Chapter 67 - 56. Life Roulette

"Haven’t you seen the notice in the group? Mu Shen is holding a concert at the sports center tonight!" "What the heck?!" "Mu Shen just entered the top ten of the National Spiritual Song Competition yesterday. Now it’s the rest period before the next round, and since today is the Music Festival, she’s collaborated with the school to hold a concert." Mushroom stuffed the costume into Xia Feng’s hands, urging excitedly, "Hurry up and put on this cosplay outfit. Mu Shen said she’s also a fan of the Black Spade Venerable, and she specially made the tickets look like these masks. Today’s concert is exclusively for the Peach Organization." Xia Feng stared blankly as he took the clothes, his mind full of question marks. What on earth is the Destructive Witch up to now? Wasn’t she supposed to be striving to improve her power? Why is she still participating in the Spiritual Song Competition? Xia Feng had a feeling she was up to something big, but he couldn’t figure out what it was despite thinking hard. Divine Study class ended quickly, and a bunch of students scattered immediately. "Let’s go, let’s go~" Mushroom excitedly pulled Xia Feng along with the crowd out of the classroom, but once outside the venue, Xia Feng’s expression turned sharp, and he suddenly stopped. "What’s wrong?" Mushroom looked back, puzzled. Xia Feng’s face looked a bit off: "You go ahead, I feel... my stomach’s not great." "Ah?" "Don’t ’ah’ me, just go on, hurry. I need to hit the restroom first." Xia Feng urged, pushing her towards the inner area, then quickly turned and made his way to a teaching building. Of course, it wasn’t that his stomach was really upset—it was the Forest Wand... something was wrong with it! A message was transmitted into his mind from the Forest Wand. [The Second Round Evolution Stage is about to start.] [Teleportation countdown: 3 minutes] [....] A flood of information rushed into his mind, and Xia Feng was dazed momentarily but then understood—there was a teleportation mark linked to a Different Space on the Forest Wand. Once the time came, the mark would activate and transport him into that Different Space. And in that Different Space, a mysterious game would take place. Xia Feng pondered for a moment, then with a thought, the dark green Forest Wand materialized and fell into his palm. "Disconnect and copy." During his thought process, his connection with the Forest Wand vanished but, as there was no substitute Spiritual Artifact, it reconnected automatically the next second. But Xia Feng wasn’t disappointed; instead, his eyes brightened. According to the rules, the teleportation judgment was instantaneous. If he could sever his connection with the Forest Wand at the moment of summoning, the teleportation would judge the Forest Wand’s owner as dead and stop the summoning. However, looking at the information just poured into his mind, the game seemed not too dangerous—at least the current stage wasn’t dangerous, and it appeared there were benefits to be gained. After thinking it over, he decided to go in and check out the situation first. The Forest Wand started the countdown. [2, 1....] Just as he entered the restroom, the surroundings instantly blurred and turned into myriad colored pixels flying towards him. The blinding light made him subconsciously close his eyes. When the dizziness in his brain subsided, Xia Feng opened his eyes in confusion. "What the heck is this...." He was enveloped in complete darkness. Suddenly, a dim light appeared in front of him, and only then did he realize there was a strange control panel before him. He stepped forward. A softly glowing panel was embedded in the center of the control panel, thick stacks of cards lay next to it, and there was a dark gold card slot in the upper right corner. The panel was sleek, with a dark red ◬ symbol spinning continuously clockwise in the center. Xia Feng tentatively pressed it, and the panel flashed. [Player number: 10] [Identity: Ace Black Card] [Game Stage: Second Round Evolution Stage] [Remaining card count: 16] [Remaining Life Points: 9] It looked like some sort of card game? Could it be some strange Calamity Realm? Xia Feng’s heart was full of doubts. Just then, He looked up at the sound, and dim lights began to illuminate one by one in front and to his sides, thirty-six beams of light forming a very large circle with his position in the center. Xia Feng narrowed his eyes, and under the glow of the dim light, he could barely discern thirty-six platforms, each about two meters in diameter, with vague figures standing atop them. Puzzled, he looked down and indeed, beneath his feet was also a platform, though "platform" wasn’t quite accurate—it was actually a column that seemed bottomless. He leaned over to look down at the sides beneath him, it was pitch black like an abyss, and standing at the edge gave a very insecure feeling. There was no time to think further, he quickly opened the panel in search of a detailed rule explanation. Just then, In the center of the circle formed by the thirty-seven platforms, a