Hu Dashan sighed and said, “Brother, I’m sorry. I have no choice — I really can’t let you go. You’ve been eliminated, and that just means you’ve been eliminated. But if we get eliminated…”

He glanced over at the sleeping Han Lu not far away, and said softly with a sigh, “If we get eliminated, it’s a dead end.”

Tan Xiao’s eyes widened. “That can’t be right… even if you lose, only the king dies — the subjects become commoners, don’t they?”

“Becoming a commoner requires puzzle pieces — at least two!” Hu Dashan said, both agitated and helpless. “When a subject is eliminated, one puzzle piece is deducted. If the deduction brings your total to zero, you die. So under normal circumstances, when a king recruits subjects, they always promise to provide at least two puzzle pieces!”

Tan Xiao stared blankly at him. “Right… that’s how it works. Everyone gets two.”

Hu Dashan sighed heavily again and said, “We only have one. So… in this match, we have to win.”

Tan Xiao felt his mind struggling to make sense of this. After a long, dumbfounded moment, he asked Hu Dashan, “You and Xiao Qi both only received one puzzle piece?”

“Yes, only one each.” Hu Dashan said. “And it’s not just me and Xiao Qi — all of Ye Chong’s other subjects only received one as well.”

“Are you all idiots…” Tan Xiao couldn’t hold back. “You got recruited for just one puzzle piece? How could you be so naive?”

Hu Dashan opened his mouth, then closed it, unable to argue back.

In truth, even he himself felt it was pretty idiotic.

“At the time, Xiao Qi and I approached him. He said his subject slots were almost full and that he wasn’t fully familiar with or able to trust us. If we still wanted to join him, it wasn’t out of the question — he would issue us one puzzle piece as a recruitment token, and if we proved ourselves willing to follow him into the game, he would give us another piece later.”

Recalling past events, Hu Dashan was filled with regret. He continued:

“You know how it is — rumors about the White Glove spread like wildfire throughout the entire base. Everyone believed Ye Chong was formidable, and thought that being one of his subjects might mean following him into the New World. So Xiao Qi and I went to join him — but we never expected to be played like this…”

“You two are way too easy to trick…” Tan Xiao was starting to feel sorry for Hu Dashan. Then he asked, “What’s the New World?”

“I don’t know — we heard it from others…” Hu Dashan lowered his head, voice quiet. “The last king standing takes his subjects up to heaven, to reign above all others.”

Ultimately, it was greed that had blinded them, making them rush so desperately to accept the recruitment, afraid to miss their chance to enter the New World.

And Ye Chong held a large quantity of puzzle pieces — there was no real need for him to withhold any from his subjects. The only reason he was doing this now was to force everyone to fight with their lives on the line!

Hu Dashan drank a few mouthfuls of water, then helplessly shook the half-empty water bottle and went on:

“Look — ever since your team shot down our drone and destroyed our camp’s water supply, all our remaining provisions were stored in his glove. Now we can only rely on whatever he pulls out of the glove for food and water… sigh, we can’t even have a drink of water without watching his expression.”

“No wonder your team never splits up — turns out there’s no need to watch the supplies at all.” Tan Xiao suddenly understood. He’d assumed the White Glove was some kind of launcher, but it turned out to be a storage space.

“Ah, who knows what tomorrow will bring…” Hu Dashan sighed, bent forward to stand up, and without warning was hit by a wave of dizziness. His body swayed with it.

He stumbled a couple of steps and quickly braced himself against the stone wall, steadying himself only after a moment.

Tan Xiao lay on the ground staring wide-eyed at him. “What’s going on… you look even weaker than me, and I’m the injured one here. Are you starving?”

—