Chapter 36: The Earth Ox
"How do you earn 'Tao'?" Qi Xia asked again.
"We found an ox-type game. From the rules, it can earn a lot of 'Tao,' but the game requires twenty people to start. We're still five short. Do you guys want to come along?"
"Still five short?" Qi Xia was taken aback. "You've already gathered fifteen people?"
It seemed there really were quite a few participants here.
"That's right." The glasses-wearing man nodded. He pointed into the distance, where there was indeed a crowd of people, looking like a decent number.
Qi Xia thought for a moment, then nodded and said, "Alright, let's go take a look."
"Great! I'll go wait for you over there!" The glasses man tactfully walked away.
"Hey!" Qiao Jiajin felt something was off. "We're all going over together?! What if it's a violent gang? Do you want me to show you what I can do?"
"It won't be," Qi Xia said. "Every room has at most nine people. In this kind of environment, it's too difficult to form a gang of more than ten. Not to mention these strangers—even the four of us who came from the same room don't fully trust each other."
He glanced at Lin Qin as he spoke, as if his words carried a hidden meaning.
Lin Qin looked displeased. She seemed unsure why she was being suspected. Could it be just because she didn't recognize that "flyer"?
They walked down an old street and soon arrived in front of a large building.
Just as the glasses man had said, a man wearing an ox mask stood at the entrance.
Outside the building, the participants were scattered in small groups of two or three, deliberately keeping their distance from one another.
Although these people were all strangers, seeing so many normal individuals gathered together gave Qi Xia and the others a rare sense of relief. Even if these people didn't look particularly friendly, they were still living humans.
"Not bad, Four Eyes!" A middle-aged man patted the glasses man on the shoulder. "You managed to find four people in one go!"
Qi Xia looked at the ox-head in front of him, stepped forward, and asked, "What are the rules of the game?"
The ox-head said flatly, "Ox-type game. Each person pays one 'Tao' as an entry fee. It requires twenty people to start. During the game, players will be eliminated. When the game ends, every player still on the field will receive the same number of 'Tao' as the number of players who cleared the game."
"The same number of 'Tao' as the number of players who cleared?!" Qi Xia was stunned. "You mean if twenty people remain on the field at the end, each of those twenty will receive twenty 'Tao'?!"
"Yes."
Qiao Jiajin's mouth dropped open. "Holy crap! That's an instant jackpot?! That's four hundred 'Tao' in one go!"
"Would it really be that easy?" Tiantian found it hard to believe. "Hey, Human Ox, you're not going to cheat us, are you?"
The ox-head was silent for a moment, then shook his head and said, "Allow me to correct you. I am not a 'Human Ox.'"
"Not a 'Human Ox'?" Tiantian looked at the big man in confusion. "But aren't you all called 'Human' something?"
"I am an 'Earth Ox.'" The ox-head said calmly. "If you mistake me for a 'Human Ox,' you won't be getting away with it."
Only then did the group notice that the 'Earth Ox' in front of them differed from the animal masks they had seen before. His mask was pristine, almost lifelike, as vivid as a real ox. His black suit was spotless, as if freshly pressed. When he spoke… the mouth of the mask seemed to move slightly.
But what was the difference between a Human Ox and an Earth Ox?
"Earth Ox…" Qi Xia scratched his head, unable to figure out the relationship. He looked up and asked again, "Earth Ox, what is your game?"
The Earth Ox paused briefly and said, "Pay the entry fee to learn the details."
"Pay the entry fee…"
Qi Xia's main concern now was that if all four of them joined the game together, the tactics they had previously discussed would be useless.
They would all be thrown into an unknown game at the same time, with significant risk.
But if the prize was this high, the risk and reward seemed proportional.
"Conman, what do you think the 'Ox' game type is?" Qiao Jiajin asked from the side.
Qi Xia thought for a moment and answered, "Probably the type I hate the most."
"Oh? You hate a game type?" Qiao Jiajin's interest perked up. "What is it?"
"'Oxen' are born to plow. If I'm guessing right, it should be a 'physical-type' game." Qi Xia cast a sidelong glance at Qiao Jiajin. "Probably more suited to a brute like you."
"Ha!" Qiao Jiajin rolled up his sleeve, revealing his strong tattooed arm. "Finally, it's my turn to—wait, who are you calling a brute?"
Qi Xia shook his head helplessly. "If it weren't for the 'Tao,' I probably wouldn't enter an 'Ox' room."
"Don't worry. Just call me 'Big Bro,' and I'll get you through any ox-type game." Qiao Jiajin said with a mischievous grin. "Sounds like a good deal, right?"
Qi Xia turned back to look at Qiao Jiajin. "You and I look about the same age, maybe twenty-six or twenty-seven. Why would I call you 'Big Bro'?"
"If you're going to say that, then let's settle this properly!" Qiao Jiajin scratched his head. "What year were you born?"
Qi Xia felt that Qiao Jiajin carried an aura of fearlessness, able to joke around even in such a suffocating environment.
"If you have this much energy, you might as well warm up," Qi Xia said dismissively. "So you don't cramp up later."
"Come on." Qiao Jiajin was getting excited. "Just tell me! If you're older than me, I'll call you 'Big Bro'!"
"Fine." Qi Xia couldn't outlast Qiao Jiajin's persistence, so he sighed and said, "Alright, you go first. What year were you born?"
"1979." Qiao Jiajin grinned.
"1979… Is that funny?" Qi Xia frowned. "You're really going to any length to get that 'Big Bro' title. I don't want to discuss this anymore."
"Huh? Why?" Qiao Jiajin looked at Qi Xia in confusion. "Just tell me what year you were born! Are you younger than me?"
Tiantian shook her head with a smile. It seemed that staying with Qiao Jiajin was a good choice—his personality helped lift some of the gloom hanging over the group.
Qiao Jiajin called Qi Xia's name a few more times, but when he saw that the other man completely ignored him, he had no choice but to shake his head helplessly.
A few minutes passed, and the current number was still nineteen.
It seemed that while there were quite a few participants here, they weren't exactly everywhere. Finding twenty people in a short time was indeed a stretch.
"Isn't he here yet?" The middle-aged man asked the young man in glasses beside him. "Did he oversleep?"
"I don't know. He promised to come this morning." The glasses man scratched his head. "Maybe I should go back to the street and find someone else."
"Forget it, forget it…" The middle-aged man waved his hand. "We've already got nineteen. Let's wait for him. I don't want to die for no reason."
Their conversation was overheard word for word by Qi Xia, who was not far away.
"Die?" Qi Xia frowned. "Die? What does that mean? Do people die in this game?"
Before he could think it over, a lazy figure appeared in the distance.
The man was bare-chested, covered in scars, wearing a pair of camouflage pants. He walked over, stretching languidly.