Chapter 1248: Have Fun
After the rest, the group set off again, and for the next half day, they encountered no major obstacles. A few stray players here and there were all dealt with by the energetic Jiang Zifeng.
The only issue was that the temperature had dropped significantly.
But it was still bearable. After passing through a maze wall covered in blooming flowers, a large door appeared ahead, and the maze announced:
"Congratulations to all players for arriving at the final station before the finish line. Please check your first card to confirm your faction."
Hearing this, the group had a general idea of what was coming. When the door before them opened, they saw not only the eight players who had arrived earlier but also a polygonal room constructed from giant playing cards.
Forty-two numbered cards, each three meters wide and five meters tall, formed the walls. In the center stood a smaller polygonal structure made of twelve face cards.
As they entered, Jiang Zifeng circled the face cards before saying, "Looks like Liang Shuang isn't that lucky."
Not necessarily.
Xu Huo glanced at a man nearby with messy hair and a thick stubble, then shifted his gaze to the others.
Counting their group of six, there were now fourteen people in this room.
Xu Huo held five cards, Mu Yan six, Li Cheng two, Jiang Zifeng three, Ye Bingxin two, and Chen Chou three. That made twenty-one cards among the six of them.
As for the eight on the other side, each holding two or three cards wasn't unreasonable. After all, those who could make it this far were decent players, so their total card count likely exceeded ten.
That meant everyone here collectively held at least thirty cards, covering most of the deck... It seemed the end of a round in the maze game was tied to the players reaching the finish line. Until enough cards approached the endpoint, more players would keep entering the instance.
"We're at the finish line, so why can't we clear it yet?" Mu Yan couldn't help asking.
"Clack, clack, clack!" Suddenly, the playing cards in the room began spinning in place. Amid shifting light and shadow, most of the cards showed pitch-black space on their backs, except for two Number 1 cards directly opposite the door Xu Huo's group had come through, which had light behind them.
"That must be the passage!" A player rejoiced and rushed over, but the two Number 1 cards suddenly closed together. Then, all the spinning cards closed in unison, re-forming a complete wall.
"Some cards have turned to their backs," Ye Bingxin pointed out.
Most cards remained face-up toward the room, including five black face cards and three white face cards, but twelve cards had flipped to their backs.
At the same time, the maze's announcement sounded:
"Congratulations to all players for entering the final round of the maze game."
"Please confirm your first card again. If your first card is black, you are in the Black Faction; if white, you are in the White Faction. Each player may only enter the Number 1 passage corresponding to their faction."
"Note: Only the Number 1 passage of the faction with the majority of cards can open. This round follows maze rules, and players are not allowed to discard or exchange cards."
"The match time is three hours. Have fun."
After the rules were announced, the players grew restless.
Although black cards were currently in the majority on the surface, that didn't mean most players had a black first card. In other words, more black cards didn't necessarily mean more players in the Black Faction. With both the first-card faction and card count uncertain, clearing the match became much harder.
This was especially tough for those whose first card was white but held multiple black cards. Even if they killed other players, they couldn't guarantee the white card count would surpass the black one in a short time.
The atmosphere instantly tensed up.
Xu Huo's original black Number 1 had been replaced by a black King, placing him in the Black Faction. Additionally, Jiang Zifeng's first card was black 9, Mu Yan's black 12, Ye Bingxin's black 6, while Li Cheng and Chen Chou both had white first cards. Even within their group, there was a split.
The same went for other players. Those who had come together showed changes in their expressions.
With the finish line in sight, everyone wanted to clear it.
"Brother Xu, I'm definitely on your side!" Chen Chou declared immediately. He didn't know if others could clear it, but he probably couldn't.
"Can you even stand?" Jiang Zifeng asked, not caring if he hurt feelings.
Li Cheng also said regretfully, "Clearing or not doesn't matter to me..."
She stopped mid-sentence because a prompt popped up in the instance's backend:
"Players whose first card is a numbered card can replace their first card with a face card obtained in the final round, and their faction will be determined by the face card's faction."
Clearly, not only she had received this.
Those holding face cards got a different prompt. Xu Huo's read:
"Players whose first card is a face card have one opportunity to verbally change their faction, i.e., choose a faction without changing the suit of their first card."
Under the rule that ordinary cards couldn't be directly exchanged or discarded, face cards had special privileges. This gave other players holding numbered cards another way to switch factions, without relying on killing players to change the card count.
The question was: who currently held face cards?
The players eyed each other suspiciously. Just as the tension was about to explode, another door opened in the card wall, and a pale-faced man walked in. As he entered, two more cards lit up on the central face-card wall—one black and one white.
Players who already knew the rules fixed their gazes on him. The two nearest players suddenly attacked—probably trying to strike first—but when they were still three meters away, an invisible force slammed them against the wall!
Unable to break free, the two were crushed until their faces distorted. The man, whose pallor clearly indicated serious injury, raised his hand and snapped his fingers before asking, "Do you have any face cards?"
The two players were momentarily dazed and answered woodenly, "No."
Those without face cards clearly weren't worth killing. They were released, but the next second, they uncontrollably stabbed each other, sending five cards flying.
Five numbered cards flipped to their backs.
Being able to force two C-level players to kill each other—this strength was obvious... The nearby players began backing away.
"Didn't expect me to come back alive, did you?" Xue Lang's face was dark enough to drip water. He stared at Xu Huo, his eyes like a viper flicking its tongue.
Xu Huo just smiled. "So soon? I thought you'd miss this instance."
"You must be holding at least two black face cards," Xue Lang said, his voice icy. "Too bad, as long as I hold one, you'll never collect all six!"
"Maybe I want white cards instead?" Xu Huo replied nonchalantly, then added, "Why don't you guess whether I have more black or white face cards?"
Sorry about that. I spent the whole day at the hospital yesterday, got back late and was too tired to write the second chapter, so I only swapped it in today. My tinnitus has been going on for four months without improvement, and the doctor insists I strictly adjust my sleep schedule. I don't know if I can manage it, but if I succeed, I'll update earlier in the future. Also, no update tonight.
Happy National Day, everyone!
(Chapter End)