Shades of Wolves

Chapter 13: The Silent Watcher

The moment I signed up for WIC, the world received a new mutation of the Virus that swept the efforts of the previous vaccine and exacerbated the health and medical crisis. Homeless people are seen as parasites and a source of infection. No one cares. I'm so poor that I bet myself on this game just for the food in the belly.

I remember playing in the first season. At the time everyone thought it was a simple game until the first death, the second death, and many more deaths after that.

No one would think that a vagabond would have a touch on a trophy and change his fortunes. That’s why in the season that Stacy was in, I gave her a small gift before she went into battle. I was right. She won that year, like me many years ago. We both are a small ant that lives on the carcasses of hundreds of elephants.

  Axelsen

“Toothless!”

"That's it!" Hoa confirmed before lifting the paper up and began to explain her deductions.

Hoa took a pen and wrote it down on paper. She knew Sammul could smell the ink and had a couple of ideas of what she was doing.

“In the code, we have a pair of equilateral triangles. The first one is after the number 8. The second one is after the symbol X.”

“It must mean that we should change these positions! Number 8 and X!” Sammul was slightly catching what Hoa wanted to talk about.

“A conversion from numbers to sound. I used to think that, between these two fields, it is difficult to have any interference. But now, at least they have something in common. All we need to do is just to find the right frame of reference. Isn't that the core nature of congruence?!” Hoa nodded in agreement and added.

Hoa wrote the number 8 down on the paper. Then she drew an arrow to point out a phonetic transcription next to it ‘Ө’, and finally the letter ‘th’. As for the letter X, she deduced it straight into the suffix, ‘less’ to be clearer.

“In the IPA chart, the shape of the letter Ө resembles the number 8 and it is transliterated for (th). Combine the letters T, 0, 0 in the code sequence, they will have the word Tooth.”

“As for X, it is not “congruent” in the same pattern. I made up a lot of theories for it, but it didn't work that way."

Sammul remained silent. He took a stick and mess up the layer of ashes below, so that they had more oxygen and burned even more.

“X is an extremely diverse character. It can be a set, a multiplication sign…. but it's behind the word Tooth. If to indicate the meaning of a word, X is very likely to be the suffix. X usually means false or negative. In the language, the suffix for that is usually ‘less’. For example: careless, hopeless.”

“That’s why I have this word – Toothless.”

Hoa held the paper out in front of Sammul's eyes, even though she knew that he couldn't see it. Sammul put his hand to his lips and stroked them. He was very focused, Hoa could see.

“Is there anything else that comes to your mind?”

"Not really. Toothless means there are no teeth left. Do they want us to kill all of the players or something?” Hoa frowned in question.

IPA: International Phonetic Alphabet

…………………………….

Day 3, 6:45 am, 15 minutes before the first eliminating round.

Hoa looked at the order in the seat map. The order was changed again. A pair of her black pupils darted back and forth as if they’re trying to remember each movement of this matrix of seats. This time she sat next to number 074. Who was it this time?

When Hoa sat down, a fat figure appeared in front of her. It was Barol, the man who loved food as much as it’s his life that she had met a few days before.

“Do you want to eat?”

Barol held out a piece of cake in front of Hoa. But was it the time for her to be in the mood to eat right now? Hoa deftly refused.

“No, thank you. I will eat after finishing these questions!”

“Then let’s have this mint flavored candy” Barol placed a candy that was carefully wrapped in blue. There was the word ‘Peppermint Ghost’ on the wrap paper. It seemed to have a very good effect to help mental clarity.

"Thank you!" Hoa took the paper off and put it in her mouth. A blast of air rushed to her brain, making her nose felt like it might exhale the cold air. But its taste was very good.

"Go sit somewhere else! I want her to sit with me!"

A loud sound came from the other side of the row of seats. It was Ander again. This guy was really always an annoying nuisance. He was using his large body to request Hwang Hee to obey.

“But if I trade with her, what if I get disqualified?”

The orange-haired man made a reluctant face. Today was such an unlucky day for him that he had to sit next to this brainless guy. Now Ander ordered him to switch places with Felix, probably wanting the smart girl to do all the answers. Obviously, Ander wanted the next day and the decisive day, he could finish all earliest to be in the top 30.

“Nothing to worry about. No one said changing seats would be disqualified!” Ander laughed gleefully. Obviously, the fool was a bit smarter, knowing how to obey the law and benefit himself.

The judge looked at him without saying anything. He sipped his coffee and looked at his watch, still not giving the signal to start.

“Besides, that girl will remember the question for you. Felix and you just need to remember each other's keywords. I'll have her copy all the questions on the blackboard in the cafeteria. I won't taste this alone. I'll let you guys have a bite with me."

Ander said as he raised his hands to represent himself as if he’s a messianic angel. Everyone in the room was disdainful. Everyone knew clearly how despicable his desire was. Chances were that Felix would not be able to answer some questions. He wanted someone to solve them and he would, of course, take credit for the results. Sharing? Having a bite with him? Full of garbage. Blasphemy!

Hwang Hee wanted to say something. But seeing Ander's fist raised, he was afraid to say it out loud, so he quickly switched places with Felix.

"Let’s start!"

“Question #1: In nuclear reaction X, calculate the energy absorbed and released in the reaction? A, B, C, D?”

A more advanced question in the field of nuclear physics. It's not difficult for Hoa. However, she speculated that not many people could handle it. All eyes were on Felix. They expected her to be the savior.

“Question 2: DNA has a double helix structure. What is the three-dimensional shape of DNA? A, B, C, D?”

