Cowardice

Meimei's idea was far too idealistic.

There was no need to negotiate with the Viking Gang. Everyone immediately rejected it. They couldn't possibly sacrifice Gaoxin.

Besides, the Viking Gang might be planning to wipe out all of them.

However, the Glass Person from the Servant Team fell into thought.

Gaoxin looked at him. "What are you thinking about?"

A curly-haired boy shook his head. "Nothing... I was just thinking about the Duel Invitation vote. What do you all think?"

"All of us have to vote for the same option. Otherwise, we'll have to duel the opposing side. And the defending side can only send out a Glass Person, which means certain defeat."

"You could say that the Duel Invitation vote is the only 'shield' each faction has."

"The black side attacks first. The invitation will probably arrive soon. What do you think it'll look like?"

Dongfang Yi smiled. "Who cares what it looks like? The important thing is that everyone chooses the same option."

"But since we vote separately and can't communicate, we can only agree on an abstract strategy beforehand."

"Mm... Let's all agree to choose the biggest option... Three short ones and one long one—choose the longest."

Everyone broke into a sweat. That was far too careless.

But Gaoxin smiled. "Good idea. Let's do that."

The curly-haired boy was dumbfounded. "Wait, what do you mean, 'three short ones and one long one—choose the longest'? What if the options are the same length?"

Dongfang Yi rolled his eyes. "If they have the same number of characters, compare the strokes. Choose the one with the most strokes."

"Huh? We only have ten seconds to choose. What if I can't count them all?" the curly-haired boy asked nervously.

Gaoxin smiled. "If the strokes don't distinguish them either, think about the content. Choose whichever option feels 'bigger.'"

"Dongfang Yi was talking about an abstract concept, understand? In short, choose the longer, more numerous, higher, bigger, stronger option..."

Everyone nodded. They understood, but it still felt easy to get wrong.

They wanted to discuss it a little more when, suddenly, a ding sounded.

The round-table projection displayed a prompt: The black side's first-round Duel Invitation had been sent. Everyone at White Base had to enter the Voting Room within one minute.

The countdown had already begun.

Good grief, they had no time to discuss it.

Gaoxin said, "Hurry upstairs and choose... Listen, after voting, activate Incite Defection and make Big Hammer defect first."

"Also, if the vote fails, don't choose a gladiator. Just come out."

The curly-haired boy shouted, "There are only two options in the first round. Why make it so complicated? Why don't we just choose the first one? Whatever the options are, just choose the first one."

Gaoxin and the others all laughed. Dongfang Yi was just about to explain when...

Xing Shiping turned to his companions first and said, "Little brother, that won't work. As long as the organizer isn't stupid, the options in the invitation sent to us will definitely be in a different order from those sent to the other side."

"Otherwise, everyone would choose the first option and always match. Wouldn't that be absolute defense?"

The curly-haired boy suddenly understood, but by then the countdown was already nearing its end.

"Hurry and vote!" Gaoxin's team acted decisively and had already charged up to the second floor.

The others immediately followed. There were twenty-five rooms, and only ten of them, so they could each enter any room.

Soon, everyone had entered a Voting Room, and the doors locked automatically.

Gaoxin checked the door and found that it wouldn't open at all. It seemed they had to finish voting on the invitation first.

The projection then appeared inside the room and began playing the invitation's content.

"Join the black team, and five of you will be allowed to survive until the end."

The playback was quick because the invitation was extremely brief. It contained only that one sentence, and it was clearly meant to sow discord.

Options immediately appeared below it in the form of two projected images.

One was a square, and the other was a circle.

They appeared to have the same area.

There was no text and no explanation—just those two shapes.

As soon as the options finished displaying, the countdown began. They had only ten seconds to choose.

Gaoxin raised his eyebrows. "Impressive. Looks like we're going to fail in the very first round."

They had all made their guesses, but none had guessed correctly.

After thinking for a moment, Gaoxin chose the square.

The result appeared soon after.

