Chapter 151
Chapter 151
The atmosphere froze solid. Then Ling Chen narrowed his eyes and laughed.
“What? You actually took me seriously?” He placed the commander’s cap on his head.
“If you’re livestock, then what does that make me, the one commanding you? Livestock too? Or perhaps a ringmaster? Hahaha! I don’t have that particular hobby.”
He played off his earlier remark as a joke, but the players knew in their hearts that Ling Chen did not see them as human at all.
To be precise, they might truly be no different from livestock to him.
They were merely toys he used to pass the time.
The girl who had questioned Ling Chen began trembling at the thought, her eyes full of fear and dread.
Seeing this, Ling Chen bent toward her. “Don’t be afraid. I’m very friendly.”
He twisted his wrist, producing muffled cracks from the joint.
A silvery chain that looked like aluminum appeared on each of the three cages. The three chains twisted into one and fell into Ling Chen’s hand.
Holding the line as if he were walking dogs, he started outside. The wheels began to turn.
The cages slowly rolled forward with him.
As he walked, he said, “How should I put it? Since I’m your commander, trust me and do as I say. The mission will be completed eventually.”
Silence surrounded them. As Ling Chen spoke, the only other sound was the occasional creak of the turning axles.
Xiao Qian broke the silence. “What’s the mission?”
He watched Ling Chen warily, though from his angle, he could see only the man’s back.
Ling Chen’s steps slowed. A faint laugh seemed to escape through his nose.
“I don’t know either.”
The players frowned. “You’re the ruling god of this game. How could you not know?”
For once, they had blurted out their true thoughts without restraint.
Ling Chen stopped and looked back over his shoulder, his gaze icy.
“Naturally, I left the tiresome work of designing the game to the main System. I don’t know what will happen here. As for coming to collect you, that was merely my mission.”
So that was possible too: a game within a game, a play within a play. Gods had greater authority and could participate in a game’s design and foresee how it would unfold, as Qi Sha had with her monster research institute.
They could also know every detail while hiding the true mission behind layer upon layer of fog, as in the Mad Hatter’s roulette game.
Yet Ling Chen was now telling them he knew nothing about this game.
Could they believe him?
Even if they could not, the players might question him, but could they resist?
Even when gods knew nothing, they would always have the advantage over players.
A horror game had never been fair.
Ling Chen walked for an unknown length of time, and no one knew how much farther they had to travel before reaching their destination.
They knew asking him would yield no answers.
Their hearts accelerated with the creak of the wheels.
Suddenly, Ling Chen released the chain. The gloom brightened slightly, as though someone had lit candles in the corners.
No. Those were not candles!
Someone abruptly realized that the lights were… insect eggs?!
Ling Chen glanced back at them. “The fit survive and the weak are eliminated. If you want to be worthy of my command, you must first learn to handle pressure.”
As the words left his mouth, the players noticed a yellow insect egg no larger than a fist beside his foot.
Ling Chen’s lips curved. He crushed the egg beneath his boot, and a pungent, fishy smell instantly filled the entire space.
After crushing it, he said softly, “Good luck.”
The skin-crawling cries of insects rose around them, shrill noises somewhere between human screams and an eagle’s call.
Whatever the sound truly resembled, to the players it was a howl from hell.
Dense masses of black beetles surged in from every direction like a dark tide, covering the floor and walls.
Disgusting slime coated their bodies. Their sharp mouthparts flashed coldly as they clacked together.
Each beetle was as thick as an adult man’s arm. Their countless legs produced suffocating waves of rustling as they crawled.
The insects did not dare approach Ling Chen and opened a path for him. He slowly walked on, paying no attention to the players staring after him.
Just before his back vanished, he said, “Your cages will disappear in three minutes. Whether you live or die will depend on your fortune.”
The sight seized the hearts of the caged players with terror.
The cages that had imprisoned them now became vessels protecting them for these three minutes.
The beetles did not dare approach the electrified fences. Their feelers lashed wildly through the air, their hollow compound eyes fixed on every player.
Several beetles came close enough to slam their razor-sharp mouthparts against the iron bars, producing ear-piercing scrapes of metal.
At that moment, the entire space grew even brighter!
More than a dozen yellow insects half a meter tall burrowed up from underground, their abdominal organs glowing like orange lamps. They rushed to the remains of their crushed kin.
The players assumed they were smelling their companion and would take revenge. Instead, the yellow insects began licking the egg fluid from the ground.
Several that failed to get any even started tearing at one another.
The black beetles crowded around the iron cages, while the yellow insects searched for food behind them. Some of the larger yellow insects simply stabbed their bladed forelimbs into the black beetles.
It was like an all-you-can-eat buffet. They caught and devoured one after another.
Even so, the black beetles showed no intention of attacking the yellow insects.
They continued pouring in, and their sole targets from beginning to end were the pitiful players trapped inside the cages.
The crushed egg had been a fuse designed to attract the insect race.
The god who had caused this disaster had already retreated into the distance, quietly observing the players’ despair and terror.
Fear spread across their faces. One of the girls caged with Xiao Qian screamed.
The brown-haired, middle-aged man roared, “Try fire! Hurry! The three minutes are almost up. Once the cages disappear, we’re dead!”
Sweat dripped from his forehead. The married couple had collapsed from fright and were trembling on the floor.
Before the man even spoke, Xiao Qian had already taken out a white match.
The terrified girl stared at the single match in his hand and could not resist protesting.
“Dude… how are you going to kill insects with a match?”
It was a drop in the bucket. If he was merely putting on a show, could he not at least make it convincing?
Xiao Qian arched a brow. “What do you know? This is a special item.”
With that, he struck the match through the air. Flames erupted like a colossal fire dragon, tongues of fire soaring three meters high. The blaze spread rapidly, dyeing the entire underground space red.
The players froze. None of them had expected such overwhelming power from the utterly ordinary-looking match in Xiao Qian’s hand.