Infinite Ebullience
Chapter 268 - 21: The Death Draw of the Ghost Card with a Broken Finger

Chapter 268: Chapter 21: The Death Draw of the Ghost Card with a Broken Finger

Tang Zheng was somewhat worried that a ten-minute break was too long and could dampen the momentum their side had painstakingly built up. But clearly, he overthought. Newbies from both sides, after a full meal, were in high spirits. Across the twenty-meter distance, they sat facing each other, staring at each other with a deadly stare, wishing they could immediately rush up and kill them.

"Qin Yan, what was the last thing Bai Guo said to you?" Qin Yan, sitting next to him and still holding Bai Guo’s corpse in her arms, was grief-stricken. Tang Zheng knew this wasn’t good, and he had to make her regain her spirits as soon as possible.

"Sister Qin Yan, I think I kind of like Tang Zheng." Qin Yan raised her head, took a glance at Tang Zheng, and then lowered it again, patting Bai Guo’s shoulder and repeating the sentence in a murmur.

The expression on Tang Zheng’s face became even more gloomy, and he couldn’t say any comforting words, weighed down by utter vexation.

Li Xinlan and Lin Weiguo exchanged a glance and sighed. They both didn’t harbor much hope of surviving to go back. In the cruel Trojan Horse Game, a small mistake or hesitation could cost them their lives.

"Well, folks, the ten-minute break has ended, and now the second round of Alice’s crazy game begins." Alice stood on the dining table, loudly announcing the resumption of the game.

Everyone from both sides stood up and looked at her. The atmosphere in the room instantly turned tense and filled with panic, oppressive enough to suffocate one.

"The second game, the Butcher’s Feast again."

With these words, immediate uproar ensued. Some of the novices were delighted, muttering that they now had experience and that they wouldn’t make the same mistakes this time. Some, however, looked regretful, lamenting divulging their secret tips to survive this type of game.

In fact, they shared those tips with an ulterior motive — to project an image of being wise and capable in front of Tang Zheng, thereby earning more help. But now, it seemed like it backfired.

"Let’s get to it. Xinlan and Weiguo, you will seize the students later. I’ll be in charge of luring the butcher to our side. Yin Shangwu and Zhang Hao are responsible for blocking the Conquerors from the other side." Tang Zheng began to quickly arrange tactics without any hesitation. "Xinlan, use Ice Age straight away to herd the darting students."

Brant from the Super Squad was also laying out tactics, while the newbies were pondering how to maximize their chances of survival.

"Hehe, a bunch of fools." Alice looked at the humans below the stage with their complicated expressions, akin to that of convicts awaiting their death sentence, indulging in ridiculing. "Sorry, I was joking just now."

Everyone was stunned, looking at Alice in bewilderment.

"The second round of the game is not the Butcher’s Feast. Did you really think that such a simple appetizer would satisfy me?" Alice mocked them mercilessly, then snapped her fingers. A line of ghost maids filed out from the stone door behind her.

They carried a dining table, five meters long, and placed it in the center of the room, setting up four chairs around it.

"A game where so many people die is called an appetizer?" Lin Weiguo made a sarcastic comment, causing the newbies’ faces to turn pale.

"The second round of the game: Death Draw Poker of Finger Cutting." Alice left the stage and stood next to the long table. "First of all, let me set the premise. No matter who it is, if you attack and cause injury or death to your opponent, you will also be instantly killed."

"Enough of the babbling, tell us the rules of the game already." Tang Zheng realized that Alice’s words often held little substance. If he paid equal attention to every single one of them, it would be a great expenditure of energy. But he clenched his teeth and thought, "No matter, I can hold on."

"The game rules are self-explanatory. Nineteen poker cards — one person gets nine, the other gets ten. You draw from each other’s hand, trying to pair your cards. Whoever has the Joker at the end loses." Alice pulled out a deck of poker cards from her apron, and after a brief moment of card shuffling that filled the room with the rustling sound of the cards, she set the deck on the table.

"Is that it?" The white, bespectacled man found it hard to believe and proposed, "Playing Ghost Card Draw requires no skill. Why don’t we go for Blackjack instead?"

This man was evidently a gambling addict. His excited face made it clear that he was quite familiar with poker cards.

"Alice hasn’t finished yet, please remain quiet." Alice placed the poker deck on the table and then summoned ten poker soldiers, making them stand on either side of the long table.

"Rule One: each time you draw a card from the opponent and it doesn’t form a pair, you will lose a finger."

Alice’s words instantly struck everyone like a cold wave, chilling them to the bone.

"Don’t worry. After you return to your rooms alive, even if your kidney has blown off, Trojan can restore you." Zhang Hao wiped off his cold sweat, trying to alleviate the sudden panic among the newbies. Brant was saying the same on the other side.

"Rule Two: if the opponent draws a card from you and it forms a pair, you will lose a finger."

Aside from the few Conquerors, all the newbies began to gasp for air, frustrated at what seemed to be a purposefully sadistic rule.

"Are you kidding us? Are you saying that if we draw a ghost card, we must lose four fingers?" The cheerleader captain in a uniform from the Super Team shouted out in anger, and others were discussing and debating energetically, all feeling very furious.

