“Look at my card.” Li Wenjun hugged his wife, patted her arm, and then handed his card to Xin Meng.
Xin Meng took it.
[The flames will consume everything, while also attracting evil spirits; no one can escape.]
“Does this mean we can’t use fire?” Dou Dou asked. “I was just thinking, why not just set this building on fire? I don’t believe it wouldn’t burn them to death.”
Jiezi rolled his eyes. “Simple-minded, strong-bodied.”
Dou Dou immediately exploded. “What did you say!!”
Jiezi laughed heartily. “Do you want to hear it again?”
Dou Dou: “……”
Xin Meng looked back and forth between the two, remaining silent.
However, Luo Yingying didn’t ponder as much; she directly asked, “You two seem quite familiar. Did you know each other before?”
“No! Who knows this guy!”
“No! Who knows this guy!”
The two disdainfully said in unison.
The others: “……”
“See, we said we don’t know each other.”
“See, we said we don’t know each other.”
The two continued to speak casually.
The others: “…… Do we look like fools?”
Luo Yingying leaned closer to Li Wenjun and whispered, “Why do I feel the atmosphere is off… ever since Xiao Kui left, the whole team feels strange.”
Li Wenjun said quietly, “It’s not because Qi Xiaokui left, but because this new teammate has arrived. Let’s not get involved for now; let’s observe the situation first.”
“Oh.” Luo Yingying obediently nodded.
“In any case,” Xin Meng brought the off-topic conversation back, “we can’t use fire. According to the card, while it can burn the enemy, we can’t escape the evil spirits either, which means mutual destruction. So we should avoid igniting flames as much as possible.”
Everyone nodded, indicating they understood.
Next was Dou Dou’s card: [The more partners, the greater the danger.]
“What does this mean!” Luo Yingying was a bit angry, as she thought of some bad speculations.
“What else could it mean,” Jiezi said with a playful smile, carelessly voicing her unspoken thoughts, “isn’t it just telling us to kill each other? Once there’s only one person left in the team, the danger will be much less.”
This made everyone feel uncomfortable, but the statement was rough yet reasonable, and they quickly fell silent.
“We can’t do this!” Luo Yingying suddenly said loudly, her expression firm. “One person can’t clear the level! It’s the same every game; we need teammates to help each other and work together to clear the level! I’ve never seen a game that can be cleared by just one person! And… even if it’s dangerous, we can’t turn our weapons on our own people! What’s the difference from beasts!”
Everyone looked at the only woman in the team now. She was slender and petite, but her words and demeanor were braver and more resolute than those of the men, and her thinking was very clear. Although the others remained silent, the atmosphere was much more relaxed than before.
Only Jiezi chuckled, “Caught off guard and filled with a bellyful of motivational quotes.”
“Hey, do you have any humanity left!” Dou Dou kicked him, glaring angrily, “You murderer!”
“Who are you calling a murderer!” Jiezi was displeased. “I never said I wanted to kill you.”
“Then what did you mean just now!” Dou Dou wouldn’t let it go.
The two started arguing again.
“…… It feels like as soon as Jiezi appears, Dou Dou’s IQ drops to that of an elementary school student.” Luo Yingying said helplessly. “They’re like sworn enemies.”
“Actually, it should mean something else.” Xin Meng, who had not participated in their earlier discussion, was quietly studying her card, and suddenly spoke up.
“You misunderstood!”
“What?” Everyone was startled, even Dou Dou stopped arguing with Jiezi and turned to ask him, “What did we get wrong?”
“What this card says is that the more ‘partners’ there are, the more dangerous it is, not ‘players.’ These two terms are different.” Xin Meng explained, “I once played a game in a castle with You Yi, and we got a card with ambiguous content that said whoever kills the demon king would inherit the legacy. It didn’t specify whether this ‘who’ was an NPC or a player, and it turned out both could be. So can we think that every word on the card has different references? A player is a player, and if we change the term, we can’t directly assume it refers to players; it might have other meanings.”
Xin Meng waved the card a couple of times. “Following this line of thought, the meaning of ‘partners’ is also quite broad. To know the exact meaning, we can’t look at it in isolation. Connecting it with the previous [Hide and Seek] card, I think this sentence means that it’s best not to hide together; it’s more dangerous and easier to be discovered. Once discovered, several people could die, so it should be telling us to spread out and hide. Moreover, if we dare to speculate further, this might apply to us and also to the enemy. For the enemy, the more there are, the easier it is for us to discover them; this should be the game’s balance.”
He explained clearly, and the others felt it made sense upon hearing it.
Luo Yingying breathed a sigh of relief. “As long as it doesn’t mean we have to kill each other.”
But she quickly began to worry again. “We have to split up?”
