"I... I didn't do it on purpose." Carol said somewhat panicked, "I just missed my throw."
"Huh." Joker slapped the table hard, sneered and said, "I think you simply don't trust us. You want to keep a way out for yourself, using the burning house as a last resort. You fear we might not light the fire, that's why you faked a trembling hand as a mistake, to create opportunity for yourself!"
"What are you saying?! You bastard, how could I possibly do that?! I... I was just... Damn this rule for making me so nervous?!"
"Look, look, she's back to blaming the rules again." Joker showed his teeth in disdain, scanned the room, then folded his arms and glared darkly at Carol, saying: "We shouldn't have given this stupid woman a chance in the first place. She never thought about others' feelings from the beginning. I think we should call it a day and play by the original rules."
Anger caused Carol's eyebrows to shoot up, but counting the matches in her hand sobered her up again.
She just threw in a matchstick. According to the rules, she can throw in two more, but it's pointless.
Shiller and Joker both just threw in two matchsticks, leaving them with eight. If she and Katy each threw in three, they would be left with seven.
So, following a clockwise order where everyone ends up with 8, 8, 7, 7 matchsticks respectively, the round after the abolition of the guessing game rule would leave 5, 5, 4, 4 matchsticks. After the next round, it became 2, 2, 1, 1. Then, Shiller throws two, Joker throws two, Katy throws one, and Carol would still be eliminated.
The situation had advanced to a point where Carol couldn't ensure anyone would have four or more matchsticks left. If the rules were abolished now, she would definitely lose.
So, she took a deep breath, took out what little patience she had left and explained: "Trust me, I really didn't do it on purpose. I am a superpower user, but now that superpowers can't be used, it's really hard for me to control my limbs precisely. Besides, as long as no one skips, the fire won't reach the house."
The other three all remained noncommittal. Carol gritted her teeth and stomped her foot, saying: "Then I'll just throw two this round. Is that okay?"
Shiller sighed softly, standing up again to say: "Enough. It does no good to be harsh, actually. In a few more rounds, no one can guarantee they won't make a mistake. Fire will always start, as Ms. Carrol said. As long as the fire basin doesn't rise, it doesn't matter."
Carol looked at Shiller with some gratitude, threw in two matchsticks, and Shiller turned back to play rock-paper-scissors with Joker.
Katy watched their movements nervously, wanting to know if Shiller and Joker had coded any signals to determine their moves.
After the last round, she had the least number of matchsticks, meaning she had the biggest advantage. If she could once again defeat Joker and Carol, she could make sure she would win.
This time Joker chose scissors again, but Shiller chose paper. After Shiller lost, Joker opened his mouth wide to reveal a big grin and said: "You'll have to skip, my friend."
Suddenly, the other two widened their eyes.
But Joker just had that terrifying grin on his face.
Both Carol and Katy wanted to know if Shiller would continue to obey the rules and play on. After hesitating for a moment, Shiller sighed and pulled his hand back from his matchsticks.
Carol was extremely confused. Losing the chance to throw three matchsticks meant that Shiller's chances of winning were halved. He was supposed to be the sure winner, why would he allow himself to fall into such a predicament?
If it were her, she would just quit the game outright. After all, these weren't the organizer's rules. She could forcefully throw in her matchsticks without any penalty. More importantly, she could use this to pressure Joker into changing his decision. However, Shiller didn't do anything.
"I'll skip." Shiller said.
A faint 'click, click' sound came from the ceiling. Everyone looked up and as expected, the chains began to tighten and started gradually rising.
It had been mentioned before, the chains were in a relatively loose state. The first time the fire basin rose, it didn't even reach 30 centimeters off the table, just barely over ten centimeters. The flames in the basin didn't burn very high either.
This relieved Carol, if the biggest disadvantage now was Shiller's, then she didn't want to perish together anymore. Why harm herself if she could win?
But as she watched the fire basin slowly rise, Katy became even more certain of her speculation - the biggest evidence was the chains attached to the fire basin.
The fire basin was not very big, its diameter was just about 30 to 40 centimeters, even including the edges, it couldn't be more than half a meter. But the way the fire basin was attached was rather unusual.
Many people had seen this in movies and TV shows, castles using fire basins usually hung them up using three chains, because that's a simple physical concept, triangles are the most stable, or the chains holding up the fire basin converge at a single point at the top. This way, triangles could still be formed from the side view, providing stability.
But this fire basin was not like that. It was hoisted by four chains, and the four chains went straight up and down, completely parallel, this was not a typical fire basin suspension method.
Even more obviously, the square made up of the four chains pointed straight forward with two sides parallel to the players and two sides vertical to the players, as if the square was placed straight on the table. Each side had a player in front, and the four corners pointed to empty spaces.