Traveling through time, I'm making pancakes in Warhammer

Chapter 392 Prisoner’s Dilemma

"So you knew it all along!"

Neville's eyes widened after hearing Howard's words.

Howard: "My little hero, you think you're too smart. Your tricks are only useful to those who are willing to tolerate you."

"Who wants your tolerance?!" Neville retorted angrily, but then he realized that he shouldn't have said this, so he asked in a slightly gentler tone:

"Then what should I do?"

"You ask me?" Howard raised his eyebrows and said, "I was hoping to get the answer to this question from you!"

After saying that, Howard leaned back against the railing, looking like he was waiting to see your performance.

Neville looked at the food in his hand, then looked at the prisoners who stretched out their hands to beg for mercy from him. He knew that Howard was right.

The prisoners closest to him got all the food, while the prisoners who were a little further away were often snatched away by other prisoners who were closer, even if he threw the food within their reach.

The first thing Neville thought of was communication, so he tried to say to the prisoner who was closest to him and who had received a whole sausage in the first round of food distribution:

"Hey! Hey! Can you understand what I'm saying?"

The prisoner nodded repeatedly, his hair scattered on both sides of his face. It was fluffy and dry, and his entire face was completely hidden in the shadow of his hair.

"Hey! Listen! You've already eaten enough, but the others haven't had anything. I'll give you the food later, and you can share it with them on my behalf, okay?"

The prisoner responded repeatedly, stretching out his hand to Neville for food even more eagerly.

Out of caution, Neville only gave him a small piece of biscuit at first. After the prisoner got the biscuit, he indeed shared it with prisoners farther away. After doing this several times, Neville felt that he could be trusted a little, so he broke off half a piece of bread for him.

But this time, the prisoner stuffed half of the bread into his mouth.

"Hey!" Neville said anxiously: "We agreed! You can't do this!"

After swallowing half a piece of bread, the prisoner glanced at Neville. Although his whole face was hidden in the shadow, Neville shuddered for some reason.

After tricking himself into giving away half a loaf of bread, the prisoner seemed to have finally eaten his fill. He stretched himself and lay back down in his own shabby nest. No matter how much Neville shouted or called out, he refused to respond.

"Him!!" Neville, who had nowhere to turn, could only point at the prisoner and say to Howard, "How could he do this!"

"He's human too," Howard said. "You just didn't treat him as a human, but as a machine. You thought he was foolish and blindly following others. You thought that because you got the results you wanted a few times before, you would always get the results you wanted. But you overlooked how cunning people are. They can disguise themselves."

"But..." Neville still didn't understand: "But if he does this, I will definitely not share the food with him next time. What good will it do to myself?"

"Master Neville, how long do you think you can stay here?" Howard said, "Maybe in the next second, or maybe before the next meal is delivered, you and I will be transferred to another place. They must understand this, so of course we must seize every opportunity to eat as much as possible..."

After hearing Howard's explanation, the confusion in Neville's eyes was slightly reduced. It seemed that although the prisoner's behavior was infuriating, it was not unreasonable.

"And..." Howard continued, "Even if food is delivered next time and you want to distribute it, it will have to pass through his hands. Even if you throw it directly to another prisoner, he'll have a chance to grab it. So even if there's a next time, if you distribute food, he'll still be the one who eats the most. If you don't distribute food next time, he'll always be the one who eats the most. As long as he eats and grabs more than the other prisoners, far more than the other prisoners, he'll think he's profiting, even if the end result is that no one gets any."

So the confusion in Neville's eyes turned into shock. If the prisoner's internal logic just now was just to harm others and benefit himself, now the prisoner's logic is to harm others and not benefit himself.

"How do you know he thinks so?" Neville asked.

Howard: "It's just simple game theory and the prisoner's dilemma. There's also a saying in my hometown: 'It's not the lack of wealth that's worrying, but the inequality of it.'"

But Neville was completely confused: "What game...what prisoners?"

Howard did not answer this question, so Neville leaned over the railing and asked the prisoner:

"Hey! Do you think the same as what that guy said?"

The prisoner ignored him.

So Neville had already decided in his heart that what Howard said was right.

"He...how could he do this?" Neville fell into deep confusion. He muttered to himself, both to himself and to Howard:

"He... he's imprisoned here, and so are the other prisoners. They're all suffering together... shouldn't they encourage each other, help each other, and support each other... just like..."

"Like those poor persecuted people in novels or plays? As long as you save them from danger, they will kneel down and sing your praises?" Howard pointed out Neville's thoughts and asked, "Compared to them, you are even weirder. As a child of a noble, why do you share your food with them?"

"I want to help them," Neville said. "They are so pitiful."

"Why do you feel pity for them?" Howard asked again. "If you ask Alexandra what she thinks of these prisoners, she'll probably say they deserve it."

Neville couldn't answer this question for a long time, so Howard changed the subject:

"So now you know they aren't the perfect victims you imagined. They're a group of pitiful yet deeply hateful people who can't satisfy your desire to be a saint or a savior. If you share your food with them, they won't remember your kindness. Instead, they hope you'll be locked up here forever and share food with them forever. If you get out, they'll spit and curse you. After knowing this, do you still want to help them?"

Neville was silent for a long time. He held the plate with food and said solemnly:

"Even so, I still want to help them."

"Don't swear at me." Howard laughed. "Swearing is useless. Oaths are worthless."