The Trial Game of Life – Chapter 24

Table of Content | Character Guide

Chapter 24: Conquering Demon City (1)

Jin Cheng and Meng Yufei’s battle moved from mid-air to the top of the building, and from the top of the building to the long street, which all happened too fast for people to follow. The players who had been tagging with the team of four had scattered away for fear of being hit, but they couldn’t restrain their burning curiosity and still poked their heads out from the corners to look over.

It was now that Chi Yan and An Ning realised that the strength Jin Cheng had shown before wasn’t even close to his real ability.

Chi Yan put away the speaker and didn’t dare to talk any more, then moved to Tang Cuo’s side and stuttered: “Ge, just who is Cheng ge, how can be this strong?”

Tang Cuo: “You want to know?”

Chi Yan nodded frantically and An Ning also became all ears.

Tang Cuo: “Ask him yourself.”

“But…” Chi Yan couldn’t help but turn to cry to the dinosaur, looking so cringy that even An Ning wanted to hit him.

Tang Cuo asked a soul-crushing question, his face expressionless: “Aren’t you going to help?”

Chi Yan and An Ning both thought to themselves that the boss was already so powerful there was nothing they could help with, but Tang Cuo’s piercing gaze was equally powerful. Their hearts skipped a beat and they hurriedly got into position.

But Tang Cuo didn’t come forward. He put his hands in the pockets of his trench cold, still in his energy-saving mode. The most important thing was that he hadn’t any suitable weapons on hand, while the Survival Assessment Report was unlikely helpful in this situation.

At this point, the battle had moved far away from Tang Cuo. Jin Cheng’s silhouette flashed at the top of the tall tower in the distance, his sturdy figure picturesquely embedded in the luminous sphere behind him. He drew the bow then let go, and an arrow launched into the air like a shooting star, aiming straight for Meng Yufei’s face from a tricky angle.

Meng Yufei leaned back and dodged, one leg steadily hooked on the eaves of the tavern. He hung upside down like a bat and quickly turned sideways, avoiding the second arrow that quickly followed.

“Bang!” The metal arrow hit the tavern wall and blasted a big hole. Suddenly, smoke came up from everywhere, driving the drunkards inside to escape from the tavern.

Tang Cuo took a shortcut to approach the battlefield and watched carefully.

Meng Yufei was a swordsman, and Tang Cuo couldn’t tell his sword fighting style yet, but Jin Cheng’s arrows were obviously much stronger than those used in the dungeon. There was a faint silver light surrounding the arrow, its damage power very eminent.

Meng Yufei’s blade seemed to carry evil energy.

Getting closer, Tang Cuo saw that the blade resembled a scimita with blood grooves on it, which likely explained why a large pool of blood was left at the murder scene. Meng Yufei swung his blade very fast. Qian Wei’s sword had sword aura, and his blade also carried something similar ― a thin layer of dark red.

The important thing was that his blade could cut through Jin Cheng’s arrow.

This was the first time Tang Cuo saw a weapon capable of breaking Jin Cheng’s arrows.

Jin Cheng seemed to be a long-range archer, but the two had been keeping a relatively close distance from beginning to end. That mechanical bow could shoot arrows and could also be used as a handy weapon. With a “Click”, the spring bounced off and Jin Cheng broke the mechanical bow in its middle, separating it into two pieces ― which transformed into two scimitars.

In this circumstance of scimitar versus scimitar, even with different materials and different fighting styles, Jin Cheng was still better.

Because he had two of them.

Meng Yufei was able to block one, but he couldn’t block the second one and instantly suffered a bloody cut on his arm. Gritting his teeth, he backed away and stomped on the wall as if walking on a flat ground, completely deviating from gravity. His body twisted into a spooky angle as he turned around to block Jin Cheng’s arrow.

With another “Click”, Jin Cheng returned the longbow to its original shape and launched two more arrows, leaving Meng Yufei with no choice but to swiftly change his position.

The two of them were getting further and further away from the East Cross Street. Tang Cuo continued to take shortcuts and flexibly ran through various streets and alleys, closely following behind them.

