The Trial Game of Life – Chapter 166

Table of Contents | Character Guide

Chapter 166: The Revelation

Time went back to half an hour ago. In the game hall, Chi Yan, Qian Wei and Peng Mingfan quietly retreated to a corner near the mission wall. They looked at those players who were still on edge and marvelled in sheer admiration.

“The big boss is really the big boss. This is a masterclass move —” Qian Wei searched up and down his head and could only find one word: “Awesome!”

Chi Yan was very proud: “That’s my Tang ge and Cheng ge!”

But Peng Mingfan was rather calm. He glanced at the two boys who were all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. The moment their excitement reached its peak, he poured cold water on them: “Say it louder! Everyone will know that the big boss’s underlings are all here.”

Chi Yan & Qian Wei: “…”

Peng Mingfan: “Are we still heading to the dungeon?”

Chi Yan and Qian Wei looked at each other and nodded. They had originally come here to enter a dungeon, and this was the third time since they became a team.

Their speed in clearing dungeons wasn’t slower than Tang Cuo and Jin Cheng’s, but because the difficulty of the dungeons was different, they ended up leaving the dungeon at a different time from Tang Cuo and never met him again. Chi Yan guessed that his Tang ge might’ve come out of the dungeon, but he was already at the game hall right now, so there was no need to go back to see him.

If he did so, Peng Mingfan would surely push up his glasses and ask: “So, are you still breastfeeding?”

Because of the shenanigans that happened prior, such as Scarlet’s incident and Meng Yufei’s affair, the three teenagers were very determined to bump up their strength. Without saying much, they immediately entered the mission wall, but for quite some time, they couldn’t get into the dungeon.

“Huh?” Chi Yan looked around suspiciously, but the mission wall was completely black and it was impossible to see anything. He could only wait.

The wait lasted for half an hour. Chi Yan was scratching his head and beginning to rehearse ‘Little Chi Yan’s 101st way to die’ in his mind when the familiar system announcement finally came.

“Ding!”

“Congratulations to the player for starting the mission [Taoyuan Town]. This mission is a massively multi-player confrontational survival game. Number of participants in the game: 500.”

“There is no time limit for this mission. To clear the game, you have to reach the endpoint.”

“Happy surviving!”

Chi Yan was dumbfounded.

Wasn’t he personally named by Cheng ge as the next generation of Extreme Luck? What the heck was a massively multi-player confrontational survival game? What the heck did it mean by ‘500 participants’?

Looking left and right, Chi Yan found himself in a dormitory room full of junk.

A dormitory? A bed, a TV, a shabby table with an induction cooker and a microwave oven, and a cheap flush toilet covered by a not-so-clean plastic curtain. All these things were crammed into one room. No matter how he looked at it, it was surely a dormitory.

“Tick, tick…” The faucet in this dormitory room was broken.

The room was dimly lit. Hearing the sound, Chi Yan thought he had gotten into a supernatural dungeon. He was the only one in the room. He called Qian Wei and Peng Mingfan’s names several times, but there was no response.

He opened the door carefully to see what was happening outside. As soon as his hand touched the door handle, he spotted a promotional poster pasted on the door panel.

[Taoyuan Town’s New Year Sports Day has commenced!

We request all residents to immediately bring the necessary items and head to Taoyuan Town Grand Theater at the town center. The first three people to arrive will receive a very precious gift!

To make Sports Day more exciting, the town mayor has specifically added a new way of playing in this New Year Sports Day…]

“Huh? Why does this look so much like a dungeon introduction?” Chi Yan muttered to himself and continued reading.

[The entire Taoyuan Town has been turned into a chessboard of 3,000 x 3,000 grids. All contestants must move within the grids according to the game rules. The rules are as follows:

1. The chessboard is divided into white, green, blue and red patches, which consume 1, 2, 3 and 5 grids respectively. When the contestant’s grid count reaches zero, or the grid count is not enough to advance to the next grid, he cannot move.

2. Grids are obtained through clearing missions or PK1Short for ‘Player Kill’, this usually refers to a player versus player conflict in MMORPGs..

3. Green indicates a safe grid, where fighting is prohibited.

4. Red indicates a killing grid, where punishments and rewards are doubled.

5. Blue indicates a random teleportation grid.

6. Every hour, the contestant will automatically get one grid number.

7. Please check your phone at any time as red envelopes may be dropped from time to time.

8. Each contestant initially has 10 grids.

“What the heck… What is this?” Chi Yan didn’t have time to think about it. Hastily, he opened the door and looked outside. In the cramped, narrow courtyard, the sky outside also seemed narrow.

