Underworld Player

"...The captain is at least twenty-five years old." It took almost seven minutes for the doll to sullenly give its answer.

"Based on the estimated total weight of the cargo, the ship has to be able to carry up to 500 tons. To captain such a ship requires at least a Type-C license, 48 months of relevant work experience and at least a Bachelor's degree, so under normal circumstances, the captain has to be at least twenty-five."

"Not bad, not bad. I give you... 5 points for that answer."

Bai Zhi did a slow clap and looked genuinely impressed.

"Keep it up, study hard and aim for the full 100 next time."

The riddle challenge should have been a serious affair, where contestants played a somber game of high-stakes quizzing amidst a spooky atmosphere, but the way this Bai Zhi guy was approaching it, the ragdoll couldn't help but feel the whole mood of the place being disrupted.

It simply could not understand why its opponent today had so many useless facts stored in his brain... Were there truly people out there with nothing else better to do than look up and remember such information?

"I've got a bit of an obsession with reading, and I have a good memory, so I know a bit about everything," said Bai Zhi, as if he had read the ragdoll's mind instead. Pointing at his brain with a mocking flourish, he continued, "I've even studied the how and why of post-natal care for sows out of curiosity, so ask yourself: Are ya feeling lucky, punk?

"Anyway, chop-chop. Your turn."

"...A tickle below breeds ecstasy above; a wiggle above sends agony below. Guess a sport."

The ragdoll asked its brain-teaser with a blank expression, as if it had completely given up.

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"Fishing." Bai Zhi said glibly, then sat up and snapped his fingers.

"Now, I guess it's my turn to ask my final question."

The ragdoll glared back mutely.

Not that Bai Zhi had ever been bothered by such a thing, and under the resentful ragdoll's icy stare, he proceeded to present his final question in a goading manner.

"A bear has fallen into a pit. Given that the pit is 19.617 meters deep and the bear took exactly 2 seconds to reach the bottom, what color is the bear?"

This time, neither of them said another word, and after three minutes, the ragdoll spat, "I don't know. Now you have to answer your own question."

"I can't believe it, giving up so easily? Can't even work out the answer to such an easy question?" Bai Zhi put on an exaggerated show of mocking the ragdoll, his expression exceedingly contemptuous.

"Based on the data in the question, it's possible to calculate that the acceleration due to gravity, g is 9.8085 m/s². Gravitational acceleration varies from point to point around the world. At the north pole, for example, it's 9.832 m/s² while at the equator, it's 9.780. Thus, for g=9.8085, that corresponds to a latitude of about plus or minus 44 degrees. Considering the distribution of bears worldwide, we know that there are no bears in the southern hemisphere at that latitude, so that means it must be 44 degrees north of the equator. These are basic facts of physics and common geographic knowledge."

Bai Zhi paused and looked pointedly at the ragdoll.

The truth was that he had not thought it through either, so he was really flying by the seat of his pants, thinking out loud and putting together all kinds of facts and figures while playing it off like it was his plan all along.

He spoke slowly and deliberately to give himself more time to think, but this did not diminish his needling tone in any way.

"Based on the premise of the question, the pit is large enough that a bear can fall into it, and considering that there are few terrestrial creatures worth trapping that are larger than bears, it is possible to presume that the pit was specially prepared for bears. Since the trap was a pit trap, it must have been prepared for a land-dwelling bear, not a tree-dwelling one, since land bears have poor eyesight and are susceptible to such traps. The only land-dwelling bears distributed in the region that fulfils all the conditions are the brown bears and the black bears."

Looking directly at the doll once more, Bai Zhi shrugged and continued, "Since the pit was 19.617 meters deep, the ground must be made of alluvial soil, which is easy to dig through. While brown bears are technically found in the range in question, they tend to stick to regions of high elevation, and have ferocious temperaments, making trapping one an extremely dangerous proposition and not as rewarding as trapping a black bear.

"Most bear paws and bear gallbladders* come from black bears, and the habitats of black bears do not overlap with those of brown bears, thus it can be definitively concluded that it was a black bear that fell into the pit. Thus, considering all of the above, the color of the bear is: black."

After a momentary pause, the ragdoll threw down a stack of Hell Dollars onto the table between them and flew toward the private area in the back of the shop without another word.

"Hey you, that flying sack of moldy cotton over there! You can't leave before you tell me how many people have beat this game before me," Bai Zhi called out after the shell-shocked ragdoll, who looked ready to shut the door and lock up for the day.

A prolonged silence ensued, and just as Bai Zhi felt sure the ragdoll was not going to answer the question, a cold voice came from the door. "...You are the third."

"Third? Then Chu Tsi must have been one of the other two..."

Bai Zhi pocketed the 100 Hell Dollars on the table and looked grimly at the row of cabinets lining the walls, then turned to leave the Riddle Room.

At the last shop, the Funhouse, he had been in and out in no more than three minutes, but this "Riddle Room" had cost him nearly twenty minutes. After clearing the challenges at two shops, he had come away with 200 Hell Dollars, which was 100 Hell Dollars away from the 300 required to buy himself a bus ticket. At this rate, he could be sure that he was getting out of here... but what about the others?

Bai Zhi narrowed his eyes and looked toward the opposite side of the street.

While it could be said that he had only experienced two challenges—not considering Art's Pawnshop—the level of danger these shops represented was already clear to him. It was not an exaggeration to say that they were dancing on a high wire—the slightest mistake, and death would be the least of their worries. For example, they could be turned into puppets for failing to beat the Riddle Room.

Bai Zhi was not worried for himself, and even had some confidence in a high-level Player like Lin He, but Xu Feng was just some guy... Could he really collect enough money for the bus fare to leave the Underworld?

Bai Zhi was running out of patience. While he had cleared two challenges, Xu Feng and Lin He, who had decided to take on the shops opposite, had not even completed their first.

"The Five Corruptions run rampant and Hell is empty. This is only the entrance to the Underworld... So, we've got a bus and its driver, endlessly ferrying humans and Players alike here, strange shops constructed in this strange place, and the weird shop managers who seem to be under the thrall of the shops they operate..."

Bai Zhi frowned as he looked down at the jiggly, meat-like ground, then strode into the next shop.

*Bear paws are considered delicacies and bear gallbladders are considered potent medicine, thus are sold for high prices in China.