As a woman with a husband, she really didn’t want to be alone, and given her usual performance, she felt her mortality rate would approach one hundred percent…
Clearly, Li Wenjun thought the same way, so he said, “We shouldn’t split up; I really can’t rest easy about you.”
“But the danger will double!” Luo Yingying fell into her usual dilemma, not wanting to leave her husband but also not wanting to drag him down.
“It’s fine; at least we’ll face life and death together.” Li Wenjun began his usual comforting, “And your husband isn’t that useless; I’m not afraid of doubling the danger.”
The two were sweetly oblivious in this eerie and terrifying environment, giving everyone goosebumps.
Xin Meng shivered and moved closer to You Yi, who also hugged her and said directly, “We’ll stick together.”
Xin Meng obediently nodded.
“Damn, why is everyone paired up, and I have to be with you, this muscle man!” Dou Dou jumped up and cursed. “I miss my sister Qi! Sister Qi, I miss you!”
“You silly Happy Bean! Just know how to chase girls and play games!” Jiezi put his arm around Dou Dou’s neck and pulled him aside. “Are you lost in joy? Hmm?”
Dou Dou’s face turned red, gritting his teeth, “Don’t call me Happy Bean!”
Jiezi chuckled, “If I don’t call you Happy Bean, what should I call you? Should I call you Dead Bean? That’s right; at this moment, it’s indeed not far off.”
Dou Dou’s face stiffened, and he lowered his voice, “You have to help me.”
Jiezi crossed his arms, adopting a nonchalant attitude. “You want to team up with me? No way!”
Dou Dou was about to say what nonsense he was talking when he turned his head and saw Xin Meng staring at them, instantly breaking into a sweat. He quickly laughed it off, “I was just saying, if we’re not teaming up, then we’re not teaming up, ah haha… haha…”
It felt like he had been caught doing something…
He saw Xin Meng turn her head to talk to You Yi, not asking him anything, but he inexplicably felt a bit flustered.
What’s going on?
Dou Dou felt that Xin Meng’s aura seemed to have strengthened, especially when she stared at someone, her eyes not blinking, giving the other person a strange sense of pressure that made them anxious.
It seems he should be more careful in the future, Dou Dou thought to himself.
Xin Meng was talking to You Yi: “What does your card say?”
You Yi handed his card to her.
[Who is behind you?]
As soon as Xin Meng finished reading, Luo Yingying screamed in fright, jumping onto Li Wenjun’s body, then twisting her head to look back!
“What is it! Is there something behind me!” She nervously looked around, afraid of seeing something beyond human comprehension.
However, with so many people present, six pairs of eyes were watching; there was nothing.
“Don’t overreact; it’s just a scare.” Dou Dou was startled by her and, seeing nothing, couldn’t help but say, “People scare people; it can kill!”
“Sorry, sorry,” Luo Yingying realized her reaction was too big and quickly jumped down to apologize, “I just got a bit scared hearing that out of the blue.”
“Who is behind you…” Jiezi pondered for a moment and suddenly laughed, “That’s interesting.”
“What’s interesting about it!” Dou Dou seemed to want to go against him, “So you like stalkers!”
“Pfft!” Luo Yingying was amused by his “stalker” comment, and her fear was greatly diminished.
“Don’t be overly afraid, but don’t be careless either,” Xin Meng reminded, “Just because there’s nothing now doesn’t mean there won’t be later. Since the card specifically mentions this, it indicates that the probability of encountering it will be infinitely greater than one hundred percent; we must be mentally prepared in advance.”
“I’m starting to not want to split up.” Luo Yingying sighed.
This was certainly not acceptable; her not splitting up with Li Wenjun had already increased the difficulty, and if all six of them stayed together, the danger level would multiply by six, and no one would survive.
In the end, they decided to split into four groups.
Luo Yingying and Li Wenjun as one group, Xin Meng and You Yi as another, Dou Dou alone, and Jiezi alone.
“Speaking of which, we’ve been talking here for so long, yet no one has come to catch us?” After the groups were decided, Dou Dou suddenly remembered that they had lingered for quite a while, and this location was very open, meaning there were no obstructions. In any part of the kindergarten, they could be seen at a glance.
If there were enemies trying to catch them, why hadn’t they shown up yet, given such a large target?
“The reason… I’m afraid there’s only one.” It seemed like he just thought of something, and Xin Meng’s expression darkened.
Dou Dou saw his expression and almost immediately had an epiphany, thinking of the same thing. “No way…”
Just as Luo Yingying and Li Wenjun were confused and wanted to ask what was going on, they suddenly noticed that the surrounding light seemed to have changed.
The six turned their heads to look east, where the originally dark horizon slowly revealed a dazzling white line.
The sun was slowly rising.
“This round, we should be the ones as the ghosts. But…” Dou Dou murmured.
“But…” Xin Meng completed the sentence, “We missed it.”
