After hearing this, Qiao Jiajin curled his lips. “That means ‘Qinglong’ isn’t a good boss then.”
“Inevitably.” Qi Xia said. “The ‘Human-level’ Zodiacs have far too low a status in Qinglong’s eyes. I even suspect that in his view, they’re not even as good as ordinary ‘Participants.’ After all, ‘Participants’ still provide some entertainment—occasionally you can find newborn calves who are bold and reckless. But the ‘Human-level’ Zodiacs only obey his orders. Qinglong won’t like people like that.”
“What kind of contrarian is this…” Qiao Jiajin said. “Those who obey him have low status?”
“It’s indeed hard to explain, but that’s just the kind of person Qinglong is.” Qi Xia said.
“So what should we do now?” Zhang Chenze asked.
“Wait for the others to come back. I need the complete layout.” Qi Xia said.
After hearing this, the two could only wait silently. During this time, Zhang Chenze turned her head to look at the “Phoenix Book-Carrying Platform” in front of Qi Xia. There was still only one character “Soldier” on it.
“Qi Xia…” She couldn’t help but ask. “Although you’re the ‘Commander,’ I still have a question.”
“What?”
“That ‘character’ you kept for yourself… does it really have meaning?”
“Oh?” After hearing this, Qi Xia reached into his pocket and took out his pendant with the “character.”
It was “Soldier.”
The Red side’s “Commander’s” true identity was “Soldier.”
“I don’t quite understand…” Zhang Chenze said. “You already have ‘Soldier’ on your screen…”
“Just because it’s there, does that mean I can’t keep it in my hand?” Qi Xia asked in return.
“That’s not what I meant…” Zhang Chenze quickly explained. “I just feel that the ‘character’ you’re holding should be something we don’t have yet, so that when you reveal your identity, we can instantly gain another point. But ‘Soldier’ is already on the screen. Even if you expose yourself, we won’t gain any advantage from it…”
“No.” Qi Xia interrupted. “Lawyer Zhang, I’ve already calculated it. At present, if we lose ‘Soldier,’ it’s roughly equivalent to us losing.”
Lawyer Zhang frowned, clearly not understanding.
Why would a “character” that had already scored points need to be protected?
But Qi Xia didn’t continue explaining the situation to Lawyer Zhang. He just stared at the “characters” of both sides that he had written on the wall and continued pondering.
He didn’t know if it was just bad luck or if Earth Dragon had done it deliberately, but his side’s chances of winning were now extremely low.
This game using “Chinese chess” wasn’t fair. The more one understood the rules, the more one would discover that the entire scale had been tilted toward Chu Tianqiu from the start. If their side wanted to turn the tide, they would need more “characters,” and they absolutely had to protect “Soldier.”
After all, even without seizing any “characters,” just by piecing together the “characters” from within the team, Chu Tianqiu’s team would be the first to achieve victory.
“Am I still missing something…” Qi Xia thought to himself. “Or is it that I haven’t figured out the ‘rules’? Why is it so hard for us to win…”
While he was thinking, his teammates returned one after another. Everyone exchanged information with each other, and their accounts were almost identical. Before them were a total of ten rooms, and in the center of each room was only one door.
Except for Qiao Jiajin, everyone had entered the doors to investigate the situation. Without exception, they were all Human-level “Zodiacs.”
“Twenty ‘doors’…” Qi Xia stroked his chin and thought for a moment. “But there are only twelve Zodiacs in total. How are they arranged?”
After everyone told Qi Xia the locations of the “Zodiacs” they had encountered, they discovered that among these twelve “Zodiacs,” there was neither “Sheep” nor “Dragon.” Before reaching “Chu River Han Border,” there were a total of ten rooms with ten “Human-level Zodiacs.”
“Old Qi.” Chen Junnan called out. “So are ‘Dragon’ and ‘Sheep’ on the other side? Should we cross the river to take a look?”
“That shouldn’t be necessary.” Qi Xia said. “‘Sheep’ represents lying, which is a tactic used constantly in this game, so there’s no need to set it up separately. And ‘Dragon’ represents all types, so there’s similarly no need to list it separately.”
“Awesome, you really are something.” Chen Junnan nodded after hearing this. “So that means the rooms on the other side don’t have ‘Dragon’ and ‘Sheep’ either…”
“Right.” Qi Xia responded. “Both sides should be distributed in mirror image, with the same ten identical rooms in front of each. But be careful… Earth Dragon mentioned earlier that if we and the opponent enter the same room at the same time, the door will forcibly close until a victor is decided before it can be opened. So when entering a room, we need to first confirm whether anyone is inside.”
