Chapter 36: Earth Ox
"How do we earn 'Dao'?" Qi Xia asked again.
"We found an ox-type game. According to the rules, you can earn a large amount of 'Dao', but that game requires twenty people to start. We're still short by five. Do you guys want to join?"
"Still short by five?" 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 bespectacled man nodded, pointing into the distance. Sure enough, there was a crowd of people gathering there, quite a number already.
Qi Xia thought for a moment, then nodded and said, "Alright, we'll go take a look too."
"Great! Then I'll go ahead and wait for you all over there!" The bespectacled man tactfully walked away.
"Hey!" Qiao Jiajin felt something was off. "Are we all going together?! What if it's a violent gang? Do you want me to show them a thing or two?"
"It won't be," Qi Xia said. "Each room has at most nine people. In this kind of environment, forming a group of over a dozen people is still too much of a stretch. Not to mention these strangers—even the ones who came out of the same room as us don't fully trust each other."
As he spoke, he glanced at Lin Qin, as if implying something.
Lin Qin looked somewhat displeased, as if unsure why she was being suspected. Was it just because she didn't recognize that "flyer"?
Crossing an old, worn-out road, the four arrived in front of a large building.
Just as the bespectacled man had said, at the entrance of this large building stood a man wearing a water buffalo mask.
The many participants outside were scattered in small groups of two or three, deliberately keeping their distance from each other.
Although these people were all strangers, seeing so many normal people gathered together still gave Qi Xia and the others a faint sense of relief they hadn't felt in a long time.
No matter how unpleasant these people looked, they were still living humans.
"Not bad, Little Glasses!" a middle-aged man patted the bespectacled man on the shoulder. "You got four people in one go!"
Qi Xia looked at the ox-headed man in front of him, stepped forward, and asked, "What are the game rules?"
The ox-headed man said calmly, "Ox-type game. Each person pays one 'Dao' as an entry ticket. Twenty people are needed to start. During the game, some players will be eliminated. When the game ends, every player still on the field will receive the same number of 'Dao' as the number of survivors."
"The same number of 'Dao' as the number of survivors?!" Qi Xia was startled. "You mean, if twenty people remain at the end, then each of those twenty gets twenty 'Dao'?!"
"Yes."
When Qiao Jiajin heard this, his mouth fell open. "Holy crap! Wouldn't that mean we hit the jackpot in one go?! That's four hundred 'Dao' right there!"
"Can it really be that easy..." Tiantian found it hard to believe. "Hey, Human Ox, you're not going to cheat, are you?"
The ox-headed man 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 or other?"
"I am 'Earth Ox'," the ox-headed man said flatly. "If you mistake me for a 'Human Ox', you'll find yourself in deep trouble."
Only then did everyone notice that the "Earth Ox" in front of them was indeed different from the animal masks they had seen before. His mask was very clean, almost as lifelike as a real ox. His black suit was also spotless, as if it had been specially ironed. When he spoke... it seemed the mask's mouth moved slightly as well.
But what was the difference between Human Ox and Earth Ox?
"Earth Ox..." Qi Xia scratched his head, unable to figure out the relationship. He looked up again and asked, "Earth Ox, what is your game?"
Earth Ox paused briefly and said, "Pay the entry fee, and you'll know the details."
"Pay the entry fee..."
What Qi Xia cared about most now was that if the four of them participated together, the tactics they had discussed earlier would be useless.
The four of them would be thrown into an unknown game at the same time, with great risk.
But if the stakes of the game were this high, the risk and reward seemed proportional.
"Liar, what do you think the 'ox' type game is about?" Qiao Jiajin asked from the side.
Qi Xia thought for a moment and replied, "Probably the type I hate the most."
"Oh? You have a type of game you hate?" Qiao Jiajin suddenly became interested. "What is it?"
"'Ox' are born to plow diligently. If I'm not mistaken, it should be a 'physical' type game." Qi Xia glanced lightly at Qiao Jiajin. "It might suit a brute like you."
"Ha!" Qiao Jiajin rolled up his sleeves, revealing his muscular, tattooed arms. "Finally, it's my time to shine... Wait, who are you calling a brute?"
Qi Xia shook his head helplessly and said, "If it weren't for the sake of the 'Dao', I probably wouldn't enter an 'ox' room."
"Don't worry, just call me Big Brother, 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, at most twenty-six or twenty-seven. Why should I call you 'Big Brother'?"
"If you put it that way, I'll have to settle this with you properly!" Qiao Jiajin scratched his head. "What year were you born?"
Qi Xia always felt that Qiao Jiajin carried an aura of fearlessness, able to joke around even in such a oppressive environment.
"If you have this much free time, you might as well warm up," Qi Xia said indifferently. "Otherwise, you might cramp up later."
"Come on," Qiao Jiajin said eagerly. "Just tell me! If you're older than me, I'll call you Big Brother!"
"Ugh." Qi Xia really couldn't win against Qiao Jiajin, so he sighed and said, "Fine, you go first. What year were you born?"
"1979," Qiao Jiajin said with a grin.
"1979... Is that funny?" Qi Xia frowned. "You're really going to any lengths to get that 'Big Brother' title. I don't want to talk about this anymore."
"Huh? Why?" Qiao Jiajin looked puzzled. "Come on, tell me your birth year. Are you younger than me?"
Tiantian shook her head with a smile. It seemed that staying with Qiao Jiajin was the right choice; his personality would help lift some of the gloom from everyone's hearts.
Qiao Jiajin called out Qi Xia's name a few more times, but since the other completely ignored him, he had no choice but to shake his head helplessly.
A few minutes passed, and the current number of people was still nineteen.
It seemed that although there were quite a few participants here, they weren't everywhere. Gathering twenty people in a short time was indeed a stretch.
"He's still not here?" the middle-aged man asked the bespectacled man beside him. "Did he oversleep?"
"I don't know. He promised to come this morning," the bespectacled man scratched his head. "Maybe I should go to the street and find someone else."
"Forget it, forget it..." The middle-aged man waved his hand. "We have nineteen now. Let's wait for him. I don't want to die without even knowing why."
Qi Xia, not far away, caught every word of their conversation.
"Die?" Qi Xia frowned. "Die? What does that mean? Can you die in this game?"
Before he could figure it out, a lazy figure appeared in the distance.
The man was bare-chested, revealing a body full of scars, wearing a pair of camouflage pants. He stretched lazily as he moved toward them.