Chapter 317: Singles and Doubles
“Who is it?”
The person who answered this time was a man with a very sharp voice.
“Ah, hello, hello…” Chen Junnan said enthusiastically. “So, we’ve got a ‘Life-or-Death Game’ we’d like to recommend to you. Are you interested?”
“Not interested,” the man said coldly. “Who are you?”
Chen Junnan had already roughly figured out this man’s personality. Unlike the nervous guy from earlier, he couldn’t be intimidated into submission.
“I…” Chen Junnan paused for a second, then said, “I’m the one who gambled his life against Ground Snake.”
“What?” The sharp-voiced man was startled, then silent for over ten seconds before asking, “So that means the long pause earlier… was your doing?”
“That’s right,” Chen Junnan confirmed. “The reason I’m calling this time is to get a sense of where you stand.”
“I see.” The man instantly understood everything. “So you can actually choose not to answer a call… You want to know whether I’ll support you or Ground Snake?”
“Yes,” Chen Junnan nodded. “I want to make Ground Snake disappear from the ‘Land of the End’ for good, but I can’t do it alone. I need help.”
“It’s hard for me to say,” the man answered honestly. “I don’t want to get involved in the conflict between the two of you. I just want to wait until the game ends and leave with the ‘Dao.’”
Chen Junnan nodded after hearing this. “In that case… wouldn’t you want to earn a bit more? If we win the game, we only get forty-eight ‘Dao,’ but Ground Snake should have much more on him. If he dies…”
“I’m just an ordinary participant,” the sharp-voiced man interrupted. “I don’t want to get caught up in the struggles between big shots like you. Offending anyone would be bad for me.”
“So in other words… you’re neutral?”
“I’m not completely neutral,” the man replied. “I lean slightly toward Ground Snake. After all, a ‘Zodiac’ is far more powerful than a participant.”
“Then I understand…” Chen Junnan frowned. “What if I asked you not to answer any calls for a while? Would you agree?”
“No, I wouldn’t,” the man answered decisively. “You can do whatever you want, but I will strictly follow the rules of the game. As long as the phone rings, I will answer it.”
“I see.” Chen Junnan sighed. “Then I’ll hang up.”
After hanging up, Chen Junnan refined the layout on his wall once more.
Xu Qian was on the left of the “Nervous Man,” and the “Sharp-Voiced Man” was further left.
Since the “Sharp-Voiced Man” refused to not answer calls, Chen Junnan’s scouting work had hit a dead end here.
But at least the overall layout of the participants had roughly surfaced.
Although it was uncertain who was on the sharp-voiced man’s left, it was definitely a man, because further left was the “Woman in White.”
Chen Junnan drew two question marks on either side of the “Woman in White.”
Among all the people now, only the identities of the two men on the left and right of the “Woman in White” were unknown.
That meant “Zhong Zhen” was right next to the woman in white. Though it was unclear whether he was on her left or right, they must have spoken on the phone.
For now, Chen Junnan had no better plan. He could only call Xu Qian to start passing the question and wait for this round of calls to end.
A few minutes later, the screen in front of Chen Junnan finally lit up. This time, it seemed to take longer than ever.
“Oh no…” Chen Junnan’s eyes narrowed into slits. Things were not going as he had expected.
“The final answer for this round is—‘Yes.’”
The loud clanking of chains rang out overhead. The giant ball had now moved to coordinate “1.”
“What’s going on…?” Chen Junnan felt he couldn’t grasp the flow of the entire field anymore.
The answer this time was still “Yes”?
He estimated that his question had been passed to at least three people on his left. Their answers were most likely all “No.” Adding Yun Yao and himself, that was already five “Nos.”
There were eleven people on the field now. Could all the remaining ones have answered “Yes”?
“That’s ridiculous… What the hell?” Chen Junnan turned to look at his right. The iron ball was now hanging directly over the woman to Yun Yao’s right. Was she going to die?
“Don’t do this…” Chen Junnan stood up and looked around in confusion. “We don’t have many chances… We have to crush Ground Snake…”
But in his empty, narrow room, his voice couldn’t carry out at all.
He felt there was indeed a formidable figure among the remaining participants. They had already started to make their move.
The person who received the question this round was “2,” also known as the “Quiet Man.”
And Chen Junnan knew he was “-1,” very close to that person. Since Yun Yao would no longer lie to him, he had a high chance of learning the real question.
Before long, the phone rang.
Chen Junnan picked up the receiver with a serious expression.
“What happened?”
“I don’t know either…” Yun Yao’s voice didn’t sound very tense. “The girl to my right probably won’t make it.”
“Why… are you so calm?”
“Chen Junnan… I just remembered something.” Yun Yao said. “It seems I can’t die…”
“What kind of nonsense are you talking? Do you know how close the iron ball is to you right now?”
“Yes, it is very close. But precisely because it’s so close, I’m absolutely safe.”
“What…?”
Yun Yao took a deep breath and said, “Chen Junnan, I’m an ‘Even Number.’ Only ‘Odd Numbers’ can die now…”
For a moment, Chen Junnan couldn’t understand Yun Yao’s logic. He could only stare blankly at the layout he had drawn on the wall in front of him.
“‘Even Numbers’ and ‘Odd Numbers’?”
He placed his finger on “1” and did the math. Then his eyes slowly widened.
If the rhythm was: one, two, drop; one, two, drop… the iron ball starting at “1” could never reach Yun Yao’s “0.”
“What?!”
Chen Junnan felt his mind was a bit muddled. The iron ball in this game could only hit “Odd Numbers”?!
At most, only six people would die?!
A few seconds later, he felt something was off and looked toward his own left.
No, that can’t be right… There seemed to be a problem.
Yun Yao’s coordinate was “0.” He was “-1.” But “-2” had died!
Early in the game, an “Even Number” had already died. He quickly used his fingers to calculate the answers from the previous rounds. He felt nothing had gone wrong, and the positions of the iron ball were exactly as he had predicted.
“When did the target of death change from ‘Even Numbers’ to ‘Odd Numbers’?”
Hearing Chen Junnan’s confusion, Yun Yao let out a long sigh and said, “It was when the iron ball was about to drop the second time, and we chose ‘No.’”