@Veshv I suppose it's possible, and it'd be a decent twist, but it depends on how Kakerou feels about giving Usogui any beads after fact. While it does not directly affect the game itself, you might use extra beads to bait your enemy into thinking your number is different, and thus inputting a wrong number at the Dotty, giving you a clue as to what the enemy's number of beads is; they can either think that it's their own fault for falling for it, or that it's unreasonable to help one player out like that. If they think that it's still neutral to do so, they might do it. I don't know how he would've gotten it from Suteguma, unless Suteguma also discarded his and Usogui somehow found out where and retrieved those. It's certainly possible, but that twist doesn't really seem likely to me, but we'll see. Also, I don't get why you think Usogui had to know Hyougo's input in the second round? I mean, he didn't necessarily have to know Hyougo's exact inputted number, just to have a general idea that Suteguma was lying and planning on betraying Ranko, and I believe that would've been enough to get her cooperation with the note; Then he could always wait until Marco came back to tell him the exact number. Tell me if I'm missing something.
@tack215 There's not really conclusive evidence, as far as I know. For all this we have to make a few assumptions, and at the end of the day it's all speculation. However such a plan would be a brilliant ruse, from the author's part and from Suteguma, and it would make sense and be possible considering what we know. Now, the key factor in this assumed ruse is that the terminal allows for wrongly inputted passwords and for even impossible passwords, since it has no rules like the Dotty. So, if Suteguma was planning on betraying his comrades from the beginning - which I assume he did since this is probably about achieving the Karamete, getting the 50 billion, and maybe eventually challenging the leader - it would make sense for him to have been lying to his comrades from the start (and it's already been confirmed - if Nowa's guess is right and/or the amount of beads that were shown for Baku were accurate, so Baku has 6+ beads - that he lied to Hyougo about having 5 beads) and for the 8 input to be a double bluff. From Suteguma's perspective he definitely does not want his comrades to be able to input the correct password while he's in the Dotty, since this would allow them to take the money and the achievement of the Karamete to themselves, ruining his own plans in all likelihood, so he can lie to Hyougo about the correct password, removing the possibility of Hyougo being able to enter another password on his own, while also setting up a trap for Usogui in case he finds out what the wrongly inputted number was; of course it's also entirely possible that Suteguma's number of beads isn't 8 or 9, and if his number is 7 then it would still be a lie to tell his comrades that the number is 8, just that he couldn't be certain that 8 wasn't the correct number unless he himself had 8 or more beads, which would make telling Hyougo that the correct password is 8 a bit of a gamble. Whether or not he would take that gamble is a different matter, but if Suteguma's number really is 7 then I find it unlikely that first of all he would think that Usogui only took out 1 bead, and second of all that he would tell Hyougo the actual correct password (since he was probably planning on betraying them from the start). So, what exactly is the ruse? Well, every single possibility that was crossed out from the chart is valid except for one: the crossing out of the entire 8 and 9 columns for Suteguma's possible bead number; the reason why every other change to the board is valid is because those were all based on inputs from the Dotty, and the rule from the Dotty does not allow for impossible numbers, so from a 3rd person's perspective all those numbers that were ruled out very valid. But there's no such rule for the terminal, so there's still a possibility that Suteguma's bead number is 8 or 9, and it would be a brilliant plan to aim for this blind spot on purpose; you tell your comrades (that you're planning to betray anyway) an impossible number, and bait the enemy into ruling out your bead number as impossible if he ever finds out the wrongly inputted number, essentially creating a blind spot for your own bead number that makes it so the enemy can never guess your number. Obviously none of this is a certainty, and someone said that you can completely figure out Suteguma's and Usogui's beads like 20 chapters ago, which I find super hard to believe, especially since it's hard to not take these character's thought processes and conclusions as word of God, even though that's my fault, haha. In any case, that 8 ruse plan would be very ingenious and it would still make sense with how things are going, Suteguma would just have to have 9 beads and believe that Usogui has 7. Additionally, if the ruse isn't as double layered as this and Suteguma only has 7 beads, then assuming that 16 is wrong, the only possible number left would be 17 (also assuming that the number of beads we saw Marco show was actually correct, namely Usogui has 6+ beads), which is why I'd say it's likely that 17 is the correct password if 16 turns out to be wrong. But of course none of this is certain and the password could still be 17, 18 or 19, and maybe even 9 if what
@Veshv mentioned turns out to have been the case and the number of Usogui's beads is lower than what was shown. If there's anything completely wrong about what I've said please let me know. I've kind of passively accepted that my theories will most likely be wrong in the end anyways, but it's still fun, haha. Also, Nowa pretty much assumes that Suteguma pulled off this ruse because he says Suteguma's number is 9, which would only be possible with the ruse I described above, and his statement of "I'm afraid nobody noticed it" and "he fooled everybody" would be consistent with it.
@Lithe Yeah, it's probably going to happen soon. I doubt Kiruma is just going to let Yakou walk away with the Number 0 title.
@Hellsau Very likely, yep.