Divine Ability Supplement, Continued

Beast A, Beast B, Beast C?

There were three now? How was she supposed to solve this?

Jiang Zichun stared at the problem before her, somewhat stunned. For the past few days, she had only been learning how to find the numbers of two kinds of animals. Now, a problem with three kinds had suddenly appeared, and she really had no idea where to start.

"Let's try the 'cutting off legs method' first."

"Cut off half their legs?"

"No, that won't work. One kind has three legs. You can't cut those in half."

"Then cut them all down to a third of their original number? That won't work either. Some have two legs and others have four."

"Then... if we can't cut off their legs, we can always cut off their heads, right? Four heads, five heads, six heads... It seems that won't work either."

"Looks like there's no clever shortcut. We'll have to use the listing method the teacher taught us."

The so-called listing method meant starting with one each of Beast A, Beast B, and Beast C, then gradually increasing their numbers to see which combination matched the figures in the problem.

To be honest, this method was just another version of "brute force."

As long as a problem had a solution, trying every possibility one by one would eventually find it. It was just a little slower and took a little more time.

After a while, Jiang Zichun finally found the answer among the densely packed figures she had listed before her.

Beast A: one; Beast B: two; Beast C: twenty-one.

After checking the answer, Jiang Zichun wasn't especially pleased. Her brows were still knitted together. What did "multiple solutions" mean? Did one problem have more than one answer?

With that question in mind, Jiang Zichun began looking through the answers to the problem she had just solved.

Checking the answers was one of the privileges granted to the owner of a divine ability.

"There really are multiple solutions to this problem."

"Beast A: one; Beast B: two; Beast C: twenty-one."

"Beast A: seven; Beast B: eight; Beast C: nine."

"Beast A: nine; Beast B: ten; Beast C: five."

When she saw that the problem had more than ten answers, Jiang Zichun covered her mouth in shock.

First, she was surprised that the problem had so many answers, and that it had taken her so long to find even one by the clumsiest method.

Second, she was amazed that this "Master Anonymous" had actually listed so many answers. That was well beyond her expectations.

These should be all the answers, right?

She wondered how this master had solved it. Surely he had some simple method.

Jiang Zichun thought to herself.

She thought that because she had just tried another problem with multiple solutions, and, to her astonishment, the answers numbered in the hundreds.

Looking at that mountain of answers, Jiang Zichun made a firm judgment. "There's no way he used the listing method."

She didn't believe her idol would waste time on the listing method. It was far too time-consuming.

So she guessed he must have a better, more convenient way to solve them. Otherwise, solving the thousands upon thousands of problems with multiple solutions would have worn him to the bone.

Jiang Zichun just didn't know what that method was.

But there was one thing she was certain of: if such a method really existed, then the "Hundred Chickens Problem" would probably be a piece of cake too. It was much like this one, and it also had multiple solutions.

Having figured out the problem of multiple solutions, Jiang Zichun turned her attention to the new feature this time.

She was terribly curious about it.

The earlier updates had already brought her so many surprises. Surely this new feature would be even more remarkable.

"Oh? Now we can make up our own problems?"

When she learned that the new feature let her create her own problems, Jiang Zichun was instantly delighted.

Creating problems meant that everyone would have a [Chicken and Rabbit in a Cage] Divine Ability of their own, complete with their own unique challenges.

And this would finally put a stop to the crooked shortcut of "memorizing the answers." From now on, everyone would have to rely on their own wits to escape the illusion.

"Now this is going to be fun."

The next moment, Jiang Zichun's gleeful laughter echoed through Soul Space. Then she suddenly thought of her classmates, who had wanted to take the crooked path. They must be completely crushed now.

"Serves you right for laughing at me! You said learning all those algorithms was useless!"

It took a long while for Jiang Zichun to regain her composure. Then she began exploring the newly added "problem creation feature."

"All the numbers have to be under one hundred million, because the rules above only define numbers up to 'ten thousand.'"

Hmm~ That made sense.

Jiang Zichun had no objections to this restriction. Even "ten thousand" was enough for now. It already took her more than a minute to solve a single problem.

"We can only fill in numbers? We can't change anything else?"

"Th-this restriction seems a little harsh!"

"At least we can choose the kinds of animals. We can pick all kinds of 'pheasants,' 'rabbits,' 'beasts,' and 'birds,' and choose how many heads and legs they have."

"I'll give it a try."

Then Jiang Zichun chose the simplest "pheasants" and "rabbits." Right after that, a problem appeared before her, with several blanks in it.

