Farmer's Walk

As the game introduction ended, all five men let out low groans of pain almost simultaneously.

"Ghh..."

Wang Yongxin looked at the painful spot on his wrist. A needle seemed to have protruded from the inside of the black visa wristband, swiftly piercing his skin and injecting some substance into his body.

A strange numbness spread from the needle prick on his wrist.

"A slow-acting toxin... It'll take effect in two hours and kill us..."

Wang Yongxin's expression darkened.

Two hours was actually a relatively long game duration.

The previous game, "Blood Poker," had lasted an hour and a half. Even so, many players had had nothing to do during it and ended up wasting time.

But this situation was completely different.

When death was looming over them, two hours only felt far too short.

"Where are Lawyer Lin and Officer Cao?

"They should have entered this game too, but they aren't in the passageway."

Wang Yongxin looked around. The long corridor ahead was actually divided into five separate paths.

Wang Yongxin, Ding Wenqiang, and Cai Zhiyuan each stood on a different path, while two complete strangers occupied the other two farther away.

The paths were separated by glass walls several meters high, impossible to break through or climb over.

There was only one thing they could do now.

Directly in front of them stood a special apparatus, roughly 1.6 meters tall and 1.2 meters wide, built in some kind of unusual frame structure.

According to the game rules, they had to shoulder the apparatus in front of them and carry it through the passage within the time limit.

The apparatus was not particularly complicated in design. It looked somewhat like a shoulder pole loaded with heavy weights, or equipment specifically made for shoulder-borne farmer's walks.

It had designated places to rest on the shoulders and grip with the hands, making them easy to identify.

In addition, the apparatus was fitted with many irregular iron blocks for counterweight.

According to the game introduction, each person's apparatus weighed twice as much as they did. In other words, the heavier a person was, the heavier the apparatus they needed to carry.

"Hey!"

Someone cried out in alarm. Wang Yongxin looked up and realized that Ding Wenqiang had already hoisted his apparatus and started walking forward.

Wang Yongxin looked up at the area above his own path. At regular intervals, there were special timer signs.

The signs displayed a sixty-second countdown, and five seconds had already passed.

"Damn it!"

Wang Yongxin realized he had lost out by overthinking. He had immediately begun studying the rules and observing the venue, wasting time without even noticing.

He hurried over to his apparatus and ducked inside it.

Then Wang Yongxin gripped the vertical handles on either side with both hands and pushed upward with all his strength.

"Get up..."

That alone made Wang Yongxin feel his blood rushing to his head. His heart pounded wildly, and sweat rolled down his face.

Although the apparatus was designed fairly humanely, with special leather padding at the shoulder points so the steel frame would not dig painfully into him and leave him unable to move, it still genuinely weighed as much as he did.

Wang Yongxin struggled forward one step at a time.

As someone who was not short on money, Wang Yongxin had of course been to the gym. He had even done training similar to farmer's walks before. Unfortunately, as he got older, he had less and less time and became lazier and lazier, long since abandoning his exercise habits.

The only good news was that, in order to maintain his image as a business elite and leave a better impression on investors, he had always controlled his diet. His physique was still in decent shape.

If he had gained another twenty pounds, he would probably have had no way out but death.

"Huff... huff... huff..."

After only a few steps, Wang Yongxin felt his breathing becoming more and more labored. Even gulping in air failed to give him enough oxygen, and his heart pounded as though it were about to explode.

Farmer's walks demanded a high level of full-body strength. They required not only powerful legs, but also a strong core and excellent balance.

So after walking only a few meters, Wang Yongxin was already so exhausted that he could barely breathe. The moment his body sagged slightly, the apparatus dropped back to the ground.

When Wang Yongxin looked up again, he realized Ding Wenqiang had already surged far ahead, leaving everyone else in the dust.

"...This game is fucking unfair."

Wang Yongxin only had time to complain once. But after glancing at the countdown, he could only grit his teeth, shoulder the apparatus again, and continue forward.

