Du Lai had not yet responded when Yan Qingwen’s voice came through the walkie-talkie:

“Du Lai, we’ve already claimed four territories. Looking at the terrain, these four territories form an equilateral triangle. The inspector once mentioned there are thirty-six territories in total. I suspect the entire map is one large triangle, with each king’s starting position corresponding to one of the three corners. If this hypothesis holds, then the other two kings should be at roughly the same progress as us right now.”

Du Lai frowned. “If it really is composed of thirty-six triangular sections forming one large triangle, we’d run into an enemy king after advancing just two spaces.”

“Exactly.” Yan Qingwen said. “So from this moment on, we could be ambushed at any time. The team can’t be too spread out.”

“Do we just stay in place?” Fu Miaoxue was getting restless. “There are thirty-six territories total — we need at least nineteen to guarantee a win, and we only have four right now…”

“No rush. Let’s think this through first.” Du Lai crouched down, picked up a pebble, and sketched a triangular map on the ground.

An equilateral triangle, divided internally into equal smaller triangles.

“Even with one person guarding each sensor, we can only claim ten territories at most.” Du Lai tossed the pebble aside and dusted off his hands. “To claim nineteen territories, there’s only one way.”

Fu Miaoxue seemed to understand. “…Eliminate them all?”

Du Lai smiled. “That’s the ideal scenario, but it won’t be that easy.”

“Someone’s coming!” A nearby companion suddenly shouted!

Du Lai and Fu Miaoxue immediately turned to look — a blurred afterimage shot across the boundary line and into their territory at incredible speed!

Everyone instantly went on alert, quickly drawing their respective weapons.

The intruder seemed to realize they were no match for so many people and didn’t charge directly at them — instead, they streaked past and ran straight toward the territory where Chen Hui was stationed!

“Chen Hui! Stay alert — someone’s heading your way!” Du Lai pressed down on the walkie-talkie and called out.

“Got them!” Chen Hui replied. “Fast as lightning, only one person!… They took off! Heading in Yan Ge’s direction!”

“Received. We’re ready to engage.” Yan Qingwen’s voice was calm and composed. “…Target spotted. Preparing item-based attack.”

A moment later, Yan Qingwen said: “The target’s speed is too fast — they must be carrying some kind of speed-boosting item. We weren’t able to land a hit.”

“What’s wrong with this person? Sprinting through all our territories for no reason?” Fu Miaoxue was thoroughly irritated.

Du Lai said, “A speedster type like this usually serves as a scout — they can rapidly survey the entire battlefield. If we hadn’t been stationed here, they’d probably have claimed this territory already.”

“You mean they’ve already claimed all the territories around us?” Fu Miaoxue asked with a furrowed brow.

“The game just started. Even if they took everything, we can take it back.” Du Lai gave the order: “Advance one space. Yan Qingwen, your side advances one space as well. Chen Hui, hold your position and stand by.”

They moved to the new territory.

It was another triangular stretch of barren land. Projected above the sensor at the center was a holographic image of another king.

Fu Miaoxue touched the sensor with her wristband, then received a notification that the status change would take six minutes and forty-eight seconds. Her impatience only grew.

“Buzzing around like a fly — absolutely disgusting. What if, right when the timer’s about to finish, that speedster comes running through again? Would I never be able to change the ownership status?”

“Probably not.” Du Lai reasoned it out for her. “When the speedster saw Chen Hui, they bolted immediately without the slightest intention to attack. So it’s very likely that they can’t perform any offensive actions while moving at high speed. Right now, the other side is just speed-running through these territories to get under our skin and mess with our morale.”

“Fine. Not falling for it.” Fu Miaoxue scoffed. “…Hmph. We’ll catch them sooner or later.”

“We will catch them.” Du Lai said with certainty. “Expending that much energy — they can’t keep it up for long.”

—