Lin Mo rubbed his nose; he hadn't seen anything clearly, but in his mind, the image of that wood chip touching the teacup on the left was vividly imprinted.
Forget it, it's just a game anyway, so I'll choose the teacup the wood chip touched.
Under everyone's gaze, Lin Mo slowly extended his index finger, without the slightest hesitation, and pointed directly at the leftmost teacup, saying calmly, "I think it's on the left."
A flicker of surprise crossed Bang Gu's eyes.
With a look of disbelief, he lifted the left teacup.
The bright red bean lay safely in the very center.
"!!!"
The entire dojo seemed to have been muted.
Saitama's perpetually calm expression, for a rare moment, showed pure astonishment: "Oh! He actually guessed it! Mr. KING, you're amazing!"
Meanwhile, Bang Gu stared intently at Lin Mo, "Such keen observation, even though I was already very careful..."
Facing Bang Gu's shocked gaze and Saitama-kun's admiring praise, Lin Mo just smiled nonchalantly and said, "Luck, just good luck."
"Heh heh..." Bang Gu let out an inscrutable sneer, the sharpness in his eyes undiminished.
He didn't commit, but it was clear he didn't believe a word of it.
The first time could be called luck.
But what about the second time?
"Splendid, truly splendid." Bang Gu slowly straightened up, saying with a steady, powerful voice, "Mr. KING, your observational skills have indeed reached a realm that ordinary people cannot achieve."
Lin Mo could only continue to chuckle, "You flatter me, old man, it really was just luck..."
"Luck is also a part of strength." Bang Gu, however, didn't agree. He waved his hand, interrupting Lin Mo's modest remarks.
"Since that's the case, let's play a different game."
"The previous game tested insight, it was about skill. So, the key to this next game is perception, which is 'listening.'"
"Listening?" Saitama-kun picked at his ear, "Listening to what? Listening to you lecture about martial arts? I'll fall asleep."
"Haha, no, no." Bang Gu waved his hand, signaling Charanko to fetch another prop.
It was a completely opaque, sealed square box, and a handful of red beans.
Bang Gu placed the square box on the floor in the middle of everyone, then casually picked up a few beans from a bowl and, in front of everyone, dropped them one by one into the box through a special small opening at the top.
"This game is called 'Silent Listening.'" Bang Gu gently shook the wooden box, and a rustling sound immediately came from within.
"The rules are simple. I will shake the box, and you all must judge the exact number of red beans inside the box based on the sounds you hear."
"I'll go first." Saitama-kun seemed excited; he thought this was simpler than seeing things.
Bang Gu smiled slightly. As a warm-up, he put five beans into the box.
Then, he picked up the box and shook it a few times at a uniform speed. The beans tumbled and collided inside the box, making clearly discernible sounds.
"Hmm..." Saitama-kun closed his eyes and listened intently for a while, then said with full confidence, "Five beans!"
Bang Gu smiled and opened the lid of the box; there were exactly five bright red beans, no more, no less.
"Saitama-kun, not bad, your hearing is very sharp," Bang Gu praised generously.
"Next, Genos-kun."
This time, Bang Gu put seven beans into the box and then shook it with a very tricky method, sometimes fast, sometimes slow.
Genos closed his eyes and analyzed, "Excluding echo interference... based on the sound analysis of the collision points, the number is... seven."
Bang Gu nodded approvingly, opened the box, and indeed, there were seven beans.
"Genos-kun's hearing is truly extraordinary. So then..."
Everyone's gaze once again focused on that mobile source of pressure named "Mr. KING."
"Mr. KING, please enlighten us."
Bang Gu said nothing. He silently poured all the beans out of the box, then turned his back and made a secret placement. No one knew how many he put in this time.
Just as he was about to turn back, a thought suddenly popped into Bang Gu's mind: No, with Mr. KING's unfathomable perception, merely changing the number would probably still be too simple... No!
A daring idea spontaneously arose in his mind.
He pretended to adjust his clothes, reached into his bosom, and secretly pulled out a few soybeans that had accidentally fallen into his pocket while preparing dinner in the kitchen... That's right! He wasn't playing fair anymore!
Today, this old man absolutely had to win once!
He quickly threw those few soybeans, which differed completely from red beans in size, weight, and texture, into the box as well.
After doing all this, he nonchalantly turned around and gently placed the wooden box in front of him.
"Mr. KING, please."
Lin Mo took a deep breath and reached out to grasp the wooden box.
He imitated Bang Gu, closed his eyes, brought the wooden box to his ear, and gently shook it.
"Thump thump... thump thump... thump thump thump..."
All he heard was his own heartbeat.
The sound of beans? What beans? He couldn't hear even the slightest "rustle"!
Rubbing his nose, Lin Mo smiled bitterly to himself. It was just a game; there was no need to use psychic power to cheat on something like this, was there? That would be too undignified.
How about... just guessing a random number? Like 8? Or 6? They both sound quite auspicious... Just as he was about to throw caution to the wind and blurt out a number, Saitama-kun, bored from waiting, pulled a crumpled flyer from his pocket.
It was a flyer for a newly opened supermarket nearby, advertising a "Hero Appreciation Day" special, which someone had shoved into his hand on his way to the dojo today.
He idly unfolded the flyer, his gaze scanning over it.
"Oh, eggs are on sale, I can buy some tomorrow... Saury looks good too... Hmm? What's this?"
His attention was drawn to a fun little activity in the corner of the flyer—
[Guess how many beans there are? Customers who correctly guess the number of black beans in our store's "prized possession" glass jar can win a year's supply of free soy sauce!]
Next to the photo of the huge glass jar on the flyer, a small line of text detailed the event and... yesterday's lucky number reference.
[Friendly reminder: Yesterday's lucky number for guessers: 18]
This was precisely what Lin Mo saw.
Saitama-kun only gave it a bored glance, but Lin Mo's peripheral vision, which was darting around due to embarrassment, happened to catch the Arabic numeral specifically circled in red.
Lucky number 18, huh... A thought flashed through Lin Mo's mind like lightning.
He might as well try anything!
He slowly put down the wooden box in his hand. He looked up and said calmly,
"Eighteen."