The parallelogram was unstable to begin with, the peculiar way it hung in the air was certainly a clue of something.
Carol stared as the brazier gradually lifted from the table. When the brazier sat on the table, she didn't feel anything special. But as it now floated in the air, certain oddities were magnified.
It wasn't that she was considering any analysis of forces, just thought the hanging brazier looked odd. If it was hanging by four ropes, why not just make it square? Did a small round basin really need four chains?
Just then, Joker stumbled as if he was drunk. The elbow he had propped onto the table pushed down, causing the table to sway.
"What are you doing?!" Carol yelled angrily.
But the next second, she looked on in shock as the swaying table jolted the brazier, causing the flame to flare up dramatically.
Instantly, Carol realized a terrifying fact—the real game here was to shove the brazier!
And she was sitting across from a madman!!!
Carol could almost instantly feel the cold sweat breaking out in her palms. Her legs weakened, her arms could hardly support her on the table, she clenched her teeth and held her breath, wanting to shove the brazier directly into the face of the madman across from her.
But just before she could make her move, Joker, hugging his arm, grinned and said, "You must have never studied math or physics, huh? If you push right now, the other side of the brazier will bump into the table."
Carol halted. She might not understand the theoretical data, but she could imagine the scene.
Those four chains were securely threaded through holes and fixed to the rim of the brazier. There were no pulleys to ensure that the brazier wouldn't flip over. To push the brazier, they certainly couldn't touch the scorching bottom, they could only hit the rim. But if too much force was applied downward, the brazier could very likely bump into the table and spill out the hot coals.
Despite the brazier burning fiercely in the wooden hut, the air was frozen to the bone. They began to understand the real game here. Tossing matches was just a diversion. Once the flames were ignited, it became a game of push hands in a whole new sense.
No wonder the rules required them to stay within a meter of the table. Stepping out of bounds would count as a foul. If this game were merely a challenge of arithmetic skills, setting boundaries would be pointless.
The essence was to find a way to push the brazier onto others, either knock it out, or force someone to dodge and get out of bounds. As long as one person got eliminated, the remaining three would automatically win. This was the fastest way to victory.
But no one dared to make a move now because the brazier's position was not favorable. Knocking it into the table and flipping over could be disastrous.
Katy had long seen through it. Shiller must have understood the nature of the game early on, hence the setup of these rules because he knew that having an advantage in the match-tossing game was useless.
But in that case, why not just opt to skip twice and then start pushing? Why bother with scripting such intricate rules?
Katy was confused but Joker was already challenging her to Rock Paper Scissors.
Distracted by her thoughts, Katy neglected to observe Joker's pattern of playing and carelessly responded with paper, only to lose to Joker's scissors.
Joker picked up three matches and tossed them into the fire. He started to limber up his wrist as if preparing to shove the brazier into this damn dumb woman's face as soon as this round was over.
Katy noticed Carol's trembling hands as Carol prepared to play Rock Paper Scissors. She focused hard to observe the twitching muscles in Carol's hand. Next second, she made a fist and won!
Katy silently cheered, but she also understood the current situation. Everyone was holding back due to the brazier's unfavorable position. Perhaps the moment it rose up, someone would make the first move and put another person in trouble.
So she absolutely couldn't skip her turn this round. If the brazier rose during her turn, even though Carol and Joker might start pushing each other, what if Shiller on the opposite side made a move?
Realizing the structure of the brazier, Katy knew that the design favored those sitting across from each other to push. It would be challenging to push diagonally. So the one to be most cautious about was the person opposite.
Katy took a deep breath, swallowed hard, and threw three matches into the brazier. The fire burned even brighter.
She calculated in her mind, there was one more opportunity to act, that was when the brazier got hot.
The brazier was already hot when lowered. There was a significant amount of glowing coal inside. But after the open fire was lit, it was different.
Although this game was unrealistic, anyone with some common sense would know that the brazier would get hotter and hotter the longer it burned. It would not only burn the person getting shoved, but the person doing the shoving would also get burned.
It would seem that the next round would be it, Katy thought. When it's Joker's turn again, he would definitely make a move to eliminate Carol. That must be the plan of Shiller and Joker.
Carol turned now to play Rock Paper Scissors with Shiller. This time Shiller won. Shiller nodded at Carol and said, "Two matches, ma'am."
Carol did not relax at all. She threw two matches into the brazier with a pale face. Then it was Shiller's turn to play Rock Paper Scissors with Joker. Shiller won again and threw three more matches into the fire.
Finally, it was Joker's turn again.
Katy went over her suspicions in her mind again and noticed Shiller and Joker both casting glances at her. This reinforced her belief that her speculation was correct.
And she'd figured out the pattern to Joker's plays—this madman only ever called scissors.
"Rock, paper, scissors!"
Katy's rock crushed Joker's scissors.
"Choose to skip!"
"I skip!"
The firelight cast by the rising brazier illuminated Carol's dumbfounded face. A hand pressed on the brazier's belly, pushing with all its might.
"Thud!"
A figure was knocked flying. Carol stood on the spot in disbelief, her mouth agape as she watched Katy being flung away by Shiller.
"Ahhhhhhh!"
Katy clutched her blistered chest and jaw, shrieking sharply.
But Carol noticed something—what leaked from Katy's wound wasn't blood, but some disgusting blackish-gray sludge.
"Contestant - Clayface, fouled out of bounds, execution of elimination!"
"Thud!"
Countless splatters of mud burst out but what remained at the center of the explosion wasn't any human tissue, but just a puddle of mud gradually collapsing.
Carol was stunned.
"What in the world just happened??!!"