048 The Game Begins Again

The doors of the cinema were tightly shut, so Lin Wan and I had no choice but to run laps around the lobby. When we grew tired, I would activate the Light Shield once more to block the attacks, giving Lin Wan a chance to restore her spiritual energy and prepare for another round of acceleration. The human body, after all, has its limits—but ghosts do not. They feel no pain, require no rest, and their stamina is endless.

I had wanted to use a beam of light to attack these wraiths, but quickly realized that I was powerless to harm entities without physical form.

With a thunderous crash, I saw a section of the cinema wall get smashed open.

“Lin Wan, go!” I shouted. Lin Wan instantly activated her power, and together we sprinted toward the breach.

“Zijian! Hurry!” I saw Han Xue waving frantically at the opening, a burly man standing protectively behind her.

Lu Ling, using his Cube 3 Iron Skin ability, had smashed through the wall, granting Lin Wan and me a narrow escape from death.

“Thanks, Lu Ling,” I said.

“It’s nothing,” he rumbled, his voice deep, rarely speaking to others of his own accord.

“You’re the reliable one, Lu Ling,” Lin Wan laughed, patting him on the shoulder.

“Watch out!” Han Xue screamed. The female ghosts from the cinema had followed us out through the breach.

Suddenly, a greasy, heavyset man came running up—Qian Duoduo. He jumped in front of Han Xue, shouting with grand bravado, “A beauty like you deserves my protection!”

His chubby hand drew a playing card.

“Taixu Resonance!”

Before him appeared a spinning, shield-like sigil, and a surge of powerful electromagnetic waves swept toward the four female ghosts, scattering their forms and erasing them from this realm.

Standing atop the rubble, Qian Duoduo declared with swagger, “Fatty Qian is number one in the world!”

“Our boss is the best!” “No one can beat our boss!” Wang Bin and Zhao Liang popped up from somewhere, cheering him on. Thanks to Qian Duoduo’s timely intervention, Lin Wan and I survived; otherwise, we might have met our end.

Rubbing his hands together, Qian Duoduo grinned. “Beauty, you promised to have dinner with me if I helped you! Let’s go.”

“Han Xue, you—” I began, but since this annoying fat man had just saved us, I swallowed the rest of my words.

“Han Xue, come back early.”

Han Xue smiled helplessly and left with Qian Duoduo. Afterwards, Lin Wan, Lu Ling, and I returned to our dorm.

Peaceful days always slip by unnoticed, and soon it was time for us to participate in another round of the game.

I arrived early to class. Tan Tou, Chen Hao, Lu Ling, Lin Wan, and Han Xue were already there. Qian Duoduo, Zhao Liang, and Wang Bin were as usual hiding behind Han Xue, while Zhang Yisheng from the medical school, never without his scalpel, and Su Mu, the bespectacled student from the agricultural college, entered with the crowd. Not far from us sat Lin Xiayue, the campus beauty, and Hu Xing’er with her ponytail, surrounded by their group.

Sun Cheng, the skinny one, wasn’t with us this time, instead sitting alone in a corner. Also in the class were the cliques of Pang Dongqiang, Wu Mingran, and Li Yuan.

Chen Hao told me that Sun Cheng hadn’t spoken a word in the dorm, apparently still bothered by how I failed to save Wu Ziwei last time.

It was only after everyone had arrived that Mr. Wang strolled lazily into the classroom. Since Zhang Yisheng’s failed revolt, Mr. Wang’s authority had become unshakable.

He addressed us with indifference, “This game is quite complicated, but also very simple.”

“Oh, and we have three new classmates. Take care of them yourselves,” he added, stretching and slumping onto a stool.

Lin Wan quickly pulled out her notebook, ready to jot down key details. Han Xue instinctively moved closer to me, and I wrapped an arm around her without caring whether she blushed. I could hear Qian Duoduo and his group grinding their teeth behind us, which was oddly satisfying.

“This time, it’s a class battle. If things go badly, the whole class could be wiped out—so do your best,” Mr. Wang said casually, as if our lives meant little to him. Still, we all listened with rapt attention, afraid to miss even a single clue.

“The game is called ‘Forbidden Command.’ Once it starts, slips of paper will randomly appear in the world, each bearing the name of someone from either our class or the enemy class. If you hand someone a slip with their name or let them see it, they will be immobilized.”

“At that point, the best option is to kill them, of course, since victory is determined by the number of survivors in each class.”

He paused as if remembering something. “We’re at a slight disadvantage—Class Two has sixty members, while we only have fifty-six.”

“No, wait, it’s fifty-nine now,” he mused, glancing thoughtfully at Qian Duoduo and his two companions.

“In any case, do your best. The losing class will all be wiped out, you know?” he added with a mischievous lilt. “Alright, off you go.”

Suddenly, the floor vanished beneath my feet—as though I had fallen into Lin Xiayue’s gravity field—and I plunged into an endless abyss. In my panic, I grabbed hold of the nearest person.

When I opened my eyes, I felt something heavy pressing on my stomach. I shoved it off with all my strength.

With a yelp, a plump arm smacked me in the face, followed by a loud, “Damn!”

I instinctively dodged the small, chubby hand—it was Qian Duoduo.

The thought made me shudder. Had I really fallen while clutching this fat guy?

Qian Duoduo caught me staring at him and suddenly blushed, clutching his clothes tightly.

“Hey, what are you doing?!” he exclaimed nervously.

I couldn’t help but laugh at his flustered reaction; who would’ve thought he’d look so wronged?

“You… You… You were trying to take advantage of me!”

For a moment, my worldview crumbled—a greasy, overweight guy accusing me, a decent-looking man, of trying to molest him…

I didn’t want to argue with him any further. But behind us, I noticed a conspicuous red dot—probably a mark left when we fell.

“Red Team?”

A straightforward way to distinguish sides…

“Forget it, let’s find our classmates!” I shouted, scanning our surroundings, but all I saw were trees.

Looking up, I realized we were beneath the D University campus—someone had hollowed out a massive space here.

“I need to find my goddess,” Qian Duoduo grunted, rolling to his feet and wiping drool from his lips, already plotting how to locate Han Xue.

The trees around us all looked the same, so after some discussion, we decided to head for higher ground—after all, the higher you stand, the farther you can see.

We walked as we chatted about this and that.

“So why did you transfer to this school? And how did you get your card ability?” I asked. I was genuinely curious about this fat guy. He’d transferred here of his own accord, and he was one of the fifty-four contract holders. It all seemed too coincidental. But Qian Duoduo answered without hesitation.

“My dad made me. He said a son should go out and experience the world—living in luxury every day would only lead to ruin.”

I sized up his greasy form again. Clearly his father had a point—he could use some exercise.

“As for the power, I have no idea. Once I got the deck of cards, the ability just came to me.”

“As for the suits, I won’t tell you. My dad said, ‘Show off your power if you must, but never reveal your cards.’”

Noticing my odd expression, Qian Duoduo kept babbling.

“My old man was right—this place is way more fun than any game!”

He really saw this as just a game. Clearly, having never faced death, he didn’t grasp its true terror.

“Fatty, I’m telling you—this game is deadly serious.”

“Be careful.”

I offered a warning out of goodwill, but he didn’t seem to take it to heart, instead gazing at the scenery with childlike curiosity.

“No worries, my divine weapon Taixu is invincible!”

But just then, an arrow thudded into Qian Duoduo’s rear, and his pig-like squeal echoed through the trees.