Chapter 165: Wisdom and Courage
"What?" Su Shan shot to her feet. "You clearly—"
Qi Xia raised a finger, pointing at his own brow, then gave it a "barely perceptible twitch."
"You mean this?" Qi Xia asked. "You noticed?"
Su Shan stared at Qi Xia, pondered for a moment, then slowly sat back down.
She had to admit she had underestimated her opponent.
She and Zi Chen had been wandering this godforsaken place for over a day, encountering many opponents. This was the first time they faced a life-or-death situation in the game, and also the first time they met someone as clever as Qi Xia.
He was actually using micro-expressions to control his opponent's train of thought.
Why was this game different from the ones before?
Why was this opponent so much more formidable this time?
The situation was now very tricky.
Given the nature of "confrontation," "Shields" must be very scarce. If the card pool contained enough "Shields," it was very likely that both sides would end up with no injuries.
So how to use "Shields" skillfully became the main strategy for protecting one's own "Fighters."
What lay before her now was the worst-case scenario.
"Rope" against "Shield."
It was like Su Shan using her "superior horse" to counter his "inferior horse."
"Now this is getting interesting." Qi Xia gathered all his cards in his hand and asked, "From my expression, can you guess whether or not I have a 'Knife' in my hand right now?"
Su Shan slowly furrowed her brows. She knew that if she wanted to defeat the man before her, she had to think even more thoroughly.
No matter what, she couldn't follow his train of thought.
Whether he had a "Knife" in his hand or not, she had to think further ahead than him.
Inside the glass room, a new tool descended from above for each of them.
With a loud clatter, a round shield landed before Zi Chen.
It was a wooden shield with metal edging, about a meter in diameter.
He hurriedly picked it up and held it in front of his eyes, then nervously looked at Dr. Zhao on the other side.
Dr. Zhao looked down at the rope on the ground, his expression extremely complicated.
This was the third time a rope had dropped.
"Qi Xia... you motherf*cker, giving me so many ropes, you want me to weave a net for you?!"
He angrily picked up the hemp rope and stared at the man holding the wooden shield in front of him.
He had finally gotten a precious chance to attack, only to find himself using a rope to whip a wooden shield.
The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. He turned his head and glared at Qi Xia outside the glass room.
"Just how bad is your luck, kid...?"
Qi Xia, outside the glass room, helplessly shrugged at Dr. Zhao, then moved his lips, mouthing the words: "Hit him."
"Hit him...?"
Dr. Zhao still had a belly full of anger from being hit on the thigh by that brick earlier. Seeing the man opposite him using a large iron shield to cover himself, hiding like a turtle shrinking into its shell, he grew more and more irritated.
"F*ck it, then I'll hit him..."
He took a few steps forward, swung the rope in his hand, whirled it around in the air a few times, and then lashed it viciously at the other man's wooden shield.
Unfortunately, Dr. Zhao had never in his thirty years of life experienced whipping someone with a hemp rope. Although the swing created quite a wind, the angle was ridiculously off.
He pulled one end of the rope and swung it down from above. When the middle part of the rope hit the shield, the angle of the rope's end suddenly changed, and as if guided by some ghostly force, it actually struck the other man on the head.
"Ah!!"
Zi Chen immediately let out a wail, and the shield in his hand dropped straight to the ground.
Dr. Zhao stared in disbelief at the other man. When the rope swung, he had clearly heard a sound like a slap.
Had it actually hit the other man's face?
Qi Xia turned his head, slowly looked at Su Shan, and found the girl utterly stunned.
What were the odds of using a rope to whip a shield and actually hitting the person behind it?
As it happened, for this effect to occur, two prerequisites had to be met.
First, the person holding the shield had to be completely still.
Second, the distance between them had to be far enough.
This was a situation that could only occur when two cowards were pitted against each other.
Su Shan's brow was now deeply furrowed.
A "Rope" user had injured a "Shield" user—wasn't this like losing with a "superior horse" against an "inferior horse"?
Zi Chen slowly lifted his head, covering his eye, his entire expression already somewhat unhinged.
He slowly lowered his hand, and Dr. Zhao saw that his entire left eyeball had turned bloodshot, as if there was internal bleeding.
"Huh?"
Dr. Zhao was stunned. Had that rope just now accidentally struck him right in the eye?
"You... you..." Zi Chen pointed at Dr. Zhao, "You're trying to kill me?!"
"No, no, I didn't..." Dr. Zhao quickly waved his hands, then took a few steps forward, carefully examining the other man's eye. "Buddy, your eyeball seems to have a minor rupture. You need to close your eye and rest immediately, or the wound could get worse, and you might lose your eye..."
"Bullshit!!" Zi Chen yelled, cutting off Dr. Zhao's words. "You... just you wait!!"
Under the Ground Chicken's direction, the two of them discarded their tools again.
Qi Xia smiled slightly, feeling that this situation was quite interesting.
Originally, he had just wanted Dr. Zhao to give the other side a warning shot, but it had actually injured his opponent's eye. That wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
Crickets in a jar, without external interference, rarely attack each other.
But the strategy Qi Xia had set earlier was now useless. His opponent's condition from now on would be like a mad dog, and conventional tactics would no longer work.
"Please draw cards," said the Ground Chicken.
Su Shan reached out and picked up a card, and Qi Xia did the same.
He looked at what he had drawn.
It was a "Stick."
Now Qi Xia's hand was perfect.
Knife, Stick, Stone, Stone, Shield.
These five cards allowed both attack and defense.
The most difficult "Rope phase" had passed. As long as Qi Xia held onto his cards well and played any "Rope" he drew promptly, he would have complete control.
From a "strategic" standpoint, Qi Xia had completed his early setup and was gradually gaining the upper hand.
If his guess was correct, Su Shan must have accumulated a large number of "Ropes." The only thing she could blame was her overly aggressive early attacks, which had cost her the chance to build up her hand.
It seemed she hadn't read any texts on military strategy and didn't understand the art of building strength over time. She would now enter a brief period of weakness, having only the "killing intent" but no "killing moves."
But this game couldn't be won by "strategy" alone.
From a "courage" perspective, Dr. Zhao was already at a complete disadvantage.
Zi Chen now looked extremely angry, and it was likely he could make a "Stone" hit like a "Knife."
But the question was... would his opponent even have a "Stone" in hand?
"Round four, please play your cards!" The Ground Chicken waved its hand again.
Qi Xia thought for a moment, then pulled out a "Stone" and placed it face down in front of him.
"Dr. Zhao's killing intent is too low right now... I'll have to settle for this." He muttered under his breath and pushed the card forward.
Su Shan, after a brief hesitation, also played a card.
They both revealed their cards at the same time.
Both were "Stones."