Infinite Ebullience
Chapter 266 - 19 Alice’s Game_2

Chapter 266: Chapter 19 Alice’s Game_2

"Cut the crap and start the game," blond Amanda impatiently tapped the floor with her heel. As a conqueror who had experienced thirteen Trojan Horse Games, she was fearless. As for Yin Shang Wu, she had never battled him, but surely he was nothing more than a defeated adversary.

"It’s a pity, Leader, I can only personally slaughter four of them," Yin Shang Wu took a deep breath, waiting for the game to commence. The others, however, wished time could stop at this moment forever.

"The first game, the Butcher’s Feast. Two squads - the first to have five casualties wins, while the losers are selected randomly to lose two lives as punishment." Alice sat next to the dining table. The butler behind her rang a bell and from behind a stage, a stone door opened. A team of ghostly maids walked out, setting a bountiful dinner on the table.

"What?" Everyone was bewildered, the rules of the game were not only strange but the method of punishment was exceptionally brutal.

"Random death? Does that mean our abilities as conquerors are meaningless?" Zhang Hao faced Alice with a question. The black boxer opposite him was equally dissatisfied. The thought of having their lives in the hands of others was completely harsh.

"We are doomed to die because of others’ mistakes?" Xu Guanlin also considered himself an elite and was unwilling to pay for others’ mistakes.

"Well, what can we do about it? You’re a team, aren’t you? If you are unfortunate enough to die, blame it on the incompetence of your teammates!", Alice spread her hands casually, seemingly making a joke. She then snapped her fingers and a virtual screen dropped from the stage above, displaying headshots of fifty-four participants from two squads.

"Now, the game begins," Alice clapped her hands and immediately everyone tensed, watching their surroundings vigilantly for the potential butcher.

"Over here." With a beast-like roar, a giant hole broke open in the ceiling and a hideous creature, more than two meters tall and assembled from corpse fragments, jumped down. It held a rusty chopper in one hand and an iron hook in the other, hungrily eyeing its ingredients.

This monster, wearing a chef hat and apron, would seem ridiculous to the eye, but its attacks were alarmingly fierce. After a few quick steps, it caught up to an American student, and without a moment’s hesitation, it thrust its iron hook into the student, lifting him up, then mercilessly slamming him into the ground.

The sound of bone breaking, the splash of blood, it send chills down their spines. The students ran around in panic, but the room was too small and the monster was too quick, catching up to its prey every few seconds.

Tang Zheng and the others froze at the sudden start of the game and the immediate outbreak of chaos. The rule was that victory went to the team that first lost five members. They knew what needed to be done - feed their rookies to the monster. But their lingering sense of decency made them hesitate.

Qin Yan and Li Xinlan could kill the selfish individuals in their team, but faced with ordinary students, they found it hard to carry out the brutal act. The first thing that came to their mind was to grab the dangerous students, like Han Zifeng.

"What are you doing? Pick anyone and throw them over!" Zhang Hao, without hesitation, grabbed a Chinese student next to him and dragged him towards the monster. Seeing Li Xinlan and Qin Yan trying to grab the ’bad’ students, he was thoroughly frustrated. He grumbled about those minutes going to waste, after all, why would anyone wait for you to catch them?

Yin Shang Wu thought his heart had died the moment his team was wiped out, yet he found himself hesitating for a moment, looking at the crying female student in his hand.

Tang Zheng also moved, albeit a step too late.

Conquerors from the Super Squad didn’t hesitate at all. At the start of the Butcher’s Feast, Brant and Amanda picked up their respective rookies and threw them towards the monster. Meanwhile, the spectacled man and the black boxer ran towards the monster, not only blocking the chopper coming towards a Chinese student, but also herding the monster towards the side where their rookies were most densely populated.

"Xin Lan and Qin Yan, you’re up! Rescue the American students!" Tang Zheng shouted, reluctantly accepting that survival was a matter of luck. However, in an unexpected turn of events, the monster just stopped. Then Alice, the mad girl, stood up and declared the end of the game.

Upon hearing this, all the survivors slumped to the ground. They looked at the seven mutilated corpses on the ground without even the urge to vomit, filled with nothing but indifference.

"Oh, naught but 50 seconds and we’ve already got a result. Super team, you really know what you’re doing!" Alice chirped, with a slightly sarcastic edge to her voice. Then, she turned her attention to Tang Zheng and his comrades.

"Tang Zheng, you bastard! You call yourself the group leader yet what’s next?" Zhang Hao seethed with rage as he charged at Tang Zheng, grabbed him by the collar, and roared, "What sort of leadership was that? Now, two of us will die randomly. That could be you, or Xin Lan and Qin Yan, or even Old Lin who just saved everyone..."

"Zhang Hao, let go." Lin Weiguo intervened with a stern expression, pulling Zhang Hao’s hand from Tang Zheng’s collar.

The other survivors watched the internal strife without uttering a word. Even the Chinese students began to back away, distancing themselves from the group. After all, how could they forgive the act of abandoning comrades?

"What is this? Mercy? Morality? I beg you guys, we’re conquerors who have met our deaths once and yearn to seize the chance of a new life. Can’t we stop being so naive?" A pleading tone resonated in Zhang Hao’s bitter remarks. "If I had your kind of power, I would’ve left this damn game ages ago."

"Look, even if you kill the disruptive students, you still stand as murderers. What’s the difference? Those who survive will still fear you. They won’t be thankful. Why do we bother?" The situation was so absurd that Zhang Hao broke into cynical laughter. "Who’d give you the power to choose? It’s increasingly clear to me that anyone harboring good intentions doesn’t stand a chance of surviving this game."

"Enough!" Li Xinlan attempted to pull Zhang Hao away, but he forcefully shook her hand off.

"You think good intentions will be recognized? Look at the calm faces of those American students. They don’t hold any spite against their conquerors because they have been allowed to live. What of the other five? Who cares? Look at our side." Zhang Hao stretched out his arm, clumsily gesturing towards everyone. "Look at us, drenched in despair and consumed with fear. Why? Because we’ve lost and two of us are facing death. If by chance, we survive, it’s merely due to good luck. Why should we feel grateful to you?"

Zhang Hao had definitively exploded. If Tang Zheng didn’t come to his senses, they’d all be following him to their dooms. A person with power and strategy who’s determined to harbour kindness, regardless of the fatality.

Tang Zheng was inwardly regretting his indecisiveness. He had decided to make a difficult decision, a sacrifice, to buy time. But the Super Team acted so quickly, they didn’t hesitate. To them, the newbies were just pawns, meat shields even.

Tang Zheng scanned the room, catching the varying expressions of their spectators. Indeed, he met cold indifference, averted gazes, suppressed and hidden rage.

"Sir, you are far too indecisive. The foolish students who mindlessly ran into us deserved to die for their stupidity, to sacrifice their lives in order to save the rest of us. Look at me, for instance. I intentionally avoided the crowd because I was afraid they’d push me out. So, I chose to run towards the American students instead. And, indeed, the black boxer protected me during a time of danger." A bespectacled boy regarded Tang Zheng cynically. "In circumstances like these, fools simply can’t survive. Sir, please don’t let your so-called mercy bury the trust we’ve placed in you. We’re prepared to die as a result of your decisions because that’s just bad luck. But, we definitely won’t pay the price for those idiots."

A few students nodded in agreement, all having adapted to the brutal nature of the game and also choosing to move toward the American students during the escape.

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PS — Finally reached the part where girls are about to die. Even if they’ll be revived, the process is inevitable. Hang in there, folks! (To be continued. If you like this story, I welcome you to qidian.com to vote for it. Your support is my greatest motivation.)