Chapter 314: Chen Junnan’s Path

“You’re betting your life against a ‘Land Class’ with a thirty percent chance of winning…” Yun Yao thought Chen Junnan was downright insane.

“Is ‘thirty percent’ really that low?” Chen Junnan said seriously. “To me, ‘thirty percent’ is already a pretty good outcome.”

“What?”

“Big star… If every ‘participant’ had a thirty percent chance of winning against a ‘Land Class’ in a life-or-death gamble, then theoretically, three ‘participants’ could take down one ‘Land Class.'”

Yun Yao felt something was off: “That’s not how it works, is it…?”

“Fine, even if I’m bad at math and got it wrong, then would four be enough? Five? Ten participants in exchange for one ‘Land Class’ life—would that be enough?”

“What are you trying to say?”

“There are only about twenty ‘Land Classes,’ but how many participants are there?” Chen Junnan cut straight to the point. “If everyone united and charged forward without hesitation, the ‘Zodiacs’ would’ve been wiped out long ago. So what if losing turns you into a ‘native’? If this damn place gets destroyed, wouldn’t everyone still escape?”

Yun Yao knew Chen Junnan had a point. If they truly wanted to gamble and eliminate all the ‘Zodiacs,’ uniting everyone in the ‘Land of the End’ was indeed the optimal solution.

But this optimal solution still couldn’t escape human nature.

Everyone knew charging forward would lead to victory, but who was willing to be at the front of the charge?

“You know this is just a concept,” Yun Yao sighed. “The ‘participants’ aren’t a disciplined army—they all have their own agendas, and among them are plenty of cowards and selfish individuals.”

“So I’ll be the selfless one,” Chen Junnan chuckled. “Though I’m not sure if gambling to kill all the ‘Zodiacs’ will actually work… but let’s test it out on Earth Snake first.”

On the other end of the line, Yun Yao fell into thought. She felt Chen Junnan seemed to know a lot about the ‘Land of the End,’ yet he was hiding plenty. She couldn’t tell what his real goal was.

“Don’t bother thinking about the earlier question anymore,” Chen Junnan said. “The questioner is ‘Black Tortoise’—she probably won’t use Earth Snake’s setup. The last question was just her pressing buttons randomly, and I bet every question from now on will be the same.”

“Then… what are you planning to do?”

“What else can we do?” Chen Junnan laughed. “We don’t have a ‘questioner’ anymore. This game has now become purely a ‘Left or Right’ game—every decision is in the players’ hands.”

After a few more instructions, Chen Junnan hung up.

Now, he had a more important mission—

Pinpointing the location of that old pervert, Earth Snake.

Things had gotten slightly more complicated.

The room to his left had originally been empty. In theory, a single call would confirm whether Earth Snake had chosen that room.

But Earth Snake knew the game’s rules inside out.

He knew that once Black Tortoise took over, the ‘questions’ no longer mattered—controlling ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ was all it took to dominate the game.

So he might choose not to answer the call to hide his location.

That made it impossible to confirm whether his coordinates were ‘-2’ or ‘3.’

Chen Junnan pressed the dial button and waited. Just as he expected, no one picked up in the room to his left. After the dial tone rang eleven times, Xu Qian answered.

“Hello?”

“Qian-jie…” Chen Junnan called out. “I’ll give you the question. Let’s see what stance everyone here takes.”

“Alright…”

Chen Junnan closed his eyes and thought. If Earth Snake was indeed to his left but refused to answer, that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

It meant Earth Snake couldn’t interfere with the ‘question’—his own idea would be accurately relayed to Xu Qian.

And since Earth Snake had joined the game, the participants no longer needed to kill each other. If they could just take down Earth Snake, they could split all his ‘Dao’ among themselves, so cooperation should increase.

Chen Junnan slowly opened his eyes. “Qian-jie, the question is this: ‘Someone has bet their life against Earth Snake. Let’s all work together to kill him, shall we?'”

“That’s good…” Xu Qian nodded. “If this question spreads across the room, the ‘participants’ might seize the initiative.”

“Not necessarily,” Chen Junnan countered. “To everyone else, it’s just another question—no one can prove it’s true. But… let’s spread it like this for now.”

“Got it.”

After hanging up, Chen Junnan glanced at the personnel distribution chart he’d drawn on the wall.

Right now, the room to his left and the third room to Yun Yao’s right were empty.

Earth Snake was hiding in one of them.

The iron ball was currently suspended above the third room to Yun Yao’s right. If the answer to this question was ‘Yes,’ the ball would continue moving left.

Chen Junnan had already settled on his tactic.

This time, ‘Yes.’ Next time, ‘No,’ to return the ball to ‘3.’

Then, for the third question—’Shall we drop it?’—choose ‘Yes’ and let it smash down hard.

Whether Earth Snake was in that room or not, he’d get crushed a few times first.

But all of this relied on the participants staying united. As long as no one altered the question, Chen Junnan’s message would reach at least six people. Adding himself and Yun Yao, that made eight who knew Earth Snake was in the game—an undeniable majority. Earth Snake would be left waiting for death.

If luck was even better and Earth Snake wasn’t in ‘3’ but in ‘-2,’ then he’d have no chance to alter the question. Everyone in the game would know he was playing.

The iron ball would drop ten more times—the best strategy was to aim every single one at Earth Snake’s head. No matter how tough he was, he’d die for sure.

After a long wait of several minutes, the screen before Chen Junnan flickered.

“The final answer to this question is—’Yes.'”

“Hmm…” Chen Junnan nodded hesitantly. A simple ‘Yes’ still didn’t reveal the full picture. Had everyone learned about Earth Snake’s participation?

The next steps would tell.

“The next question is the eleventh one…” Chen Junnan checked the distribution chart on the wall, his brow slowly furrowing.

The eleventh person… was ‘3’!

“Hah!” Chen Junnan couldn’t help but laugh. By the rules, the first person to receive the question had to relay it via phone to the next.

If Earth Snake kept pretending to be dead, he’d be breaking the rules.

“Earth Snake, you old bastard, you’re done hiding now!”

All that was left was to wait—wait for the question to be passed along. If Earth Snake wanted to live, he’d have to relay it and change it.

*Ring ring—!!*

The moment the phone rang, Chen Junnan already had it to his ear.

“Speak.”

“Chen Junnan!” Yun Yao’s voice was a mix of excitement and tension. “Earth Snake’s been exposed—his coordinates are ‘3’!”