Chapter 86: An Wujiu thought that he was special, but not completely.
An Wujiu originally thought that losing an arm wasn’t a big deal.
At least, it shouldn’t be a matter of concern for him. Despite losing his memory, just by looking at his body with its replaced bones, he knew that, for him, peeling skin and cutting bones shouldn’t matter.
So even when severely injured and bleeding heavily, An Wujiu was always plotting the situation afterward, without any leisure to be pained by the physical agony.
But Shen Ti seemed to care a lot, even afraid that he would feel pain, afraid that he would feel incomplete, so he deliberately said his wound looked like a red flower.
Just because of Shen Ti’s words, An Wujiu really felt the pain and truly felt his heart betrayed by the one who had betrayed him.
So at this moment, An Wujiu temporarily put down the heavy burden on himself.
He also raised his hand and hugged Shen Ti back.
“It should look ugly.” An Wujiu was still rational, dismissing Shen Ti’s exaggerated beautification.
“I’m not lying.” Shen Ti’s hand rested gently on An Wujiu’s back without pressing, “Even when you’re injured, you look better than others, and much better.”
An Wujiu laughed, his laughter very light.
He rested in Shen Ti’s embrace without any burden for ten seconds, then picked up all his burdens again and withdrew from the embrace, reverting to the hard-as-rock An Wujiu.
“I’m much better.” He looked up, his pale lips gently moving, with a calm expression as he said to Shen Ti, “Yirou barely managed to stop my bleeding; as long as I don’t move too much, there shouldn’t be any more problems.”
For ordinary people, losing an arm without advanced medical treatment to heal quickly would very likely lead to death by excessive bleeding.
At this moment, Shen Ti was no longer curious about An Wujiu’s background, just grateful that he was special.
“That’s good.” Shen Ti didn’t say anything more; instead, he took out an expensive injection for maintaining physical strength from the panel and handed it to An Wujiu.
At this moment, An Wujiu teased, “You spend points so lavishly, others might find it confusing.”
“What’s confusing?” Seeing him not take it, Shen Ti had to remove the seal himself and softly say, “I’ll inject it for you.” He then supported his left arm, looking for a suitable spot to inject.
“Of course, it’s because they can’t understand why you came here and why, after coming here, you don’t keep your money properly, but instead, you lick blood off the blade.”
Shen Ti also smiled, “I didn’t know why I came here before, but now that I think about it, I’m just glad I did.”
Hearing this, An Wujiu’s heart rate quickened once again. He wasn’t sure if it was due to his emotions or the effect of the medicine Shen Ti was slowly injecting into his body.
But he couldn’t be confident and certain that Shen Ti’s words were definitely for him, and definitely not just for comfort. Shen Ti was someone who was not very serious most of the time; his actions were only for fun and amusement.
Anything or anyone that could give him a fleeting sense of survival might earn Shen Ti’s favor.
An Wujiu thought he might be special, but not entirely.
But even so, what he wanted to say in his heart, he still said out loud.
“So do I.”
After saying this, he looked up and met Shen Ti’s gem-like eyes. The surprised smile in Shen Ti’s eyes made his heart skip a beat.
At this moment, the paper-pale An Wujiu would probably only blush because of Shen Ti.
A considerable amount of time had passed after the injection was finished, and Shen Ti found it strange that An Wujiu didn’t ask where he had been or what he had done; he just stood there quietly, as if he knew everything.
But if An Wujiu really knew what terrible things he had done, he might not have reacted this way.
“I have a new plan,” An Wujiu said to Shen Ti.
Shen Ti indeed didn’t care about human life and was indifferent to everyone, but he wouldn’t stop any of An Wujiu’s good deeds, even if he was now severely injured and barely able to take care of himself.
But if An Wujiu needed to bear the heavy burden, Shen Ti wouldn’t stop him; he would just choose to accompany him.
“Tell me, let’s see if we’re thinking the same thing.”
Zhou Yijue felt something was wrong when he was at the exchange area, so he handed things over to two team members and came up alone.
Unexpectedly, after so long, the team members still hadn’t come up.
From a distance, he saw Shen Ti holding An Wujiu, the two of them seemingly talking.
Zhou Yijue increasingly felt that something was wrong. The guy from the Red Team who was collaborating with them hadn’t returned yet, but Shen Ti, who had been missing for a long time, had appeared.
With a bit of thought, Zhou Yijue realized that the situation had been exposed and the two team members were probably in grave danger.
