The Trial Game of Life

Perhaps Zheng Yingying’s words might have touched Jiang He, for Qian Wei felt that Jiang He’s expression seemed to soften, but what he said next had Qian Wei very astounded.

“You take her to find Jin Cheng.”

“Me?” Qian Wei pointed at his own nose: “Me???”

Jiang He: “Yes, you. You know Jin Cheng and Tang Cuo, don’t you? Take her and go find them. As for why you’re looking for him, you’ll know when you see him.” 

Like a monk who couldn’t find his hair, Qian Wei was absolutely lost. Wasn’t he captured as a prisoner? Why would they let him take the lead in finding Jin Cheng and Tang Cuo? Weren’t they afraid that he would immediately double-cross them at that point?

Wait.

“Do you know each other?” Qian Wei quickly cast a glance at Zheng Yingying’s direction. He did feel that Zheng Yingying’s behaviour back in the asylum ward was a little strange; clearly, she knew them.

Zheng Yingying didn’t answer. She just looked at Jiang He and asked: “Why?”

Jiang He: “It’s a two-way choice between you and me. I chose you, and now it’s your turn to choose me. I still have something to do, if everything goes well, after it’s over, I’ll go to Jin Cheng to find you. By then, you can decide whether to follow me or not.”

Meng Yufei frowned, wondering what Jiang He was calculating. Hearing this, his mind couldn’t help but go wild. Jiang He didn’t mention him at all. Since it was impossible for him to go to Jin Cheng anyway, didn’t this mean he would be free?

Exactly as he was thinking so, Jiang He suddenly looked over and said: “You’ll come with me.”

Meng Yufei pursed his lips, wanting to say something, but he held back and only let out a cold snort.

Zheng Yingying looked at him, then at Qian Wei, half of her face consistently hidden in the shadow of her hood while showing a blank expression. A long moment later, she seemed to finally come to a decision and nodded.

In the end, she added another sentence: “If you don’t come, I won’t forgive you.”

Jiang He put on a rarely-seen smile: “Okay. Remember what I gave you, don’t take it out unless there’s a good reason to.”

Out of the blue, Qian Wei received a mission that was impossible to refuse and now had to leave with Zheng Yingying. Luckily, Zheng Yingying didn’t let him lead the way; he just had to follow behind.

There were still living corpses wandering on the street at present, but thanks to Jin Cheng’s grace, all the living corpses were coming in his direction. If other players turned up on the street, unless they approached within five meters from the living corpses, they wouldn’t be attacked.

Qian Wei was aware of this, but for some strangest reason, he could only walk close to Zheng Yingying, afraid of entering the attack range of the living corpses. Looking at it from a distance, a tall man who was nearly 1.8-meter tall was tailing a little girl who wasn’t even 1.5-meter tall, not to mention his posture was nowhere as upright as the little girl’s. This made a rather funny sight.

Zheng Yingying rescued Qian Wei before, so theoretically, he should be grateful. But looking at Zheng Yingying’s back, Qian Wei only felt his heart pounding and brimmed with unease.

In the end, before they even made it very far, Scarlet’s voice once again spread throughout the whole zone.

Qian Wei’s mouth gaped with surprise: “This is too ruthless, who is this woman?”

Zheng Yingying frowned. Jiang He only briefly talked about Scarlet and the siege of the city that happened a year ago. Besides that, she didn’t know much about Scarlet either. Now that she heard this voice, things were obviously not as simple as Jiang He said.

She subconsciously wanted to go back, but Qian Wei quickly stopped her: “Where are you going? Even if we head back now, they certainly have left!” 

As soon as these words left his lips, Qian Wei regretted it immediately. What was he doing? Wouldn’t he be free if she went back? If he went to find big boss Jin Cheng now, he might get tangled in even bigger danger.

See now? My mouth acts too fast!

