Chapter 74 The Fourth

After leaving Number Seven, Third Street, Feng Bujue did not immediately head to the Northern Town Cemetery. Instead, he continued towards the address of the fourth recipient.

He was a very organized person and wouldn't easily disrupt his plans.

According to the route he had predetermined, it was most reasonable and time-saving to visit the cemetery after delivering the ninth letter.

Therefore... although he hadn't been able to deliver the third letter yet, he still planned to stick to the original route and reassess after gathering more information...

...

Ten minutes later, [Fourth Street, Number Ten.]

Brother Jue stopped in front of a familiar-looking house, crossed a familiar-looking lawn, stood on a familiar-looking porch, and knocked on a familiar-looking door.

Tap, tap, tap...

"Open up! Chop chop!" Feng Bujue shouted as he knocked.

Soon, familiar-sounding footsteps came from upstairs. The door opened a crack, and a familiar voice rang out from the shadows behind it: "Who are you looking for?"

"Mailman, delivering mail," Feng Bujue replied in a very fast voice, expertly flashing his ID, and then added, "Are you accepting?"

"No..." Fatty Number Four only managed to utter one syllable.

Brother Jue rudely interrupted him: "How many digits is your command code?"

"Uh..." The other party hesitated for half a second and replied, "Four... four digits..."

"Does the first digit start with one?" On the way here, Feng Bujue had come up with an idea. He wanted to use the "must answer" characteristic of these recipients to extract the specific values of the command codes through a set of targeted questions.

Unfortunately... such behavior would naturally not succeed... The system wouldn't allow such a low-skill attempt to cheat.

"I cannot answer that question," Fatty Number Four said, his tone sounding somewhat like a game NPC.

"Oh..." Feng Bujue wasn't too surprised, because he also knew that this method would most likely fail. He was just asking out of curiosity. "Then... is this number greater or less than 5555?"

"I cannot answer that question." Fatty Number Four repeated the same answer in the exact same tone and voice as before.

"Is it an odd or even number? Is it a prime number? Is it a lucky number?" Feng Bujue asked three questions in one breath.

"I cannot answer any of these questions," Fatty Number Four stated.

"Okay." Feng Bujue appeared very calm. At this point, he could confirm that these recipients could only reveal the "type" (number rather than letter or other) and "number of digits" of the command code.

"Is there anything else? If not, hurry up and leave," Two seconds later, Fatty Number Four couldn't wait to kick him out.

"Before I go, I'd like to ask..." Brother Jue once again used the method he used to deal with Fatty Number Two, stopping the other party from slamming the door shut, and added, "Are you a clone?"

"What are you talking about? I don't understand," Fatty Number Four replied.

"Oh?" Feng Bujue's eyes flickered slightly. He thought to himself, "This time it's not 'cannot answer'... but 'don't understand'..."

"I won't accept the letter without the code. Please leave," Five seconds later, Fatty Number Four saw that the door couldn't be closed, so he simply said this and turned upstairs.

This time, Brother Jue did not try to break in. He simply hurried back to his bicycle and set off towards the fifth address.

"Hmm... I understand almost everything," He sped up his pedaling and his thinking, "The reactions of these recipients to the questions are... 'can answer', 'cannot answer', and 'cannot understand or give feedback'." He murmured, "From the results of the probes, the information that 'can be answered' is the most basic clues I need to solve the puzzle; and some attempts that are too direct to the answer, or opportunistic, are classified as 'cannot be answered'; as for 'cannot understand or give feedback', it shows that... from the script setting, these NPCs cannot provide clues and answers to the corresponding questions."

Thinking of this, his expression became serious: "Things are a bit more complicated than I thought... In short, it's better to probe one more time at the next address and confirm it."

...

In short, by 11:30 AM, Feng Bujue had run through the addresses of the first nine letters.

Apart from the first and second recipients who had accepted the letters, all the recipients of the third to ninth letters had not accepted them.

However, Brother Jue still managed to confirm his previous conjectures from them, and asked for the number of digits of their command codes one by one.

Starting from the one on Third Street, to the "Fatty Number Nine" on Ninth Street, the command codes of these seven people were: three digits, four digits, five digits, six digits, seven digits, eight digits, and ten digits, respectively.

"Okay... it's about time to contact my 'ghost' colleague," After leaving the house at Number Three, Ninth Street, Feng Bujue straddled his bicycle and looked up, muttering, "According to the map... there's a store on the way to the cemetery, I should be able to get the paper needed to send a letter there..."

Along the way, he had successively learned the details of writing letters to the ghost mailman: Letters to the ghost mailman do not need envelopes and stamps, as long as you follow the correct letter format and write the content directly on white paper. But the writing paper must be clean, the writing must be neat, and the wording must be polite and accurate.

Of course, even if the sender strictly follows these requirements... whether the ghost mailman will reply after receiving the letter, and how long it will take to reply... is also unknown.

"Anyway, I already have a pen for writing..." Feng Bujue said as he rode, "If the store is open as usual, I can also buy something to eat and drink to replenish my energy. Even if it's not open as usual, getting a piece of paper or something should not be difficult..."

Just as Brother Jue was thinking, suddenly...

Zzzzzzzzzz... That familiar sound came from the fog again.

"Again?" Brother Jue's sight quickly caught the tire tracks on the ground. He knew that his "colleague" was about to pass by again.

"Sigh... I'll give you way, alright." Feng Bujue muttered to himself, turned his bike around, and rode to the side of the road.

He thought that the ghost mailman would pass by silently, just like when he first met him, but unexpectedly...

Whoosh—

Accompanied by the sound of air being torn, a roll of newspaper suddenly appeared in mid-air and landed accurately in Brother Jue's bicycle basket.

Judging from the trajectory of the newspaper... it seemed that the ghost mailman had thrown it over casually as he passed by Brother Jue.