What is the next number in this matchsticks series riddle?

In a particular village, only two barbershops exist.

The first shop has a handsome barber with a neat haircut who is handsomely dressed in clean clothes and is extremely humble with his body language. The place is clean and looks hygienic.

In the second shop, you can find a barber with shabby clothing. His hairs are weirdly cut and his clothes still have the stains from last night's dinner. The place is not clean as well and reeks a bit.

You visit the village for the first time and decide to get your haircut. Which barbershop will you like to go for that and why?

A man walked into a pub and went straight towards the Barman. He asked for a dirty martini from the Barman. The Barman thought something and then pulled out a pistol from his drawer and aimed it directly at the man. Why did he do that?

A time long back, there lived a king who ruled the great kingdom of Trojan House. As a part of the renovation of the kingdom to meet future security needs, he asked his chief architect to lay down a new play in a manner that all of his 10 castles are connected through five straight walls and each wall must connect four castles together. He also asked the architect that at least one of his castles should be protected with walls. The architect could not come up with any solution that served all of King's choices, but he suggested the best plan that you can see in the picture below. Can you find a better solution to serve the king's demand?

Your last good ping-pong ball fell into a narrow metal pipe embedded one foot deep in concrete.
How can you get it out undamaged, if all the tools you have are your tennis paddle, shoe laces, and plastic water bottle, which does not fit into the pipe?

If two fifty-foot ropes are suspended from a forty-foot ceiling that is twenty feet apart, how much rope will you be able to steal if you have a knife?

Can you count the number of seconds in a year?

Clue: You need to bother about calculation.

If you're 8 feet away from a door and with each move you advance half the distance to the door. How many moves will it take to reach the door?

How many pluses should we put between the digits of 987654321 to get a total of 99, and where?

A monk has a very specific ritual for climbing up the steps to the temple. First, he climbs up to the middle step and meditates for 1 minute. Then he climbs up 8 steps and faces east until he hears a bird singing. Then he walks down 12 steps and picks up a pebble. He takes one step up and tosses the pebble over his left shoulder. Now, he walks up the remaining steps three at a time which only takes him 9 paces. How many steps are there?