Keyboard Immortal

t his already soaked handkerchief once more to wipe his sweat.
He was already in a full-blown panic mood by now.
He realized that he couldn’t verify whether his answer was right or not.

Should I move on to the next question?

Yang Wei remembered how Zu An had chosen to put the hardest question in front, and he figured that the questions behind should be easier.
So, he took in a deep breath and proceeded on to look at the fourth question.

‘Five prisoners, numbered from 1 to 5, will be taking out green beans from a rucksack filled with 100 green beans in turn.
The rules state that they’ll have to take at least one green bean, and that the prisoners who take the most and the least green beans will be sentenced to death.
The prisoners aren’t allowed to communicate with one another, but they are able to count the number of beans left in the rucksack through touch.
Which of the five prisoners has the highest chance of survival?

‘Note:
1) All of the prisoners are smart, rational people who will decide on the best course of action for them.
2) Their primary aim is to survive, followed by killing as many people as possible.
3) There’s no need to fully distribute all 100 green beans amongst themselves.
4) If there are more than one prisoner who took the most or the least green beans, they would both be sentenced to death.’

Yang Wei nearly burst out cursing on the spot.
What is this dumb question? Why are there so many rules here? The question looked simple at first glance, but if one were to start thinking about the specifics, there were so many factors to consider that it could blow one’s mind.

He spent a while attempting to work out a solution before eventually giving up and moving on to the next question.

‘There are 100 people on an island.
5 of them have red eyes and 95 of them have blue eyes.
This island has three weird rules:

‘1) They aren’t to look into the mirror or any water surfaces, such that it’s impossible for them to see their own eye colors2) They can’t tell others what their eye colors are3) Once a person realizes that he has red eyes, he would have to commit suicide that very night

‘One day, an adventurer arrived on the island.
Oblivious to the rules, while he was partying with everyone else on the island, he accidentally let it slip that “Some of you have red eyes”.

‘Assuming that everyone on the island is smart and capable of logical deduction, what do you think will happen on the island afterward?’

Yang Wei’s eyes lit up.
This question was much easier than the ones before.
He grabbed his brush right away and began jotting down his answer.

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…

…

…

Just like that, with bouts of smiles and bouts of stress, he went through the questions one by one.
Eventually, he realized that he was only able to solve a few of them.

By this point, a huge crowd had already formed outside the classroom.
Classes had already ended, but to everyone’s astonishment, none of the students from the most mischievous Yellow class had left yet.
Out of curiosity, the students from the other classes decided to head over to take a look, and it didn’t take long for the bet between Zu An and Yang Wei to spread around the entire academy, drawing in massive crowds.

If it was only a simple duel between Zu An and Yang Wei, the proud prodigies of the Sky class probably wouldn’t bother checking things out.
However, things were different if Shang Liuyu was here.

Shang Liuyu was the most popular teacher in Brightmoon Academy.
Her classes were always packed to the brim, and her students were always incredibly focused.
Their eyes were simply too busy appreciating her beauty to possibly be distracted by anything else.

Some of the students were here to watch the drama, but the majority were here to look at Shang Liuyu.
However, it didn ’t take them long to be drawn to Zu An’s questions.

What was interesting about Zu An’s questions was that they were very easily understood.
Most people felt that they were doable, such that they couldn’t help but start discussing the solutions and answers with one another.
Even the prodigies of the Sky class, who were usually interested only in cultivation, began making calculations too.

“Brother-in-law, you’re the best!”

Needless to say, Chu Huanzhao wasn’t one to miss a commotion, and she seemed oddly proud about the situation.
It was almost as if she was the one in the limelight right now.
She didn’t think too much into her feelings; she thought that it was a shared sense of glory arising from them being fellow members of the Chu clan.

