Ch54.1 – Chapter 54.1

The clown turned to reveal a machine behind him.

The moment the three of them saw it, their eyes all widened — Wasn’t that a fucking claw machine?!

That’s right, the “lucky egg machine” mentioned by the clown was clearly a claw machine, and it’s even the most standard type seen in supermarkets. It was just that instead of plushies, it was a variety of colorful eggs.

This last hidden move… was actually to grab plushies?!

It’s simply too disillusioning! Was this for real or a joke?!

Xiao Tangqiu couldn’t help but ask the clown, “How do we play the lucky egg machine? Don’t tell me we’re supposed to grab the eggs inside the egg machine?”

The clown grinned, “Lucky players don’t worry. I’ll announce the rules of this hidden game event now. Your task is to grab the eggs in the lucky egg machine. The conditions I have given you are very relaxed. Everyone has three chances…”

Xiao Tangqiu, “…”

It really was! It really was to grab the colorful eggs!

But this sort of thing wasn’t relaxing at all! Who didn’t know that claw machines were something that relied on luck? Based on his luck, would he really be able to grab an egg in three tries?

Plus, that wasn’t all. The clown continued to speak with a grin, “Of course, if some of those among you aren’t lucky, you can also trade for an egg from your companions…”

Xiao Tangqiu’s heart skipped a beat. What did that mean? They could also trade for an egg from their companions?

“I won’t stop you from giving your egg to someone else.” The clown then spoke the last part ominously, “…Of course, you can also take it by force.”

Xiao Tangqiu instantly understood the clown’s intention. This was a provocation. This was definitely meant to provoke! When the final lucky survivors came to this place after all sorts of life and death trials and hardships, in order to compete for the last bit of hope, naturally, they would make a move against their former companions under the guidance of the clown’s words. Even if they didn’t want to actively steal someone’s egg, they would be fearful of others stealing theirs. They would be filled with doubt and suspicions about each other.

Xiao Tangqiu’s heart slowly sank. But when he put the three of them in this scenario, he felt that something was wrong… Forget about Tang Mianmian and himself; how many times have they sacrificed their lives to save each other? If they were afraid of death, neither of them would be alive now. But even the geek, who was the only unfamiliar person with them — although he did seem to be the kind of person who would steal someone else’s egg in order to live, but the problem was, based on his luck, did he need to grab someone else’s eggs?

Tang Mianmian obviously thought the same. The corners of his lips twitched and he couldn’t help but let out a laugh.

It was actually the geek that looked unsettled. But he settled down again after taking a look at the lucky egg machine. Things like gambling based on luck, wasn’t that his strong point?

Seeing that the reactions of the three of them weren’t as vigilant and suspicious as he expected, the grin on the clown grew even wider, “Alright, the game begins! Everyone gets three chances, the three of you can take turns going. Who wants to go first?”

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Xiao Tangqiu glanced at Tang Mianmian and the geek, then helplessly said, “I’ll go first.”

The geek immediately breathed a sigh of relief. Although he knew that he was lucky, he didn’t want to be the first to eat crabs. Tang Mianmian made an encouraging gesture towards Xiao Tangqiu.

Before Xiao Tangqiu officially began, Tang Mianmian mysteriously pulled Xiao Tangqiu aside and taught him “the tricks of claw machines”.

“Don’t worry! When it comes to claw machines, I’m an expert! I’ve been grabbing plushies since kindergarten. If it’s not a thousand, I’ve at least gotten nine-hundred! You can’t go wrong listening to me!”

Xiao Tangqiu did know that Tang Mianmian liked to play with claw machines. This guy usually went to play them whenever he had time and often sent him photos of the plushies he grabbed… That’s right! How did he forget that this guy was a claw machine expert?

Xiao Tangqiu’s eyes gleamed, “You finally came across something you’re good at? Looks like our luck isn’t too bad!”

Tang Mianmian gave a few laughs, “It’s nothing, it’s nothing! I’m only passing you a few tricks about claw machines! You can definitely grab it within three tries! The claw machine has a fixed probability, usually a probability of three or four percent. Of course, that’s ruling out the situation of unscrupulous shopkeepers or conscientious shopkeepers who lower or increase the likelihood. The statistics is to try twenty to thirty times to be able to grab one. But this doesn’t mean grabbing it again is absolutely impossible until after twenty or thirty more times or that you’re guaranteed to grab one in twenty or thirty tries. That’s because the distribution of probability isn’t so absolute and even, otherwise it will be too easy to figure out. When the probability hits, you’ll definitely be able to catch one. This is called the strong claw.”

