Card Room

Chapter 397 - Clearance Reward

Chapter 397 - Clearance Reward

They left the World Weekly secret room and Xiao Lou’s group directly entered the personal space.

A little girl was sitting on the soft sofa, her head lowered to eat cake.

She wore a pink tutu skirt and had her hair up in two ponytails. Her skin was white and tender and it looked like they could almost squeeze water out of it. She obviously looked like an angelic lovely girl but after recalling the dangerous and strange mechanisms in the incomparably complicated labyrinth that they encountered this time, no one could show the slightest softness to the little girl in front of them.

Lu Jiuchuan had called the Diamonds little girl abnormal and this sentence was indeed correct. Of course, he said a few words behind her back, but in front of her, Lu Jiuchuan still put on a respectful attitude and smiled. “Our achievement is number one in the world. Can we ask you to receive the rewards?”

The little girl licked the cake from the corner of her lips and looked at him. “I am so abnormal. How can I give you any rewards?”

Lu Jiuchuan, “......”

Fuck, this kid still held grudges!

Seeing the deflated Brother Jiu, Ye Qi hurried forward and spoke in a coaxing tone. “This week’s labyrinth was designed very well. I have played many stand-alone games and I have seriously never seen such a fun and dangerous labyrinth before. We scolded you because you almost killed us but in fact, everyone still admires you in their hearts.”

Everyone, “.........”

Xiao Ye released the exaggerated praise without frowning and his mouth seemed to be smeared with honey.

To the side, Shao Qingge held back a smile and touched his nose. He thought, ‘Xiao Ye’s mouth is so sweet. He will surely be able to mix in with the entertainment industry in the future.’

The little loli was praised by Ye Qi and her mood seemed much better. She put down the cake and said, “I am a principled keeper. Your score is first in the world and you will naturally receive two cards as a reward. Open your contract book and have a look.”

Ye Qi wanted to complain. ‘We risked our lives and it wasn’t easy to get out of the labyrinth, only for you to give us two cards? Even Spades isn’t as stingy as you!’

Nevertheless, he met the little girl’s eyes and didn’t dare say anything. He smiled. “Thank you.”

Xiao Lou opened the contract book and found that there was indeed a new card inside.

[Tool Card: Jade Cicada]

[Rarity: S

Reward for the teams with a clearance score within the top 5% for the ‘Headless General’s Tomb’ World Weekly secret room.

Additional Skill 1: A Cicada Sheds its Carapace.

After using the Jade Cicada, trigger the ‘A Cicada Sheds its Carapace’ skill. This will immediately release all controlled teammates from the control and teleport them to the designated location 1000 meters away. The cooldown time is 1 hour.

Additional Skill 2: Jade Cicada Continues the Life

After placing the jade cicada in your mouth, your body will enter a ‘false death state’. Your breathing and heartbeat will stop immediately and your body will be as stiff as a corpse. You can resurrect immediately after taking out the jade cicada. It is limited to one use in every secret room.]

This card was like the Resurrection Card obtained previously. It was a card that was bound to the contract book and appeared on the last page. A card bound to a team had the advantage that it could be activated by everyone in the team.

The strength of this card was worthy of everyone’s hard work.

The first skill ‘A Cicada Sheds its Carapace’ was a team teleport in an emergency situation. If all members were controlled or had strayed into a dangerous zone, ‘A Cicada Sheds its Carapace’ could be used to collectively escape. It could save lives at a critical moment. In addition, its teleportation had no preconditions. It was much more convenient to use the jade cicada than the Peach Blossom Spring teleportation or Li Qingzhao’s mark.

As for the false death of the second skill, maybe they could use it to save their lives in a dangerous situation when besieged?

Xiao Lou put away the contract book and wondered, “Isn’t there another reward?”

The little Diamonds loli waved her finger and a card with a golden light flew in front of Xiao Lou. The description of this card was very simple.

[Jump a Level]

[You can skip any row of S-grade levels on the card wall. The card will become invalid after use. Please consider it carefully before using it.]

Xiao Lou froze for a moment before showing the card to his teammates.

Lu Jiuchuan held this thin card in his hand and looked at it, wondering, “Does this mean that for the remaining S-grade levels, we can directly skip a row? For example, J of Hearts, J of Diamonds, J of Clubs and J of Spades. If we use the Jump a Level card, we can pass these levels directly?”

The little loli nodded, two cute dimples appearing at the corners of her mouth as she propped up her chin with her hands. “Yes. But...”

Xiao Lou hurriedly asked, “But what?”

“Jumping levels might allow you to skip a lot of dangers but you also won’t receive any rewards for them.”

Challenging levels would give rewards but there were risks. It made sense that skipping a level allowed them to avoid the risk while losing the rewards. The question was: which row should they jump?

