I'm Going All In; Do as You Like

"Li Laosi, oh, Li Laosi, what were you trying to prove?"

Up on the back hill of the Forest Farm, several old men looked down at Li Laosi, laid in a pit and wrapped in a straw mat. Their hearts were heavy.

When they'd first arrived, this had been a barren, desolate hillside. So many years had passed since then, and the trees they'd planted back then now stood tall and straight.

But the best years of their lives were gone, too. Li Laosi had no children and left behind no real legacy. The only thing he had to accompany him was the forest he'd planted with his own hands.

After paying their respects, the old men turned and left. They were getting on in years, and after spending every day among the trees and on this open grassland, they'd long since come to terms with life and death.

Xu Tong and a few young men hurriedly shoveled dirt over the grave.

"You can go. Let me stay with Fourth Master Li a little longer."

Xu Tong covered his face and sat on a nearby rock. The young men who'd eaten his beef pancakes earlier exchanged glances. One of them wanted to comfort him—after all, they all knew this wasn't his fault.

But they were inexperienced and didn't know how to console anyone. All they could say was, "Then don't take too long. If you're late getting back, there won't be any lamb stew left tonight."

With that, they headed down the hill.

Once everyone had left, he raised his head and glanced around, then finally let out a long breath.

He picked up the shovel, ready to get to work.

Suddenly, Xu Tong tensed and warily turned around. A short distance away, someone was sitting on a tree branch, happily munching on a big apple.

"It's you!"

The man before him was one of the three who'd come with Zhou Huasheng. He'd also been the one assigned to examine Mad Dog's corpse that day.

Had he spotted a flaw?

Xu Tong gripped the shovel in one hand and, without drawing attention to himself, palmed a Paper Doll with the other.

"Yeah, it's me. We've met before—at the game lobby, I mean."

Zhang Hu sprang down from the branch. He landed steadily from a height of six or seven meters without needing to break his fall.

When Xu Tong didn't respond, Zhang Hu smiled. "Relax, I mean you no harm. You must be a newbie. I've already been through five Script Worlds, so I'm a veteran player."

Xu Tong's heart stirred at that, and the tension in his face gradually eased.

"So you're a senior, then."

"Heh!" Seeing him admit it, Zhang Hu's smile grew even wider. "We lost a teammate in our last script, so we've got an open spot. Interested in joining our team?"

As he spoke, he walked over to Mad Dog's grave and planted a foot on it, sizing up the mound with contempt. "I'm sure you've already realized how difficult this script is. If you don't have the strength, you need to use your head. Charging in recklessly is just asking to die."

"Well..." Xu Tong lowered his head, as if weighing the pros and cons.

"Don't worry. Join our team and you'll have long-term protection. Oh, you don't have a Prop Card yet, do you? How about I give you this as a welcome gift?"

Zhang Hu pinched a Prop Card between his fingers and held it out to Xu Tong.

It was a black-and-white card with a paper lantern printed on it. It looked like an item card of some kind.

A greedy look appeared on Xu Tong's face. "In that case, of course I'm willing to join you."

He reached for the card, but Zhang Hu pulled his hand back. "Hey, you can have it, but it's not a free handout. Once you're on the team, if I see you slacking off, heh..."

"Of course, sir. Oh, by the way, what should I call you?"

Xu Tong snatched the Prop Card and asked excitedly.

"Just call me Third Brother. We've got an operation at eight tonight, so don't be late. Come to our room as soon as you can."

"Sure, sure."

He nodded repeatedly, but his eyes never left the Prop Card in his hand. He looked as greedy as if he'd found a windfall that had fallen from the sky.

Zhang Hu naturally noticed it all. He sneered inwardly at the man before him. Go ahead and enjoy it. You'll find out soon enough that your Third Master's stuff doesn't come cheap.

With that, Zhang Hu ambled down the hill.

Xu Tong sat on the mound and kept fiddling with the Prop Card, then casually put it into his Prop Catalog.

[Red Mandarin Lantern]

A human-skin shade, human-spine frame, human-hair cord, and human-blood oil...

Attached Skill 1: Red Mandarin Lady.

Consumes five Script Points to summon the resentful spirit dwelling inside the lantern to aid you in battle, but the price is often steep.

Duration: 10 minutes

Cooldown: 24 hours

(Note: After being summoned, the resentful spirit will randomly take one of your organs as payment.)

