Chapter 249: The Cruel Weird Competition

Twenty seconds.

Fifteen seconds.

Within the ten mirrors, something seemed to be stirring.

In the span of five seconds, the massive Divine Punishment would descend, destroying all living things. Zheng Zai’s forehead and back were covered in sweat.

He could not withstand this Divine Punishment if it descended.

"Start from one, end at ten. The numbers go up to one hundred... ten mirrors of varying sizes that can reflect a person perfectly square."

"Old Zheng. Go to number 81."

Since, literally speaking, starting from one and ending at ten sounds very much like one through ten...

...in these final dozen seconds, many strange creatures were all yearning like a tide to squeeze into the coffins at the front.

Especially the coffins numbered one through ten.

Although only a dozen seconds remained until the Divine Punishment, the coffin lids further back still had few takers.

Wen Xishu could see that centipede-legged van was violently pounding on the lid of the sixth coffin, attempting to shatter the person inside.

And that eerie, pure-hearted cockroach actually managed to squeeze into the third coffin through just a single crack.

Logically, one coffin should only hold one person.

But in the third coffin, after the cockroach squeezed in, there was simply no other movement.

Yet before long, blood began to flow from the cracks of the coffin.

The Weird Competition is very cruel.

Some gazes even turned toward Wen Xishu.

"I want to tie this human to my coffin lid!"

A giant eyeball set its sights on Wen Xishu.

It had a volume four or five times larger than a human’s; from afar, it looked like a super-sized eyeball.

But looking closely, one would find that around the eyeball were many limbs the size of a baby’s arms; because the eyeball was too massive and the limbs too short, they looked like hair on a sphere.

It charged toward Wen Xishu.

Wen Xishu naturally had a way to deal with it, but Zheng Zai grabbed Wen Xishu and ran quickly:

"Brother, dodge!"

Thanks to the Chaos Card, Zheng Zai’s speed was amplified, and his negative attributes were erased, so Zheng Zai was very fast now.

He pulled Wen Xishu, attempting to push him into the 81st coffin.

This actually moved Wen Xishu quite a bit.

Because his own stats were too absurd, Wen Xishu lacked that sense of crisis.

But putting himself in Old Zheng’s shoes, he could roughly feel that perhaps in Old Zheng’s eyes, this was a matter of life and death.

On the edge of life and death, Old Zheng chose to give the safety number he had deduced to him.

Wen Xishu felt a slight stir in his heart:

"It’s fine, Old Zheng. I don’t need it."

Before the giant eyeball could get close to Wen Xishu, Wen Xishu hid in the eightieth coffin.

At this moment, only five seconds remained until the Divine Punishment.

The mirrors had already begun to crack.

That giant eyeball monster, seeing that Wen Xishu had already closed his coffin and time was running out, had no choice but to give up and immediately chose a lucky number—seventy-seven.

Five, four, three, two.

One.

The sound of shattering mirrors emerged, and countless eerie laughs appeared.

This laughter was hair-raising, like the sound of a baby’s laugh in the dead of night mixed with a woman’s shrill, strange cackle.

The lid of the second coffin suddenly burst open.

A bizarre creature, a mixture of countless women and infants, revealed hundreds of faces, grinning hideously at the person inside the second coffin.

Subsequently, its eerie body seemed to liquefy, turning into a tide that swallowed the puppet-doll-like Hujiang rare species inside the second coffin.

This was an urban legend from the eve of the apocalypse, rumored to be the manifestation of a girl who was often abandoned.

Everyone who picked her up later would slowly grow to loathe her, but if they attempted to abandon her, they would die.

Compared to other monsters, her killing speed was too slow; it would take until the end of time for her to break through from rare to elite.

That was why she was invited to participate in the Weird Competition.

But now, she would become a part of the monster; she had actually been very close to the correct answer, but in the end, she had chosen wrong.

The leader-level monster, Mother You, was currently devouring and merging with her.

Such a situation was not happening only to this poor puppet.

The lid of the third coffin was also opened, and the pure-hearted cockroach, hailed as the favorite to win this sector...

...was also ruthlessly devoured by Mother You at this moment.

This cockroach, which had over nine hundred points, was filled with immense regret; it still had so many points left unused.

But now, it was impossible to draw cards.