Chi Yan and An Ning were closer than Tang Cuo. An Ning could occasionally shoot whatever she could conjure at Meng Yufei, while Chi Yan just produced some feeble attacks ― because after he made the first move, he realised that he couldn’t really do anything.

With this much blood rushing to his brain, he might unknowingly cause harm to other people.

But Chi Yan couldn’t do nothing either. His justice and brave heart didn’t allow him to do so, so he thought and thought, then took out the mini speaker.

“Hello? Hello? Is bald Meng Yufei there? Are you there?”

Meng Yufei was about to explode.

He brutally slashed at Jin Cheng, but was held back by Jin Cheng’s longbow. He was so angry that he hit again, pushing Jin Cheng half a step back.

“Give me back my assessment report!”

Jin Cheng smiled: “I gave it back to you long ago, did you forget?”

Meng Yufei certainly didn’t forget, but Jin Cheng had already memorised the content of the report. It wouldn’t be too bad if he just memorised everything, but he actually only remembered half of it, and the other half was added with whatever sauces and spices, making Meng Yufei into a most disgusting man. Meng Yufei knew he wasn’t a good man, but he wasn’t so wicked either.

“I intentionally killed Cheng Ke but you didn’t end up fighting. I don’t understand, Jin Cheng, why do you always have to go against me?” Meng Yufei paused and took a breath, staring at Jin Cheng with his intense, bloodshot eyes.

“Don’t you know this saying?” Without a care, Jin Cheng lifted his bow and pointed the arrow right between Meng Yufei’s eyebrows. “The villain always dies because he talks too much.”

Jin Cheng hated it when others blabbered when they fought with him. If there was something important, say it directly. Jin Cheng could never appreciate the awkward conversations that people could come up with when facing him. 

Meng Yufei: “You can’t kill me, Jin Cheng, I won’t let you win again.”

Jin Cheng: “You’re so annoying.”

Meng Yufei had gotten used to being provoked, so he just sneered and suddenly waved his blade. The blade shot forward for about half a meter, almost stabbing Jin Cheng.

Jin Cheng tilted to one side to avoid it, but a light whip suddenly appeared in Meng Yufei’s hand, and with a flip, a ball-shaped lightning fell out from the whip and struck at Jin Cheng with an indescribable speed.

“A lightning orb!” An Ning exclaimed with a dumbstruck expression on her face. This was a Skill, a card-type skill with a limit on the number of times it could be used. And this ‘Lightning Orb’ was clearly Cheng Ke’s trump card to save his life at a critical moment, but it was snatched by Meng Yufei.

But Jin Cheng simply moved up and down a few times, avoiding the lightning bolts without shedding a single sweat. People could only hear the sounds of “Crack” when the bolts hit the roofs and walls on both sides of the street and blasted deep holes into them.

The whole sky was as bright as day for a brief moment.

Jin Cheng was a little affected by the aftermath. Although he didn’t incur any injuries, the corners of his clothes were scorched and his elbows were tingling. It was also because of this wave of attacks that Meng Yufei could once again run away from him.

But Tang Cuo was running in the front.

Taking advantage of the time those two were fighting, he quietly made a detour and moved to the front, and as Meng Yufei came over, he immediately threw out the cleaver. “Dang ―” The cleaver was unsurprisingly blocked by Meng Yufei, but due to that pause, Jin Cheng could approach him from behind.

Meng Yufei stared at Tang Cuo with ferocious eyes, but he was forced to make a turn before he could attack Tang Cuo. Unknowingly, the battlefield moved from Zone F to the border of the central area.

From afar, the game hall was already in sight.

Meng Yufei quickly glanced through the entire area and sharply moved backwards, heading directly towards the game hall.

The central area wasn’t exactly a safe place. Players walking around saw the one figure chasing and one figure fleeing, but they were all too used to such a scene. But then some people recognised Jin Cheng’s face and exclamations quickly spread.

Some people recognised Jin Cheng, so some other people naturally recognised Meng Yufei.

“Hey, isn’t that the lunatic Meng Yufei?!”

“What?!”