Yu Hanjiang walked up to the card wall. At present, Lu Jiuchuan’s group of four had joined Xiao Lou’s contract book and everyone’s progress was consistent. The secret rooms below the 10th level were fully cleared. Only the J, Q, K and SS-difficulty double kings rooms were left.

Yu Hanjiang turned back and looked calmly at the keeper. “For J, Q and K, do these secret rooms have the same difficulty? Or is it that the higher you go, the more difficult it is?”

If the K level was the most difficult, it was a good choice to skip it and directly enter the double kings level.

The Diamonds loli answered, “In theory, the S-grade secret rooms will gradually increase in difficulty but the difference isn’t big.”

Xiao Lou put away the card and politely said, “Thank you.”

The Diamonds loli wondered, “Do you want to continue with the next level?”

Xiao Lou looked around at his teammates. After the World Weekly, everyone was exhausted physically and mentally. Lu Jiuchuan was injured when entering the World Weekly and everyone had moved in a rush, so there was no time to discuss the next plan.

Yu Hanjiang met Xiao Lou’s gaze and understood. He glanced at the keeper and replied, “Not for now. We will go back to the main city.”

“The City of the Sun or the City of the Moon?”

The City of the Moon was their base camp and Old Mo had rented a villa there. Yet before the World Weekly, they stayed collectively at the hotel booked by Tang Ci. Xiao Lou was hesitating when he heard Tang Ci suggest, “Go to the City of the Sun. We have to investigate a clue.”

Xiao Lou nodded. “The City of the Sun.”

The moment he spoke, everyone’s vision darkened and they had collectively returned to the hotel. This suite was the residence of Tang Ci. He was rich and had booked the presidential suite on the top floor. The 12 people stood together but it didn’t feel crowded.

Tang Ci glanced at Chu Huaying. “Huaying, what did you want to tell me?”

Chu Huaying’s expression of hesitation just now was caught by Tang Ci. Upon hearing this, she took out a button-sized object and handed it to him. “It was found on a hunter. I suspect that it is a card with tracking or surveillance capabilities. Old Gui has already blocked its function.”

Gui Yuanzhang took out a card. It was the ink for his pen, paper and inkstone cards. Unlike Old Mo’s dye that could only dye the environment, Gui Yuanzhang’s ink had a strong shielding effect. Applying the ink to anything could temporarily disable the function. For example, apply ink to a TV and the TV would break. If someone’s card was drawn over with the ink, the card would temporarily lose its skills. The shielding effect lasted one hour.

In order to prevent this button from being used for surveillance, Gui Yuanzhang had blocked it while leading the team through the labyrinth. Now Gui Yuanzhang took out the ink card and told the people around him, “I want to unblock it. Everyone, hide first and let Tang Ci study this thing.”

The teammates understood and quickly hid in the next room.

The presidential suite had two bedrooms and they closed the door after going to the next room. After a while, Chu Huaying knocked on the door. “Come out.”

Everyone went out to see that Tang Ci had already dismantled the button-like thing into a pile of scrap iron. He said, “This is a remote tracker with eavesdropping and a remote control function that can control the bombs in their bodies.”

Yu Hanjiang frowned, “In other words, the Hunter’s League used the remote control to detonate the bombs after hearing us defeating them? I wonder how much they heard.”

Chu Huaying spoke coldly, “I questioned the hunter and the other party recognized my dagger and Old Gui’s brush. They should’ve discovered that we are still alive.”

Lu Jiuchuan thought carefully. “Xiao Tang might not have been discovered yet. He was hiding in my pocket the whole time.”

Due to the inconvenience of movement, Tang Ci had been the size of a thumb since entering the six realms of reincarnation room. He was in Lu Jiuchuan’s pocket and his voice was very small. In addition, he didn’t speak at the time so the hunters probably shouldn’t have discovered him.

Similarly, Liu Qiao, Long Sen and Qu Wanyue hadn’t been exposed.

Xiao Lou had used the rings to control a hunter and Old Mo had talked to cooperate with Xiao Lou’s acting. Yu Hanjiang, Lu Jiuchuan, Old Gui, Chu Huaying, Ye Qi and Shao Qingge had all spoken and their voices had been transmitted to the Hunter’s League.

The good result was that Tang Ci and Liu Qiao, who were in the pockets, and Long Sen and Qu Wanyue, who used the Chameleon card to integrate with the environment hadn’t been discovered. They shouldn’t be included in the blacklist of the Hunter’s League.

Gui Yuanzhang said, “It is good if they mistakenly judge that we only have eight people. However, if they follow the clues of Xiao Lou’s contract book and continue to investigate, my guess is that the rest of the people can’t be hidden for long.”

Old Mo’s expression changed. “Our base in the City of the Moon!”

