Lin Yu was slightly distracted when he heard Crowman's question.
This was a very typical "pool-filling" problem. Mathematically speaking, it was elementary-school material.
Sure enough, after hearing the question, Number Eight—the "student"—wiped the droplets from his face and spoke.
"A pool-filling problem? That's easy. We just need to assume the time is X!"
He spoke somewhat urgently.
Lin Yu shook his head.
No, the difficult part of this problem wasn't the math.
Before he could speak, his girlfriend, the "doctor" whose ID was "April," said helplessly beside him, "But do you know the volume of this room, or the rates of water flowing in and out?"
Number Eight was dumbfounded. "Ah, right... Examiner, how much are those values? Can't you give us a hint? Those should count as hints, right?"
He looked urgently at Crowman and asked.
The water had soaked Crowman's feathers and the hood on his head as well, leaving him looking thoroughly drenched.
He looked at Number Eight and said, "Caw caw, that doesn't fall under the category of 'hints.'"
Uncle Tie looked at Number Eight and shook his head.
"What you're asking about is probably the difficult part of this problem—a primary-school-level math problem wouldn't possibly appear in a death game... This is testing our estimation skills."
As he spoke, Uncle Tie had already reached the edge of the room and started wading around it.
Number Eight and April were both puzzled. "What is this uncle suddenly doing?"
Before Lin Yu could speak, the young thief named Bu Wang said, "I think he's using his 'stride' to measure the length and width of the room... That uncle is wearing a safety helmet, and his profession is 'craftsman.' He should be good at this sort of thing."
As Bu Wang spoke, Lin Yu nodded slightly.
However, while Uncle Tie measured the room's length and width, Lin Yu wasn't idle either. He walked over to Crowman.
"May I ask whether the final answer needs to be accurate to the minute or the second? That should fall under the category of hints, right?"
Lin Yu asked with a smile.
Crowman glanced at Lin Yu, shook the water from his body, and spoke.
"Caw caw, let me think... All right, then. Just keep the margin of error in your answer within five minutes."
As Crowman spoke, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
The error only had to be within five minutes!
That meant their estimate didn't need to be especially precise.
Soon, Uncle Tie completed a circuit and returned to the group.
"By my estimate, this room is about nine meters long and six meters wide... As for the ceiling height..."
Uncle Tie stretched his hand toward the ceiling. "Taking this data into account, the ceiling height should be about three meters."
Number Eight quickly cut in with his answer. "Then I know! The 'volume' of this classroom should be around 162 cubic meters."
As he spoke, he hurriedly continued, "Next, we just need to know the rates of drainage and water inflow, and we can calculate it!"
As Number Eight spoke, Uncle Tie and April nodded, apparently beginning to think about how to measure the rates of water inflow and drainage.
"If the flow from each outlet is uniform, we can find a container and catch all the water flowing from a single outlet. Then, by measuring how long it takes to fill the container, we can determine the flow rate of each outlet. There are ten outlets here..."
April was the first to suggest this.
But Bu Wang interrupted her.
"No need to go to that much trouble. Although a five-minute margin of error is allowed, the more data you estimate, the greater the final error will be..."
Bu Wang looked toward Uncle Tie and said, "Uncle, I'll only ask you one thing... Are you certain this room is three meters high? Can you keep the error within ten centimeters?"
Uncle Tie nodded. "Although height isn't that easy to estimate, based on my experience, the proportions are more or less three meters! I've worked at construction sites for so many years that my eyes are rulers!"
He sounded quite confident.
Bu Wang pulled a utility knife from her clothes.
"This utility knife of mine has a standard length of fifteen centimeters." Bu Wang walked to the corner of the wall and pressed it against the wall, with the tip touching the water's surface and the blade wedged firmly into the corner. "So we only need to calculate how long it takes for the water to completely submerge this utility knife... Then multiply that by twenty, and we'll have the approximate time required."
As Bu Wang spoke, she began counting aloud.
"One, two, three..."
Uncle Tie realized what she was doing as well.
"Converting the problem into the rate at which the water level rises—that's a great idea... I have a 'pocket watch' here. It's an item I received. Let's use it to time this!"
He also went to the base of the wall, took out his pocket watch, and began timing.
April and Number Eight understood Bu Wang's intention as well, and both revealed looks of admiration.
"I see. So by doing this... we can estimate a relatively accurate time," April murmured. "I really overlooked this."
Number Eight curled his lips. "I thought it was a math problem. I didn't expect it to be like a brain teaser. Now this 'thief' gets to show off."
Hearing the sour tone in her boyfriend's voice, April jabbed him in the lower back. "Watch what you say. Stop saying thoughtless things just to protect your pride!"
There was a trace of displeasure in April's tone.
Hearing his girlfriend, Number Eight could only awkwardly rub his nose before squatting down.
"Keeping our eyes level might make it more accurate. I'll help watch for when the water passes it."
Looking at the group gathered in the corner and observing the rate at which the water level rose, Lin Yu instead felt that something was wrong.
Just as "Uncle Tie" had said at the beginning, a simple primary-school math problem couldn't possibly appear in a death game.
At first, everyone had assumed that the difficult part of this problem was "estimating each value."
But once Bu Wang had simplified all that data into the single, simple indicator of the "water level," combined with Crowman allowing a "five-minute" margin of error...
This problem was far too easy!
But what if they looked at it from another angle?
As Number Eight had just said, what if this wasn't a logic or math problem, but a "brain teaser"?
The greatest characteristic of brain teasers was that the questions contained "traps."
Moreover, the Crowman before them clearly wasn't an NPC that mechanically read out rules and questions. He should be an existence with a high level of intelligence and an independent consciousness.
He would "judge" which of his own question and Number Eight's question he could answer.
But...
It was precisely because of the answer he had just given that Lin Yu felt something was off about his tone.
"Let me think," "then," "that'll do"—in answering a "hint," and even when it came to the "rules for answering," he had used three tones that were neither certain nor precise.
Crowman didn't seem to care much about how large the "margin of error" in the answer was. He had merely casually named five minutes!
Rather, the fact that Crowman hadn't stated the "margin of error" from the start was what had made Lin Yu feel that something was strange.
Thinking of this, Lin Yu walked toward Crowman again.
Before you continue