“Su Shan, you’re gambling everything on a single throw. This will harm you,” Qi Xia said. “When you’re formulating tactics, it’s best to examine the battle from the enemy’s perspective.”

“Is that so?” Su Shan replied with indifference. “Are you teaching me how to use strategy?”

Inside the glass room, with a crisp sound, a brick simultaneously fell from above both their heads.

This was the first time Doctor Zhao had seen something he could use for self-defense. He hurried forward to pick up the brick.

But just as he raised his head, he immediately saw something swinging toward him. He instinctively raised his hand to block it, only to feel himself struck by a brute force. After stumbling back several steps, he fell to the ground.

Zichen’s eyes were bloodshot as he mounted Doctor Zhao’s body and picked up the brick, viciously slamming it down at him.

Doctor Zhao hastily threw away his own brick and raised his hands to protect his head.

The attacks from this tall man in front of him could only fall chaotically upon his arms. He had never been beaten like this when he was alive, and he felt as if his arms were broken.

“Ahhh!” Doctor Zhao shouted in panic. “Murder! He’s killing me!”

Zichen seemed to have gone mad, smashing down many times until Doctor Zhao’s screams turned into sobbing wails. Only then did Earth-Chicken’s voice slowly sound: “Time’s up, please stop your actions.”

Hearing this, Zichen froze slightly. Only then did he come back to his senses and look at the man beneath him, who had been beaten into continuous wailing by him. Although he had used his arms to protect his head, his mouth and nose were now bleeding.

“You…” Zichen wanted to say something but swallowed it back. He slowly stood up, took the brick in his hand back, and threw it away.

Qi Xia sighed helplessly. It was just as he had expected.

When the same cards were played, Doctor Zhao was bound to lose.

As he was pondering, Earth-Chicken slowly picked up the walkie-talkie and said in an icy tone: “Please discard your item immediately.”

Qi Xia was startled and quickly turned to look. Doctor Zhao was lying on the ground at this moment, groaning and tossing about, seemingly in pain all over. His brick also lay nearby, unmoved.

“Hey…” Qi Xia slowly stood up and walked to the glass wall, tapping it with his hand. “Doctor Zhao, are you alright? You need to discard your item immediately.”

“I’m done with this…” Doctor Zhao’s muffled voice came from inside the glass room. “You’ve been playing me all along. If we keep fighting, I’ll die…”

“I haven’t been playing you,” Qi Xia said. “If you give up now, we’ll both really die.”

He knew the most difficult part of this game was that the “Strategist” and the “Fighter” had almost no communication. Both sides could only cooperate based on their own independent tactics.

Once their opinions diverged, it meant certain death.

“Please have the ‘Strategist’ move away from the glass,” Earth-Chicken said coldly.

“Doctor Zhao,” Qi Xia called out coldly. “Stand up first.”

“Then you promise me… give me a ‘knife’ next round!” Doctor Zhao said while lying on the ground. “I want to kill him. Give me a ‘knife’!”

After hearing this, Qi Xia slightly squeezed the cards in his hand. He did indeed have a “knife” card, but as the key to victory, it absolutely could not be played rashly.

“Doctor Zhao… what card to play is for me to decide,” Qi Xia said. “I am the ‘Strategist.'”

“I don’t care if you’re the ‘Strategist’ or not. If you don’t give me the ‘knife’, next round I’ll make us both die!!!” Doctor Zhao shouted while throwing a tantrum on the ground.

“Please have the ‘Strategist’ move away from the glass immediately!!!” Earth-Chicken shouted sharply.

Qi Xia’s eyes suddenly dimmed. Cooperating with someone like Doctor Zhao was indeed somewhat inappropriate—he wouldn’t trust him.

Or perhaps…?

Thinking of this, Qi Xia paused and said: “Alright, Doctor Zhao, I understand. Stand up first.”

Hearing this, Doctor Zhao slowly stood up, picked up the brick from the ground, and walked cursing toward the window behind him.

The pained expression on his face disappeared completely after he turned around. His expression instantly turned cold, and he gave Qi Xia a meaningful look.

“Boy, do you understand now?” Doctor Zhao thought to himself.

Seeing Doctor Zhao’s expression, the corners of Qi Xia’s mouth turned up: “I knew it…”

Doctor Zhao discarded the brick, and Qi Xia also sat back down at the square table.

The fifth round was about to begin.

“Please draw a card,” Earth-Chicken gestured.

Su Shan, who had been actively drawing cards each time, was not in a hurry to act this time.

Qi Xia curiously looked up at her and asked: “What’s wrong?”

“You go first,” Su Shan said coldly. “I go first every time. It doesn’t seem quite fair.”

“Not fair?”

Qi Xia thought for a moment, then without further demurral, decisively reached out and drew a card.

As expected, it was a “rope”—the most numerous card.

Was this a bad card?

No, this was a perfectly timed card.

Qi Xia shuffled all the cards in his hand, then pulled out the “rope” and placed it face-down on the table.

Doctor Zhao, being able to become a brain surgeon, was naturally not a fool. His self-inflicted injury tactic earlier was to trick out all of the opponent’s “shield” cards.

This “rope” card came at just the right time. Let it play an extraordinary role.

Su Shan pondered for a while, then also placed a card face-down. Her expression looked especially cautious.

“Please reveal your cards.”

Both simultaneously flipped over their cards—they were both “rope” cards.

“Qi Xia, I guessed what you’d do,” Su Shan said in a low voice.

Seeing the opponent’s card, Qi Xia showed no surprised expression.

This girl called Su Shan was very intelligent to begin with. Seeing through Doctor Zhao’s trick was also within expectations.

Unfortunately, this strategy successfully made the opponent consume a “rope” card.

Doctor Zhao naturally wouldn’t be so affected as to gamble both their lives on a single knife card, but his tactics were somewhat hasty.

Two ropes fell into the glass room.

Doctor Zhao picked up the ropes expressionlessly. He knew Qi Xia understood his meaning.

But why did the opponent also play “rope”?

Did the opponent have no “shield” cards left?

Or had that girl seen through this scheme?

Zichen was getting a “rope” for the first time, and his expression was very unnatural. In the previous four rounds, the items he’d obtained were either knives or stones. Now he had gotten the rope with the least killing power.

Just as he was hesitating, Doctor Zhao swung the rope in his hand and lashed it over.

Before Zichen could raise his hand to block, the rope struck his arm.

It felt even more painful than being hit with an iron rod.

“Ah!!!” Zichen yelled out. The rope nearly slipped from his hand. “You fucking…”

He folded the rope in half in his hand, then angrily walked forward two steps: “You dare whip me!!!”

Zichen knew the rope couldn’t be wielded freely in his hands. He could only shorten its length as much as possible, holding it in his hand to swing like a whip, then viciously lashed Doctor Zhao several times.

Doctor Zhao was not to be outdone either. After blocking several times with his arm, he also folded his rope in half and whipped back.

Seeing this scene, Qi Xia nodded.

So the “rope” wasn’t a completely useless weapon. When both people had “ropes” in their hands, they would unconsciously maintain distance from each other.

This situation caused both sides to have no choice but to swing their ropes and whip each other. And once this kind of scene occurred, the game would enter an out-of-control state.