"The vote is inconsistent. Choose a gladiator within three minutes. Only a Glass Person may be chosen."

The projection immediately displayed the portraits of everyone at White Base. Selecting one of them counted as a vote.

Everyone on their white team was a Glass Person, so they were all on the list.

Gaoxin pursed his lips. Sure enough, someone had chosen incorrectly.

He smiled faintly and said directly, "Activate Incite Defection."

After waiting for a while...

The gladiator-selection screen suddenly shrank and receded. In its place appeared the portraits of the nineteen members of the opposing black team, along with their names.

Only then did Gaoxin learn that Big Hammer's name was Luis, while the Twin Tails woman was called Sophia.

There was no need to think about it. They had already discussed it, so they selected Luis directly.

After waiting a little longer, the screen displayed that Incite Defection had succeeded. Only then did Gaoxin open the door and leave.

Dongfang Yi and Qiao Long had also finished, and before long, the others filed out as well.

As soon as Sule came out, he shouted, "Damn, there weren't any words!"

Meimei asked him, "What did you choose?"

"The square. There weren't any words, only images, but I figured 'square' has three characters. I chose it because it had the most characters," Sule said.

Meimei nodded. "I chose the square too."

Since Sule hadn't made a mistake, there was no need to check the others. She looked directly at Xing Shiping from the Servant Team.

Xing Shiping happened to look over as well. He frowned unhappily. "What did you choose?"

Meimei grinned. "The square. The five of us are definitely fine. Whoever among you chose the circle, step forward."

Xing Shiping looked gloomy as he turned back to speak with his teammates.

All four of them shook their heads and said they had chosen the square.

"What a joke!"

Dongfang Yi couldn't help saying, "Do you mean to say that you think I chose wrong?"

Xing Shiping said solemnly, "Who knows? There's no standard answer. Maybe one of your people chose wrong. In any case, I chose the square."

Meimei said angrily, "How could that be?"

She then stared at the curly-haired boy. "Hey, did you choose wrong? The first option was the circle. Did you foolishly choose the first one?"

The curly-haired boy looked utterly bewildered. "Huh? I did choose the first one, but the first one was the square."

Meimei froze. Sure enough, the order had been randomized.

"This is the one who chose wrong." Gaoxin walked over and stared at a burly man behind him. The man had a square face and an air of righteousness.

But Gaoxin had seen at a glance that he had lied.

Seeing Gaoxin stare at him, the square-faced man froze. "What?"

Gaoxin's eyes burned as he said, "If you admit that you chose wrong, it's no big deal. The other side is very good at this. The first question was already so difficult, so choosing wrong would be understandable."

"But you clearly chose wrong and still refuse to admit it. Could it be that you're trying to help the other side?"

"You can still admit it now!"

The square-faced man was stunned.

Qiao Long patted him on the shoulder. "If you got it wrong, then you got it wrong. No one will blame you. Everyone should be honest."

"They deliberately put 'join the black team' in the invitation to shake our unity."

"But think about it. If even the ten of us Glass People can't unite, do you really expect to cooperate with the Radiation Users on the other side?"

Hearing that, the square-faced man seemed to regain some clarity. "I..."

Xing Shiping also realized that he had lied. He walked over and put an arm around him. "Brother, don't get confused. If you chose the circle, then you chose the circle. I actually chose the circle too!"

Hearing him say that, the square-faced man finally admitted it. "I... I chose the circle, but I really didn't do it on purpose."

Meimei asked, "Hey, how did you end up choosing the circle?"

The square-faced man felt terribly wronged. "You said to choose whatever was longer, more numerous, bigger, higher, or stronger..."

"When I saw that circle, I thought of Earth. I figured Earth was huge, so I chose it."

Everyone was speechless. That was far too abstract.

Sule even complained, "Oh, come on! Why didn't you think it looked like a ping-pong ball?"

The square-faced man explained miserably, "No, there were only two shapes, and we had so little time. How was I supposed to tell which one was bigger?"

Sule then asked Xing Shiping, "Then, Xing Shiping... why did you choose the circle?"

