"He's here!" the man with glasses called out happily.
"He's finally here!"
A large man slowly approached them. He was about one meter eighty tall, with a crew cut. Yawning, he rummaged through his pockets and then asked the bull-headed man, "How much?"
"The admission fee is one 'Dao'."
The large man took a small orb from his pocket and flicked it with his thumb toward the bull-headed man, who caught it securely in his hand.
"Slept well... let's begin."
The large man stretched, then rolled his neck.
"Let me see what new scheme you've come up with," he said in a low voice.
Qi Xia and his group looked at this fierce-looking man, sensing he was not someone to be trifled with. Qiao Jiajin didn't pay the large man much mind. After all, he had seen plenty of people like him on the streets.
These types threw their weight around, relying on their strong builds, and Qiao Jiajin had personally beaten a few of them until they cried. He just wondered if this big guy before him... was also a paper tiger. With twenty people gathered, everyone began to slowly walk forward to pay the "admission fee".
Qi Xia pondered for a moment, then also took out four "Dao". This was no small sum for them; after paying these four, they would only have one "Dao" left.
"Are we really going to participate in this game?"
Qiao Jiajin asked.
"What about our strategy?"
"I'm torn as well," Qi Xia said.
"Although this is risky, I feel like a game with twenty people participating together isn't easy to come across. It's worth the gamble."
After getting the agreement of the other two, Qi Xia placed four "Dao" into the box in front of the bull-headed man.
"Very good."
The bull-headed man nodded, then turned to open a door. Inside was a flight of stairs leading down to a basement.
"All participants, please enter."
He turned back and slowly walked down the stairs. The participants followed behind him, each with a cautious expression, heading deep underground.
"This venue looks huge... it's on a completely different level from the 'Human Rat' game," Tian Tian whispered.
"Be careful," Qi Xia replied.
"I have a bad feeling."
That middle-aged man had declared that this game would lead to "death" even before it started, which weighed heavily on Qi Xia's mind. But what he feared now was not death itself, but being buried forever in this strange place. As a con man, he had experienced countless life-threatening risks, but he had survived every single one without exception.
When he thought about it carefully, this situation was no different from the past; it was just licking blood from the edge of a blade. Before long, the group reached the bottom of the stairs. It was a small room, filled with a musty smell under the dim light.
In the center of the room were twenty chairs. On either side of the room was a door, one painted yellow and the other green.
"Everyone, please be seated," the bull-headed man said.
"Don't worry, the game has not yet begun."
Hearing this, the group sat down, half-believing and half-doubting. Qi Xia and his three companions sat down in a row. It was only then that they noticed a small light on each armrest of the chairs, one yellow and one green.
"As this is a team game, to ensure fairness, we will now proceed with a 'random team assignment'. Please remain in your seats. Anyone who moves will be subject to an early 'punishment'."
At these words, everyone's expression turned a little unnatural. The ones who reacted the most were the man with glasses and the middle-aged man.
"Huh?! Team assignment?!"
Qi Xia stroked his chin and thought for a moment, realizing this setup only benefited the organizer. If this was a game of "wagering", then the participants' chances of winning had to be minimized. The best way to do that was to break up everyone's teams.
The bull-headed man walked to a corner of the room, found a button switch, and then turned back to give the crowd a meaningful look.
"The game officially begins," he said.
With that, he pressed the button. The lights on the armrests of everyone's chairs began to flash. The yellow and green lights flickered constantly, creating a bizarre scene in the dim space.
Qi Xia looked at the small lights on his own armrests, feeling a little nervous himself. If "Bull" really represented a physical type of game, that was not his area of expertise. This time, the game would have to rely on the brawny Qiao Jiajin.
But if he could think this way, so could others. For example, the man with glasses and the chubby middle-aged man had brought that large man as their helper. Yet, it seemed Earth Bull had all their little schemes under his control.
He would do his best to prevent such a thing from happening, which is why they had this "random team assignment". Qi Xia knew that if his luck was extremely bad and he and Qiao Jiajin were assigned to different teams, the potential gains from this game would become unpredictable.
Before Qi Xia could come up with a complete plan, the two-colored lights stopped flashing. For some people, the yellow light came on; for others, the green light. It seemed this was the random team assignment.
Qi Xia turned his head to look at how his group of four was divided, and his feelings were mixed. The good news was that both he and Qiao Jiajin had their yellow lights on, so it looked like they were on the same team.
The bad news was that the two girls' green lights were on, putting them on the other team. If this really was a physical type of game, it would be very disadvantageous for them. Murmurs of disappointment rippled through the crowd.
It seemed that besides Qi Xia's group, the other teams' assignments were also far from ideal.
"The rules of the game will now be announced," the bull-headed man said flatly.
"The two sides will play the game independently, each with their own venue, and there will be no interaction between them. As long as you can last for ten minutes in your venue without being eliminated, you will be considered to have passed. In the end, each person will receive a number of 'Dao' equal to the number of people who passed."
After hearing these rules, many people couldn't sit still.
"Hey!"
The middle-aged man suddenly stood up.
"What the hell is that? That's the same as saying nothing! What game are we even playing? What will we encounter?"
The crowd also looked quietly at Earth Bull, expecting him to explain the rules further. But he just glanced at the middle-aged man and then said faintly, "Will the yellow light team please follow me."
"You...!"
The middle-aged man gritted his teeth, but he didn't dare to curse out loud. He was already fuming about not being on the same team as his teammates, and now he couldn't even understand the rules. His emotions were extremely unstable.
The man with glasses beside him could only keep tugging at his clothes, trying to get him to calm down. Qi Xia turned to look at Tian Tian and Lin Qin.
"No matter what's behind that door, you must be careful. Remember, survival is the top priority."
"Okay."
The two girls nodded nervously.
"Let's go."
Qi Xia and Qiao Jiajin started walking forward. The two of them looked at their "teammates" and found that the situation was not optimistic. Among these ten people, six were women.
If it was really a team-based "physical type" of game, it would undoubtedly be a tough battle. Besides Qi Xia and Qiao Jiajin, the other two men were the man with glasses and the middle-aged man. The team next to them, on the other hand, had only Tian Tian and Lin Qin as their female members.
"Damn..."
Qiao Jiajin looked at the builds of his two male teammates and couldn't help but curse under his breath.
"One skinny runt, one fatty..."
"Don't say it," Qi Xia said.
"We can only rely on ourselves."
The ten people lined up and stood before the yellow door. The other ten, under the bull-headed man's direction, also lined up before the green door. With a low clanking of chains, the door in front of them opened, revealing another flight of stairs leading down.
Qiao Jiajin walked down without a second word, and the others in the team quickened their pace to follow him. This flight of stairs was not long, but it was rather steep. After about a few dozen steps, the group arrived at an open space, about half the size of a basketball court.
In the center of the space was a circular iron plate the size of a table. Qi Xia quickly surveyed the environment. The area was surrounded by high walls on all four sides.
At the front was a large iron gate, and above it was an electronic countdown clock, with the time frozen at ten minutes.