Chapter 600: Equal Division
"What are you drawing there?" Dihu stared blankly at Qixia. "Did something happen?"
"Dihu, if I'm not mistaken, someone else will come tonight." Qixia said.
"What?"
"You just need to wait." Qixia said. "At the earliest tonight, that person will come looking for you on their own."
Dihu still felt like he couldn't quite understand what Qixia was saying, but this feeling was strangely familiar to him.
This was exactly how Brother Yang did things.
He didn't need to ask anything; he just needed to follow orders, just needed to wait.
"Qixia, there's one more thing." Dihu said again.
"What?"
"Like I said..." Dihu shook his head. "None of us are qualified to be the 'leader.' Whose instructions should we follow? Does it have to be the last one standing, like you said?"
Qixia thought for a moment, feeling that this question was hard to answer definitively.
After all, who that "hidden needle" would be—even someone as powerful as White Sheep had no choice in the matter.
It could only be him.
So whether or not he would have the qualifications to be the leader was completely unknown.
"I'll be the leader." Qixia said.
"Huh?!" Dihu was taken aback.
"At critical moments, you'll follow my commands." Qixia said earnestly. "After all, the organizer of this matter isn't you, but me. So only I can command everyone's respect."
"Well..." Dihu scratched his head after hearing this, feeling that this suggestion sounded both reliable and unreliable. "The time we gather is at night, and basically on the 'train,' but Sheep—Qixia, you're not on the train."
"So I said, follow my commands at 'critical moments.'"
"What about non-critical moments...?"
Qixia shook his head helplessly. "Non-critical moments are even simpler. Each of you can act independently. All seven of you are leaders. Whoever thinks of something, just go ahead and do it. Adapt to the situation."
"Will that work?"
"The situation is like a collapsing building—it's already out of control." Qixia reached out and patted Dihu on the shoulder. "So no matter what chaos occurs now, it's all the same. Even if the whole building explodes from the bottom up, it's still going to fall in the end."
"Oh..." Dihu nodded, half understanding.
"But don't worry. By then, your team will have its prototype... a full eight people."
When he said "eight people," Qixia frowned slightly.
"What's wrong?" Dihu asked.
Qixia paused, then pulled out the map that "Qinglong" had given him from his pocket.
"Dihu, there's something I need your help with." Qixia spread the map out in front of Dihu. "This time I came to see you, besides asking about your progress, there's also a small problem I need you to get involved in."
"Need my help?" Dihu let out a hearty laugh. "Aren't you being a bit too formal? Just say the word if there's anything you need me to do."
Qixia unfolded the map in front of Dihu, which detailed the layout of this area.
"What the hell is this?"
Dihu picked up the map and studied it, finding that although it was hand-drawn, it was extremely detailed, even sketching the shapes of important buildings, and some buildings were marked with characters like "Zi, Chou, Yin, Mao" and so on.
"Dihu, there are some red characters here, representing certain 'Di-level' participants. Do you know who's located there?"
"Oh, oh!!" Dihu finally understood what the map meant. "Let me take a look!"
He extended his thick finger, pointing at the red characters on the map and reading them one by one: "Chou, Mao, Chen, Si, Xu, Shen, You, Hai..."
After reciting them, he stretched out his fingers again to count: "Chou Niu... Mao? Is that a rabbit? And Chen..."
Qixia waited silently for a while, until Dihu finally looked up thoughtfully, his expression somewhat complicated.
"What is it?" Qixia asked.
"It's a bit strange..." Dihu scratched his head. "What exactly are these eight red 'Di-level' characters for?"
"They are..."
Qixia frowned, finding it hard to explain, because in the next moment, he might have to treat these eight people as enemies.
But he had seen these eight characters before, and there was a discrepancy with the team Dihu had mentioned—at least among these eight, there was no "Yin Hu" or "Wei Yang." The only one he had visited before and was currently recorded in red was "Hai," which was that arrogant, unpleasant Earth Pig.
So the problem wouldn't be too out of control. As long as his own "needle" was still there, they could freely string up the other "threads." Even if all six other people died, it wouldn't matter much.
"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." Dihu shook his head. "But it's a bit of a coincidence... three of these eight red characters came to my room yesterday."
"Oh?"
"This one..." Dihu picked up the map and pointed at it for Qixia. "Mao Tu, Xu Gou, Hai Zhu... I checked these three locations, and they clearly correspond to their game venues."
Qixia had been to Hai Zhu's venue, so he knew it, but he didn't know the locations of Di Tu and Di Gou. Now it seemed that the situation was more or less what he had expected—there was indeed some connection between these two matters.
"Three out of eight have joined the team, so the real enemies are five...?" Qixia muttered to himself.
"What 'enemies'?" Dihu asked.
Qixia didn't answer. Instead, he said to Dihu, "Remember the locations of the remaining five red characters. If I'm not mistaken, one of those five will knock on your door tonight."
Dihu felt that Qixia was practically a prophet. He pulled out a map at random, marked a few red characters, and then claimed that one of those Di-levels would join him.
Who else besides the White Sheep from back then would dare say such a thing?
Xu Liunian, who was also present, didn't understand either. She had been there when Qixia talked with "Qinglong," and she had also been present when Bai Hu recounted the experience from last night, yet she had no idea what Qixia was thinking.
"Qixia... why would someone among them join?" Xu Liunian asked. "Is there any necessary connection between these two things?"
"Yes, because arranging it this way fits 'Qinglong's' personality." Qixia looked up, as if speaking to Xu Liunian, or perhaps to "Qinglong" himself. "Four 'rebels,' four 'enemies,' and these four enemies are meant to exchange the lives of my four 'teammates.' Each category has four, and in the end, I have to choose... He wants to know who I'll keep and who I'll abandon. As someone who knows everything about the 'Land of the End,' this is the most appropriate move."
"What..." Xu Liunian's eyes widened. "But what is 'Qinglong's' purpose in doing this?"
"Most likely, he's watching for entertainment." Qixia said. "No complicated reason needed. He won't help me, and he won't kill me. He's just looking for something interesting to keep himself alert."