Chapter 499: The True Path to Survival
Di Tu lunged to the side, throwing himself onto the ground as the pitch-black object exploded in the center of the room.
His current state made him look disheveled. For the first time in what felt like ages, he was being hunted by a participant.
"You motherfucker! Chen Junnan!! You think I'm afraid of you?!" Di Tu roared, then caught himself and was startled by his own words. "Wait... not Chen Junnan... Song Qi?"
Song Qi slowly furrowed his brow from across the room. He had clearly heard Di Tu call out Chen Junnan's name several times... What was going on?
He was the one attacking Di Tu with all his might, but Di Tu was hell-bent on killing Chen Junnan?
This situation was utterly baffling to Song Qi.
"Is our team leader not only unpredictable in his thinking but also this unconventional in his abilities?" Song Qi gave a soft laugh, stepping forward two paces closer to the door. "You once said you could save my life at a critical moment. Now I believe you... but how did you do it?"
At that moment, Di Tu used the wall to shield his body, peeking slightly around the doorframe to stare at Song Qi. "Hey, kid, what trick did you people pull on me?"
"I honestly don't know." Song Qi shook his head. "I just do my part. Everything else is beyond my control."
"You..." Di Tu felt something was off. He had been in the same room as Song Qi this entire time. If the other side had any strategy, he should have heard it firsthand. So why was there suddenly no sound between them?
Thinking this over, he scanned the room again. It still had four doors.
Earlier, he had been in room six. The two adjacent four-door rooms were room ten and room seven.
So which of those two rooms was he in now?
Di Tu calculated in his mind. If he was currently in room ten... then the room to the south was room fourteen, which was very close to the other participants. Instead of getting tangled up with Song Qi, he might as well cut off the others' path early. Otherwise, the game would really be lost.
But that made things difficult. He couldn't lock doors now, and room fourteen, where he needed to go, was directly opposite Song Qi. This man, for some unknown reason, had acquired a throwable object. Opening that door in front of him would be extremely dangerous.
"Wait... throwable object...?"
Di Tu narrowed his crimson eyes slightly, then leaned sideways to look out through the doorway. Sure enough, he spotted the issue.
"Di Tu..." Song Qi's lips started turning pale. He knew Di Tu had already figured out his attack method, but he still forced a smile and said, "I only have five chances to attack, so don't be too scared."
He raised his left hand, already mangled from the blast. His pinky and ring fingers had been torn off.
"Are you insane...?"
Di Tu felt that none of the participants in this game seemed afraid of death. This was without a doubt the most bizarre situation he had ever encountered.
If every participant in the entire Land of the End had this kind of resolve, wouldn't the Zodiacs have been wiped out long ago?
"No... people like you are always the minority..."
In the vast majority of cases, the Zodiacs didn't need to lift a finger. The participants would tear each other apart through scheming and infighting, turning a simple game into a chaotic mess. That was human nature.
"But what the hell did I do to deserve this?" Di Tu muttered to himself, frowning. "You reckless bastards, don't you know the way to clear this game is to 'stall for time'? If you just keep not using action points and wait until dark, I'll be forced to leave my artifact behind and vacate the venue. Then all you surviving participants can just walk out of here... but you motherfuckers are killing yourselves to grab the artifact? One after another, you all seem ready to die here! Am I a fake 'Earth' level? Are you not afraid of me?!"
Di Tu grew more agitated as he spoke, feeling immensely insulted.
"You've already figured out that 'the game has no time limit'... yet you're still scheming with every trick to kill me... Lunatics... six lunatics..."
Di Tu leaned against the wall, keeping as much distance from Song Qi as possible, and quickly thought about his next move.
He could no longer afford to stall for time. The tactic he had devised had backfired on him.
If he kept delaying, he would be the one to lose.
Just then, his ears twitched slightly. He heard faint whispers from a room not far away.
During the fierce battle with Song Qi in the same room just now, he naturally hadn't noticed these subtle sounds. Now his hearing seemed to have recovered a bit.
"The artifact should be... in the room to our 'north', right?" a voice asked. "Number seven?"
"Probably. Song Qi's voice came from over there," another replied.
"Keep your voice down... The rabbit's hearing should be weakened now. Don't alert him. Let's find a way to circle around and grab the artifact."
"I'll go check the situation first. You go meet up with the others."
Di Tu closed his eyes, using both ears to continuously capture the faint sounds. The two were speaking almost entirely in breathy whispers, exceptionally cautious.
No need to mention that there was a room between them; even if they were in the same room, an ordinary person wouldn't be able to clearly hear these whispers.
"But unfortunately, I'm a 'Rabbit'." Di Tu closed his eyes and reconstructed the current situation.
According to what they said, their 'north' was room seven, which meant they were in room eleven.
And since he was adjacent to them, his own room was room ten.
"As long as my hearing remains... I will never lose my sense of direction."
He revealed a faint smile and looked toward the direction the voices had come from. Now that all his action points were used up, the participants' turn would begin.
He only heard the sound of a door opening nearby, but his hearing had only recovered partially, not fully. These sounds weren't from the room next door, so he could barely make out their direction.
"Hey... Song Qi, I don't think you need to keep torturing yourself." Di Tu knew the priority now was to deal with the man in front of him, or else he would definitely block him from entering the door in the next round. "Even if you throw all your fingers at me, you won't kill me. You'll only be causing yourself more pain."
Song Qi was about to reply when he suddenly heard a soft whisper in his ear. He raised his right hand and gently covered his ear.
"Yes, Sixth Sister." Song Qi nodded. "It's over...? That fast?"
Di Tu turned sideways to look at the man in the room and saw him standing there talking to himself, not sure what was happening.
"Forget about helping us." Song Qi said. "We're too far apart. The battle here is extremely intense. It should be over soon, one way or another. You won't make it in time anyway. No, I'm not sure who will win."
"Our team leader?" Song Qi laughed bitterly again. "How should I put it... When you think he's unreliable, he somehow makes you feel at ease. When you want to rely on him, you find he's more reckless than anyone else. Truly an unpredictable teammate."
"Yes, go help Xiao Jiu. Remember to tell me Fifth Brother's location. Xiao Jiangshi is probably injured. We'll all regroup after the game ends."