SFS Chapter 1478 The Truth About Letters, Stamps, and Recipients
Chapter 1478 The Truth About Letters, Stamps, and Recipients
"Mr. Chen, what do you mean by that? I don't quite understand," Hong Wenli asked.
Chen Mu didn't explain, but instead unfolded the letter in his hand and presented it to the three of them.
The letter contained very simple content, nothing lengthy, and was even as brief as a single sentence:
Please, please take me and my daughter to the Central Hospital, please save us...
When Chen Mu saw the contents of the letter, he nodded slightly; this was exactly what he had expected.
Hong Wenli and Xiaoye both had "??" on their heads.
What the hell?
Why does the content of this letter seem so bizarre?
Xiaoye pondered carefully, "You guys... Boss, according to what you're saying, you don't mean the three of us, do you?"
"Smart! You have a high comprehension level; you understood it after just a little guidance." Chen Mu gave Xiao Ye a thumbs up.
Hong Wenli looked completely bewildered. He admitted that he didn't understand at all.
Xiao Ye said, "Boss, if we look at it this way, this letter is actually a plea for help from us? The father and daughter who received it want us to help them get to the Central Hospital."
Chen Mu nodded in satisfaction, revealing a look of aptitude for teaching. "That's right, this is our real mission!"
"Wait, wait a minute, I don't understand what you two are saying at all." For the first time, Hong Wenli felt that his thinking was completely outmatched by Boss Chen and his companion.
Hong Wenli said, "Let me sort this out, without mentioning the contents of the letter yet. Mr. Chen, how did you know this letter was addressed to us? Judging from your expression, it seems you knew it was for us even before you opened it."
Hong Wenli may not be able to think straight, but that doesn't mean he's stupid.
Judging from Chen Mu's behavior, Hong Wenli could already guess that Chen Mu had already guessed part of the contents of the letter before opening it.
At least, they know who the letter is addressed to.
How did Chen Mu manage to do that?
The letter had been sealed the whole time; there was no way Chen Mu could have seen its contents beforehand.
By this time, Chen Mu had figured everything out. He didn't keep him in suspense and said directly:
"Actually, the most challenging aspect of this postman's job is understanding the letters, stamps, and recipients."
Once you understand these three elements, the entire postman's task becomes quite clear.
"Letters, stamps, recipients..." Xiaoye and Hongwenli murmured to themselves, pondering these three elements.
However, based on their imagination alone, the two of them couldn't figure out what it meant.
Chen Mushen agreed. If he were simply asked to think about it, he certainly wouldn't be able to come up with an answer.
Chen Mu continued, "The stamp we understand is the one pasted on this letter. And the letter is this envelope and the letter inside. This is also the subconscious understanding of normal players."
Looking at the envelope in Chen Mu's hand, there was indeed a stamp on it, which the players had put on themselves.
"As for the recipient, it's the one with the icon above his head, the one driving the car," Chen Mu said, pointing to the dilapidated car speeding in front of the sedan chair.
"Boss, is there a problem with this? There's an icon above the recipient's head, that's how it's done in games," Xiaoye asked curiously.
Chen Mu said, "That's right, this icon is indeed a clear hint. But have you ever thought that a task in the game can be broken down into many parts?"
When you're doing one part of the task, there will be an icon to guide you. This icon will take you to a transfer point, and then you can continue the task.
In other words, the person represented by this icon may not necessarily be the ultimate goal of completing the task, but may only be one part of the process.
Once you've completed this step, the next icon will appear. Follow the icons to complete the task.
However, in the postman's mission, after completing one step, the guidance for the next step does not appear in the form of an icon.
Instead... in the form of the content of a letter.
Chen Mu waved the letter in his hand. "It tells us that the next destination, which is also the end of the postman's mission, is the central hospital of the zombie world."
Xiaoye's eyes widened. "My God, boss, it seems that's really the case. How did you come up with that?"
Chen Mu said, "At first I didn't expect it either, I fell into a fixed mindset."
I don't have time to explain my later thoughts and reasoning process to you two in detail.
Let me tell you the result directly: I finally focused my attention on five details.
I made some wild guesses about these five details.
Ultimately, that 'automatic delivery' gave me the crucial clue.
The term "automatic delivery" does not guarantee successful delivery. If success is not guaranteed, then there are definitely potential problems.
And the woman who received the mail looked so terrified when she saw Lin Shanshan and me, and the letters in our hands.
And the letter being opened, and Lin Shanshan's death.
I suddenly remembered that there is a very tricky trap in the bizarre missions, and it is very rare.
I usually call it variable substitution.
In our human understanding, variables such as letters, stamps, and recipients are indeed these things.
However, the interpretation of the rules is not necessarily the case.
The rules didn't mention it at all—
A letter is something wrapped in an envelope (a sealed thing made of paper) and containing a piece of paper inside.
A stamp is a small, round object that can be pasted onto paper.
The recipient is a person with an icon above their head who moves.
This is our understanding of the three, but the strict rules do not provide any definition for the three at all.
Generally speaking, no definition is needed. After all, everyone assumes it's true, so there's no need to explain.
However, in highly difficult and bizarre missions, the rule setters might very well exploit this loophole!
Since the rules do not explicitly state this, these terms are variable and can be substituted accordingly.
Therefore, I call it—variable substitution.
The letters, stamps, and recipients as understood in the rules may be completely different from what we understand them to be.
This is why, when we act according to human understanding, we often find everything utterly incomprehensible.
Hearing Chen Mu's explanation, Xiao Ye and Hong Wenli opened their mouths slightly.
Xiaoye is knowledgeable and experienced, but she hadn't thought of this aspect.
Hong Wenli had never heard of playing like this before.
"Holy crap, is this even allowed? This is pure sabotage! Who could possibly pull this off? It's a guaranteed death trap!" Hong Wenli exclaimed.
Xiaoye glanced at him, her words filled with pride, "My boss made it."
Immediately afterwards, Xiao Ye looked at Chen Mu curiously and asked, "By the way, boss, how did you figure that out?"