The adorable Ji Xiaoxi was also standing amidst the crowd, looking over the questions in interest.
Even the slight frown on her face did little to mar her beauty.
“How are these questions supposed to be solved? Should I go back and ask my father about them? Ah, but father isn’t interested in this sort of stuff.
He only likes those perverted magazines he has stowed in his room.
He seems to have gotten a new book recently, and he’s acting secretly about it.
He doesn’t even allow me to come close to it.
Hmph…”

Pei Mianman, dressed in a black cloak that concealed her proud figure, was also watching the spectacle.
Her lips inched up into an amused smile as she remarked, “This fellow sure is an interesting one.
Chu Chuyan does have a sharp eye for people.
Should I find an opportunity to nab him over to my side? It should be interesting to take her stuff away from her…”

Hiding at the very back of the crowd was an alarmed Zheng Dan.
The reports she had browsed through depicted Zu An to be a good-for-nothing, leaving her with the impression that Zu An was simply lucky at the Silverhook casino to earn 7,500,000 silver taels.
She didn’t expect Zu An to actually be this skilled in arithmetic.

It looks like it wasn’t just luck at play at the Silverhook Casino.
I reckon that Yang Wei will be done in by him, though I sure do wonder who was the one who sent Yang Wei after him.

Still, I should probably proceed carefully from now on, lest my honey trap backfires on me.

Some time later, Shang Liuyu finally reminded softly, “Teacher Yang, it’s already over time.”

Yang Wei wiped off the sweat on his face as he said, “Give me a while more, I’m about to be done.”

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All along, he had been the one to see students struggling to solve his questions under the time limit.
Who could have thought that he would be put in the same position one day?

However, with so many people spectating the bet, he couldn’t bring himself to be so shameless as to drag things out for too long.
After writing a while longer, he finally put his brush down and said, “I’m done.”

To be honest, other than for two questions, he had no confidence in the answers he had provided at all.
However, he felt that it shouldn’t be a huge problem.
At the very least, he should be able to get ten questions correct at the minimum.

He was relieved that he didn’t arrogantly declare that he would get all twenty questions right at the start, or else it would already be all over for him.
As long as he could get ten questions correct, it still wouldn’t look too bad on him.
After all, everyone here had a taste of just how difficult the questions were.

“How is it? I managed to at least get ten of them right, didn’t I?” Waiting calmly as Zu An checked his answers, Yang Wei slipped his drenched handkerchief back into his pocket as a gleeful smile emerged on his lips.

Of the entire Brightmoon City, he was confident that no one would be able to fare better than him on the test—well, maybe except for Zu An the pervert.

“As expected of Teacher Yang, he managed to answer all of the questions!”

“Wow, that’s really impressive.
I don’t even know how to answer a single question at all.”

“Teacher Yang is not our arithmetic teacher for nothing.
How can he hold his own without some skills?”

“Still, I must say that the questions Zu An came up with are truly tough.
His proficiency in arithmetic is definitely at least on par with Teacher Yang.”

“I reckon it’s just Teacher Yang going easy on him.
There’s no reason for him to take a student so seriously after all.”

…

Yang Wei felt his back straightening upon hearing the commentary of the students around.
It looked like he had managed to build up quite some prestige for himself over the years.
He turned to glance at Shang Liuyu as he patted his chest, relieved that he had at least managed to salvage his reputation before her.

It was just that Shang Liuyu wasn’t looking at him at all.
Her eyes were staring intently at Zu An, curious as to what the results would be.

Then, Zu An finally began speaking up, “Is this the level you’re at? It looks like I’ve overestimated you.
You didn’t even manage to get a single question correct!”

An uproar broke out in the classroom.

“What?” Yang Wei thought that he was hearing things.
There’s no way I could have gotten everything wrong! He glared at Zu An in aggravation as he hollered furiously, “Lies! How dare you slander me!”

You have successfully trolled Yang Wei for +1024 Rage!

It was just a second ago that he was feeling good about himself, but in the next moment, it was announced before practically everyone in the academy that he hadn’t gotten a single question correct.
This sudden nosedive in his emotions was simply too great for him to bear!