Qiao Jiajin carefully calculated the pros and cons of this matter in his heart.

Should he risk catching those “balls,” or should he try his best to avoid them?

Could the reward content really help them get through the game better?

“Alright, then I understand.” Qiao Jiajin nodded. “Start quickly.”

“Good.” Earth-Horse gave everyone a look. “Since there are many of you, please push the ‘Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse’ over.”

After hearing this, everyone lifted the small cart and slowly pushed it to the starting point of the track.

At this time, Earth-Horse also took out a signal gun from his pocket and said to everyone, “After the gun sounds, the countdown will begin. You must make continuous round trips. If the ‘cart rider’ is eliminated during transport, you’ll need to return to the starting point and replace them with another ‘cart rider.'”

“Understood.”

“Now please have the first person get on the cart.” Earth-Horse said again.

After hearing this, everyone looked at each other. Qiao Jiajin was the first to speak, “Little girl, you go first.”

“Me?” Bai Jiu was slightly stunned.

“How many pounds are you?” Qiao Jiajin asked.

“Pounds? I’m not very good at calculating pounds, but I’m eighty-six jin.” Bai Jiu answered.

“Jin? I’m not very good at calculating jin either, but it’s you anyway.” Qiao Jiajin said. “The first round is the testing phase. Since you’re so light, it’ll be easier for us to control the cart, and your build is small and thin, so you’re less likely to be hit by flying ‘balls.'”

“Qiao Ge… I can understand you saying I’m light…” Bai Jiu smiled bitterly. “But as for those flying ‘balls,’ none of us know about them…”

“Protect… protect me?”

“Yes.” Qiao Jiajin looked at Bai Jiu with an especially serious pair of eyes. “No matter where the ‘balls’ fly from, I’ll block any that you can’t dodge.”

Although Qiao Jiajin was saying something that Bai Jiu thought was completely impossible to do, for some reason, Bai Jiu felt very safe.

“Then… then you also need to pay attention to your own safety, Qiao Ge.” Bai Jiu said somewhat stutteringly.

“I understand, get on the cart.”

Yun Shijiu and Qiu Ershi reached out to help her, letting her step onto the Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse.

A weight of just over eighty jin was really too light—this stable handcart didn’t even shake.

After Bai Jiu sat down properly, everyone dispersed to both sides of the handcart and then reached out to support the cart.

Although they had already practiced just now, facing the thick ice layer before them, everyone still felt somewhat nervous.

“Everyone needs to remember one thing.” Qiao Jiajin reminded in a low voice.

“What thing?”

“There’s sharp glass on both sides of the track.” Qiao Jiajin said. “In a place like this, once you’re injured, it basically means a death sentence. So when you find yourself about to fall, curl up your body as much as possible and use leg strength to let yourself leap out in a forward roll posture.”

After hearing this, everyone looked at this straight track one after another. The protruding glass on both sides was very sharp, but fortunately there wasn’t much glass—only two rows.

“Forward rolls and such, won’t that be a bit difficult…?” Qiu Ershi said somewhat awkwardly. “If we had this kind of skill… we’d probably be able to catch up with those combat group members.”

“I don’t expect you to be able to do it one hundred percent.” Qiao Jiajin answered. “But if you can remember these words of mine in a life-or-death moment, it could very likely save your life.”

After hearing this, everyone silently nodded.

“The game is about to start.” Earth-Horse took out a stopwatch, then slowly raised the signal gun in his hand. At this time, a wall on one side of the basketball arena also lit up with an electronic clock, the countdown fixed at fifteen minutes.

Qiao Jiajin slowly bent down his body and reached out to grab the cart. Fortunately, this cart was made very solidly, with a horizontal bar on both sides that could be grasped.

Among everyone, the most nervous was none other than Bai Jiu, who was high up. Although everyone had protected her in the center, speaking of it, each person could abandon the cart and flee when in extreme danger, but Bai Jiu alone could not.

She felt like she was a living target, currently sitting at the highest point waiting for an attack.

“Prepare…” Earth-Horse muttered in a low voice, then pulled the trigger.

Along with a small puff of gunpowder smoke, the sound of the signal gun exploded in the basketball court, and everyone simultaneously took a step forward.

In the next second, a wooden box at the farthest distance from everyone slowly rose up. The top was written with the two characters “Army Breaker,” and the rumbling sound of mechanisms moving came from inside.

“Be careful…” Qiao Jiajin said in a low voice. “Saving your life is the priority.”

“Got it!”

Several people supported the handcart and slowly walked onto the ice surface. After a few seconds, everyone felt something was wrong.

The wooden balls at the bottom of the “Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse” were really too smooth. The instant they made contact with the ice surface, the entire handcart seemed to have lost its weight.

Everyone felt their hands slip of strength for a moment and could only grip the horizontal bar even more carefully, becoming even more cautious with every inch of movement. This cart seemed to only need a tiny bit of force to advance at extreme speed.

“There’s enough time.” Qiao Jiajin said. “Fifteen minutes for seven round trips, one round trip is about fifty yards… fifty yards in two minutes, there’s enough time, take it slow.”

Just as everyone was about to relax, they heard the mechanism sound in the distance had stopped. In the next second, with a “rumbling” sound, a white sphere burst out from the opening of the wooden box, flying toward Bai Jiu on the “Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse” at extremely fast speed.

In the instant when everyone was stunned, Qiao Jiajin’s feet exerted force and he instantly leaped from the ground. After confirming the landing point of the white sphere, he used his thigh to drive his calf and directly kicked it in mid-air.

“Bang!!”

With a crisp sound, the white ball instantly shattered into countless fragments. Everyone just felt a chill all over their bodies.

Qiao Jiajin flipped a circle in the air before landing, but he forgot that everything under his feet was ice. The instant his heel touched the ground, it slipped, and his entire person fell backward out of control.

“Damn!”

Qiao Jiajin instantly twisted his waist to turn himself around, then stretched out both hands and steadily braced against the ground.

“That was close…” He furrowed his brow and moved his feet to stand up.

Although he felt he had only moved his hands and feet slightly, this series of actions still made everyone’s mouths drop open.

“Qiao… Qiao Ge, just now you…” Bai Jiu, sitting on the “Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse,” had witnessed the entire process clearly and clearly, and felt that Qiao Jiajin was so agile he didn’t seem like a normal person.

Qiao Jiajin paid no attention and just reached out to touch his own hair, feeling something was strange.

“Seems like it was an ice ball.”

“Ice ball?” After hearing this, everyone finally reacted. The instant the sphere shattered just now, everyone felt a chill all over their bodies—there should have been ice ball fragments falling onto their own bodies.

At this time, a girl who had never spoken before and was standing behind Qiao Jiajin slowly extended her hand and used her thumb to pinch her middle finger and ring finger, as if calculating something.

“Army Breaker… ice ball?”