Chapter 22
Chapter 22
‘Protect the people. Death awaits those who fail!’
Not only were the instructions for the trial given much sooner, but the instructions were also much more transparent and direct. It spared them from having to go through the uncertainty of guessing what needed to be done. They knew right away what the task for the trial was.
The thing that made Song Qingxiao uneasy was not because the instructions contained details about the task. Instead, it was the fact that the prize for completing this task was displayed with the instructions.
‘Upon completing the task, you will obtain a reward of 1000 credits.’
The reward was an incredibly huge sum of credits!
When she compared it to her last trial, Song Qingxiao narrowly escaped death and had to kill two people, only to get 200 credits in the end. The clues regarding the second trial were clear, yet the reward was so generous. Song Qingxiao had a bad feeling about it.
It was as though the 100 credits were bait meant to lure them into a trap. After she saw the credits offered as a reward, her enthusiasm began to cool. Things that were out of the ordinary were never a good thing. She frowned deeply and decided against acting rashly.
Song Qingxiao lifted her head and looked at the others. The other five people in the room all looked astonished at first. However, they very quickly returned to normal and did not betray how they felt.
The large chap sat on the floor, and his fingers never moved from his gun. The red whip lady looked disdainful. The bespectacled guy hung his head low. Number five clutched his head and wore a pitiful expression. Number six crossed her arms around her chest and spoke up first.
“It looks like everyone has received the instructions of the task.”
Number six’s words broke the eerie silence. However, no one said a word, and not one person responded. The task was so fraught with risk that a tiny mistake could lead to their deaths. Everyone was in this moment distrustful of everyone else. They each hoped to glean information from the other to increase the chances of their own survival.
“It’s true, I’ve received the instructions regarding the mission.”
The red whip lady who was number four admitted to it first. Perhaps it was because she was very confident in her own abilities. Her gaze went a full circle around the space before it landed on number five.
He looked like the weakest one there. Through his earlier mumbling, everyone knew the most about his situation. Even number six who arrived after him knew that he had used the credits that he got from the previous trial to redeem cash so that he could enjoy himself.
In the trial, he went into a full mental breakdown after being held at gunpoint by the large chap. He pleaded desperately for his life on the spot and did not seem to have any intention of fighting back. A person like him might not be able to survive a vicious and cruel trial.
The way number four looked at him was as though she were looking at a dead person. She got up and pointed at him while she asked, “Number five. What instructions did you get regarding the task?”
As soon as he was called, number five trembled like a leaf. Number four’s forceful and assertive interrogation about the prompt was observed quietly by everyone else. In a world where only the fittest survived, no one was willing to speak up for him. No one was willing to offend a powerful opponent like number four.
“I…”
Number four bent his knees and buried his face into them. Even though they could not see his expression, everyone could hear the terror in his quavering voice.
“I…”
He could barely speak coherently. Number four seemed to lose her patience. She took out the long whip around her wrist and swung it forcefully. The whip snapped loudly in the air before it landed heavily on the ground with a loud clap. The noise made everyone tense up and caused goosebumps to appear on their skin.
The whip cracked without making any contact with anyone there. Song Qingxiao could only imagine how painful it would be if someone bore the brunt of that blow.
“I don’t know. Please… please don’t kill me!”
Number five was a complete nervous wreck. He suddenly burst out into tears, sobbing loudly. He flipped over quickly to avoid number four’s whip as he crawled and rolled towards the heavy fog to try and evade her.
“Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me!”
No one expected the situation to turn out that way. Even number four herself did not expect number five to be so fragile and startled from a tiny scare tactic. She was stunned. She came back to her senses and noticed number five running away. She then raised her whip and said, “Don’t let him get away!”
Everyone around her reacted quickly and prepared to block number five from escaping. Number five had initially sat alone in a spot situated quite far from the others. No one thought too much about it. They had dismissed him as a threat due to his helpless appearance. Everyone assumed that once the trial started, it would be dead easy to kill him even if he was seated far away from them.
It was too late for them to chase after him since he escaped. Number five had disappeared into the thick fog. His pleading and crying could no longer be heard. Number four looked furious, and she snapped her whip in the air angrily.
Before she had the chance to stow her whip away, the voice of the prompt sounded in her consciousness.
‘Welcome to the Trial of God.’
It seemed like the game had officially started. The space disappeared in a flash, and all the people around her disappeared as well. All Song Qingxiao could do was close her eyes as she heard a loud ticking noise in her ears. It sounded like one of those old grandfather clocks. She opened her eyes in shock and ‘saw’ a countdown in front of her eyes.
119: 59: 59.
The inexplicable change made her feel uneasy. She blinked, but the numbers were still there. It proved that it was not her imagination acting up. The last number in the sequence changed along with the rhythm of the ticking sound in her ear.
119: 59: 54.
119: 59: 51.
Song Qingxiao took a deep breath. She touched the dagger hidden in her sleeve and forced herself to calm down. She tried to stop herself from being affected by the endless ticking noise and the countdown. She noticed that a new choice had appeared behind the task instructions in her consciousness.
‘Will you enter the scene? 10, 9, 8, 7…’
The ongoing countdown made Song Qingxiao feel frantic. She did not know the ‘scene’ it referred to. The countdown before her eyes made her feel extremely uneasy.
She was unclear what the scene referred to by the instruction was like. She could not know for sure if there would be danger awaiting her after she entered the scene. She had not worked out what the ticking noise ringing out in her ears nor what the numbers before her eyes represented. However, she also did not know what would happen if she did not enter the scene…
At that point in time, Song Qingxiao hated the rules of the game with all her heart. It was always confusing, yet at the same time, she was helpless. She had to be extremely careful with each choice she made because she feared that the wrong choice would lead to her death.
As she wrestled with her thoughts for a couple of seconds, the countdown to enter the scene in her consciousness had reached the number 3. She did not have any time to waste hesitating. Song Qingxiao took a deep breath and gritted her teeth tightly. She strengthened her resolve and chose to enter the scene in the end.
As soon as she made her choice, she reached out to touch the dagger hidden around her arm. She gripped the dagger and stood in a defensive stance. The voice of the prompt in her mind had stopped. None of the dangers she feared had happened. Instead, the prompt once again asked her to make another decision.
‘Medical staff or patient?’
Song Qingxiao was still recovering from her shock when the new choice caused her nerves to tense up even more. Cold sweat broke out on her back and started to drip down non-stop. Another countdown began for her to make a decision. She could not stop herself from cursing inside. In the end, she picked ‘medical staff’ before the countdown ended.
In the instant that she made her decision, Song Qingxiao saw her environment change once more. The thick fog around her dissipated.
She stood in a brightly lit office. A man in a white coat stared at her wordlessly. She bit down her lip hard to stifle the cry that was about to escape from her mouth.