Radiation User on the Brink

Inside the Black Base, the emptiness was terrifying.

It was deathly quiet here, with only Sophia's sobs echoing through the room.

Luis saw the instant-kill light on the other side and immediately felt all strength leave his body. He knew the last member of his team had died too.

At this point, only he and Sophia, the two Radiation Users, remained in the entire Black Base.

The once-thriving scene with nineteen people was gone.

What a miserable situation this was. Just minutes ago, victory had been in their grasp. How had everything suddenly taken such a turn and collapsed completely?

Too many things had happened in too short a time.

Luis had originally planned to cooperate with the White Faction in the fourth round, eliminating Sophia's group first.

Sophia had known this long ago as well. She had planned to eliminate Gaoxin first, throw the White Faction into chaos, and focus on dealing with Luis's group in the fourth round.

Both sides had been preparing to fight a major battle in the fourth round. Neither had expected this round to become the stage for a Glass Person.

He had nearly wiped them all out alive.

First, he had impersonated a gladiator and lured a Black Vest to his death. Then, in the fourth round, he had grasped the true essence of the game, pulled off a Glass Cannon, and killed another person.

What was even more outrageous was that he was still impersonating a gladiator! He would rather let the White Faction lose another drop of health...

With confidence bordering on madness, he had fooled them all.

How could he not be a gladiator? It made no sense!

Looking at the empty base, the two of them suddenly understood.

That was it. In fact, it was even more infuriating if Gaoxin was not a gladiator.

It meant he could exploit the timing and create an instant-kill trap!

Earlier, they had all been enraged after being toyed with by Gaoxin and had chased him out. That move of his had truly been meant to take all their lives.

Compared to this, if he had really become a gladiator, it would have been impossible for him to kill all six of them.

After all, he was still just a Glass Person. Even with the Glass Cannon effect, as long as the Radiation Users did not give him an opening, he could not kill them.

Besides, they were not fools. Which was more worthwhile: letting all six of them be worn down to death, or sacrificing one person? They could all do the math. They had only been unable to decide who would make the sacrifice for the moment.

Thus, if Gaoxin had truly become a gladiator, the final result would definitely have been one of the Radiation Users dying together with him.

How could he have killed so many like this?

The entire process had been linked together, leaving them completely at his mercy.

Sophia and Luis sorted through the entire sequence of events.

For a moment, fear welled up in their hearts.

They had been thoroughly toyed with.

By a damn Glass Person!

With an almost insane display, he had killed five people in a single round.

Looking back, they realized that of the ten Radiation Users in total, eight had been killed by him, one way or another.

The remaining two were also gravely wounded.

"Ah! Aaaaaah!"

Sophia screamed as her Steel Arm hammered the floor.

Luis was furious too. He grabbed Big Hammer and smashed the wall!

Yet the game continued.

"Fifth round. The Black Base attacks. Send a Duel Invitation within ten minutes."

The two stood up and walked to the round table.

"I'm going to kill him! Idiot, we're not fighting among ourselves anymore," Sophia said viciously.

Luis nodded heavily. "We underestimated him before."

They had regarded each other as their greatest enemies and had never considered the Glass Person much of a threat.

They had never imagined that the other side would have such a terrifying Glass Person, one who could push them to this state.

It was simply too rare. They had never encountered a Glass Person capable of forcing them this far before. Most of them would not even have the nerve!

"Next, we kill him!"

As they spoke, they began editing the invitation.

But suddenly, both of them froze. Another matter had occurred to them.

"If the attack succeeds, then... who goes out to fight?"

Sophia and Luis raised their heads and exchanged a glance.

"You're obviously the one going out," Luis said.

Sophia's expression darkened. "Heh. Don't think I don't know... You're on the White Faction! You were incited to defect in the first round!"

"If I go out to fight, you only need to close the door and let me die outside..."

"Then the White Faction is guaranteed to win!"

Luis said coldly, "What else can we do?"

"You said it yourself: I'm on the White Faction. If I win as the gladiator, it'll be the Black Faction's health that drops! Are you happy with that?"

Sophia's face went deathly pale. She had realized that the Black Faction was standing on the edge of a cliff.

Every Black Player except her had gone to the other side... and they were all wounded NPCs.

As long as the people from the White Faction killed them all, that would mean she was the only Black Player left in the entire game!

Once she died, everyone would be on the White Faction.

Of course, the game would not end immediately. One side's health had to be completely depleted first.

But with everyone on the White Faction, would ending the game still be difficult? They could play however they wanted from then on.

The only issue would be Luis negotiating the division of benefits with the other side.

"I'm not going out to fight! Absolutely not!" Sophia said firmly.

Luis frowned. He did not dare go out either.

It was true that he was on the White Faction, but he and Gaoxin on the other side were sworn enemies.

The other side definitely would not accept him into the base. And if Sophia thought that having a White Faction member beside her meant he could harm her at any time, she would certainly close the door while he was fighting and let him die outside!

That way, Sophia would monopolize a base by herself.

She might appear outnumbered and weak, but in reality, she would be even more secure.

She would not have to worry about being stabbed in the back. With only her voting, it would be equivalent to the entire base voting, allowing her to enter absolute defense mode directly!

At this thought, Luis realized that Sophia might very well kill him.

He immediately shouted sternly, "I'm not going out either! Absolutely not!"

As they spoke, the two stared at each other, and killing intent once again emerged between them.

They were not on the same faction!

