Chapter 481: Closed-Door Disciple
“You... you...” Song Qi felt like his brain was getting scrambled. A few exchanges with Chen Junnan, and he was already as dazed as if he’d been drinking.
“Isn’t this plan any good?” Chen Junnan said. “Who says that just because Earth Rabbit told us to ‘run,’ we have to ‘run’? We find two top-tier closed-door disciples, stand right on the other side of the door, and start cursing him out. He won’t be able to open the door or come out, and we’ll just piss him off so bad he dies right at the starting point. Now isn’t that a genius move?”
“Hold on… hold on…”
The others all reached out to calm Chen Junnan down. His proposal was just too bizarre; they couldn’t wrap their heads around it all at once.
“What?” Chen Junnan looked at them, confused.
“Even if this plan is feasible…” Song Qi said, “what about these two ‘closed-door disciples’? They won’t be able to escape.”
“Not necessarily,” Chen Junnan said with a grin. “If things go smoothly, only one of them should be trapped.”
“Plan?” Song Qi said. “You have a backup plan?”
“No. I don’t have a backup plan,” Chen Junnan said. “But at the critical moment, I can activate my ‘Resonance’ to save one of them. However, the prerequisite for this plan is that I have to be one of the closed-door disciples.”
“You…” Song Qi looked at Chen Junnan. “No. What do you take us ‘Cats’ for? Abandoning a teammate to save yourself is too dirty. I can’t accept that.”
“What’s there to not accept?” Chen Junnan said, puzzled. “I’ve already ‘Resonanced’ anyway. If I die, I die.”
“I’ll do it with Xiao Jiangshi,” Song Qi said decisively. “Captain, you’re a guest here. You can’t die in our team, or I won’t have the face to go back and see Fifth Brother.”
“See Fifth Brother my ass. If you stay here, you won’t be seeing him either.” Chen Junnan waved his hand. “I’m the oldest here. That’s settled.”
The others could only exchange silent glances, feeling a bit awkward.
The “Cats” had been fending for themselves in the “Land of Finality” for so many years—how could they rely on a newly joined captain to save them?
Song Qi slowly rolled his neck, then bent over to stretch his legs. He turned his head to look at Jiang Shi.
Jiang Shi nodded. “Got it.”
He tucked his hands into the sleeves of his long robe and slowly stood up. The look in his eyes grew sharper.
“Captain, it’s not that we don’t trust you,” Song Qi said. “But it’s never been the way for an outsider to die for the ‘Cats.’ Leave these two ‘closed-door disciples’ to me and Xiao Jiangshi.”
“Huh?” Chen Junnan turned to look at the two who were now ready for action. “How’s that supposed to work?”
“It might actually work,” Song Qi said. “I don’t know what your ‘Resonance’ is, but I get the feeling your ability is nothing good. If you use it, you’ll probably die.”
“Uh…” Chen Junnan gave a wry smile. “You’re actually pretty sharp.”
“But me and Xiao Jiangshi are different.” Song Qi kept stretching his arms as he spoke to Chen Junnan. “Little Fourteen already asked. We can resist the ‘Hunter.’ If I go berserk, I can tear off one of the ‘Hunter’s’ arms. And if Xiao Jiangshi goes berserk…”
“What then?” Chen Junnan asked, a hint of anticipation in his voice.
“…He can exhaust the ‘Hunter’ to death.”
Hearing this appraisal, Jiang Shi puffed up his chin with pride, as if he’d just been praised.
“What the hell?” Chen Junnan thought he’d heard wrong. “That’s ‘indestructible and immortal’? I thought he could actually fight the guy.”
“You try fighting him then!” Jiang Shi said irritably. “Why are you so clueless? That’s an Earth-level zodiac, you know.”
“Alright, alright…” Chen Junnan nodded helplessly. “Are you two sure you can handle it?”
“Sure,” they said in unison. “Leave this to us.”
“Good.” Chen Junnan thought for a moment, then nodded. “Then I’ll give one last instruction.”
“Go ahead.” Everyone stared at him seriously.
“We need to confirm our directions,” Chen Junnan said, pointing at the chessboard he had carved into the wall. “I’m worried someone might get lost later. When you’re in the middle of the chessboard, you completely lose your sense of direction.”
“How do we confirm directions?” Everyone stared at the chessboard on the wall.
“Even though we’re already a bit disoriented, we still need to communicate using ‘up is north, down is south, left is west, right is east,’” Chen Junnan said. “For example, in this room we’re in right now, there are only an ‘east door’ and a ‘north door.’ Most of the other rooms have four doors. Even if one person gets lost, the others can use the compass directions to help him reorient.”
Seeing that they still didn’t understand, Chen Junnan pointed at the two doors again. “Suppose I go out through the ‘east door’ and Little Song goes out through the ‘north door.’ If Little Song gets lost, he can call out for help, and I’ll tell him I’m to his ‘northeast.’”
“If that’s the case, as long as one of us has a strong sense of direction, none of us will get lost,” Cui Shisi said, frowning in thought. “That’s not a bad idea.”
“Also, we need to mark each room,” Chen Junnan added, pointing at the grid on the wall. “To know our exact coordinates, let’s call the room we’re in now Room ‘One.’ To the right, we have ‘Two, Three, Four.’ The second row is ‘Five, Six, Seven, Eight,’ and so on up to Room ‘Sixteen.’”
“Got it.”
After they had settled on the tactics, Chen Junnan quietly crept over to the door, flung it open, and checked the room outside.
The burly fat rabbit was sitting in a spot far from the door, eyes closed, meditating. There was no sign that he had been eavesdropping.
“What?” Only after hearing the door open did he slowly open his eyes. “Done talking?”
“You really are something, huh?” Chen Junnan laughed. “You had such a good chance, and you didn’t even eavesdrop?”
“Doesn’t matter,” the Earth Rabbit said, shaking his head. “I have my own tactics. No matter what scheme you come up with, I can handle it.”
“That’s great.” Chen Junnan nodded. “Then get over here, you fat rabbit, and come die. We’re done discussing.”
The Earth Rabbit gave a cold snort and stood up, brushing the dust off his pants. Then, step by step, he came into the room.
“Since that’s the case, I’ll state it one last time,” the Earth Rabbit said, sweeping his gaze across the group after entering. “After the game starts, it will first be your turn, then my turn. As long as you can reach the room at the furthest diagonal corner, you win.”
“You’ve said that like eight hundred times already. Are you starting or not?” Chen Junnan craned his neck. “I’ve got important business. Let’s hurry up.”
The Earth Rabbit said nothing more. Instead, he reached into his pocket, pulled out a strange-looking remote control, and pressed the button.
The remote looked like it was made of emerald-green bamboo, slender as a finger, with a thin red string tied to it.
From all the rooms came a rustling sound.
A very mechanical voice sounded from above their heads: “I am the voice guide for this game. The game will begin in three minutes.”
Hearing the announcement, the Earth Rabbit tidied up the red string on his bamboo remote, hung it around his neck, then walked over to the side and slowly leaned back against the wall.