Chapter 2288: Gotham Music Festival (Part 36)

The second round of the game began.

But before the game started, the doors on both sides of the room opened, and another group of people wearing masks walked out of the room and came to the corresponding tables according to the patterns on their masks.

Schiller found a strong man standing opposite him. In his blurred vision, he counted that there were 9 tentacles on the octopus mask of the other party, which meant he was Schiller's opponent.

The invitation letter given to the challenged would state who challenged them, and the invitation letter Schiller received didn't write a specific name, but only wrote one word—"Sea".

Now this "Sea" was standing in front of him. Schiller could only use his arm to support himself on the table to adjust his body balance as much as possible, while barely looking at him.

When the second round of the game began, the round table was withdrawn again, and the oval table used by both sides for gambling floated up. Schiller and Octopus 9 stood at both ends of the table.

Suddenly, a staff member took a strange machine and placed it in the center of each table. The upper part of the machine was a transparent sphere, and the lower part was a metal base. The metal base had two hoses facing the direction of the two, and the hoses were connected to a pump. In front of the pump was a thin tube, and in front of the thin tube was a needle.

The transparent spherical part was very large, looking like a high-transparency glass material, but many hoses were spirally arranged on the sphere wall, with 9 exits at the top and 9 exits at the bottom.

In the center of the sphere was a smaller spherical frame, which was made of metal, with metal balls of different heights and sizes hanging inside. There were many of them, like stars, and each was engraved with a rune.

Everyone discussed this, not knowing what this strange machine was for, and the staff member began to explain.

"The name of this gambling game is Blood Lotto. Later, professional medical staff will insert blood collection needles into both sides' arms. Please don't worry, we have special methods to ensure the entire process is hygienic and safe, and no one will die from improper injection."

"The blood collection needle is in place, both sides' chips enter the game, minimum one, maximum all-in. Toss a coin to decide who goes first."

"After starting, participants use a remote control to decide the amount of blood drawn in milliliters, minimum 100 ml, no cap. The blood will flow into the pump in front through the needle tube, and at the same time decide the blood outlet. The 9 exits at the top are numbered Top 1~9, and the 9 exits at the bottom are numbered Bottom 1~9."

"After deciding, the other party who has not drawn blood adjusts the target position by turning the joystick. After completion, the blood drawer pumps and shoots. The target hit by the blood flow first is considered a hit, and the rune will be recorded."

"Within the 20-minute game time, the number of effective runes hit is unlimited, but finally 7 runes need to be selected and arranged in combination. After 20 minutes, the winning number will be announced. Whoever has more runes identical to the winning number wins, and gets all the gold coins on the table and all the blood lost in the game."

After the rules were explained, the whole room was in an uproar.

Wasn't it poker before? Why did it start gambling with lives now? Minimum 100 ml at a time, Lotto needs 7 runes, which means at least 700 ml of blood is needed.

This quantity is not fatal, but losing 700 ml of blood at once is also dangerous, especially for the elderly and children.

More importantly, you decide the outlet after drawing blood, and the other party adjusts the target. The other party will definitely adjust the target to be very difficult to hit. If you don't hit it once, the amount of blood needed will become 800 ml.

Although this is not the limit of human blood loss, this is not a one-shot deal. You don't stop living after playing this round. If you win, you can get your blood back, but what if you lose?

This round may not be the end. By then, the winner gets the gold coins and gets the blood back, in good condition, while the loser loses 1000 ml of blood. I'm afraid they can't even stand, so how can they gamble?

Everyone was complaining that it was too harsh. From an ordinary poker game to such a game, was the span a bit too big?

They finally truly realized that the legend of the *Great West Continent* was true. This was a ship that gambled with lives. Risk and harvest were proportional.

Of course, some people began to feel fear and wanted to quit, but unfortunately, whether it was a challenger or the challenged, there was no turning back once the gambling game started, even for those who boarded the ship voluntarily, it was too late to regret.

"Is this what you want?" Christopher looked at Tupac opposite him and said, "Fighting to the death in this way?"

"You don't understand anything." Tupac turned his head away and said, "This is a good thing."

"You are really crazy." Christopher finally couldn't bear it anymore. He hammered the table forcefully and said, "Listen to what the hell crazy talk you are saying?! You sent us both into a desperate situation!"

"On the contrary, I got us both out of a desperate situation."

Christopher stared at Tupac silently, his eyes very focused. He had to let Tupac give him an explanation.

Tupac lowered his head and said, "Rap on the East and West coasts has developed very well recently. Dr. Dre is discovering newcomers, and the East Coast also has Gotham kids. Do you think this situation will continue?"

Christopher frowned.

"No, of course not." Tupac lowered his head and muttered to himself, "Don't you understand yet? Rap has given black people too strong a right to speak. They won't allow this situation to continue."