Of course, he quickly realized that he was being a little bitter, because the Promenade had never stipulated that games had to be of any particular type.

In a game like "Blood Poker," which encouraged speculation and studying the rules, Wang Yongxin had held every advantage. So there was nothing unreasonable about Ding Wenqiang holding every advantage now that they had encountered a game that emphasized physical fitness.

As an experienced manual laborer, Ding Wenqiang possessed not only physical abilities far beyond those of ordinary people, but also astonishing endurance.

This challenge was practically tailor-made for him.

Through the surveillance screens, Lin Sizhi could clearly see everyone's situation.

The current rankings were: Ding Wenqiang, Zhang Peng, Gao Zhankui, Wang Yongxin, and Cai Zhiyuan.

Zhang Peng was the unemployed young man with bleached yellow hair. Though rather thin, his physical condition should have been better than that of an average office worker.

Moreover, each person's apparatus was calculated based on twice their own body weight, so even a skinny person had a certain advantage if they had low body fat.

Gao Zhankui was a middle-aged man with a face full of flesh. Though he looked very strong, his weight held him back, leaving him several positions behind Zhang Peng.

Still, he seemed to have done some manual labor before, and his physical condition was much better than Wang Yongxin's or Cai Zhiyuan's.

Cai Zhiyuan had it the worst. Although he had hoisted the apparatus and started moving right away, he was a programmer who rarely exercised, was in a subhealthy state, and had neglected managing his physique.

With so many disadvantages stacked together, he had fallen into last place.

The entire passage was divided into three stages. The first stage was twenty meters, with a sixty-second countdown.

According to the game rules, if they failed to complete it within sixty seconds, spikes would extend from the apparatus, using intense pain to force the players onward.

If they still failed to complete it after another sixty seconds, they would directly suffer the Instant Death Punishment.

Fortunately, judging from the current situation, even Cai Zhiyuan, who was in last place, should be able to finish.

Just then, Lin Sizhi heard another system announcement that only the audience could hear.

Because announcements for all players in the venue and announcements intended only for the audience were played through different speakers, with obvious differences in tone and volume, they could be distinguished naturally.

[Audience member No. 9 has placed a bet on "Prisoner."]

Before the identities of King and Prisoner had been finalized, someone had placed a bet in advance again.

This time, however, the bet was on the Prisoner side.

Lin Sizhi thought for a moment. "Audience member No. 9... Could it be Officer Cao?

"The only reason I can think of for betting on Prisoner right now is that more than one person among those five below is an acquaintance. As an audience member, he would naturally stand with his acquaintances and hope they all survive.

"And the only people from Community No. 17 who successfully entered this game as audience members are Officer Cao and me."

Lin Sizhi quietly filed that away.

Ding Wenqiang was the first to reach the end of the first stage.

Beyond the finish line was a rest area about one meter long. Ding Wenqiang immediately set the apparatus down and panted heavily.

But after he reached the rest area, the one-minute countdown did not stop immediately.

Ding Wenqiang looked around in confusion and discovered a special button on the wall of the rest area. Beside it were several conspicuous words: [The countdown stops after pressing.]

Ding Wenqiang immediately pressed the button, and the countdown on his path froze at twenty-two seconds.

Not long after, the other four also reached the rest area.

Cai Zhiyuan arrived almost on the final second of the countdown. During his last few steps, he looked as though he had completely exhausted himself. The moment he set the apparatus down, he nearly collapsed on the spot.

He relied entirely on willpower to slap the button on the wall.

Although Ding Wenqiang's physical condition was far better than Cai Zhiyuan's, the stretch had been short after all, only twenty meters, so it was difficult to open up too great a gap.

Cai Zhiyuan bent over by the wall and began dry-heaving.

However, the game rules clearly gave him no room to catch his breath. The second he pressed the button, the signs on everyone's paths changed.

The remaining time each person had after finishing was replaced by a new, unified countdown.

Thirty-eight seconds.