He immediately changed his plan and turned to find Maguire.
Maguire was still stuck at a gambling table. Zhou Yijue waited for a while, his eyes glancing at the big screen.
The development of events was still proceeding according to his plan. Even after giving half of the chips to the traitor, his Purple Team was still firmly in the lead.
An Wujiu, due to his severe injuries, hadn’t participated in the gambling, and his chips hadn’t moved at all.
However, Zhou Yijue underestimated how popular An Wujiu was. Unexpectedly, no one had continued to use him as a bargaining chip, and they even stopped using each other as chips.
The total chip value of the Red Team was eerily stable. The chip values of the other team members had increased, but not by much. Only the strange little girl on their team had now become fifth in the overall ranking.
Maguire finished his gambling round, not winning much. He slapped the table and got up, his eyes sweeping around until they landed on Zhou Yijue.
Anger surged within Maguire, and he strode towards Zhou Yijue, grabbed his collar, and punched him in the face, causing Zhou Yijue to stagger back two steps, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.
“You still have the nerve to come here!” Maguire pointed at the big screen where the Purple Team was leading and said, “This is the benefit you talked about?! All the benefits went to your purple team!”
Zhou Yijue wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, still smiling at Maguire. Seeing this, Maguire became even more infuriated and threw another punch, but this time, he didn’t succeed.
His fist was caught by Zhou Yijue’s hand, whose strength was surprisingly enough to block Maguire’s attack, which took Maguire by surprise.
“This is just the first step, Mr. Ephron.” Zhou Yijue released his hand and elegantly straightened his collar. “We still need to cooperate for the next steps.”
Maguire was dubious. The man before him was too cunning; he had almost fallen into his traps several times.
“Cooperate? You still have the nerve to talk about cooperation?”
“Aren’t our goals the same?” Zhou Yijue smiled, his slightly upturned phoenix eyes half-closed, his shrewdness evident. “Actually, you and I don’t care whether the team members survive or not. That doesn’t matter at all.”
“The important thing is whether a strong enemy like An Wujiu can disappear in this round of the game, right? Or do you want to lose to him again?”
This statement almost pierced Maguire’s heart.
Zhou Yijue smiled, glancing at the big screen. “See that? He’s still in first place.”
Naturally, Maguire was dissatisfied. “He’s the team leader and has veto power over the chip choices. What can you do to make him not take first place?”
“There are ways, of course,” Zhou Yijue smiled. “But it requires the cooperation of you and your team members.”
Seeing Maguire waver slightly, Zhou Yijue increased the stakes. “Actually, all I need is to be the first in my group. If you want, I can exchange my team members’ chips for you. This game looks like a team competition, but in reality, only the first place can survive. I don’t need anything else, just the top spot within my team.”
Maguire glanced at him. “Then tell me, what’s your method to beat An Wujiu?”
“It’s very simple.”
Hearing this, Zhou Yijue knew that there was a 70 percent chance of securing this cooperation.
“Do you remember the voice that announced the rules at the beginning?”
An Wujiu had been observing everyone in the casino. The members of the Red Team were still trying to use the last bit of time to gamble for chips, trying to make up for any shortages.
But gambling is not something you can win all the time.
After one failure, the broken window effect became more evident. This time, it was Zhong Yirou. She lost in her specialty, dice rolling, but she used herself as the stake and lost her left hand.
An Wujiu saw Yang Erci supporting her injured form back and realized she had lost.
He immediately exchanged for medical supplies and had Shen Ti go and stop the other members’ gambling.
“Finish this round, and don’t continue.”
Zhong Yirou was sweating profusely, guiding Yang Erci to treat her wound.
“So your hands can tremble too?”
Even at this moment, she had the mood to joke.
Yang Erci’s brow remained furrowed. “I told you, if you have to gamble, use my hand.”
“A researcher’s hands are so precious.”
“A doctor’s hands aren’t precious?” Yang Erci retorted.
Zhong Yirou was momentarily speechless and could only self-deprecate, “I can only count as half a doctor, the kind from the black market.”
“Then I’m not a researcher anymore, not even half.”
The two looked at each other, and Yang Erci rarely smiled.
An Wujiu first led Zhong and Yang out of the hall, heading to the place he had previously arranged with Shen Ti. It was relatively secluded and not likely to attract attention.
By the time Shen Ti had gathered everyone else, quite a bit of time had passed because he couldn’t interrupt the gambling rounds midway, but Zhong Yirou’s wound still hadn’t completely stopped bleeding.