One of them had to die!

On the other side, the White Base was filled with cheers.

The NPC Glass People in particular were all in tears.

They had escaped death and actually made it to the White Base.

Everyone here was a Glass Person, and Gaoxin had promised to keep them all alive.

He had not merely said so—he had actually done it!

With his own strength, he had rescued them from the Radiation Users.

He had risked his life to do so. It had practically been a gamble with his life.

If even one of them had encountered Gaoxin at the time without triggering an instant kill, the consequences would have been unthinkable. The enraged Radiation Users would definitely have torn Gaoxin apart.

Han Qing now understood everything. His eyes instantly reddened, and he dropped to his knees, excitedly kowtowing to Gaoxin.

"Ababa! Ababa..."

Han Qing kowtowed frantically, moved beyond words.

His emotional journey had been a roller coaster...

As an NPC Glass Person, being sent to an Intermediate Game had already made his heart sink halfway.

Glass People already had a high mortality rate. As an NPC, he was practically expendable. There was no chance of survival.

Yet during the game, Gaoxin and the others had told him through the connection that they would save all the Glass People, including him.

At that moment, he had felt as if he had seen a lifeline, so he had cooperated completely with everything that followed.

But after they came out, Gaoxin had run over to him, knocked him down with a sinister grin, grabbed him, and walked into the Black Base, saying that he was a gladiator too and that the two of them were entering Glass Cannon mode.

At the time, Han Qing had thought he had been deceived and used... and that he was doomed.

Rage, unwillingness, fear, pain, despair...

All kinds of emotions had tormented him, driving him nearly mad.

Yet after a series of moves, Gaoxin had actually saved him and told him that the deathmatch had been fake. He had even used that fact to kill a whole group of Radiation Users.

The situation had suddenly turned in their favor. They had survived a disaster.

After such extreme rises and falls, Han Qing was nearly delirious with excitement. Naturally, he kowtowed with all his strength, making the floor bang loudly.

The other NPCs were more or less the same. They were all deeply moved, kneeling to express their gratitude for being saved. No one cherished life more than they did.

"All right, all right..." Gaoxin waved his hand.

He was badly injured, and Dongfang Yi was applying medicine and bandaging him nearby. He could only signal Sule to go help everyone up.

"Benefactor... Baba... I, ababa!" Han Qing rose and gestured at Gaoxin.

After gesturing for a while, he clenched his fist and pounded his chest hard, as if saying that he was entrusting his very life to Gaoxin.

"Brother Xin Ku, when I saw you go out and beat him up right away, it scared me half to death... Why didn't you tell him your plan?" Sule said emotionally.

Gaoxin said calmly, "To deceive the enemy, you have to deceive yourself first."

"What if I told him the truth, but his acting wasn't good enough and he gave us away?"

"If we're going to play, we play for real! My plan was incredibly dangerous. It was a gamble with my life. I can afford to lose my own life, but I don't want to lose it because of someone else's acting."

Xing Shiping nodded. Earlier, having him defect to the other side had also been genuine.

If that had not been the case, and he had misspoken somewhere and made Sophia wary of them, they might not have gotten such a good opportunity.

Meimei looked at the blood-soaked bandages wrapped around Gaoxin's chest and torso. Pressing her lips together, she said, "Brother, that was far too dangerous. Since you were playing for real, you should have become a gladiator and created a true Glass Cannon."

"It would only have meant saving one fewer person."

Han Qing raised his head, tears brimming in his eyes.

He had thought the same thing, which was why he was even more moved.

Gaoxin said indifferently, "It's fine. It would have been the same either way. In the end, it was all a gamble with my life..."

He did not explain in detail, but Dongfang Yi understood. In truth, during the operation just now, whether Gaoxin was a gladiator or not had made little difference to the danger involved.

If they had really wanted to kill him, it would not have mattered whether he was genuine or not. The result would have been the same: death. The only question was whether he could take someone down with him.

But if they did not dare attack him, then Gaoxin was invincible. What difference did it make whether he was a gladiator? It was enough that they believed he was one.

In fact, from the perspective of the people on the other side, Gaoxin had to be a gladiator. Otherwise, it would have been too absurd.

So he did not need to truly become a gladiator. Acting was enough!

Of course, if he had done it for real and triggered an instant kill, it would naturally have been more secure, but the returns would have been lower.

Dongfang Yi said emotionally, "You acted exactly like one. If you had shown even the slightest hesitation, you would have died."

"When you blocked the door alone, and I looked back to see the ax strike your head, I really thought you were doomed."

"What were you thinking at that moment? Did you really think you were a gladiator and were preparing to trade one life for another?"

Unexpectedly, Gaoxin nodded. "Mm, yes."

"..." Dongfang Yi shook his head with a smile. "I have to admit, I'm impressed, Boss Gao... You really are a genius actor!"

This was the first time he had called him Boss Gao.

Clearly, Gaoxin's courage and tactical brilliance had won his respect.

There were some insane strategies he could think of, but he might not dare to carry them out.

Gaoxin dared. When it was time to gamble with his life, he did so without hesitation—a kind of calm madness.

P.S.: Sorry. I deleted a chapter and a half of saved content because I felt it was getting too long. I cut the section about the question-setting game. This game has unsolvable questions, the kind that cannot be played even if the answer is revealed, such as fingerprints and chaotic fractals... But it was too complicated to write, and it would have dragged out the plot, so I left it out.