Before long, the cockroach was submerged by the liquefied Mother You and ultimately died.

The favorite to win was ruthlessly eliminated.

Such scenes were happening everywhere.

The eyeball monster that had tried to tie Wen Xishu to its coffin lid was the same.

Even—

Wen Xishu himself was the same.

It was just that when Mother You opened the coffin where Wen Xishu was, Mother You glanced coldly at Wen Xishu and felt the effect of Wen Xishu’s God-tier card.

She headed toward the first coffin.

The first coffin was actually one of the correct answers; logically, the first coffin could not be opened.

The one who entered the first coffin was a shadow.

Yes, its body was just a shadow; compared to other creatures, it seemed to be two-dimensional.

This was also the reason it could quickly and trace-lessly enter the first coffin.

While others were still fighting over the first coffin, the shadow had already used its physical characteristics to enter it.

The Punishment of the Ten Mirrors descended, and countless coffins were opened, but the shadow could feel that his coffin was very secure.

Yes, the coffin he was in was one of the correct answers, one of the ten coffins that would not be opened.

But now, his fate had been twisted; he and Wen Xishu had swapped fates.

The coffin was suddenly opened, while the eightieth coffin, which was a wrong answer, closed again.

The ruthless devouring began.

Inside the coffin, Wen Xishu also had to sigh at the cruelty of this elimination round.

He had already solved the puzzle, but because he was targeted by the eyeball monster at the start, his rhythm was disrupted; when Old Zheng brought him to the eighty-first coffin, trying to give his chance of survival to him...

...he chose to let Old Zheng survive and then used a card to get through this round.

"Even if you solve the puzzle... you might still be eliminated for other reasons."

"In this elimination round, one still cannot be careless."

By consuming a God-tier card, Wen Xishu survived.

As the woman’s laughter and the infant’s laughter gradually faded away, the ten people who survived all felt their hearts beating violently.

Zheng Zai’s heartbeat was fast.

"Brother Wen is incredible... not only did he remove my negative effects, but he actually found the answer."

"Start from one, end at ten—how could anyone think that eighty-one was the correct answer?"

"Thank goodness for Brother Wen!"

The sense of happiness from surviving a disaster surged up in Zheng Zai. This was a true escape from death.

Feeling that there was no longer any eerie aura outside, Wen Xishu calmly pushed open the coffin lid.

"Old Zheng, you can come out now."

Hearing Wen Xishu’s voice, Zheng Zai excitedly pushed open the coffin lid:

"Brother, you are simply divine! What exactly was the puzzle?"

One after another, other monsters also emerged.

Wen Xishu said:

"The correct answers are 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, 64, 81, 100."

"I won’t elaborate on the characteristics of these numbers."

"In short, they fit the 'start from one, end at ten' rule, and they also fit the hint about the ten mirrors of different sizes that can all reflect a person as a square. Figure it out yourself."

Zheng Zai was thoughtful, seemingly having a slight clue.

But he quickly noticed:

"Brother... then weren’t you a wrong answer?"

He himself was number eighty-one, which was a correct answer. But Wen Xishu was clearly a wrong answer.

Wen Xishu laughed:

"I’m a bit overpowered. I’m an existence that cannot be killed."

Zheng Zai once again marveled at his brother’s power, and marveled at the gold content of 530,000...

He could solve the puzzle head-on, and could also ignore the punishment to resist the rules.

He suddenly felt that his attempt to save Brother Wen was simply too stupid.

Wen Xishu smiled, seemingly aware of these thoughts of Old Zheng:

"Not bad, Old Zheng, our luck is alright; the numbers are relatively high, so not that many people are fighting over them."

Zheng Zai nodded vigorously. He could see that this Weirdness Competition was only responsible for setting the questions; as for how to solve them, one didn't necessarily have to follow the standard answer.

When you feel that the standard answer has been taken by someone else, before the punishment begins, you can snatch away someone else's hard-earned results.

And even if you obtain the standard answer, you might still be eliminated due to certain special reasons.

"I don't know what the second round's test will be, but this first round was truly terrifying."

A ninety percent elimination rate.

The competition venue went from being densely packed at the start to sparse and scattered.

The seeded players and popular contestants from the beginning all died out in this round; the monsters that survived really just relied on luck.

