The Trial Game of Life

As the Miscellaneous Stores were destroyed, Zone G once again began to welcome guests on a large scale. The entire Yong Ye City completely went amok and screams echoed everywhere. But regardless of whether it was about the fish that Scarlet or Jin Cheng or Tang Cuo wanted to dynamite-catch, no news was heard.

Leng Miao didn’t care about these, he only cared about Scarlet and Rong Yi, who remained completely unheard of till this point. 

Not long after the meeting at the Ruby Bar started, Leng Miao took his leave first, not giving Jin Cheng a single chance to continue to fool around. He had his own way of doing things, and he also didn’t always have to listen to Jin Cheng’s orders.

Due to the living corpses, Tang Cuo and Jin Cheng’s whereabouts were exposed to the public’s eyes. Many people watched them enter together and wondered how Leng Miao kept appearing alongside Jin Cheng again and again, yet after a short while, he was gone.

Leng Miao walked out by the front door with a cold expression, treating everyone else as though they were non-existent. Some players secretly followed him, but The Great Mage who was specialised in spatial manipulation disappeared from their sight after merely a few steps, making sure that no ordinary players could follow.

The strange thing was that a long time after Leng Miao left, no one else stepped out of the Ruby Bar.

Many players sat in the bar and held back the agony in their hearts to order a glass of the cheapest wine on the menu, waiting with their hearts thumping anxiously. But as they waited and waited, no big movement could be seen from the room Jin Cheng was in. Half an hour later, a player finally felt that something didn’t seem right and boldly knocked on the door.

As the door opened, inside were Tang Cuo and Lilith playing chess.

“Bang!” A chess piece flew out, brushing the player’s ear and hitting a vase in the hall. The vase broke into pieces and the player who knocked on the door also broke out in a cold sweat.

“Get out.” Lilith retracted her hand, her voice impatient.

The player obviously didn’t dare to linger any longer, but after he withdrew, the players outside erupted into madness — Jin Cheng and the other teenage player were gone!

As they stared at each other, everyone discovered that even after the living corpses had been massively wiped out, they were still unable to catch Jin Cheng’s moves.

“But how did they leave?”

“An invisibility item?”

“What are we going to do now? We totally didn’t see this coming…”

The players who tailed behind Jin Cheng, except for some spies from various gangs, were mostly ordinary players with no concrete ideas of what they were doing. They couldn’t see through the feud behind this incident, and they had no chance to intervene even if they wanted to. There was only one brainless method — to follow Jin Cheng.

The private room’s door closed again, blocking everyone’s sight.

At this moment, another door suddenly opened on the wall on the other side of the room. K opened the door and walked in: “The news has been sent, but I can’t guarantee that he’ll come.”

With an indifferent expression, Tang Cuo rested his back against the sofa, his hand gently stroking the chess piece: “You’ve done well.”

Looking at his expression, K became more curious. He leaned on the door with his arms folded, asking: “How did you know that I have a door here?”

Tang Cuo: “If there’s no back door within the territory of an intel dealer, it only proves that he’s an amateur.”

K shrugged.

He had indeed created several back doors, but never really used them unless they were the last resort. Earlier, Jin Cheng actually wanted to leave using the [Quantum Stealth Invisibility Cloak], but Tang Cuo stopped him and asked him to go through the back door. This private room’s back door wasn’t that of the Ruby Bar. After getting out of the door, he would walk through a safe passage, ensuring that any players at the backstreet of the bar wouldn’t immediately find out.

“Honestly, you all are getting too much. Do you see my bar as your own base camp? If you come to this place to chit-chat every now and then, the others might think that I’m in the same gang as you.” K was truly speechless.

Before Tang Cuo could speak, Lilith jumped down his throat: “You can also ask Scarlet to come and sit down for a while. You run a business here, gotta welcome your guest.”

Not wanting to argue with a little girl, K kept looking at Tang Cuo: “Jin Cheng fled by himself, leaving you here as a target, and you just play along with him like this?” 

The little girl smiled and replied: “His strength isn’t enough to be considered a target. My gege should be called a gate-keeping Yan Luo阎罗 [yan luo] refers to the King of Hell in Chinese culture.. Do you know how to talk normally? If you don’t, shut up.” 