Sure enough, Zheng Yingying clenched her fists tightly, paused for a few seconds, then turned around and strode forward. Qian Wei’s heart was in a mess, still wondering whether he should run away, but the moment his eyes caught Zheng Yingying turning her head, it simply told him: “catch up with her.”

Qian Wei had to continue following her.

Zheng Yingying didn’t know Jin Cheng’s exact location, yet she didn’t put her hope on Qian Wei either. Seeing that the living corpses around her seemed to be moving in the same direction, she directly went after them.

Her thoughts were simple: since the moving direction of the living corpse roughly coincided with the place where the signal flare was fired from, and for people like Jin Cheng, wherever he was, all the attention would point there. The chance of him being there was greater than any other place.

But the journey wasn’t extremely smooth.

First of all, they were almost at the edge of Zone E, which was far away from the central area, and because they didn’t want to provoke the living corpses, they chose to walk through secluded alleys.

Secondly, before they were halfway there, the direction of the living corpses suddenly changed, and they were caught in a dilemma whether they should change their course.

At this moment, a battle took place in front, where several players were fighting the living corpses. Hiding behind the trash bin on the side of the road, Qian Wei looked at the scene and felt a little strange — If those people were genuinely attacking the corpses, why were some of them sneakily withdrawing?

And why were some of them on the lookout for something?

“If not… let’s go another way?”

“Look again.”

Zheng Yingying said and changed the shape of her [Infinite Forms] cloak, disguising herself as an ordinary young girl. She continued to peek without making the slightest sound.

Very soon, the battle before their eyes was over. The players defeated the living corpses but spared one, then they tied it up, stuffed it into a sack and sneaked it into a nearby residential building.

As the wind brought their conversations to Qian Wei’s ears, the words ‘Jin Cheng’ could vaguely be heard.

“What are they doing?” Qian Wei couldn’t understand.

“Go.” Zheng Yingying squeezed her dagger but didn’t step forward to check, rather, she chose a small path that circled to the back of the residential building. After walking around the building, Zheng Yingying found a half-open window, made sure that no one was inside and immediately turned herself over the sill.

Qian Wei leaned on the window sill and asked in a low voice: “Hey, what are you going in for? Don’t you want to go find big boss?” 

Zheng Yingying turned around, the cursed dagger in her hand gleaming with a cold light: “Shut up.” 

Qian Wei wanted to cry but of course couldn’t, and had no choice but to crawl in after her.

Zheng Yingying walked to the door and put her ear against the door for a long while. Seemingly, she heard the sound of footsteps outside, then waiting until the footsteps had faded, she opened the door and looked outside.

The corridor was very empty, and the sound of footsteps earlier had ascended to the second floor.

Zheng Yingying closed the door again and didn’t rush out. As her eyebrows furrowed, she pondered carefully about what she had just seen. When she turned around, she found that Qian Wei had already sat down and was munching on something.

Wrapped in the mindset of ‘whatever would come would come’, Qian Wei simply saw something edible on the table and decided he should just fill his stomach. Seeing Zheng Yingying look over, he raised the rice ball in his hand and asked: “Are you going to eat?”

Zheng Yingying: “…No.”

“If you don’t, I’ll eat them all. I haven’t eaten anything since waking up. The living corpses just now were scary, enough to give me nightmares and nausea.” Qian Wei talked to Zheng Yingying while chewing on the food. In this moment, he had forgotten his status as a captive, and his heart had no more room to shudder.

“Hey, what do you think? Those people that mentioned Jin Cheng just now caught a living corpse yet didn’t kill it. They aren’t conspiring something evil, are they?”

Now that they talked about it, he figured it was rather impossible: “How could we run into such a coincidence? That living corpse must be their friend, that’s why they can’t bear to kill it and just tie it up.”

Zheng Yingying declined to comment. She still stood by the door, with her ear pressed against it, carefully feeling the movements outside while occasionally glancing through the gap under the door.

