“A message?” Chu Tianqiu raised an eyebrow, “A ‘Zodiac’ is sending me a message…? Which ‘Zodiac’?”

“It’s ‘Snake.'”

Chu Tianqiu thought carefully for a while, feeling he hadn’t had any dealings with any “Snake,” then nodded and asked: “What message?”

After hearing this, Jin Yuanxun’s expression became strange and he was at a loss for words for several seconds. Then he slowly raised his head to look at the two figures in midair before asking in a low voice: “Bro… before that I need to confirm something first. Do you think they can hear us?”

After hearing this, Chu Tianqiu also raised his head to look at midair. The situation was a bit strange now… could it be that the message that “Zodiac” wanted to convey needed to be hidden from Qinglong?

“They should be able to hear.” Chu Tianqiu said, “They’re sitting in such a high position… if they couldn’t hear us talking, the fun would be cut in half.”

As soon as Chu Tianqiu finished speaking, Qinglong slowly turned his head, and their gazes met.

Those dark green eyes seemed to perceive everything, sending a chill through Chu Tianqiu’s heart.

Thinking about it carefully, it made sense. Even an ordinary “Echoer” like Xu Liunian could find the trick here, so how could Qinglong not hear?

The current situation was that Jin Yuanxun needed to convey the “Zodiac’s” words to him without Qinglong knowing at all. But was it necessary to take such a big risk for an unfamiliar “Zodiac”?

“Is what that ‘Zodiac’ said important?” Chu Tianqiu asked again.

“I don’t know…” Jin Yuanxun shook his head, “It sounds like it might be somewhat important.”

Just as Chu Tianqiu was hesitating, Jin Yuanxun suddenly changed the topic and asked: “Bro… how long have we known each other?”

“What?”

“In your memory, how long have we known each other?”

“We’ve met for quite a long time.” Chu Tianqiu said, “We should have talked a lot in the past, right?”

“Would we talk a lot before?” Jin Yuanxun asked again.

“Yes.” Chu Tianqiu nodded.

“That’s great, bro.” Jin Yuanxun smiled, “I remember I seem to have a bad habit. After getting familiar with Han people, I unconsciously teach them Korean. Bro is smarter than most people, so you should have learned a lot too, right?”

“You…”

Jin Yuanxun: “??????” (in Korean).

After hearing this, Chu Tianqiu’s eyes widened on the spot.

“Bro… how much of that sentence could you understand?” Jin Yuanxun asked, switching back to Chinese.

Chu Tianqiu didn’t answer. He was just overwhelmed with thoughts for a moment.

He looked at the several “doors” before him with a puzzled expression, then recalled the anomaly Qi Xia had caused before the game started, feeling that some clue was vaguely connecting all the events together.

The “train”…?

This strange square-shaped venue… was it part of that long and narrow “train”?

Adding to that what Qi Xia had said before the game started—this place never had any “train,” only “doors” leading to other areas one after another.

Chu Tianqiu’s mind became extremely chaotic in an instant.

This was a very abstract question. Why were the surroundings here pitch black?

And why would there be a game venue within this pitch-black space?

After everyone had finished exploring the rooms and drawn out a map showing this place was a pure square, was that actually the case?

They opened the door from Room A and found Room B, so they assumed that Room B must be next to Room A.

Thus they drew a square map.

But due to the existence of these strange “doors”… was it possible that Rooms A and B were actually far apart, but this bizarre “door” forcibly connected them together? This way, whether visually or spatially, Room A would always be next door to Room B.

So from the perspective of Qinglong and Earth-Dragon in the heights… what exactly was the structure of this game venue?

The “River Path” in the middle was the “train body,” and the countless rooms were the “compartments”?

Could this place still be an incredibly long and narrow train?

There was a fastest way to solve this puzzle, which would be to have Jin Yuanxun leap to Qinglong’s side to overlook the venue, then return here.

But that would put Jin Yuanxun in too much danger.

“The world in the eyes of a ‘God’ is ultimately different from that of mortals…” Chu Tianqiu frowned and murmured, “Perhaps this is the reason why Qi Xia insisted on coming to this place… he wants to crack the secret of the ‘train’…”

“Bro understood it after all. I said you’re smarter than most people.” Jin Yuanxun said, “I’ve conveyed this message to you. From here on, I’ll still follow your arrangements.”

After hearing this, Chu Tianqiu paused, then turned his head and asked: “By the way, Jin Yuanxun, when two people enter a room at the same time… how does the door lock?”

“Huh?”

“I mean…” Chu Tianqiu narrowed his eyes and thought for a moment, “Does it lock immediately without any reaction time, or does it wait a few seconds before locking?”

Jin Yuanxun understood Chu Tianqiu’s question, but his situation with Chen Junnan at the time had been too chaotic, and he couldn’t quite remember the details.

“It seems like it didn’t lock the door immediately…” Jin Yuanxun recalled, “At least several seconds passed. After Doctor Zhao and Sister Xu Liunian left the room, the door slowly closed, and then the lock fell. I even took one last look at Doctor Zhao and Sister Xu Liunian.”

Chu Tianqiu nodded: “Jin Yuanxun, now that you have ‘Echo,’ are you confident you can leave the room before the door completely closes?”

“Huh?” Jin Yuanxun was stunned after hearing this, “Leave the room before the door closes?”

“Yes.” Chu Tianqiu smiled, “After you trigger a game with an opponent, leave the room before it locks. Are you confident you can do it?”

“This… this…” Jin Yuanxun became a bit flustered after hearing this, “I should be confident. As long as it’s a place I can see, I should be able to go there. But can this really work? Wouldn’t it violate the rules?”

“The ‘rules’ indeed didn’t mention this point.” Chu Tianqiu smiled, “Earth-Dragon only said that after the door locks, it needs the game to end before it will unlock. You can use this method… to trap the opponent alone in the game. This way they might have an accident in the game, and you can also trap multiple enemies by yourself. However, this might be a challenge for you.”

“Is that so…” After hearing this, Jin Yuanxun frowned. Although the plan sounded feasible, it seemed a bit too risky.

“This is only the first part of the mission. You need to control Chen Junnan and Qiao Jiajin, and there are still important tasks after that.” Chu Tianqiu said, “After clearing the path ahead, find a way to enter the opponent’s ‘Reserve Zone’ and destroy the opponent’s ‘display screen’ when Qi Xia isn’t paying attention.”

“The opponent’s ‘display screen’?” Jin Yuanxun thought of something, “If we smash the opponent’s ‘display screen,’ they won’t have a way to score anymore?”

“Exactly.” Chu Tianqiu nodded, “Next, you will completely dominate this game and catch Qi Xia off guard.”