After briefly tidying up, everyone followed Old Lu to the game venue.
Perhaps as Old Lu himself said, due to his years of setting up street stalls, he was especially familiar with the city’s intricate network of small pathways.
Everyone followed him through various alleyways. Qi Xia felt several times that he had lost his sense of direction.
But Old Lu instead walked leisurely, continuously turning left and right.
During this time, Qi Xia saw several instances of the “numbers” Old Lu had mentioned. Besides the “52” he’d seen before, Qi Xia also encountered “19” and “34.”
He guessed Old Lu might be right—these numbers were merely markers someone had written down to remember the route.
After about twenty minutes, everyone arrived in front of a dilapidated hotel.
“Dog” was standing at the entrance, seemingly talking to several people.
When Qi Xia’s group of four approached for a closer look, their expressions instantly changed.
The “Dog” mask before them was far too realistic—it was the face of a large bulldog. His suit was shiny black, and his fitted shirt was spotlessly clean.
“It’s ‘Earth-Dog’…” Qi Xia was stunned for a moment.
Zhang Chenze blinked slightly and asked, “What does ‘Earth-Dog’ mean? Isn’t it ‘Man-Dog’?”
“‘Earth-Dog’ is one level higher than ‘Man-Dog’…” Qi Xia stroked his chin and said, “In ‘Earth’ level games, people can die.”
“People die…” Zhang Chenze was startled. “Should we still participate?”
“This…”
Qi Xia frowned in thought. Even though it was “Earth level,” the game was still “cooperation type.” As long as the four of them worked together, Qi Xia was confident they could win.
Thinking of this, he turned around and looked carefully at Zhang Chenze and Old Lu again, saying, “Can you guarantee you’ll follow my arrangements?”
“I can.” Zhang Chenze nodded.
“I can.” Old Lu also chimed in.
After hearing this, Qi Xia felt somewhat reassured.
“Great, people have come!” A shout came from Earth-Dog’s direction. “Now we can start, right?”
Qi Xia turned to look and discovered that several young people beside Earth-Dog were all looking this way.
“What’s going on? Isn’t it supposed to be four-person teams?” Qi Xia asked Old Lu in confusion.
“I don’t know either. This morning that dog told me only four-person teams could participate.”
Qi Xia walked forward to size up these four people.
Three men and one woman.
They all appeared to be in their twenties, with one man and woman hugging each other—seemingly a couple.
These people looked thuggish with garishly dyed hair, giving Qi Xia a not-very-good first impression.
If Qiao Jiajin’s first impression was that of a renowned enforcer among street thugs, these young people were like the lowest-level lackeys among hoodlums.
“Coming to participate in my game?” Earth-Dog’s deep voice suddenly rang out. “One ‘Dao’ per person, life and death determined by fate. The losing team will be completely eliminated, while the surviving team will receive a reward of five ‘Dao’ per person, plus all the spoils from the eliminated team.”
“Complete elimination?!” Everyone was stunned.
“What are the rules?” Qi Xia asked coldly.
“Pay the admission fee, learn the rules.”
“Here we go again…”
Qi Xia shook his head helplessly. Earth-Ox’s game had been the same—before paying the admission fee, they didn’t even know what would happen.
“Hey, can you guys do this or not?” A thug with green-dyed hair looked somewhat impatient. “Are you scared before even playing?”
Qi Xia ignored Green Hair and after thinking for a while asked again, “Earth-Dog, will your game ‘randomly assign teams’?”
“Randomly assign teams…” Old Lu and Lin Qin seemed to think of something.
This was indeed a problem. If Earth-Dog learned from Earth-Ox and suddenly scrambled everyone’s teams after they paid the admission fee, victory or defeat would be unpredictable.
“No.” Earth-Dog said. “You will always maintain your current team assignments. Everything you do will be to secure your team’s interests.”
Hearing this, Qi Xia finally relaxed a bit.
It seemed this was a thorough “team cooperation” type game. However, with two teams on site, they would most likely be competing against each other.
Seeing Qi Xia hesitate, Old Lu quickly pulled out four “Dao” and handed them over.
“Old Lu…” Qi Xia frowned. “What are you doing?”
“This time, it’s on me.” Old Lu smiled slyly. “If we win in the end, give me a bit more.”
“I don’t want to give you more.” Qi Xia said. “The ‘Dao’ we win will be split equally among everyone, otherwise I’m leaving right now.”
“This…”
Old Lu sighed, then nodded somewhat unhappily. “Alright, alright… You’re really stingy, kid.”
Both teams paid their admission fees.
What everyone didn’t expect was that after collecting the admission fees, Earth-Dog’s attitude suddenly changed one hundred eighty degrees. He danced with joy and let all eight people into the building like welcoming guests.