So it really was nothing good.

Xu Tong sighed inwardly, but the greedy look on his face never changed.

"Tch! What a rookie. One lousy card, and you're this happy?"

Behind the big tree, Zhang Hu turned his head and muttered under his breath before leaving. But he didn't notice that once he'd left the woods, a small Paper Doll silently slipped off the back of his clothes.

Once Xu Tong was sure Zhang Hu had really left, his smile vanished. He grabbed the shovel stuck in the ground and began digging furiously at Mad Dog's grave.

"Phew!"

He hadn't dug very deep before Mad Dog impatiently struggled up out of the dirt and took a deep breath. "Damn it, kid, if you'd taken any longer, I'd have been a goner!"

"Couldn't help it. If he hadn't left, digging you up would've caused a lot of trouble." As he spoke, Xu Tong reached out and pulled Mad Dog out of the dirt.

He tossed him the shovel as well, so he could fill the grave back in himself.

"You really plan to join their team? Don't say I didn't warn you. They're making it sound way too good. They might be luring you in just to raise you like livestock."

"Oh? You heard that?"

Xu Tong looked at Mad Dog in feigned surprise, then asked curiously, "What's livestock?"

Mad Dog frowned, deeply repulsed by the so-called Livestock Team. His expression turned grave.

"What else? They treat the newcomers on their team like pigs penned up for slaughter. They bring them along in every Script World and use them as cannon fodder when necessary. After completing the main mission and returning, they force them to hand over all their Script Points."

With Livestock to support them, these teams grew at a rapid pace. After squeezing every last bit of value from them, they might even slaughter the Livestock outright when a new Script World began, making it look as if the team had suffered heavy casualties.

Rumor had it that this could drastically lower the difficulty of the next Script World. The Script Hall had never confirmed the claim, but it was certainly making the rounds among players.

Some players even called this the Pig-Slaughtering Ritual.

Most players hated these Livestock Teams, but there was little they could do about them.

After all, there were several kinds of team contracts, and the ones used by Livestock Teams were usually the most unfair. The team leader held absolute authority, and it was even difficult for Livestock to leave the team.

That was why Mad Dog had to remind him to think carefully.

Ordinarily, new players had no way of learning about this, but Mad Dog had once formed a team of his own and made a name for himself. It was just that later...

At the thought of the past, Mad Dog's eyes dimmed.

"So if they get me onto their team, I'll be meat on the chopping board, right?" Xu Tong pressed on patiently.

"Right. But in a Script World, they can't make you sign a formal contract, only a temporary one."

After saying that, Mad Dog looked up at Xu Tong and saw him smiling. The grin on his gaunt face was exceptionally bright.

It wasn't a cold smile born of extreme anger, but something closer to madness. His eyes glinted like two blazing flames, radiating a desperate, unhinged fervor.

Noticing Mad Dog's strange expression, Xu Tong slowly lowered his head and said quietly, "So they're loaded, huh?"

Mad Dog froze, then nodded with a strange look on his face. Those men were more than loaded. They must have a substantial number of Script Points, and the fact that they'd casually used a Prop Card as bait—no matter how lousy the card was—was enough to show how powerful their team was.

"You're not thinking of..." Mad Dog wanted to warn Xu Tong not to try anything like that.

But before he could finish, Xu Tong had already taken out all his Prop Cards and handed them over, including the Book of Ghost Craftsman and the Ghost-Charming Bell.

Mad Dog's expression turned strange as he looked at the cards Xu Tong was offering. He could more or less guess what Xu Tong had in mind.

Still, he hesitated. "You trust me this much? Aren't you afraid I'll run off with all this stuff?"

Xu Tong's face was turned toward the sunlight. He calmly looked at Mad Dog. "The biggest thrill of gambling is that you either lose everything or get rich overnight. I'm going all in. Do as you like."

Confidence? Arrogance? Madness?

In that brief moment, countless thoughts flashed through Mad Dog's mind, and he even wondered whether Xu Tong was sane.

The last shred of his reason told him not to play with fire alongside this guy.

Yet those thoughts vanished almost as soon as they appeared, replaced by an irresistible impulse, like a fire kindling in his heart and rapidly blazing out of control.

He snatched the Prop Cards from Xu Tong's hand and grinned. "You lunatic. Don't you dare make me lose too badly."