Chapter 79: Strange Logic
Old Lyu finally arrived beside Qi Xia at the last possible moment, just before he was about to be caught.
"Qi boy!! Someone's been killed!!" Old Lyu shoved Qi Xia in front of him. "You've gotta save me..."
"What happened?" Qi Xia asked, confused.
Seeing Qi Xia blocking his path, A Mu was clearly furious.
"Get out of the way!!"
Qi Xia didn't step aside; instead, he reached out to stop A Mu.
"Brother, let's talk it out. What exactly happened?" he asked with some urgency. "Has my teammate offended you?"
A Mu gradually stopped and looked at Qi Xia suspiciously. "Are you their leader?"
Qi Xia scratched his head after hearing this, not answering A Mu's question, but instead asking, "Anyway, don't make a move first. Tell me the situation."
"Fine. Since you're asking, I'll let him die knowing why." A Mu said viciously. "Just now, this old dog—"
Before he could finish, an iron box flew straight at A Mu's face.
He never expected the man in front of him to suddenly strike, and in that moment he couldn't dodge, taking the hit right on the nose.
After staggering for just a moment, A Mu quickly regained his balance.
"Damn... you've got guts, don't you?"
Though his nose was still stinging, A Mu already understood that this man wasn't easy to deal with. If he let his guard down, he might very well be killed before the "Sanction" ever came.
He had barely steadied himself and hadn't even assumed a counterattack stance when Qi Xia threw another punch that landed squarely on his face.
Seeing the amateur way Qi Xia threw the punch, A Mu thought it would have no real power. But to his surprise, he was knocked flat on the ground, his whole temple throbbing with pain.
Qi Xia then kicked him hard under the chin, and A Mu couldn't get up off the ground.
Seeing that his opponent had lost combat capability, Qi Xia slowly dropped the padlock he had been holding in his hand. Getting hit in the temple with that thing, an ordinary person wouldn't be able to get up.
"Who cares what actually happened?" Qi Xia said coldly. "You dare touch my teammate... If you bet, you have to accept the loss."
Just then, the bald guy and the blondie also arrived.
Qi Xia found it strange—why were the doors to their locker also open?
Had they cracked the code right on his heels?
"A Mu!"
The two rushed forward anxiously and found A Mu had already been knocked to the ground.
"Kill them..." A Mu said weakly. "If we don't move now, we're going to be sanctioned..."
"Damn it!" The two stood up, each pulling a folding knife from their pockets.
Seeing this, Qi Xia and Old Lyu both took a step back.
Although Qi Xia had struck ruthlessly, facing two highly focused thugs armed with knives, he couldn't think of any countermeasure.
"Hey! Earth Dog!!" Qi Xia gritted his teeth and shouted. "Players are fighting among themselves! Don't you care?!"
A few seconds later, Earth Dog's feeble voice came from a distance: "Of course I care! But please wait a moment—I'm packing up my stuff. I'll be there later."
"Heh..." The bald thug slowly raised his knife and said, "The 'Zodiac' wants us to slaughter each other in the games anyway. Why would they stop us?"
Qi Xia's expression darkened to the extreme. He had never imagined that mutual slaughter among players was also tacitly permitted by the "rules."
Earlier, when they had a big fight with Zhang Shan at Earth Ox's game venue, Earth Ox had only stepped in at the very end.
It seemed this situation would be even worse than that one.
"Old Lyu... take Zhang Chenze and run," Qi Xia said in a low voice. "The room I was in has a window. Break it and run."
"Qi boy... what about you?!" Old Lyu asked, panicked.
"I'll find a way to deal with them."
"You..." Old Lyu's eyes darted around, and he quickly made a decision. "Take care of yourself!"
He turned back, grabbed Zhang Chenze's hand, and charged into the room, yanking Jiang Ruoxue out of her seat, then lifted a chair and smashed the window.
"Hurry!" Old Lyu shouted at Lawyer Zhang. "Those guys are desperados! They really will kill!"
Jiang Ruoxue, standing to the side, watched the two with interest, a smile curling at the corner of her lips.
"No, I can't leave," Zhang Chenze said. "Sir, please don't touch me."
"What the hell time is it now?!" Old Lyu felt the girl was way too stubborn. "We're running for our lives! What's wrong with me touching you?!"
"If Qi Xia doesn't leave, I'm not leaving either," Zhang Chenze said. "If you want to run, run by yourself."
With that, she picked up a long, thin shard of glass from the floor, held it in a reverse grip, and turned to walk toward the door.
"Little girl, have you lost your mind?!" Old Lyu was frantic. He stepped forward and grabbed Zhang Chenze's wrist. "What are you going to do with that broken thing? They've got knives!"
"Please don't touch me," Zhang Chenze said, a hint of coldness in her eyes. "To survive in a place like this, running alone is useless. I'm going to fight them to the death."
Listening to their exchange, Jiang Ruoxue couldn't help but laugh out loud.
"You two are so interesting..." She covered her mouth, laughing inappropriately.
Both of them glanced at her, but neither replied.
Old Lyu continued to persuade Zhang Chenze: "Little girl, you've watched TV dramas, right? Sometimes people could have escaped safe and sound, but some idiot insists on going back to die... isn't that exactly the kind of troublemaker you are right now?"
Zhang Chenze thought it over carefully, then said, "If Qi Xia is alone, his chance of death is indeed very high. But if I join the fight with a weapon, the survival probability for both of us will increase exponentially."
"What the hell..." Old Lyu was completely baffled. "You're saying that charging in with a piece of glass makes it exponential?"
Jiang Ruoxue was so amused she let out a laugh.
"What exactly are you laughing at?" Zhang Chenze asked.
"Me..." Jiang Ruoxue walked over to Lawyer Zhang and asked, "Can you tell me how you plan to deal with those two?"
"I don't know either," Zhang Chenze said, looking at the glass shard in her hand. "If I'm lucky, I can use this to stab one of them in the throat."
Jiang Ruoxue slowly reached out and took Zhang Chenze's hand, speaking deliberately: "Sister, you need to understand the 'logical relationship' here."
"Logical relationship?" Zhang Chenze was confused.
"Exactly. Just like you yourself said," Jiang Ruoxue said with a smile, "it's because of your joining that your and Qi Xia's survival chances increase. So your appearance will definitely kill one of them. And to kill one of them, you must stab his throat with that glass. All of this is predetermined. So don't say 'if I'm lucky.'"
"What do you mean...?" Zhang Chenze still didn't understand. "Ma'am, aren't you on their side?"
"I'm about to die—do I still care whose teammate I am?" Jiang Ruoxue slowly released Zhang Chenze's hand and said, "Go. A life is waiting for you to claim it."