“‘Year of Calamity’?”

“That’s right. In this game, I play the final phase of the year—the ‘Year Beast,’ and you all need to think of every possible way to defeat me.”

After Earth-Dog finished speaking, he pulled out a small remote control from his pocket and pressed the button on it.

Three incandescent lights suddenly lit up in the central cylindrical glass tube, arranged in sequence and suspended in midair.

“These three lights are my ‘health.'” Earth-Dog turned back and said. “After each of you four has used one ‘stick,’ it counts as one round ending. The game has a total of eight rounds.”

“Wait a moment…” Su Shan felt that Earth-Dog was about to finish explaining the rules, but the most important rule hadn’t been mentioned yet. “If these three lights are your ‘health,’ how do we make them go out?”

“With your ‘sticks.'” Earth-Dog said. “Some ‘sticks’ will cause me ‘damage,’ meaning they can extinguish the lights above my head. As long as you can extinguish all three lights above my head within eight rounds, you can all be considered victorious. After eight rounds, no matter what happens, the game will end.”

After hearing this, the four women fell silent. The “rules” seemed to have been explained fairly thoroughly, yet they felt something was missing.

“That’s not right…” Qin Dingdong said. “These rules sound like playing cards, and I more or less understand, but aren’t you participating?”

“What?”

“Don’t you need to use ‘sticks’?” Qin Dingdong asked. “The four of us just surround you and attack? You just sit in the middle and take the beating?”

“I’ll certainly participate.” Earth-Dog said. “As I mentioned earlier, after you four have all used your ‘sticks,’ one round ends. And I can also use one ‘stick’ per round. Sounds fair, doesn’t it?”

After hearing this, Su Shan decisively grasped the key point of this statement and asked: “So do you use your ‘stick’ before us or after us?”

“That depends on my strategy.” Earth-Dog said. “My ‘stick’ can be used at any time within the round, but I’m limited to using only one per round.”

Lin Qin discovered that the Earth-Dog before her was indeed quite different from other “Zodiacs”—he seemed to answer every question asked.

Thinking of this, Lin Qin stepped forward and asked: “Then I want to know, how will you kill us in the game?”

This question was sharp and to the point, causing Earth-Dog’s expression to change.

“I…” Earth-Dog thought for a moment, then said, “Forget it. Since I’m going to take my work seriously, there’s no harm in telling you everything. The ‘sticks’ in my hand are slightly different from those in yours. I have a total of eight ‘sticks,’ each representing one of eight ‘calamities.'”

Su Shan nodded after hearing this: “So you’re the Year Beast that can bring ‘calamities’?”

“Correct.” Earth-Dog said. “My ‘calamities’ may potentially kill people, so you all need to be careful.”

After hearing this, the four women fell silent again. Once the game was announced to begin, they would fall into a passive state of being unable to communicate, so they could only think as much as possible about what questions needed to be asked.

“What about these four glass rooms…” Su Shan pointed at the four square glass rooms. “What’s the turn order for ‘playing sticks’ later?”

Earth-Dog frowned after hearing this: “Aren’t you all asking too many questions?”

“I…”

Just as Su Shan was about to say something, Qin Dingdong took a step forward first and said to Earth-Dog: “Wasn’t it you who didn’t explain the rules clearly in the first place? If we go in like this without even knowing the order, what if things get chaotic?”

“When I work, I’ve always been meticulous. How could I forget to explain the rules?” Earth-Dog said with a furrowed brow. “I think what I’ve said is enough for you to participate in the game.”

“Meticulous?” Qin Dingdong laughed. “Dog-classmate, I really don’t know if I should say this or not.”

“You can question my character, but you cannot question my work capability.” Earth-Dog replied irritably.

Qin Dingdong snorted coldly, then turned back to point at the glass not far away, where there was a dirty handprint.

“You keep saying you’re meticulous, but when you switched to a new batch of participants, you didn’t even wipe the glass?”

“Huh?” Earth-Dog was startled, and both dog ears twitched. “I didn’t wipe the glass?”

“Look, see for yourself.” Qin Dingdong pointed at the handprint. “You’ve given us such a poor game experience. We don’t care about that—we just simply want to ask about the rules again. Is that not allowed?”

Earth-Dog walked over to look at the handprint on the glass, slowly furrowing his brow.

“I’m not wrong, am I?” Qin Dingdong patted Earth-Dog’s back. “Just answer one more question for us, and we’ll call it even.”

Earth-Dog looked at Su Shan and Qin Dingdong, and ultimately still nodded: “Fine, go ahead and ask.”

“We asked earlier—what’s the turn order for these glass rooms?”

After hearing this, Earth-Dog extended his finger to point at the pink glass room and said: “The person in the pink glass room goes first each round, then it rotates clockwise—green, orange, then blue.”

“What do the colors represent?” Su Shan asked again.

“I don’t know.” Earth-Dog coldly interrupted Su Shan with an indifferent expression. “That’s all. I should have explained all the rules. The rest of the game depends on your own fortune.”

Earth-Dog slowly walked into the glass cylinder in the very center of the room, then said to them from inside the door: “Please choose your rooms to enter as soon as possible. The game will begin in five minutes.”

After speaking, he closed the door on his own. An exceptionally complex lock on the glass door latched shut at this moment.

“That dead dog…” Qin Dingdong looked at him irritably. “He sure has some nerve. He can’t hear anything we discuss down here at all. It’s the perfect opportunity to pull one over on him.”

“I don’t think so…” Su Shan looked toward Earth-Dog’s direction with some concern. “The fact that he can so confidently lock his own door only proves he has absolute certainty. He believes he has a high probability of killing us in the upcoming game.”

“Then what should we do?” Qin Dingdong looked at the people before her. Judging from today’s several “Man-level” games during the day, this four-person team was all very intelligent. If they could truly unite, confronting one “Earth-Dog” shouldn’t be too big of a problem.

“Let’s choose positions first.” Su Shan said. “I’m planning to be the ‘first person.’ If possible, I’ll figure out all the game rules first, then find a way to relay them to you all.”

“Relay…”

“Although we can’t hear each other’s voices, using hand gestures and lip movements for simple communication should still be achievable.” Su Shan emphasized. “After all, we’re in glass rooms and can see each other’s every move.”

Zhang Chenze, who hadn’t spoken in a while, paused and looked up to say: “Earth-Dog could clearly have kept us in sealed rooms, but he built glass rooms instead. I think there’s something fishy about it.”

“Even if there’s something fishy, we can’t figure it out now.” Su Shan said. “The urgent matter is to choose our rooms and participate in the game. From here on, everyone will have to rely on their own abilities in the game.”