Tupac's Adam's apple moved and said, "They have always been doing this, all of them. They did this to my parents, they did this to me, they did this to all of us."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Christopher asked.

Tupac's hands tightly gripped the edge of the table and said, "I can only come to this ship, there is no other way, because someone wants to kill me."

"Who?" Christopher asked.

"This is not important. What's important is that they will make everyone think that you killed me because of the conflict between us."

"Then they will also send someone to kill you, disguised as revenge from my fans. We will both die."

"So I have no other way, I can only hide on the ship myself, and then find a way to pull you up, so at least one of us can live."

"What the hell is going on? Tupac." Christopher leaned forward, staring tightly at his former good friend and said, "Tell me what's going on!"

Tupac took a deep breath, appearing very nervous and anxious, and said, "You should know that I am preparing for a new album. Song preparation started months ago, and I have been writing lyrics."

"I... I paid attention to Mexico. Do you know how my name came from?"

"How did it come from?"

"I wasn't originally called Tupac. My parents changed this name for me, a transliteration of a Spanish name, from the pioneer of the Latin American national liberation movement, Tupac Amaru II. His greatest achievement in his life was leading the indigenous people of Latin America to bravely resist the Spanish colonists."

"Speaking of my parents, maybe you don't know, they were all members of the Black Panther Party, devoted their lives to the cause of national independence and liberation, but these are not important, that is already a thing of the past."

"They disintegrated us, now these movements have almost disappeared, and I am still continuing to speak out."

"A month after the studio incident where we had a conflict, I was accused of firing three shots at a white police officer. In fact, I was just helping a black person during a university riot."

"You will think these are coincidences, a series of things that happened continuously in my life. I thought so at the time too, thinking I was unlucky, and had been unlucky all that year."

"But soon I discovered that there were more and more events targeting me. Someone had been staring at me, appearing in every occasion I appeared. I couldn't avoid them, couldn't get around them, and couldn't hide from them. This sounds like a madman's hysteria, but I know I'm not, I know someone is staring at me."

"I thought I was crazy, I even went to see a doctor. They said I had anxiety and panic attacks, and told me to relax. I also thought the facts were like this, until a few months ago... someone entered my house."

"What did they do?" Christopher was immediately nervous.

"They didn't do anything." Tupac shrugged and said, "But they took something away, not valuables, just the lyrics I wrote a few months ago."

"What did you write?" Christopher began to understand a little.

"Mexico, Peru hero Tupac, and one of his famous quotes: 'It's time, eliminate differences, unite like brothers'."

Christopher's Adam's apple moved, and he lowered his eyelids and said, "... You know best what they don't want to hear, and you wrote it all."

"I have been writing these." Tupac looked at Christopher and said, "This is why they are staring at me. They must also be staring at you in the same way, because we are both writing, and they don't want to hear it, they don't want anyone to hear it, they dare not let anyone hear it."

"They are used to playing old tricks." Tupac stared at the table and said, "Not trendy, but very useful. Man-made manufacturing conflicts, splitting into two factions, and then disguising their assassinations as feuds between two factions. They don't know how many united people they have split, silently eliminating their struggles."

Christopher's Adam's apple trembled uncontrollably, and he said, "I don't know, I didn't feel it, I didn't feel..."

"They are not staring at you in that street way." Tupac held out his hand to make a quotation mark gesture and said, "Don't forget who they are. They own a whole country, and they won't follow you like little thugs. If I were a poor black person born on the street, maybe I wouldn't have discovered it, but I am not."

"My biological parents, my stepfather, my godfather, my aunt, all were high-level members of the Black Panther Party. I witnessed with my own eyes what that group of people did to them, so I can always discover it keenly."

"When I found that the draft paper with my lyrics was missing, I knew my death was coming."

Tupac finally showed an excited expression. He patted the table downward angrily and said, "What I can't tolerate most is that the object they chose is you. We are the only two black singers with the most right to speak on the East and West coasts. They want to kill two birds with one stone, let us perish together, and I must never let them succeed."

Tupac gritted his teeth, his face showing a fierceness that Christopher had never seen before, and said, "I know the rumors about this ship are true. The elders I know have realized their wishes here."

"Then I challenge you. There must be a winner between us, there must be one person who can realize their wish. As long as they wish to get rid of the pursuit forever, not be persecuted to death, we can at least retain a voice channel."

Christopher closed his eyes.

"Then now, what do you think?" Tupac asked him.

"What was that?" Christopher opened his eyes and asked very seriously.

"What?"

"The person who shares your name, what did he say?"

Tupac was startled.

"It's time, eliminate differences, unite like brothers."

"... It's time." ===== CHAPTER 2289 =====