Hunter x Hunter: From Obtaining the World to Beyond Heaven

The probability of it occurring in 1 second is extremely low, but Qiduo actually encountered it once in a previous betting game.

It can be said that this is a game where the probability of failure increases over time.

"Timer stopped!"

Zi Wu's solemn voice rang out. He had tried to stall for time as much as possible, but constantly activating his abilities would drain his stamina.

It would be ridiculous if he ran out of energy before the game was over.

'1243 seconds...'

Qiduo's face was equally pale. She had already removed her sterile suit to prevent her ability from distracting her.

However, the opponent still managed to stall for more than 1200 seconds, which meant she had to choose one of the three times: 1246, 1245, or 1244.

Which one should I choose?

Just as Qiduo hesitated, Dia suddenly leaned down and whispered something in her ear, making her ears burn instantly.

Suppressing the strange sensation in her ears, Kido heard Dia speak in a very low voice—

"1245..."

The number that Dia said gave her a jolt of confidence, and she suddenly became full of self-assurance.

A slight smile appeared on Qiduo's lips as she unhesitatingly recited the number that Dia had just told her:

"1245 seconds have passed!"

Ziwu's pupils contracted, and he stiffly turned the quartz clock over. There was a digital display on it that showed the elapsed time.

And the time displayed on it is exactly 1245 seconds!

Chapter 111 The puppy rubs its face against Sen Sen's human bones

If someone tries to count a number in their head every second until they reach 1200.

Most people will end up with a significantly different number.

Perhaps some exceptional individuals can attempt to keep track of time using a "constantly unchanged heart rate" or, in cases of short durations, a "blood drop clock."

But do you remember what I said before?

The duration of each second here is different.

A day consists of 24 hours, 1440 minutes, and 86400 seconds. Every second of error is different from the original world.

Fortunately, according to Meridian's own measurements, this error is generally greater than zero, meaning that every second is longer than the original world, and not shorter.

This error range was determined by Ziwu after five years of statistical work, but Qiduo figured it out in just half an hour.

Later, it took Meridian a full 20 years to remember this sequence of numbers with a length of 86400, which actually meant 86400 errors, before completely forgetting the true length of time.

and so……

'I won't lose...they were just lucky...'

Zi Wu sat frozen in place, only that sentence echoing in his mind.

For 25 years, he has stayed in this hotel, eating the dried corpses of former travelers, and counting the days under the unchanging moon.

Because Druha told him that sooner or later he would find a way back.

In that vast hotel, he had only corpses for company, patrolling the place in the endless darkness.

In those cold, dark nights, Ziwu was always frightened by the footsteps of travelers in his hallucinations, and dared not turn around to look.

He feared he would see again, in the pale moonlight, some perfectly fine people standing there.

Those people were pounding the floor with their white, bony feet.

thump...

dong dong...

Boom!

A teapot suddenly flew up and hit Ziwu on the head, bringing him back to his senses.

Right, I'm still at the gambling table. I can't lose yet; I have to survive...

Zi Wu forced a smile and pushed the quartz clock in front of Qi Duo and Dia, saying:

"I'm lucky, it's my turn next. If I guess them all right, it's a tie."

He didn't continue, because there was no need.

What is a draw? It means there is no winner or loser.

Risk your soul?

Forget about that, wouldn't it be better for everyone to live in peace? We have our own special cured meat here...

Diya's eyes remained unusually calm in the face of Ziwu's veiled signals of reconciliation; he had already foreseen the inevitable outcome.

A gambler who leaves everything to luck will only face defeat.

A master of victory and defeat who is unwilling to seek victory or defeat will face death.

Dia wasn't a professional gambler, but he knew one thing—

Do it all at once, second time tired, third time exhausted.

You're saying we should reconcile now? Are you kidding me?

Dia leaned halfway out and took the quartz clock.

His clothes brushed against Qiduo's hair, causing her to instinctively turn her face to brush against his chest, looking like a puppy rubbing against Dia's chest.

Qi Duo, who had never done such a thing before, felt a little uneasy.

She subconsciously raised her delicate chin slightly to avoid the light, but as she looked up, her gaze naturally and secretly fell on Dia's profile.

His nose was smooth and well-defined, and his eyes were like dark brown gems—still the same familiar and pleasing appearance.

What truly caught her attention was his ever-present, self-assured confidence, as if the world revolved around him.

This kind of temperament seemed to have infected her, making Qiduo gradually forget that the bet was not over yet. She believed in her heart that she was safe because of Dia, and her tense mood relaxed.

Kido had seen this kind of confidence before, in Chairman Netero, in Kim, and even in her father.

And now there's one more.

However, compared to those people, this student in front of her has always been very approachable.

He would steal her cake, throw her coins without hesitation, tease her from time to time, and never treat her like a teacher.

'What a...childish guy...'

Despite this, a strange sense of smugness rose within Qiduo, a illogical situation that even her brilliant mind couldn't quite grasp...

At the same gambling table, Ziwu and Qiduo had completely different feelings.

Leaving aside the fact that Qiduo, amidst the ups and downs, had begun to have wild thoughts, Dia held the quartz clock and examined it carefully.

Seeing this, Qiduo assumed that Dia was acting out of curiosity, and couldn't help but say, as if showing off her erudition:

“I checked it before. It’s a classic temperature-compensated quartz clock. It runs independently by its own crystal oscillator and provides bias current through a specific compensation circuit to offset the temperature drift of the resonator. Theoretically, the error can be within plus or minus five seconds per month. The long-term cumulative error of this quartz clock is very small, so it must have been manually adjusted regularly.”

"The digital display screen above is an LCD screen, which should be powered by a button battery, and the connected circuit can only provide the most basic timing function."

Dia nodded in agreement and said approvingly:

"So that's how it is."

He didn't understand what Qiduo was saying.

A female STEM student trying to help a male liberal arts student understand the principles of electronics and mechanics—this is a classic example of "playing the lute to a cow."

Dia casually placed the clock face down on the table and said:

"Let's begin."

Ziwu focused his attention to the extreme, trying to recall every second of error corresponding to this point in time:

"1%, 2%, 1%..."

As I summarized before, the longer this process drags on, the more possible timeframes will appear, making it more difficult to choose.

If Ziwu's guess is correct, Diya is currently planning to drag this out indefinitely until he runs out of energy or the error becomes too large to calculate.

But as I said before—

'I've been counting for 25 years, I can't be wrong!'

Ziwu's resolve returned.

If the other party thinks that dragging things out will make him guess wrong, that's wishful thinking. That leaves only the strategy of prolonging the game, which would be risky for him.

However, when it comes to risks, Ziwu has certainly made contingency plans.

'Mouri should already be on his way back. If we borrow his [stone], we can keep going...'

Zi Wu stared intently at the two people before him, already prepared for a protracted battle...

"Stop the timer. Now tell me, how long has passed?"

Diya suddenly spoke, announcing the end of the countdown.

At this point, less than a minute had passed since the timer started!

'45 seconds...'

Zi Wu was stunned. How could the timer have stopped so quickly?

Is this guy named Dia just a brute who only knows how to kill people with his fists?!

Doesn't he understand that the longer it drags on, the better it is for him?

The first point of error was 400 seconds, but according to the meridian measurement, it should now be 45 seconds, which is 0.175 seconds more.

There's a huge difference between them...