Xiao Tangqui’s mouth twitched, “Twenty, thirty times? Then we should just obediently lie down and wait for death.”

Tang Mianmian continued, “Outside of the strong claws, it’s called a weak claw. The strong claws can grab it a-hundred percent. There’s nothing to say, and there’s nothing to worry about. But we only have three chances per person, so chances are we won’t come across a strong claw. We can only work hard on the weak claws. In the case of weak claws, there are several techniques for grabbing.”

“First it’s the swing claw. The so-called swing claw is simply to calculate the swing of the claw and to lower it when it’s swinging towards the hole. At this point, the claw will swing back in accordance to the pendulum theory to grab the plushie. Then the weak claw setting will successfully swing the plushie towards the hole.”

Xiao Tangqiu felt extremely confused after listening. “The weak claw setting? What’s that?”

“The weak claw setting is that in the case of non-strong claws, when the machine judges that you will grab the plushie, it will weaken its hold when the claw comes up so that the plushie falls. That’s why in many cases, we obviously grabbed the plushie, but because the machine weakened its hold halfway, the plushie doesn’t reach the hole. And some unscrupulous shopkeepers will even set the inner swing.”

Xiao Tangqiu continued to be confused, “Inner swing? And what’s that?”

“That’s when they make use of the angle of the swing while loosening the claw at the same time so it throws the plushie towards the back of the machine, making it even more difficult to grab.” After Tang Mianmian explained, he went back to the previous topic, “But to use the swing claw is too difficult for a newbie. It usually takes hundreds of practice attempts to have some success at it so it’s unlikely you’ll be able to learn it in a short period of time. So there’s two alternatives, trapped claw and hanging claw.”

Xiao Tangqiu’s expression was full of ‘what’s this? What’s that? What about that?’.

“The so-called trapped claw is to find the best angle when lowering the claw so it catches the most ideal section of the plushie. Usually, that would be the smallest part of the plushie, for example the neck, arm, waist or leg areas. If the place is small enough, it can trick the machine into thinking that it didn’t grab the plushie so it doesn’t release the claw strength halfway.”

“The hanging claw also requires you to find the best angle. When the claw lowers, hang the plushie’s tag or some part onto the claws so that even if it loosens, the plushie wouldn’t fall until the claw returns to the hole.”

Xiao Tangqiu couldn’t help the blank look in his eyes, “There’s so much to pay attention to just for grabbing a plushie? …I might as well just lie down and wait for death!”

Tang Mianmian reached out a hand and patted Xiao Tangqiu’s shoulder and sincerely said, “Jiayou!”

Although Xiao Tangqiu listened to Tang Mianmian’s long spiel, his head was still filled with fog and his face full of confusion. Good thing he wasn’t someone who had never played with claw machines. Although his experience couldn’t compare to Tang Mianmian’s, he still knew the basics.

He took a deep breath and moved to stand in front of the lucky egg machine.

This lucky egg machine looked no different from the usual claw machine. Whether it’s the buttons or the joystick, it’s all exactly the same as the claw machines in supermarkets. The only difference was that the usual plushies were replaced with colorful eggs.

Looking into the egg machine through the glass, the colorful eggs inside were about the size of a grown man’s hand. But though the eggs were fairly big, because they were elliptical, you could tell at a glance that it would easily slip through the claws.

Fortunately, there were a ton of eggs inside the machine and a lot were also near the hole. Since something closer should be easier to grab, Xiao Tangqiu stared at the green egg near the hole for a while before deciding on it.

Xiao Tangqiu desperately recalled the tricks Tang Mianmian taught him. But when he started the claw machine, his mind went blank from nerves. In the end, he dropped the claw during this confusion and the claws came up empty.

…He didn’t catch anything.

“Alright, next person!” The clown said as he stood on the side, grinning.

Xiao Tangqiu sighed. Although he hadn’t expected to be able to grab it on his first try, but he still should’ve touched the edge of the egg! At this rate, he wouldn’t be able to grab an egg within three tries!

