Qi Xia ran along the road, inwardly cursing several times.

He kept feeling that these black threads had something suspicious about them. They had fallen between everyone at the prison entrance, then began pursuing people from all directions, causing him to immediately become separated from Qiao Jiajin, Chen Junnan, and “Cat.”

Now he was running alone through the streets. From time to time, he would also see some other participants desperately fleeing for their lives. Everyone was in a state of panic. Some people’s bodies were even covered in blood, as if they had already lost their teammates.

The streets were littered with fresh corpses. These bodies looked extremely strange in death—aside from the skulls remaining connected, the bodies had been cut open neatly, like individual clamps.

When passing through an intersection, Qi Xia ran while looking back. The black thread pursuing him stretched all along the road, hovering about one and a half meters above the ground. No matter how far he ran, the trace of where the black thread had pursued always remained suspended in midair.

“This…” Qi Xia looked at the black thread hovering behind him. Although the speed wasn’t fast, he seemed to have thought of something.

The danger of the ‘Pegasus Moment’ wasn’t just the pursuit of these black threads.

This thought had barely emerged when he saw a young man in the distance being driven by a black thread, running out from the other side of the intersection.

Perhaps he was somewhat too panicked and hadn’t clearly seen the black thread that had once pursued Qi Xia, now lying horizontally before his eyes. Or perhaps it was because this thread was only as thick as a hair strand, making it difficult for a normal person to detect.

Whichever the case, this young man charged straight toward the black thread lying across before him. Before Qi Xia could open his mouth to stop him, after three or five steps, the man’s head slowly fell to the ground, while his body continued forward several more steps due to inertia before finally collapsing by the roadside like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

The thread pursuing behind that man also intersected at this moment with Qi Xia’s thread in a straight perpendicular state. The two threads connected together like a spider web being woven, simultaneously blocking both the horizontal and vertical roads.

Having witnessed this scene, Qi Xia could already imagine what the situation would be like after more than an hour into the ‘Pegasus Moment.’

Now it wasn’t simply a matter of trying to maintain distance from the thread behind oneself—one also had to pay attention to the routes other people had fled along. Once there was a thread suspended in midair that wasn’t discovered by oneself, it would be very easy to die without knowing why.

Routes that others had fled through could no longer be traveled. This was a desperate flight with no way to turn back.

The more participants who survived, the more dangerous everyone’s situation would become.

Qi Xia constantly looked back at the black thread that belonged to him. Its speed was indeed not fast. A normal person jogging slowly shouldn’t be caught by it. Now the only problem was how long he could persist during such prolonged slow jogging.

This game was probably different from any game Qi Xia had participated in before. His “brain” was completely no longer applicable. All of his attention now was entirely focused on regulating his breathing.

Qi Xia let out a deep sigh. After all, this game didn’t require worrying about the entire “Cat” team at all, nor did it require worrying about Qiao Jiajin and Chen Junnan at all. No matter how he thought about it, their chances of survival would be higher than his own.

“Need to run toward open areas…”

Qi Xia determined his direction. If he continued rushing about in the intricate and complex city, his probability of death would presumably be ridiculously high. So he deliberately chose a direction, leading his black thread to run toward the outskirts of the city.

The ‘Pegasus Moment’ had already been ongoing for nearly ten minutes. At this time, there were already continuous bell sounds ringing all around. Whether these people’s ‘Echo’ triggers were being near death, being injured, or witnessing the death of teammates, they were all being forced to awaken their abilities, and they would also clearly remember this ‘Pegasus Moment’ and their own miserable state when they died.

After turning several street corners, Qi Xia saw a small five or six-story building. Qi Xia didn’t stop his pace, but from far away he saw Earth-Tiger standing at the entrance of the small low building.

“You…” Earth-Tiger stood in front of his game venue and saw Qi Xia from far away.

The two people’s gazes crossed for an instant. Qi Xia discovered that Earth-Tiger’s face actually had injuries. The white tiger fur was stained with quite a bit of dark red blood traces, and even one of his fangs had been broken off.

“My ‘needle’…” Seeing Earth-Tiger’s appearance, Qi Xia immediately confirmed the thought in his heart.

He had previously speculated that he had planted a “needle” among the ‘Zodiac,’ but he hadn’t been completely certain. However, Earth-Tiger’s appearance this time added some confidence for Qi Xia.

His “needle” was in action, only it didn’t look like things were going too smoothly.

But right now he didn’t have time to communicate more with Earth-Tiger. Not only could they be monitored at any time, but the ‘Pegasus Moment’ was also imminent.

Earth-Tiger scratched the wound on his face, then looked at the black thread behind Qi Xia. Only then did he figure out why business was so dismal today.

“Damn, is this a Heaven-level moment?” He raised his head to look at the sun in the sky, with an ambiguous smile as he said, “I thought this hellish place could finally have a cloudy day. I didn’t expect them to strike this hard.”

“Earth-Tiger…” Qi Xia opened his mouth. His breathing, which he had managed to stabilize with difficulty, was nearly disrupted. He hastily ran a few quick steps, pulling away the distance between himself and the black thread in a short time, arriving before Earth-Tiger, then gasping for breath in large gulps.

“Sheep…” Earth-Tiger was just about to open his mouth to call Qi Xia, but felt something wasn’t right. He then pressed his lips together and said, “Can you make it?”

“I’m not certain…” Qi Xia worked hard to steady his breathing. “This kind of game that affects everyone is somewhat unreasonable for me…”

“I…”

Earth-Tiger thought for a long time, simply not knowing what attitude he should use to treat the person before him. He was clearly his “Brother Sheep,” but now he looked like a “participant” who could die in the game at any moment. He organized his wording for quite some time before slowly opening his mouth to say: “I’m doing it.”

“Doing what?” Qi Xia looked coldly at Earth-Tiger.

“Doing what you once wanted me to do.” Earth-Tiger answered.

This brief sentence swept away all of Qi Xia’s doubts.

The identities of the other “needles” weren’t certain, but Earth-Tiger was definitely one “needle” he had once trusted the most.

“But I feel you’re being somewhat reckless…” Qi Xia stared at the injuries on Earth-Tiger’s face and said, “Is this matter more difficult than you imagined?”

“Yes, it is indeed somewhat difficult, but…” Earth-Tiger originally wanted to say something, but saw that the black thread behind Qi Xia was already flying closer and closer. “Next time then. Don’t die this time. I’ll wait here for you to return.”

Qi Xia became aware of something and looked back. The black thread he had shaken off in a short time was already less than ten meters away from him.

“Troublesome…”

Qi Xia cursed under his breath with furrowed brows, then gave Earth-Tiger a meaningful look. The two tacitly nodded at each other, and then Qi Xia ran toward the distance again.