The department store and TV tower in the distance had cut the sky apart, while the most conspicuous thing was the virtual screens that were stretching both vertically and horizontally. Carrying blocks of blue, red, green, as well as a faint shade of milky white, they extended from the ground all the way to the clouds, neatly dividing the entire town into grids.

The dormitory was located inside a white grid. Judging from the distance between the virtual screens, each grid was about 20 x 20 meters in size.

As Chi Yan opened the door, the other tenants in the dormitory also pushed their doors open. Everyone looked at each other, and a few seconds later, they slammed the door shut again.

Qian Wei and Peng Mingfan weren’t here; perhaps they ended up somewhere else. One thing was certain: they entered the mission wall at the same time and waited inside for half an hour, so they must’ve gotten into the same dungeon.

Thinking of this, Chi Yan’s heart calmed down a little and he began to think hard about his current situation.

500 players were scattered around the city and would rush to the theater at the town center from different locations. Planning a reasonable route was the key to victory. But the problem with this dungeon was that its mechanism was PK, which meant he might encounter many troubles along the way and even have to detour.

Chi Yan thought of the phone mentioned in the game rules and searched the room. He finally found an iPhone under his pillow. It was a new model that hadn’t been released when he died. Feeling a little excited, he held onto the super slim chance of his call going through and dialled his mother’s number. But the line was busy.

Sadness crushed him in an instant and Chi Yan almost couldn’t hold back his tears.

Luckily, he was a contestant with a heart of steel. With some mumbling, he wiped away his tears and soon became a brave young man again. He checked his phone once more to find out that except for not being able to make calls and connect to the external network, he could communicate within Taoyuan Town.

Taoyuan Town had its own app that published the latest news about the town and organised dedicated chat rooms. Functioning like a combination of WeChat and forums, it featured a number of public accounts, group chats and posts.

Chi Yan quickly glanced over. Even though there were 500 contestants, there were 1,001 people in the group chat. At the moment, some quick-hand, undaunted people had already posted messages in the group chat. However, everyone spoke anonymously and there was no way to tell their true identities.

What a headache.

What a huge headache.

Chi Yan thought of the neighbours he had seen in the courtyard just now, then thought about the fact that there were more than 500 people in the group chat, which made his headache feel even worse. Not to mention, Taoyuan Town looked pretty large and prosperous from the outside. Players were scattered throughout the city and started from different locations, but why was he assigned to this poor slum?

Why？？？

Wasn’t he the chosen one?

For the first time, Chi Yan doubted his luck. He couldn’t figure it out no matter how hard he squeezed his brain, so he gave up and went back to the door to check the rules of the game. Since the rules said “We request all residents to immediately bring the necessary items”, did it mean they had to make use of local resources?

He glanced around. What could he take away from this shabby dormitory room?

Based on the principle that ‘a thief never left empty-handed’, ah no, ‘never wasted anything’, from the plain-looking wardrobe, Chi Yan pulled out a snakeskin bag that was often used during the New Year travel rush and hurriedly stuffed a lot of items into it.

A change of clothes, instant noodles, phone chargers, flashlights, et cetera, anything he thought would be useful. Take them all, sweep them all.

About 15 minutes later, movements were finally heard in the run-down courtyard of this slum. Carefully, a player opened the door inch-by-inch, and what he saw was Chi Yan donning a mask and a hat, carrying a large snakeskin bag as he quietly snuck out. It was as if he was running away from something.

The player went silent for a moment, then he glanced at the backpack he had just packed, pondered for a moment and decided to go back and stuff more things into it. After all — it was always better to be prepared.

As soon as Chi Yan stepped out and saw the scene, he was stupefied.

The narrow alley that could only accommodate one person led to two grids, a blue patch on the left, which consumed 3 grids, and a red patch on the right, which consumed 5 grids. Random teleportation or killing – he must choose either. Chi Yan currently had 10 grids.

Sob.

All this ‘extreme luck’ must be fake.

He couldn’t help but pull out his phone and take a look at the group chat. An unknown user named Koala had dropped more than a dozen messages to all the anonymous teammates.

Koala: @Followers Little brother, are you there?

Koala: @Followers Little brother, are you there?

Koala: @Followers Little brother, are you there?

……

Koala: If you get this, please reply.

My brothers!

I’m here!

The scene switched back to Yong Ye City. When Chi Yan was trying to exchange secret codes with Peng Mingfan and Qian Wei, Leng Miao, who had come out of Zone A, was also walking towards the game hall.

But he stopped halfway, turned around and walked to the big post office in the central area to send a letter to Rong Yi. He told Rong Yi that he would go into a dungeon for now, so there was no need to look for him.