Her condition wasn’t looking good.
Once everyone was assembled, they tacitly avoided mentioning Chen Yu’s disappearance.
However, Toudou Sakura was still somewhat anxious: “Are we really not gambling anymore? We’re quite behind in total chips.”
Nan Shan spoke up, “Speaking of which, I observed earlier that not many people from Zhou Yijue’s team were continuing to gamble. Not everyone was there; I couldn’t find two of them.”
Shen Ti answered in his mind that those two were already there.
“That’s a bit strange,” Nan Shan thought about the time he saw before leaving the hall, “There’s only forty minutes left. Logically, they should be using this time to collect chips with the traitor they’ve bought off.”
“Do you remember the rabbit’s voice from earlier?”
An Wujiu spoke up: “What he said about the final rules for determining victory or defeat, do you still remember?”
Wu You recalled and then repeated, “Victory… He said the team with the highest total wins first place, and all members survive. The first within each team can also survive.”
An Wujiu asked again, “Total of what?”
Wu You suddenly realized.
But it was Noah who spoke first, saying softly, “It’s the total points.”
It’s the total points, not the total chips.
Understanding this, everyone suddenly realized the truth and felt a chill down their spines. This game, wrapped in a gamble that puts lives at stake, was essentially a battle for points.
Chips are certainly important; only with enough chips can one exchange for enough funds.
But everyone, deeply entrenched in the bloody casino, had almost forgotten the initial rules.
Getting chips is useless; the key is the exchange.
Zhong Yirou frowned, “So… should we go occupy the exchange machines now?”
Shen Ti raised an eyebrow. “Just us, is that enough?”
An Wujiu assigned each of them a corresponding task.
“This time, our opponents are not the system or NPCs, but very difficult hostile players. They also have a strong will to survive, which can drive them to do anything.”
“So please, each of you is very important.”
After listening, Zhong Yirou felt a bit sad. An Wujiu, who had suffered a setback, still decided to trust them, but it was clear that the idealist had now been overshadowed, hence these words.
“And you?” Yang Erci looked at An Wujiu.
Feeling his strength slowly draining and his spirit waning, An Wujiu steadied himself.
“Shen Ti and I will go to the exchange area again.”
After hearing Zhou Yijue’s plan, Maguire was somewhat surprised. These were things he hadn’t thought of at all. Like many on the field, he was fully engrossed in the casino, aiming to get more and more chips.
He hadn’t expected Zhou Yijue to suggest simply taking them by force.
“Do you really think your plan will work?”
“It’s worth a try,” Zhou Yijue told him. “You must understand that a leader can certainly lead to victory, but if there is no leader, what will those who are used to being led do?”
“True.”
To catch a thief, catch the leader first.
An Wujiu and Shen Ti walked down the dim staircase once more. This time, the “chips” who had been recovering here had all lost their lives, lying sprawled across the steps.
Although they were no longer alive, the signs of their objectification remained. The chip values above their heads were still glowing and even decreasing.
Thus, their already incomplete bodies lost another part.
The exchange area was quieter than they had imagined. The door adorned with scenes from Genesis opened once more, and golden light, like the divine light in a religious world, gradually illuminated the two of them.
Apart from the giant chip-exchange machine, the vast exchange room seemed empty.
Everything here felt like an invisible banquet of betrayal.
One side sought to capture, the other to break through.
“Let’s exchange first.”
An Wujiu spoke louder than usual.
After speaking, An Wujiu deliberately took Shen Ti’s hand, a gesture that surprised Shen Ti.
He had thought An Wujiu would only touch his arm.
But An Wujiu chose to interlock their fingers briefly before letting go and pressing the exchange button.
The chip values entered by this hand remained on the screen only briefly, much like their intimate gesture.
The machine began to rumble loudly, as if starting its operation.
At that moment, An Wujiu saw a reflection in the glass. The next second, his vision went black, and he lost consciousness.
An Wujiu had thought they would kill him, but they didn’t. Perhaps the previous humiliation he had inflicted on them was too great, and now they wanted to keep him alive to return the favor.
After a brief period of unconsciousness, An Wujiu woke up from the chaos. The back of his head hurt, and he felt himself suspended, blindfolded, with his hands and feet bound, unable to move.
“Don’t struggle.”
The laughter was filled with mockery.
“Fish caught in the net, just watch how you lose!”
