The ten players dressed in prison uniforms were listening attentively on the surface, but in reality, their peripheral vision was subtly, almost imperceptibly, focused on the hoodie-wearing young man standing behind the slovenly man.
Xu Xi stared straight ahead, not glancing sideways.
Every time he reloaded and withdrew from the competition, he had to endure being stared at like this. At first, he felt a bit awkward, but now he was basically accustomed to these ambiguous, inscrutable gazes.
"Alright, everyone, get ready to go inside." The slovenly man couldn't be bothered to care about what these contestants were thinking inside. As long as the show recording could proceed smoothly, everything else could be set aside for now.
The camp's main gate was in a state of disrepair from years of neglect. Pushed open with effort by the staff, it emitted a grating, teeth-aching creak.
The players all tensed their nerves, their eyes filled with vigilance as they stepped one by one through that rust-stained, cobweb-covered gate.
Seeing that all the contestants had entered, the slovenly man waved his hand, signaling the staff to close the main gate again.
"You can find something to do yourself, do whatever you want, but you cannot interfere with the show team's recording."
Casually tossing this instruction to the hoodie-wearing young man behind him, he then eagerly headed to the monitoring room.
However, no sooner had he sat down in front of the display screens than he saw that East Asian young man follow him and plop down right beside him, seemingly... planning to watch the footage with him?
Noticing the man's astonished gaze, Xu Xi looked back calmly. "Am I not allowed to watch?"
"Uh... you are, you are allowed." The slovenly man was momentarily choked by such a confident, matter-of-fact retort. He scratched his hair somewhat irritably. "Fine, watch if you want, just don't bother me."
With that, he stopped paying attention to him and turned his head, focusing intently on the screens.
This attitude clearly treated Xu Xi as an eccentric but ultimately insignificant person.
Xu Xi inwardly breathed a sigh of relief.
Do whatever he wanted? Was there even a question? Of course, he was going to observe every move of the other players.
Was there any place more of a god's-eye view than the monitoring room?
He also turned his gaze toward the display composed of over a dozen small screens, where the figures of the ten players were prominently displayed.
This scene inexplicably gave Xu Xi an illusion of having control over the entire situation.
Yes, an illusion.
By withdrawing from the competition, he had avoided the so-called tasks set by the show team, which indeed brought temporary safety. He had even now become a lofty bystander looking down from above. But that didn't mean he was truly safe.
He clearly knew this was a dead save.
But he just wanted to see how he would die in this save, and... how those other players would die.
——
As the camp gate slowly closed behind them, a chilly, damp air, carrying a heavy scent of decay and a hint of something metallic like rust, rushed to meet them.
The ten players maintained a certain distance from each other, exchanging glances.
"Really, no one is considering cooperation?" In the end, it was Prettyland's bearded Winifred who once again took the lead in breaking the tense atmosphere.
"If you want cooperation so badly, sure, you go in first and scout the way." The leather-clad woman lifted her chin, gesturing.
"I just want cooperation, I'm not planning on sacrificing myself." Winifred sighed helplessly, then shrugged. "Then let's all go in together. We can't all just stand here deadlocked."
The interior of the camp was vast. Even though it had once been built into a memorial exhibition hall, it had now been abandoned for so long that only faint remnants of its past remained.
Peeling wall paint, shattered glass display cases, and unidentified stains visible everywhere all spoke of the place's dilapidation.
The emergency lights embedded in the ceiling were the only source of illumination.
The ten people seemed to have reached some unspoken agreement and began to silently disperse, gradually disappearing into the labyrinthine corridors and dilapidated rooms.
Being able to participate in the mixed-team competition meant they all had some means of self-preservation, more or less, and weren't particularly worried about exploring alone.
What made them more wary and guarded were actually the other players.
A rather capable-looking woman with dyed red curly hair shook her head as she passed by Winifred. "I really don't understand what you're thinking. Cooperation? In a place like this, trust is thinner than oxygen."
After saying this, she unhesitatingly chose a corridor leading to the exhibition hall on the right. The sound of her shoe soles hitting the floor was clear, and she soon vanished around a dim corner.
Winifred watched her retreating back and spread his hands. "Okay."
Looking left and right, he quickly caught up with the leather-clad woman who was examining a photo wall one by one.
"What is it?" The leather-clad woman glanced at Winifred, narrowing her eyes as she asked.
"What's your take on that Hua Nation player who withdrew from the competition?" Winifred didn't mind her cold, sharp attitude in the slightest, lowering his voice to inquire.
Clearly, he was intentionally avoiding the surveillance cameras in the corners.
The leather-clad woman's movements paused slightly. Instead of answering, she asked a question in return. "And what's your take?"
"Tsk." Winifred clicked his tongue. "How cautious, ma'am."
He scanned the inconspicuous shadows on the surrounding walls with the corner of his eye.
"Alright then, I'll state my position first. Don't you think that kid withdrew from the competition a bit too cleanly, too decisively?"