“Okay, you can talk more. May I humbly take the liberty to ask, did I ruin your ancestors’ tombs?”

“You’re ruining my CP.”

K rolled his eyes, turned around and left.

At the same time, in Lawless’ secret base, a rigorous investigation was underway.

Because of the missing ‘man in red cloak’ and the strange singing that suddenly came from outside, Tall Man ordered a thorough examination of the whole building, making sure that not even a single room would be left unsearched. But they couldn’t waste their time on possible snoopers, so very soon after, Tall Man and the plant-type ability user set out to find Tang Cuo.

Another group headed to Black Hat’s Miscellaneous Store to inquire about the news, while Forgettable Face and his teammates stayed behind to continue the search and guard Miao Qi.

Till this point, Qian Wei had been hiding in the room, and only now did he come to the realisation that — there weren’t many empty rooms in this building at all; most of them had been occupied by those suspicious guys.

The search would soon reach the room he was at, but now there were also people guarding outside. If he jumped out of the window at this moment, the probability of being discovered was nearing 100%.

What was called ‘caught between the devil and the deep blue sea’? This was.

The loud singing had long since stopped. Earlier, it was a quick idea that flashed in Qian Wei’s mind. Remembering Peng Mingfan once told him about the tactics of diversion, he gritted his teeth and took out his [Powerful Feet Running Shoes], wanting to help Zheng Yingying from behind.

The player that passed by earlier was completely clueless; all of a sudden, he met a dumb boy who said to gift him an item, only with a condition that the player wore these shoes and run one lap around the building. Of course, the player gladly agreed.

But, most of the players in Yong Ye City really weren’t trustworthy. After running out of Qian Wei’s line of sight, that player took off his shoes and ran away immediately.

Reaching this point, Qian Wei felt that he was really not fit to play tactics. Not only did he lose an item, but he also had no idea whether this diversion tactic of his truly worked. In the end, he only put himself in a dangerous situation.

He felt so disheartened that he wanted to hit his head against the wall.

How did I cause all this mess?

But, it doesn’t matter anymore.

Hearing the sound of the search moving closer, Qian Wei reluctantly made a small cut on his arm, wiped the blood that oozed out onto his face and scattered some dust all over it. Finally, he lay on the ground with his eyes closed, pretending to be a living corpse. .

At the same time, on the third floor.

Yao Qing, who had been somewhat excluded from the core team since he wasn’t asked to head out to perform any tasks, walked to the door of the room where Miao Qi was held and said coldly: “Open the door, I want to see him.”

“This… Boss Yao, can’t we wait for Chu ge and the others to come back first?”

“Have I become a nobody here? You don’t even listen to me?”

Seeing Yao Qing turning clearly exasperated, the two men guarding the door looked at each other and their faces quickly changed into a coaxing expression: “How can it be? We’re just trying to be careful. Just go in, we’ll keep guard at the door.”

As Yao Qing went in, from the other side of the corridor, Forgettable Face saw the shadow of his back enter the room and frowned slightly, but still, he didn’t come forward to stop Yao Qing. He turned his head to look at his teammate, suddenly feeling alert: “Where was the young man just now?” 

“Huh?” The teammate reacted after a moment: “You mean the one earlier? I asked him to go search with the others since only he has seen the man in red cloak.”

“Are you stupid?! ” Forgettable Face’s temper rushed to his face at once: “We aren’t even sure if he’s telling the truth. Look for him now, and bring him back!” 

“I know, I know, why make such a scene?” The teammate didn’t care much and mumbled to himself, a hint of discomfort gleaming in his eyes. They were both of the same rank, so there was no reason for him to be bossed around like this. But with the way Forgettable Face made a fuss, he felt that there was indeed a point to be careful and immediately turned around to look for the young man.

But by this point, that young man had disappeared from this building since long ago.

“Crash!” Zheng Yingying made a sneak attack from behind, knocking out a Lawless member who was carrying out the search, then she kicked Qian Wei who was disguising as a living corpse on the ground: “Get up.”

Qian Wei scrambled up and said: “Why are you back so late?!”

“I almost got found out, I can’t stay here anymore. You go to Jin Cheng and Tang Cuo now, tell them that there’s a possibility Lawless and Scarlet are colluding. They also captured someone wearing a red scarf.” Zheng Yingying quickly delegated the task. She indeed thought it was strange that back at that moment when she was so close to being cornered, a strange song suddenly sounded outside, which nicely gave her an opening to escape.

