Chapter 15: Trickster Game

DECEMBER 31, 2022 ~ M1ZUSHI

The fireplace fire in the dining room rose and rolled out of the crackling firewood, while the bright shadow fell on the handsome face of the young man in the area reflected by the fire, but his expression was really not happy.

Also unhappy was Andre. After the three players won the game, his eyebrows were slightly raised, and he didn’t even bother to cover up. Anyway, he couldn’t put on a congratulatory face, but his eyes mocked and stayed maliciously among the players.

The line of sight was straightforward, and it sweeps one by one like patrolling.

This kind of malice from NPC was like some kind of death sign. The danger omen often made players uneasy. But now, his warning threat has completely lost its due role, because the attention of two people who were maliciously stared at by Andre fell on the other people – to be exact, the newcomer – did not notice his observation at all.

Don’t mention fear.

Andre became more angry.

The person who was taken care of by Andre’s malicious eyes for the longest time was naturally the newcomer in the middle.

But Yuan Yuxue came with his eyes down, cold and quiet. Don’t mention any response. He didn’t even have an instant contact with his eyes. Andre’s eyes were almost ablaze. He saw Yuan Yuxue’s hair carefully scraping every part of his ankle. He felt very strong – but Yuan Yuxue did not look at him.

Andre’s depression was written on his face.

Why does this man make him so angry.

It couldn’t be disposed of.

Curly had a sugar in his mouth. This was the prop candy that Rabbit found for him to chew and play with, fearing that he would crush his teeth alive.

As soon as Yuan Yuxue returned to his seat, he chewed up the sugar and swallowed it without expression. Staring at him for a long time, he said, “Could you stop showing off your heroism? It’s not so bad, isn’t it? I’m injured when I’m on the rush?”

Rabbit did not know where he got angry, and patted him on the shoulder. Even the line frowned and called out his name gently for warning, but Curly still kept firing, “How many lives do you have? Don’t take yourself seriously. Glasses couldn’t beat you, and you were eager to help others block the knife, right?”

Glasses stood up.

His face was still ugly and sickly, but his eyes were sharp and unshakeable.

“Don’t go too far.” Glasses gave him a cold glance.

Curly was not afraid of him at all. He said with a sneer, “To tell the truth, don’t call it too much – don’t think you were so great if you have ‘talent’. Who hasn’t?”

“I don’t think I’m great.” The tone of Glasses was very flat. “It’s just unclear whether you like it or hate it. It’s much better for a naive kid who could only shout loudly enough to attract people’s attention all day long.”

This sentence was obviously beyond Curly’s psychological preparation. He was stunned, and his face turned red in an instant, which really seemed guilty. After a short pause, Curly, who admitted that he had a clear conscience, retorted in a loud and powerless voice, “Could you just keep talking? I just couldn’t stand you cheating Yuan Yuxue to block your knife, could you?”

He saw that Yuan Yuxue was injured when he replaced Glasses in the screen broadcast.

Curly, of course, attributed this impatience to anger… although he was not usually a man with excessive sense of justice.

Yuan Yuxue, whose name was mentioned, finally raised his head in doubt and looked at Curly: “?”

As Curly said just now, Yuan Yuxue didn’t cover himself, nor did he realize that Curly was talking to himself.

His energy reserve was declining rapidly. In order to maintain the high sensitivity state when performing tasks, Yuan Xuxue started the standby mode when the environment was judged to be temporarily safe.

The state was different from the standby mode of the second generation robot. It could walk and move, and could hear voices, but its response will be slow… It was also because of this dullness. Only when the name was explicitly mentioned, Yuan Yuxue will give some response.

Curly that Yuan Yuxue stared at suddenly seemed like the suspect at the scene of the crime was caught on the spot.

When he saw the young man’s dark and beautiful eyes, he looked at him with a little confused inquiry. It seemed that all caution had been punctured. He felt guilty and his face was burning. Even if I want to be tough again, it was hard to say the same tough words just now, and even a subtle sense of frustration has occurred… Why should I say that about him?

Was it really annoying?

Yuan Yuxue didn’t wait for Curly’s response for a long time, and he didn’t take back his eyes, but he just dropped his eyes. His ciliary feathers were long and thin, and when they droop, they cover a layer of light blue shadow. They look very cute, which could stimulate a strong sense of guilt. Curly could hardly stand still. At that moment, when he heard Andre’s voice, he hardly felt comfortable and gave him a favorable look.

Andre, who was announcing to play the third game with a dark face, said, “…”

Shit, I don’t know why the goose bumps were getting up. It’s a little uncomfortable.

