Chapter 189

However, what no one expected was that the moment the color of the balls on Ji Ruochu's answer board disappeared, another broadcast voice started.

"Contestant Bei Lingyu starts answering."

The crowd let out a gasp.

"Wow, here comes the challenge."

"Oh my, the tension is so thick!"

"Isn't this too risky?"

...

As the contestants and online viewers were in heated discussion, the camera had already shifted to the two players who were seriously competing and... the split screen in the center of the stage.

As for why it was like this, it was naturally because...

At this moment, the screen at the center of the stage showed two unobstructed ball puzzle boards.

In other words, at this moment, apart from Ji Ruochu and Bei Lingyu, everyone could see the colors of the balls and clearly observe the changes in the colors of each row as the two players slid the balls.

"Bei Lingyu has completed one submission."

A prompt sound rang out, surprising everyone, and they immediately looked at Bei Lingyu's answer board—

"Bei Lingyu has not fully restored the board. The current number of submissions allowed for this type of question: 1."

A second later, the voice broadcast sounded again, and everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Wow, I thought he was going so fast."

"Turns out he was just trying to restore two rows first."

At the guest seats.

"That's right, each question allows two submissions, so the first submission is just to verify your accuracy."

"It has to be said, this is quite a mental game."

"But it doesn't seem like Ji Ruochu was affected."

Several guests were discussing the situation on stage when the Science Assistant's voice rang out again.

"Ji Ruochu has completed one submission." The crowd nodded, it seemed the two were using the same strategy.

"Indeed, the masters are consistent in their strategies—"

"Ji Ruochu has fully restored the board, earning one point and gaining a 30-second time bonus for the challenge."

The Science Assistant's voice left the venue in a momentary silence, even the streaming comments paused for an instant.

Three seconds later. "She fully restored it just like that?!"

"Insane, is that even humanly possible?"

"Was anyone watching the screen the whole time? I remember she had just restored the row with the gold balls, but in that brief moment, how did she manage to restore the entire board? That can't be real, can it?"

The streaming comments were flooding in.

[Ahhhh! Our girl is so amazing!]

[Good thing I recorded it, let me see how the master did it.]

At this time, the considerate program team replayed Ji Ruochu's final few seconds of operation in slow motion.

Then, everyone clearly saw that the originally scrambled balls, for some unknown reason, became extremely obedient the moment the gold ball row was restored, allowing each slide to make the colors of half a row consistent.

With just a few back-and-forth movements, the 7x7 ball board was fully restored.

Streaming comments:

[Well, that's something I won't understand even after watching it.]

[Ahhhh! This, this... isn't this that formula?]

[What formula?]

[The Rubik's Cube formula? Doesn't seem quite like it either? Let me take another look.]

[Help, are there any Rubik's Cube masters in the comments? Is what Ji Ruochu did an improvisation of the Rubik's Cube formula in a short time?]

[Huh?]

[What?]

Just as the comments were filled with question marks, Older Jin's voice came like a timely rain.

"Impressive, she managed to convert the 3x3x3 formula in such a short time."

"What is the 3x3x3 formula conversion?"

"I only know of the formulas for swapping positions on the Rubik's Cube, but can those be modified?"

As they were discussing, Older Jin picked up a Rubik's Cube from the table and demonstrated to the guests and viewers on screen.

"For example, if I want to move this color to this side, I need to first twist it like this..."

As Older Jin explained, he demonstrated the moves. "This is the basic Rubik's Cube formula. This is a 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube, so we call it the 3x3x3 formula.

Although the competition is about restoring a flat ball puzzle, the principle is essentially the same. Of course, restoring a flat puzzle is simpler than a 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube. That's why we added the quantity and blackout restrictions to make it more challenging. In this situation, to complete the restoration quickly,

the contestants need exceptional memory, calculation skills, and the ability to restore the balls in the shortest time possible.

But Ji Ruochu skipped this step entirely and set up a new set of formulas for this board from the ground up.

This way, no matter how the colors of the balls on the board change, she only needs to remember the position of each ball, and then apply the formula for the balls that need adjusting."

After this explanation, the guest seats fell silent. But Older Jin didn't seem to think the impact on everyone was enough, so he continued:

"Of course, if it were just that, it wouldn't be that praiseworthy since all the contestants here could do the same given enough time.

What's impressive about Ji Ruochu's formula is—"

The next second, Ji Ruochu's board appeared on the stage screen. Older Jin smiled and said,

"The overly cautious young girl prioritized restoring the gold balls first."

Almost as soon as Older Jin finished speaking, the screen only showed the now split board.

The left side was the 1v1 player answer board with colors completely obstructed, and the right side was the unobstructed version on the stage screen for the audience's viewing.

At this moment, on the unobstructed screen, the restored row of gold balls appeared.

...

At this moment, whether in the guest seats or in front of screens, everyone fell silent.

It was also at this moment that this girl, who had been in the public eye since childhood, commanded respect.

"Ji Ruochu has completed one submission."

"Ji Ruochu has fully restored the board, earning one point and gaining a 30-second time bonus."

Seconds later.

"Bei Lingyu has completed one submission."

"Bei Lingyu has fully restored the board, earning one point and gaining a 30-second time bonus."

After finally earning a point, Bei Lingyu looked at Ji Ruochu, who had started the third question, and let out an imperceptible breath before continuing to focus on the competition.

The competition went on, and neither of them made any other moves, both fully focused on completing the challenges, until the end of the first 1v1 round.

The result was, of course, Ji Ruochu's victory with twice the score, completing ten submissions and accumulating 300 seconds of time.

The second round was against the well-prepared Quan Tianheng.

From the moment the PK round started, Ji Ruochu entered her state of focus, her efficiency no lower than before. In contrast, although Quan Tianheng's answering speed was consistent with Bei Lingyu's earlier, he seemed more at ease than Bei Lingyu.

In fact, it even gave the impression that he could go faster if he wanted, but was deliberately maintaining this steady, unhurried pace, as if—

[What's going on? Is Quan Tianheng holding back?]

[But he's a world memory master, this should be his forte.]

[How boring, isn't this just a mock competition?]