“Everyone,” Dilong picked up the walkie-talkie at her waist and said, “Time’s up. ‘Character’ distribution is over.”
Both teams raised their heads at this moment and looked toward Qinglong and Dilong high above.
“Next, please enter the ‘Battlefield Zone,'” Dilong said. “The entire venue has a total of twenty ‘battlefields.’ We’ve carefully prepared twenty ‘referees’ for everyone. If two ‘Participants’ enter the same battlefield simultaneously, the room door will forcibly close. Only after completing the ‘referee’s’ game will it end.”
“Only twenty referees…?” Qi Xia quickly thought through the entire map, feeling he had already figured out the distribution diagram.
“What’s wrong, Liar boy?” Qiao Jiajin asked.
“Nothing… I need to temporarily change the plan,” Qi Xia said.
After briefly explaining a few things, “Cangjie Chess” officially began.
Both sides looked at the doors before them, then entered the rooms separately.
The ‘Preparation Zone’ had five ‘doors.’ Qi Xia’s camp had six teammates besides himself.
Among them, Zheng Yingxiong and Tiantian chose to enter the same door, while the remaining few split up to act separately.
Qiao Jiajin reached out to push the middle door and surprisingly discovered that another door stood in the center of the venue, with the character “You” (é…‰) written on it.
This was a room of about ten square meters, with doors on all four walls, appearing to lead to other rooms.
But what caught attention was that besides the door in the center, the room was completely empty with nothing else.
“Strange…”
Qiao Jiajin frowned slightly but still said nothing and continued to push open the next door.
This door had the character “Yin” (寅) written on it.
“Damn…” Qiao Jiajin walked forward to touch the wooden door. “Where’s the ‘referee’?”
Qiao Jiajin thought to himself that the venue was completely empty, with only a door in each room. Could the ‘door’ be the ‘referee’?
He walked forward and reached out to touch the door again, feeling it was just a very ordinary structure. Thinking about it this way, in the vast game venue, there were twenty ‘doors’ standing?
He steadied his mind and continued walking to the next door.
After all, in the initial time period, Qi Xia’s plan was to have everyone fully grasp the structure of the venue. Now everyone was splitting into five routes. After exploring the ten rooms ahead, they needed to hurry back to the ‘Preparation Zone’ as soon as possible to explain the situation.
When Qiao Jiajin pushed open the door, he found that ahead was indeed no longer a room, but a long corridor. On the opposite side of the corridor were five ‘doors.’
It seemed this corridor was the “Chu River Han Boundary” that Qi Xia had mentioned before.
While Qiao Jiajin was observing the five doors opposite, he discovered that the central door was opened.
The tall and sturdy Zhang Shan lowered his head and slowly walked out from inside.
The two men’s gazes met at this moment, then both revealed smiles.
“Damn…” Zhang Shan laughed. “I should have guessed you were the ‘vanguard team’ from your side.”
“Hey, big guy, want to do something?” Qiao Jiajin also laughed.
“I’m in charge of scouting. You too, right?” Zhang Shan asked. “Didn’t expect you’d be faster than me. Don’t the things in the rooms need any research?”
“My brain doesn’t work well,” Qiao Jiajin said. “I only need to remember what I saw along the way, not why they’re there.”
“Oh…?” Zhang Shan nodded. “Tattoo boy, we’re both straightforward people. What ‘character’ do you have on you?”
“On me? Wait, let me check.”
After Qiao Jiajin finished speaking, he turned around, seemingly fumbling with something behind him. After a while, he turned back and said:
“Big guy, the ‘character’ on me is ‘Heaven and Earth are inherently vast, yet the petty-minded restrict themselves.'”
“Hmm…?” Zhang Shan was stunned. “You kid… although you’re not a bad person, you really deserve a beating.”
“What do you say? Want to find a chance to spar?” Qiao Jiajin completely ignored Zhang Shan’s provocation and smiled as he walked forward a step. “I feel this opportunity is really good, allowing us two to fight fairly and squarely.”
“Damn…” Zhang Shan frowned. “A fair and square one-on-one… what a luxurious thing, isn’t it?”
“Luxurious?” Qiao Jiajin didn’t understand.
“Tattoo boy, your situation should be similar to mine, right?” Zhang Shan said. “Whenever there’s a fighting scene, both your and my heads are ‘battle achievements.’ We’ll definitely be attacked by enemies in groups. We both want a fair and square one-on-one, but there are rarely such opportunities.”
“That’s true.” Qiao Jiajin nodded. “Every time I fight, I need to deal with a large group of people. I’ve never seen anyone who could beat me one-on-one.”
“Damn… really arrogant.” Zhang Shan nodded with a laugh. “So just how good at fighting are you?”
“Me…” Qiao Jiajin asked, “Big guy, what’s the most people you’ve fought at once?”
“About a dozen.” Zhang Shan answered. “What about you?”
“Thirty-seven for me.”
“Damn, what bullshit are you spouting?” Zhang Shan said with a look of disbelief. “You took on thirty-seven people by yourself?”
“Yeah.” Qiao Jiajin nodded. “At that time, my boss only brought me alone. He lost gambling and had no money to pay. We were chased and hacked by thirty-seven people.”
Zhang Shan curled his lips: “I fought a dozen and got minor injuries. What about you?”
“I almost died after fighting.”
“Hmm…?” Zhang Shan blinked blankly. “Wait… why aren’t you even pretending anymore, kid?”
“I really almost died,” Qiao Jiajin said, somewhat indignant. “Big guy, do you think I’m the Terminator? That was thirty-seven people with knives! It was already good enough that I could win. Do you still expect me to be invulnerable?”
“Damn… that’s true.” Zhang Shan nodded. “So what do you say? Should we spar now?”
“Now?” After hearing this, Qiao Jiajin obviously hesitated for a moment, then asked, “Don’t we two need to find a ‘venue’?”
“You mean go into those ‘doors’?” Zhang Shan chuckled after hearing this. “Damn, do we two still need to go inside a door to find a referee?”
“Then what do you mean?”
“Let’s directly and fairly take out our own ‘characters’ to duel. Whoever wins takes the ‘character,'” Zhang Shan said. “Neither of us will cheat. How about it?”
After hearing this, Qiao Jiajin looked at both sides of the corridor and found that neither the opponent’s people nor his own people had walked out. He couldn’t help but feel puzzled.
Although now was an excellent time for a duel, after all, he still had important matters to complete.
“Big guy, not this time,” Qiao Jiajin waved his hand. “I need to go back and find Liar boy now to explain the situation here to him.”