Global Collapse

Anzhi Tinglan stared intently at the second group of chess pieces that had begun to move.

“It’s moving upwards…” She looked at the direction the second group of pieces were moving, “It doesn’t seem to be moving to the right at all, it’s moving straight up. So the player in the second group is really going to send their pieces to kill the player in the first group?”

But she still doesn't understand why the second group of players hesitated for so long when deciding on their direction in this round.

Such a long period of hesitation has given the group of players ample time to prepare.

Compared to the group of players who were well-prepared, the second group of players, who knew nothing and were kept in the dark, were indeed at a disadvantage.

If the first group of players is physically stronger, the second group of players may be eliminated before they can even react.

The next second, the little figures representing the two groups of chess pieces appeared in the initial room of the first group!
As Anzhitinglan had predicted, the two groups of chess pieces stopped immediately upon entering the initial room, clearly not quite ready to react.

Meanwhile, a group of players who had been lying in ambush nearby rushed forward, and the two figures overlapped.

At the same time, a one-minute countdown appeared on Anzhitinglan's screen. This was the countdown when it was the turn of the player to make a move. The second group had already made their move, and now it was the third group's turn.

However, since all of Anzhitinglan's pieces are already dead, she doesn't need to roll the dice or choose a direction to move. She just needs to tap the skip button on the screen before the countdown ends.

But she had no time to pay attention to the countdown on the screen. Her eyes were fixed on the situation in the first starting room, where the player and the pieces were overlapping. She couldn't see anything else besides the two little figures.

"The fight is so intense, it's not really advantageous for the second group to kill the first group," An Zhitinglan thought about her previous strategy. "The second group would have an advantage if they came to kill me."

Just like before when she sent out pieces to try and kill the player in group four.

The players take turns in the order of groups one through four. Each player has a one-minute countdown timer. Once the previous group finishes their turn, the countdown timer for the next group begins. If the previous group enters the starting room of the next group, it is very easy to kill that player.

"If the pieces in the upper group want to kill the pieces in the next group, they only need to suppress the next group's pieces for one minute so that the next group's pieces cannot make a choice within the countdown. In this way, the next group's pieces will die because of a foul. But if the pieces in the lower group want to kill the pieces in the upper group, they have to fight it out in a real battle." She looked at the square representing the initial room number one, just like if the second group wanted to kill the first group's pieces, they could only fight it out in a real battle.

This battle has been going on for a long time, and the outcome is still undecided.

The countdown on Anzhi Tinglan's side was almost over. She thoughtfully reached out and clicked "skip." Next, it was the turn of the four groups to take action.

Seeing that the initial room number one was not going to yield results anytime soon, she looked at the current positions of the four groups of pieces.

"It seems like the four groups of pieces have reached some kind of agreement with the group of pieces. Starting from the fifth round, the pieces from the four groups have been following the two pieces from the group..."

What worries Anzhi Tinglan is the current position of the two pieces in a set.

“It’s very close to me now.” She looked at the square where two pieces were located. “Now it’s only four squares away from me.”

Thinking of the two chess pieces' acts of burning, killing, and looting in the first few rounds of the game, An Zhitinglan felt that these two people were not easy to deal with, and wondered what would happen if these two came looking for her when they had nothing better to do.

However, now that all of her pieces are dead, they pose no threat to the first group, and the player in the first group has no need for these two to eliminate them.

Moreover, it's still a question whether the current group of players can survive and continue to lead.

"No messages in the group yet." Looking at the [10-person group chat] in the gold coin slot, Liu Ruyan...

After their operation, 007 stopped sending messages in the group.

Gu Mian looked at the group chat, which had no new messages: "After we finished our operation, Group Two took over. It's been almost four minutes since we started, so Group Two must have finished by now."

“The second group must have already taken action, but 007 hasn’t sent a message yet. Maybe the second group entered our initial room and 007 is too busy dealing with them to send a message.” Liu Ruyan looked away from the group chat.

It's pretty much confirmed that way.

“Speaking of which,” Liu Ruyan looked at Gu Mian, “you didn’t bring your chainsaw with you? I remember you seemed to have it with you when you entered the dungeon.”

“In the initial room,” Gu Mian replied.

Liu Ruyan clapped her hands twice: "You left it in the initial room when I wasn't paying attention? After entering this instance and reading the rules, players will subconsciously feel that the player who holds the chess piece in the initial room is the safest. But did you realize then that the player would be in danger, which is why you left your chainsaw in the initial room?"

"Yes, after reading the rules, I found that the four groups are in competition with each other. The most direct way to win a competition is to eliminate the person you are competing with. However, the rules do not say that pieces cannot enter the initial room of other groups."

“Since your chainsaw was left in the initial room, there’s no doubt about the result. You know, the pieces and players in other groups can’t communicate with each other. When the pieces from the second group enter our group’s initial room, they’ll be confused for a few seconds. In those few seconds, 007 could easily kill the opponent three times.” Liu Ruyan paused for a moment, “But several minutes have passed, and there’s still no news in the group.”

Gu Mian also found it strange.

Compared to the two sets of unprepared pieces, 007 has a huge advantage and can easily launch a surprise attack on the opponent.

But so far, there hasn't been any definite news in the group chat. Did the two of them hit it off immediately and start chatting in the room? That's a bit strange...