Those who knew the inside story promptly explained to others that Meng Yufei, who was born crazy and cold-blooded, was a murderous lunatic that had run rampant in the low-ranking zones. The fact that Yong Ye City had no laws against killing made him even more out of control, and he earned points through killing all the way up to Zone C, until he crossed paths with Jin Cheng, who was punished back to Zone F.

He would never think that someone could level up faster than him, who then jumped zones in a flash and kicked him to jail. 

The first time he went to jail, he was released soon, but he wouldn’t expect to be hunted down by the whole city again. Meng Yufei was ranked 13th on the wanted order.

So he was killed by Jin Cheng again.

Once he came out, he was killed again. He spent more and more time in jail, and the punishment became heavier and heavier, until he was sent back to Zone F to start all over again.

This was his third release from prison.

He originally wanted to find ways to Zone A to take revenge and kill Jin Cheng, but he discovered that Jin Cheng was screwed back to Zone F again. Even the gods help me. So he came up with the idea of sending Cheng Ke to prison to cause Jin Cheng some trouble.

The trouble didn’t work out, and he was chased by Jin Cheng again.

Tang Cuo shuttled through the crowd, paying attention to all the whispers ringing in his ear while quickly approaching the game hall. As he looked up, Meng Yufei passed through right before him and Jin Cheng followed closely behind.

He didn’t rush to follow, rather, he looked around and stood beside the mission wall.

“Jin Cheng, I said I would never let you win again, that the next time I saw you, you would die!” Meng Yufei stood on the top of a claw machine, laughly grimly. Finishing his words, he flicked another lightning orb.

This was the central area with people in all corners, so Meng Yufei dared to launch a grand attack here to cause damage to other people. Of course, the irritable players in other zones wouldn’t let him go.

In a blink, the entire game hall was in a mess.

Various attacks blended with the erupted lights and Jin Cheng instantly lost track of Meng Yufei. He couldn’t hear Meng Yufei’s voice anymore in the chaos. After checking one round, he met Tang Cuo’s eyes.

Tang Cuo tilted his head in the direction of the mission wall.

Jin Cheng raised his eyebrows and instantly caught up. He knew what Tang Cuo meant but he disagreed with the idea, however, when he wanted to grab Tang Cuo, the other man had already slipped inside.

Jin Cheng had to follow after him. The moment he entered the mission wall, without any delay, the system announcement came up.

“Ding ―”

“Congratulations to the players for starting the mission [Conquering Demon City]. There are twelve players in this game. The goal is ― to survive for three hours! Personal rewards will be issued according to the final ranking!”

“Happy surviving!”

As Jin Cheng restored his eyesight, incredibly loud cheers rushed into his eardrums.

Jin Cheng ignored them and immediately searched for Tang Cuo, finally finding him about 100 meters away. The two of them were separated by one, two, three, four, five, six, seven people, looking at each other from afar.

Tang Cuo turned his head away silently.

“Where are you looking?” For a rare time, Jin Cheng pouted. Even though he was so far away, his voice still reached Tang Cuo without any hindrance, making Tang Cuo unable to ignore him.

Tang Cuo had to turn his head again, his face unflinching.

Jin Cheng: “Do you always have to oppose me?”

Tang Cuo: “Yes.”

Jin Cheng almost exploded.

Qian Wei, who was standing next to him, was also so angry that he wanted to hit his head on the ground. Seeing the two bosses acting as though they hadn’t seen him at all and even flirting with each other from afar, he became even angrier: “Big brothers! I ask you, why did you come in again???”

Jin Cheng raised his eyebrows: “You have an opinion?”

I don’t dare to have any opinions, but I want to break down already!

Qian Wei particularly broke down because after Peng Mingfan and he exited the dungeon [On A Snowy Night, He Returns], they both agreed that although the bosses were powerful, being in the same dungeon with them carried too much risk. At least the dungeons they had encountered previously weren’t so difficult, so they deliberately waited for another day before picking up the next mission. Yet they ended up coinciding with the bosses again!

They believed that these powerful bosses would either directly jump into another mission to level up to Zone E or rest for a few days, but who would expect that they also came here?

Who would expect that!