Rare types and common types are inherently not good at thinking; compared to the likes of Jack and Jennifer, they appeared sluggish.

This decryption wasn't difficult...

Wen Xishu saw it very quickly. But for these monsters, it basically came down to guessing.

The scene began to change once again.

At this moment, the host's voice appeared in the ears of the survivors:

"Congratulations to you all for passing the first round of the elimination tournament!"

"You damn lucky ones! The chance for a perfect evolution is one step closer!"

"Do you suddenly feel that the arena is a bit quiet? Hahahaha, don't worry, we have plenty of arenas!"

"Very soon, you will feel the liveliness!"

"Next, hundreds of competition zones will merge! A super elimination tournament with nearly five thousand people begins!"

The scene changed rapidly and was expanding at high speed.

Compared to the previous hundred-coffin scene, this scene was even more magnificent.

At the same time, Wen Xishu received 210 points.

The points for successfully surviving were 200, and the points for killing one person were 10.

Not only that, Wen Xishu also discovered that the second round of the competition had one more card slot than the first.

In other words, everyone could now carry five cards.

This prompt appearing made Wen Xishu pause:

"The next scene is a super survival scenario for five thousand people?"

"Hell, five thousand people... and by now, quite a few people should already know that killing others grants 10 points."

"My... no, Old Zheng's situation is very bad."

Wen Xishu didn't kill anyone directly, but because of a card effect, someone bore his fate.

This kill count was ultimately credited to Wen Xishu.

This also made Wen Xishu realize that the criteria for killing were very loose.

So in a super survival scenario of five thousand people...

Among the five thousand, there must be quite a few who know that killing can earn extra points.

Five thousand people, a total of fifty thousand points.

"Not bad, if I kill them all, it can barely make up for my losses in drawing cards."

Wen Xishu's sense of security decreased slightly; fortunately, it was time for the next round of card drawing.

This time, Zheng Zai went all-in on three 128-point purple card pools.

Zheng Zai only looked simple-minded, but he wasn't stupid; he was also good at learning, so he analyzed that in the upcoming scene, there were too many people, which would instead lead to chaos.

Chaos requires means of self-preservation.

Zheng Zai's luck with the three purple card pools was not bad; as if possessed by A-Miao, he actually drew two Order cards and one Magic Energy card.

Magic Energy cards are second only to Weirdness God cards; many people might not even have a Chaos God card by the final circle, so a Magic Energy card is basically the top configuration for most people.

[Card: Malicious Randomization]

[Card Grade: Magic Energy Card.]

[Effect: When someone develops a desire to attack you, this desire to attack will randomly spread to the people around you.]

Simply put, with this card, if someone tries to kill Old Zheng, then this malice toward Old Zheng will be randomly distributed among the people around him...

This person might launch an attack on a group of people.

Zheng Zai thought about it; this card was quite good. If he hid in a place with many people, the risk he faced would be shared.

The other two Order cards were purely attribute cards.

Health doubled, and speed doubled.

Combined with Old Zheng's previous card pool, his speed had already increased significantly.

He felt a little more secure.

After Wen Xishu asked a few questions, he nodded:

"Not bad, being able to neutralize malice and also escape quickly, relatively speaking, it's quite safe. You had good luck this time, Old Zheng."

Survivors from other competition zones gradually appeared around them, and the sense of oppression was slowly increasing.

In the scene, some weird statues began to appear.

Zheng Zai observed all this while asking:

"Brother, how about you?"

Wen Xishu said:

"I only kept the card that grants immunity to negative attributes from teammates; all other cards were swapped out."

Zheng Zai asked in a low voice:

"What kind of cards?"

"Weirdness God cards, five in total," Wen Xishu said nonchalantly.

Zheng Zai: ...

Forget it, I shouldn't have asked. The game I'm playing is fundamentally not the same as the one Brother Wen is playing.

Zheng Zai couldn't speak; he felt as if his heart had been trampled by a thousand horses.

He certainly wasn't jealous, but the gap between people was too vast, which still left him shocked.

A Magic Energy card is already awesome, but Weirdness God cards, five-piece set?

This... wouldn't Brother Wen go on a killing spree?

After the second round of the elimination tournament, there really won't be many monsters left; all the competition zones might merge.

