Chapter 140
Chapter 140
Xiao Qian had discovered that players did not have to speak in any fixed order. Anyone could answer whenever they wished.
As long as a player spoke, the scale would assess the value of their words and cause the pointer to spin.
Everything he said was false.
His punishment followed immediately.
The pain of severed fingers made his brows knot tightly.
Once player Xiao Qian was punished, some of the mire on the white section ahead of Xiao Huai faded.
The young man realized Xiao Qian was trying to lower the game’s difficulty. As long as the players remained at a disadvantage, the system would not forcibly raise the difficulty. It might even favor them and create a few “lucky ones.”
Horror games always worked like this. If player mortality rose too high, the game increased their luck, letting the last survivors sail smoothly forward.
But when too many players survived, the game raised the difficulty and increased the mortality rate.
Had the exact same thing not happened in Witch’s House?
It was not as though the system had failed to notice the Mad Hatter’s trick. The system remained silent because the gods enjoyed this kind of spectacle, which also ensured the game’s mortality rate.
Xiao Huai had exposed the truth without hesitation, and the system responded by intervening and raising the difficulty.
The young man gritted his teeth and committed himself. “I’m afraid of air. I’m afraid to breathe. I’m afraid of being alive…”
Seeing even the young man join in, the brown-haired woman had no idea what to do.
They had all reached the fourth floor. None of them were fools, and they naturally understood what Xiao Qian was leading them to do.
While the woman still hesitated, Xiao Qian began telling new lies.
At last, she gathered her courage and followed their rhythm.
For a time, the roulette game filled with the players’ voices.
Though every voice trembled with fear, they kept chattering without pause.
The Mad Hatter’s eyes widened slightly, not having expected this scene.
As the punishments accumulated, the game’s weighting began shifting toward the players.
To remain safe, each person attempted no more than two lies.
That was not many, but it gave Xiao Huai more than enough time to reach the gold section.
Watching the thorns and mire gradually fade, he quickened his pace, crossed the white section, and stepped onto the black.
The Mad Hatter laughed softly.
At that instant, the black section crumbled into dust.
Everyone’s pupils contracted violently. Time seemed to shatter into countless fragments. Their hearts stopped as their gazes followed Xiao Huai’s slow fall.
Moving faster than the naked eye could follow, the sea rabbit had already reached that patch of water. Its huge mouth opened, waiting for the food to fall.
The Mad Hatter chuckled softly.
A black section could punish a player, but so could failing a scale assessment.
Either failing the scale or stepping onto black counted as one punishment.
Once the count reached three, the sea rabbit received support from the game system. Why would it be impossible for the monster to break through the lotus fire?
Xiao Huai wanted to cross the wheel on foot and pass over a black section?
The Mad Hatter would not let him succeed so easily.
Even if he had answered the question properly from the beginning, the Mad Hatter would have manipulated the pointer and sent him to black.
Xiao Huai’s “Li Ming” routine had merely saved the god the trouble.
He already carried two punishments. The instant he stepped onto black, he fell into the third.
Edwin had said this was Xiao Huai’s funeral, so it did not matter when he died.
The Mad Hatter sighed with blatant insincerity. “I never expected the guest of honor to be delivered to Edwin so soon.”
Looking toward the sea rabbit, the Mad Hatter ordered coldly, “Don’t damage the face. Make sure the corpse stays pretty.”
The sea churned. The moment the sea rabbit leaped at the command, a ten-foot wave surged in every direction. Sunlight spilled across the water, sparkling brilliantly as a dazzling blue curtain opened.
The image brimmed with sunlight and hope, yet it destroyed the players’ last pillar of support like a nuclear blast.
If Xiao Huai died, the result they had suffered to obtain would vanish like foam.
An even crueler roulette game would await them.
They might… all be buried here with him.
Despair and agony flooded their faces. For a moment, they forgot their own injuries, every thought consumed by the fear of impending death.
Even Xiao Qian went pale. Brows tightly furrowed, he stared at the waves where Xiao Huai’s figure had vanished.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
As their heartbeats accelerated, they saw red blood splash from within the wave.
Half their hope died on the spot.
Xiao Qian clenched his fist and silently pulled up his left sleeve.
On the bare skin near his elbow was a black-and-red fox tattoo. Half of one eye was white.
Just as the fingertips of his right hand touched the fox’s eye, a sound like thunder suddenly tore through the heavens and shook the world.
Xiao Qian snapped his head up toward the sky.
His blood surged.
Black-and-gold wings gleamed against the sunlight. Xiao Huai sat on the back of a three-legged crow. A terrifying gash split his left arm, flesh torn open almost to the point of severing.
Yet his eyes were like beacons in the night, bright enough to seize everyone’s gaze.
He rose to his feet, clear and real. True calm filled his eyes as he looked down at the utterly stunned Mad Hatter below.
Sunlight illuminated the tranquil sea and finally transformed into hope, shining into the depths of every despairing heart.
The wild waves were forced down. The sea rabbit could never match the speed of the divine three-legged crow.
In the blink of an eye, Xiao Huai landed on the gold section.
Silence. Even the sound of moving water disappeared. They could sense only a faint current in the air, without hearing so much as a whisper of wind.
The three-legged crow gradually took human form beside Xiao Huai, short brown hair gleaming softly.
You Lin looked at Xiao Huai’s wound and frowned. The situation had been critical when Xiao Huai summoned him. He had carried Xiao Huai away, and the sea rabbit had snapped at them. That bite had originally been aimed at You Lin.
But Xiao Huai had attacked with all his strength, forcing the sea rabbit to alter its strike. Its claws tore into his left arm instead.
You Lin felt that Xiao Huai’s injury was his fault, but Xiao Huai did not care in the slightest.
Xiao Huai parted his lips and told him, “Good thing I had you, or I would’ve died here.”
You Lin frowned at the wound. “I caused you to…”
Xiao Huai raised his eyes and smiled faintly, looking so relaxed that the injury seemed painless. “You saved my life. How could I let you get hurt? Besides, this is nothing.”
How could those injuries be called nothing? Only two fingers remained on one hand…
And his entire body was covered in blood and filth. Even against his black clothes, the dark crimson beneath remained faintly visible.
Yet not a trace of worry or fear appeared in Xiao Huai’s eyes. His calm became the strongest reassurance the others could have received.