Chapter 1001: The Appearance of the Venue

Qiao Jiejin and Zhang Shan agreed that if they met again at “Chu River Han Border,” they would take action right there.

After all, the other rooms were too small, and the central “door” would hinder their movements.

They would both stake their “characters,” and the winner would take them all.

After bidding farewell to Zhang Shan, Qiao Jiejin immediately turned and headed toward another door.

He remembered that this path was supposed to be explored by Zhang Chenze, but he had no idea why she hadn’t shown up yet.

From Qi Xia’s “preparation zone” to “Chu River Han Border,” it should theoretically only take two rooms, but not only had he passed through both, he had even chatted with Zhang Shan for a while.

Yet, in all that time, no one else had emerged. Could they have run into danger? Or were the rooms they explored not just empty with only a “door”?

Feeling puzzled, Qiao Jiejin reached out and opened the door, planning to backtrack and meet up with Zhang Chenze.

But when he entered, he found the room no different from the ones he had explored—just another door, this one marked with the character “Chou.”

“Lawyer girl, are you here?”

Qiao Jiejin called out, but no one answered.

“Strange…”

The room was empty, meaning Zhang Chenze hadn’t even made it past the first room.

Since they were both sent to scout the terrain, Qiao Jiejin couldn’t understand why their progress differed so much.

A sense of foreboding crept into his mind as he stepped into the first room.

“Lawyer girl…” He opened the door again, but still, no one was there.

His brow furrowed instantly. They had entered different rooms at the same time, yet he hadn’t seen her appear from the other end. Now, retracing her path, he still couldn’t find her.

“Disappeared…?”

He muttered to himself, his mind flooding with questions.

He walked over to the wooden door standing in the center of the room and saw the character “Shen” written on it.

“Dang it…” Qiao Jiejin ran his hand over the door, scanning the surroundings before a bold thought struck him.

Could Zhang Chenze’s understanding of “investigating the room” be different from his?

Was she investigating…?

Before he could finish the thought, the wooden door in front of him gently swung open, and Zhang Chenze stepped out, looking puzzled.

“Hey! Lawyer girl!” Qiao Jiejin quickly pulled her out. “Dang it! You’ve got guts! You just went in by yourself?”

“Yeah…” Zhang Chenze patted her chest, still shaken. “I hesitated for a while, but I figured the best way was to go in and check. Otherwise, when everyone else finishes scouting their routes, I’d be the only one who knows nothing about the door, holding everyone back.”

“You’re too reckless!” Qiao Jiejin said. “You misunderstood—none of us went inside the doors. We just scouted the layout first.”

“I… misunderstood?” Zhang Chenze froze. “You mean… everyone else already reached ‘Chu River Han Border’? And I was the only one who didn’t…?”

“Uh…”

Qiao Jiejin fell silent for a moment before realizing that maybe he was the one who misunderstood.

No wonder he had rushed straight to “Chu River Han Border” and met Zhang Shan, who was just as single-minded. No wonder no one else had emerged after so long.

Turns out, everyone else was investigating the “doors.”

“Ah, forget it…” Qiao Jiejin waved it off. “Did you figure out what’s behind the door?”

“Mostly…” Zhang Chenze nodded. “But there’s another room beyond.”

“Huh, you’re still going in?”

“I could stop now.” She thought for a moment. “Is the next room just another ‘door’?”

“Yeah.” Qiao Jiejin confirmed. “I’ve checked my side and your path—all just ‘doors,’ nothing else.”

“Got it…” Zhang Chenze nodded. “What character was written on the door ahead of me?”

“I think it was ‘Chou.'”

“Okay.” She seemed to piece something together and said, “Let’s go back and report to Qi Xia what we’ve found.”

“Huh?” Qiao Jiejin blinked. “I didn’t see anything.”

“It’s fine, I did.”

She led Qiao Jiejin back to the “preparation zone,” and as expected, they were the first to return.

Qi Xia was standing by the wall, deep in thought, his brow furrowed as if wrestling with something.

“Liar!” Qiao Jiejin called out. “We’re back!”

“Oh?” Qi Xia snapped out of his thoughts and turned. “What’s in the area?”

“There are ‘doors’!” Qiao Jiejin said. “Lots of ‘doors,’ liar!”

Qi Xia nodded, then looked at Zhang Chenze. “What’s behind them?”

“They lead to ‘Human-level’ game zones,” Zhang Chenze said calmly. “These ‘doors’ connect directly to the ‘Human-level’ games.”

“Leading to game zones…” Qi Xia frowned. “Even crazier than I thought…”

He had assumed Qinglong might be insane enough to have the “Zodiacs” bring their game setups here, but he never imagined Qinglong would actually open doors inside “Cang Jie Chess” to teleport them out.

“But wouldn’t that count as ‘leaving the area’?” Zhang Chenze asked.

“Probably not…” Qi Xia replied. “If Qinglong opened doors in the ‘Human-level’ game zones, he must’ve coordinated with them. In their games, the ‘stakes’ are ‘characters,’ and after the game ends, we’d have to return through the ‘door.’ Only leaving their zone entirely would count as ‘escaping.'”

“So the map for this game is enormous…?” Zhang Chenze said. “We still have so many ‘Human-level’ games to deal with…”

“You’re overthinking it.” Qi Xia shook his head. “The ‘Human-level’ games are just supplements to the ‘gambling.’ We don’t need to enter all of them. With the right strategy, we can take the opponents’ ‘characters’ right here.”

“Speaking of which… there’s something odd.” Zhang Chenze lowered her voice.

“What?”

She stepped closer and whispered, “I entered a room marked ‘Shen.’ The ‘Zodiac’ inside looked extremely nervous… even more tense than us.”

“That’s not surprising…” Qi Xia sighed. “If you knew Qinglong, you’d understand—he must’ve terrified those ‘Human-level Zodiacs’ when he spoke to them. In this game, their tasks might be even harder than ours. Their mission might be to kill us.”

“That’s just bizarre…” Zhang Chenze said. “Qinglong is their superior. Why would they be so afraid?”