Pheasants have one head and two legs; rabbits have one head and four legs. Now pheasants and rabbits are in one cage, with ___ heads above and ___ legs below. How many pheasants and rabbits are there?

"So I just fill in the blanks with numbers?"

Jiang Zichun caught on and entered "thirty" in one blank and "forty" in the other.

To her surprise, when she confirmed her entries, she got an unexpected result.

No solution!

"The answer isn't something I get to provide?"

"I wanted to give people a wrong answer to stump them. Looks like that's out."

Whether there was a solution or not wasn't important.

What amazed Jiang Zichun most was that the feature came with an automatic checker. Could it even provide the result?

After testing it further, Jiang Zichun confirmed that it could. The divine ability really did provide the answer the moment a problem was created.

She even made up a problem involving three animals, the kind with multiple solutions, and the divine ability immediately produced dozens of answers.

Those should be all the answers to the problem.

But how did it do that?

Was there a person living in there?

Or did someone solve each problem in real time and send the answers over?

Or had all these problems and answers been in there from the start, and she had merely stumbled upon them?

All of those guesses were possible.

But in Jiang Zichun's mind, the likeliest explanation was that "Master Anonymous" really had completely solved the "Chicken and Rabbit in a Cage" problem, then written the solution into the divine ability through the Divine Ability Stone. That was why it responded so quickly.

"Forget it. These are only guesses, and there's no way to verify them. I should focus on coming up with a few hard problems. At least this update added plenty of new ones for reference. Otherwise, it'd be difficult."

Whatever Jiang Zichun was thinking about how to stump other people, the moment "Chicken and Rabbit in a Cage Divine Ability Supplement" was released, people with an eye for opportunity everywhere sprang into action.

Some were delighted, others furious. Their reactions varied.

But none of them could stop "Chicken and Rabbit in a Cage Divine Ability Supplement" from being released.

Great Chu Kingdom, Ying Capital, the Celestial Pivot Secret Bureau.

The white-robed middle-aged man, Xu He, had just reported the details of this "Chicken and Rabbit in a Cage Divine Ability Supplement" to his superior.

After listening to his subordinate's report, Dean Wang, dressed in a blue robe, murmured, "Five hundred thousand problems, a new ranking system, a new search method, multiple solutions, and finally, the ability to create problems yourself."

With each feature he named, Dean Wang paused to think.

When he finished, the brows on his forehead had nearly knotted together. "Why didn't he split these up and sell them separately? Wouldn't that have earned him more?"

Dean Wang was utterly baffled by this.

Everyone had always done things that way, including the Confucian School, Taoist School, Buddhist School, and so on.

Yet this time, someone had gone against the grain.

He simply wasn't playing by the rules.

"This... This subordinate doesn't know either. Perhaps... perhaps that master doesn't care about such a small amount."

Dean Wang's question left the white-robed middle-aged man without an answer, so he could only hazard a guess.

"Doesn't care about such a small amount? That's true. Compared with what he's earned these past few days, this really is pocket change."

After a pause, Dean Wang asked, "Xu He, have there been any leads from the School of Mathematics?"

The last time Dean Wang had gone to the master of Ziyang Temple, the Celestial Mechanism Daoist, to divine the true identity of "Anonymous," the Daoist had advised him to look into two areas: "expertise in mathematics" and "Mathematics."

They had no leads at all in the area of "Mathematics," and they had no idea where to begin. They would have to rely on luck.

But if they were looking for people with "expertise in mathematics," the School of Mathematics was the obvious place to start.

The School of Mathematics was one of the Hundred Schools of Thought.

"Mathematicians are all officials responsible for astronomy and calendrics, the seasons, history, and divination."

They were experts devoted to the study of mathematics, and most of the classics on calculation were written by them. They also held posts at academies across the land. So if they wanted to find people skilled in mathematics, the School of Mathematics was the right place to look.

The white-robed middle-aged man, Xu He, was responsible for investigating this matter.

"Dean, the School of Mathematics hasn't given us any useful information yet. But this subordinate does have an idea. I'm not sure whether I should share it."

Hearing that there was no news, Dean Wang wasn't disappointed. He merely thought, Just as I expected. He knew it wouldn't be that simple.

Then he heard that Xu He had another idea but was hesitant to voice it. Dean Wang understood and said calmly, "Go ahead. If it leads to something, I'll reward you. Even if it doesn't, you won't be punished."

