Chapter 79: Meeting at the Crossroads (2)
Translator: Pluto Editor: Tehrn
"F*ck!"
"Good!"
The black screen had risen once again so the two teams could only see the platform floating in mid-air. Just two minutes after the duel began, two vastly different exclamations erupted from the teams — under the cheers from the White Team and the curses from the Red Team — the outcome of the duel in mid-air has been decided!
Lara fell off the slate platform with a pallid face. Propping herself, she coughed a few time violently but was unable to stand up even after some time.
"Isn’t that a little too fast? No matter how weak Miss Lara is, it’s impossible that she can’t last for more than two minutes…." Chen Fan’s eyes widened as he stared at Hai Tianqing who was totally uninjured, he was utterly shocked. Hai Tianqing walked back to the grid behind the screen, looking unperturbed.
On the contrary, Lin Sanjiu was very surprised that Lara could even last for more than a minute. Since she fought alongside Hai Tianqing in Oasis, she witnessed how powerful he was. During that 30 seconds, he managed to turn countless higher-tiered, winged duoluozhongs into mincemeat.
Lara may look dainty, but her combative skills might be better than expected…
When Zhong Junkai saw his girlfriend on the ground, he rushed forward to help her up, forgetting to get permission from Mr. Dot first.
As she held on to her boyfriend's arm, Lara leaned forward and whispered something to him. As they were too far, no one could tell what she said.
Next, Mr. Dot voice rang out again: "Red Team contestant, please enter the white fog and hand over your Active Skill."
As if those words had stolen her spine, Lara slid into Zhong Junkai’s arms with her face covered in tears. Zhong Junkai wore a face of pity as he consoled her for quite some time. She finally became calmer and stumbled toward the white fog. As the others saw her disappearing into the fog, they slowly lost their sense of security.
"Oh?" Mr. Dot suddenly exclaimed in surprise, he continued as if he was having a conversation with someone, "Yes. That's right… No, as long as it's within this Pocket Dimension, even if it's a corpse… Yes, if the members of the team refuse to comply, they'll be punished."
Even though their view was blocked by the screen, it was apparent to everyone on the Red Team that Mr. Dot was definitely speaking to someone from the White Team.
However, they wondered what the conversation was about and why they were talking about corpses.
They could not hear the questions that the White Team was asking, but they understood from Mr. Dot’s reply that things were going to turn ugly.
As uncertainty crept into the faces of the Red Team members, Lara slowly walked out of the fog with a pale complexion. "Thud." She plopped on the ground beside the grid and started sobbing.
Zhong Junkai walked back to D4 and stood there, heavy-hearted.
"What happened?" Chen Fan asked.
"Lara told me that she begged that huge man to show her mercy, but the man didn't care and punched her off the platform." Zhong Junkai stared at the screen with a scowl. "I will definitely get Lara’s ability back!"
Chen Fan gave him a few sounds of affirmation while B.Rabbit twitched his ears and hesitantly turned to look at Lin Sanjiu.
She gave him a decisive nod.
"Alright, everyone can look at the hints on the ground now!"
"Ding dong." Words appeared on the tiles. Old Wang received a "There's a +1 point in one of the tiles behind you." hint, while B.Rabbit had a "There's a -1 point penalty to your left." Whereas Lin Sanjiu, Chen Fan, and Zhong Junkai all got the hint: "There seem to be no points nearby."
"Now the second positionings will commence!"
Once Mr. Dot gave the order, the Red Team members looked around anxiously and started to move. B.Rabbit leaped to C3 where Lara was previously standing. He squinted his eyes and curled up into a ball.
The Red Team got into their positions very quickly — basically, they had no strategy. They only avoided the possible penalty tile and the tiles where the opponents previously were.
After they had waited another few minutes, Mr. Dot said, "The White Team have confirmed their positions! Black screen down!"
The black screen slowly descended once more. This time, a glow appeared from one of the tiles in the grid on the white semicircle.
"Congratulations White Team! You received the reward of +1 point!"
The members of the Red Team froze as they all looked at the opposite grid. On the corresponding row where Old Wang was standing on their own grid, there was a flashing red "Congratulations" on one of the tiles in that row. That red glow lit up the old wrinkle-covered face of the person standing in it so that her face looked like a patch of parched red earth.
When Old Wang noticed that, his expression quickly changed to that of immense caution as if a rabbit was threatened by a predator. A smile gradually spread on the Old Woman’s face.
"Now, I'll report the positions…"
White Team: Long-legs A2, Hu Changzai A3, Flowery shirt B5, Hai Tianqing C3, Old Woman D2, Loser E4.
Red Team: Lin Sanjiu C5, B.Rabbit C3, Old Wang C2, Chen Fan D4, Zhong Junkai D5.
