Artifact Report

Chapter 296 Fu Tailan: Eight Questions and the Face-Obsessed Nurse
...This is not a logic deduction question.

Fu Tailan rubbed her temples, trying to clear her groggy mind.

The nurse was standing at the foot of the bed, her "arms" reaching in from behind the curtain at the foot of the bed, her two fists floating directly in front of him, still contracting and expanding with her breathing—which would only have the opposite effect of keeping him conscious.

When Fu Tailan held his breath, the size of his two fists froze, but he couldn't hold his breath forever, could he?
He lowered his eyelids, avoiding his gaze from the fist, and thought for a while, having already rejected several options in his mind.

To logically deduce which hand is the left hand/holding the blue pill, there must be a marking or location method, as well as the nurse's or resident's guess about the pill's location, and a positive "yes" or "no" response—for example, after setting the preconditions, the hand marked 1 meets the result deduced from the preconditions, so the blue pill is in hand number 1.

However, all three of these arguments were rejected by the nurses and residents, creating a logically unbreakable dead loop.

"The left hand is holding the blue pill" and "The one holding the blue pill is the left hand"—this kind of circular answer is a manifestation of logic failing to work.

“You should tell me the necessary rules and information before I continue asking questions,” Fu Tailan said tentatively. “For example, if I were to make a request for action instead of asking a question…”

He deliberately stopped halfway through his sentence—he was afraid that if he finished asking the question, he would lose a question's quota.

"Honestly, there are no necessary rules or information. It's just a matter of picking one randomly. The odds are fifty-fifty. You're so young, why aren't you being bolder? Youth is the perfect time for adventure."

Don't be fooled by the fact that it can't squeeze out many serious messages; when it comes to sharing other people's money, it can spout a whole bunch of eloquent phrases.

After the nurse complained for a while, seeing that Fu Tailan didn't respond, she said somewhat reluctantly, "As long as it doesn't directly involve the pills themselves, I can meet your requirements. For every action you make, one problem will be deducted accordingly."

"Please be more specific about what you can do and what you can't do."

The nurse paused, then suddenly smiled.

"Don't even think about requests like asking me to put a pill in hot water for a minute and then take it out to show you the color of the water, or marking my hands with A and B and then asking me to switch the blue pill to hand A, or even asking me to hit you with the hand holding the blue pill... These kinds of requests that directly affect the pill or cause some kind of change to the pill, you shouldn't even think about."

Its answer was so smooth that Fu Tailan couldn't help but suspect that this was a real example that had happened before.

“But if you ask me to sing a song, or to lie flat on the ground with my hands still, if the request doesn’t involve the pills themselves, I can do it.”

Who would ask you to do such a boring thing?
Its next sentence made Fu Tailan's heart skip a beat—"Alright, you still have seven questions left to ask."

He almost thought he had misheard.

"Wait, that last sentence, 'Please explain in more detail,' could it be—"

Fortunately, Fu Tailan reacted quickly and swallowed the rest of her sentence.

"Was that 'Please explain in more detail' also considered an action requirement?" — After saying that, he probably only had six questions left to ask, right?

Residents are such slippery and treacherous creatures, impossible to guard against... He has much to learn from them.

The nurse chuckled.

"Since you're young and beautiful, I can say a few more words and save you a question. This isn't the first time I've asked hunters to choose pills, so I have a pretty good idea of ​​what you'll ask and what you'll demand."

“I won’t lie when I answer questions. If I can’t answer a question, I will just say I can’t answer it. What kind of questions can’t I answer? It’s simple. When your question involves information about the pill itself, whether it’s the location or something else, I will not tell you the answer.”

Fu Tailan gestured to the side with the fist on her right side.

"For example, you're next to bed number 1, right? If you ask me, 'Which color pill is closer to bed number 1?' or 'Which hand's pill corresponds to the color of the curtain'... then you've wasted a question."

“I told you before, I won’t directly answer who has the pills. That’s the essence. No matter how many layers of packaging you add or what form you take, as long as the answer is related to the ‘message of the pills themselves,’ it won’t work.”

That's fucking awesome.

"...I never thought the answer would be so simple."

"Well, you're a bit smarter than the hunter from before."

The purpose of the ten questions/requirements should be to uncover hidden information, and then use that hidden information to determine the red and blue pills... He only has seven questions left, so he must plan carefully.

But... how do we find the right questions to ask amidst this confusion?

The nurses have already blocked all the angles that ordinary people could think of.

There must be an answer hidden in this deadlock.

If someone can find it, why can't it be his mansion's Tai Lan?

When cornered, Fu Tailan's youthful spirit is aroused—the more he thinks about it, the more indignant he becomes. After pondering for a while, he decides to start from the most basic level.

"The seventh question from the end," he asked carefully, choosing his words, "do you always know the location of the pills, which hand holds the blue pill and which holds the red pill?"

"Yes, I always knew their location."

...Ah, it said so.