Only then did the white-robed Xu He feel relieved. "Dean, I came to this conclusion based on the five hundred thousand problems added in this update. I don't know if I'm right, so I hope you won't blame me if there are flaws in my reasoning."

Dean Wang motioned for Xu He to continue.

Xu He went on, "It's been less than seven days since the [Chicken and Rabbit in a Cage Divine Ability] was released. To prepare five hundred thousand problems in such a short time, provide accurate answers, and include problems with multiple solutions..."

"This must have taken a tremendous amount of manpower and resources."

"This subordinate's deduction is that, to accomplish this, there must either be several high-ranked master mathematicians, or dozens, even hundreds, of low-ranked apprentices. Otherwise, it would be very difficult."

Xu He laid out his entire theory in one breath.

After that, he fell silent and stood there, waiting for his superior's response.

After hearing Xu He's reasoning, Dean Wang found it fairly convincing. He pondered for a moment. "All right. Have some of your people investigate along those lines. But don't abandon the original plan."

"Yes, Dean."

Seeing that Dean Wang had approved his proposal, Xu He replied excitedly.

He resolved to handle this matter well. Perhaps he might even get promoted this time.

To be honest, it was fortunate that Lu Mingyuan wasn't here. If he'd heard this theory, he would have thanked Xu He first, then laughed until he couldn't stand upright.

The deduction itself wasn't wrong. It was just that Xu He had run into someone using a cheat. It was only a modest little boost to his thinking, but even so, the truth was a hundred thousand miles away.

Great Gan Kingdom, Changfeng City.

Inside a luxurious residence, a young man in blue robes stared at the update on the Heavenly Dao Virtual Network, dumbstruck.

"Why did you have to update so soon? I'd only been earning money for a few days, and now you've updated. Couldn't you have let me earn a little more?"

This young man in blue robes was the first person to leave Jing Family Restaurant that day.

His surname was Wan, and his given name was Dong.

After Wan Dong hurried home that day, he started pirating the [Chicken and Rabbit in a Cage] Divine Ability according to his own ideas.

In less than two days, he had put together an illusion divine ability and listed it on the Heavenly Dao Virtual Network.

Since he had the advantage of being first, he had sold nearly ten thousand copies of the pirated divine ability in just a few days, filling his pockets to the brim.

Wan Dong had thought he could keep raking in money and climb to the peak of life.

Then, in less than seven days, the other side had delivered a fatal blow.

A killing blow that finished him off completely.

Even if the other side had only updated the problems, Wan Dong wouldn't have been worried. He had also been planning to gather people and create some new problems.

But who could have guessed the other side would also come up with a new ranking system, a new search method, and the ability to create problems on your own?

Wasn't that making things impossible for him?

They'd raised the bar so high. It was a death sentence for pirates like him.

If they had this kind of skill, why would they be chasing after such a small profit?

At the thought of this, sorrow welled up in Wan Dong's heart. He had finally found an easy way to earn Qi Luck Points, and now it was completely gone.

"Still, at least I used free Divine Ability Stones. If I don't count the cost of the stones, I probably still made around a million. It's not a loss."

As he spoke, Wan Dong looked at the more than seventy thousand divine abilities containing the words "Chicken and Rabbit in a Cage" on the Heavenly Dao Virtual Network and smiled in relief.

"Those other guys probably lost their pants."

Wan Dong had acted early, placing among the top ten pirated versions, so he had still made some money. As for everyone who came after him, if they had used the free version of the Divine Ability Stone, they couldn't really be said to have lost money. They just hadn't made a fortune.

Why was that?

Because most people in this world lacked the confidence to create a divine ability that would sell well. So they kept their free Divine Ability Stones in reserve, waiting for the right opportunity.

Just like with the [Chicken and Rabbit in a Cage Divine Ability] now: when an opportunity came along, they copied it and made a quick profit.

If they created something original, they'd simply be throwing money away.

After all, creating a divine ability had costs. If they couldn't sell even one, wouldn't they lose their shirts?

They wouldn't even make back their costs.

At the same time, the various factions within the human race, along with the Fox, Lion, Monkey, and other clans, all stopped their own piracy.

There was no point in continuing to waste their effort.

The original [Chicken and Rabbit in a Cage Divine Ability] hadn't been technically demanding. Anyone could make one.

But now, the other side had built a technical barrier that made it hard to pirate, and it was selling so cheaply—at the lowest price. How were pirates supposed to survive?

Pirating it now was like joining the Nationalist army in 1949.

Were they thickheaded or what?