Everyone was curious about the new method the host mentioned.
As the crowd looked on in confusion, the host explained: "Contestants will observe objects on-site and then answer questions posed by the host.
The questions begin with a countdown, and whoever answers in the shortest time wins.
This time, there are no multiple-choice options to substitute. Everyone has the same questions, but their answer methods will differ.
We will place the number thirty-two token on the table. The contestant chooses one, and whichever they select will determine the corresponding method for them to answer."
After hearing the host's words, people began to speculate what they would be shown to observe on-site.
"The questions in this round are all variations on a theme, but the difficulty is quite high. Now, let's welcome contestant number one, Zhou Yutong, to the stage!"
Zhou Yutong had already answered one question incorrectly. If she made another mistake on this one, she would undoubtedly go to the tie-breaker round.
However, if she answered correctly, she still had a chance to advance directly.
As the host had mentioned earlier, the questions in this round were the most difficult. As long as enough people answered incorrectly, she could still qualify.
Therefore, the pressure on her was immense.
Under everyone's gaze, she took a deep breath before walking to the draw table. 138 Reading Network
The drawing tokens were covered on the table. Unless someone had x-ray vision, no one knew which number was which.
Even if they did, it wouldn't matter, as they still wouldn't know their specific question.
However, when choosing a number, Zhou Yutong was still very cautious, afraid of randomly picking the most difficult question, which would be incredibly unlucky.
She reached out, hesitated for a moment, and then selected a token from the middle.
She flipped it over to reveal the number six, a very auspicious number, which she hoped would bring her good luck!
The host took the token from her and said, "Zhou Yutong has drawn number six. What kind of question will it be? Let's wait and see. Zhou Yutong, please return to the answer table and get ready!"
As he spoke, he showed the token to the audience and the other contestants!
Following his announcement, twenty groups of five-digit numbers appeared on the large screen.
This time, the display duration was even shorter, only eight seconds.
Once the numbers disappeared, the host said, "Contestant Zhou Yutong, please pick up the paper and pen in front of you and write from the last group of numbers to the first.
We will rank contestants based on who writes the most correct groups. The countdown begins."
Upon hearing this, Zhou Yutong immediately grabbed her paper and pen. When she heard the "zero," she began writing rapidly.
At this moment, her brain was working at full speed, her hand movements almost matching her thought process.
However, as fast as she started, she began to slow down.
The human brain is easily disrupted by rules. Zhou Yutong had memorized the numbers from front to back.
The instruction was to write from back to front. The later groups of numbers were still fresh in her mind, but the earlier ones became increasingly blurred.
After about a minute, she had written down all twenty groups of numbers, but she wasn't sure how many she had gotten wrong.
The other contestants were also trying to recall the numbers with their brains, but most of them couldn't remember them all.
The timer ended as soon as Zhou Yutong finished writing.
"Contestant Zhou Yutong has finished writing. Now, please have Zhou Yutong read out the last group of numbers," the host said.
Zhou Yutong immediately looked at the numbers on her paper and read, "25947!"
As she finished speaking, the last group of numbers also appeared on the large screen, which was indeed 25947.
Next, Zhou Yutong began to read the second group: "17853."
The twenty groups of numbers themselves weren't difficult to remember. The challenge lay in the fact that these numbers were completely unrelated, written down randomly.
Otherwise, if there were a pattern, she would have been able to remember them all.
The second group was correct without a doubt. Zhou Yutong got it right again.
She continued to be correct for all ten groups.
This demonstrated that Zhou Yutong's memory was truly formidable.
The audience below was impressed. Remembering so many numbers in just a few seconds was no ordinary feat.
They would have been doing well to remember one group. If someone had spoken to them and disrupted their thoughts, they likely wouldn't have remembered any.
But this young girl on stage, getting ten groups of numbers right, earned nothing but admiration.
However, Zhou Yutong was not confident about her eleventh group of numbers.
This was because she had changed her mind during the writing process.
But once she had committed to an answer, even if she remembered it correctly later, she couldn't change it and had to read out the answer she had written.
Looking at the audience, she tried to calm herself down and then read the eleventh group of numbers: "65381!"
"Is 65381 correct? Please look at the large screen," the host said. He didn't have the answers and could only confirm if the contestant was correct based on the display.
As of now, he didn't know if Zhou Yutong had answered correctly.
As he finished speaking, the numbers appeared one by one on the large screen.
"6... 5... 3... 6... 7..."
"Unfortunately, Zhou Yutong answered incorrectly," the host said with regret.
Zhou Yutong had already anticipated this answer and knew that she would get more wrong as she went on.
Just as she had predicted, she made six mistakes in total, only remembering fourteen groups of numbers correctly.
This was not an ideal result, with too many errors.
However, the audience still gave her a thunderous applause. In their eyes, Zhou Yutong had already performed admirably.
After returning to her seat, contestant number two, Gu Lie, took the stage. He chose the number two token, which corresponded to his own contestant number.
"According to the competition rules, I will not reveal how the twenty groups of numbers will be written down beforehand. I will only announce it after the numbers are displayed. Therefore, contestants should try to remember the numbers in both forward and backward order.
Gu Lie, please prepare!" the host gestured.
Gu Lie nodded, indicating he was ready.
The large screen began its countdown, and Gu Lie focused his attention on it.
Soon, twenty groups of numbers, all different, appeared on the large screen again.
Similarly, there were no patterns; they were all written randomly. Ordinary people could only rely on rote memorization.
However, remembering this way often made it harder to retain the information and easy to get confused.
Those with good memories, like them, often have their own unique number codes. This way, when they see different numbers, different codes appear in their minds.
Thus, when they are asked to recall the numbers, they only need to remember the codes and then convert them.
This is a method commonly used, with the only difference being that each person's code is unique.
Of course, some people use other methods, but regardless of the method, it has become a muscle memory within them, allowing them to quickly memorize so many numbers.
In a flash, the eight seconds passed, and the large screen went dark.
The host held the microphone and said, "Please, Gu Lie, write down the numbers from the first group to the last. The countdown begins!"
Listening to this, it seemed slightly easier than Zhou Yutong's task.
However, since they couldn't know the order of writing the numbers in advance, contestants didn't focus solely from beginning to end while memorizing. They also scanned from end to beginning, disrupting the order.
Therefore, whether writing from start to finish or from end to beginning made little difference to them.
Unless a contestant took a gamble, betting that they would remember from beginning to end and then simply recalling them in that order, which would be much simpler.
But Gu Lie did not do that; his conservative approach was to memorize from both ends.
After hearing the host's instructions, he immediately picked up his pen, ready to go!
As the countdown ended, just like Zhou Yutong, he began to write furiously.