In fact, Ririka did exactly that—she controlled the central hound to move to the upper second tower.
Meari understood that she had already lost, and reluctantly controlled the rabbit to jump one step, arriving at the central second tower.
At this moment, the path in front of her was clear, as if she could escape the board in the next step.
But in the final step, Ririka controlled the hound to take a small step downward, blocking Meari's path.
Just a subtle position swap, yet it completely ended the game.
Meari could now only take the final, and most desperate, step: jumping back into her own nest.
Ririka smiled slightly, letting the hound follow, completely blocking all of the rabbit's escape routes.
The third round of the game ended.
"The final round of the game has ended, and the [hound] has won. The winner... is Anna Kinomiya." The staff announced the result.
Meari remained in her seat, stunned.
In the third round of the game, Meari felt that from the moment she took her first step, she was controlled at every turn, always following the opponent's script.
She was like that desperate rabbit; no matter how she pushed forward, she couldn't escape the hounds' encirclement.
Meari felt a sense of powerlessness.
The rabbit should have had the advantage, but Ririka showed her through her actions that even if she didn't make any mistakes, the hounds could still win.
Meari suddenly realized something and looked up, saying, "Anna, did I lose the moment I got the rabbit? No matter how I moved, my actions were always within your control, weren't they?"
As Meari expected, Ririka slowly nodded: "In this game, the hounds have a sure-win method."
"However, this sure-win method is very difficult to achieve; not a single step can be wrong, and it requires the rabbit to be in its initial position, with both sides starting from their initial positions."
So that's how it is...
"No wonder you lost the first game; it's because I initially randomized to a different position." Meari suddenly understood.
"That's right."
Ririka nodded, explaining, "Actually, I also took a shortcut. Under normal circumstances, the rabbit definitely has the advantage; if the hounds make just one wrong move, the rabbit will be in an unbeatable position.
But I've played this game before and memorized all the steps where the hounds can win, so that's why..."
The game "rabbit and hound" was not invented by this staff member; it was a very niche game from Central Europe, and not many people had played it.
In fact, even among those who had played this game, very few knew how to execute the hound's sure-win method.
However, Ririka happened to have played it and memorized all the winning routes for the hounds.
She didn't think there was anything to be proud of. When she was forced to memorize this knowledge as a child, her older sister and Kiyotaka only needed a very short time to remember it.
She considered her memory to be poor.
"It's okay, you don't need to explain. A loss is a loss; I'm not such a bad loser." Meari sighed.
The two of them were gambling for the priority right to purchase this dormitory, not cash, so a loss was a loss.
Indeed, one shouldn't underestimate others. She thought she had a sure win, but she still lost... Meari felt a sense of frustration.
She originally thought it was impressive that she could contend with Miharu Taki Sakura, but she didn't expect to lose again in less than a day.
Meari didn't know that the person standing in front of her was the Student Council Vice President. If she had known this, perhaps she wouldn't have felt so frustrated.
---
Regarding the game "rabbit and hound," I saw someone in yesterday's comment section express the opinion that as long as you get the hound, you will definitely win.
The hound does indeed have a winning strategy; there's an interactive video on Bilibili about the hound's guaranteed win, for those interested.
However, the winning strategy is not as simple as you imagine; to win, you must follow the optimal path, not making a single mistake.
As for those who say that the hound will win just by being side-by-side, I hope readers can try it themselves; as long as it's not according to the predetermined route, the rabbit truly wins easily.
Not many people play this game, and the few videos on Bilibili are all from the hound's perspective, which is why you think the hound always wins.
But you can see that, apart from the video titled "Unsolvable Game," all other videos where the hound wins are due to exploiting the AI's tendency to concede at a critical moment in the 23rd round.
Otherwise, as long as the rabbit keeps moving back and forth until the game time ends, the rabbit will definitely win.
There aren't many posts discussing this game; I only saw two on Tieba, but except for one expert who used a computer to brute-force the optimal solution, all other ordinary players believe the rabbit will definitely win.
Those who don't believe can go and look at their replies.
Besides playing against a computer, I've also played this game with others, and the side playing as the rabbit wins nine out of ten times.
As long as one hasn't specifically studied the "winning strategy," the rabbit definitely holds a huge advantage.
There's a prerequisite for discussing "winning strategies," which is that both sides are making "optimal moves."
Board games are turn-based, so the first player naturally has an advantage, not a disadvantage, so theoretically, there is no "second-player winning strategy."
Gomoku also has a winning strategy; the first player wins, so to balance the game, "first-player forbidden moves" must be set as game rules.
Go is also like this; as long as both sides play optimally, the first player wins. To balance the game, "first-player komi" is set as a game rule.
Gomoku has a winning strategy, but can everyone who gets the black pieces win first-hand?
A winning strategy is a winning strategy. I'm not trying to explain anything by saying all this; I just want to say that even if a winning strategy exists, are there really that many people who can memorize it?
I don't mind others pointing out misunderstandings in my article, but I also don't want some incorrect comments in the comment section to mislead others.
It's just that when I saw six or seven discussions in the previous chapter about "rabbit and hound," all of them claiming the hound would definitely win if it took the center position, I felt I had to explain.
The results of armchair analysis are often different from reality.
If interested, readers can try it themselves and see whether the hound or the rabbit is easier to win with.
Although this game looks simple, I spent several hours playing it in "World Game Collection 51" and looked at solutions from players on various platforms, thoroughly understanding this simple game before daring to write about it.
Although I feel that writing this much about it might be inappropriate, if I don't write it, many people will surely be misled.
I believe I have the responsibility to clarify this.
Finally, I'll post the hound's "winning strategy"; those interested can study it.
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