“What?” Su Shan suddenly stood up. “You clearly…”

Qi Xia extended one finger, pointing at his brow, then “twitched almost imperceptibly.”

“You mean this?” Qi Xia asked. “You noticed it?”

Su Shan stared at Qi Xia, contemplated for a moment, then slowly sat back down.

She admitted she had underestimated her opponent.

She and Zichen had been wandering around this godforsaken place for more than a day and had encountered quite a few opponents. This was the first time they’d encountered a situation where they could die in the game, and also the first time they’d met someone as intelligent as Qi Xia.

He was actually using micro-expressions to control his opponent’s train of thought.

Why was this game different from the ones they’d encountered before?

Why was this opponent also obviously much more formidable?

The current situation was very tricky.

Judging by the attributes of “Contest,” “shields” must be extremely rare. If the deck had a sufficient number of “shields,” it was very likely that neither side would be injured.

So how to cleverly use the “shield” became the main strategy for protecting one’s own “Combatant.”

Right now, before her was the worst possible situation.

“Rope” versus “shield.”

Su Shan was like using her own “superior horse” against the opponent’s “inferior horse.”

“Now this is getting interesting,” Qi Xia gripped all the cards in his hand and asked, “Based on my expression, guess whether I have a ‘knife’ in my hand right now?”

Su Shan slowly furrowed her brow. She knew that if she wanted to defeat the person before her, she must think more thoroughly.

No matter what, she couldn’t follow the opponent’s train of thought right now.

Regardless of whether he had a “knife” in his hand or not, she must definitely think more than he did.

Inside the glass room, props dropped from above the two people’s heads once again.

With a loud “clang,” a round shield fell before Zichen.

This was a wooden shield with metal edging, approximately one meter in diameter.

He hurriedly picked up the shield and held it in front of himself, then nervously looked at Doctor Zhao across from him.

Doctor Zhao lowered his head to look at the rope on the ground, his expression exceptionally complex.

This was the third time a rope had dropped.

“Qi Xia… are you giving me so many ropes to weave you a net?!”

He angrily picked up the hemp rope and stared at the man holding the wooden shield before him.

He had finally obtained a precious attack opportunity with great difficulty, only to discover it was using a rope to whip a wooden shield.

The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. He turned his head to look at Qi Xia outside the glass room.

“Just how bad is your luck, kid…?”

Outside the glass room, Qi Xia helplessly shrugged his shoulders at Doctor Zhao, then his lips moved, using lip-reading to say, “Whip him.”

“Whip him…?”

Doctor Zhao had just been hit in the thigh by that brick and currently had a bellyful of fire with nowhere to vent it. Seeing the man across from him hiding behind a large iron shield like a turtle withdrawing into its shell, he grew angrier the more he looked.

“Damn it, whip him then…”

He walked forward a few steps, swung the rope in his hand, spun it several times in the air, then fiercely whipped it toward the opponent’s wooden shield.

Unfortunately, in his thirty years, Doctor Zhao had never experienced using a hemp rope to whip someone. Although this swing created quite a bit of wind noise, the angle was absurdly off.

Doctor Zhao gripped one end of the rope and swung down from above. After the central part of the rope made contact with the shield, the angle of the rope’s end suddenly changed and, by some strange twist of fate, whipped the opponent’s head.

“Ahhh!!”

Zichen immediately let out a wail, and the shield in his hand directly dropped to the ground.

Doctor Zhao also looked at the opponent in disbelief. When the rope was swinging just now, he had clearly heard a sound similar to a slap.

Had it whipped the opponent’s face?

Qi Xia turned his head and slowly looked at Su Shan, discovering this girl was already stunned.

Using a rope to whip a shield but ending up whipping the person behind the shield—what were the odds?

Speaking of coincidences, for this effect to be triggered, there were only two prerequisites.

First, the shield-holder didn’t move at all.

Second, the distance between both sides was far enough.

This was a situation that could only appear after gathering two cowards together.

Su Shan’s brow was now tightly furrowed.

The person with the “rope” had injured the person with the “shield”—wasn’t this like sending out the “superior horse” to fight but losing to the “inferior horse”?

Zichen covered his eye and slowly raised his head. His entire expression had become somewhat manic.

He slowly lowered his hand. Doctor Zhao discovered his entire left eyeball had turned blood red, as if there was some internal bleeding.

“Huh?”

Doctor Zhao was stunned, thinking to himself, had that rope just happened to whip his eye?

“You, you…” Zichen pointed at Doctor Zhao. “You want to kill me?!”

“No, no, I didn’t…” Doctor Zhao hurriedly waved his hands, then walked forward a few steps and carefully stared at the opponent’s eye. “Buddy, you currently have a mild eyeball rupture. You need to immediately close your eye and rest, otherwise the wound might worsen and you won’t be able to keep your eye…”

“Bullshit!!” Zichen shouted, interrupting Doctor Zhao’s words. “You, you just wait!!”

Under the Earth-Chicken’s direction, the two threw away their props again.

The corners of Qi Xia’s mouth curled upward. He felt the current scene was very interesting.

Originally, he just wanted Doctor Zhao to give the opponent a warning, but the result was directly injuring the opponent’s eye. This wasn’t a bad thing.

Crickets in a jar had difficulty killing each other without external interference.

However, the tactics Qi Xia had previously designed were now ineffective. Next, the opponent’s state would be like a rabid dog—ordinary tactics would no longer be useful.

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

After hearing this, Su Shan reached out and grabbed a card. Qi Xia also followed closely after.

He held it in his hand to look.

It was a “stick.”

Now Qi Xia’s hand was perfect.

Knife, stick, stone, stone, shield.

These five cards could attack or defend.

The most difficult “rope phase” of the early game had already passed. Next, as long as Qi Xia stabilized the cards in his hand and promptly played any “rope” cards he drew, he would completely control the initiative.

From the “battle of wits” level, Qi Xia had already completed the early-game layout and was gradually gaining the upper hand.

If his guess was correct, Su Shan’s hand should have accumulated a large number of “ropes.” She could only blame her early-game offense for being too fierce, burying the opportunity for accumulation.

It seemed she hadn’t read military strategy and didn’t understand accumulating strength for a decisive strike. Next, she would enter a brief period of weakness, having “killing intent” but no “killing move.”

But this game couldn’t be won by “battle of wits” alone.

From the “battle of courage” level, Doctor Zhao had already completely fallen into the disadvantage.

The current Zichen looked very angry. He could probably make a “stone” produce the effect of a “knife.”

It was just unknown whether the opponent’s hand… still had a “stone”?

“Fourth round, please play your cards!” The Earth-Chicken waved his hand again.

Qi Xia thought briefly, drew out a “stone” card and placed it face down in front of him.

“Right now Doctor Zhao’s killing intent is insufficient. This is all I can do…” He silently recited to himself and pushed the card forward.

After brief contemplation, Su Shan also played a card.

The two simultaneously revealed them.

Both were “stones.”