Chapter 608: Human Monkey?

As Xiao Cheng said, the Ren Hou’s game venue was very close to their chosen base, just a ten-minute walk away.

It was said that no one at their base had actively chosen to challenge the “Hou Lei” game because among the remaining five people in the room, aside from Xiao Cheng, who was a university student, the others were middle-aged individuals in their forties or fifties. Hou Lei games were not their strong suit.

Even Xiao Cheng didn’t have absolute confidence in winning a game that tested intellect.

“But I heard that most Shengxiao represent two types, right?” Tian Tian asked with some confusion. “Is the monkey certainly ‘intellectual’?”

“It could also be ‘agile’,” Xiao Cheng replied while leading the way for the two of them. “If we’re unlucky and find out this monkey is an ‘agile’ type game, we should head off to look for the Earth Monkey instead. After all, ‘agile’ games are mostly things like climbing trees, stepping on plum blossom stakes, or crossing log bridges, which don’t suit our team at all.”

As they spoke, they arrived in front of the Ren Hou. Surprisingly, there were seven or eight participants gathered outside the door.

“More people have arrived!” the group said.

Xiao Cheng and Tian Tian exchanged glances and instantly furrowed their brows.

The Tian Ma Moment had only just ended, so why were there so many people here?

“Come take a look!” the Ren Hou standing in front of the game venue shouted loudly. “The Tian Ma Moment has arrived, and the Ren Hou shop is having a grand opening sale! Buy one ticket, get one free!”

The Ren Hou was dressed fairly neatly, but he was extremely thin, making his suit jacket and pants look loose on him. The mask on his face seemed like it could fall off at any moment.

“This…”

Tian Tian and Xiao Cheng looked at him with some bewilderment. It was their first time realizing that Shengxiao could hawk their services, and also their first time learning that Shengxiao tickets could be discounted.

“This is really strange…” Xiao Cheng whispered to Tian Tian. “Does a Shengxiao have ‘performance’ targets every day? Why is he acting so urgently, pulling in customers like this?”

“I’m not sure,” Tian Tian said, shaking her head.

“Shengxiao do have tasks to complete every day,” Zheng Yingxiong said from beside them. “If they don’t finish them, their situation becomes dangerous.”

“You know about this too?”

“Yes,” Zheng Yingxiong nodded, speaking like a little adult. “The situation with the black lines falling from the sky today was too unusual; it exhausted almost all the subjects’ energy, so no one else will be participating in games. These Shengxiao have no choice but to do their best to attract customers to complete their tasks.”

After hearing this, Xiao Cheng scratched his head and thought about the current situation. With the human-level tickets being buy one get one free, he and Tian Tian only needed to pay for one Dao to enter. Plus, human-level games didn’t involve any risk of life, so it seemed like a sure win no matter what.

“I feel like something’s off,” Tian Tian said. “By ‘tasks,’ do you mean they use their own Dao to gamble against the participants?”

“That’s probably it,” Xiao Cheng nodded. “They need to collect enough Dao every day.”

“So, even though there’s a risk of losing Dao, this Ren Hou is still offering discounts. Doesn’t that mean he’s very confident in his game?”

“Even if the situation is dangerous, we’d only lose our own Dao,” Xiao Cheng said. “Let’s give it a try. There are so many people here, so the game should start soon.”

Once they made up their minds, they stepped forward to ask about the tickets. Originally, each person needed two Dao for the game, but now it was buy one get one free.

At this point, each person only had to hand over one Dao to participate, which was already the lowest price in the entire Zhongyan Zhidi aside from free.

“May I ask what your game is?” Xiao Cheng asked.

“It’s a team-based intellectual game, perfect for relaxing after the Tian Ma Moment. If you win, each person gets two Dao,” the Ren Hou said, then glanced down at Zheng Yingxiong behind the two. “Kids can join for free, no charge.”

“Kids get in for free…?” The two looked at each other suspiciously, wondering what the Ren Hou was really up to.

In other words, even if it was free, the Ren Hou wouldn’t lose out, right?

“Then I’ll go too,” Zheng Yingxiong said. “Maybe I can be of help.”

Xiao Cheng knew that although Zheng Yingxiong was just a child, he had his own strengths. For example, he was very skilled at using “resonance,” not only able to distinguish other people’s resonance but also to tell a person’s good or evil nature. Moreover, he was nothing like an ordinary child—neither willful nor naive—so having him around wasn’t a bad thing.

“In that case, let’s all three of us go in,” Xiao Cheng said. “One Dao for three people to participate—sounds like a good deal.”

There were over ten people standing there, and everyone had already paid their tickets, but the Ren Hou still hadn’t started and was continuing to shout loudly on the street to attract more customers.

After waiting a few minutes, Xiao Cheng was starting to lose patience, so he spoke up: “Ren Hou, how many people do you need for the game to start?”

“The more people, the better for my game—twenty or thirty would be fine,” the Ren Hou laughed. “Everyone can wait a bit longer. If no one else comes, we’ll start in three minutes.”

Seeing this, Tian Tian still furrowed her brow. A group of over ten was already quite large, and Yun Yao had said that generally, the more people in a game, the higher the difficulty. But this Ren Hou was only human-level, so why would he design such a large-scale game?

“Xiao Cheng, I feel like there’s a trap,” Tian Tian whispered.

“What’s wrong, Tian Tian jie?”

“This time it’s a team-based ‘intellectual’ game, but I just don’t feel right about it.” She glanced at the so-called “teammates” in the distance. “These people are here for different reasons than us—they’re mostly just attracted by the cheap deal. Are we sure we can cooperate with them?”

Tian Tian jie gave her a firm look and smiled. “Tian Tian jie, I can’t guarantee a hundred percent win, but I’ll definitely think as hard as I can during the game.”

Tian Tian frowned, feeling that Xiao Cheng hadn’t quite understood her concern.

After all, this game was a gamble between the participants and the Shengxiao. If “more people is better” for the judge, then for the participants, “fewer people is better.”

From that, it could be inferred that the biggest challenge in this game wasn’t “intellect,” but “teamwork.”

The three minutes passed quickly, and with no other participants showing up on the empty street, the Ren Hou announced that the game was officially starting and turned to open the door behind him.