Chapter 932: Chapter 886: 007 vs. Stewed Chicken
Hao Laoshi listened with his mouth wide open. He thought carefully in his mind but couldn’t quickly figure out the "squares reachable within six steps" described by Gu Mian. He felt a bit of brain pain.
"Right," Liu Ruyan, beside him, had no communication barrier with Gu Mian, "We can also rule out the rooms reachable within three steps after Group Two’s revival. If they could reach us in three steps, there would be no need to come to our initial room to kill our Chess Player. This leaves only the third and fourth squares from the left in the second row, but we have not gone that way. We are now too far to go back. In such a situation, there’s no reason for Group Two to kill our Chess Player."
"It’s also possible that Group Two will turn right next round and not enter our initial room." However, Gu Mian thought this was unlikely. Seeing Group Two heading straight that way, who wouldn’t believe they were going for their initial room?
"There’s also a possibility that Group Two wants to kill our Chess Player not out of fear that we’ll get to the treasure chest first, but simply for the sake of killing." Liu Ruyan’s analysis was logical, "Maybe Group Two’s Chess Player discovered that getting the treasure chest within nine rounds was easy enough. So, they thought they’d kill our group’s Chess Player for fun. Although it’s harmful to others with no real benefit to themselves, we can’t deny there are many such people in the world. If it were me, I might also kill other groups’ Chess Players for fun."
Hearing Liu Ruyan’s freakish remarks, Hao Laoshi nervously distanced himself from her, showing a "I knew this person was a freak" expression on his face.
"So, you’re saying now that Group Two has revived and is heading for your initial room, right?" Hao Laoshi, having listened for a long time, only understood this useful information, "A few rounds ago, our group’s Chess Player was threatened by Group Three’s pieces. Unexpectedly, a few rounds later, your group’s Chess Player encountered the same situation. Now Group Two’s pieces are already next to your initial room, right?"
Gu Mian nodded, already next to their initial room.
Next round, if Group Two’s pieces continue upwards, 007 will face Group Two’s pieces directly.
Gu Mian asked in the group chat whether 007 was confident facing Group Two’s pieces. 007 remained silent for a long time before sending a reassuring message.
Outside, Fatty was still concerned about the situation inside the instance, paying close attention to the conversations among Gu Mian and the other two.
[Fatty]: What’s up, is Miss 007 in some kind of crisis?
Gu Mian told him to go chill somewhere and if really nothing else to do, to go downstairs and check on Xie Bi’an.
Although he didn’t know why Gu Mian wanted him to check on Xie Bi’an downstairs, Fatty still agreed and headed down in excitement.
Hao Laoshi, being a good person, was still worried about Gu Mian’s group Chess Player’s situation: "Who is your group’s Chess Player? Can they take on Group Two?"
"Who is Group One’s Chess Player? Is it Xu Xingcheng?" In the fourth initial room, Guigu was also considering this question.
He also saw the situation on the chessboard between Group One and Group Two and was puzzled why Group Two was looking for trouble with Group One.
The content on the top row of squares is fully revealed, and the treasure chest isn’t there. Group Two heading for the top row is a waste.
The Pen-shaped Real-time Repeater’s three uses have been exhausted. Among the three real-time replays, five players appeared, namely Gu Mian, the pretty woman talking with Gu Mian, the shouting-cheater Passerby A, the Iron Pot Stewed Chicken who knew the fifth round would have a Shared Death Square, and the mysterious Xu Xingcheng.
This shouting-cheater Passerby A clearly wasn’t Group One’s Chess Player. At that time, Gu Mian’s group passed through several empty squares and then entered an arithmetic square. Upon entry, not only did they fail the ghost’s task, they also exceeded the time limit.
Passerby A shouted "they’re cheating" at this moment, indicating he was not in the same camp as Gu Mian.
And the Iron Pot Stewed Chicken, who knew in the fourth round there would be a Shared Death Square in the fifth, Guigu originally thought he was from Group Three, but after Group Two’s entire group revived, he realized this Iron Pot Stewed Chicken was a player from Group Two.
Excluding these two, only the mysterious Xu Xingcheng remained.
Guigu actually cared much about this person. After the third round, when the instance underwent urgent repairs, he was using the Pen-shaped Real-time Repeater, thus recording the situation during the instance maintenance. Right after recording the instance maintenance, the following line read "Signal Blocked, Positioning Interrupted."
And on the third use of the Pen-shaped Real-time Repeater, the line "Xu Xingcheng is confirming coordinates" appeared, marking the first and only occurrence of Xu Xingcheng’s name in the records.
Guigu felt that Xu Xingcheng seemed to be looking for something, the previous "Positioning Interrupted" probably described him.
It was just unknown whether Xu Xingcheng belonged to Group One.
While Guigu pondered, the rest period ended, and the tenth round began.
"This round, if Group Two continues upward, they’ll enter Group One’s initial room..." Guigu closely watched the chessboard. If Group One’s Chess Player were killed, no one could direct Gu Mian and his companion’s actions, leaving them unable to move for the remainder of the time.
But the rules also stated that pieces couldn’t stay in a room for more than ten minutes. If Group One’s Chess Player died and ten minutes later the instance hadn’t ended...
Guigu suddenly realized something.
"No!" He frowned, discovering a significant contradiction.
Meanwhile, Gu Mian and Liu Ruyan in the trap square already saw a door appearing on the wall beside them. It was 007 who confirmed the path forward.
