Marte’s lucky extra pop

After reading the task brief, Marte looks over the selection of weapons on the table, and asks Olli if the house has a “balloon room”. Laughing off her joke, Marte reasons that the axe would likely be the most useful weapon, so she chooses that, and then chooses the shed as her location.

When she opens the shed door, she excitedly cries out to Olli that she had been correct about the existence of a “balloon room”.

Marte pops individual balloons slowly and deliberately with the axe, but does not count aloud as she does so. It is only after she asks Olli for the total amount she has popped so far, and he says he does not know, that she realises that she needs to keep track herself.

Marte retrieves the remains of the balloons she has already popped, to count them, then starts to count aloud as she continues her slow and deliberate popping.

She stops when she reaches 97 balloons, because she believes that she has counted incorrectly. However, earlier in her attempt, one balloon had escaped from the shed, and Marte cannot let it go unpunished, so she quickly pops it with the axe before officially stopping her attempt.

She finishes the task in 7 minutes and 56 seconds, and – by complete luck - pops exactly 99 balloons, so incurs no time penalties. Marte therefore wins the task.

(Written by Jenny R and proofread by Karl Craven)

(Illustrations collected by Jenny R and adjusted by David Fuller)