And at this moment, what appeared before the eyes of Wen Xishu and the others was a super huge "Statue Forest."

It was the same as before, one hundred statues, each different; some were beasts, some looked like totems.

In the sky, there were also some butterflies of weird colors: blue butterflies, purple butterflies, red butterflies, white butterflies.

There were nearly a hundred of these butterflies as well.

At the same time, the host's voice rang out:

"One hundred statues, numbered one to one hundred. Hehe, you all know that one plus one hundred is five thousand and fifty."

"And there are about five thousand people here. Of course, it's also possible that due to special mechanisms, there aren't enough people to kill."

"Let me talk about the death mechanism first. Suppose, ah~ you all touch the statue numbered fifty, if that statue is lit up and it is not the correct answer—"

"Then fifty people will die in this round of the elimination tournament. Of course, the person who lights up the statue will definitely die."

"As for the other forty-nine, whether you all will be among them depends on your own abilities."

"You all possess some cards, don't you?"

"Of course, it's also possible that you all touch the statue numbered fifty, but the result... the number of people who die is more than fifty, or less than fifty."

"However, the causality within this depends on you all yourselves."

"Many people will die in this round; the clear approach is to stand back and observe, letting a group of people go to their deaths first."

"Anyway, there will be ten correct answers. Once they are all found, you all will pass the level~"

"Observe well, the strong can command the weak to light up the statues, letting the weak become the steps for you to look out from, but you won't be higher than these steps, nor will you be lower than these steps."

"I wish you all good luck. By the way, each type of statue represents a disaster; I hope I can see enough disasters~"

"Then, Weirdness Competition, second round, begin."

Silence.

In the magnificent scene, there were now nearly five thousand weird monsters.

Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai felt the pressure brought by these bizarre-looking creatures...

Neither of them spoke.

Even the monsters didn't speak.

They were not good at thinking, nor did they know how to solve this puzzle.

Among the one hundred statues, there were ten correct numbers...

It seemed very similar to the previous round, but Wen Xishu knew clearly that the difficulty this time was likely much higher than the last.

He looked at those butterflies, lost in thought.

It was also at this moment that the most powerful monster in the arena—a bizarre tree—suddenly spoke.

This was a tree coiled around a massive building, with countless roots wrapping around the structure; one could see faint light from the windows inside the building.

This was clearly an Elite-type.

It had been invited to participate in the Bizarre Competition, aiming to reach the Red House.

Although everyone's abilities and items had been stripped away... its massive size determined its destructive power.

The combination of a building and a towering tree created a tremendous sense of visual oppression just by looking at it.

It was hard to imagine whether the first round this tree experienced was also the Punishment of Ten Mirrors? If it was... then how large a coffin would need to be prepared?

"Next, I will call the names. Those I call shall go and light the first statue."

"Who approves, and who opposes?"

Facing an Elite-type and the questioning of such a super-giant creature... no one dared to oppose; whether they drove a Mazda or a Rolls-Royce, anyone who dared to oppose would be pierced by giant vines.

Zheng Zaixin thought to himself... this wouldn't call on me and Brother Wen, would it?

They were humans, the weakest of existences.

The most suitable to be cannon fodder.

But this time, Zheng Zai discovered something wrong.

The people around them seemed unable to notice them.

The effect of the God Card had already been activated.

This was also a card that gave Wen Xishu a sense of security; its effect was simple and crude—small-range stealth.

Wen Xishu said:

"Don't make any big movements; it can't see you. Old Zheng, keep your spirits at one hundred and twenty percent and solve the puzzle carefully... but don't be too nervous."

"I'm here for everything; we won't die."

Although he said that, Wen Xishu actually had no certainty; although the monsters couldn't see the two of them... whether the death triggered by the statues could detect him and Old Zheng remained unknown.

Moreover, facing the puzzle of this round, Wen Xishu also had no clue.

"The riddle should be in the host's words, just glossed over by a single sentence."

"Additionally, the host said that touching the statue numbered fifty might result in the death of more than fifty people... does this suggest that the number represented by the statue might change?"

"Also, what do that group of butterflies in the sky signify?"

Wen Xishu was confident in clearing the level through stats, but just like the first round, he was also very eager to try—to see if he could clear it through skill.

(End of chapter)