Chapter 129: One-on-One Life-or-Death Match

Chapter 129: Chapter 129: One-on-One Life-or-Death MatchAt first, the two of them struggled in their chairs, but as time decreased, their expressions became more and more wooden, and they stopped moving altogether.

"Can this really be successful?" the old man asked, his eyes red.

Xu Huo stared intently at the two people; when there were only three minutes left, the waiter and the old lady suddenly charged forward with their chairs on their backs like madmen. He reached out to push them back into place, but at that moment, the old lady stuck out her tongue and twisted it!

He kicked the chairs away fiercely, and before the old lady even hit the ground, she exploded into a spray of blood!

With a harsh frown, Xu Huo quickly covered the waiter’s mouth.

However, at that moment, the waiter also stopped counting. She seemed to smile at the corners of her mouth, but then exploded where she stood.

Covered in blood, Xu Huo stood still for two seconds before wiping his face and drawing a dagger to fiercely throw it down into the ground. In the next instant, the boundary line between black and white on the ground roulette began to fluctuate, pulling him into a pure white space.

What met his eyes was a suspended black-white roulette, about a meter in diameter. On the large roulette, a white pointer rested on one of the white spaces, with a countdown timer at the center. As soon as he saw the timer, the numbers began to count down backward, ticking incessantly.

Xu Huo looked down; his body was intact, and he could move his limbs freely. He had sensation and awareness, but the pure white space amplified all his senses, making the only sound of ticking seem to pile up, giving him a faint illusion of acceleration.

He checked the stopwatch for a few seconds, and the time had not sped up.

"I’m fine," he said, speaking to the Girl in the Painting outside, "Pinch my hand."

Soon, there was a pang of pain on the back of his hand.

Confirming that he had a physical presence in the pure white space and in the outside world, Xu Huo faintly guessed that this solo life-and-death game must have pulled him into the overlapping part of two spaces. He could see the game space and perceive the outside world, but his sight and hearing were covered.

His consciousness and body were not separated; he was just in a peculiar angle between spaces, so he should be able to use the props normally.

After pacing back and forth in front of the roulette for a few steps, Xu Huo approached it again and carefully observed the twelve black and white spaces.

Half a minute passed, and he still did not feel any binding force. Instead, after suppressing the illusion of time rushing backward, even the subtle urge to spin the pointer faded away—the life-and-death game was not obligatory.

That is to say, as long as he kept his mind steady, he wouldn’t experience the compulsion to spin the pointer with his tongue or fingers.

Actually, what the manager said earlier made some sense. Merely tying people up wouldn’t work, but if someone was knocked out and fell unconscious, could that be a feasible method?

But after a moment’s thought, he abandoned that idea; it wasn’t time for that yet.

Besides, it was uncertain whether not spinning the pointer would guarantee survival, and a fifty percent chance was not low for him.

After confirming he had the stopwatch on him, he successfully pulled out the Dual-color Cube from the prop menu. The next second, just as the cube opened, he reached out to hook the pointer.

With only five minutes left on the countdown, the pointer jumped rapidly between the black and white spaces. As it was about to come to a stop, he abruptly reached out towards the roulette, but almost at the same time, the roulette disappeared from in front of him, reappearing three meters away.

It seemed that forcing the pointer to a stop on a white space was out of the question.

He withdrew his hand, watching the speed of the pointer slow down before it finally stopped just on the edge of a white space.

As soon as the pointer stopped, the roulette disappeared, replaced by a giant "1".

Then the white in his view rapidly receded, and his vision restored. He found himself standing back in the original front hall, only his position was slightly changed.

Did he just pass through that easily?

Was it because of the Magic Cube’s power?

Regaining the sparkle in his eyes, Xu Huo subconsciously furrowed his brow and then saw the Girl in the painting blocking in front of him, while on the opposite side were the store manager and several waiters, evidently in a standoff.

"They want to steal your stuff!" the Girl in the painting, noticing that he had regained consciousness, immediately turned back and tattled, pointing at the Dual-color Cube in his hand.

The store manager and his people hadn’t expected Xu Huo to come out alive, let alone so quickly, and their greedy ruthlessness was frozen on their faces.

Xu Huo, however, paid them no attention and tucked away the Magic Cube, saying to the Girl in the painting, "I’m going to wash my face in the back."

The Girl in the painting nodded and shot a fierce glare at those people, following Xu Huo into the kitchen.

"Whoosh!" The kitchen had running water, and Xu Huo took a minute to wash the blood off his face. After washing, he discovered an additional white mark on the back of his hand, which didn’t come off when he rubbed it.

"Is this a survival chance?" he paused for a moment.

The player-announced game rules required at least two accumulations to break free from the game. If the other side wasn’t lying, then winning another life-and-death round would allow him to leave the game.

Although he had relied on the Magic Cube to land on a white space during the first round, this life-and-death game still gave him the feeling that it was perhaps too easy.

The Black-White Roulette game didn’t limit players from using items. With items in hand, it was easy for players to exploit loopholes. Hosting such a grand life-and-death game, it wouldn’t just target ordinary people.

Besides, excluding players, the mortality rate of ordinary people was too high. Logically speaking, since life and death each accounted for half, there shouldn’t have been no one to emerge victorious from the game by now.

Subconsciously caressing his palm, the smile of the waitress before her death suddenly flashed through his mind.

The Girl in the painting waved her hand in front of his eyes, puzzled.

"It’s nothing," Xu Huo took the work uniform she handed him, changed into it, and walked out.

The store manager, guarding the door, rushed over to block his way, but Xu Huo, without a word, kicked him out. He didn’t even glance at the man who flew out, crashing into a pile of tables and chairs, spitting out blood. Xu Huo then called for Wang Chaoqing to leave.

Wang Chaoqing, packing up his computer, stood up and sneered at those people, "Idiots."

"Wait a moment!" The old man, who had been clutching his spouse’s Ring in sorrow, suddenly snapped out of it and chased after Xu Huo and the others, asking cautiously, "May I join you?"

"Sure," Xu Huo nodded, "We’ll find a place to settle down in front."

The old man hurriedly nodded, "I’ll follow wherever you go."

Outside, the plaza was left with only a few bloodstains and not many people. Most had gathered inside the mall. When Xu Huo entered, the people inside thought rescue had arrived and swarmed forward. But after finding out they were just there to rest, they retreated in disappointment.

He scanned the hands of these people and didn’t find a single one with a white mark on the back of their hand.

The shops in some of the other corners were covered in bloodstains.

It seemed that those who had entered the life-and-death game had all ended up in these places.

Xu Huo fell silent for a moment, and just as he was about to leave the mall, three men in camouflage suits walked in, two of whom had white marks on the backs of their hands.

The leader stood at the entrance and declared loudly, "From now on, this mall is under our control. You all go and inform the people nearby to gather here!"