Capítulo 4: Still Not Enough

I glanced at Lana's tall, striking figure and couldn't help but nod to myself. With her height, around two centimeters taller than me, standing at about 1.7 meters, her weight was incredibly well-proportioned. She wasn't one of those stick-thin, childlike figures popular these days—she had a classic, ideal balance.

Danny scratched her head and, looking a bit embarrassed, said, "I weighed myself yesterday, exactly 48 kilograms."

The kid was shorter than me, so her weight seemed pretty normal.

Finally, Janice spoke shyly, "I'm a bit heavier than Danny, 50 kilograms even."

Janice, with her calm and reserved presence, was almost as tall as Danny but seemed less noticeable because of her quiet, introverted demeanor.

Wrapping up, I added, "I'm 60 kilograms—haven't changed in three years, so I'd assume it's still the same."

"So, our combined weight is… 284 kilograms. With the additional weight from the ball, that's 290.5 kilograms. Each platform should carry 145.25 kilograms…"

"Wait, we also need to factor in the extra weight. I have five bottles of water with me, which add up to 2.5 kilograms, meaning we need to account for an additional 2.5 kilograms in deviation. So, each platform should hold between 144.5 and 148.5 kilograms."

Everyone fell silent, doing mental math to figure out the best way to balance the weights. I separated ball number 9 and placed it on one tray, while the remaining balls went into the other tray, all while calculating silently.

'Carl can't pair with more than one person since he outweighs the rest of us by a fair bit… but even then, it's still not balancing. Somehow, no matter how we arrange it, our weights just won't divide evenly… this is bad.'

Carl, quick on the uptake, probably thanks to his coder brain, grimaced as he realized the problem too. Then Lana, who had been scribbling numbers and diagrams, also came up short, her face turning grim. Lastly, the two high schoolers caught on.

"Everyone… I don't know if anyone else has come up with a solution, but with our combined weights, it seems impossible to meet the requirement," Carl muttered, showing visible frustration for the first time.

Lana, despite her troubled look, kept her cool and said, "There has to be a way. The examiner wouldn't set an impossible challenge—that wouldn't make any sense."

'Lana, this situation hardly screams reasonable in the first place.' Seeing the tense atmosphere, I quickly jumped in, "Lana's right."

"Carl, let's go over our calculations together and see if there's a detail we missed. Look, I still have these five bottles of water—close to three kilos. Maybe they'll come in handy."

Carl gave me a look, managing a forced smile. "House is right; I might've overlooked something. Let's compare our ideas."

The oppressive tension that had filled the room began to lift, and Carl seemed to regain his composure. I occasionally threw in a comment but kept my focus on the room and the puzzle itself. I examined the surroundings and the platforms carefully, but nothing unusual stood out.

'Is there anything here that could be adjusted? Hmm… if we can't add weight, can we perhaps reduce it? Vomiting? Relieving ourselves? That wouldn't cut it; the reduced weight might not even match up with the water bottles.'

'Wait a minute…' my face went pale as a thought hit me: 'the puppet overseer. Oh, of course—this is Saw, or at least, it's designed to feel like it.'

'No way. Are we supposed to cut off limbs or something to meet the weight requirement? That would be insane. Our team would fall apart immediately if anyone even suggested it. No, no—such a brutal option is best left unmentioned unless we're absolutely out of ideas.'

Keeping my expression as calm as possible, I kept thinking down this line. 'Stay cool. In the movie, they usually laid out tools like saws and knives to help with that kind of twisted decision. But here, there's nothing at all.'

'That means, at least on the surface, the examiner isn't suggesting we resort to such measures. I mean, are we supposed to saw off a limb with a dull tray? Or use the scale to crush a leg? Way too brutal.'

'Wait… did I overlook something?', Just then, while I was deep in thought, I noticed Danny's face shift as she suddenly seemed to come to a horrifying realization.

"Hold on," he blurted, "that examiner… it was Jigsaw, right? Could this test be like Saw as well?"

My heart skipped a beat. I wanted to stop her, but Danny went on, "Are we… supposed to cut off a limb or something to balance the weight?" Her words had the immediate effect of making everyone tense up.

I inwardly cursed, 'Shit'

'Danny! Even if that's true, there's no need to say it out loud. We're already strangers, tossed into this creepy trial with no reason to trust each other. Our cooperation is hanging by a thread, held together only by our collective sense of self-preservation, it won't work.'

Predictably, the mood soured the moment Danny's words sank in. Carl's face turned dark, his gaze flickering nervously. Lana's eyes narrowed, and she subtly adjusted her posture, a sharp edge entering her gaze.

