“What…?” Earth-Horse turned her head to look at Earth-Mouse, her expression filled with confusion. “You want to threaten me? On what basis?”
“Hey, I just have a hypothesis. This hypothesis might be very absurd, but you might as well listen to it first!”
Earth-Mouse walked forward step by step, his face plastered with a courteous smile.
“You…”
Earth-Horse finally realized just how troublesome this mouse before her was. She only regretted that she had underestimated him too much before.
“Just now you kept saying to Pig Leader ‘as long as we can take them down, we’ll earn merit,’ which made me think of something interesting.” Earth-Mouse smiled. “If I may be so bold—you really don’t look like a smart person. I’m wondering if, when you were inciting Pig Leader, because you couldn’t think of any good reasons for a moment, you accidentally blurted out your own true thoughts?”
When everyone heard this, they furrowed their brows, while Earth-Horse’s eyes widened.
“So you weren’t trying to help Pig Leader earn merit at all—you wanted to earn merit for yourself…” Earth-Mouse pressed forward aggressively with a smile, his words advancing like sharp blades toward Earth-Horse.
“I’m not talking to you anymore.”
A trace of panic flashed through Earth-Horse’s expression. She turned to leave through the door, but Earth-Mouse stepped forward and grabbed her arm.
“Leader, don’t rush off. I haven’t finished speaking.” Earth-Mouse smiled. “I still want to keep guessing. Give me another chance.”
“Get lost!!” Earth-Horse looked somewhat anxious. She shook off Earth-Mouse’s hand, determined to pull open the door.
Earth-Sheep and Earth-Tiger understood what was happening and hurried to block the doorway.
“Yo, don’t leave!” Earth-Tiger sneered. “So resolute when causing trouble, but eager to run when things are exposed? Where’s there such a good deal?”
“Exactly!” Earth-Mouse chimed in. “I said I was going to threaten you, but I haven’t said anything yet, and you’re already trying to run?”
“Fine then. Since you say you want to threaten me, I’d like to see just how capable you are and how you plan to threaten me?”
After hearing this, Earth-Mouse reached up to scratch his forehead and said, “Leader, you’re being so forthright that it makes me seem a bit sinister. Since that’s the case, I’ll boldly guess… You don’t look like any formidable character. Although you possess the game designed by ‘Golden Monkey,’ in thirty years you probably haven’t killed three thousand six hundred people, have you?”
Earth-Horse’s expression became extremely unpleasant, but she didn’t answer.
“One hundred people per year—you can’t even kill one person every three days.” Earth-Mouse nodded. “So my guess is still somewhat biased. You don’t just want to ‘earn merit,’ because your appeal differs from Pig Leader’s. Pleasing the ‘Heavenly Level’ can’t get you promoted, so your current actions seem more like… like…”
Earth-Mouse thought for a long time about how to phrase it.
“Ah, I know—’atoning for sins through merit,’ right?” Earth-Mouse’s smile grew increasingly brilliant. “Horse Leader, you couldn’t have committed some fatal error that requires you to quickly do something to make amends, could you?”
“I…” Earth-Horse looked at Earth-Mouse with disbelief. “Who exactly are you…”
“But we’re already ‘Earth Level.’ What kind of matter would make you so panicked…?” Earth-Mouse lowered his head, pretending to ponder. “Panicked enough that you need to do something immediately to show your loyalty to your superiors… But you’re not showing loyalty to ‘Heavenly-Horse’; instead, you’re performing for ‘Heavenly-Dragon.’ Is the matter very serious…?”
Black Sheep glanced at the slacking dog in the distance who was munching on sunflower seeds. His eyes became profound. Although the mouse he had brought had considerable personality flaws, his mind was truly extraordinary.
“In other words, this matter will anger ‘Heavenly-Dragon’ and possibly endanger your own safety…” Earth-Mouse stroked his long whiskers, and within seconds arrived at an answer. “It’s common knowledge that a group of ‘Participants’ were causing trouble outside today… Taking everything into consideration, is there a possibility that the trouble they caused at your place was so big that even you couldn’t control it, resulting in extremely serious consequences—consequences so serious that you might not be able to remain an ‘Earth Level’ anymore?”
“Are you really just guessing?” Earth-Horse stared at him.
“Of course, of course.” Earth-Mouse nodded. “Leader, you don’t think I already knew the answer, do you? That would be overestimating me.”
After hearing this, Earth-Horse simply gave up resisting and said to everyone, “My situation is indeed quite critical right now… If I can’t quickly do something, I’ll definitely be expelled. So coming to trouble you all this time was also a desperate measure.”
“I’ve heard this kind of talk too many times.” Earth-Tiger shook his head. “Because ‘something happened to me,’ therefore I had to ‘do something to you’—but no one in this world needs to indulge you. Why should we suffer because of your problems?”
Earth-Horse’s brows furrowed, and her voice changed somewhat. “Then what do you want me to do?! That ‘Participant’ drastically reduced the difficulty of my game with just one sentence! I can’t kill people anymore! If ‘Heavenly-Dragon’ finds out I’m wasting a position here, he’ll definitely expel me!! Trading you all for merit is already the only thing I can do!”
“Reducing your game’s difficulty with just one sentence…?”
None of them had ever heard of such a thing—they couldn’t even imagine the scene.
“But you have another option.” Black Sheep said coldly from the side. “Yesterday I just read this line from the ‘Records of the Grand Historian: Chen She Family’ that Brother Sheep left behind—’Whether we flee or revolt, death awaits; since death is inevitable either way, why not attempt something great?’ Since you can’t escape no matter what, why not try joining us instead?”
Black Sheep’s words made several people hesitate. After all, Earth-Horse didn’t look like any reliable teammate. Was it really appropriate to bring such a person into the team?
But thinking carefully, everyone in this team was not much better than her. Everyone had their own purposes and ideas—it was already a team full of weak links, so they might as well not mind adding another weak link.
“That’s right, Horse Leader…” Earth-Mouse understood Black Sheep’s meaning and quickly interjected. “Dog Leader and Pig Leader can understand this principle—why can’t you? How can you, as a leader, be not as good as even pigs and dogs?”
Earth-Pig and Earth-Dog felt something odd about this statement but couldn’t pinpoint exactly what was strange.
“But wouldn’t I purely be forced into it…?” Earth-Horse frowned. “I don’t want to join at all. It was clearly that ‘Participant’ who harmed me…”
“So what’s your meaning?” Earth-Mouse asked.
“I need to go back and think about it.”
“What a pity.” Earth-Mouse said. “I mentioned this was a ‘threat.’ If you don’t agree, I’ll spread your affairs everywhere. At that time, forget your ankle tendons—even your arteries will probably be severed. I’m afraid none of us wish to see such a scene, Horse Leader who is not as good as pigs and dogs.”