Chapter 538: I Am Doing It
Qi Xia ran along the road, unable to stop himself from cursing several times in his heart.
He always felt that these black lines were somehow strange. At the prison gate, they had actually fallen among the crowd, then began chasing everyone from all directions, causing him to be separated from Qiao Jiajin, Chen Junnan, and "Cat" right from the start.
Now he was running alone on the street, occasionally seeing other participants who were also fleeing for their lives. Everyone was in a panic; some were covered in blood, as if they had already lost their teammates.
The streets were littered with fresh corpses. Their deaths looked very bizarre—aside from the skulls being connected, their bodies were neatly sliced, like clips.
When passing an intersection, Qi Xia ran and looked back. The black line chasing him stretched along the road, floating about one and a half meters above the ground. No matter how far he ran, the trail left by the black line always remained suspended in midair.
"This..." Qi Xia looked at the black line floating behind him. Although it wasn't fast, he seemed to think of something.
The danger of the "Pegasus Moment" was not just these black lines chasing them.
Just as this thought emerged, he saw a young man in the distance being chased by a black line, running out from the other side of the intersection.
Perhaps he was too panicked, failing to see the black line that had once chased Qi Xia now stretched horizontally in front of him. Or perhaps it was because the black line was only as thick as a hair, difficult for a normal person to notice.
Regardless of the reason, the young man charged straight into the horizontal black line. Before Qi Xia could even open his mouth to stop him, after three or five steps, the man's head slowly fell to the ground, while his body, driven by inertia, stumbled several more steps before falling to the roadside like a puppet with its strings cut.
At the same time, the line chasing that man intersected perpendicularly with Qi Xia's line. The two lines connected like strands of a spider web being woven, simultaneously blocking both the horizontal and vertical roads.
Seeing this, Qi Xia could already imagine the scene an hour into the "Pegasus Moment."
Now, he not only had to find a way to increase the distance from the line behind him, but also had to watch out for the paths others had fled. If there was a line suspended in midair that he didn't notice, he would easily die without knowing why.
A road that someone else had taken could no longer be walked. This was an escape with no turning back.
The more participants survived, the more dangerous everyone's situation became.
The routes others had fled were full of deadly traps, and some people hadn't even run on the main roads; they might have passed through various dark alleys to survive. At such times, a moment of carelessness could make you a sacrificial victim for others.
Qi Xia kept looking back at his own black line. Its speed was indeed not fast; a normal person jogging should be able to outrun it. The only question now was how long he could persist in this long-distance jog.
This game probably differed from any game Qi Xia had ever participated in. "Intellect" was completely useless now; all his attention was focused on regulating his breathing.
Qi Xia took a deep breath. After all, in this game, he didn't need to worry about the whole "Cat" team, nor about Qiao Jiajin and Chen Junnan. No matter how he thought about it, their chances of survival were higher than his.
"I need to run toward an open area..."
Qi Xia set his direction. If he kept running through the intricate city streets, his chances of death would be absurdly high. So he deliberately chose a direction and led his black thread toward the outskirts.
The "Pegasus Moment" had been going on for nearly ten minutes. Continuous bell sounds were ringing all around. Whether these people's triggers for "Echo" were near-death, injury, or witnessing a teammate's death, they were all forced to awaken their abilities, and they would clearly remember this "Pegasus Moment" and the state of their own miserable deaths.
After turning a few corners, Qi Xia saw a small building five or six stories high. He didn't stop running, but from afar he saw Di Hu standing in front of the small building's entrance.
"You..." Di Hu stood in front of his game venue, spotting Qi Xia from a distance.
Their eyes met for a moment. Qi Xia noticed that Di Hu's face was injured, his white tiger fur stained with bright red blood, and even one of his fangs was broken.
"My 'Needle'..." Seeing Di Hu's condition, Qi Xia immediately confirmed his inner thoughts.
He had speculated that he had planted "Needles" among the "Zodiacs," but he hadn't been completely sure. However, Di Hu's appearance now gave Qi Xia some confidence.
His "Needle" was acting, but it seemed not too smoothly.
But now he had no time to communicate more with Di Hu. Not only could they be monitored at any moment, but the "Pegasus Moment" was also imminent.
Di Hu scratched the wound on his face, then looked at the black line behind Qi Xia, finally understanding why business was so dismal today.
"Damn, is this a Heavenly Moment?" He looked up at the sun in the sky, saying with a half-smile. "I thought this damn place could finally have an overcast day, but I didn't expect they'd be so ruthless."
"Di Hu..." As soon as Qi Xia opened his mouth, his hard-won stable breathing was nearly disrupted. He quickly ran a few steps, temporarily widening the distance between himself and the black line, then reached Di Hu and panted heavily.
"Sheep..." Di Hu was about to call Qi Xia but felt something was off. He then pursed his lips and said, "Can you make it?"
"I'm not sure..." Qi Xia struggled to steady his breathing. "This kind of game that affects everyone is rather unreasonable for me..."
"I..."
Di Hu thought for a long time, utterly unsure of what attitude to take toward the person in front of him. He was clearly his "Brother Sheep," but now he looked like a "participant" who could die in the game at any moment. After organizing his words for a while, he finally said slowly:
"I am doing it."
"Doing what?" Qi Xia looked coldly at Di Hu.
"Doing what you once wanted me to do," Di Hu replied.
A brief sentence cleared all of Qi Xia's doubts.
The identities of the other "Needles" were uncertain, but Di Hu was definitely a "Needle" he had once trusted the most.
"But I feel you're a bit reckless..." Qi Xia stared at Di Hu's facial injuries and said, "Is this matter harder than you imagined?"
"Yes, it is indeed somewhat difficult, but..." Di Hu was about to say something when he saw the black line behind Qi Xia getting closer and closer. "Next time. Don't die this time. I'll wait for you here to come back."
Qi Xia realized something and looked back. The black line he had temporarily shaken off was now less than ten meters away.
"Troublesome..."
Qi Xia frowned, cursed under his breath, then gave Di Hu a look. The two nodded in mutual understanding, and then Qi Xia ran off into the distance again.