The questions showed up one after another. But this time Hoa didn't hear the curse anymore. Because she knew very well, they were waiting for her and Felix. But that's not what she really cared about. Hoa was waiting for something bigger.

"Time out!"

The twenty sentences of the third day finally came to an end.

The examiner shouted. Then he leisurely took a cup of coffee and left the room. They also left. Before leaving, Ander also did not forget to remind her to remember the cafeteria and write the question on the board he prepared. If she intentionally made a mistake, she would be chopped into a hundred pieces.

Hoa quickly went to the rooftop. She told Mahoney to go to the cafeteria first. Each step of her reminded Hoa of the dinner the night before, when they talked about the code, which WIC wanted them to find out the truth.

……………………………..

Hoa was really not sure about “Toothless” very much. Because this was an inference based on a method that was not completely logical or based on any pattern at all.

“Do they see us as teeth?”

Sammul stood up, he raised his head to the sky to take a deep breath in. Or maybe, he was thinking with his head up. She’s not really sure. The space around them was still as quiet, except for the wind and the animals in the night was howling in the darkness.

"Toothless doesn't mean having no teeth, but decay tooth."

"Decay tooth?"

Sammul seemed to see something amusing, his mouth couldn't help but smile.

"Yes, no matter if it is the suffix 'less' or even the negative connotation of the letter X, both of them point out that it is a problematic tooth."

Sammul stuff the beer down his throat. For the first time, Hoa felt that he was in a good mood, not as cold as a few days ago.

“Among these 100 players, there will be those who are from WIC that are in disguise. Remember how CNN used the phrase "a bad apple" when mocking the championship?”

“A bad apple? Yea. CNN criticized WIC for deliberately having their people in and giving them the win. There's an article where they put a rotten apple next to Stacy."

Hoa recalled. Stacy's season had received a bunch of negative responses from the game's anti-fans. They had said she had been a set up by WIC and this game had no longer been an honest race. It was said that it had been corrupted by someone's hand. WIC had deliberately let their people win, while the others had been just a there to risk their lives for her and be the entertainers. Hoa had also watched that season, she had not actually seen any arrangement at Stacy, except that she had indeed been given an extra item in the team challenge. But it made sense, since Stacy had finished first in the previous round, the supervisor had had the right to whether support her or not. Later, thanks to that tool, she had won. And because of that, it had given birth to a series of endless fierce controversies.

"So that’s why you guess that Toothless is WIC that intentionally parodied CNN. They put it here to give out the hint that there are their people in here?" Hoa of inferenced.

“Yup!”

Hoa shook her hands. She disagreed with Sammul's statement.

“No way, WIC would never make it this obvious. This is the broadcast. There will be a lot of viewers and try to find out the secret of the puzzle. If they find out that WIC set up for their people, there won't be any season after this. This show will be swept away.”

“Unless… they're the supervisors!” Sammul laughed. He knew she would understand.

Hoa recalled season 7, Axelsen - champion of season 1. In an interview on a talk show called "ONLY ONE LIFE", he had said he had been the supervisor of one of the challenges. It had been a puzzle of chess codes related to Egyptian religion which had been meticulously set up. Axelsen had given out the hint. But it had been not easy to get it. Some people had died to get the hint in order to pass the level. From then on, more and more supervisors had been put in the game to increase the difficulty of the game as well as to pave the way for the players to deduce and pass. Usually in games, the supervisor would appear in the third or fourth game, when the players were more adapted and ready. But right now, they seemed to be appearing in the first round, which was quite unexpectedly.

“If I'm not wrong, the ‘toothless’ guys are related to the 100th question, a must-fill-in question.”

Hoa recalled on the answer sheet. It’s true that 99 questions were multiple-choices. The why was question 100 blank? They had to fill in something.

“Is there anything else on that blackboard?” Sammul reminded Hoa to remember.

She closed her eyes and began to walk around. That board had had countless mathematical formulas, graphs, fractions, angles, lengths, etc.

"Seem…"

Hoa walked slowly around Sammul. That's how she normally did to go to her own subconscious to remember.

“That lecture had a question mark. Someone circled it with multiple layers…”

"What is that?"

Hoa frowned. The image of it in her head was a bit blurry. She was trying her best to make it brighter.

"To be… An area of a figure?”

Hoa still walked into a circle. The speed of her legs was somewhat slowing down. Her hands went up and down to stabilize her breathing.

“What kind of figure is that?”

Hoa found herself sitting in that large auditorium. Her location was right in the center. Everyone was very focused on the judge's words. He stood in front of the board. His tall body covered the back.

“Not sure. Maybe a triangle, but also a quadrilateral. He covered it!”

Hoa opened her eyes again. She sat down on a chair nearby and took a deep breath. This type of reverse memory was almost like hypnotizing yourself. Forcing yourself to rewind your memories was pretty much giving you a fine headache.

“Since you can't see it, we, most likely, only have a minute to do it”

 The problem was she could not have her full control over what she saw in her dreams. She did not have the ability to capture the subconscious like Malvis.

"So… what do we do now?"

Now that they had a clearer connection. They knew there was a high chance that a supervisor was placed into the game to solve the puzzle. They found the 100th question with a high probability of a calculation of some area of a polygon. The point was that they hac no connection between the toothless and the final answer.

“Find those decay teeth first. I'm sure that when the final question shows up, we'll know what they mean."

Sammul uttered every word firmly. He curled his lips. That's the euphoria that he's enjoying.

“How do we locate them?”

“There is also something we forgot to use, an exam question that goes along with the code and the blackboard. It caught my eye the moment you entered the room!”

“….”

“Seat Matrix!”