The selection method, of course, was to use the lottery mode as usual. Only this time, when the sign box was delivered to Curly’s hand, Curly looked at it awkwardly and pushed it silently. With the crisp sound of bamboo sticks hitting, the sign box was steadily delivered to Yuan Yuxue.

Curly said, “You smoke first.”

Andre glanced at him with a sneer as if he felt it.

Yuan Yuxue didn’t really ask for the order of drawing lots. Because he was in standby mode, he was slow for a while and then reached out to draw his own lot from the box.

“Good luck” was the top priority.

The first one was painted in vermilion.

The pupils of other players were slightly constricted, and someone’s lips were slightly pursed, showing a slightly suspicious look, and looked at Andre politely.

Was it true that some people were so unlucky to win three in a row?

“The fairest way.” Leader burst out. His voice was calm and cold, which reminded people of the wind blowing outside the tower in winter. At this time, the wind was also blowing towards Andre. He did not hide his doubts. “It doesn’t seem fair.”

Andrea made a gesture and opened his mouth indifferently, but his golden eyes were full of malice. “Luck is always difficult to explain.”

“But it’s too boring.” Rabbit sighed, “Nothing to do, Master Andre. You couldn’t let me sit and watch all day, could you?”

She discussed with Master Andre, “Couldn’t we sign up voluntarily? I want to play games too. If I couldn’t get it all the time, I’ll be a bit unlucky.”

She bit the word “bad luck” very hard, which was a bit weird.

Of course, NPC has great permissions, and could even do things outside of the rules.

However, they were also subject to the copy rules… otherwise, at the first sight, these non-human beings could directly kill all players, and there was no need to follow the procedures.

After being questioned twice and again, Andre’s cheeks seemed to bulge slightly. Maybe he received some kind of warning, and he waved his hand, “The next game, volunteer, you could come to play if you want. But now…”

He said, “Please respect the rules.”

Even though they knew that the result of the lottery was tricky, the rule was a foregone conclusion, and players couldn’t interfere.

Even if there was still dissatisfaction, the final result was that both sides step back and other players continue to draw lots.

Yuan Yuxue didn’t realize that because of his lottery result, it almost triggered a confrontation between players and NPC. For him, the complex emotions of human beings were difficult to analyze. In addition, Yuan Yuxue was still in standby mode and could hardly respond to the non-strong stimuli from the outside world.

The red label was put on the table by him, and his fingers were easily closed on it. The vermilion color showed from his fingertips, which made his hands extremely pale and delicate, like melted snow.

Yuan Yuxue closed his eyes gently.

His standby state, seen by others as an inexorable state of exhaustion, showed some signs of weakness.

This time, another young woman in the team won the lottery, with long blond hair and obvious mixed race facial features. When introducing herself, it was also very simple.

A-Jin.

It was a character that seems somewhat indifferent.

When A-Jin saw the winning bid, she did not respond, but after putting down the bid, she gave Yuan Yuxue a quick, unobservable glance.

Andre had prepared his draft and was ready to announce the next round of rules to the “lucky friends”. Curly, which was placed in the last lot drawing due to the turn of the order, suddenly came forward and found one from the sign box in advance. Without looking at it, he threw the red sign on the table with great boldness.

“I finally got it.” He said lazily, “I’m lucky.”

Almost every word was full of provocations.

Andre was slightly stunned. In his arrangement, Curly did not include playing the same game with Yuan Yuxue, which was totally unexpected… He looked at the red label with a dark face, and even if he knew that the other party must have moved something, he could not say such words as “you couldn’t get it”.

After all, this was a “probability” game.

So he kept silent for a while, quickly changed the game he was going to play in the next round, deliberately lowered his voice, and said with a smile: “Are you brave?”

“It’s so late. In order to avoid falling asleep, we’ll play some exciting games.” Andre seemed very considerate and said with a smile, “It is said that this villa was rebuilt from an old castle. The basement has a ‘medical room ‘ of the time, as well as medical equipment and specimens of that era. I hated the gray and stuffy place and didn’t bother to clean it, so I asked the servant to close the door of the basement – but now, it can be reopened.”

“The third game is to explore the basement.” Andre’s tone was very gentle, as if his request was not harsh at all. “To prove that everyone has explored attentively, the winning condition is to bring back a specimen in the basement.”

A-Jin suddenly asked, “… What specimens are there in there?”

Andre really let go and laughed this time.

“What other specimens could there be?” He licked his lips. “Of course it’s a human specimen.”