The game began.

As a “Contest” game, the Earth-Chicken had pushed “Contest” to its limits.

One side battled with wits, the other with courage.

As long as either side had a problem with one link, both would inevitably perish together.

In the oppressive atmosphere, the girl across from them spoke.

“Do you draw cards first, or do I draw first?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Qi Xia said. “You go first.”

The girl nodded, drew a card, but didn’t look at its contents. She simply placed it face down in front of her.

Qi Xia also reached out and drew a card, placing it face down in front of him.

When the two were drawing cards, neither looked at the contents. They kept staring into each other’s eyes the entire time.

This card game was now a matter of life and death, so the competition had already begun from the card-drawing phase.

The two took turns placing cards face down in front of themselves, not revealing the slightest flaw.

Inside the glass room, Doctor Zhao and the tall boy both nervously swallowed when they saw this scene.

After everyone had drawn five cards, Qi Xia took the five cards in his hand and slowly opened them to look.

The situation was very unfavorable.

Shield, stone, rope, rope, rope.

It was called “Weapon Cards,” but looking at the card faces, it was practically the Stone Age.

He slowly closed the cards together and raised his head again to look at the girl before him.

The girl’s expression was still normal. She also glanced lightly at the cards in her hand, then raised her head to lock eyes with Qi Xia.

“My name is Qi Xia. How should I address you?”

“Su Shan,” the girl answered.

“Shan?” Qi Xia felt this name was somewhat interesting. “The ‘shan’ from ‘shining’?”

“Yes,” the girl replied.

“Pleased to meet you.” Qi Xia perfunctorily nodded, then looked at the card deck on the table.

Now he had one stone card and three rope cards in his hand. It was possible that the deck had a higher proportion of “stones” and “ropes.”

If he thought this way, then naturally for the so-called “Weapon Cards,” the cards with higher lethality would be rarer.

“Sticks” should be rarer than “stones,” and “knives” would be the rarest.

Of course, there was also a second possibility—that all cards had the same quantity, and he was just very unlucky.

Then… what cards had this girl called Su Shan drawn?

Was she in the “Cold Weapon Era”?

Did she have a “knife”?

Did she have the two “Life Cards” and one “Death Card”?

“You two, if you’ve decided, please play your cards!” The Earth-Chicken interrupted their train of thought and tapped the table with his hand.

Qi Xia pondered for a while, silently took out a card and placed it face down on the table, then raised his head and asked, “Su Shan, do you think there’s such a possibility…”

“What?”

“That is, we play through all our cards, but the game doesn’t determine a winner, so we’re considered a ‘draw’?”

“Would that happen?” Su Shan perfunctorily replied, then took out a card and placed it face down in front of her. “If it’s a draw… that would be best, wouldn’t it?”

“So let’s both be gentle. There’s no need to kill the other side,” Qi Xia said.

“Sure,” Su Shan nodded and pushed her face-down card forward.

Qi Xia also nodded and likewise pushed the card in front of him forward.

Cards played.

Doctor Zhao and that boy called Zichen were so nervous they were about to stop breathing. Seeing the two people in the distance calmly select their cards, they immediately moved under the ceiling and stared at the windows above.

Their first “weapon” would drop from here.

“Please reveal the cards,” the Earth-Chicken said.

As soon as these words fell, Qi Xia and Su Shan simultaneously flipped over the cards in front of them.

The two windows above Doctor Zhao and Zichen’s heads also opened at this moment, and dark objects fell down.

The two frantically rushed forward to pick up their “weapons,” but Doctor Zhao was instantly dumbfounded.

What dropped down was a “rope.”

He immediately picked up the rope, then immediately turned his head, only to discover that ten steps away, that 1.9-meter-tall boy was slowly picking up a machete that had fallen to the ground.

“Ah!” Doctor Zhao let out a heart-wrenching scream. “What kind of garbage is this?! Qi Xia, are you fucking playing me?!”

Without another word, he came to the glass wall, holding the rope and continuously slapping the glass. “Qi Xia! Are you fucking playing me?!”

Fortunately, this glass wall appeared to be custom-made and was very sturdy. No matter how Doctor Zhao slapped it, no cracks appeared.

Qi Xia slowly furrowed his brow.

The opponent had indeed drawn a “knife.”

Because she figured he wouldn’t play the “shield” in the first round, she decisively bet on the “knife”?

Qi Xia took a deep breath and said, “Using rock-paper-scissors logic to play this game is certainly correct, but unfortunately there are other things that need to be considered.”

“Such as?” Su Shan asked.

“Such as… the ‘human heart.'”

The Earth-Chicken then picked up a walkie-talkie beside him and spoke, “First round, please begin action, ‘Combatants.'”

A broadcast sounded in Doctor Zhao and Zichen’s room.

The ten-second countdown on the side also began.

“St-start?” After hearing this, Doctor Zhao hurriedly retreated several steps.

“Ahhhhh!” Zichen shouted to bolster his courage. He held the machete and walked forward one step.

Doctor Zhao gripped the rope with both hands, trembling all over.

He knew he wasn’t Wong Fei-hung and couldn’t possibly use a rope to knock the knife out of the opponent’s hand.

The opponent’s height and weight were completely superior to his own. Now he also possessed a more powerful “weapon” than himself. How was he supposed to fight?

“I… I!” Zichen held the machete and kept trembling. He didn’t look much stronger than Doctor Zhao.

“Y-you better not do anything rash!” Doctor Zhao roared with a sobbing tone. “You’re committing murder!!”

“I know!! Even if I kill you… I still… I still…” Zichen gritted his teeth and kept walking forward.

But he simply couldn’t bring himself to do it.

Suppose you suddenly locked a normal person in a glass room, threw him a knife, and told him he would die if he didn’t kill someone.

How many cuts would an ordinary person slash within ten seconds?

The answer is not a single cut.

Qi Xia watched the tall man through the glass wall with an expressionless face.

Ten seconds was really too short.

Due to “disaster bias,” he hadn’t built up sufficient psychological preparation yet, always thinking the situation wouldn’t deteriorate to such a degree.

But little did he know Su Shan had already planned everything out. She had passed through the “disaster bias” period and designed perfect tactics, preparing to unleash killing moves at the opening, attempting to win the game in one fell swoop.

The opponent’s cooperative thinking had a gap.

Or rather, their intelligence levels weren’t in the same dimension.

Playing the “knife” as the first card was the best of the best strategies for “battle of wits.” This card would cut off the opponent’s reaction time. If the glass room contained two mindless virtual characters, Qi Xia would have already lost.

Unfortunately, the human heart was complex.

The ten seconds passed in the blink of an eye. Action time ended.

Within these ten seconds, the boy called Zichen made no other moves besides walking forward three steps.

This was the full extent of effort a normal person could make.

“Please throw your props into the window, you two,” the Earth-Chicken said into the walkie-talkie.

“Zichen… you!” The girl anxiously slapped the table, looking very unwilling. “How could you be so foolish!!”

Qi Xia helplessly shook his head. In this game, needless to say that boy inside who looked at most twenty years old—even if you replaced him with the battle-hardened Zhang Shan, it wasn’t certain he could decisively kill the opponent in the first round either.

Zichen, with a face full of regret, slowly threw the machete into the window, then angrily slapped himself several times.

Doctor Zhao, as if he had picked up a life, also threw away the rope while trembling all over.