Reward? Punishment? The second question!

Lin Yu put away his pistol, and Bu Wang's attitude immediately changed.

The young girl pushed her sunglasses up her nose, a sheepish smile on her face.

"Oh, Brother Nine Waters, I was just questioning it casually... it was mostly a joke."

"Actually, I pretty much believe your answer. I was just a bit unwilling to accept it after all that effort for nothing!"

As Bu Wang spoke, she made a "please" gesture.

"Let's go with your answer."

Lin Yu put his pistol away and looked at the Crowman.

"Alright then... our answer is 'No matter how long it takes, this room will never be filled with water'."

He said calmly, and the Crowman looked at the other four people.

"Do you agree with this answer?"

The other four all nodded.

"We agree!"

"Agreed!"

The four said almost in unison, and among them, Bu Wang, who had just "questioned" it, sounded the most resolute.

The Crowman heard them and flapped its wings again.

"Caw caw--The answer is correct! Congratulations on receiving your reward! I will eliminate one of the doors with a wrong option!"

As the Crowman spoke, it turned around and touched the wall with its wing where the door it had come through was. Then--that green door vanished!

The Crowman then turned back and spoke.

"Caw caw, here is the second reward--"

It flapped its wings, and then...

Right in the center of the ceiling, a new black square suddenly appeared!

The square split open in the middle, revealing two black trapdoors that opened, and then...

A larger stream of water gushed out from the trapdoors.

For a moment, all five players present were stunned.

They had naturally assumed that after the first question ended, the water outlets would stop, and the accumulated water in the room would be drained.

But the water flow not only didn't stop, it actually increased with a new outlet from the ceiling--the amount of water was almost equal to the sum of the remaining ten outlets!

The water level began to rise at an accelerated rate!

Looking at it now, the estimated "around 55 minutes" for the room to be filled with water from the first question didn't seem meaningless after all.

Because now... they could easily calculate that the time left for them to survive before the room was filled with water was less than half an hour!

Considering they had already wasted nearly five minutes answering the previous question.

The time left for everyone was now less than a quarter of an hour.

Soon, the water in the room had risen past their waists.

"What kind of reward is this?! This is a punishment!"

Uncle Tie couldn't help but exclaim angrily.

The Crowman laughed.

"Caw, this is indeed a punishment... Although you answered the first question correctly, so I have to give you a reward--but you took too long to answer, so I will also give you a punishment--with this limitation, you should be able to answer the questions faster from now on!"

The Crowman smiled, and Uncle Tie's expression grew even uglier.

Number Eight also looked displeased.

"How can you do this?! You didn't say beforehand that answering quickly was part of it!"

He looked at everyone and said in a low voice, "How about I use my ability to make it shut off these outlets... at least turn off the biggest one above our heads!"

At these words, Uncle Tie and April both seemed tempted.

Lin Yu frowned, preparing to speak out and stop him.

But Bu Wang spoke first.

"No need, I don't think you should use your ability here--this is only the first room."

"It's better to use your ability to buy us time if we're stumped by the second or third question in the first room and we really can't think of an answer."

Bu Wang said playfully, adding at the end, "Oh my, none of you can swim, right?"

As Bu Wang spoke, Number Eight and April both shook their heads.

"We took a swimming class together in college," April said.

Uncle Tie also chuckled, "I can swim too. I've always liked swimming since I was young."

Lin Yu nodded.

He could swim too—though not particularly well, floating in still water like this wasn't difficult.

Bu Wang's earlier words were basically his own thoughts.

This young girl had convinced everyone for him, making Lin Yu's impression of the "Thief" slightly better.

"Alright, let's not waste any more time," Lin Yu looked at the Crowman. "Since you don't like wasting time either... ask your second question."

Upon hearing Lin Yu's inquiry, the Crowman spread his feathers and floated on the water.

"Caw caw, the second 'Reward and Punishment Question' is next..."

"With the water flow increasing, as you now know, you don't have much time left—so, suppose I'm about to assign five of you three tasks."

"These three tasks are 'cracking the safe's password', 'finding the key for the padlock', and 'turning the switch to close the black trapdoor'."

As the Crowman spoke, a projection of a safe appeared on the wall around them.

The Crowman let out two calls, looking at Uncle Tie and Number Eight, whose eyes were filled with eagerness.

"Caw caw, a quick interruption—these are all 'hypothetical' tasks, you don't need to do them, so the trapdoor can't actually be closed."

The Crowman reminded them, dispelling the unrealistic fantasies of Number Eight and Uncle Tie.

"Suppose cracking the safe's password takes 10 minutes, finding the key for the padlock takes 12 minutes, and turning the switch to close the black trapdoor takes 15 minutes."

"Cracking the safe's password requires one person to complete."

"Finding the key for the padlock requires three people to complete."

"Turning the switch requires two people to complete."

"So—can you ensure that no one drowns by the time the trapdoor is closed?"

The Crowman asked, and Number Eight subconsciously blurted out.

"What, another elementary school math problem?!"

This was an even more classic elementary school math problem than a swimming pool draining—a time allocation problem!

Brushing your teeth while boiling water, making breakfast, to achieve the goal of "saving time"... this was still a type of problem etched into the DNA of everyone who had learned elementary school math.

However...

This time, no one actually treated it as an elementary school math problem.

After all, they had the previous lesson as a warning!

Even Number Eight, who had spoken out subconsciously, quickly came to his senses and looked at Lin Yu.

"Nine Waters, is this problem, like the last one, essentially a 'Word Trap'?"

Lin Yu shook his head.

"I'm not sure yet, but based on the experience from the last question, this possibility is quite high."

Bu Wang nodded and said, "But... we can't just assume it's a 'Word Trap' type of question—after all, this game's creator might deliberately do the opposite!"

"Using our ingrained thinking to make us believe this question also has a word trap—but in reality, it's just a normal elementary school math problem. That possibility isn't nonexistent either."