Chapter 32: Rules
The rules the wolf butler stated were simple. The fourth game adopted a survival competition system.
Including Su Xiao, a total of seven players would enter the Forest of the Strong. They needed to survive inside the Forest of the Strong for five days. Once the five days were up, the game would end.
However, merely surviving five days was not enough. The fourth game only had six advancement slots. That meant one out of the seven would definitely be eliminated. In the Demon Castle game, elimination equaled death.
No one wanted to die. When the fourth game ended, the player with the lowest game score would be eliminated. Moreover, judging by the wolf butler’s tone, the animals and “guests” inside the Forest of the Strong were likely very powerful. The exact numbers were unknown.
Of course, besides earning points, there was another way to pass the fourth game: the players killing each other. That way, the remaining six wouldn’t have to worry about advancement slots.
Alice was a scheming bitch. She was enjoying this game, so she also offered a reward to create competition among the players. After the five-day survival ended, the player with the highest score could pick any item from Alice’s treasure vault. What an enticing reward.
Survival, competition, deceit, tempting rewards, “guests” lurking in the forest, various creatures dwelling within the forest.
The content of the fourth game seemed simple on the surface—just survival—but that wasn’t the case.
Compared to the first three games, the fourth game had far too much freedom. Although it was dangerous, that danger could be avoided through strength. Su Xiao preferred this type of game: blades draw blood, life and death are taken lightly, and if you’re not convinced, you fight. The previous third game was too mentally taxing.
Su Xiao basically understood the game rules, but he still couldn’t grasp the meaning of the backpack in his hand. He didn’t need these materials. He had stored a large amount of food, fresh water, and quite a few recovery potions in his storage space.
Su Xiao took a piece of jerky from the backpack and tried to check its attributes.
[Dried Venison]
Quality: White
Type: Food
Effect: Relieves hunger, replenishes stamina.
Rating: 8
Introduction: Dried venison blessed by the Demon Castle’s protection, capable of remaining unspoiled for a long time in the Forest of the Strong.
…
Seeing the attributes of the jerky in his hand, Su Xiao’s pupils contracted. He immediately took a piece of food from his storage space—also jerky.
The moment the jerky left the storage space, before Su Xiao could even see its appearance clearly, it began to decay. In an instant, the jerky turned to dust in his hand, slipping through his fingers.
Seeing this, Pi Pang and the others also tried immediately. No matter what food it was, as soon as it left the storage space, it decayed instantly, turning to ash. Fresh water also evaporated into vapor in an instant.
“The food you brought yourselves cannot withstand the environment of the Forest of the Strong. That includes those strange medicines.”
The corner of the wolf butler’s mouth lifted slightly, as if he had long anticipated this scene.
Was it really caused by the environment of the Forest of the Strong? Su Xiao didn’t think so. If foreign items would all decay in the Forest of the Strong, then some of his clothing would also decay. This was definitely that woman Alice’s doing.
Su Xiao took out a white-quality potion. This was something left over from his rookie days. After his physical attribute exceeded 50 points, this potion’s recovery effect became negligible, so he had just left it in his storage space.
As soon as he took out the white potion, it began to evaporate rapidly, and even the glass bottle containing the potion decayed along with it.
After some experimentation, Su Xiao discovered that food, fresh water, and recovery potions—these three types of items—would decay immediately upon being taken out of the storage space. Functional items and equipment were unaffected, as were some ordinary daily items like flint and tents.
Su Xiao understood the significance of the wolf butler handing out backpacks. The food, water, and potion supplies in the backpack could be used in the Forest of the Strong.
Fresh water was manageable. With such a dense forest, there was bound to be a water source. As for food and potions, those two resources would be scarce. Who knew what species the creatures and “guests” in the Forest of the Strong were? If they were energy beings or summoned creatures, their meat wouldn’t be edible at all.
That’s right. Most summoned creatures’ meat couldn’t be eaten. Summoned beings more or less had spatial attributes and were often imbued with various states by their masters—poison, curses, and the like were common. Eating the meat of such summoned creatures would be lucky if you didn’t die, let alone replenish stamina.
Su Xiao estimated the amount of jerky in the backpack. Given his and Bubu Wang’s appetites, it was unknown if this amount would even last one meal. The way to obtain food was simple: steal or kill.
Su Xiao wasn’t good at reasoning, but he was good at stealing or killing. His gaze unconsciously drifted toward others’ backpacks. It wasn’t intentional on his part; it was indeed an unconscious action.
Once inside the Forest of the Strong, food and recovery items couldn’t be guaranteed. This made the cost of combat very high. Combat equaled consuming stamina, plus the possibility of injury, plus shortening the time until hunger—a slow death.
Su Xiao’s physical fitness was indeed formidable, but this formidable fitness required a lot of energy. He wasn’t a cultivator who could abstain from food. The stronger his strength, the more terrifying the energy he consumed. Power wouldn’t appear without reason; that wasn’t supernatural, it was delusion.
Given Su Xiao’s current situation, if he didn’t fight and had sufficient fresh water, he could maintain combat effectiveness for about two days. After two days, he would grow weaker and weaker, his combat power rapidly declining.
Fresh water wasn’t sufficient. In that case, he could probably maintain peak condition for about 36 hours.
“This is fucking ridiculous.”
An angry voice came from Pi Pang. The fat on his face twitched. For him, fat was combat power. Without a food supply, his combat power would grow weaker and weaker.
“Everyone, it’s time to head deeper into the Forest of the Strong. You first.”
The wolf butler pointed at the detective loli. The detective loli also understood the current situation. She hugged her backpack and ran into the forest, running incredibly fast.
“Five minutes later, the next player departs.”
The wolf butler was avoiding a chaotic brawl at the starting point.
Su Xiao tossed his backpack to Bubu Wang. This supply was precious. If it suffered any loss during intense combat, that would be a huge loss.
Five minutes later, the gold-rimmed glasses man departed. He too quickly disappeared into the forest. The next to depart was the third brother of National Football.
While waiting to head deeper into the Forest of the Strong, Su Xiao quietly approached the demon servant. He hadn’t forgotten Sha’s hint.
The demon servant sat dully on a wooden stake. Earlier, the gold-rimmed glasses man had tried to negotiate with it, but his charm attribute had suffered a crushing defeat. The demon servant wouldn’t even look at him.
Su Xiao approached the demon servant. The demon servant had no reaction. Taking advantage of the wolf butler’s inattention, Su Xiao activated the demon mark on his arm, drawing out a trace of demonic power while gathering a strand of Azure Steel Shadow energy at his fingertip.