But now wasn’t the time to discuss this. She pulled out the man hidden under the bed and placed him next to the man she knocked out just now. Thereafter, she stuffed the cursed dagger into one of the man’s hand, held his hand and brutally thrust the blade into the other man’s chest.

In the next instant, the two of them turned into two flashes of white light and disappeared at the same time.

Qian Wei was stunned. According to the law that Jin Cheng commanded, both the killer and the victim in Yong Ye City had to go to jail concurrently. This put a strain on the extremely violent players while simultaneously preventing them from counter-attacking.

At a time like this, Zheng Yingying could still think of such a method. She truly was cruel.

“I’ll cover for you, hurry up.” Zheng Yingying tightened her cloak and turned into the Lawless member who entered the room just now. Her tone was so firm that Qian Wei couldn’t refute at all.

Jumping through the window was too conspicuous. Once she was seen, she certainly would be considered a spy. Zheng Yingying had never been the ‘crafty’ type, and being such a daredevil, she directly led Qian Wei through the corridor and left through the main gate.

Qian Wei walked cautiously, lowered his voice and asked as he walked: “Who is the person wearing the red scarf? Aren’t you coming with me?”

“I couldn’t get too close to the room and didn’t hear it very clearly.”

Zheng Yingying managed to catch the word ‘Scarlet’ only thanks to the confrontation between Yao Qing and Tall Man. Since Lawless was, after all, led by the elites of Zone A and not a sloppy cat-and-dog gang, they knew how to control their volume when they started talking about their plan against Tang Cuo. As such, Zheng Yingying was unable to hear the key messages.

But what she heard was enough to surprise her. Two groups under Tall Man’s commands had set off. Intuitively, Zheng Yingying felt that their purpose mustn’t be simple. At this moment, the most important thing was to send Qian Wei out as soon as possible to inform Tang Cuo.

The two kept their composure on the surface, pretending to search around as they walked. But Qian Wei had never been a good actor. As soon as he saw a man walking towards the two of them, he subconsciously turned his head to the side.

Such a bad move immediately made them suspicious.

“Hey, you over there!” The man strode over.

Qian Wei felt incredibly anxious, but since things had reached this point, his nervousness turned into a bright idea. He walked towards the man: “Fantastic, it’s good to see you. Come over here, someone is lying unconscious in that room!” 

The two men were taken aback: “Who? Tell me clearly?”

Zheng Yingying wordlessly stole a glance at Qian Wei, feeling rather surprised at his wit, then she helped out: “It’s the one who said he saw the man in red cloak. Come and take a look. Two of them are unconscious!”

Hearing the words, the man felt his heart thud a little and immediately forgot about Qian Wei’s abnormality. He rushed to the room they were pointing at.

Seeing him turning around unsuspectingly, Zheng Yingying wanted to attack, but a noise came from upstairs. Perhaps the men from Lawless had finally discovered the truth about the ‘man in red cloak’ and were about to catch her.

“Hurry up.” Zheng Yingying urged Qian Wei to run fast, and the two smoothly rushed out of the gate, but there was also a guard outside the gate.

The two sides stood heads-on.

Qian Wei was determined to risk it all and planned to repeat the old trick, but the moment he spoke, a thunderous sound came from the floor above them. 

“Boom —” It was as loud as a cannon, and Qian Wei looked up to see a huge smoke pouring out of the windows on the third floor, shattering the glass on both sides.

“My god —” Qian Wei exclaimed in shock. The Lawless member guarding the gate was also stunned.

At this moment, a shout echoed from upstairs: “He’s running away! Stop him!”

“Who’s running away?!” The gatekeeper was confused.

“It must be the one wearing the red scarf!” Finally able to snap out of it, Qian Wei yelled sheepishly. As if a true member of Lawless, he said with a heartbroken tone: “Hurry up and stop him. If he runs away, it’s over for us!”

Since nervousness was always contagious, the Lawless gang member at the gate felt that it was worth it to heed these words. Nicely at this moment, a red scarf flying out of the window upstairs seemed to verify Qian Wei’s statement. Although it was only a scarf, there was only one person in the entire Yong Ye City who put on such an ugly, out-of-style piece without a care about whether the weather was hot or cold.

