Chapter 16

(Listen (Thank you, book friend "Tianya Daozun", for your generous support, I bow! If you have recommendation tickets, please vote, and don't forget to add to your favorites!))

Chen Mo was now staring intently at the gambling machine's screen. As he inserted coins, he observed the flashing signal lights on the screen, his expression extremely focused.

Chen Mo was already very familiar with the gambling machines. The incident that just occurred made him feel incredibly puzzled. He thought to himself: These gambling machines are all set with a predetermined payout ratio. If you don't win enough money, they will at most symbolically spit out a little bit of money from time to time, and it's absolutely impossible for a machine to malfunction and pay out a large amount. But the impossible happened, so there must be some unknown reason behind it!

In fact, Chen Mo had a vague idea in his mind, one related to computer vulnerabilities. The experiment he was conducting was to verify whether the gambling machines, like computers, had some hard-to-detect vulnerabilities.

If we compare a gambling machine to a computer, the rule that the machine will pay out after winning a certain amount of money is like a slightly obvious logical flaw in a computer. As long as someone can grasp this logical flaw, they can benefit from it.

The incredible event that just happened must belong to a more hidden vulnerability in the gambling machine. Such vulnerabilities also exist in computers, but because they are extremely hidden, only computer experts can discover them.

However, even so, such vulnerabilities can be traced. To put it more clearly: these vulnerabilities will manifest in some extremely rare forms, and many people are not sensitive enough to these rare forms, so they fail to notice them.

The reason Chen Mo associated the gambling machine with computers was that after reading the computer textbook issued by the school, he made such an inference. In Chen Mo's view, computers are quite complex things. In this world, the more complex something is, the less perfect it is, and the possibility of having vulnerabilities definitely exists, and these vulnerabilities cannot be completely eliminated!

No matter how hard people try, it's impossible to eliminate all vulnerabilities. If you think your computer is safe now, it's only because your skills are not yet sufficient to detect these vulnerabilities.

Of course, this was just Chen Mo's inference, or rather, his conjecture. He didn't even have a computer, so he couldn't verify these ideas. However, fortunately, there was a gambling machine in front of him, and he could use analogy to verify this conjecture.

Unconsciously, Chen Mo's attention had shifted from making money to verifying his conjecture. His thinking was indeed very跳跃性 (leap-like).

"Ding!"

"Ding ding!"

"Ding ding ding!"

As time passed, Chen Mo kept inserting coins one after another but got no results. Liu Ge, who was sitting next to him, couldn't help but want to speak up several times, but seeing Chen Mo's focused expression, he had to hold his tongue.

It wasn't until Chen Mo inserted the thirty-seventh coin that the gambling machine, which had malfunctioned twice recently, finally malfunctioned again!

The moment the machine malfunctioned, Chen Mo couldn't help but jump up from his chair, shouting, "Hahahaha! It's just as I thought!"

This time, everyone in the gambling room was stunned. Seeing Chen Mo happily jumping around, the owner of the game room was bleeding inside: Does this kid have some special ability? In such a short time, this machine has malfunctioned three times in his hands. If this continues, I'll be losing money!

Through thirty-seven experiments, Chen Mo finally found a very hidden but extremely significant vulnerability in this gambling machine!

As he put it, "This gambling machine has a very hard-to-detect malfunction point. As long as you insert a coin at a certain moment, it will malfunction!"

This moment was very hard to grasp. For example, you have to ensure that you insert the coin when the lights on the gambling machine's screen flash to a certain point, and you also have to precisely control the timing of pressing the gambling button! The requirement for timing is measured in units of less than a second!

"Rattle rattle rattle—"

Amidst the pleasant sound of coins being dispensed, the owner of the game room walked over and said to Chen Mo with a stern face, "There's something wrong with this machine. The last round doesn't count!"

Liu Ge had been in a daze all along. He never expected that the dark-skinned boy in front of him would do something so incredible. He had been watching his every move and hadn't noticed anything unusual. How did he make the machine malfunction so quickly again?

The owner's words snapped Liu Ge back to reality. He gathered his thoughts, stood up, and shouted, "What do you mean there's something wrong with the machine! When my brother was losing money, you didn't say anything was wrong with the machine! Now that he's won money, you come up with this excuse! **Are you trying to cheat us?!"

As Liu Ge spoke, he shook the T-shirt he was wearing, and everyone could see the shiny machete tucked into his belt.

Huang Mao and the others also gathered around with unfriendly expressions. Huang Mao coldly snorted, "Boss Wang, my brother has lost at least three to four thousand yuan here in the past few days. If you say there's something wrong with this machine, we can say there's something wrong with all the machines here! You should refund all the money we lost!"

As Huang Mao spoke, he grabbed an object on his waist with his right hand. Clearly, if the owner of the game room didn't say something satisfactory, he was likely to take action immediately.

The owner of the game room was most afraid of such incidents. Regardless of whether the other party would really take action, if this incident became a big deal, it would have a huge negative impact on his business. Most people who came here to gamble lost money. When they lost money, you didn't say a word, but when they won a lot of money, you said the machine was broken and tried to cheat them. Who would come to your place to gamble in the future?

This commotion was quite significant, and it attracted the attention of people playing games in the hall outside. Many people poked their heads into the gambling room.

At this moment, a group of people rushed in from the back door. They blocked the entrance to the gambling room, and all of them were holding weapons. Seeing the owner of the game room, the leader of the group said, "Brother Wang, what's going on?"

Liu Ge, seeing the people blocking the entrance, couldn't help but sneer, "This is great! I've been losing so much money these past few days that my eyes are red. I'll just take out my anger on you bastards!"

After saying this, Liu Ge drew his machete and was about to attack. Huang Mao and the others also drew their machetes and walked toward the people blocking the entrance.

As a fight was about to break out, Chen Mo, the instigator, stepped back. He didn't want to get involved in this. After all, he had already put all the coins he won into his pocket. What did the fight between these two groups have to do with him? He was a stranger here, and no one knew him. He could slip away in the chaos.

At the critical moment, the owner of the game room shouted, "Stop! Everyone, stop! Don't ruin the harmony!"