Chapter 40: The Wolf Butler's Secret
Six game participants remained. The wolf butler held a piece of parchment that tallied the score rankings for the fourth game.
"Ten thousand points should be enough to take first place, right?"
The detective loli glanced around at the other five people present. The Three Brothers of National Football were not to be underestimated, and Fatty's game score should also be high. As for the final participant, Su Xiao, his score was unknown.
Su Xiao himself wasn't sure how many points he had. During the first two days of the game, he had eliminated many guests or creatures within the Forest of the Strong, but for the last three days, he had stayed inside a tree hollow.
"The participant with the highest game score is..."
The wolf butler didn't announce everyone's scores. Instead, he directly declared the highest scorer.
"It's in the bag."
The third brother of the National Football team smiled. The three of them had encountered a lucky opportunity in the Forest of the Strong.
"That's not necessarily true."
Fatty also seemed confident. Over the previous five days, he had been constantly hunting down 'guests'; otherwise, he wouldn't be in such a sorry state now.
"Killing creatures in the forest gives 1-2 points, killing guests gives 2-3 points. I don't believe you could have killed thousands of guests in five days."
The detective loli had over ten thousand points in hand. She was confident she could compete for first place.
Admittedly, during the first game, the detective loli's survival chances seemed to be in the last tier. In the Fate Revolver game, because she had befriended the gold-rimmed glasses man, everyone thought she was as good as dead.
The gloomy man thought so, and he died in the first game.
The catwoman thought so too, and she died in the third game.
But in the fourth game, the gold-rimmed glasses man died, and the one who survived was the detective loli, whom everyone had underestimated.
Thinking back now, although the detective loli seemed somewhat inadequate in every game, she actually performed quite well each time.
The first game didn't count; that was a test of luck. In the second game with the poisonous dragon meat, the detective loli used a golden item to finish eating the meat first. In the third game, she reasoned throughout, closely following Alice's clone's pace. Although she was later taught a lesson by Alice's clone, it must be said that her deductions were accurate. Without any clues, she narrowed down the suspect to the National Football team.
And in the fourth game, she teamed up with the gold-rimmed glasses man, used careful observation and reasoning to turn the tables in a desperate situation, and then unhesitatingly killed the gold-rimmed glasses man, with whom she had formed a deadly grudge.
"The participant with the highest score is... Bai, Ye."
The wolf butler enunciated Su Xiao's alias slowly, his tone of displeasure undisguised.
Hearing this result, Fatty was a bit disappointed. The Three Brothers of National Football showed little change in expression. The detective loli sighed.
"Wolf butler, how many game points do I have?"
Fatty spoke up.
"24,167 points."
The wolf butler's answer surprised the detective loli. She had thought ten thousand points was a huge number, but it seemed Fatty had even more.
"What about us?"
The Three Brothers of National Football also asked.
"Your total score is 27,431 points."
The wolf butler added up the scores of the three brothers.
"And... what's his score?"
The detective loli pointed at Su Xiao. She was curious. If Fatty's individual score of 24,167 points wasn't enough for first place, how terrifying must Su Xiao's score be?
"249,430 points."
As soon as the wolf butler finished speaking, the detective loli's mouth fell slightly open, as if she had heard something unbelievable.
"Two hundred... forty-nine thousand?"
The detective loli's mouth twitched.
"That's insane."
Although Fatty couldn't figure out how Su Xiao had obtained such a massive number of points, the tenfold gap made him concede defeat willingly.
"This guy must be cheating."
The Three Brothers of National Football exchanged speechless glances. They couldn't understand, couldn't fathom the source of these points.
Su Xiao, however, knew exactly where the points came from. They were 'contributed' by those Star-Riding Crabs. He had harassed them four times. By the fifth time, even the void creature Star-Riding Crabs couldn't take it anymore and moved away to get far from Su Xiao. If they hadn't relocated, his game score would have been even more exaggerated.
Originally, Su Xiao thought Alice might count the entire Star-Riding Crab colony as a single entity, but it seemed Alice wasn't that shameless.
The wolf butler walked into the wooden cabin. He pressed some mechanism, and a section of the fourth floor's 'sky' opened. An iron ladder slowly descended.
"This is the entrance to the fifth floor. The fifth game is the final game. As for the game's content, you'll find out soon enough."
The wolf butler gestured for everyone to climb the iron ladder. Fatty and the others started ascending. It looked like a heavenly ladder; if someone fell from a height, it would be a drop of a thousand meters.
Su Xiao didn't step onto the iron ladder. The reward for the fourth game hadn't been claimed yet.
The wolf butler stood with his hands behind his back, staring straight ahead, as if lost in thought.
"Wolf butler, where is the castle's treasure vault? I don't mind helping myself."
Su Xiao looked at the wolf butler with a smile.
"If you dare to wander recklessly in the castle, I have the right to kill you on the spot."
The wolf butler glanced sideways at Su Xiao. His demeanor clearly showed he didn't want to take Su Xiao to the vault.
"Then let me ask this: what happens if you violate the game rules? Alice's alchemical creation, a high-level alchemical creature, Wolf Butler."
"You..."
The wolf butler finally dropped his expressionless facade and stared coldly at Su Xiao.
"Unfortunately for you, I am proficient in alchemy. Although your life aura is very close to that of a living creature, you can never hide the unique aura of an alchemical creature. Moreover, your core gives off a very strange feeling, like... a cage?"
Su Xiao looked the wolf butler up and down. His gaze seemed intent on dissecting the wolf butler to study his structure.
Under Su Xiao's gaze, the wolf butler, whose strength was several levels above Su Xiao's, actually felt a chill run down his spine. He wasn't afraid of Su Xiao's combat power, but of his gaze. He had seen this look once before—when Alice first created him. His energy core had malfunctioned and needed to be dismantled for repair. When Alice dismantled him, she had a similar look in her eyes.
"The material on your surface is top-grade magical biological tissue? Such high-grade magical biological tissue is rare. The bone structure is unknown, probably also high-grade. But... the core material is too low-grade. It's just a high-strength metal. The magical energy conduction rate and biological energy storage rate are too low. To compensate for this, some high-level alchemical arrays were added? This contradictory feeling of a cage... is it Alice's personal preference? Or does the cage have some special meaning to her?"
The more Su Xiao observed the wolf butler, the more he felt this alchemical creature was fascinating.
A low-grade core, ultra-high-grade external materials, and more importantly, the wolf butler already possessed a soul comparable to a human's. It was like someone building a high-tech suit of armor but using a common smartphone battery for its power source.
"Shut... up!"
The wolf butler was now furious, but Su Xiao was proficient in alchemy. Right now, he very much wanted to do one thing: dismantle the wolf butler to study him.