“Quickly come and help!” Everyone hurried upstairs and Qian Wei also anyhow joined in the commotion, but he deliberately fell behind and followed them for only a few steps before slamming the brakes and turning back.

Very soon, Qian Wei finally escaped from the building without any trouble and ran to the other side of the street to hide in the dark alley. Only then did he finally heave a sigh of relief. But as soon as he stopped, he realised that Zheng Yingying hadn’t followed him.

For a moment, his whole scalp went numb.

What the hell is this little granny doing?!

Qian Wei cautiously poked his head out to observe, and in the blink of an eye, there was another explosion. Only now that he finally remember who the person with the red scarf was. Peng Mingfan had educated him on this before.

Are these people in Zone A having infighting?

Qian Wei really couldn’t understand, just like he couldn’t understand whether Zheng Yingying and Tang Cuo were friends or enemies. Clenching his teeth, he decided to run to Tang Cuo to inform him of the news.

Along with the sound of his footsteps, there was an angry roar that rose above the sound of cannons.

“Yao Qing! Are you really going to betray Lawless?!” Forgettable Face had burnt half of his hair, his eyes wide-open in rage. By this point, his resentment towards Yao Qing had far surpassed Miao Qi, and he really couldn’t wait to chop Yao Qing off into pieces.

Yao Qing stood opposite Forgettable Face, and beside him was Miao Qi, whose face had turned very pale and whose body had begun to bleed all over. Panting hard, Miao Qi carried his cannon gun, almost unable to straighten his body up.

But there was no doubt that Yao Qing had chosen to stand on his side.

“It’s you who didn’t listen to my advice, so don’t blame me for being ruthless.” Yao Qing sneered, took a step back, grabbed Miao Qi and retreated to the window at the end of the corridor.

Of course, Forgettable Face wouldn’t let him go, and immediately he asked the gang men to chase after the two.

A huge battle was about to unfold.

In the Ruby Bar, Tang Cuo finally met the guest he had been waiting for — Black Hat.

Black Hat came in through the private room’s back door, still wearing the gloomy look of a man who wasn’t exposed to any moonlight all year round. The wizard hat covered his eyes, his aura as though he had just crawled out of a grave.

Lilith got up and stood behind Tang Cuo, allowing Black Hat to sit opposite Tang Cuo. Without any greetings, the two sides went straight to the subject.

“It’s your doing, isn’t it? You stirred up the players to smash my stores.”

“We want to do some business with you.”

“Heh.”

“[Drake’s Gem], [Spark of Forgiveness], [Black Dragon Scale], [The Pale Heart], all of them are from the serial dungeon [Kingdom Hidden In The Moonlight], am I right?” 

Black Hat lowered his head and fiddled with the teacup: “Oh, is that dungeon called [Kingdom Hidden In The Moonlight]?”

Tang Cuo: “Don’t pretend to be clueless. You have to do this business with us, so be honest, or else just get out.”

Perhaps Tang Cuo’s ironclad attitude wasn’t something Black Hat expected. He looked up and gazed at Tang Cuo for a moment before finally saying: “You destroyed my stores, and now you want to do business with me?”

Tang Cuo: “I have the thing that allows entry and exit to [Kingdom Hidden In The Moonlight]. If you want the remaining three items, you can only seek them from me.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“Yes.”

“…”

“Tell me. Either Chong Yanzhang or Scarlet, what did they take from the Infinite Market of Dreams?” 

Black Hat couldn’t help but feel bewildered, yet laughter was still worn on his face: “How can you tell that they’ve been to the Infinite Market of Dreams?”

Tang Cuo remained as calm as ever, while next to him, Lilith poured tea into his cup. At a mere glance, anyone could tell which side had an edge over the other.

“Scarlet got out of jail when her sentence wasn’t up yet; the living corpses were killed, but none of them went to jail; even the BS055 that Chong Yanzhang brought into jail wasn’t a common product. Apart from the Infinite Market of Dreams, which other places can provide such special-usage, high-quality items all at the same time? What’s more, Scarlet got out of jail neither too early nor too late, but exactly when the Infinite Market of Dreams opened. Don’t you think it’s quite acoincidence?”