"Silence, please note, you are not allowed to negotiate. If you do not want to participate, you will be judged as losers immediately." The butler, who had again stood behind Alice, shouted and then made a gentleman’s bow to her, "Miss, you can continue to announce the rules."

The newbies continued to gasp for air, as if their lungs were about to explode. There were still rules to follow.

"Rule three, the side that draws a ghost card and loses will be killed instantly."

"With such a brutal rule, who dares to take the stage?" Xu Guanlin had a bitter smile on his face; not only was there a risk of losing a finger, but also death. This was pure torture, it would be easier if they were just killed directly.

Zhang Hao was also dumbfounded. If they did not win the duel, there might not even be a chance to recover their fingers.

"Rule four, during the game, anyone besides the contestants are not allowed to give any hints or help, otherwise, they will be judged as losers."

"Rule five, first to have five wins out of nine rounds will be considered as the winner. The contestants will be chosen randomly, but the losing side will have two of their survivors chosen at random to be killed. However, survivors who have already participated in and won a match, they will be exempted."

The crowd has become numb.

"Is there more? Just say them all at once, don’t string us along." Tang Zheng was already considering his tactics, but this round seemed to be all about luck. Of course, some people with special seed abilities would still have some advantages.

"Rule six, if the nine contestants of a team choose to participate on their own free will, even if the team loses in the second round, the ghost card game, the team will not be punished." Zhang Hao felt a glimmer of hope, staring at the students, trying to force them to ’volunteer’.

"Rule seven, if the team members are forced into participating, the number of survivors to be executed for punishment after a loss will be doubled." Alice had clearly thought about various situations, so the rules she set were flawless.

"We will give everyone five minutes to think about the participants." Alice said, and then she sat back in her chair. The butler poured her a cup of blood drink.

"Hold on, that’s not right. How can two people play a ghost card draw? Because there is only one joker, then one will definitely match the other every time. Isn’t it inevitable that five fingers will be broken in the end, leaving the winner to be decided by the last round? Why not use three cards instead?" Tang Zheng asked with a furrowed brow. The crowd was initially dazed but soon caught up. They had all played card games before, it was just that they were terrified by the brutal rules, so they didn’t think about it.

"Among the nineteen cards, only five are pairs, the rest are unpaired. When an unpaired card is drawn, it indicates that it is already paired, just the match will be with one of your fingers." Alice’s lips were stained with fresh blood, even her words carried the metallic smell of blood.

"What, doesn’t anyone have the courage to volunteer to step up? Are you going to keep underestimating yourselves?" Tang Zheng looked at these new people, who were silent after being scared by the rules, and sneered, "Your class is definitely the least cohesive one I’ve ever seen. Hmm, perhaps that’s why your original class teacher left you, and your new class teacher obviously looks down on you."

Tang Zheng’s words stirred up bad memories in the students, their faces becoming hard to look at.

"Do you want to be cowards for the rest of your lives? Or do you want to be heroes for three minutes? Alright, even if you miraculously don’t get selected to participate, what happens if we lose? Can you guarantee that you won’t be randomly selected as a sacrifice? Instead of relying on others, why not take a gamble for yourselves?" Tang Zheng baited these ’chips’, hoping that they would volunteer to participate.

"You make it sound so easy, why don’t you go up yourself?" Han Zifeng, a coward himself, was the first to challenge Tang Zheng, "Let’s go with random selection, we’re all relying on luck to survive anyway."

"That’s why I’m saying you’re the type of person that will always run away first." Tang Zheng mocked Han Zifeng. If time allowed, he would unhesitatingly kill him.

Under the contemptuous gaze of his peers, Han Zifeng’s face turned iron blue. Indeed, he had been constantly on the run, this was undeniable. Because he was the first to step onto the stone bridge, he had offended a lot of people. Even his friends had lost respect for him.

"By the way, I will participate. I never rely on luck to survive. Breaking a few fingers counts for nothing, it’s not like they can’t be repaired." Tang Zheng clenched his fists, lifted his arm, and pointed up a finger, "I’m the first."

Without any hesitation, Lu Fan held up her little hand, her voice full of pride, "I’m the second."

Li Xinlan, Lin Weiguo, and Qin Yan all raised their hands.

"I’m in." Xu Guanlin gritted his teeth and raised his hand, "I admit you’re right. I don’t want to leave my fate to others. I want to fight for myself, even if I die, I want someone to go with me. So, could you give me a handgun?"

Tang Zheng took out the M1911A1 and handed it to Xu Guanlin.

"We’re in too." Yue Tong and Gao Meilin said in unison, raising their hands, "Please also give us a handgun. If we lose, we will kill the contestant before we die, clearing the obstacles for you to survive."

The students looked at each other. After a few moments of silence, as if on cue, they all raised their arms simultaneously, and in that moment, it was as though their uplifted fingers stabbed through the dungeon ceiling and reached up into the cloudy expanse of the sky! (To be continued. If you enjoy this story, please support me by voting on qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation.)