The Trial Game of Life

There was only a two-second gap between the time Tang Cuo restored his human shape to the moment he raised his sword to join the battle.

The motorbike stopped abruptly and Chi Yan rolled down from it. Before he could stand up straight, Tang Cuo’s sword aura swept past his side and cut apart a living corpse with a few strikes.

The living corpse wriggled and soon stopped twitching, but its unmoving remnant didn’t glow with a white light and disappear like a usual dead player.

At this moment, in Chi Yan’s eyes, Tang Cuo was like a tiger that had jumped out of the cage. There was no such limit that his Tang ge became ‘coolest’; in fact, he simply got ‘cooler’ every time.

“Ge, I’ll help you!” Chi Yan rolled up his sleeves, there was no weapon there, only a tightly clasped black metal bracelet on his right wrist.

As he swung his fist, the black bracelet made a clicking sound and suddenly split apart, turning into pieces of an armour and reassembled themselves. In just one breath, Chi Yan’s right arm was fully armed.

“Bang!” Chi Yan knelt on one knee and punched the ground.

The hard black cobblestone ground was cracked inch by inch, and all the living corpses within ten meters of the circle where Chi Yan was the center were shaken left and right. Tang Cuo happened to be in the air at this moment, and by the time he landed, no enemy was left standing.

He swiftly slashed his sword, chopping off in the living corpses before they even got a chance to stand up. Turning back to look at Chi Yan, his expression exuded a tinge of astonishment: “What was it that you used?” 

Chi Yan immediately raised his arm, showing it to Tang Cuo as though making an offering: “An equipment I found in the dungeon. It’s an armour set made for future knights called [Divine Guardian].”

How wonderfully chuunibyou.

Although Tang Cuo quietly slandered the equipment in his heart, he also felt that this mecha arm was particularly suitable for Chi Yan. Also, it seemed to be only one part of a full suit; if Chi Yan collected all of them, his defence and damage abilities would likely become noteworthy.

At this point, Jin Cheng’s voice came from above his head: “Two knights, before you chit-chat, can you come to help me first?”

Tang Cuo looked up to see Jin Cheng squatting on the window sill on the second floor and looking down at them, smiling while gripping a dying, struggling living corpse in his hands.

“Coming.” Tang Cuo shook his [Sword of Judgment] and turned to kill the living corpses in all directions — If this tiger doesn’t show how mighty I am, they’ll think I’m a cat.

Chi Yan followed closely behind Tang Cuo. His mecha arm looked all cool and powerful, but he didn’t rush to the front, rather, he cooperated with his ge to pick up any living corpses from behind.

His prediction was very accurate, which could also certainly be attributed to his good luck.

As a mere civil servant of Yong Ye City, the motorist, of course, didn’t lend any helping hand and simply stopped by the roadside to watch the show. With Jin Cheng, Tang Cuo and Chi Yan putting up such a grandiose battle, he watched them with immense gusto, so much so that only when three of them ran far away that he remembered —

“Hey, little brother, you haven’t paid for the ride!” 

The motorist slammed on the accelerator to catch up, and at the same time, a big battle was unfolding in the central area.

Lilith missed her target, but she totally recognised Jin Cheng’s arrow. When she saw Scarlet fall, a hint of pleasure rose in her eyes. She immediately returned the cannon gun to Miao Qi, then anticipating that Scarlet might be looking for Jin Cheng, so she decisively ran to Zone E.

How could Miao Qi miss out on this sort of event? He hurried to catch up, but all of a sudden, he caught a glimpse of a red light hitting Lilith from the side.

“Be careful!” Miao Qi fired a cannon, but the red light had no solid body and the cannon couldn’t stop it.

Lilith heard Miao Qi’s warning and sensed the coming of the attack. Before she even turned her head, she twisted her body to dodge at once, but the red light was so fast that it seemingly reached her in the blink of an eye.

It was Scarlet!

Lilith was familiar with this energy. She was both frightened and angry, yet a sense of joy also surged in her heart. As her mind was set on capturing Scarlet even if it meant she would be badly injured, she quickly turned her head. At that instant, a black rift suddenly appeared in front of her like a huge mouth that had cracked out of thin air and engulfed the red light.

The next second, a big hand with visible joints emerged out of the rift and mercilessly pushed her away.

Caught completely off guard, Lilith staggered to the side. She immediately looked up and saw the owner of the hand that appeared out of the rift — Leng Miao.

“What are you doing?” Lilith said in a deep voice.

“Go away.” Dr. Leng was very cold when facing men, and even colder when facing women.