Even Danny himself realized the danger of what she'd suggested, mumbling an attempt at an explanation but finding no words to soften it.

'From a zero-sum perspective, if anyone here had the ruthlessness to do it, they wouldn't need to harm themselves—they could just eliminate one of the others. I could think of a dozen ways to solve this puzzle that way.'

'But here's the thing: if this test was about self-mutilation or hurting others, the examiner would've given us at least some hints or tools for that. Wait… are we really missing any tools?'

"Everyone, let's not jump to conclusions. Danny, I get why you'd think of Saw given Jigsaw's iconic look—it's hard not to think of it that way."

"But I really don't think this puzzle is pushing us to turn on each other or self-harm. Just think about it: the movie's traps were all in these terrifying, bloody settings with awful choices. This test room, in contrast, is pretty clean and straightforward—just some brain teasers. This test really might just be a set of intellectual challenges."

I stood up, rambling a bit to defuse the tension, and tried my best to prevent any more suspicion and paranoia from taking root. My explanation seemed to help everyone relax a little. Lana stood as well, gazing at me with a steady expression.

" It's a fair point, House. But we're still stuck here without a solution."

She gestured around the room. "There's no other door here. If we can't solve this puzzle, there's no other way out."

'Geez, where's your long-term vision? Why question me now?'

'If it comes down to it, we can go back and try the Strength or Team doors if they aren't locked.' I kept these thoughts to myself, exuding calmness. "Is that so? Well, I think I've just figured out how we can leave."

"What?"

Everyone looked at me in surprise. Confidently, I nodded and said, "That's right. I was just thinking—if our mysterious overseer's goal was to make us turn against each other or harm ourselves, they would have given us stronger hints encouraging us in that direction."

"In the movies, there were traps and weapons everywhere. Want to get out alive? Gouge an eye, cut off a leg—absolutely insane."

"But here? We have some paper, balls, and a scale. Answer the question, move on to the next room—that's hardly a death game, isn't it?"

I walked over to the table and continued, "Of course, that's just my own analysis. But back to the question at hand. Since the examiner gave us this scale, why not use it to help increase the weight?" With that, I picked up the scale with both hands.

Thankfully, it wasn't bolted down. If it had been, I'd have just grabbed the whole table. Holding the scale, I grinned at the group. "This thing's pretty hefty—must be around seven or eight kilograms. Are electronic scales usually this heavy? Eh, whatever. With this, we should be set."

Carl clapped me on the shoulder with enthusiasm. "You've got a sharp mind, kid. Not that it's exactly a novel idea—why didn't I think of it?"

Lana chuckled.

"House's really resourceful. We were so hung up on the instructions that we didn't think outside the box. Hmm… but we still don't know the exact weight of this scale."

I set the scale next to one tray of balls and began comparing. "Not a problem. We can use the balls to estimate the scale's weight."

I had Carl steady the left side of the scale while Lana placed the balls on the right tray one by one. "One more… and another… wait, we ended up using all of them. This scale is slightly heavier than all these balls combined, so let's say around 6 kilograms."

I set everything down and calculated. "Alright, Carl and I will stand on one platform, and the rest of you on the other. Add in the balls, water bottles, and the normal balls on our side, and we should be pretty close. Factoring in the margin of error, though, we're still about… 4-5 kilograms short."

This was getting interesting. I stood up again and inspected the table, trying to lift it. It wouldn't budge. Reluctantly, I turned to the three girls. "I've calculated the only way this works. Carl and I will take one platform, and the three of you will take the other.

All of the extra items—the water bottles, scale, and the remaining 11 balls—will go on our side to balance out the weight of the extra person. But with everything we've got, we're still 5 kilograms short.

"Um… any other items you all have on you that could help? Let's gather what we've got and see how much closer we can get."

The three girls exchanged glances, understanding the implication behind my words, and their faces turned a shade paler.

Lana sighed and, looking slightly displeased, pulled off her high heels and handed them to me along with her phone. "Here, this is all I have."

I took them gratefully, then gave Danny and Janice a slightly sheepish look.

Blushing deeply, both girls handed over their phones and shoes as well. Danny even pulled a small mirror and lipstick from her pocket.

While they were somewhat reluctant to part with their phones—valuable items without signal or service were still worth something—they quickly passed them over.

Carl, now catching on, was wide-eyed, scratching his head nervously and sneaking glances at Lana's now-bare feet in their sheer black stockings.

Cradling the items, I made a quick estimate. 'Nope, we are still coming up short', I arranged the items along with the balls and scale, then said, "Ahem, we're still not there… we're missing quite a bit."

comentário 0 comentário

Votar

ENVIAR PRESENTE

next chapter

Load failed, please RETRY