Tang Mianmian reached out and patted Xiao Tangqui’s shoulder before rolling up his sleeves, full of confidence. “Just watch me!”

He walked self-assuredly towards the lucky egg machine, and it was obvious how familiar and skillful he was when manipulating the claw’s direction back and forth. His target was a red colored egg. He confidently lowered the claw — the claws successfully grabbed the egg. But when the claw started coming up, it suddenly relaxed. The egg fell.

Tang Mianmian also didn’t manage to get it. But his situation was much better than Xiao Tangqiu’s. At least he managed to grab the egg.

“Alright, next person!” The clown spoke with a grin.

The last person in the first round was the geek. He took a deep breath and walked in front of the lucky egg machine. His skills couldn’t compareto Tang Mianmian’s at all, it could even be considered clumsy. It’s obvious he rarely or even never played with claw machines before.

The geek’s expression was complicated. Although he was full of confidence in his luck, he was also filled with doubt since he had never played this sort of game before. Especially after hearing all the tricks and advice about claw machines that Tang Mianmian told Xiao Tangqiu… his expression was part confident, part self-doubting — it was extremely conflicting.

He roughly manipulated the joystick of the egg machine, letting the claw stop above a blue egg.

On the side, Tang Mianmian whispered in Xiao Tangqiu’s ear, “This angle is definitely impossible! Unless he…”

The geek hesitantly lowered the claw. The claw dropped, grabbed that blue egg without dropping it, and steadily delivered the blue egg to the hole.

The body of the lucky egg machine immediately lit up with all sorts of colorful lights and began blasting a celebratory BGM at the same time, “Congratulations on the successful grab! Congratulations on the successful grab!”

Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian were shocked, the geek was also frozen in shock for a few seconds before finally reacting. He quickly squatted down and took the blue egg out of the hole.

He stared at the blue egg in disbelief, and it took a few more seconds before he got excited, “I got it! I actually got it!”

At this point, Tang Mianmian dumbly finished his sentence, “…Unless he gets a strong claw.”

“Fuck! He really actually got a strong claw! This guy must’ve been the illegitimate son of the king of luck in his last life! He could even run into the strong claw!”

Tang Mianmian could practically wash his face with his tears. He had bitterly studied the claw machine for over ten years, but in the end he still couldn’t compare to a first-timer geek. Where was he not good enough? Isn’t it just he wasn’t as lucky! The point was that they had completely different starting points!

Xiao Tangqiu was once again shocked by the geek’s luck. Tang Mianmian and he hadn’t gotten it yet but the geek got one in one go. And it happened to be the strong claw. What was the probability? What kind of luck was this?

“Congratulations to our first lucky player to get the lucky egg!”

The clown spoke with a grin, “You can choose to give up the next two chances, or you can choose to continue!”

The geek who was caught up in the joy of getting the colorful egg in one try, finally focused again, immediately asking the clown, “What happens if I get a few more? Are there any benefits?”

The clown spoke with a smile, “Perhaps, perhaps not.”

It was clear that he wasn’t going to tell him. The geek hesitated before finally being tempted by the thought of ​​possibly having benefits with more eggs. He gritted his teeth and made up his mind, “Try! I want to try two more times!”

The clown nodded with a smile, “Alright, next person please!”

Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian exchanged a look and couldn’t help but laugh bitterly, especially Xiao Tangqiu. If he hadn’t learned about the probability from Tang Mianmian, he could’ve still held onto the attitude of ignorance and fearlessness. But after learning about it, he knew that since the geek came across the strong claw, the chances of them coming across the strong claw was basically none.

They could only rely on skill.

Xiao Tangqiu sighed deeply and decided to try the “trapped claw” Tang Mianmian mentioned.

He tried to get the claws stuck at an angle and the claws actually grabbed an egg. But it still loosened midair.

Xiao Tangqiu’s second attempt was another failure.

“Next person!”

Tang Mianmian patted Xiao Tangqiu’s shoulder, and then he took a deep breath. Let’s go!

This time, Tang Mianmian seemed to be using the “swing claw”. He toggled the joystick like crazy when he dropped the claw, making it swing. The claw actually grabbed the egg when it dropped down and then swung forward!

The claw released! The colorful egg fell into the hole!

“Congratulations on the successful grab! Congratulations on the successful grab!”

Accompanied by the joyful BGM, Tang Mianmian also finally got a colorful egg!