The nurse used the word "always"—this was a hook that Fu Tai Lan deliberately planted in the question.

"You just said you wouldn't secretly change the position of your fist, but you didn't mention whether you would change the position of the pills. Don't worry, my next question won't involve the pills themselves; it's about your abilities."

"You say it."

Fu Tailan slowly asked, "My sixth-to-last question is... Without changing the position of your fist, are you capable of transferring the pill from one hand to the other?"

If the nurse doesn't have this ability, she could simply say "I understand" when answering the previous question.

But it repeated the word "always"—as if it had sensed Fu Tailan's probing and, in addition to its explicit answer, gave a hidden hint.

Of course, it's also possible that it's deliberately misleading people to reduce the number of questions—as for which possibility it is, we'll have to wait for the answer to the sixth-to-last question.

“Oh dear, this is the first time I’ve been asked this question. How should I answer it?” The nurse chuckled a few times. “Let’s take the blue pill as an example. It’s in your left hand, but until you’ve determined which hand is your left, it can be anywhere to you, can’t it?”

"I don't understand." This is a bit far removed from human speech.

"After all, my body is a chaotic mess. I only extended two arms from this chaotic body to deliver medicine to you. The hands don't move, but the contents flow through my body without any problem."

...This must mean "can be transferred", right?

Fu Tailan has lived for seventeen years and rarely feels that her comprehension ability is about to fall behind; however, she cannot waste the precious quota of questions and keeps asking questions to confirm.

"You seem quite troubled... It's a pity, this is all I can explain." The nurse's tone didn't sound regretful at all.

He took a deep breath, and the two fists in front of him shrank back to the size of peanuts.

This phenomenon of contraction and expansion was already giving him a headache—could it be that it was deliberately expanding and contracting its fist to affect people's thinking?
Two arms stretched out from the chaotic body...

The next question requires taking a gamble.

"The fifth to last question... concerns the nature of your physical body."

"Yes, yes," the nurse responded with interest.

"For example, my body can be broken down into an astronomical number of 'cells,' or you could say I have a 'mass' of 68 kilograms. So, is your chaotic body also formed from a substance that can be measured in units?"

Whether it was excitement or anger, the nurse suddenly screamed.

"Yes, yes, yes, yes, my chaotic body can also be measured in units. I really want to press you deep, deep into my body, completely sink into you, completely devour you. I'll gain 68KG of beautiful, deadly poison."

That's so rude—no, wait.

Fu Tailan's heart began to pound.

Can it be measured?

So... he seems to have already seen a path to the blue pill?

But any of the next questions could greatly disappoint him—and there aren't many left.

"Thank you, but no need then," he said, forcing himself to remain calm. "Fourth to last question. If we calculate the total amount of the substances that form your body in terms of the 'units' you use, what is it?"

The nurse became breathless.

"I never expected that someone so young would have such impure thoughts and such strong desires. Is it really puberty?"

What is that? What nonsense is it spouting?
"Alright, since you're so pretty, I'll tell you. It's 13,000... 13,605 units of mixing material..."

Fu Tailan didn't know why she felt like she was sitting on pins and needles.

"W-Can you calm down a bit...? It's just a question about weight, people don't get this worked up. Now, the third to last question. When I breathe, the fists I see grow larger and smaller. I don't think it's my imagination; their size really does increase and decrease, right?"

The nurses didn't actually prohibit physical contact—but Fu Tai Lan absolutely didn't want to touch it except at the final decision-making moment.

"Yes, yes, it's not an illusion, it's not an illusion."

The nurses remained in a state of inexplicable excitement.

……Very good.

The chances of finding the blue pill have increased to 60-70%.

"I'm really getting dizzy from all that scaling up and down," Fu Tailan complained. "So the second to last one... isn't a problem, it's a requirement."

The nurses outside the curtain suddenly fell silent, as if boiling water had instantly frozen into ice.

"Please keep the size of my left hand, which was touched by my phone, as small as a peanut, and the other hand, as big as a soccer ball."

In the dead silence, Fu Tailan held her breath.

The fists, frozen in size, remained unchanged for a very long time; they had been dormant for so long that he suddenly became worried, suspecting that it was all just a trap to trick him.

"This request doesn't involve the pills, it only involves your hands—"

He had barely begun to speak when the nurse abruptly interrupted him, her tone so cold it was as if she were a completely different person. "I know, just say it once, aren't you annoying?"

...The nurse was reluctant.

Is this a good omen?

As Fu Tailan breathed shallowly and rapidly, the left fist gradually shrank while the right fist gradually grew larger, finally solidifying into the size of a peanut or a soccer ball, and no longer changing.

This is the last question.

Success or failure hinges on this one question.

If he cannot get a positive answer, then all that's left for him to do is to choose randomly based on luck.

"The last question... or rather, a request."

If it weren't for the fist still there, it would seem like there was no one outside the curtain.

"Please tell me how many units of mixing were used in the hand holding the blue pill and the hand holding the red pill."

(End of this chapter)