Bai Youwei couldn’t be bothered to argue with her. She waved a hand. “Keep yourself alive first~”

The Inspector had given them 10 hours to deliberate. Wasting it on bickering was pointless. Bai Youwei stopped paying Fu Miaoxue any further mind and turned back to study the rules on the white walls, thinking carefully.

Yan Qingwen also made good use of the time. After a brief exchange with Su Man and Lu Yuwen, the three of them left the group and headed toward the crowd in the distance — evidently to scout for information.

Over at the research evaluation group, two people were conferring in hushed tones, still undecided — should they join this side as Subjects, or form their own King faction?

A few other unfamiliar Asian faces were also talking in groups of three and five.

Every single person was trying to find a way to increase their own odds of survival within these 10 hours.

As for Fu Miaoxue, she stood alone in a corner, watching everyone bustle about. By herself, she felt rather lost…

…

Tan Xiao crouched against the wall, bored, absently raking his fingers through his hair.

His hair had grown out quite a bit — it was no longer the stylish “granny gray” it had been, but rather half white, half black.

He had already anticipated this and had a plan. He fished a red sports headband from his trouser pocket and comfortably put it on, covering the dark roots while showing off the white tips. Then he stood up, smoothed out his oversized T-shirt, slapped the ripped knees of his jeans, and felt like he was still that trendy, cool guy~

Too bad nobody was there to appreciate it.

To his left, Shen Mo was talking with those two newly arrived fellows.

To his right, Bai Youwei stared at the rule text on the walls without a word.

Even Pan Xiaoxin had something to do — he was cradling a small notebook beside Bai Youwei, taking notes.

Tan Xiao thought it over, then sidled up to Bai Youwei and asked: “Weiwei… we’re really splitting up from Mo-ge, huh?”

They had all been together this whole time. Without Shen Mo, Tan Xiao felt uneasy at heart.

“Mm.” Bai Youwei kept her eyes on the game rules, her tone also a little wistful. “There’s no other way. We have to have at least two Kings for us to have any real shot at winning the Maze War.”

“Oh… I know, you all just said that.” Tan Xiao scratched his head. “If we only have one King, we’d essentially have to win 24 games in a row to claim victory. But if we have three Kings, we wouldn’t need to win nearly as many — on average, winning 8 consecutive games each would do it! That’s the idea, right?”

“Whether it’s winning 24 in a row or 8 in a row, neither is easy. But that’s only one of the reasons for splitting up. There’s another reason…”

Bai Youwei pointed to a line in the rules. “Take a good look at this rule.”

Tan Xiao got a headache just looking at walls of dense explanatory text. He never even read home appliance manuals. But since Bai Youwei had asked him to look, he had no choice but to steel himself and read it.

The rule stated —

The war games themselves provide no rewards of any kind. However, the victorious King receives spoils.

Spoils consist of two parts:

Part one: all puzzle pieces and items belonging to the defeated enemy King;

Part two: one puzzle piece submitted by each of the defeated enemy’s Subjects.

Tan Xiao finished reading.

But he was still confused — he couldn’t see what any of this had to do with splitting up.

“Do you know why ancient kings all loved to wage war?” Bai Youwei looked at those rows and rows of text, her expression cool and detached. “…Because war is the most efficient method of amassing wealth.

Two Kings go on campaign once — they bring back 2 shares of spoils. Go on campaign twice — they bring back 4 shares. Go on campaign three times — 6 shares. But if there’s only one King, by that point they’ve only accumulated 3 shares…

As the spoils multiply at a compounding rate, the advantage snowballs. Puzzle pieces are used to recruit more Subjects, items improve the team’s survival rate, and the games that follow become easier and easier.

So do you understand now? If there’s only one King, the later the game progresses, the harder it becomes!”

Having said this, Bai Youwei trailed off and murmured under her breath: “Of course, the risks are also great… especially in the early stages of the game, before any accumulation has been made. The entire force could be wiped out.”

—