Su Shan reached out and grabbed a card. Qi Xia followed right after.

Whatever the face of this card showed didn’t matter.

Both sides’ tactics had already been determined.

Qi Xia placed the “Handgun” on the table, while Su Shan put down a “Knife.”

Neither concealed anything—they directly pushed out their cards face-up.

“Su Shan, I have the ‘gun,’ you have the ‘knife,'” Qi Xia said.

Su Shan nodded and said: “Qi Xia, have you ever fired a gun?”

“Fired a gun?”

“Do you know what model of handgun will drop after we play our cards?” Su Shan continued asking. “And how to chamber this gun, how to release the safety?”

Qi Xia frowned slightly but didn’t answer.

“I’m betting your teammate can’t pull the trigger within ten seconds. Even if he successfully fires, he won’t directly kill Zichen,” Su Shan said with feigned composure. “Ten seconds is too short.”

After speaking, she pulled out another “Handgun” card and flipped it open to show Qi Xia.

“And as long as Zichen still has a breath left in him, I’ll let him get the ‘handgun’ in the second round. That’s when the victor will be decided.”

Qi Xia stared into Su Shan’s eyes for a long time and said: “I really hope you won’t die here.”

“Ha, is that so?” Su Shan laughed coldly. “Yet you’ve repeatedly struck with killing intent. One of us will definitely die here.”

“That’s not what I mean.” Qi Xia scratched his head and said, “How about this—after this game… if you figure something out, you can come find me at the school to the west.”

“What?” Su Shan was slightly startled. “After this game?”

“It’s quite troublesome to explain.” Qi Xia shook his head. “It’s also possible you’ll never remember me.”

“Stop changing the subject,” Su Shan interrupted. “All I see before me is victory or defeat. Let’s begin.”

After Earth-Chicken saw both their cards, he waved his hand, and the items in the glass room dropped.

Zichen immediately reached out to pick up the machete on the ground. Just as he was about to run forward, a dark gun barrel was already aimed at him.

“Don’t move,” Doctor Zhao said.

“You…”

Zichen saw that the shoulder on the side where the man held the gun was slightly tilted back, his arms bent, holding the gun with both hands—his posture was very professional.

At this moment, Doctor Zhao’s mind constantly echoed with Qi Xia’s words: “When I play the handgun, remember not to let it fall to the ground.”

The current situation was exactly as Qi Xia had predicted.

“This Glock 19 is the same as the one I used in my shooting course,” Doctor Zhao said through gritted teeth. “I’ve already aimed at your chest cavity. If the upper half of a human torso is shot, the survival rate without medical measures is extremely low.”

Seeing this, Zichen swallowed slightly. He felt the opponent was most likely telling the truth.

But at this point, surrender was absolutely impossible. So his lips moved slightly, squeezing out four words: “You’re bluffing me…”

“You can try,” Doctor Zhao said. His hands didn’t shake at all as he stared motionlessly at the opponent. “Put down the knife. In exchange, I won’t shoot this round.”

“Put it down…?” Zichen kept thinking—the opponent clearly had a gun in hand, so why was he insisting that he put down the knife?

“I’ll count to five. If you don’t put down the knife, I’ll shoot immediately.” Doctor Zhao paused, then said aloud: “Five, four, three, two…”

“I won’t put it down!” Zichen shouted loudly. “I’m going to kill you!”

He raised the knife and was about to move forward when a cold broadcast voice slowly sounded: “Time’s up, please stop your actions.”

“What…” Zichen looked up in confusion, discovering that ten seconds had passed.

Regardless of how much truth or falsehood was in what the opponent said, he had just been stalling for time.

But what was his purpose in stalling for time?

“Please discard your items.”

Doctor Zhao turned around without hesitation and threw the handgun into the window. Seeing this, Zichen was quite puzzled but could only throw his knife into the window behind him as well.

This was the second time he’d gotten a knife, but unfortunately each time he couldn’t move at all. This feeling made him extremely uncomfortable.

“Qi Xia, what the hell are you plotting?” Su Shan asked.

“I…” Qi Xia thought for a while and said, “I’m preparing to make a gamble with you, gambling everything we have on the table.”

“Make a gamble?”

“If possible, I also want to push you into a desperate situation,” Qi Xia said.

“You’re really not normal…” Su Shan’s hands were trembling. She had no idea what the man before her was thinking. “Not only do you want to kill me, but you also want to make me despair?”

“I…” Qi Xia didn’t continue speaking. He just nodded.

“Eighth round, please draw a card.”

After hearing this, Qi Xia directly drew a card and tossed it aside without even looking at it.

Su Shan also slowly drew a card. She knew that no matter what the opponent was thinking, right now was the best moment to kill the opponent.

Following her own strategy, she played the “Handgun.”

While Qi Xia played a “Knife.”

Neither demonstrated their strategy—both revealed their cards face-up.

“The positions are reversed, Su Shan,” Qi Xia said. “This round you have the gun. What will you do?”

“I will kill you without hesitation,” Su Shan said.

Earth-Chicken waved his hand, and the eighth round’s items also dropped.

When Zichen saw the handgun, he reached out at the fastest speed to pick it up and aimed it at Doctor Zhao. But half a second later, cold sweat streamed down his forehead.

The gun in his hand… was too light.

Doctor Zhao picked up the knife unhurriedly, raised his head and said: “Pardon the offense.”

As soon as the words fell, he charged directly forward.

“What the fuck is this thing?!”

Zichen shouted as he pulled the trigger. A small water stream barely visible to the naked eye sprayed from the gun barrel.

Su Shan’s eyes slowly widened. She had never considered this problem at all.

All the “items” in this game existed to kill people. The sticks were polished, the knives were sharpened, yet the “gun” was a toy?!

In a moment’s work, Doctor Zhao had already reached Zichen’s presence. He swung the knife and directly slashed at the opponent’s thigh.

“Ah!!!” Zichen screamed in pain and knelt down on the spot. Blood gushed from his leg.

He thought he was dead for sure.

But after slashing once, Doctor Zhao took no other action. Instead, with a grave expression, he slowly retreated several steps, waited for the ten seconds to pass, then threw the machete into the window behind him.

Zichen bit his teeth, stood up, and enduring the severe pain, also threw the handgun in his hand out.

“So you already knew the gun was a toy…” Zichen muttered to himself. “That’s why you had to catch the handgun before it hit the ground… otherwise I would have heard it was a plastic product.”

“You probably still don’t know how terrifying our ‘Strategist’ is,” Doctor Zhao sighed slightly. “He commanded me to use a water gun and successfully disarmed your knife.”

At this moment, Su Shan also understood the severity of the situation.

The seemingly most powerful “life card” was actually a useless piece of plastic. Its lethality was even less than a rope.

“This rooster actually left me with illusory hope in this deck…” Su Shan slowly raised her head, feeling like she’d been played. “He’s toying with me…”

“He’s not toying with you,” Qi Xia shook his head and pointed at the words on the card. “This card is called ‘Life Card,’ and it’s always had ‘JOKER’ written on it.”

“What…?”

“Think about it carefully—the shields in this game are wooden, which means the ‘handgun is guaranteed to win,'” Qi Xia said calmly. “Since there’s a guaranteed winning card, why would we need to go through so much trouble battling wits? Whoever draws the ‘gun’ wins. That’s not the scene ‘Earth-Chicken’ hopes to see. Look at the cards in our hands—he wants us to torture each other in prolonged killing. So the ‘handgun’ is just a prank. Playing this ‘life card,’ no one will die.”