Journey: Imperial Capital Arc (Six): King's Game (One)

In short, after everyone had made intensive preparations, the King's Game belonging to the Xiao Ling family was about to begin.

There are quite a few cards on the table. One set consists of numbered cards and King cards, while the other is the command pool, which clearly has more cards than the numbered cards.

"Everyone, are you ready?" Xiao Ling asked with a smile.

"Ready?" Everyone nodded their heads in unison.

"Awooo~" Heartfox also let out a joyful howl to indicate that it was ready.

To her left is a timer with a bell; she will ring the bell to signal when the allotted time has expired.

"Let's make this clear beforehand: the king must issue the number and the order together; he can't discriminate based on who's called on. And those whose names are called aren't allowed to back out!"

"Clear!"

"Looks like everyone's all set!" Xiao Ling said excitedly, "Then let's start drawing cards!"

At Xiao Ling's command, everyone immediately began drawing numbered cards, and in a short time, only one card remained out of the thirty or so cards.

"Wow, a great start! I'm the King this round." Xiao Ling nodded, looking at the King card in his hand. "Hmm... let me think..."

"Then let number twelve dance a bit?"

"Eh." Sigrika's small body shuddered, and she immediately raised her paw, saying, "Number twelve is me..."

"Then Xixi to give us a wonderful dance!" Aemeath teased gleefully.

"I have one more request," Xiao Ling followed up, "The Roy Tribe's mysterious little dance is prohibited."

"Why is this happening..." Sigrika pouted in dissatisfaction, but still accepted the request, "Alright then, let me think about it..."

"Um, can Lynae come with me?"

Sensing Sigrika's pleading gaze, Lynae stood up almost without hesitation. "OK! I'll help you!"

After the two stood side by side, Sigrika took out her phone and played a song that Lynae felt very familiar with.

"Oh, this is it!" Lynae perked up instantly when she saw it was her hit song.

When the chorus officially began, Lynae and Sigrika started dancing one after the other.

Lynae was naturally very familiar with this dance, and she could even add some personal touches, such as graffiti decorations where her fingertips touched the ground. Her dance was full of passion and immediately ignited the atmosphere on stage.

Sigrika, on the other hand, seemed to be learning to walk like a duck, occasionally making mistakes or being a beat behind. But since it was her first time dancing this dance, it was normal for her to be unfamiliar with it. Perhaps that's why she specifically asked Lynae to accompany her to complete the instructions.

Of course, her clumsy enthusiasm truly resonated with everyone present.

As the music ended, the audience gave the two performers a warm round of applause as they left the stage.

"Alright, now it's time for our scoring. What do you all think of Sigrika's performance?" Xiao Ling immediately began to score Sigrika's completion of the instructions.

All members of the Lahai-Roi group naturally voted, and several members of Rinascita also raised their hands. Half of the members of the Huanglong group also approved of Sigrika's performance.

"Not bad, it seems your performance was quite good in everyone's eyes, Xixi." Xiao Ling summarized with a smile.

"Don't say anything, senpai..." Sigrika transformed into a steam princess, trying to bury her head in the sand like an ostrich and fade out of everyone's sight for a little while.

"While the performance was a bit clumsy, the courage is commendable," Iuno, who had just raised his hand, said matter-of-factly. "But if you keep burying your head in the sand, the game can't continue, can it?"

"Huh? Do I have something to say?" Sigrika looked up abruptly, her cheeks still flushed.

"The second additional rule of the game states that if the player designated by the king completes their task, they have the right to designate the next player," Aemeath reiterated the rule. "So, Xixi, it's your turn to choose!"

"Oh, okay, let me think..." Sigrika pondered for a moment and then said, "Then let's go with number five, hmm... the instruction is to sing a song!"

Aemeath had just been explaining the rules, paused for a moment, then flipped up her card to check her number.

"Oh my, what a coincidence! Number five is me!" Aemeath said with a radiant smile. "You've come to the right person for me to sing!"

"It feels completely unchallenging..." Dania couldn't help but complain.

"Of course, I have one request too!" Sigrika said seriously, "Little Ai can't sing her own songs."

Having learned from Xiao Ling's example, everyone understood Sigrika's intention in taking this action. After all, if everyone present did what they would do, the game would be very boring.

"Hmm... if I can't sing my own songs... then I really don't know what to sing right now." Aemeath pretended to be deep in thought. "How about you pick one for me, Xixi?"

"Then I'll pick one from my playlist."

Sigrika rummaged through her playlist for a while and finally found a song that she considered rather challenging.

"Here, Little Ai, please begin your performance!" Sigrika smiled broadly as she handed the song she had chosen to Aemeath.

"This song... is quite challenging, but it's a piece of cake for me~"

The intro to the song started playing on Little Ai's phone. Aemeath cleared her throat slightly and began to sing under everyone's expectant gaze.

"In the past, winters were cold, and summers were rainy and humid~"

"Your voice drifts from afar in autumn, so warm and comforting~"

You said there was a vast expanse of white snow behind the house back then~

Golden flags flutter in the strong wind in the valley.

When Xiao Ling heard the lyrics, he couldn't help but marvel at them. He had actually held Xiao Ling when he was a child.

While Aemeath's cover is excellent, the original is simply too grand, leaving virtually no room for imitation.

When the music ended, everyone gave Aemeath a warm round of applause for her performance.

When it came to the performance scoring segment, unsurprisingly, Aemeath received even more votes than Sigrika had earlier.

"Hehe, thank you everyone for your support!" Aemeath said with a sweet smile.

So far, the King's Game is running smoothly. Players are still coming up with their own commands, which are mostly talent shows, and the shared command pool hasn't been used yet.

Heartfox naturally noticed this as well. Unable to suppress her curiosity, she secretly activated her Resonance Ability when the others weren't paying attention and began to peek at the contents of the cards.

After reviewing all the cards in the public command pool on the table, Heartfox couldn't help but feel smug.

"Haha, this public command pool is much more interesting than I imagined. The Driver really came up with a great idea!"

So now she couldn't help but look forward to what kind of bloody storm this seemingly calm King's Game would unleash.

(Now is the time to give feedback. If you have any good suggestions, please type them here, and I will see them as soon as possible!)