will be.
Asking the Simhas questions was either going to be a loophole for him to exploit or an unspoken rule that will judge and punish him, but he would never know unless he tried to find out.
...
...
...
He pointed at one of them — the Simha at the centre.
"You!" he called out, his voice reaching beyond the long space of nothingness that separated them.
The Simha in the middle blinked his eyes and paid more attention to Sethryn, waiting for what he was going to say next.
"I have a question for you..."
Sethryn smirked.
How much has he figured out in the past five minutes?
"Am I allowed to ask you a question?"
"Yes."
The Simha answered almost as immediately as the question came.
As he answered glanced at the timer immediately noting the second and allowing for a few more seconds to pass, and when nothing happened to him, he realised that it was indeed a loophole.
A loophole he would now exploit.
Sethryn made his decision
"That's it!"
"You are the Simha of Tru—"
He shut himself up when he realised that he was becoming hasty.
The Simha that had answered him smirked at the moment that Sethryn halted.
Failure was tied to consequences, and hastiness was the quickest way to failure in the Riddle Game.
"Wait."
Sethryn halted and thought about what he was about to do.
He shook his head when it dawned on him that he almost stepped into the pit of failure.
He had proven something although that was not what he was gunning for.
Sethryn only succeeded in proving that there was a loophole for him to exploit. He was yet to take any step further in proving which Simha was which of the three categories.
[ Riddle Game ]
[ Time Remaining: 00h : 04m : 42s ]
"Something did not happen to me after asking the question. The one in the middle does not lie. If that's the case, then he is either the Simha of Truth or the Simha of Both choosing to tell the truth.
"To figure them out, I will need to ask them more questions but I assume that there is a limit to the number of questions I'm allowed to ask unless the entire game is hacked.
"Let's say, I have one question each for the three of them and I have used one out of the three... what will I do at this point?"
Sethryn's face lit up and he smiled. He had finally figured it out.
This time for sure, he would find out which of them is which.
He turned to the Simha on the right side and pointed at him.
"Is the one in the middle the Simha of Lies?"
"No," the Simha answered.
Sethryn turned to the one on the left.
"This means I may or may not have one question left to ask."
Sethryn sighed and pointed at the last Simha.
"The Simha in the middle... is he the Simha of Lies?"
The eyes of the three Simhas broadened. They were shocked that he would waste his question slots asking the same question.
Sethryn was right. As there was a loophole, there was also an unspoken rule.
He was allowed to ask a question but only one question to each of them.
The Simha on the left had no choice but to answer since it was the player's question.
"Yes," he responded.
[ Riddle Game ]
[ Time Remaining: 00h : 02m : 02s ]
Sethryn's mouth widened into a grin.
"Eureka!"