Chapter 163: Clash of Wits and Courage

The game began.

In this game of Zheng Dou, Di Ji pushed Zheng Dou to its absolute limits.

On one side, it was a battle of wits; on the other, a test of bravery.

If either side made a single mistake, both would surely meet their end.

In the oppressive atmosphere, the girl opposite spoke up.

"You go first, or should I?"

"It doesn't matter," Qi Xia said. "You go ahead."

The girl nodded, drew a card, and placed it face down in front of her without looking at it.

Qi Xia also drew a card and placed it face down.

As they drew their cards, neither looked at what they had; instead, they stared intently into each other's eyes.

This card game was a matter of life and death, so the mind games started from the drawing phase.

The two took turns placing cards in front of themselves, showing no signs of weakness.

In the glass room, Zhao Yisheng and the tall boy watched nervously, both swallowing hard.

After each had drawn five cards, Qi Xia picked up his five cards, slowly opened them, and looked.

The situation was dire.

He had a shield, a stone, a rope, another rope, and yet another rope.

They were called "weapon cards," but they looked more like relics from the Stone Age.

He slowly closed the cards and looked up at the girl again.

The girl remained expressionless, glanced briefly at her cards, then lifted her head to meet Qi Xia's gaze.

"I'm Qi Xia. What's your name?"

"Su Shan."

"Shan?" Qi Xia found the name intriguing. "As in the 'shining' shan?"

"Yes."

"Nice to meet you." Qi Xia nodded casually, then glanced at the deck on the table.

Now, he had one stone and three ropes in his hand, possibly because there were more stones and ropes in the deck.

If that was the case, then among the so-called "weapon cards," the more lethal ones were rarer.

"Sticks" should be scarcer than "stones," and "knives" the scarcest of all.

Of course, there was another possibility: all cards were equally distributed, and he was just unlucky.

So... what cards had this girl named Su Shan drawn?

Was she from the "Cold Weapons Era"?

Did she have a "knife"?

Did she have two "life cards" and one "death card"?

"You two, if you're ready, please play your cards!" Di Ji interrupted, tapping the table.

Qi Xia thought for a moment, then silently placed a card face down on the table and looked up. "Su Shan, do you think there's any chance..."

"Of what?"

"That we play through all the cards, but the game doesn't have a winner, so it's a tie?"

"Would that happen?" Su Shan replied dismissively, then placed a card face down in front of her. "If it's a tie... that would be best, wouldn't it?"

"So let's both be gentle; there's no need to go for the kill."

"Sure." Su Shan nodded, pushing her card forward.

Qi Xia nodded too, pushing his card forward.

The cards were played.

Zhao Yisheng and the boy named Zi Chen were so tense they could barely breathe. Seeing the two distant players calmly select their cards, they hurried to the ceiling and stared at the windows above.

This was where their first "weapons" would drop.

"Please reveal your cards," Di Ji said.

As soon as the words were spoken, Qi Xia and Su Shan flipped their cards over simultaneously.

The windows above Zhao Yisheng and Zi Chen also opened, and dark objects fell out.

The two scrambled to pick up their "weapons," but Zhao Yisheng was stunned.

What dropped was a rope.

He quickly picked it up and turned around, only to see the 1.9-meter-tall boy slowly picking up a machete from the ground ten steps away.

"Ah!" Zhao Yisheng screamed in despair. "What the hell is this?! Qi Xia, you bastard?!"

Without another word, he rushed to the glass wall and started pounding it with the rope. "Qi Xia! You bastard?!"

Fortunately, the glass wall seemed specially made, incredibly sturdy, and showed no signs of cracking no matter how hard Zhao Yisheng hit it.

Qi Xia frowned slightly.

So, she had drawn a "knife" after all.

Had she guessed he wouldn't play the "shield" in the first round and boldly gone for the "knife"?

Qi Xia took a deep breath and said, "Playing this game with rock-paper-scissors logic isn't wrong, but there are other factors to consider."

"Like what?" Su Shan asked.

"Like... human nature."

Di Ji picked up a walkie-talkie and said, "First round, the 'fighters' may begin."

The broadcast echoed in Zhao Yisheng and Zi Chen's room.

A ten-second countdown started beside them.

"Begin?" Zhao Yisheng backed away several steps upon hearing it.

"Ahhh!" Zi Chen shouted to psych himself up, gripping the machete and stepping forward.

Zhao Yisheng clutched the rope with both hands, his whole body trembling.

He knew he wasn't some martial arts master; he couldn't disarm his opponent with a rope.

His opponent was taller and heavier, and now had a superior "weapon." How could he fight?

"I... I!" Zi Chen held the machete, shaking uncontrollably. He didn't seem much stronger than Zhao Yisheng.

"You... don't do anything rash!" Zhao Yisheng yelled tearfully. "This is murder!!"

"I know!! Even if I kill you... I... I..." Zi Chen gritted his teeth and kept moving forward.

But he couldn't bring himself to strike.

If you suddenly locked a normal person in a glass room, gave them a knife, and told them they'd die if they didn't kill, how many strikes would they land in ten seconds?

The answer: not a single one.

Qi Xia watched the tall man through the glass, his face expressionless.

Ten seconds was far too short.

Due to "disaster bias," he hadn't fully prepared mentally and still hoped things wouldn't get this bad.

Little did he know, Su Shan had planned everything in advance. She had overcome her "disaster bias," devised a perfect strategy, and was unleashing all her killer moves from the start to win the game in one go.

Their cooperative thinking had broken down.

Or perhaps, their intellects were on completely different levels.

Playing a "knife" in the first round was a brilliant move in a battle of wits; it would cut off the opponent's reaction time. If the glass rooms held mindless avatars, Qi Xia would have lost already.

But human nature was complicated.

The ten seconds passed in the blink of an eye, and the action time ended.

In those ten seconds, the boy named Zi Chen only managed to take three steps forward—nothing more.

That was the full effort of a normal person.

"Please discard your props into the windows," Di Ji said into the walkie-talkie.

"Zi Chen... you!" The girl slammed the table in frustration, looking utterly disappointed. "How could you be so foolish!!"

Qi Xia shook his head helplessly. In this game, not even a battle-hardened veteran like Zhang Shan might kill his opponent in the first round, let alone this boy who was barely twenty.

Zi Chen tossed the machete into the window with a regretful expression, then angrily slapped himself several times.

Zhao Yisheng, feeling like he'd been given a second chance at life, tremblingly threw away the rope.