Chapter 1001: The Scene's Appearance

Qiao Jiajin and Zhang Shan had agreed that if they met again in "Chu He Han Jie", they would fight right there.

After all, the other rooms were too small, and the central "Men" would obstruct their movements.

At that time, both would stake their "Zi", and the winner would take it away.

After bidding farewell to Zhang Shan, Qiao Jiajin turned around and headed toward another door.

He remembered that this path should have been explored by Zhang Chenze, but he didn't know why Zhang Chenze hadn't shown up yet.

From "Bei Zhan Qu" to "Chu He Han Jie", theoretically, it only required going through two rooms. However, not only had he completed those two rooms, but he had also chatted with Zhang Shan for a while.

Despite all that time, no one else had emerged. Could it be that they had encountered danger? Or perhaps the rooms they were exploring weren't just containing "Men"?

Qiao Jiajin felt a bit strange. He reached out and opened the door, preparing to head back in the opposite direction to rendezvous with Zhang Chenze.

But after entering the room, he found that it was no different from the route he had explored—also just a single door, except that it had the character "Chou" written on it.

"Lawyer Girl, are you here?"

Qiao Jiajin called out, but no one answered him.

"How strange..."

The room was empty, which meant that Zhang Chenze hadn't even passed the first room.

As fellow scouts, Qiao Jiajin didn't understand why their speeds differed so much.

A sense of foreboding rose in his heart, so he headed toward the first room.

"Lawyer Girl..." Qiao Jiajin opened the door again, but still found no one.

In an instant, he furrowed his brow. He and Zhang Chenze had entered two different rooms at the same time, and he hadn't seen her appear from the other end. Now, following her path back, he still couldn't find her.

"Disappeared...?"

Qiao Jiajin muttered to himself, his mind filled with countless questions.

He walked over to the wooden door standing in the center of the room and looked at it; the character "Shen" was written above.

"Oh man..." Qiao Jiajin touched the door and looked around for a long time, soon coming up with a bold idea.

Could it be that Zhang Chenze's understanding of "investigating the room" was different from his own...?

What she was investigating was...

Before Qiao Jiajin could react, the wooden door in front of him was gently pushed open, and Zhang Chenze walked out, looking puzzled.

"Hey! Lawyer Girl!" Qiao Jiajin quickly pulled her out from the door. "Oh man! You're so brave! You went in by yourself?"

"Yes..." Zhang Chenze patted her chest, still a bit shaken. "I hesitated at the door for a long time, but I felt that going in to investigate was the best option. Otherwise, once everyone else had checked their routes and found out I knew nothing about what's inside the door, I'd just be holding everyone back."

"You're so silly!" Qiao Jiajin said. "Your understanding is different from everyone else's. We didn't investigate inside the door; we just checked the layout first."

"My understanding is different from everyone else's?" Zhang Chenze was stunned. "Are you saying... everyone else has already reached 'Chu He Han Jie'? And I'm the only one who hasn't gone?"

"Uh..."

Qiao Jiajin fell silent for a moment and realized that maybe it was his and the others' understanding that was different.

No wonder he had been the first to rush to "Chu He Han Jie" and run into the equally straightforward Zhang Shan, and why he had waited so long without seeing anyone else come out.

It turned out that everyone else was investigating the "Men".

"Ah, never mind..." Qiao Jiajin said. "Have you figured out what's inside the 'Men'?"

"Pretty much..." Zhang Chenze nodded. "But there's still the next room."

"Huh, you're going there too?"

"I could skip it." Zhang Chenze thought for a moment and said, "Is the next room still just a 'Men'?"

"Yes." Qiao Jiajin replied, "I've checked my side and the area ahead of you—it's all 'Men', nothing else."

"I see..." Zhang Chenze nodded, as if she had thought of something. "What character is written on the door in front of me?"

"It seems to be 'Chou'."

"Good." Zhang Chenze said to Qiao Jiajin, "Let's go back and find Qi Xia, and tell him what we've seen."

"Huh?" Qiao Jiajin was surprised. "I didn't see anything though."

"It's okay, I did."

She led Qiao Jiajin back to "Bei Zhan Qu", and as expected, they were the first to return.

At that moment, Qi Xia was facing the wall, stroking his chin in thought, his brows furrowed as if something was bothering him.

"Cheater Boy!" Qiao Jiajin called out. "We're back!"

"Oh?" Qi Xia snapped out of it and turned to look at Qiao Jiajin. "What's in the venue?"

"'Men'!" Qiao Jiajin said. "Lots of 'Men', Cheater Boy."

Qi Xia nodded after hearing this, then turned to Zhang Chenze: "What's inside the 'Men'?"

"It's a 'Shengxiao' game area." Zhang Chenze said calmly. "These 'Men' lead directly to 'Renji Youxi'."

"Leading to the game area..." Qi Xia frowned. "That's even crazier than I imagined..."

Qi Xia had thought that Qinglong might go so far as to have those "Shengxiao" bring their game props here for support, but he never expected him to open a door in "Cangjie Qi" to teleport everyone out.

"But wouldn't that count as 'leaving the venue'?" Zhang Chenze asked.

"It shouldn't..." Qi Xia replied. "Since Qinglong opened the door in the 'Renji Youxi' area, it means he's coordinated with them. In their game, the 'Chouma' has turned into 'Zi', and we'll need to return through the 'Men' after the game ends. Only actually leaving their area would count as 'escaping'."

"Then doesn't that make the map for this game way too big...?" Zhang Chenze said. "We still have so many 'Renji Youxi' to handle..."

"You're overthinking it." Qi Xia said. "The 'Renji Youxi' are just supporting the 'duijia'. We don't need to enter all of them. If we play our cards right, we can get the opponent's 'Zi' right here."

"Speaking of which... there's something strange." Zhang Chenze said quietly.

"What?"

She stepped forward and whispered to Qi Xia: "I just entered a room with 'Shen' on it, and the 'Shengxiao' inside looked really tense... Their mental state was even more on edge than ours."

"That's not strange..." Qi Xia sighed. "Once you understand 'Qinglong', you'll know he absolutely terrifies those 'Renji Shengxiao' when he communicates with them. Maybe in this game, their tasks are even tougher than ours, because they might have been ordered to try and kill us."

"That seems so odd..." Zhang Chenze said. "Qinglong and them are superiors and subordinates—why are they so afraid?"