Chapter 33 – Eureka!

Four minutes plus some seconds passed.

[Time Left — 00h : 05m : 23s]

Nearly half of the total time allotted to the Riddle Game was about to elapse.

Damon slowly opened his eyes, as if he had found the answer to his riddle, and glanced at the notification box again and it was exactly at the fifth-minute count at the moment.

Time was wasted but fortunately, Damon found a way... the only way.

The only way for him to figure out which Symhar was which involved him asking them questions and they never mentioned anything against that in the rule of the game.

Damon was willing to take the gamble along with the gains… or the pains that came with it whatever the outcome will be.

Asking the guardian questions was either going to be a loophole for him to exploit or an unspoken rule that will judge and punish him, but he would not know for sure unless he tried.

.

.

.

He pointed at one of them — the Symhar at the centre of the guardian trio.

"You!" he called out, his voice reaching beyond the long fissure of darkness that separated them.

The Symhar in the middle blinked his weary eyes and paid attention to Damon, waiting for what he was going to say next.

"I have a question for you."

Damon smirked.

Such confidence. How much had he figured out in the past five minutes?

"Am I allowed to ask you a question?"

"Yes."

The Symhar answered almost as immediately as the question came.

As he answered, Damon glanced at the timer immediately noting the second and allowing for a few more seconds to pass, and when nothing happened to him, he realised that it was indeed a loophole.

A loophole he would now exploit.

Damon made his decision as he was about to punch the air in excitement. "That's it! You are the Symhar of Tru—"

He shut himself up by covering his mouth when he realised that he was becoming hasty.

The Symhar that had answered him smirked at the moment that Damon halted.

Failure was tied to consequences, and hastiness was the quickest way to failure in the Riddle Game.

"Wait…"

Damon stopped himself and thought about what he was about to do.

He shook his head when it dawned on him that he almost pushed himself into the pit of failure.

He had verified something although that was not what he was gunning for.

Damon had succeeded in proving that there was a loophole for him to exploit.

Regardless, he was yet to take any step further in proving which Symhar was which out of the three of them.

[Time Left — 00h : 04m : 42s]

'Nothing happened to me after asking the question. The one in the middle does not lie. If that's the case, then he is either the real Symhar of Truth or the Symhar of Both choosing to tell the truth.

'To figure them out, I will need to ask them more questions but I assume that there is a limit to the number of questions I'm allowed to ask unless the entire game is hacked.

'Let's say I have a grace to ask three question, one question each for the three of them and I have used one out of the three. What will I do at this point?'

Damon's face lit up and he smiled.

He had finally figured something out.

This time for sure, he would find out which of them is which.

He turned to the Symhar on his right side and pointed at him.

"Is the one in the middle the Symhar of Lies?"

"No," the Symhar on his right side answered.

Damon turned to the one on the left.

"This means I may or may not have one question left to ask."

Damon sighed and pointed at the last Simhar on his left.

"The Symhar in the middle... is he the Symhar of Lies?"

The eyes of the three Symhars broadened.

They were shocked that he would waste his question slots asking the same question.

But in the end, Damon was right.

As there was a loophole, there was also an unspoken rule.

He was allowed to ask a question but only one question to each of them.

The Symhar on the left had no choice but to answer since it was the player's question.

"Yes," he responded.

[Riddle Game]

[Time Left — 00h : 02m : 02s]

Damon's mouth widened into a grin.

"Eureka!"