Rong Yi was still telling Jin Cheng and Tang Cuo the matters surrounding Zheng Yingying and, of course, Lin Yandong.

Jin Cheng drank the freshly brewed coffee, his face deep in thought. Tang Cuo’s face, on the other hand, was dark and full of annoyance, for he had been disturbed in his sleep. The dark air lingered in the air, as though it could suddenly kill people any second now.

Luckily, Rong Yi was able to sit still as calmly and steadily as a rock.

“At this rate, it’ll only be a matter of time before all the [Twelve Movements] are discovered.” Jin Cheng finally concluded: “No, maybe they’ve already been discovered, but we just don’t know it yet.”

Tang Cuo folded his arms and said nothing, while Rong Yi creased his eyebrows.

Jin Cheng continued: “Lilith, Yu Yiyi and Ji Ning are in a dungeon. Zheng Yingying and Jiang He are also in a dungeon. Even Chi Yan and Wen Xiaoming are in a dungeon. It means there’s a possibility of getting the movement. The time to clear a dungeon could range from a few hours to a few days. For a lengthy dungeon, it may even take up to several months. We can’t just sit here and wait for death.”

Rong Yi: “What do you mean?”

Jin Cheng: “There’s a movement in Zone G. The reason we took Leng Miao there last time was partly because of it. But then we ran into the [Realm of Humans] dungeon and had to leave with haste, so in the end, we couldn’t get any exact information from Xiao Tong. You go get it now.”

Rong Yi: “Why don’t you go by yourselves?”

Jin Cheng shrugged: “Because I don’t have time.”

Such reasoning was truly phenomenal. Rong Yi looked at Tang Cuo helplessly, hoping that he would say something, but this guy just closed his eyes and fell on the sofa, his whole body exuding a lack of support.

Rong Yi knew that they must be busy with the serial dungeon, because K had revealed it to him. However, he couldn’t mention it because Jin Cheng and Tang Cuo hadn’t discussed it with him in detail.

“Are you really not worried that I’ll just take the movement and go my own way?” Rong Yi asked.

Jin Cheng shook his head. Casually feeding Tang Cuo a chocolate bean, he looked at Rong Yi and said: “You can’t be serious. We’ve never been a team. If you want to join us, why not use the 2nd Movement as a stepping stone? I totally can accept this gift, with open arms even.”

Rong Yi: “I can’t give it to you now.”

Jin Cheng raised an eyebrow: “Can you do that in the future?”

Rong Yi paused. Completely disregarding the question, he said: “Do you know what kind of person the leader of the team that killed God was?”

“We’re listening.”

“In the story I read, his name was Yan Yun, his ID was 甲00109, and he was a very charismatic man, just like you.”

Tang Cuo opened his eyes. It seemed he had heard someone complimenting his boyfriend’s charisma right in front of him.

Jin Cheng didn’t notice, for his mind was focused on one single word: “甲2Pronounced [jia]. In simplest terms, think of it as a particle used to indicate a random subject.?”

Rong Yi nodded: “It should be the numbering system that was used before they switched to the English alphabet. His time was much earlier than Lin Yandong’s, so it’s not surprising that they used a different numbering system.”

Jin Cheng didn’t say anything else, simply gesturing for him to continue.

Rong Yi: “What I want to tell you is a story that reveals the truth. The dagger in question is [The Nameless Blade], which was Yan Yun’s weapon. After obtaining the Golden Movement and getting a sight of God, he found a way to hide the dagger in a book and had the thought of killing God under the pretext of offering the book.”

Hearing this, Tang Cuo was fully wide awake: “A book? What book?”

Rong Yi: “A book of fairy tales.”

[Fairy Tales of Sicilit]. This book’s name popped up in Tang Cuo and Jin Cheng’s minds almost at the same time. If there was any fairy tale book in Yong Ye City that could be of sufficient significance, it must be this one.

But the two remained unflinching. Jin Cheng even asked: “Why would he offer a book to God? Is there anything special about this book?”

“I don’t know either, because I only saw the result and not the cause.” Rong Yi said.

“Then why are you telling us this?”

“What I wanted to focus on isn’t the book, but Yan Yun. The original intention of that team was to kill God, destroy Yong Ye City and put an end to everything. But in the end, he changed his original intention — he didn’t simply want to kill God; he wanted to become God’s replacement. When the truth was exposed, it wasn’t only his killing intent that was brought to light, but also his desire.”

Hearing this, the corner of Jin Cheng’s lips tugged up with a hint of amusement. Giving him a scrutinising look, Rong Yi asked: “What about you? You went to great lengths to fight for the movement and establish a safe zone at East Cross Street. Is your true motive the former, or the latter?”