Ten minutes later, Qian Wei finally filled his stomach and boiled a pot of water for himself. As the water inside the pot reached the boiling point, it made a gurgling sound. He poured a cup of hot water and walked to Zheng Yingying, wanting to pass it to her, but Zheng Yingying gave him a silent gesture.

Qian Wei was immediately alert and began to mouth the words — ‘What’s wrong?’

Zheng Yingying pointed to the outside of the door. Qian Wei propped his ear against the door, and indeed he could hear footsteps and faint voices outside.

“…Is everything okay?”

“It’s okay, why did you all come over all of a sudden?”

“Didn’t Scarlet appear? Of course, we have to come over to see the situation, and there’s also the 2nd Movement. It’s the second —”

“Don’t lie to me, how long has it been since Scarlet appeared and the 2nd Movement got mentioned? You all can gather here so fast? Say it, what are you doing behind my back?”

One of them abruptly came to a halt. The two seemed to have a physical fight, and their tone also suddenly became intense.

“Yao Qing, you’d better pay attention to your tone.” The other person also stopped but lowered his voice: “You can give advice, but Lawless isn’t just yours alone. Of course, we have our reasons for doing this, and very soon, you’ll get to know.”

Yao Qing: “Like hell I care. Scarlet is fighting with Jin Cheng, why do you want to poke your nose into it? Afraid that you won’t die fast enough?!”

The two threw a few more words against each other, but they both spoke too quickly with deliberately lowered voices, so Qian Wei couldn’t hear clearly. Even so, he was already shaking in his boots.

He always thought it would be near impossible for life to be this coincidental. Whoever was planning this big conspiracy had accidentally exposed it to him, a total small-fry. Who would’ve expected such a chance encounter? Listening carefully, he didn’t manage to catch the complete sentence, but he heard the three words ‘Chong Yanzhang’.

This is bad.

Qian Wei wanted to slap himself, what a crow mouth I am. EvenMr. Crow’s mouth wasn’t as stinky as this. He started blinking madly at Zheng Yingying, then waiting for the footsteps outside the door to fade away, he quickly said: “My top-student classmate told me that if we want to survive, we have to suppress our curiosity. We still have time to leave.”

Zheng Yingying: “You know who Yao Qing is?”

Qian Wei: “Isn’t he just a member of Lawless? Each elite team in Zone A has their own name, Lawless is one of them. Yao Qing is nicknamed The Puppeteer, and he’s said to be very powerful. His mechanical puppets can break through sky and dive into land, they’re basically omnipotent.” 

Zheng Yingying: “How do they compare against Heaven’s Will?”

Qian Wei: “It’s 50-50, but Heaven’s Will has collapsed, while Lawless is still here, and they have many members too. Because Yao Qing confronted Jin Cheng last time and was tricked into jail…”

Speaking on and on, Qian Wei couldn’t stop. On normal days, he was often the student who listened to Peng Mingfan’s lectures, so this was a rare opportunity for him to appear cool. The words were spewed out even before they got processed by his brain.

By the time he realised that Zheng Yingying’s eyes were gleaming more and more brightly, he hurriedly covered his mouth, but it was too late.

“Let’s blend in and take a look.” Zheng Yingying gave a final decision.

At the same time, Tang Cuo and Jin Cheng had arrived near Black Hat’s Miscellaneous Store.

Because the number of remaining living corpses wasn’t small and Jin Cheng was still their absolute goal, Lily took Chi Yan to walk another path. Meanwhile, Tang Cuo and Jin Cheng kept parkouring across the roofs, occupying the high ground so as not to be obstructed by the living corpses.

But Wen Xiaoming was still missing.

“The worst case is that he has been infected by corpse poison.” Tang Cuo stood on the edge of the roof and looked down.

“Although Wen Xiaoming isn’t strong enough, his title of ‘Equipment Master’ didn’t spread far  for no reason, not to mention he’s clever. These mindless living corpses shouldn’t be able to lay a finger on him, unless — he’s been killed and got sent to Zone G, or held captive somewhere.” Jin Cheng said.