Once again, the seemingly most powerful person from the White Team had collided with their member and this time it was that rabbit — the only member which looked weaker than Lara!
As they saw the black screen slowly consuming the view of the opposing team once more, everyone from the Red Team, with the exception of Lin Sanjiu and B.Rabbit, was speechless, as if their throats were strangled by silence.
Suddenly, a hoarse voice broke the silence. Chen Fan glared at Old Wang with a pair of bloodshot eyes, "Old Wang, you didn't move, right?"
That sentence immediately drew everyone's attention — Lin Sanjiu also chose to remain on her tile, but somehow Chen Fan only stared at Old Wang.
"Yes," Old Wang replied curtly without turning behind to look at Chen Fan.
"Isn't this a little too odd? I've nothing to say about Miss Lin remaining on her tile… But you clearly received a hint which stated that there was a +1 point reward behind you, yet you chose not to move..." The veins on Chen Fan’s forehead began to pop. "Coincidentally, that old woman shifted to the spot where you could have moved to; thus you managed to avoid a duel… Did you discover something?"
Old Wang stood motionlessly without answering his question.
Instead, Lara, who was standing outside, shouted urgently, more concerned than anybody in the game, "Say something! Why didn't you go for that +1? Even if we lose this game, as long as our score is higher, we'll win the challenge… why did you give up that +1 point reward?"
"Shut up!" Old Wang roared back fiercely, turning his head sharply at Lara. "If you could have avoided that duel, you f*cking would have! Do you think I don't know women like you!?"
He grunted twice before looking at both Chen Fan and Zhong Junkai who were looking at him in shock. "You both probably haven't even noticed! Think for yourselves, idiots! The White Team planned their positions during the first round!" he hollered.
Zhong Junkai was about to rush up to him furiously, but he suddenly paused and quickly looked at Lin Sanjiu. Her back was facing against him as she nodded at B.Rabbit. Shortly after, he left the grid and leaped up onto the platform in a single bounce.
As Chen Fan already predicted that B.Rabbit would definitely lose, he didn't even look once at the platform, finding it pointless. He just pressed on with his question: "What do you mean? Tell us clearly!"
"Harrumph… With 25 tiles, you don't even need 6 people. You just need 5 people to form an X shape. The additional person will stand in the middle of column A. In that way, no matter where we stand, there will be a White Team member just a step away. The middle of the grid, where there's the highest chance of collision, is occupied by the member with the strongest combative skills… You’ve never thought about it?"
As Chen Fan thought over it, his expression gradually grew dark.
"If you combine that with how their movements in the second term, can’t you two see what they’re planning? If I didn’t remain in this tile, I would have collided with that old woman… Can you see that a White Team member is also moving toward Miss Lin? Even though there aren’t any points near her, he is still moving in her direction! The White Team is going after us!" Despite his fat, greasy appearance, Old Wang was unexpectedly quick-witted.
"That bespectacled guy stayed on his tile, so we probably don’t have to worry about him. But the others must have some level of confidence since they dare to target us!" Old Wang went straight to the point with his conclusion.
When he heard this, getting revenge for his girlfriend was the least of Zhong Junkai’s concern. He turned to Lin Sanjiu and asked with an unsteady voice, "Miss Lin… what are your thoughts? Do you think this is really the case?"
At the moment, Chen Fan also looked at her. This was most likely due to her performance in the first game.
Lin Sanjiu did not turn behind. "Perhaps… but I’m not good at chess," she answered them mildly. She could sense their disappointment and their anxiety enveloping her.
Silence fell over the people within the large grid, no one spoke for some time as if they were all desperately trying to remember when the members of the White Team were positioned and considered how they should make their next move.
This lasted for some time until Zhong Junkai was the first one to realize that there was something off, he looked upward, feeling somewhat astonished.
"Miss Lin, your rabbit is… very powerful!" He fixed his gaze on the dueling platform as he commented haltingly, "It… it has already been… five to six minutes?"
The rest of the members instantly looked toward the dueling platform and realized that they haven’t heard the words: "The red team contestant has been defeated."
It almost seemed as if B.Rabbit, which was only about the size of a palm, ironically had a natural advantage over Hai Tianqing’s overly large built. From Hai Tianqing huge shadow, they could see that every time he aimed an overwhelmingly strong attack at the rabbit, the little yellow shadow would evade nimbly.
"It only knows how to dodge rapidly. But even if it continues evading those attacks, it can’t win that duel." Lin Sanjiu crossed her arms as she sighed.
Almost as if prove her right, once Lin Sanjiu finished her sentence, that small yellow shadow was hit. It flew quite some distance away from the platform and landed on the ground, motionless.
"The Red Team contestant has been defeated! Red Team contestant, please enter the white fog and hand over your Active Skill."