Shen Mo asked Yan Qingwen, “Are you joining the evaluation team? Do you plan to stay here long-term?”
Yan Qingwen shook his head with a neutral expression. “The evaluation team is mainly recruiting temporary members this time. As long as you can make it back out of a game and provide new intel, you get a map. The map marks the nearby game zones and the suspected boundaries of the labyrinth.”
“Wow…” Bai Youwei murmured softly. “That professor is quite the schemer. Temporary members are mostly people who want to leave this place — for them, nothing is more enticing than a map.”
“It’s an open transaction, which is fair enough.” Yan Qingwen gave a faint smile. “If I were Professor Song, I’m not sure I’d be any more generous than he is.”
Bai Youwei thought it over, then turned to look at Shen Mo. “Why don’t we go too?”
Shen Mo was briefly taken aback.
Yan Qingwen also paused. “There’ll be plenty of opportunities to work together in the future. If we get a map, we can share resources — there’s no need for everyone to join.”
In other words, Shen Mo and Bai Youwei had no reason to lead people into the team just for one map.
Yu Yaqing nodded in agreement. “If I get a map, I can give it to you. I don’t plan to leave here for now, so the map won’t be of use to me.”
“I’m not going for the map.” Bai Youwei smiled lightly. “I want to go and see who else is planning to join the evaluation team, so if I run into them in a game later, I can be on my guard.”
The greatest enemy in the games was never the game itself.
It was always the other players besides yourself.
……
They went to the exchange point.
Players were relatively concentrated here, and those who wanted to join the evaluation team also had to register here.
Many had arrived before them, but few had actually signed up. Everyone seemed to be watching and hesitating.
When Bai Youwei came in, quite a few eyes landed on her — the crutch really drew attention. Anyone who had been to the exchange point and seen her notice knew: there was a woman with a limp in the base, looking to trade items for puzzle pieces.
Bai Youwei glanced around, then suddenly noticed something and quietly tugged at Shen Mo’s hand.
“What is it?” Shen Mo asked in a low voice.
“Look.” Bai Youwei tilted her chin slightly. “Over there — are those two people in white gloves talking about us?”
Shen Mo frowned and looked over.
The two seemed unwilling to draw attention. Noticing Shen Mo studying them, they both turned away and moved off into a corner.
“Wearing gloves in this heat…” Bai Youwei kept her eyes on them. “Yesterday at Professor Song’s place I also saw someone wearing white gloves. Those gloves were so white…”
Shen Mo frowned and looked that way too, finding it strange.
It was a bit like Tan Xiao’s hair, gleaming with oil. In an environment where everyone was scrambling to survive, anything that was excessively clean and neat always gave off an incongruous, out-of-place feeling.
Wearing a pair of white gloves was genuinely odd — especially when their clothes and shoes weren’t particularly clean, yet their gloves were that white.
White as if they were brand new.
A commotion broke out outside.
Everyone in the exchange point looked toward the entrance. Some ran out, shouting loudly: “What happened?!”
“The people from Game 21 are back!”
“That fast? Can’t be! Didn’t they just go in this morning?”
“How many came back?”
“Coming back this early means they definitely didn’t clear the game!”
Everyone hurried outside, eager to find out what had happened.
Shen Mo and Yan Qingwen exchanged a glance and followed the crowd out.
Outside, a man was surrounded by the crowd — around thirty years old, slender and refined-looking, wearing a light blue Oxford-cloth shirt and white gloves.
He looked haggard as he addressed everyone: “They’re all dead… Thank goodness I had a puzzle piece, or I never would have gotten out…”
The crowd erupted.
Everyone was utterly shocked.
They couldn’t believe it — couldn’t accept it. So many skilled players went in together, and still they couldn’t clear the game?
Just how difficult was Game 21?!
—