Chapter 11 — A Bet is A Bet!

The Game’s Number 1 Dangerous Man! He has appeared!

Edited by Planetes

Ling Xiaolu arrived at a safe spot, but above his head appeared a golden and shiny “Reward”.

He tilted his head to the right, and the word tilted to the right. He tilted his head to the left, and the word too tilted to the left. He reached out to grab at it, only to grasp air.

“Quick, look!” He nudged Ling Long. “I’m also a gold name now!”

Ling Long was stoic. “Which benefactor would call themselves ‘reward’? It just means that someone has placed a bounty on you.”

“A bounty?” Someone who had a grudge against him, as well as having money with nowhere to spend it, Ling Xiaolu could only think of that person. “Papa Dou did this?”

“Probably,” Ling Long used his GM rights to check the records. “There’s a total of ten bounties, each bounty is worth a hundred thousand gold. Seems like you’ve really riled him up.”

Ling Xiaolu lamented deeply. “That’s so much money. He could have just given it directly to me, I wouldn’t mind killing myself on the spot.”

“A hundred thousand is not a small sum. With such a huge reward, it’s more than enough to attract all sorts of assassins.”

“You even have assassins in this game?”

“According to the stats, the total amount of money offered as rewards for bounties last quarter reached as high as one billion. From this, you can imagine how many would work as a bounty hunter. No matter how many characters the company design to be a big boss in the game, the biggest resentments in the game are always between players.”

“This actually sounds rather logical.”

“I’m afraid the assassins are already trying to track you down now. People who dare to take up this bounty of a hundred thousand gold won’t be easy to handle. What do you plan to do?”

“What can I do? I only have one life, and who knows how many people there are out there. Of course I’ll just walk down the path of death myself.”

“Walking down the path of death means…?”

【Global】Lu Bi: A large bounty has been placed on me, and I’m right here waiting for you to take my life. There’s only going to be ten chances, first come first served. [Location]

【Global】Dandan: Isn’t this the Lu Bi who has something going on with both Adonis and Hubby? Why, after having a bounty placed on him, he decided to give up fighting?

【Global】Tian Shi: It must be Papa Dou who did this. We all saw the livestream just now, look at how angry Papa is!

【Global】Cao Sanxin… I didn’t know you had your eyes on this bounty. I’ll take my leave now…”

“Me too…” Other people too had the same opinions at him. However, a sentence from this Zhen Jiu glued all their feet to the ground.

“Don’t go,” He spoke through his mask. “I’m not here to hunt, but to watch a show.”

He turned to Ling Xiaolu. “Continue talking about what you’ve come up with. I’m very curious.”

Ling Xiaolu could not see his face, and did not know what sort of expression he had. Despite speaking very lightly, the command in his voice was very irresistible.

“What I want to say is, since everyone is unwilling to give in, let’s just play a game. The losers will be eliminated, and the last one standing will get that one million gold reward. How about this?”

The ten people looked at each other, as though they were calculating if the temptation of that one million was bigger, or if Zhen Jiu was scarier.

“What sort of game? If it’s to answer maths questions, I’m not going to do that.”

“Not idioms-sequencing too.”

“I object to Seven Up.”

Everyone chimed in, objecting to games they were not good at.

Standing by the side, Zhen Jiu spoke up again. “When you guys want to take people’s lives to gain a reward, you also never asked if they agree. Now, asking you to play a game, you’re all being picky and selective.”

Everyone fell silent, not daring to object anymore.

Ling Xiaolu looked at him, his eyes full of gratitude. He explained the rules of the game, “Don’t worry, it’s not about maths or idioms. Everyone here is an assassin, so let’s just play a murder game that everyone is good at. Now, all ten of you are killers, and I’m the only prey. Think, ten wolves chasing a sheep, how is there enough for everyone? Why don’t we reverse this instead.”

