Qi Xia gripped his hair tightly, patiently waiting for the wave of headache to pass. After about half a minute, he finally steadied his breathing, slowly let go, and stood up. His expression was as if nothing had happened.
That wave of headache was like a gust of wind blowing past; it came on fiercely, yet it would always fade away at some point. Lin Qin glanced at Qi Xia and asked, “A-are you alright? Do you get headaches often?”
“No, this is only the second time as far as I can remember.”
Qi Xia sighed and said, “I reckon it has something to do with this damned place.” Lin Qin wanted to ask more, but it seemed Qi Xia did not wish to dwell on the issue.
“Our time is short. Even if worms were growing in my head, I’m not about to get a diagnosis here.”
Qi Xia looked up at the dark red sky and continued, “Thanks to this little girl, we have learned a lot of useful information.”
“Have we?”
Tian Tian looked at the Human Rat’s corpse on the ground, her expression still tinged with sadness.
“I feel the only useful information was about the rules of ‘betting your life.’ This child lost her life because of it.”
“Not just that,” Qi Xia said.
“I thought this was a land filled with chaos and madness, but now it seems this place also has its own ‘rules’.”
“‘Rules’...?”
“That’s right.”
Qi Xia nodded.
“That man just now, the one called ‘Zhuque,’ should be one of the administrators here.”
“Administrator? You mean that ‘bird man’?”
Qiao Jiajin asked.
“Yes, he appeared to ensure the ‘rules’ were not broken.”
“But why wouldn’t an administrator wear any clothes…”
Tian Tian was a bit confused.
“He was naked except for a cape, it looked so strange.”
“Compared to all his other bizarre actions, ‘not wearing clothes’ is already the most normal one.”
Qi Xia paused, then added, “This is just the clue we have for now. Perhaps there are others above the ‘administrators’.” Lin Qin seemed to recall something.
“That’s right… that person called Zhuque once said something like, ‘If the rules didn’t restrict me, I would have definitely killed you.’”
Qiao Jiajin also nodded.
“To be able to restrain a madman with that kind of special power, the people above him must be even more terrifying.”
“‘Special power’?”
Qi Xia frowned.
“I haven’t heard that term in a long time.”
“Isn’t it a special power? Just like The Terminator.”
Qiao Jiajin gestured.
“That man was flying in the sky!”
Hearing this, the three of them paused.
“What does ‘The Terminator’ mean?”
Lin Qin looked at Qiao Jiajin curiously.
“You dress so fashionably, but you’re a country bumpkin?”
Qiao Jiajin gave a silly laugh.
“You haven’t even seen The Terminator?”
“F-fashionably?”
Lin Qin opened her mouth awkwardly. That word was something you only heard from the older generation now; just saying it was hick enough. Yet she was being looked down upon by this kind of person.
Qiao Jiajin nudged Qi Xia with his elbow and asked, “Con man, you must have seen it, right? Arnold Schwarzenegger, he’s just too cool!”
“Arnold Schwarzenegger…?”
Lin Qin felt like she had heard that name before, but at the same time, she hadn’t. “I don’t care about ‘The Terminator’ or Schwarzenegger, and I don’t care how incredible that bird man is.”
Qi Xia paused for a moment before saying, “Right now, all I want to know is the scope of the ‘rules,’ and to what extent they apply.” The three of them didn't understand what Qi Xia was saying and looked at each other in confusion.
“Con man, what are you planning to do?”
Qi Xia slowly raised his hand and made a gesture across his neck. He said to the three of them, “I want to know if ‘killing people to seize their Dao’ is actually feasible.” As soon as he said this, Lin Qin and Tian Tian each took a step back.
Only Qiao Jiajin remained where he stood.
“Kill people to seize their ‘Dao’?”
Qiao Jiajin frowned, his expression extremely grave.
“Are you saying… if you can’t gather three thousand six hundred ‘Dao’ in ten days, you’re going to rob other people?”
“Yes, it’s the most effective method I can think of,” Qi Xia said.
“We are a team now. To accomplish something this big, I need your help, so I’m laying out the plan to hear your thoughts.”
“I won’t help you.”
Qiao Jiajin shook his head decisively.
“Even if the sky falls in this place, I will not do something so unjust. Those people with ‘Dao’ are probably just like us, having survived through untold hardships. What right do we have to kill them?”
“Is that so…”
Qi Xia nodded, his expression complicated.
“But if we want to escape this damned place, this is our only option. That’s three thousand six hundred ‘Dao’… are you really not going to give it a try?”
“I also refuse,” Lin Qin spoke up.
“I don’t think this is a good idea. If we really kill someone, even if we manage to get out of here, we’ll never be able to live the same lives as before.”
Tian Tian thought for a long time before saying, “Yes, if it’s a choice of killing others, I would rather die first myself.” Qi Xia looked into their eyes and pondered for a long moment, before the corners of his mouth finally lifted slightly.
“Very good. Now I can tell you my real plan with peace of mind.”
“What…”
Qiao Jiajin was stunned.
“Damn it, con man, were you testing us?!”
Qi Xia nodded and said, “If the three of you had accepted a plan like ‘killing people to seize their Dao,’ it would have only proven that we are not the same kind of people, and I would have abandoned you at any time.”
“You…”
Qiao Jiajin was practically fuming.
“I really thought you were going to kill someone.”
“Logically speaking, the ‘rules’ would not allow for something like ‘killing people to seize their Dao’ to happen,” Qi Xia explained.
“Although I’m not exactly sure what the rules are here, it seems they are maintaining a sort of ‘bizarre fairness.’ Those administrators are more like ‘referees,’ and if they really are ‘referees,’ then they would definitely guarantee the safety of the participants.”
He paused, then added, “In other words… they want us to die in the games, not from killing each other.” Hearing Qi Xia’s words, everyone fell silent for a moment. After a moment, Lin Qin came to her senses and asked, “In that case, what is your real plan?”
“My plan is not complicated,” Qi Xia replied.
“Since these games aren’t lethal, we’ll go and ‘probe’ them one by one. You all will first figure out the game rules and collect clues along the way. Once you’re confident… I will go and ‘bet my life.’ We will split all the ‘Dao’ we obtain in the end equally. Until we reach three thousand six hundred, we can continue using this strategy.”