Splitting the Teams

"He's here!" Little Glasses cried happily. "He's finally here!"

The burly man slowly approached them. He was about six foot three, with a buzz cut.

Yawning, he felt around in his pocket, then asked the Bull-Headed Man, "How much?"

"Admission is one 'Dao.'"

The burly man took a small ball out of his pocket and flicked it toward the Bull-Headed Man with his thumb. The Bull-Headed Man caught it securely.

"I've had enough sleep... let's get started." The burly man stretched, then rolled his neck. "Let's see what you've cooked up this time," he said gruffly.

Qi Xia and his three companions looked at the fierce-looking man and felt he was no one to mess with.

Qiao Jiajin paid him little attention. He had seen far too many men like him on the streets.

Men like that threw their weight around because they were strong. Qiao Jiajin had personally beaten a few of them until they cried.

He just wondered whether this burly man... was another paper tiger.

With twenty people finally assembled, everyone slowly stepped forward to pay their "admission."

After thinking for a moment, Qi Xia took out four "Dao" as well.

That was no small sum for them. Once they handed over these four, they would have only one "Dao" left.

"Are we really joining this game?" Qiao Jiajin asked. "What about our strategy?"

"I'm torn too," Qi Xia said. "It's risky, but I don't think we'll come across a game with twenty participants very often. It's worth taking a chance."

After getting the other three's agreement, Qi Xia dropped four "Dao" into the box in front of the Bull-Headed Man.

"Very good." The Bull-Headed Man nodded, then turned and opened the door. Beyond it was a staircase leading down into the basement.

"Participants, please come in."

He turned around and slowly descended the stairs.

The participants followed him with wary expressions, heading deeper underground.

"This place looks huge... it's on a completely different scale from Human Rat's," Tiantian whispered.

"Be careful," Qi Xia replied. "I have a bad feeling."

Before joining, the middle-aged man had declared that people would "die" in this game. That weighed heavily on Qi Xia's mind.

But what he feared now was not death. It was being buried in this strange place forever.

As a con man, he had risked his life far too many times, yet he had survived every single one.

Thinking it over, this was no different from those earlier situations. He was simply living on the knife's edge again.

Before long, everyone reached the bottom of the stairs.

It was a small room, filled with a stale smell beneath dim lighting. Twenty chairs stood in the center.

There was a door on either side of the room, one painted yellow and the other green.

"Everyone, please sit," the Bull-Headed Man said. "There's no need to worry. The game hasn't started yet."

Dubiously, everyone sat down. Qi Xia and his three companions took seats beside one another.

Only then did they notice a small light on each armrest, one yellow and one green.

"As this is a team game, we will now conduct a 'random team assignment' to ensure fairness. Please remain in your seats. Otherwise, everyone will face 'sanctions' ahead of time."

At those words, everyone's expression grew uneasy.

Little Glasses and the middle-aged man reacted most strongly. "What?! Teams?!"

Qi Xia rubbed his chin and thought for a moment. He knew this arrangement benefited only the Organizer.

If this was a game where the two sides wagered against each other, the participants' odds of winning had to be kept as low as possible. With that in mind, the best method was to break up everyone's existing groups.

The Bull-Headed Man walked to a corner of the room and found a button. Then he turned to give everyone a meaningful look. "The game officially begins."

He pressed the button, and the lights on both sides of every chair began flashing. Yellow and green flickered back and forth, creating an eerie scene in the dim room.

Qi Xia watched the little lights on his armrests, feeling a little nervous himself.

If "Ox" really represented games of physical strength, that was outside his area of expertise. This time, he would have to rely on Qiao Jiajin's brute strength.

But if he could think of that, so could everyone else.

Little Glasses and the plump middle-aged man, for instance, had summoned that burly man to help them.

Yet Earth Ox seemed to have all their little schemes firmly in hand. He would do his best to prevent such arrangements, hence this "random team assignment."

Qi Xia knew that if his luck was terrible and he ended up on a different team from Qiao Jiajin, the gains from this game would become difficult to predict.

Before Qi Xia could work out a complete plan, the two colors stopped flashing.

Some people's yellow lights stayed on, while the others' green lights lit up.

Apparently, that was the random team assignment.

Qi Xia turned to check the assignments of all four of them, feeling both relieved and worried.

The good news was that he and Qiao Jiajin both had yellow lights, putting them on the same team. The bad news was that the two women's lights were green, placing them on the other team. If this really was a game of physical strength, they would be at a serious disadvantage.

Disappointed murmurs rose throughout the crowd. It seemed the other groups were no happier with their assignments than Qi Xia's was.

"I will now announce the rules," the Bull-Headed Man said in a muffled voice. "The two teams will play independently, each in its own arena, with no connection between them. Anyone who lasts ten minutes in the arena without being eliminated will pass. At the end, each person will receive as many 'Dao' as the number of people who pass."

After hearing those rules, many people could no longer sit still.

"Hey!" The middle-aged man shot to his feet. "That tells us fuck all! What game are we actually playing? What are we going to face?"

Everyone looked silently at Earth Ox, expecting him to explain the rules further. But he merely glanced at the middle-aged man, then said calmly, "Yellow team, please follow me."

"You...!" The middle-aged man gritted his teeth, but did not dare curse him out.

He had not been assigned to the same team as his companion and was already seething. Now that he could not even make sense of the rules, his emotions were all over the place. Little Glasses beside him could only keep tugging at his clothes, trying to calm him down.

Qi Xia turned to Tiantian and Lin Qin. "Whatever's behind that door, be careful. Remember, staying alive comes first."

"Okay." Both women nodded nervously.

"Let's go." Qi Xia and Qiao Jiajin walked forward.

The two looked over their "teammates" and found the situation far from promising. Six of the ten were women. If this truly was a team game of "physical strength," they were in for a tough fight.

Aside from Qi Xia and Qiao Jiajin, the other two men were Little Glasses and the middle-aged man. The other team, meanwhile, had only two women: Tiantian and Lin Qin.

"Fuck..." Qiao Jiajin looked at the builds of those two teammates and could not help muttering a curse. "One scrawny bastard and one fat guy..."

"Enough," Qi Xia said. "We can only rely on ourselves."

The ten of them lined up in front of the yellow door.

Under the Bull-Headed Man's instructions, the other ten lined up in front of the green door.

With a low rattling of chains, the doors before them opened, revealing yet another staircase leading down.

Qiao Jiajin descended without a word, and the others on his team quickened their pace to follow him.

The staircase was short but rather steep. After descending a few dozen steps, they reached an open area about half the size of a basketball court. A round iron plate the size of a table sat in the center.

Qi Xia quickly surveyed their surroundings. High walls enclosed all four sides, with a large iron gate directly ahead. Above the gate was a digital countdown clock, frozen at ten minutes.