Chapter 302: The Earth Serpent's Game

Chen Jun-nan and Yun Yao waited for about two hours before the participants started to gather sporadically.

Looking around, Chen Jun-nan felt that a few faces looked familiar, but it had been so many years that he couldn't recall a single name.

Yun Yao counted the people present and found there were exactly eleven. Now they just needed one more to start the game, but waiting at this point always felt endlessly long.

"Damn it..." Chen Jun-nan muttered to himself, "I should have brought that kid Qi Xia along."

After hearing this, Yun Yao curiously glanced at Chen Jun-nan. "Have you known Qi Xia for a long time?"

"Yeah," Chen Jun-nan nodded. "Getting to know that kid is always a hassle; I have to introduce myself every time."

"What...?" Yun Yao was slightly taken aback. "You mean he..."

"I didn't say anything." Chen Jun-nan quickly picked up on Yun Yao's subtle expression. "Big star, you... seem to know something?"

Yun Yao wasn't sure about Chen Jun-nan's stance and didn't know if she should tell him about the phrase "Sheng Sheng Bu Xi De Ji Dang" she had seen that night. After thinking for a moment, she just shook her head.

The last person to arrive was a man in a suit. Yun Yao saw him and furrowed her brow slightly.

This was a familiar teammate, a man from the same room as Li Xiang-ling, named Zhong Zhen. He nodded to Yun Yao in greeting, then walked over to Di She and handed over his "Dao."

"Zhong Zhen... what are you doing here?" Yun Yao asked.

"I was about to ask you the same thing, Yun Yao." Zhong Zhen smiled. "I feel that only the 'Snake' games suit me, so I've been searching for 'Snake' all along."

"Oh... I see..." Yun Yao forced a bitter smile. "What a coincidence..."

"Yeah, yeah, what a coincidence indeed, Yun Yao. Have you 'Hui Xiang' yet?" Zhong Zhen asked.

"I... not yet," Yun Yao replied.

"Then what are we going to do..." Zhong Zhen gave a troubled laugh. "If you haven't 'Hui Xiang' yet, and if this game has rules for sabotaging each other... I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to go through with it."

"Heh..." Yun Yao chuckled. "Wouldn't be able to go through with it? That doesn't sound like you."

"You're right, haha." Zhong Zhen smirked without real amusement.

Chen Jun-nan noticed that Yun Yao's expression seemed a bit off and whispered from behind, "Everything okay, big star?"

"I'm fine," Yun Yao turned back and whispered. "I don't know what you're capable of, but you need to watch out for that man."

"Hmm? The one in the suit?" Chen Jun-nan glanced at him dismissively. "What's his deal?"

"He's very cold-blooded," Yun Yao said bluntly. "To win the game, he'd kill anyone without hesitation—teammates or friends alike."

"That's not so bad, right?" Chen Jun-nan laughed. "Means he's straightforward."

"Is that so..." Yun Yao smiled absentmindedly. She could only hope to gain "Hui Xiang" as soon as possible in this game; otherwise, things could get dangerous.

Chen Jun-nan looked around and realized he had no impression of the others, so he stood up and approached Di She.

"Old man, everyone's here now. Let's get this started."

Di She checked the gender ratio among the participants and saw there were more men, which made his disappointed expression hard to hide.

But luckily, one of the women looked exceptionally beautiful, easily making up for several others. Di She perked up again and said, "Alright, follow me."

The twelve people followed Di She into the massive building behind him.

Inside the building was a small circular arena with a podium-like desk in the center, topped by an old-fashioned computer.

Surrounding the circular arena was a full ring of walls, with a wooden door every few meters, suggesting twelve rooms behind the walls.

"Everyone, my game is called 'Minority and Majority,' a simple question-and-answer game," Di She said with his hands behind his back. "Each of you will have your own room, and during the game, I'll lock the doors. You'll answer questions from within your rooms."

Seeing that the group didn't seem to understand, he walked over to one of the room doors and opened it.

It was a small square room with a chair in the center and a small display screen. In the corner, there was a very outdated telephone.

To accommodate the old telephone, the builders had even thoughtfully added a small shelf for it.

Di She led the group into the room. Chen Jun-nan and Yun Yao stepped forward to examine the display screen in the center, which appeared to be custom-made, supported by an iron pipe standing in front of the chair.

On the screen, there were two buttons, one green and one red, on either side.

"The questions in this game are very straightforward, with only 'yes' or 'no' answers," Di She explained. "You just need to press the button based on the actual situation. The green button means 'yes,' and the red button means 'no.' For fairness, the game's answers follow the 'minority obeys majority' principle, so the answer chosen by more people will be the one used."

After finishing, Di She walked over to the corner and picked up the old telephone.

"Additionally, this is a special telephone," he said. "Your twelve rooms are arranged in a ring, connected end to end. At any time, your phone can only connect to the next room on your left side, besides receiving calls."

He thought for a moment and added, "If someone in a room is eliminated, the phone will ring ten times and then connect to the next surviving room."

Zhong Zhen pondered this briefly and asked, "How does someone get eliminated in this game?"

"You'll find out naturally as the game progresses," Di She said with a smile. "If a female participant senses they're about to die, they can ask me for help directly. If their plea satisfies me, I might save them."

"What about male participants?" Zhong Zhen asked again.

"Men should just go ahead and die," Di She said coldly.

"Old man..." Chen Jun-nan spoke up. "What's the point of this phone? What do you mean by 'connecting to the next room on the left'? Can we get outside help during the questions?"

Di She shook his head. "It's not outside help. Each round, I'll give the question to one participant. After they answer, they'll pass the question to the next person on their left via phone. Once all twelve have received the question and answered, the round ends."

Chen Jun-nan looked at the phone in Di She's hand and had a vague sense that something was off.

This was a "question-and-answer" game, but the questions participants heard might not come from the referee—they could come from other players.

Typically, "Snake" games were either "question-and-answer" or "cunning," and this one might combine both, leading to unpredictable situations.

"I have a total of forty-eight questions, meaning forty-eight rounds," Di She said. "Once all forty-eight questions are done, the survivors can split the forty-eight 'Dao' equally."