When Qian Wei and Peng Mingfan entered the mission wall, Meng Yufei and Jin Cheng hadn’t yet reached the game hall. They were pretty relaxed players and didn’t have on hand such intelligence like An Ning, so they didn’t know that Cheng Jin in the dungeon was Jin Cheng from East Cross Street. They only thought that things would be normal this time and they could proceed to Zone E by doing another mission. Who would know that after they waited in the mission wall for a few minutes, with a “Ding” sound, entering the dungeon were ―

You two again???

Meng Yufei broke down even worse than Qian Wei. He looked left and right and almost had a heart attack upon seeing Jin Cheng and Tang Cuo. If he still didn’t understand his circumstance at the moment, he might as well go die.

He didn’t know Tang Cuo, but he had been attacked by this man on the way to the game hall. It was because of his attack that Meng Yufei was forced to change his route and ended up in the central area.

Thinking about it carefully, Jin Cheng was also consciously chasing him to the central area, so perhaps it was also Jin Cheng’s idea to force him to enter the game hall.

What could you do after getting into the game hall? Anyone with a little bit of brain could figure that entering the dungeon could help him escape from the chase. The dungeon in Zone F was less dangerous than Jin Cheng, and Meng Yufei had absolutely no doubt about his ability to handle the dungeon.

But Jin Cheng and his accomplice also came in. Why did they?

To kill him for good.

People who were killed in Yong Ye City wouldn’t actually die, but they would in the dungeon.

Sure enough, Meng Yufei looked at Jin Cheng and Jin Cheng looked back at him with his arms folded, the corner of his mouth tugged up as he announced: “You’re dead.”

Jin Cheng wasn’t in a great mood. He had asked Tang Cuo to cooperate with him to force Meng Yufei into the dungeon, but he didn’t intend to have Tang Cuo follow inside. He had warned Tang Cuo earlier that it wasn’t a good time to enter any dungeons, but Tang Cuo just wouldn’t listen.

Because of that, Meng Yufei unknowingly added one more crime to his record.

At this time, the noise around him intensified, finally interrupting the blazing tension among the players and bringing everyone’s attention back to the game.

A little red demon with a long horn on its head and wings on its back flew above the crowd, wearing a suit and speaking passionately into the microphone in his hand: “Welcome to the annual competition of Demon City’s pets! This time, there are twelve adult pets in total, labelled from No. 1 to No. 12. You can cheer for your favorite pet as much as you want!” 

Cheers broke through the clouds.

Tang Cuo looked around. They were standing on an unusually wide and extremely rugged track. The track wasn’t straight, with many curves and slopes ahead. The black houses on both sides resembled building blocks that were randomly stacked up, looking weird and out of place. These houses were full of irregular windows that looked like odd-shaped eyes, behind which were densely packed with strange creatures. They had long horns on their heads, many fangs in their mouth and thick hair all over their bodies, like tons of slimes in all shapes and sizes creeping on the walls.

These monsters were calling out to them with all sorts of bizarre noises and languages.

In this competition of Demon City’s pets, the contestants were the twelve players. This was exactly Yong Ye City’s favourite doing: humans liked to burn forests, so let’s make humans into firewood, or humans liked to keep pets, so let’s make them into pets ― such a disgustingly malicious move.

At this moment, the twelve players were lined up on the wide track, with an equal distance between each player. Tang Cuo stood at the first position from the right, and as he was about to walk a few steps to the left, an invisible barrier stopped him.

Twelve players, twelve tracks, each not connected to each other.

There was a number ‘12’ written in red on the ground, which should be the track number. Tang Cuo glanced through the players one by one; Meng Yufei was on track No. 8 and Peng Mingfan was right next to him, on No. 7.

Qian Wei was on No. 5 and Jin Cheng was on No. 4.

The rest of the tracks were all unfamiliar players, and for now it was impossible to determine if they knew each other.

The little red demon patrolled over their heads for a moment and held up the starting pistol with a satisfying look on his face: “I’m sure everyone has been looking forward to this for a long time, and you must have gotten the first impression of the participating pets. Please choose your favourite cutie well. Without further nonsense, let them pets start the first round ― the Amazing Obstacle Course Race!”

“Bang!”

“The race begins!”