Chapter 478: Penglai
The robust Ditu paced back and forth in the room. He walked to the door on the left and took a look, then to the door straight ahead and took a look.
"Now..." He stretched out his thick arm and scratched his oversized head. "Do any of you remember which direction we came in from? Who brought a compass?"
"Are you sick in the head?" Chen Junnan said while picking his nose. "Compass my ass. We're in a damn hurry."
Jiang Shi slowly opened his mouth and yawned. "Yeah... we're in a... aaah... hurry."
Ditu turned his head in confusion. He'd never noticed these two being so pressed for time.
"Then why don't you wait here..." Ditu waved apologetically at the group. "I'll go find the way myself. Once I find it, I'll come back and get you. Sound good?"
Song Qi was about to agree, but Chen Junnan suddenly stepped forward. "How can that be? Brother Fat Rabbit, how can we let you do all the work alone? Since we've already entered your game field, we'll go together."
Even though Ditu had the face of a rabbit, everyone could clearly see the shift in his eyes.
"Together?"
"Yeah, Brother Ditu." Chen Junnan nodded and pointed at the slightly dark-stained walls around them. "Every room here is covered in blood and smells like hell... Just how many people have you killed here?"
"Ah... not many..." Ditu said. "Before you, at most a hundred or so."
"Is that so." Chen Junnan nodded. "A game only allows six people in. You've killed a hundred or so. How many games did that take?"
Upon hearing this, Ditu's eyes turned noticeably cold.
Seeing Ditu silent, Chen Junnan pressed on. "Say you killed sixty people... That's at least ten runs of the game. And you're telling us you 'got lost'?"
"Oh...?" Ditu slowly crossed his arms over his chest, the muscles in his arms threatening to burst his suit. "Since I'm not lost... what do you think I'm up to?"
"You're messing with our sense of direction, aren't you?" Chen Junnan asked sharply. "If it weren't for that last line... I wouldn't have been so sure."
"Heh..." Ditu's gaze gradually turned icy. "You really don't seem like the type to be so meticulous."
"Yeah, I didn't want to be so meticulous either." Chen Junnan nodded. "But you insisted on going to find the exit on your own... Would you suddenly announce 'game start' at some point? You figured by then we'd be disoriented, not knowing where to run."
"Isn't that the case?" Ditu sneered. "If you knew the way to the starting point, why would you waste so much time following me?"
"Because I wanted to see what kind of trick you're playing." Chen Junnan sneered back. "You might not know this, but I grew up in the alleys. I've had a good sense of direction since I was a kid. Roads as straight as north-south like these? I could never get lost."
"You..." Ditu's large head trembled slightly. He felt he'd been outsmarted before the game had even started.
In the past, every time he took in "participants," he would lead them in circles through the rooms. After passing through a dozen or so rooms, most people would be completely lost. After all, every room here looked exactly the same. Once they forgot which direction to escape in, Ditu would tear them apart one by one.
"What a cunning little rabbit." Chen Junnan reached out and patted Ditu's sturdy chest. "Don't waste time. My teammates here are about to fall asleep. Let's go."
"Heh." Ditu let out another humorless chuckle, then walked to the door on the left side of the room and pushed it open. "Doesn't matter. Even if you know the escape direction, I'll still slaughter you all."
It seemed Ditu really did know the way. He kept turning left and right through the rooms, leading the group forward.
Song Qi whispered from behind, "Chen Junnan, you really are meticulous. You've been observing the direction ever since we entered... If it weren't for you this time..."
"I was observing jack squat," Chen Junnan frowned and whispered back. "I've been lost as hell."
"Huh?"
"That whole analysis just now was clearly Old Qi's style. Didn't expect it to actually work." Chen Junnan covered his mouth and whispered. "When I was a kid, I got lost in the alleys seven or eight times. The neighbors always had to take me home. If I had that good a sense of direction, would I have gotten lost that many times?"
The several members of Squad "Cat" nearby all heard Chen Junnan's whispering. The little admiration they'd just felt for him instantly turned into deep speechlessness.
As they advanced, everyone felt that this building had once been a medical facility. The floors were painted blue-green, but all the equipment had been removed, leaving only empty rooms.
After passing through about eight or nine rooms, Ditu finally arrived at the last one.
This room was different from the others. Only two adjacent walls had doors. It seemed this room was indeed the "top left corner."
"Everyone..." Ditu stopped and turned back to address the group. "My game is very simple. It's called 'Penglai.'"
"Penglai...?" Chen Junnan scratched his head, feeling the name had nothing to do with the game before them.
"To put it simply, it's a kind of 'sixteen-grid chess.' Except the board is made of rooms. This field has sixteen rooms in total—four per row and four columns—and each of us is a piece. You just need to move from this room to the farthest diagonal room and escape to win."
"Got it." Chen Junnan nodded. "Mainly explain how the 'pieces' move?"
"I mentioned this before entering the field." Ditu looked around at the six people before him. "As 'prey,' you have three action opportunities per turn. The actions include 'open door,' 'close door,' 'unlock,' 'lock door,' and 'move.' But note—'lock door' and 'move' each take two action opportunities."
"Hold on, let me sort this out." Chen Junnan interrupted with a wave. "I'm already getting confused."
He turned to look at the others and asked, "Did you all get that?"
Jiang Shi opened his mouth. "I didn't... aaah... no."
"Tsk..." Chen Junnan frowned at Jiang Shi. Every time he talked to this kid, he felt like yawning himself. What a pain. "I've got one more life goal now. Besides making sure Weekend doesn't start every sentence with 'Tsk,' I also have to make sure this kid doesn't add a yawn to every sentence."
"Oh? Really?" Jiang Shi nodded nonchalantly. "You go for it."
"I've more or less understood," Song Qi said. "But I'm still a bit confused."
"Go ahead." Ditu stared at Song Qi. "I'll answer all questions before the game starts. Once we begin killing, I won't care about your lives anymore."
"Okay." Song Qi nodded. "You said we can 'open' or 'lock' a door. So if we lock a door, you can't open it?"