Chen Junnan and Yun Yao waited for approximately two hours before participants gradually trickled over.

Looking around, Chen Junnan only felt that among these people were several familiar faces, but it had truly been too many years since he’d seen them—he couldn’t call out a single name.

Yun Yao counted the number present—a full eleven people. Now they were just one short of starting the game, but often at times like these, the wait felt especially prolonged.

“Damn it…” Chen Junnan cursed under his breath. “If I’d known, I would have brought that little brat Old Qi along.”

After hearing this, Yun Yao looked at Chen Junnan curiously: “Have you known Qi Xia for a long time?”

“Yeah.” Chen Junnan nodded. “Getting to know that kid is really exhausting—I have to introduce myself every time.”

“What…?” Yun Yao froze slightly. “You, you mean he…”

“I didn’t say anything.” Chen Junnan keenly caught Yun Yao’s microexpression. “Big star, you… seem to know something?”

Yun Yao wasn’t certain what stance Chen Junnan before her held, nor did she know whether she should tell him about the phrase “Endless Surging Waves” she’d seen that night. She could only ponder for a while before shaking her head.

The last person was a man in a suit. Upon seeing this person, Yun Yao’s brows furrowed slightly.

This was a familiar teammate, a man from the same room as Li Xiangling, named Zhong Zhen. He nodded to Yun Yao in acknowledgment, then walked before Earth-Snake to hand over his “Dao.”

“Zhong Zhen… how did you end up here?” Yun Yao asked.

“I was about to ask you the same, Yun Yao.” Zhong Zhen smiled. “I feel only ‘Snake’ games suit me, so I’ve always been searching for ‘Snake.'”

“Oh… so that’s how it is…” Yun Yao smiled bitterly. “What a coincidence then…”

Zhong Zhen also smiled: “Yes, yes, truly such a coincidence. Yun Yao, have you achieved ‘Echo’?”

“I… haven’t yet.” Yun Yao answered.

“Then what should we do…” Zhong Zhen smiled with difficulty. “You haven’t yet achieved ‘Echo.’ If this game has rules about mutual sabotage… I’m afraid I won’t be able to bring myself to act.”

“Heh…” Yun Yao smiled. “Unable to bring yourself to act? That doesn’t sound like you.”

“True enough, haha.” Zhong Zhen grinned without warmth.

Chen Junnan noticed Yun Yao’s expression seemed somewhat unnatural and asked quietly from behind: “Everything alright, big star?”

“I’m fine.” Yun Yao turned back and said quietly, “I don’t know what abilities you have, but you need to be careful of that man.”

“Hmm? That guy in the suit?” Chen Junnan looked at him with contempt. “What about that dude?”

“He’s very cold-blooded.” Yun Yao spoke bluntly. “To win a game, he’ll kill anyone without hesitation, whether teammates or friends.”

“Isn’t that pretty good?” Chen Junnan smiled. “It means this person is relatively easy to understand.”

“Is that so…” Yun Yao smiled somewhat absently. She could only pray she would quickly obtain “Echo” in this game, otherwise the situation would be rather dangerous.

Chen Junnan looked around and discovered he had no impression of him whatsoever. He could only stand up and walk toward Earth-Snake.

“Old man, everyone’s here. Start as soon as possible.”

Earth-Snake looked at the male-to-female ratio among the participants and discovered there were more men. An expression of disappointment flowed forth uncontrollably.

But fortunately, this time there was a girl who looked exceptionally beautiful—one who could match four or five people. Earth-Snake rallied his spirits again and said: “Alright then, follow me.”

The twelve people followed Earth-Snake into the massive building behind him.

Inside the building was a modest circular arena with something resembling a lectern placed in the center. An old-fashioned computer sat on the lectern.

Surrounding the circular arena was a complete circular wall. Every few meters there was a wooden door—it seemed that behind the wall were twelve rooms.

“Everyone, my game is called ‘Minority and Majority.’ It’s a very simple question-and-answer game.” Earth-Snake said to the crowd with his hands clasped behind his back. “Each person will have a room. When the game proceeds, I’ll lock the room doors, and everyone will answer questions inside their rooms.”

Seeing that the crowd didn’t seem to understand clearly, he came before one of the room doors and reached out to open it.

This was a very small square room with a chair in the center and a small display screen device. In the corner of the wall hung an extremely old telephone.

To allow the old-style telephone to sit smoothly in the corner, the person who built this place had even thoughtfully constructed a small shelf for it.

Earth-Snake led everyone into the room. Chen Junnan and Yun Yao stepped forward to examine the display screen in the center of the room. This screen seemed to be custom-made, supported by an iron pipe, standing before the chair.

On either side of the display screen was a button—one green, one red.

“The questions and answers in this game are very simple, with only two answers: ‘Yes’ and ‘No.'” Earth-Snake said. “You need only press the button according to the actual situation. The green button represents ‘Yes,’ the red button represents ‘No.’ For the sake of fairness, the answers in this game adopt the principle of ‘minority obeys majority’—the answer will use whichever option more people select.”

After Earth-Snake finished speaking, he walked to the corner and picked up the old-style telephone.

“Additionally, this is a specially-made telephone.” Earth-Snake said. “Your twelve rooms are arranged in a circular formation, connected end to end. At any time, besides receiving calls, your telephones can only connect to the next room on your left side.”

He pondered for a moment, then said: “If someone is eliminated in their room, after the telephone rings ten times, it will pass along to connect to the room of the next living person.”

After hearing this, Zhong Zhen pondered slightly, then asked: “How does one get eliminated in your game?”

“You’ll naturally know during the course of the game.” Earth-Snake said with a smile. “If you sense you’re about to die, female participants can directly call out to me for rescue. As long as your performance satisfies me, I may possibly save your lives.”

“What about male participants?” Zhong Zhen asked again.

“Males, please die directly.” Earth-Snake said coldly.

“Old man…” Chen Junnan spoke up to ask, “What’s this telephone for? What do you mean by ‘connect to the next room on the left’? Can we phone a friend while answering questions?”

Earth-Snake shook his head: “It’s not ‘phoning a friend,’ but rather that each round I’ll tell the question to one of the participants. After this person answers for themselves, they then relay the question via telephone to the next person on their left. When all twelve people have received the question and finished answering, one round is considered complete.”

After hearing this, Chen Junnan looked at the telephone in Earth-Snake’s hand and vaguely sensed something was amiss.

This was a “question-and-answer” game, yet the “questions” everyone heard might not necessarily come from the “referee,” but rather could potentially come from other participants.

And “Snake” games typically came in only two types—one was “question-and-answer,” the other was “cunning.” This game would likely combine both styles, producing an unpredictable situation.

“I have a total of forty-eight questions, which means forty-eight rounds.” Earth-Snake said. “After all forty-eight questions are finished, the survivors can evenly split forty-eight ‘Dao.'”