Infinite Ebullience
Chapter 272 - 24 Cheating

Chapter 272: Chapter 24 Cheating

"My ability is to control sand, or you could say, control earth elements. The move I just used is called Sand Eye Orb, which allows me to connect my optic nerves with the sand eye orb, then let the eye orb move freely to observe other places. However, it’s fragile. Just now, my sand eye was crushed, so my eyes got ruined as well." Lu Fan tried to maintain a casual demeanor, but her last words revealed her desire for revenge, "Humph, I must take down that Conqueror who hurt me and make him taste the power of Little Fan Fan’s iron fist."

"It must have been Amanda’s sonic attack." Tang Zheng, with crossed arms, stood aside, watching the tense confrontation gravely, considering how profitable it would be if they could knock down their Conquerors with merely newbies.

Then, the North American freckled girl let out a horrifying scream, covering her severed finger, glaring damningly at Gao Meilin as though she wished to bite a piece of flesh off her.

"Heh, you want to bite me, huh?" Gao Meilin taunted her opponent while drawing a card with her bloody hand. Glancing at it, she disdainfully tossed it aside, laid her left hand on the table and the two knights, armored in steel, promptly stepped forward and sliced off one of her fingers.

Enduring the pain, Gao Meilin was drenched in cold sweat, but she did not utter a sound.

The newbies from the Superhuman team fell silent, watching this extraordinarily cruel gambling game unfold. They realized only now that the Easterners who had their fingers chopped off didn’t make a sound, which imposed immense pressure on them.

"These guys are all nuts." The black boxer frowned, exclaiming.

Three minutes later, the clash ended, the high school students looking downcast and bowed their heads, unwilling to keep watching.

"I won, I won!" The freckled girl, with eight fingers severed, yelled hysterically towards her team, unable to believe her last-minute luck. Streaks of tear tracks, signs of surviving a calamity, adorned her face. As she was about to return, she saw her teammates’ dumbfounded faces directed at something behind her.

Swiftly turning around, she found the Eastern high school girl who had lost the game was pointing a handgun at her, ready to pull the trigger with her remaining forefinger.

Bang, bang, bang. By the third shot, due to lack of fingers to control the recoil, the gunshot had deviated. Although, Gao Meilin had completed her mission by then, as the first two shots had hit the chest of the freckled girl, splattering twinned blossoms of blood.

As the freckled girl toppled backward onto the ground twitching, spitting blood, she finally understood why the high school girl had intentionally left her forefingers unscathed. It was all in anticipation of this very moment.

"That’s not fair!" The students from North America resumed their familiar mode of protest just as Gao Meilin’s three gunshots almost shattered their morale.

Gao Meilin ignored these, stood up, turned around and tearfully apologized.

"Sorry for making you ...."

Thud, Gao Meilin’s head violently burst open, with red and white brain matter staining the table, and the word ’disappointed’ remaining forever in her throat.

"Meilin." The female students clung to each other, sobbing uncontrollably.

"Protest dismissed. Unless you want me to punish a corpse?" Alice scorned the North American newbies, "If you’re not satisfied, please opt to perish together."

"Two to two, the fifth round of the game begins." The Butler agitated his bell, resuming the choice for Superhuman team’s combatant.

"Typical people would keep all their fingers on one hand, but Mei Lin chose to spare two fingers. It shows she had considered the possibility of losing and was waiting for this moment." Lin Weiguo sighed, took a step forward. Being a Southern sword, he felt he was long overdue for a fight.

Tang Zheng restrained Lin Weiguo by grabbing his hand and stepping on his toes to immobilize him.

"So, you want to say that my ability isn’t suited for this kind of fight, and therefore I should not participate?" Lin Weiguo did not voice his question, but he knew that was what Tang Zheng meant. However, hiding behind high school students was not his style, as a man should always protect women and children.

"Alice, if we use our abilities, and you are unable to cut off our fingers, then what?" Tang Zheng held onto the hope, only for Alice’s response to be brutal.

"We’ll keep chopping until it severs." Alice appeared to be impatient, "Player, get in position. Let’s begin quickly."

"Give me a hand grenade. Without fingers, I can’t pull the trigger." This time, Yang Chen, the unpopular one, took a step forward. He tried to say something to his classmates but gave up after a few feints of open mouths. Following this, he sullenly walked towards the table.

Yang Chen’s luck seemed to have run out as he was faced with a Conqueror, the black boxer.

"Kid, you’re going to die painfully." The black boxer murmured, regardless of whether the other side understood or not, randomly picked a stack of cards, and urged Yang Chen to start.

Visibly uneasy until his opponent too had fingers chopped off and the game reached a stalemate stage, Yang Chen exhaled a sigh of relief.

"Seems like I could win." Yang Chen encouraged himself, but in the end, he drew the Joker and lost.