Lilith was so irate, but she forced herself to hold back the rage: “You saved me and I’m indeed thankful, but it’s not your business to take care of me.”

Leng Miao: “It’s Jin Cheng who wants to poke his nose into this, not me.”

As he spoke, Leng Miao raised his staff and blocked another attack. No longer paying attention to Lilith, he turned his head to look in the direction of the attack and finally landed on a figure clad entirely in red.

“Scarlet.” As soon as these words left his lips, the surrounding players were stunned, especially those standing near Scarlet. Knowing that such a person was next to them, their spines instantly went cold, and one after another, they withdrew right away.

Scarlet didn’t stop them. She comfortably stood in the spot that the crowd had vacated from, wearing a tattered red dress, with shackles still stuck on her hands and feet. Flowing around her extremely pale face was long hair that hadn’t been taken care of for a long time, and tattooed on her faintly exposed collarbone was the shape of a butterfly.

There was a fresh, large bloodstain on her left shoulder. It should be the wound caused by Jin Cheng’s arrow earlier.

The moment she saw Scarlet, the killing intent in Lilith’s eyes seemingly solidified into a real existence, her hands gripping the handle of her blades tightly, to the point that her knuckles almost turned white.

It was Miao Qi who started the first sentence: “Scarlet, where is sir Lin Yangdong? What did you do to him?!”

Scarlet paid no attention to him at all. She looked at Leng Miao and took a step forward, the shackles on her body clinking along with her movements. The “ding dang, ding dang” sounds accompanied her slightly hoarse voice: “Leng Miao, when did you come to their side? I thought you always act alone, much different from them.”

“Don’t spew nonsense.” Leng Miao started attacking without wasting another word.

When two players as skilled as Scarlet and Leng Miao made their moves, the surrounding players could only retreat and retreat further, not daring to come close at all. Lilith hated this, but she wasn’t so loathful to the point that she lost her reason. She knew she had no tacit understanding with Leng Miao, and the ways they fought were also different. Since jumping up at this point would only disrupt his rhythm, she raised her hand to fire a flare at the night sky.

The brilliant flare exploded in the sky, sending a signal to Jin Cheng, who was far away in Zone E.

“It’s Lily’s signal. She should’ve come face-to-face with Scarlet.” Jin Cheng frowned.

At present, Tang Cuo and Jin Cheng had just cleaned up the living corpses on a street and were gasping hard for air as they stood back to back, while Chi Yan had been caught by the motorist and was paying the fare with his heart aching.

Earlier, as more and more living corpses turned up, Chi Yan thought that it would be impossible for Jin Cheng and Tang Cuo to still be at home, so he asked the motorist to drive him around the streets to look for them.

After this ride, he found his ges, but lost a lot of points.

“Is Scarlet doing this purely to seek revenge?” Tang Cuo felt a little odd. After getting out of jail, Scarlet first got rid of Lin Yandong, then put up such a big battle. Such an exaggerated show probably had reached the peak of her madness.

But how could a player who managed to climb to the second place on the Red List, one who could make even the players in Zone A wary of, only have madness?

“These corpses may be the answer.” Jin Cheng knelt down and flipped the nearest corpse over. The living corpse had obviously been killed, but it didn’t get sent to jail.

When many corpses were stranded in Yong Ye City, what might be the consequence?

In other words, what did Scarlet want to do with these corpses?

As they talked, new corpses once again arrived from all directions. The next batch stepped forward as soon as the previous batch collapsed to the ground, as if there was no end to this at all. Their goal was also very clear, that was, Jin Cheng; even Tang Cuo didn’t deserve a single glance from them.

Too many living corpses pushed them over to this corner, completely blocking their path to leave this zone. But, while fighting, Tang Cuo was distracted by the residential buildings on both sides.

With so many players in Zone E, only a small number of them was infected by the corpse poison. But then, how many of them were still on this street to kill the enemies?

Only three.

Tang Cuo, Jin Cheng and Chi Yan.

After all, Chi Yan was relatively weak, and he soon went out of breath. Clearly, the boy had also noticed this situation. He couldn’t help but mumble: “Why didn’t anyone come out to help?”

He was so distracted that he almost received a slash by a living corpse’s claws. Jin Cheng quickly pulled him away, then turned around to answer him with a smile: “Because good people don’t live long.”

“Cheng ge, why are you still smiling?” Chi Yan felt his anger rise up.

“If I don’t smile, do you want me to cry then?” Jin Cheng asked back.

