Chapter 136
Chapter 136
The Mad Hatter drawled, “But if you lose, you’ll have to stay behind and play with my little pet for a while.”
The sea rabbit obediently hopped to the Mad Hatter’s side and rubbed its ashen fur against his palm.
The Mad Hatter stroked it fondly a few times, then added, “Incidentally, my little pet is especially fond of human heads.”
Human heads.
So the heads floating on the surface of the sea were all the monster’s work.
After the Mad Hatter patted it on the head, the sea rabbit dove back into the water.
Countless terrifying disaster films about sharks flashed through the players’ minds. They stood above the sea, surrounded on all sides by man-eating predators.
Reality was crueler still. The monster underwater was tens of thousands of times more horrifying than a shark.
The sea rabbit was undoubtedly far more intelligent than a shark. Anyone who fell into the water would have only the slimmest chance of survival.
Or perhaps… no chance at all.
The Mad Hatter removed that tall hat and bowed to everyone. “Welcome to Magic Roulette. This is the easiest of the four games. After all, I’ve already given away several gold coins.”
The players looked up at the twenty-two coins. Sure enough, participating in a game gave them a chance to win one.
But the risk was terrifyingly high. They truly feared that one wrong move would doom them beyond redemption.
Yet the longer they remained in the *Vampires* instance, the more dangerous every encounter with a vampire became.
No one could be certain they would not be locked in the Corpse Cage, and as the number of human players dwindled…
Each person’s chance of being chosen would only rise.
No one knew what happened to those imprisoned in the Corpse Cage.
The players who had entered it were already dead.
They did not even know where the Corpse Cage was located.
The Mad Hatter folded one arm across the chest and pinched the chin with the other hand, letting out a contemplative hum.
“Hmm… Quite a crowd. Then let us begin today’s first round.”
The Mad Hatter burst into loud laughter and raised the cane. As though answering a summons, the blocks beneath every player’s feet began to tremble faintly. Terror drained the color from their faces.
Each block suddenly split open into a dark fissure. Something began crawling out.
The players widened their eyes and held their breath, watching the crack warily.
Without warning, a pale hand emerged, holding up a scale.
“Ah!” Several people screamed in fright.
The Mad Hatter secretly watched their reactions with a wicked smile. Their fear seemed delightfully entertaining. Crooked fingers twitched in tiny movements and toes tapped lightly, as if the god were dancing.
“Pick them up. Quickly, children, pick them up.” The Mad Hatter bit a fingernail and repeated the command over and over, madness filling those eyes.
There were six players, six scales, and six disembodied arms.
Xiao Qian was the first to take a scale. The moment he lifted it away, the hand retreated into the fissure and vanished without a trace. The ground beneath him returned instantly to its original state, as if nothing had happened.
If not for the scale still in his hands, he might truly have forgotten that an arm had crawled from the ground moments ago.
The others saw that nothing had happened to Xiao Qian and immediately followed his example.
[Item: the Mad Hatter’s Scale. Detection-type item. May only be used in this game. Assesses the value of a player’s words.]
[Note: People say golden words are worth a thousand pieces of gold. Is that truly so?]
The same item description appeared on the system interface the moment they received it.
Confusion appeared on several faces. They did not understand why they had been given an item that assessed the value of spoken words.
Xiao Huai lowered his gaze, his face expressionless.
He was thinking about one thing: the clue Xiao Qian had given him.
That clue concerning *honesty*.
If it was true, could the value of their words be determined by their honesty?
The Mad Hatter offered no explanation of the standard the scales would use. Everything would be decided by the scales themselves.
“All right! The game is about to begin! You must be excited!!” The Mad Hatter suddenly began speaking as though singing. In truth, the god was the only one excited.
“The sections beneath your feet form the roulette wheel, and the pointer-” The Mad Hatter tossed the cane into the air. “-is here.”
The cane instantly transformed into a massive black pointer decorated with numerous glowing signs, giving it a thoroughly bizarre appearance.
“If the pointer lands on a gold section, you players win, and all of you may leave the game. A black section brings punishment, a red section brings a reward, and a white section is blank, meaning nothing will happen. You may move wherever the pointer lands.”
The Mad Hatter narrowed those eyes and inspected the players. “Let’s see. One, two… Ha! Two unlucky children are standing on black sections. You must receive punishment.”
“Wh-what? Why? The game hasn’t even started! The pointer hasn’t moved, so how can you punish us already?” a girl in a short skirt demanded from atop a black section.
A bespectacled man standing on another black section raised the same protest.
The Mad Hatter merely laughed twice. “How unbelievably stupid. Didn’t the game begin long ago? The moment you stepped through the door, the roulette started. Don’t you humans have a saying? All roads lead to Rome, but some people are born in Rome while others are born in hell. Unfortunately, you were born in hell, while they were born in Rome as fortune’s favorites.”
The Mad Hatter looked toward Xiao Qian and another young man standing on red sections. “See? Luck is also a kind of strength.”
Xiao Huai and a young woman with long brown hair stood on white sections, so nothing happened to them.
The Mad Hatter clapped. “Come, then. Let us settle the roulette wheel’s first round!”
As soon as those words fell, two piercing screams tore through the sky. Almost simultaneously, invisible forces sliced through the players’ fingers.
“My hand! My finger!”
“Ahhh! It hurts! It hurts!”
They shrieked in agony. Their severed pinkies fell to the ground, and blood splashed across the black sections. Against that black, however, the original scarlet color disappeared.
All blood was hidden within the pure darkness.
Cracks opened once more before Xiao Qian and the young man. Pale hands emerged to offer each of them a small gift box.
The young man’s pupils contracted as he accepted his box, and he immediately stored it in the system inventory.
Xiao Qian casually opened his own. A little white rabbit doll lay inside. Finding it uninteresting after squeezing it twice, he put it away.
The Mad Hatter stared at the two punished players’ suffering, eyes shining with excitement. After spinning in a delighted circle, the god abruptly stopped.
As if struck by a thought, the Mad Hatter smacked a right fist into the left palm, practically demanding that a lightbulb appear overhead.
“Oh, I forgot to tell you. If the pointer lands on a section occupied by a player, both punishments and rewards are doubled. White sections are the only exception. Nothing will happen there.”