“Understood.” Everyone nodded in agreement.
“If I’m not mistaken…” Qi Xia narrowed his eyes and said. “Chu Tianqiu should only engage in guerrilla tactics and probing in the early stages. He needs to train his team’s ‘Echoes.’ After all, Zhang Shan, Jin Yuanxun, Xu Liunian, and even Doctor Zhao can’t immediately activate their ‘Echoes’—they all require prerequisites. If we really want to take a certain ‘character,’ we need to catch them off guard in the early stages.”
“So what’s our tactic?” Chen Junnan asked. “Do we need to separately find people to wager with at the start?”
“The opponent isn’t ordinary.” Qi Xia said. “Chu Tianqiu alone is already no ordinary person, and add Wen Qiaoyun and Yan Zhichun to that… Although the other side isn’t united, their comprehensive strength is extremely formidable. So conventional tactics won’t work. We need to use unconventional tactics.”
“Unconventional tactics?” Chen Junnan was stunned. “We can use unconventional tactics here? Who’s going to do it?”
No one spoke. They all looked at Chen Junnan.
“…?”
Chen Junnan froze for a moment, then blinked. “No way… it’s me again?”
“Chen Junnan, this time I’m giving you an unconventional tactic.” Qi Xia smiled. “The first thing we need to do is make the opponent completely unable to guess our thoughts, and as much as possible, destroy their unity and make them more divided.”
After saying this, he glanced at Qiao Jiajin again. “Fist, are there any standalone ‘doors’ at ‘Chu River Han Border’?”
“No.” After Qiao Jiajin finished speaking, he felt something was off. “How did you know I went to ‘Chu River Han Border’?”
Qi Xia chuckled softly and turned to look at Chen Junnan. “Chen Junnan, now I’m giving you a task—go to ‘Chu River Han Border’ and conduct an ‘all-out psychological attack.'”
After saying this, he waved at everyone. “Take out all the ‘characters’ you have on you.”
…
After both sides finished discussing their tactics for the second round, they each began moving about within the rooms. Each person was extra careful before entering a room, afraid of encountering the enemy after opening the door.
Jin Yuanxun pushed open the second door and arrived at “Chu River Han Border,” only to find Chen Junnan standing right there.
He was about to say something when he noticed something unusual. The two pockets on Chen Junnan’s pants were very bulky, with many chains showing, as if they contained the entire team’s “characters.”
“Huh…?” Jin Yuanxun was stunned.
“What are you looking at?!” Chen Junnan asked. “Never seen a handsome guy with over eighty characters on him?”
Jin Yuanxun blinked, feeling that the rules didn’t seem to say this was allowed.
“Don’t be nervous, pretty boy.” Chen Junnan said with a grin. “Just because the rules don’t allow carrying other people’s ‘characters’ doesn’t mean I can’t carry my own, right? I have plenty of ‘characters’ with me—how about we wager? One round?”
“This…” Jin Yuanxun looked at Chen Junnan’s pockets and didn’t know what to say.
Although he didn’t know what Chen Junnan’s real “character” was, judging by the bulging pockets, he probably had at least seven or eight “characters” on him. If he wagered with him and lost, wouldn’t he be giving away points for nothing?
“Not wagering?” Chen Junnan asked.
“I… I need to think about it.” Jin Yuanxun said.
“Then think slowly. I’ll wait for you here.” Chen Junnan crossed his arms and leaned against the wall to the side.
Jin Yuanxun didn’t dare to move forward rashly. He could only turn around and walk back, preparing to discuss with Chu Tianqiu.
But just as he turned to leave, he heard Chen Junnan’s voice from behind.
“Hey! Pretty boy!”
Jin Yuanxun turned back to look at Chen Junnan.
“Let me give you a piece of advice.” Chen Junnan said with a smile. “You’d better think it through carefully. Right now, we’re all betting big because we want to make a clean sweep in one go. If you guys keep hesitating and refuse to wager, then when the time comes, we’ll directly break through from other positions. At that point, even if you want to wager, it’ll be too late.”
After hearing this, Jin Yuanxun’s expression became even more troubled. He could only nod and quickly leave.
Chen Junnan watched Jin Yuanxun’s retreating figure and revealed a barely perceptible smile.
“Heh, psychological warfare has begun.”