Xiao Lou’s heart also trembled slightly. They rented the suburban villa to act as a base and their actions during this period of time had been relatively hidden. It was hidden but there would always be clues. The difficulty of the initial secret rooms wasn’t great and Xiao Lou once went to the supermarket to buy food to cook for his teammates. They also had dinner together at a hot pot restaurant...

If the Hunter’s League really wanted to investigate, they could definitely grasp the information of the team quickly.

Yu Hanjiang walked to Lu Jiuchuan with a calm face and lowered his voice, “Brother, you have been to J of Clubs. The theme of the secret room is an escape game and you encountered 10 times as many hunters as your team, right?”

Lu Jiuchuan’s team had nearly died in J of Clubs. Tang Ci also lost his legs in the Nightmare Room of J of Clubs.

Chu Huaying and Gui Yuanzhang’s expressions were a bit ugly as they thought of the tragic experience.

Lu Jiuchuan clenched his fists, the blue veins on the back of his hands bulging violently. He shook constantly as he recalled the faces of his sacrificed teammates. He took a deep breath to calm himself down before answering in a low and hoarse voice, “Yes, we had 15 people and we faced 150 hunters. All of them were high level hunters with various cards.”

Yu Hanjiang said, “You specifically practiced cooperating for the S-grade secret rooms. Under such circumstances, you were almost annihilated. We have just formed a team. What are our chances of winning if we go to J of Clubs?”

Lu Jiuchuan closed his eyes and didn’t answer. What were the chances of winning? In fact, the teammates were uncertain in their hearts.

Ye Qi had been quite confident at first but this time, the labyrinth had hit him too hard. In particular, when it came to dealing with the hunters, Chu Huaying acted as fast as lightning while Gui Yuanzhang was fierce and decisive. In contrast, they could only stand by the side...

Sister Huaying and Senior Gui were so strong and Brother Jiu and Tang Ci were also very good yet their team was almost wiped out. If it was replaced with the current team of 12, was it possible to pass J of Club’s battle royale?

It was highly unlikely. They might have the powerful Yu Hanjiang and Shao Qingge and Ye Qi had the ace Bug King cards, but Xiao Lou, Liu Qiao and Old Mo weren’t particularly powerful people. The Long Qu couple were also better at reconnaissance and escape...

12 vs 120, it made people desperate thinking about it.

Xiao Lou suddenly suggested, “Why don’t we skip the 11th level?”

The team members all stared at him.

Xiao Lou was very rational and his voice was calm and gentle. “Meeting force with force isn’t necessarily a wise choice. We should use our strengths and avoid our weaknesses. Based on our current state, it is really hard to deal with the battle royale room in the 11th level. We have to face 10 times as many hunters as us. The 11th level is a terrifying place because hunters can appear in groups and fight directly with us...”

He walked in front of Lu Jiuchuan and his clear eyes met the other person’s gaze. “Brother Jiu, the other side didn’t necessarily know the composition of your previous team when breaking through, right?”

Lu Jiuchuan thought about it and nodded. “Yes, we acted secretly.”

Xiao Lou continued, “Now the Hunter’s League probably knows our team’s composition and will definitely be fully prepared. If we go to the battle royale secret room, the organization must send 120 high level hunters against us. Under such conditions, it will be difficult to guarantee everyone’s survival.”

His eyes swept over the faces around him and he said softly, “I don’t want to lose any teammates.”

Everyone, “......”

Who would want to see their teammates die in front of themselves?

That tragic experience often caused Lu Jiuchuan to be awakened by nightmares in the middle of the night. He closed his eyes slightly, loosened his fists and simply replied, “Okay, I will listen to you. We will simply skip the 11th level.”

At present, it had been determined that the 11th level would have a ‘forced confrontation’ secret room. Even if the keepers modified some of the rules, the tailored ‘force confrontation’ would be hard for them.

In addition, the Hunter’s League had a way to send a large number of members into this secret room and it would probably target their team specifically.

Xiao Lou didn’t want to take any risks and Lu Jiuchuan didn’t want to experience it again. Since they knew there was a tiger waiting on the mountain, it was reckless to go there. Then why not simply change the route?

Xiao Lou looked around and asked his teammates, “Do you have any comments?”

The others said they had no problems.

Xiao Lou declared, “Then it is decided. We will skip the 11th level.”

He paused as he suddenly thought of something. He turned to Yu Hanjiang and asked softly, “Hanjiang, don’t you think that the masks on the faces of the hunters we saw in the labyrinth are somewhat familiar?”

Yu Hanjiang frowned. He recalled the scene at the time and answered in a deep voice, “White Fox—his mask also looked like this.”

Fourth entry by B.K0036: Truck-san at it again

CG 10K event

Proofreader: Fictional Reality & Paranoid Kitten