With a toss of his right hand, a silver gleam spun in the air before he grabbed it again. The blade of the dagger pointed down, and Ling Xiaolu stood in a battle-ready position. “I’ll be the killer, while you’re all the prey. The damage this dagger can do is only one Hp, and once you’re injured by it, you’re out. You can hide and run any way you like, but you can’t attack me. You also can’t use your skills or your pets too. So, do you dare to play this game?”

After hearing the rules, all ten of them had no objections. If not for their fear of Zhen Jiu, they really would not have shown any respect to Ling Xiaolu this newbie.

“I’m fine with this.” Spider was the first to express his thoughts, and the others all followed.

“Then, we’ll all agree, and no one is allowed to go back on their words when they lose. This older brother who wants to watch the show, I won’t collect a ticket price from you, but could you be the judge?”

“No problem.” Zhen Jiu found a tree, casually leaning against it. He folded his arms, and really looked as though he was here to watch a good show. A simple game, now with Zhen Jiu watching it, was now laced with an oppressive feeling. Every participant felt the pressure coming over them.

“Then,” Ling Xiaolu crouched down a little. “I’m going to start.”

Before his voice even faded away, Ling Xiaolu had rushed ahead. Everyone thought that he would go for the person closest to him, and no one had expected that he would attack Spider, the person furthest away from him. Spider was careless, and he was the least prepared amongst the crowd. Ling Xiaolu’s sneak attack nearly succeeded. Fortunately for him, he reacted very quickly, leaning backwards deftly. Ling Xiaolu’s dagger swung past his nose, and he managed to avoid this blow.

The flash of the dagger seemed to travel in slow motion in front of Spider’s eyes. Widening his eyes in astonishment, he thought, that’s very fast!

He realised that putting himself on guard against Zhen Jiu and underestimating Ling Xiaolu was a grave mistake. This newbie was not as easy to handle as he thought he would be. In an instant, he sharpened his focus on Ling Xiaolu. Seeing that his attack did not land, Ling Xiaolu immediately leapt up. He spun towards a strange direction mid air, only landing on the ground after a couple of turns, right in front of Spider.

Spider’s attention was fully on him, ready to take on his next attack. However, Ling Xiaolu pulled himself together, straightening up, and swung his dagger behind him. He shot Spider a smile, making him completely muddled.

Not far away, Zhen Jiu who had seen everything unconsciously straightened.

Ling Xiaolu smiled and turned around. The person standing closest to Spider was still staring at his own injured arm in disbelief.

“Out.”

“W-when did you…” Ling Xiaolu’s speed when he landed was too fast, and that person had not seen anything. “When you were feinting, did you already…”

The person who was eliminated three seconds into the game was so stunned that his sentences were incomplete. He was, after all, one of the top assassins in this game.

“It wasn’t a feint,” Ling Xiaolu explained earnestly. “I only took a gamble. If it worked, it was to my advantage, and if it didn’t… I wouldn’t have made any gains or losses either way.”

Hearing that Ling Xiaolu had treated him like a bet, Spider’s expression could be described as “what did you just say?”.

And the one who was treated like a side extra nearly vomited out blood.

But after replaying Ling Xiaolu’s performance a few times in his head, he had to admit that even if he had paid attention, he might not have been able to avoid that swing of Ling Xiaolu’s dagger.

Thinking about this, he felt relieved.

“I’m the one who underestimated you,” That person relaxed, giving Ling Xiaolu an affirmative smile. “This time, I accept my… loss in this gamble…”

In that moment, ten people on the ground all looked alarmed. The ten people did not include this one who had surrendered, as he was falling down slowly, struck dumb. Behind him was a cold, mechanical head of a bird.

Looking at this mask from a close distance, the aggressiveness of the sharp pointed beak left one breathless.

Ling Xiaolu swiftly searched for the tree Zhen Jiu was just leaning on, then looked back, confirming that this was not someone else wearing the same helmet.

That was such a long distance. Ling Xiaolu did not manage to catch how he had made his way over.

Zhen Jiu’s voice that was filtered through the mechanical mask sounded faint.

“A murder game needs to be real to be fun, isn’t it?”