Liu Ruyan looked at the door in front, "After our move, it’ll be Group Two’s turn. Who knows what choice they’ll make this round."
It’s likely they’ll continue upwards, which would enter 007’s room.
It’s unknown who Group Two’s pieces are, what special items they possess. Although 007 said not to worry about her, facing enemies with unidentified identities, Gu Mian and Liu Ruyan inevitably felt some concern.
Hao Laoshi also didn’t know what else to say, squeezing out a few comforting words, "To be with you guys, your Chess Player surely isn’t weak, don’t worry too much."
He twisted his body and took a few steps.
Actually, Hao Laoshi should worry most about himself now. Their group’s designated step chances were used up, and next time they rolled the dice, the steps would be random, which might make it impossible to remain on the same square as Gu Mian.
This round, 007 rolled a two again.
Gu Mian pushed open the door in front, raising his eyes to see another door on the wall to the left of the door.
This required two steps forward, with a turn in between, one step down, and then one step to the right.
"This is the tired square, it’s the tired square again. In the last round, we passed this square after moving two steps forward," Liu Ruyan looked at the room’s introduction. "This round, we’ve passed it again, speaking of which, we’ve never actually stopped at this square."
Gu Mian originally thought, if there were ghosts in this room, he would try to see if he could take them with him, after all, who knows if Hao Laoshi would stop here next round.
But this is the tired square, no ghosts for him to take, but stopping here isn’t dangerous either.
Gu Mian looked up, staring at the door on the left wall: "Through that door is the third 605 room."
Will the Evil God be inside?
Honestly, Gu Mian doesn’t hold much hope for room 605 now. He thinks he might need some special method to find the Evil God.
As for how to find the Evil God, Gu Mian feels like he has grasped some clues in his mind, but they’re too blurry to piece together.
"Let’s go." Gu Mian lifted his foot and continued walking towards the door ahead.
Soon, his hand twisted the doorknob, and as the door slowly opened, the scene in the room unfolded before the two of them.
The Evil God is not here.
It’s the Gold Coin Square.
The third 605 room also doesn’t have his shadow...
But now is not the time to think about where the Evil God is, Gu Mian focused on the group chat, now it’s time for group two to act after they’ve finished.
hasn’t posted any messages in the group chat, so Gu Mian and Liu Ruyan don’t know how things are going on her end.
Guigu is also keeping an eye on 007’s side.
After Gu Mian’s side finished their move, he shifted his gaze to the square where group two’s piece was. Now, group two only needs to step upward to enter the room where group one’s Chess Player is.
"Will group two’s Chess Player let the piece continue upwards..." Guigu stared intently at the chessboard in front of him.
And similarly staring at the chessboard is group three’s Chess Player.
A female player, her face tight, looked at the position of No. 1 starting room on the chessboard, at her feet lay the corpse of another female player.
If Gu Mian were present, he would recognize the identity of the surviving female player.
It’s Anzhi Tianlan.
The two had met in the romantic couple’s reality show instance. Upon entering the instance, Anzhi Tianlan immediately killed another player in her group and swapped identities with them. When the identity issue was discovered by the Fortune-teller, Anzhi Tianlan wanted to silence them too. However, Gu Mian crawled out from under the bed in the room, causing Anzhi Tianlan to abandon the thought of silencing them and directly fled.
Now, they meet again in this instance.
Only separated by layers of rooms and fog, neither knows the other is in this instance.
Gu Mian thinks the group three’s Chess Player might be Renle Mountain.
Anzhi Tianlan thinks group one’s piece doesn’t seem easily provoked.
At this moment, the corpse of the female player at Anzhi Tianlan’s feet still has wide-open eyes, with a knife stuck in her body.
Her nickname is "Junior Sister."
She had gone through many instances with Anzhi Tianlan. But when Anzhi Tianlan felt her life was threatened, she was willing to give up on any long-time friend.
The piece she pushed into the trap square was called "Hero Guo", and after the Shared Death Square appeared, Anzhi Tianlan immediately abandoned him.
Just this time, the abandonment seemed a bit too quick.
It was only after group two resurrected that Anzhi Tianlan realized there was no other Shared Death Square on the field except the one created by group two. However, she doesn’t regret her decision at the time; she understands only decisive people can survive longer in this world.
The two pieces in group one don’t seem like easy targets; is group one’s Chess Player the same?
If group two’s piece really enters the No. 1 starting room, will group one’s Chess Player decisively kill the opponent?
"Pieces and Chess Players cannot communicate; group two’s piece has been teleported twice, unable to gauge their route, so they actually don’t know what room they’ll walk into each round. Their information is closed off, and they won’t immediately go on the offensive upon entering the starting room. At least a few seconds to react." Anzhi Tianlan looked at the chessboard. "That’s group one’s Chess Player’s chance, as long as they’re ambushed by the door, they can finish off group two’s piece in one strike."
She saw that the avatar representing group one’s Chess Player was already pressed against the bottom wall of the room, clearly heading towards the "one strike kill" plot she imagined.
What struck her as odd was group two’s Chess Player.
Logically, if they wanted their piece to kill the opposing Chess Player, they shouldn’t give the opponent’s Chess Player such a long time to prepare.
They should have issued the command as soon as group one’s move was over, letting their piece enter the starting room immediately.
But group two’s Chess Player delayed over and over, now dragging on for nearly a minute without issuing a command, and the countdown is about to end. Group one’s Chess Player is fully prepared.
While Anzhi Tianlan was puzzled, she saw group two’s piece finally move.
