Chapter 37: Team Division
"Here it comes!" the man with glasses exclaimed happily. "Finally here!"
A burly man slowly approached. He was about 1.9 meters tall with a crew cut. Yawning as he patted his pocket, he asked the Minotaur, "How much?"
"One 'Tao' for entry."
The burly man pulled a small ball from his pocket and flicked it with his thumb toward the Minotaur, who caught it steadily in his hand.
"Rested up... let's begin." The man stretched, cracked his neck, and said in a low, muffled voice, "Let me see what new tricks you've cooked up."
Qi Xia and his three companions sized up this fierce-looking man and sensed he wasn't someone to be trifled with.
Qiao Jiajin didn't pay much attention to him—he'd seen plenty of guys like this on the streets. These types strutted around relying on their muscular builds, and Qiao Jiajin had personally beaten a few of them to tears. But he wondered if this guy was just another paper tiger.
With twenty people now gathered, they began stepping forward one by one to pay their "entrance fees."
Qi Xia thought for a moment, then pulled out four "Taos."
This was no small sum for them—after handing these over, they'd have only one "Tao" left.
"Are we really going to join this game?" Qiao Jiajin asked. "What about our strategy?"
"I'm torn too," Qi Xia replied. "It's risky, but I feel like a game that requires twenty participants isn't something you come across often. Worth a gamble."
After getting the approval of the other three, Qi Xia dropped four "Taos" into the box in front of the Minotaur.
"Good." The Minotaur nodded, then turned and opened the door, revealing a stairway leading down to a basement.
"Participants, please enter."
He turned and descended the stairs slowly. The participants followed cautiously, each wearing a wary expression, heading deeper underground.
"This venue looks huge... completely different from the 'Human Rat' game," Tian Tian whispered.
"Stay alert," Qi Xia replied. "I have a bad feeling."
The middle-aged man had claimed before the game that this one would be a "death trap," and that bothered Qi Xia.
But what he feared wasn't death itself—it was being buried forever in this bizarre place.
As a con man, he'd staked his life on countless gambles before, and he'd survived every single one. When he thought about it, this situation wasn't really any different. It was just another walk on the edge of a blade.
Before long, they reached the bottom of the stairs.
The room was small, dimly lit, and smelled old. In the center stood twenty chairs. On either side of the room were two doors, one painted yellow, the other green.
"Everyone, please have a seat," the Minotaur said. "No need to worry—the game hasn't started yet."
The group exchanged skeptical looks but sat down. Qi Xia and his three companions found seats together.
That was when they noticed that each armrest had two small lights—one yellow, one green.
"Since this is a team game, to ensure fairness, we will now conduct a 'random team division.' Please remain seated and do not move, or you will be 'sanctioned' in advance."
At those words, everyone's expressions shifted uneasily.
The man with glasses and the middle-aged man reacted the most: "What?! Team division?!"
Qi Xia rubbed his chin thoughtfully, realizing that this setup only benefited the organizers. If this was a "betting" game, they'd want to minimize the participants' chances of winning. The best way to do that was to scramble everyone's teams.
The Minotaur walked to a corner of the room, found a button switch, and looked back at the group with a meaningful glance. "The game officially begins now."
With that, he pressed the button. The lights on everyone's armrests began to flash—yellow and green flickering alternately, casting a surreal glow in the dim space.
Qi Xia watched the small light on his own armrest, feeling a bit tense.
If "cattle" really meant a strength-based game, that wasn't his area of expertise. This game would likely rely on Qiao Jiajin's brute force. But if he could think that way, so could others—like the man with glasses and the pudgy middle-aged man, who had brought that big guy as their trump card.
But the Minotaur seemed to have anticipated all their little schemes, which was why he'd enforced this "random team division."
Qi Xia knew that if he had terrible luck and ended up on a different team from Qiao Jiajin, the outcome of this game would become unpredictable.
Before he could fully form a plan, the two-colored lights stopped flashing.
Some people's yellow lights stayed on; others' green lights remained lit.
So this was the random team division.
Qi Xia turned and scanned his group of four—relief mixed with worry.
To his relief, both he and Qiao Jiajin had yellow lights, meaning they were on the same team. But the two girls had green lights, putting them on the opposite team. If this really was a strength-based game, that would be very tough on them.
Murmurs of dissatisfaction rippled through the crowd. It seemed that aside from Qi Xia's group, the other teams' divisions were also far from ideal.
"Now I'll read the game rules," the Minotaur said in a low voice. "Both sides play independently. Each has its own venue, unconnected to the other. As long as you can hold out for ten minutes in your venue without being eliminated, you pass. In the end, each person will receive a number of 'Taos' equal to the number of people who pass."
Hearing this, many grew restless.
"Hey!" the middle-aged man shot to his feet. "That's basically useless info! What kind of game are we even playing? What are we going to face?"
Everyone looked silently at the Minotaur, hoping he'd explain more. But he just glanced at the man and said flatly, "Yellow team, please follow me."
"You—!" The man clenched his teeth but didn't dare curse out loud.
He was already furious that he hadn't been grouped with his own teammates, and now he couldn't even understand the rules. His mood was extremely unstable. Beside him, the man with glasses kept tugging at his clothes, trying to calm him down.
Qi Xia turned to Tian Tian and Lin Qin. "Whatever's behind that door, be careful. Remember: survival first."
"Mm." The two girls nodded nervously.
"Let's go." Qi Xia and Qiao Jiajin walked forward.
They looked at their "teammates" and saw that things weren't great either. Among the ten people, six were women. If this really was a strength-based team game, it would be a brutal struggle.
Aside from Qi Xia and Qiao Jiajin, the other two men were the glasses-wearing guy and the middle-aged man. Meanwhile, the opposing team had only two women—Tian Tian and Lin Qin.
"Damn..." Qiao Jiajin sized up their two male teammates and muttered under his breath, "One beanpole, one fatso..."
"Forget it," Qi Xia said. "We can only rely on ourselves."
The ten of them lined up in front of the yellow door.
The other ten stood before the green door under the Minotaur's direction.
With a low, rattling sound of chains, the doors swung open, revealing yet another staircase descending downward.
Qiao Jiajin didn't hesitate—he marched straight down. The others quickened their pace to follow.
The stairs weren't long but were quite steep. After about twenty or thirty steps, they emerged into an open space roughly half the size of a basketball court. In the center sat a round iron plate the size of a table.
Qi Xia quickly surveyed the environment: high walls on all sides, a large iron door at the front, and above that door, an electronic clock counting down, frozen at ten minutes.