Chapter 34: My Tactics

Qi Xia gripped his hair tightly, patiently waiting for the headache to subside.

After about half a minute, he steadied his breathing, slowly lowered his hand, and stood up.

His expression was as if nothing had happened.

That wave of headache was like a gust of wind passing by—fierce when it came, but fading away at some point.

Lin Geng glanced at Qi Xia and asked:“Are you okay? Do you often have headaches?”

“No, this is only the second time since I can remember.” Qi Xia sighed and said, “It’s probably related to this damned place.”

Lin Geng wanted to ask more, but it seemed Qi Xia didn’t want to dwell on the issue.

“Our time is pressing; even if there’s something wrong with my head, I’m not going to get it checked here.” Qi Xia looked up at the dark red sky and continued, “Thanks to this little girl, we’ve learned a lot of useful information.”

“Have we?” Tian Tian looked at the corpse of the person-rat on the ground, her expression still somewhat sad. “I feel the only useful information is about the ‘Du Ming’ rules. That child lost his life because of it.”

“Not just that.” Qi Xia said, “I thought this was a land full of chaos and madness, but now it seems this place has its own ‘rules’.”

“‘Rules’…?”

“Yes.” Qi Xia nodded, “That man called ‘Zhu Que’ should be one of the managers here.”

“Manager? You mean that ‘bird person’?” Qiao Jia Jin asked.

“Yes, he appeared to ensure the ‘rules’ aren’t broken.”

“But why doesn’t the manager wear clothes…?” Tian Tian didn’t understand, “He’s naked with just a cloak, looking so strange.”

“Compared to his various bizarre behaviors, ‘not wearing clothes’ is the most normal thing.” Qi Xia paused and said, “This is just the clue we’ve seen; perhaps there are others above the ‘managers’.”

Lin Geng seemed to think of something: “Right… That Zhu Que once said something like ‘if not for the rules restricting me, I would definitely kill you’.”

Qiao Jia Jin also nodded: “Something that can restrain that kind of freak with special abilities, I believe the ones above him are even more terrifying.”

“‘Special abilities’?” Qi Xia frowned, “I haven’t heard that term in a long time.”

“Isn’t it special abilities? Like the Terminator.” Qiao Jia Jin gestured, “That guy was flying in the sky!”

Upon hearing this, the three paused for a moment.

“‘Terminator’—what does that mean?” Lin Geng curiously looked at Qiao Jia Jin.

“You dress so stylishly, but you’re actually a country bumpkin?” Qiao Jia Jin chuckled, “You haven’t even seen Terminator?”

“Stylish?” Lin Geng awkwardly opened his mouth; that word is only heard from the older generation nowadays, and saying it is already outdated.

But he was being looked down upon by this person.

Qiao Jia Jin elbowed Qi Xia and asked: “Deceiver, you’ve seen it, right? Arnold Schwarzenegger, he’s incredibly handsome!”

“Arnold Schwarzenegger…?” Lin Geng seemed to have heard the name but wasn’t sure.

“I don’t care about any ‘Terminator’ or Schwarzenegger; I don’t care how incredible that bird person is.” Qi Xia slowed down and said, “I just want to know the extent of the ‘rules’, how far they can regulate.”

The three didn’t understand what Qi Xia meant and looked at each other.

“Deceiver, what are you going to do?”

Qi Xia slowly extended his hand and gestured at his neck, saying to the three: “I want to know if ‘killing to seize the Dao’ is feasible.”

As soon as he said this, Lin Geng and Tian Tian each stepped back.

Only Qiao Jia Jin stayed in place.

“Killing to seize ‘Dao’?” Qiao Jia Jin frowned, his expression extremely serious, “Are you saying… if you don’t gather three thousand six hundred ‘Dao’ within ten days, you’ll go rob others’?”

“Yes, that’s the most effective method I can think of.” Qi Xia said, “Now we’re a team; to accomplish this, I need your help, so I’m telling you the plan to hear your thoughts.”

“I won’t help you.” Qiao Jia Jin shook his head firmly, “Even if the sky falls in this place, I won’t do anything unjust. Those people with ‘Dao’ are probably like us, having gone through immense hardships to survive; what right do we have to kill them?”

“Is that so…” Qi Xia nodded with a complex expression, “But if we want to escape this damned place, that might be the only way. That’s three thousand six hundred ‘Dao’… Are you really not going to try?”

“I refuse too.” Lin Geng also spoke, “I think this idea is not good; if we really kill someone, even if we get out, we won’t be able to live like before.”

Tian Tian thought for a long time and said: “Yes, if it means killing others, I’d rather die myself.”

Qi Xia looked into the three people’s eyes, pondered for a while, and then slightly raised the corners of his mouth:

“Very good, now I can confidently tell you my real plan.”

“What…” Qiao Jia Jin was stunned, “Damn, deceiver, you were testing us?!”

Qi Xia nodded and said: “If you three could accept a plan like ‘killing to seize Dao’, it would only prove we’re not the same kind of people, and I’d abandon you at any time.”

“You…” Qiao Jia Jin was almost furious with Qi Xia, “I thought you were really going to kill someone.”

“Logically, the ‘rules’ wouldn’t allow something like ‘killing to seize Dao’ to happen.” Qi Xia explained, “Although I don’t know what the rules here are, it seems they’re maintaining a ‘weird fairness’, and those managers are like ‘referees’; if they’re referees, they must ensure the participants’ safety.”

He paused and continued: “In other words… they want us to die in the games, not from killing each other.”

Everyone fell silent upon hearing Qi Xia’s words.

After a while, Lin Geng came to his senses and asked: “In that case, what is your real plan?”

“My plan is simple.” Qi Xia replied, “Since these games won’t kill us, we’ll go and ‘test’ them one by one. You all go first to understand the game rules and gather clues; once we’re confident, I’ll go ‘Du Ming’. We’ll share all the ‘Dao’ we get equally, and we can keep using this tactic until we reach three thousand six hundred.”