“Ladies and gentlemen,” Di Long said, picking up the walkie-talkie at his waist, “Time’s up. The distribution of the ‘Words’ is now complete.”
At this moment, both teams lifted their heads to look at Qing Long and Di Long high above.
“Next, please proceed to the ‘Battle Zone’,” Di Long continued. “There are twenty ‘battlefields’ in total. We’ve specially arranged twenty ‘Judges’ for you. If two ‘Participants’ enter the same battlefield simultaneously, the room door will shut automatically. The door will only reopen once you’ve completed the game set by the ‘Judge’.”
“Only twenty Judges…?” Qi Xia quickly thought through the entire map layout and felt he had already figured out the distribution.
“What’s wrong, con man?” Qiao Jiajin asked.
“Nothing… I need to adjust the plan temporarily,” Qi Xia replied.
After a few brief instructions, the “Cang Jie Chess” game officially began.
After glancing at the doors in front of them, both teams entered their respective rooms.
There were five doors in the “Preparation Zone.” Besides Qi Xia himself, there were six teammates in his faction.
Zheng Yingxiong and Tian Tian chose to enter the same door, while the rest split up.
Qiao Jiajin reached out and pushed open the middle door, only to be surprised by the sight of yet another door standing right in the center of the room. This door bore the character “You (酉).”
It was a room of about a dozen square meters. Each wall had a door, seemingly connecting to other rooms.
However, what was strange was that the room was completely empty except for the solitary door in the center.
“That’s odd…”
Qiao Jiajin slightly furrowed his brow but said nothing, continuing to push open the next door.
The next room was also about a dozen square meters, and again there was only one lonely door standing in the center.
This door bore the character “Yin (寅).”
“Dang it…” Qiao Jiajin stepped forward and touched the wooden door, “Where’s the ‘Judge’?”
He thought to himself that the place was completely empty, each room containing only a single door. Could it be that the ‘doors’ themselves were the ‘Judges’?
He touched the door again, finding it to be a very ordinary wooden construction. If that was the case, then across this vast game arena, there were twenty such ‘doors’ standing around?
He steadied his thoughts and proceeded toward the next door.
After all, the initial plan from Qi Xia was for everyone to fully explore the layout of the area. Now that the group had split into five teams, after exploring the ten rooms ahead, they needed to quickly return to the “Preparation Zone” to report their findings.
When Qiao Jiajin pushed open the next door, he found that this time it was no longer a room, but a long corridor. At the far end of the corridor were five doors.
This must be the “Chu River Han Boundary” Qi Xia had previously mentioned.
As Qiao Jiajin was observing the five doors across the corridor, he suddenly saw the central door open.
Zhang Shan, tall and broad-shouldered, lowered his head and slowly stepped out.
Their eyes met for a moment before both smiled.
“F***,” Zhang Shan chuckled, “I should’ve guessed you’d be the ‘Vanguard’ for your team.”
“Hey big guy, time to work,” Qiao Jiajin grinned.
“I’m in charge of scouting, just like you,” Zhang Shan said. “Didn’t expect you to be faster. You don’t even need to examine the items inside the rooms?”
“My brain’s not that sharp,” Qiao Jiajin replied. “I just remember what I see along the way. I don’t care why things are there.”
“Oh…” Zhang Shan nodded, “Tattooed kid, we’re both straightforward guys. What ‘Word’ do you have on you?”
“The ‘Word’ on me? Let me check,” Qiao Jiajin said, turning around and fumbling with something on his back. After a moment, he turned back.
“Big guy, the ‘Word’ on me is ‘The world is wide, but the narrow-minded make it small’.”
“Hmm…” Zhang Shan hesitated, “You’re not a bad kid, but you really are asking for a beating.”
“What do you say? Want to have a real fight sometime?” Qiao Jiajin said without minding the provocation, stepping forward with a smile. “I think this time is a great opportunity for us to have a proper one-on-one match.”
“F***,” Zhang Shan frowned, “A fair one-on-one… How luxurious a thing that is.”
“Luxurious?” Qiao Jiajin didn’t understand.
“Tattooed kid, I think your situation is probably similar to mine,” Zhang Shan said. “Whenever there’s a fight, you and I are always targets. We’ll definitely be swarmed by enemies. We both want a fair fight, but such opportunities are rare.”
“That’s true,” Qiao Jiajin nodded. “Every time I fight, I have to deal with a whole crowd. I’ve never met anyone who could beat me one-on-one.”
“F***, you’re so arrogant,” Zhang Shan laughed. “So how tough are you really?”
“Me?” Qiao Jiajin asked. “Big guy, how many people have you fought at once?”
“About a dozen,” Zhang Shan answered. “How about you?”
“Thirty-seven.”
“F***, are you kidding me?” Zhang Shan looked incredulous. “You took on thirty-seven people by yourself?”
“Yeah,” Qiao Jiajin nodded. “At that time, my boss only brought me along. He lost a gambling bet and had no money to pay. We were chased and attacked by thirty-seven people with knives.”
Zhang Shan smirked, “I fought a dozen and got minor injuries. What about you?”
“I nearly died.”
“Huh?” Zhang Shan blinked in confusion, “Wait… You’re not even pretending to be modest?”
“I really almost died,” Qiao Jiajin sounded a bit indignant. “Big guy, do you think I’m a Terminator? Thirty-seven people with knives! It’s already impressive that I won. Did you expect me to be bulletproof?”
“F***… That’s true,” Zhang Shan nodded. “So, shall we have a match now?”
“Now?” Qiao Jiajin clearly hesitated for a moment before asking, “Shouldn’t we find a proper ‘arena’ first?”
“You mean go through those ‘doors’?” Zhang Shan chuckled. “F***, do we really need to go inside and find a Judge?”
“So what are you suggesting?”
“Let’s just have a fair duel right here, using our ‘Words’. The winner takes the other’s ‘Word’,” Zhang Shan said. “No cheating. What do you say?”
Qiao Jiajin looked to both ends of the corridor and noticed that neither his teammates nor the opposing side had emerged, which made him suspicious.
Although this seemed like a perfect opportunity for a duel, he still had important tasks to complete.
“Big guy, not this time,” Qiao Jiajin waved his hand. “I need to go back and find the con man to report what’s going on here.”
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