spotlight shone down, revealing a mysterious figure dressed in an elegant tailcoat, wearing a top hat and a pure black mask. seaʀᴄh thё novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. In the center of the pure black mask was also a dark red ◬ symbol, and a clear male voice emanated from the mask, high-spirited, "Welcome back, ladies and gents, now for the second evolution stage, the skill cards for this round are.... the reality skill cards are....." As Xia Feng listened to the man speaking, he quickly browsed through the specific rules. This was a reality survival game called [Life Roulette]. There were 37 players in the field, each with identities that could counter each other. Killing a targeted player who was vulnerable to one’s own identity would grant Life Points. Life Points were the criteria for determining victory or defeat, and also served as currency within the game—you could buy skill cards during the evolution stage (auction stage), which could help players gain more Life Points in subsequent stages. At the end of the game, the player with the highest Life Points would win the grand prize. Seeming uninteresting, with high risk and uncertain returns, Xia Feng found it rather dull and shook his head, looking at his own Life Points: 9. Each player started with 20 Life Points, obviously Yan Xujia had done some operation as there were fully eleven points missing. "Game Skill Card—Bloodthirst: The player who obtains this skill....." As the referee finished speaking, voices began to shout bids from various platforms in the distance, this skill clearly very popular. The final price was bid up to 9 Life Points directly, Xia Feng glanced at the 9 points in his account again, the corner of his eye twitching slightly, damn, were these people all so rich.... "..." "Reality Skill Card—Spiritual Material: Jupiter Flower, 11 points once—twice—" "Bang!" the man in the central mask hammered down, "Sold, congratulations to player number 11 for spending 11 points to obtain the Jupiter Flower." The Jupiter Flower seemed to be a material for Wood Element Spirit Masters to advance to Second Order, Xia Feng thought in surprise, who would have thought you could actually buy rare real-world materials here? It was well known that it was difficult for Spirit Masters with a leaning towards the Wood Element to advance because two of the materials—the Jupiter Flower and the Wood Evil Spirit—were very rare and hard to procure. Miss Mu was a Wood Element Spirit Master, and he wondered if she had managed to obtain these materials. As Xia Feng pondered, several different Elemental Spiritual materials appeared one after another, and there was even a C-rank Spiritual Clothes! Xia Feng wasn’t very interested, but according to the introduction of the game rules, as the rounds progressed, the skill cards that appeared would be even more powerful, even including B-rank and even A-rank Spiritual Clothes, which was outrageous. "Evolution stage over, now entering the trade phase, please note, everyone has only thirty minutes of free trade time~" With the referee’s playful tone falling, Xia Feng found a new icon unlocked in the bottom right corner of the panel—the Trade Room. Following the rules, players could initiate trade requests to the targeted player number, and after agreeing, they could teleport into the Trade Room for secret negotiations. Xia Feng stroked his chin and fell into thought; trade information was very important in this game. That’s because among the 37 players, there were counter relationships between identities that only the players themselves knew. The identities were divided into three suits: red, yellow, and blue. Red could prey on yellow, yellow on blue, and blue on red, forming a cyclical hunt. Each color identity had twelve cards, each further categorized according to the twelve zodiac animals: rat, ox, tiger....dog, pig, in order, with each preying on the ensuing animal to gain Life Points. The zodiac cycle connected from head to tail also formed a cycle of hunt. For instance, [Red Rat]could triumph in hunting down [Red Ox] and then obtain Life Points. If [Red Ox] turned around to prey on [Red Rat], it would result in defeat, deducting Life Points, also inadvertently giving Life Points to [Red Rat]. The above were the 36 identity cards, but there were 37 players. This was because there was a very special identity card—the [Ace of Black Spade]. The Ace of Black Spade could hunt anyone and was also vulnerable to being hunted by anyone, with no counter relationships! So, having this identity card was extremely dangerous; once the identity was exposed, one would become a target for all. Xia Feng looked at his own identity card and thought, mmp. [Ace of Black Spade] Just very f*cked up, what a hellish start. Yan Xujia’s luck was unmatched, but luckily, Xia Feng had the option not to enter this cursed game next time. However, before that, he had to properly understand the game and prepare on both fronts, as he vaguely felt..... There might be a major BUG with this game under the influence of his Golden Finger?