Chapter 260: Losing is Winning

The cheap red and blue lights of the marble game interface beat rapidly in the game sound. Feng Yongfu's breathing also became rapid with this rhythm. The marble passed through several forks and fell randomly. The waiting gaps were marked with different numbers from 0-6. Everyone knows that falling into which one rewards how many marbles.

Under the eyes of everyone, the marble fell into the No. 6 channel.

In a normal game, this is hitting the jackpot.

Before the joy of clearing the level could emerge in the hearts of the others, Feng Yongfu had quickly fallen to the side.

Only heard Zhong Xiaoyu shout "Get down!"

Qi Fei and Wu Shanqiu, after professional training, quickly crawled on the ground after hearing the command.

And Jiang Tianyi is just a psychologist. Fortunately, Zhong Xiaoyu was prepared. While speaking, she had already pounced on Jiang Tianyi, and the two fell to the ground at the same time.

Qi Fei could feel a strong airflow accompanied by a whistling sound passing over his head.

"You are really great!" The game machine made an electronic voice imitating a child, which made people shudder.

After a while, the game machine returned to the nursery rhyme music when they first arrived. Qi Fei cautiously raised his head to look at the game machine. It flashed colorful lights unhurriedly, as if waiting for the next participant in the game.

After confirming that there was no danger, Qi Fei turned to look at the direction where the hidden weapon flew just now. On the bridge pier behind them, 6 holes were clearly visible. Looking closely, 6 steel balls were embedded in them. It is unimaginable what the consequences would be if these steel balls hit a person just now.

"Where is Feng Yongfu?" Wu Shanqiu's voice came. Everyone searched around, and sure enough, Feng Yongfu was gone.

It seems he escaped while everyone was dodging.

"Damn it, I should have been closer to him just now!" Qi Fei said annoyedly.

"If you were any closer to him, you would have lost your life by now," Zhong Xiaoyu said comfortingly. "At least you forced him to expose the mechanism of this game machine, otherwise someone would have been injured today."

Qi Fei looked down at the noisy marble machine: "A normal marble machine rewards marbles based on which number channel the marble falls into. It seems that the one Xi He modified rewards the player with bullets based on which number it falls into."

"The key is you still have to play this game, otherwise there is no way to get clues about Qi Dongjun's whereabouts," Zhong Xiaoyu said. "This is the rule that a control freak like Xi He would design."

"With Feng Yongfu's example, I think this level is easy to pass," Qi Fei said, his hand already grasping the handle of the marble machine.

"Fei Ge, be careful!" Wu Shanqiu reminded uneasily from the side.

"You guys scatter and lie down first," Qi Fei said, his hand already gripping the red ball of the handle, slowly pulling it out. In the game frame, you can see the spring that ejects the marble compressing accordingly.

"Qi Fei, are you sure the marble will fall into the '0' channel?" Zhong Xiaoyu was worried after all and couldn't help asking.

Qi Fei didn't answer. Under his breathless gaze, the marble was finally ejected.

The marble rolled rapidly, colliding and sliding between different obstacles, and finally circled and rolled between the No. 1 channel and the No. 0 channel. At that moment, his heart was about to jump out of his throat. Only heard a crisp "clatter" sound, and the marble finally fell.

The electronic prompt sounded again: "Unfortunately, you didn't win this time. Don't be discouraged, try again!"

Nothing happened. Qi Fei bet right. Even so, in just this moment, his back was already soaked with sweat.

For everyone present, there had never been a time when they felt so happy to hear a notification of game failure.

At this time, the heavy rain stopped abruptly again, and the music of the marble machine stopped with it.

The surroundings were terribly quiet, only the roaring seawater under the Yuanxi Bridge could be heard, slapping the embankment like breathing.

"And, then?" Wu Shanqiu observed the surroundings vigilantly and murmured, suddenly smelling a pungent smell in the fresh air after the rain—that was the smell of burning plastic. She subconsciously looked at the game machine, and sure enough, black smoke began to emerge from the machine body, causing her to exclaim, "The marble machine is self-igniting!"

The burning speed was faster than expected. When everyone noticed, the marble machine was completely wrapped in flames. Accompanied by thick smoke and cracking sounds, in a few minutes, the game machine was completely burned into an empty shell.

"Look, that monster!" Wu Shanqiu pointed to the two-headed monster pattern on the wall.

In fact, when Wu Shanqiu said this, others also noticed—because of the roasting of the flames, the monster's hands changed, from pointing to the game machine to pointing to the east. It seems it was drawn with invisible dye in advance and would only appear after encountering fire.

The east side of the bridge was full of cattails taller than a person, swaying violently in the wind.

Qi Fei walked closer and saw that some of the cattail leaves were stained with undried blood—it seems Feng Yongfu escaped from here, and was cut by the cattail leaves in his panic.

Pushing aside the cattails, the stone ridge extending under the bridge pier led to the direction of the shore.

The stone ridge was narrow and long, only enough for one person to pass. The four people had to line up one by one to grope forward. Qi Fei led the way, Wu Shanqiu brought up the rear, and Zhong Xiaoyu and Jiang Tianyi were in the middle.

"Junior sister, thank you for saving my life just now," Jiang Tianyi said behind Zhong Xiaoyu.

"Now is not the time to talk about this," Zhong Xiaoyu said softly, tilting her head slightly.

"I'm just very happy that you are still the Zhong Xiaoyu I know," Jiang Tianyi continued.

But Zhong Xiaoyu didn't respond again, just moved closer to Qi Fei.

After a while of groping, a culvert appeared in front of them, with undried mud footprints remaining at the entrance. Needless to ask, they found the direction Feng Yongfu escaped.

Qi Fei gripped his gun tightly and walked into the dim culvert. Water droplets seeping from the cement dripped "clatter, clatter" from time to time, making his breathing rapid.

"There is no wind in this cave," Zhong Xiaoyu's voice came.

In the darkness, Qi Fei couldn't see her face. This tone of voice was so different from Zhong Kui's that the person who appeared in Qi Fei's mind when he heard this voice was completely different from Zhong Kui.

He understood what Zhong Xiaoyu meant. No wind meant that the other end of this culvert was blocked. No matter what they were looking for, it was likely to be in front, in this culvert.

As the distance from the cave entrance grew, the surroundings became darker, almost to the point where even human outlines could not be seen. Qi Fei risked exposure and took out the flashlight he carried with him. As the flashlight beam swept forward, he saw the long-awaited destination...