Chi Yan was lost for words, because indeed there was no flaw in these words. But if crying was useful, Chi Yan would really cry, and he would also bear grudges after crying. A teenager of modern times like him should be like this; love and hate must be two distinguished sentiments.

“Okay, let’s get ready to retreat.” Jin Cheng said and exchanged a glance with Tang Cuo.

Tang Cuo nodded and pulled out a card.

‘Rainwater’, the second card of the series [24 Solar Terms]. It could activate the skill ‘Weakening Water’ to strike the enemy with rain within a radius of five meters for 5 seconds. Those who were struck would have their Defence halved within three minutes.

The heavy rain poured down in an instant, but before the first droplet fell, Tang Cuo, the skill summoner, grabbed Chi Yan and withdrew completely.

At the same time, Jin Cheng plucked the string on his bow: “Ting —” The ethereal, distant note stirred the downpour, shattering all the raindrops. The rainwater, which was meant to cover only a radius of five meters, was scattered far away.

“Ting!”

“Ting!”

Jin Cheng stepped on the living corpses’ heads, walking back and forth as the sounds his bowstring made became faster and faster. The continuous sonic attack was like a sickle that quickly harvested the living corpses whose defence had been halved.

Just now, Jin Cheng and Tang Cuo stood idle and talked for a moment after fighting, because they deliberately wanted to hold back. This was to wait for the living corpses to gather around, then they could empty the whole battlefield in one ambush. 

Chi Yan’s jaw literally dropped into an O shape upon the sight. If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn’t have known that it was possible to attack like this. Meanwhile, Tang Cuo’s footsteps didn’t come to a halt. Grabbing Chi Yan, he rushed out of the intersection, and the moment he spotted the motorbike parked on the side of the road, a light beamed in his eyes.

“Jin Cheng!”

“Coming!”

Jin Cheng swaggered as though he couldn’t wait for more enemies to attack, and like a dexterous soldier with his dearest weapon on hand, he knocked down the last group of living corpses along with the brutal sounds of his bowstring. After a few jumps up and down, he came to Tang Cuo’s side. .

“Go.” Tang Cuo didn’t say much. As he turned the handlebars, the motorbike’s engine roared.

Jin Cheng raised an eyebrow, wanting to sit at the front position, but afraid that Tang Cuo would kick him off the bike, he obediently settled on the back seat after a neat swing of his long legs.

By their side, Chi Yan looked all tiny, pitiful and helpless. Just as he was about to ask where he should sit, Jin Cheng pulled him up and put him at the very rear.

“Hold on tight. If you fall off, we won’t pick you up.”

“Okay, okay — aaah!” Before Chi Yan’s butt even touched the pillion, the motorbike flew out like an arrow fired from a bowstring. The boy swiftly grasped Jin Cheng’s shoulders and squatted down in an extremely dangerous posture.

With many butterflies flapping in his stomach, he looked back and happened to see the motorist running out from the small restaurant on the roadside, still with a Chinese wrap in his hand: “My bike!!!”

Chi Yan quickly turned around: “Is it okay to steal the bike? We won’t be punished by the system, right? “

Jin Cheng shook his head: “Don’t bother. You see, isn’t your ge so handsome when he rides a motorbike?”

Chi Yan was successfully distracted by this, and he cautiously poked his head out to see Tang Cuo’s focused and handsome profile. He nodded with much agreement — His ge was super cool, super handsome and had such long legs, and he looked even more handsome when riding a bike.

Tang Cuo: “Shut up.” 

The motorbike’s route was clear; it was heading for where the signal flare came from. But before the three of them arrived, a hoarse voice echoed in the air.

It seemed like the voice that often made announcements to the whole city, but at this moment, it was replaced by a woman’s voice.

“Jin Cheng, have you killed to your heart’s content?”

“That was a gift I gave you in exchange for something else.”

“A year ago, four people, you, Lin Yandong, Rong Yi and Chong Yanzhang, took away my 2nd Movement. Now Chong Yanzhang is dead, and Lin Yandong has been sent to Zone G. I don’t care who’s holding the 2nd Movement now, Rong Yi and you have 24 hours to return the movement to me. Otherwise, the people lying on the ground will really die and won’t enter Zone G. For an eternity, they won’t reincarnate.” 

As the voice fell, Chi Yan’s eyes widened and he almost fell off the motorbike in shock. At this moment, he saw people in the buildings on both sides opened the windows and poked their heads out.

Countless people and countless eyes began to gather.

The woman laughed: “Aren’t you very smart? The countdown starts now.”