She finally understood what that spark of excitement from earlier had stemmed from.

In this tense and terrifying game, she suppressed her racing heartbeat with excitement, and that was because… because here, she was no longer a person with a deficiency. To a certain degree, she was the same as them, equal to them.

In fact, she might even be a little bit higher than them.

Because she had already vaguely figured out how to clear the game.

The pitiful little thing who was discriminated against in reality, overlooked, had no sense of presence, and wasn’t qualified to voice opinions—she had actually found a sense of belonging in an absurd nightmare of a game. This was truly an ironic thing.

Bai Youwei suddenly understood those thugs’ arrogance.

Although at the time she had been very disdainful of their behavior and looked down on them, she had to admit that this feeling of holding power was truly wonderful. Probably few people could resist it.

She lowered her eyes to look at her palm, slowly clenching it, then slowly opening it again.

There was nothing there. She stared at it blankly.

While she was in a daze, Shen Mo and Tan Xiao returned.

Both men were dragging a body full of mud, their hair also covered in layers of mud slurry—disheveled, exhausted, their expressions solemn.

Even Tan Xiao, that careless fellow, had put away his joking face, saying to Shen Mo with a pained expression: “Damn it, the time given is way too short. What can you do in 20 seconds? Not even enough to take a piss! I only dug one hole before time was up!”

Shen Mo said nothing. He lowered his head to check Bai Youwei’s legs. After confirming she was unharmed, he turned to Tan Xiao and said: “3 minutes.”

Tan Xiao blinked, looking completely confused: “…Huh? What 3 minutes?”

“He’s talking about the frog’s time.”

Someone else chimed in from the side—it was the original leader, Zhang Hua.

He had just climbed out of the snail shell, leaning against the snail and gasping for breath. With an expressionless face, he said: “From when the frog appears to when it leaves, it’s a total of 3 minutes and 15 seconds. If you subtract the process of churning through the mud, it’s only 3 minutes.”

It seemed that anyone who could pass a game once had some extraordinary qualities. This Zhang Hua appeared particularly sensitive to numbers and time.

Tan Xiao understood, suddenly enlightened: “So we just need to endure for 3 minutes, and we can make it to the next round?”

Shen Mo glanced at him and corrected: “Making it to the next round is meaningless, but we have 3 minutes to kill the frog.”

Tan Xiao’s eyes widened: “K-k-k-k-kill the frog?”

Zhang Hua also looked astonished.

“Big brother, you’re not joking, right?” Tan Xiao looked incredulous, staring wide-eyed in shock. “That thing is almost as big as a small building—how do we kill it?!”

Shen Mo had a folding fruit knife in his hand. He opened the blade, his expression calm as he wiped away the mud on it, saying flatly: “20 seconds is too short. Even if we can determine the area where the ball lands, trying to find the golden ball among a dozen or so holes—20 seconds isn’t enough. This time limit is determined by the frog. If we can kill the frog, we can extend the time for finding the golden ball.”

The reality before them was cruel and direct: they didn’t have enough time.

The ball was in the holes.

But whether it was moving their legs to walk through the mud or bending down to dig through the mud, both wasted too much time.

Although Shen Mo’s line of thinking seemed absurd, it was undoubtedly correct. Twenty seconds passed in the blink of an eye—they had to fight for more time.

Tan Xiao’s mouth opened and closed, closed and opened, struggling internally for a long while. Finally, he took a deep breath as if he’d made up his mind, his expression fierce: “Fine! Let’s do it! Screw it!”

Hearing this, Shen Mo looked at him strangely instead. “You’re bare-handed. Just focus on finding the ball. I’ll deal with the frog.”

Tan Xiao: “…”

Oh. Got excited for nothing.

At this moment, the golden ball emerged again, floating in midair with a giggly laugh:

“Current game failed. Nineteen players surviving. Now entering the third round of ‘The Frog’s Golden Ball.’ Please prepare yourselves! Preparation time is one minute. Countdown begins: 59, 58, 57…”