Shen Mo said lightly, “It’s not hard to understand. A King who loses can continue as a Subject, but a Subject who loses is immediately reduced to a Commoner and loses eligibility to play. In other words, those who sign up as King have one more fallback.”

King loses → demoted to Subject → continues playing.

Subject loses → demoted to Commoner → leaves the game.

“But Kings can die in the actual Maze War.” Pan Xiaoxin, despite being young, valued her life greatly. She furrowed her brow. “In the war, even if a Subject is defeated, they only lose a puzzle piece. No matter how you look at it, choosing Subject is the safer option, isn’t it?”

“Kings have one chance to surrender,” Shen Mo said. “Most of the people here are solo players or in pairs. Teams of three or more are rare. Those kinds of players lack the conditions to compete as Kings — for them, it doesn’t matter who they surrender to.”

Tan Xiao hesitated. “Then… should we also sign up as Kings?”

Bai Youwei’s mouth twitched. “If the two of you win and become Kings, I’ll just have a whole new thing to worry about — whether you’ll surrender in the actual game.”

Pan Xiaoxin grabbed Tan Xiao’s arm and said gravely, “Xiao-ge, if we become Kings, it’ll be a lot of trouble. Lose and you die; surrender and you become someone else’s Subject; win… the chances of winning aren’t great either.”

Tan Xiao scratched his head. “Then let’s just go with Subject…”

Bai Youwei looked at Shen Mo and held out a stack of puzzle pieces toward him. “Do the Subjects you just recruited need these?”

She remembered that two of them had been Shen Mo’s former subordinates — they shared a closer bond with him, so a little extra consideration seemed perfectly reasonable.

Shen Mo reached over and drew out a single piece, tucking it into his pocket. “I’ll hold onto one. If they make it through the preliminary round, there’ll be time to hand out puzzle pieces then.”

Bai Youwei thought it over and gave a small nod. “Fair enough. At that point, one piece each — combined with what they already have, it guarantees they won’t drop to Commoner even if they lose in the game.”

Since she was recruiting them, she naturally had to offer something worthwhile.

Giving puzzle pieces was only the first step. If she wanted their wholehearted loyalty, she’d probably need to distribute items to her Subjects further into the war game as well.

Shen Mo asked her, “Is there anything else you want to give me?”

Bai Youwei blinked.

He didn’t need puzzle pieces; he wasn’t short on items either. What else was there left to give him?

She lowered her head and rummaged through her bag — a starting pistol, flower seeds, friend invitation cards, snowflakes, a plastic hair clip, Miss Liu’s aromatic balm…

The more she dug, the more she felt like grimacing.

After all this time, she had unknowingly accumulated such a heap of “junk.”

Bai Youwei’s expression grew a little pained.

A shadow fell over her. Shen Mo had leaned in from the side, bracing himself on one armrest of the wheelchair, lowering himself toward her. He held her gaze for a silent moment — then gently pressed his lips to hers and murmured in a low voice:

“Going into this game alone. Be careful.”

Bai Youwei: “…”

Her face slowly turned red…

“Y-you too, be careful…” she stammered back, her face growing even redder.

Damn it, why was she stuttering? How mortifying!

Shen Mo smiled, kissed her once more, then gave her small hand a gentle squeeze and said, “Let’s go.”

In the distance, people turned to glance as the two of them approached. But after a few extra looks, they drew their eyes away.

At this moment, everyone’s attention was more firmly fixed on the coming game.

The crown’s ring of light was nearly full; the sword’s ring of light looked increasingly sparse by comparison.

The rabbit-headed Inspector announced in a calm and measured tone:

“A total of 241 players.

5 have abstained.

197 have signed up as King.

39 have signed up as Subject.

Then — the preliminary round… begins.”

—