Chapter 199: Drawing Lots to Decide Who Scouts Ahead
"Didn't you encounter any other surprises when you came down from the twelfth floor?" Dai Wenqian asked loudly. "What about the man-eating flower in the elevator shaft?"
"It's still alive and kicking down there," Xu Huo said. "Looks like it's not easy to kill."
Dai Wenqian smiled faintly. "You didn't gain anything from this trip."
"We didn't gain anything, but we didn't harm anyone either," Jiang Yihua said, glancing at the corpse on the ground. "Unlike you."
"These are extraordinary times," Dai Wenqian said with a shrug, putting on a look of being forced into it.
Jiang Yihua turned away and said no more.
With her companions nearby, Gu Yu couldn't ask Xu Huo what happened after he went upstairs, so she returned to Zheng Liang's side.
The six hours on the eleventh floor passed quickly, and then it was time to head to the tenth floor.
The tenth floor had originally been a laboratory, now littered with shattered experimental equipment. Test benches and instruments were overturned, and the floor and walls bore claw marks from some beast, along with patches of dried blood. Although there were no corpses, suspicious residues remained on the ground.
Xu Huo walked to the window and looked down. He still couldn't see the first floor, and even the windows on the ninth floor were half-covered.
He turned back into the room and thrust his sword into the floor. The blade sank into the floorboards and then he pulled it back up, but it didn't penetrate through to the ninth floor below. He then slashed at the edge of the window, but it seemed a special material was used between the floors, as this strike didn't cut through the floor either.
Brother Tie and his group, standing to the side, stared at the sword in his hand and exchanged glances. Zhang Biao rubbed the mole on his face and spoke up, "I think instead of wasting these six hours sitting here doing nothing, we should make use of the time."
The others turned to look at him, and the bald player immediately chimed in, "You mean..."
"Although going up is risky, we can go down early," Zhang Biao said. "The reason we lost so many people on the fourteenth floor was that we were new and didn't know the situation. If we had known in advance that there were mutants on the fourteenth floor, that kind of thing wouldn't have happened."
The crowd seemed to find some logic in this. Zhang Biao looked around and continued, "So why don't we get ahead of the elevator and scout the way first, so the others can be mentally prepared."
This sounded like a feasible plan.
"If that's the case, it could indeed avoid some risks," Kang Hong said matter-of-factly. "But the people going to scout will definitely be in danger."
"How dangerous can it be?" Brother Tie said dismissively. "Coming down from upstairs, did we really encounter any particularly ferocious mutants?"
He pointed at Xu Huo and his two companions. "Didn't they kill a mantis? With all that commotion upstairs, no other mutants were attracted. Maybe that dead mantis was the same thing that killed Wu Kun in the elevator shaft."
"If that's the case, the building should be safer now."
"When we came down earlier, we said there wasn't just the mutant mantis—other mutants were attracted later, but we escaped in time," Jiang Yihua said with a frown.
"If that mutant was so powerful, could you three really have gotten away unscathed?" Brother Tie countered.
Jiang Yihua was momentarily speechless, and before he could retort, Brother Tie added, "The truth is, mutants aren't that strong in small numbers, otherwise you three couldn't have killed one so easily."
"What do you plan to do?" Xu Huo asked at this point.
"Since it's scouting, we need stronger players to go," Brother Tie said. "There are sixteen of us players here. I'm not forcing anyone—let's just draw lots. Whoever gets picked goes."
"How about that? Isn't that fair?"
He glanced at Kang Hong and the others. "If you want to sacrifice for the group, you can join the draw too."
The ordinary people behind them shook their heads like rattles, all saying, "We agree with your method."
Brother Tie smiled with satisfaction, then looked at Dai Wenqian. "What do you think?"
Dai Wenqian didn't speak immediately but said, "As long as the majority agrees, I have no objections."
Brother Tie immediately found a relatively intact notebook in the lab, tore out equally sized pieces of paper, marked them with different numbers, and handed all the slips to Gu Yu. "For fairness, after we each draw a lot, we'll decide which numbers go down to scout."
This method benefited the vast majority of people present and most players, since the lower floors seemed increasingly dangerous. Having encountered no particularly fierce mutants on the upper floors was pure luck. If the fourteenth-floor incident repeated, many more would die.
"Then let's draw lots," Xiao Ba said. "After drawing, we'll pick an elevator first, work together to kill the man-eating flower below, and then go down."
"It's also convenient to go up and down through the elevator shaft—if we encounter danger, we can escape back up immediately."
The other players thought it over briefly and agreed, but Gu Yu held the slips without nodding. She knew best the strength of these players. Brother Tie, Zhang Biao, and the others had only been through one instance and received the lowest rating. The remaining players, Zheng Liang and Xiao Ba, had just come down from the preliminary train and hadn't reached their next instance deadline.
The most experienced people present were probably Dai Wenqian and Xu Huo.
Dai Wenqian's stance was unclear, so she turned her gaze to Xu Huo. "Do you agree with this method too?"
"I agree. Do as you please," Xu Huo said. "But I'm not participating."
Brother Tie's face darkened. "What do you mean? You agreed to it—are you backing out?"
Xu Huo glanced at him. "That's something you all agreed on. What does it have to do with me?"
"Xu Huo, we're not targeting you. Every player has to draw," Zheng Liang said.
Xu Huo said nothing more, showing no intention of cooperating.
Brother Tie suddenly stood up, glaring at him fiercely. "Xu, the minority must obey the majority. Everyone else agreed—why do you get to refuse?"
"Who says everyone else agreed?" Jiang Yihua said. "We're not participating in the draw either."
Brother Tie looked at Gu Yu and saw her change her stance. A flash of anger crossed his face, and he said, "Weren't you two all righteous just now? Why are you chickening out now?"
"Wasn't it about saving people? When real danger comes, you turn into cowards. You talk a good game!"
Brother Tie stirred up some of the uneasy people, and someone said sarcastically, "Forget it. Fear of death is human nature. Our lives aren't as precious as a player's. It would be a shame for them to take the risk for us ordinary folks."
"I heard the country is calling for ordinary people to join the player ranks. My son wanted to sign up. If he ever turns into someone like this, I'll beat him to death!"
"...If the country is handed over to people like this, it's doomed sooner or later..."
"..."
Most people remained silent, but with over a hundred people here, even just a few voices chiming in made for a noisy din.
Brother Tie laughed, looking at Xu Huo with smug satisfaction.