Scarlet didn’t give them much time, and it was obviously not a wise move to go to Zone G to investigate at this juncture. Because if Wen Xiaoming was indeed caged in a cell in Zone G, it would actually keep him safe.

If he was infected by corpse poison, he would be lying on the ground as a corpse, so there would be no way to save him until this whole matter was resolved anyway. The only troublesome possibility was that he was captured or trapped somewhere outside of Zone G.

In Tang Cuo and Jin Cheng’s view, Black Hat’s Miscellaneous Store swaggeringly stood there. Tang Cuo looked at it and suddenly said: “If we go to the Infinite Market of Dreams to exchange for the clues about the 2nd Movement, is that possible?”

Jin Cheng stroked his chin: “Your idea sounds very good, the line of thought is smart, but the Infinite Market of Dreams should only allow exchanges of things that have a tangible existence, such as physical objects or spells. I think it won’t work for clues.”

After a pause, he raised the corner of his mouth and spoke with a hint of relish: “But we can try, there’s nothing to lose. Scarlet wants to fish, yet the fish hasn’t taken the bait. Both sides have to be more patient. Maybe Scarlet is staring at us in a corner right now. We could go to the Miscellaneous Store and drag Black Hat into the water with us.”

Tang Cuo didn’t say anything, but he felt that this suggestion wasn’t bad at all.

The two then headed to the lower ground to Black Hat’s Miscellaneous Store. Since at the moment, Jin Cheng was pretty much possessed by Tang Seng唐僧 [Tang Seng] refers to the courtesy title of Xuanzang, also known as Tang Sanzang, the Buddhist monk in the classic Chinese novel ‘Journey to The West’. Along the journey, Tang Seng is constantly terrorised by monsters and demons due to a legend which says that one can attain immortality by consuming his flesh because he is a reincarnation of a holy being., everyone in the zone could locate his specific location by looking at the direction the living corpses were moving. As such, the two of them didn’t bother keeping a low profile and, one after another, jumped directly from the top of the building, their postures both fierce, unrestrained and completely free.

A bunch of living corpses had gathered at the foot of the buildings. Before the two even touched the ground, one drew his sword and the other drew his bow, and with Tang Cuo’s sword aura and Jin Cheng’s bow silhouette both moving so furiously, they charged into the group of living corpses. In just a blink of the eye, the surrounding living corpses fell down like wheat that was being harvested in autumn, and the other players on all sides could only be stunned.

After the battle, Tang Cuo withdrew his sword, while Jin Cheng stood behind him with a smile, kicking the last living corpse down.

Two men. Double the dominating aura.

In all directions, the people who had poked their necks out to watch immediately pulled their heads back, frightened to the core. One Jin Cheng was already enough to make people flustered, why was there another one now? Yu Yiyi, who happened to be walking out of the Infinite Market of Dreams, immediately grabbed his teammate’s arm and pulled him back.

“Why did Jin Cheng and his romantic target come here? When did his target become so strong? How exactly does Yong Ye City allocate the Strength value, based on the face?” Yu Yi leaned over to the window to peek, thinking left and right, feeling that it was certainly not a wise move to walk out at this time.

If Jin Cheng continued to ask about the clues regarding Scarlet’s phylactery, how should he answer? Being a smart man, Yu Yiyi was familiar with making associations; give him a butterfly, and he likely could imagine a blizzard all the way in Siberia.An equivalent to ‘butterfly effect’ in the English language.

“Let’s go in again and hide somewhere.” Yu Yiyi quickly made a decision, pulled his still bewildered teammate and re-entered the Infinite Market of Dreams.

In any case, different groups of guests wouldn’t enter the same space, so as long as they hid inside, even the gods wouldn’t be able to find them.

The author has something to say:

Qian Wei: Probably the first person to die in Yong Ye City because of his big mouth.