Xing Shiping said sullenly, "I didn't choose the circle... Didn't we originally say to choose the longest one?"

"With the square and circle having the same area, the square has the longer perimeter."

"I deliberately said I had chosen the circle just now so my brother would relax and stop lying."

The square-faced man looked pitifully at Xing Shiping, tears streaming down his face. "Brother Xing, I'm sorry. What do we do now? We have to choose a gladiator to die."

For a moment, many of the Servant Team's Glass People grew panicked.

They had already failed to agree in the very first Duel Invitation vote. As the side being challenged, they had to send out a Glass Person.

Dongfang Yi rolled his eyes. "Choose my ass! Just admit defeat."

The curly-haired boy said, "Is surrender useful? Didn't the rules say it had to be a fight to the death?"

Gaoxin said helplessly, "We don't have to fight. The gladiator is required to fight to the death, so can't we simply not choose a gladiator?"

"Huh?" the curly-haired boy exclaimed. "But the rules say we must send out a gladiator within three minutes. Must!"

Gaoxin smiled. "Yes, we must. But what's the penalty?"

The curly-haired boy froze and hurriedly looked at Xing Shiping's notebook to review the rules.

Indeed, the penalty wasn't instant execution.

Once the Duel Invitation vote was inconsistent, it counted as accepting the duel. The base had to send out a Glass Person to participate as a gladiator within three minutes. Otherwise, it would automatically count as losing this duel.

It said "automatically count as losing this duel," while "the losing faction loses one life point."

Gaoxin said, "This game allows people to switch factions. It also initially said that the 'initial allocation' required at least five Glass People."

"In other words, as the game continued, it might reach a point where there were no Glass People left to send out. What happens when there are no Glass People? We simply lose health directly."

"The rules explicitly mention instant execution in the following case: the gladiator is decided by everyone's vote, and the person with the most votes must enter the Gladiator Arena within one minute. Failure results in instant execution."

"So I told you that if the vote failed, don't choose a gladiator. After activating Incite Defection, just come out..."

"Besides, didn't they say earlier that it was possible for all the Glass People to survive? If Glass People were guaranteed to die, why say that?"

Only then did the curly-haired boy understand. So they could be cowardly lizards!

Only gladiators had no way out and had to enter the arena for a fight to the death.

However, Xing Shiping's eyes narrowed. "Is that so? Do you really want the Glass People on the other side to survive too?"

Gaoxin nodded. "In theory, it's possible. It'll be difficult, but we might as well work toward that goal first. As long as everyone cooperates, we can do it."

Xing Shiping immediately fell silent.

"Hey..." Meimei opened her mouth and was about to ask him something.

But Gaoxin stopped Meimei, then smiled. "All right, enough nonsense. We've forfeited the first round. We'll get our revenge in the second."

"Once the duel ends, we'll be the ones sending the invitation. For now, we should think about its content."

"Xing Shiping, what kind of options do you think would be good?"

Xing Shiping raised his head. "The options the other side gave us were very abstract. A square and a circle—it was difficult to choose."

"We can take it up a level."

"For example, project three equilateral triangles: one upright, one inverted, and one tilted. They would all be exactly identical, differing only in their orientation."

Gaoxin praised him. "Wow, that's excellent!"

Dongfang Yi, Qiao Long, and the others were also astonished. This really was perfect.

If they randomized the order again, how could the other side choose? Unless they had guessed this exact question in advance. Otherwise, whether they had agreed beforehand to choose based on size, strength, dryness, or wetness, there would be no way to distinguish them.

"Not bad. I wouldn't have thought of that," Dongfang Yi said approvingly.

Qiao Long nodded, and the others had no objections either.

Xing Shiping said mildly, "I like mathematics. When I think of something abstract, geometric shapes are the first thing that come to mind."

Gaoxin smiled and patted Xing Shiping on the shoulder. "All right, then. We'll go with that."

"When the time comes to send the invitation, you'll be responsible for editing it."