Yang Chen’s face turned pale, yet he hesitated only for a moment before putting on a resolute expression. He stepped on a chair, vaulted over the table, and lunged at the Black boxer. At the same time, he pulled a hand grenade out of his pocket with his remaining two fingers and bit down on the pin using his teeth.

"Die." The boxer was taken aback, his fist slamming into Yang Chen’s face and sending him flying.

Bang! Bang! Yang Chen’s head exploded, followed immediately by the high-explosive hand grenade in his hand. The ensuing blast instantly repelled the boxer while a piercing explosion made everyone cover their ears.

"FU.CK." Thirty seconds later, after the smoke had dissipated, the black boxer’s cursing rang in the schoolchildren’s ears.

"Too bad, not even a Conqueror was taken down, and they managed to turn the tables again. Damn, are we really that unlucky?" Zhang Hao said, disappointed. The other students were also visibly upset, though the worst disappointment came after.

The black boxer had lost an arm, and several of his wounds were bleeding, but he did not seem worried. He picked up his severed fingers and hand, let out a grinning chuckle, and sat on the ground. He then held his fingers up to the stump, and a gentle light brightened up. In a few seconds, the fingers were reconnected to the arm.

"Damn, that damn ability is of healing type," Zhang Hao cursed, disgruntled, as the North American students started cheering.

"Why didn’t he heal the victorious girl?" Li Xinlan asked, puzzled. "Can he only heal himself?"

"Not sure about that, but I do know that they were cheating." Tang Zheng said, ignoring everyone’s look of surprise and raising his hand, "Amanda, I request a pause."

"For what reason?"

"So you can enjoy the most exciting game." Tang Zheng could not make sense of the mad girl’s character, so he tried to appeal to her.

"Granted." Alice was thrilled, "the game will continue after ten minutes."

"Tang Zheng, what did you mean? Did they cheat?" Xu Guanlin asked, his face filled with anger. "Didn’t Gao Meilin and Yang Chen die in vain then?"

"To avoid giving us any hint, they only cheated at critical moments. The two turnarounds are the best proofs," Tang Zheng said, boiling with anger. "Amanda has the ability to manipulate sound waves, so she can see through the opponents’ cards."

"Then why didn’t she use it in the first three rounds?" Someone questioned.

"Because she was observing. Haven’t you noticed? Alice’s nineteen cards in each round all have the same pattern. She might have made her marks on them. Plus, it wasn’t worth the risk of being caught just for regular students or inconsequential battles. They were waiting for the final blow," Tang Zheng let out a sigh and then, his eye sparkled with determination, "We must take her out. We can’t win this match if we don’t."

"Amanda, it looks like they’ve caught onto you cheating," said the boxer while flexing his fingers in annoyance. "Can’t you be more careful?"

"Then I’ll stop cheating." Amanda gave him an irritated look. Her seed ability was to control sound waves. She could send out ultrasound vibrations, so at that moment, she could feel grains of sand under her touch, which was enough to know their numbers. Of course, abilities like Whispering Secrets made cheating a breeze.

"Doesn’t matter. Anyway, even if they do know, so what? We’re ahead two to three. Victory’s ours for sure," said the bespectacled male, unfazed, as if victory was already in his grasp.

"We have to take out Amanda, otherwise we’re doomed," Lin Weiguo clenched his fist, feeling unbearable at the thought of the fallen students.

"But didn’t Alice say before, that killing or severely injuring the opponent would also result in a death penalty?" Yue Tong reminded everyone. "We should find a more secure approach."

"So, to be safe, we need to knock her out," Tang Zheng turned to Yin Shangwu and Zhang Hao, "Can you guys do that?"

Zhang Hao wanted to refuse but as he saw the hopeful faces of the students, he couldn’t say no and had to accept.

"Good, when we begin again, we will charge together. I will be responsible for the captain. Lin Weiguo, Li Xinlan and Qin Yan, you’ll go for the boxer and the guy with glasses. You two concentrate your attack on Amanda. Make sure she’s out cold for at least an hour." As Tang Zheng was speaking, he was also in thoughts of a surefire plan that would guarantee them a win. If only his ability was suitable for a game like Ghost Card Draw. Then suddenly, a brilliant idea came to him. He recalled the fight on the isolated island during which he killed Mr. Huang Ya.

That time, Tang Zheng almost died. At the most critical moment, a burning sensation started in his chest, his heartbeat was as uncontrollable as a motor, pumping new life force into every limb...

"Under that condition, my gravity suppression seemed to evolve. Wonder if the female musketeer and the knight can evolve too?" Tang Zheng closed his eyes and started searching for that feeling.

"What is he up to?" Seeing Tang Zheng dip into a meditative silence, Xu Guanlin asked perplexedly, "Aren’t we supposed to attack Super Team?" (To be continued. If you like this work, your vote for it on qidian.com would be a pointer to your support, giving me enormous encouragement.)