God's imitator

Chapter 430 Two Strategies
"Five minutes is allotted," Yang Yuting added after checking the time.

Zheng Jie and Dai Yifan began to think of strategies, make slips of paper, and write the specific amounts on them.

Their expressions differed; Zheng Jie looked confident of victory, while Dai Yifan frowned and paused to think from time to time.

Five minutes later, Yang Yuting checked the time: "Okay, it's almost time."
"You two will be on the offensive and defensive sides respectively. Who wants to go first?"

Zheng Jie volunteered, "I'll go first on the defense!"

He laid out his five slips of paper in order, then randomly swapped them, scrambling to change their order.

"Okay, now I don't remember which one is which either."

"Choose whichever you like."

Instead of taking the one that was most convenient to him, Dai Yifan drew a rather awkward one from the middle.

Open the note; it says '10000'.

"Hmm... let's change."

After Dai Yifan finished speaking, he folded the note back and handed it back to Zheng Jie, who took it and placed it in front of him.

Once a note has been selected, it cannot be selected again, so it must be kept safe by the 'defenders'.

Dai Yifan drew another slip of paper, opened it again, and found that it still said "10000" on it.

"Ok?"

Dai Yifan was slightly surprised. He frowned and fell into deep thought.

Yang Yuting said, "You can also tell me your thoughts and thought process. Anyway, the numbers on the note are already written down."

While thinking, Dai Yifan said, "According to the rules of the game, each piece of paper satisfies the condition that 'at least one of the other four pieces of paper is 10 times or 1/10 of it.'"

"Therefore, it is possible for the same number of slips of paper to appear."

"At the same time, at most one of the five slips of paper says 10, but it's also possible that none of them do."

"Judging from Zheng Jie's confident demeanor, as if victory is assured, if he really writes 10, it would obviously be disadvantageous for him."

"Because I can open the note twice and change the note twice, I can check it four times in total. If I find a note that says '10', I'm sure to win."

"As the defender, he is more likely to lose."

"So he definitely didn't write '10'."

"But then I suddenly realized, wouldn't that mean there's a 'sure-win' method?"

"There are five slips of paper in total. Whether the attacking side exchanges them or not, they can take a maximum of two slips of paper, while the defending side can keep three slips of paper."

"If we consider the principle of the previous 'two-envelope paradox', it's the same whether we switch them or not, so the defending side will definitely have a higher expected benefit."

"So, he probably wrote four '10,000's' and one '1000', which would also be in accordance with the rules of the game."

"If I get '1' and then exchange it for '1000' in order to find the non-existent '10', then I'm doomed to lose."

“Even if I don’t change them, if I draw two ‘1’ notes, he can keep three notes, and they will always be two ‘1’ notes and one ‘1000’ note, which will always be more profitable than mine.”

Zheng Jie shrugged: "Hey, you're pretty smart, that's it."

"But it's probably too late for you to figure this out now, because if you don't use this strategy, you'll most likely lose to me in terms of total net profit."

Yang Yuting said, "Let's finish the game first."

Dai Yifan drew another slip of paper, and it was still "1".

However, this time, he did not choose to change.

Because the remaining two slips of paper contain "1" and "1000" respectively, it would be even more of a loss if you exchanged them for "1000".

While theoretically it's possible to have four '10,000' cards and one '100,000' card, according to Dai Yifan's previous analysis, the defending side would draw at least three times. If they drew the '100,000' card once, the game would end immediately. Therefore, Zheng Jie shouldn't have made such a decision.

After drawing all the slips, Zheng Jie opened the remaining slips as well.

As expected, there were four '10,000' and one '1000'.

Yang Yuting, as the host, announced the results: "Okay, in this game, Zheng Jie, as the 'defender,' used the winning strategy and consistently secured a net gain of 1000. Next, it's Dai Yifan's turn to be the defender."

Dai Yifan did not shuffle the order of the five slips of paper he had written earlier, but carefully placed them in front of Zheng Jie in order.

Zheng Jie thought for a moment and said, "Well, I'll draw the one in the most awkward position first."

He chose the second slip of paper on his left.

Upon opening it, I saw the number '1000' written on it.

"Huh? I choose to change."

Zheng Jie handed back the note with the number '1000', thought for a moment, and then took the first note on his left.

When he saw the numbers above, he was stunned.

"10".

"No, you..."

Zheng Jie was a little confused for a moment, because he had already changed it once, so this note was definitely something he wanted to keep.

In other words, he and Dai Yifan have confirmed a net profit difference of 990, which means that in terms of total net profit, he is only 10 ahead.

Moreover, Zheng Jie realized an even worse problem.

According to the rules of the game, each strip of paper must satisfy the condition that "at least one of the other four strips is 10 times or 1/10 of it". Therefore, if both 10 and 1000 appear, it means that there must be 100 among the remaining strips.

As for the remaining two slips of paper, there are far too many possibilities.

可能是1、10、100、1000、1万、10万这六种不同的数字。

Zheng Jie scratched his head: "So, for me now, the first thing to do is to determine whether there is any possibility that the number 10 exists in the remaining slips of paper."

"If there are 10, there is only one possibility:"
“五张纸条分别是10、100、1000、1万、10万。

"Based on the previous analysis, since the attacking side can actually see four slips of paper, if the 10 is selected, they will lose immediately. Therefore, I think you probably didn't put the 10 in either."

“Even if you really let it go, I still won’t accept it, because you only dared to let it go because it was just a joke in the community. You definitely wouldn’t dare to let it go in a real life-or-death game, so even if I lose because of this, I won’t admit it…”

Qin Yao was somewhat shocked: "Huh, how can you launch a mental attack on your opponent while talking about your own thoughts?"

Zheng Jie continued, "If you're really treating this like a life-or-death game, and you haven't put down 10, then my goal is... to find at least another 1000 among the remaining slips of paper, otherwise I'll still lose..."

As Zheng Jie spoke, he drew another slip of paper.

He was somewhat disappointed when he opened it; it said '100'.

Dai Yifan asked, "Should we change it this time?"

Zheng Jie carefully observed Dai Yifan's expression. Clearly, Dai Yifan knew the specific values ​​on all the slips of paper, so this questioning might also be a strategy.

If someone is an expert in micro-expressions, they might be able to discern the other person's thoughts.
But clearly, it was more like a scene from a movie or TV show; Zheng Jie examined it for a long time but found nothing.

But no matter what, '100' is still a bit too few.

Zheng Jie thought for a moment and said, "Let's change it."

He changed the note again and opened it once more.

It's still '100'.

Zheng Jie was somewhat discouraged. He scratched his head, finding the result hard to accept.

戴一帆打开了所有的纸条，分别是1000、100、100、10、10。

杨雨婷公布最终结果：“戴一帆保留的纸条是1000、100、10，郑杰拿走的纸条是100、10。

"Dai Yifan's net profit is 1000, and the final result for the two is a tie."

Zheng Jie was a little embarrassed: "What is this, a bunch of noobs fighting each other?"
"But this note you made is really weird! The largest number is 1000? Are you even human?"

(End of this chapter)