The break time for this round ended while the two were talking.

The break time was over, which meant that all groups had finished their moves for this round. The two didn't see Hao Laoshi enter the room, so it seemed that all four groups had rolled a single move, and Hao Laoshi had stayed in the room at the front.

In that case, Hao Laoshi will be stuck for a round in the next round, and the gap between him and the other two will only widen.

The situation is not much better for any of the groups on the field right now, and Gu Mian has not found a single hair of the Evil God. He has now entered three rooms of 605, and there is no trace of the Evil God in any of the three rooms. Gu Mian is now basically certain that there is a high probability that the Evil God is not in room 605.

Where is he?

Gu Mian began to think about everything that had happened from the beginning of the dungeon until now, leaving no stone unturned.

"Why aren't they dead yet?" In the initial room of Group Two, Passerby A and I'm the Best in the World stared nervously at the chessboard.

Both of them had sweat on their foreheads and kept glancing at the rest countdown on the screen.

"There's only half a minute left in the halftime countdown for this round, how come he's still not dead! If he doesn't die soon, we're doomed!" The most awesome person in the world was so anxious that he almost jumped up, as if he wished he could personally go to the first starting room to cheer him on.

"Who knows why the group of players is so weak? It's been so long and we still haven't been able to defeat him. I dragged it out for a full minute before he entered the initial room. That minute should have given the group of players enough time to prepare!" Passerby A said anxiously, glancing at the countdown on the screen every now and then. There were only twenty seconds left on the countdown.

"Kill him! Kill him now! I've given you so much time to prepare. You noticed in the previous rounds that I was going to let the pieces into your room, right? How come you still can't kill him after preparing for so long?" Passerby A impatiently pounded the edge of the screen with his fist, as if he wanted to smash his fist into the screen and kill the little chicken stewed in the iron pot in the initial room.

That's right, the two players in Group Two weren't cheering for their own group's pieces; they wanted the player in Group One to kill their pieces.

Only in this way can they have a chance to survive...

To give the group of players ample preparation time, Passerby A delayed their choice of direction until almost the end of the countdown before allowing their group's pieces to enter the first initial room.

The player in the game has no idea which room they will enter each round, but the player holding the game can clearly see who is going to enter their initial room, making it easy to ambush the person entering their room.

"Passerby A" and "Global Best" both think that since they gave a group of chess players such a long preparation time, the group of chess players will definitely be able to successfully solve the "iron pot stewed chicken" problem.

But things didn't go as planned. Now, the next round is about to begin, and one group of players has still not been able to kill their group's pieces.

"Useless!" With less than ten seconds left in the halftime countdown, Passerby A couldn't help but curse.

Then he saw that the little figure representing the chicken stewed in an iron pot in the initial room was no longer moving, and a group of players had returned to the center of the room.

"What's going on! The stewed chicken in the iron pot isn't moving anymore. It must have been killed by someone from Group A, but why isn't there any notification?" Passerby A's eyes lit up with hope as he stared intently at the grid representing the initial room of Group A.

The guy next to me, who was the best in the world, looked ashen-faced. He looked at the motionless little figure in the first starting room and the player who had returned to the center of the room, and then at the countdown that had reached "three": "We're done for. He figured out what we were thinking."

As he finished speaking, the countdown for the halftime break officially reached zero, and the eleventh round began.

"Strange." Anzhi Tinglan, in one of the three initial rooms, stared at the first initial room. She had never expected that the first group of players and the second group of pieces would be locked in a battle for so long.

The two pieces in the group didn't look like easy targets, so she subconsciously assumed that the players in that group were the same kind of people as them.

Unexpectedly, despite being well-prepared, a group of players dragged their feet and got entangled with a mindless little piece for so long.

Could it be someone with high intelligence but extremely poor physical condition?

Then she saw that the little figures representing the chess pieces in the initial room were no longer moving, but the little figures representing the players were still able to move. The players had returned to the center of the room and seemed to be preparing for the next round.

"The piece stopped moving? Was it killed by a group of players?"

No, that's not right.

There was no indication that the piece had died, and there was no death marker on the player character. It was as if the piece hadn't died but was simply sitting there motionless.

"The player in Group A restricted the movement of the pieces in the room but didn't kill him?" An Zhitinglan was a little puzzled. Compared to capturing someone alive, killing them was obviously much simpler.

But why would a group of players go to such lengths to restrict a piece's movement instead of simply killing it?

It can't be that you have compassion and can't bear to see others die.

Most people who have survived the global gaming crisis to this day probably don't have this mindset.

Just as Anzhi Tinglan was wondering, a thought suddenly flashed through her mind about how Group Two had delayed before entering the initial room.

In an instant, everything went smoothly.

Anzhi Tinglan suddenly understood, a chill running down her spine: "So that's how it is... So that's how it is... The people in Group Two deliberately sent their pieces to their deaths, which is why they dragged things out, giving the players in Group One enough time to prepare. And the players in Group One actually saw through their plan from the beginning, which is why they deliberately didn't kill the pieces from Group Two..."

Connecting all the information, Anzhi Tinglan seemed to see sixty-three squares on the chessboard darkened, and the remaining one was the treasure chest square. (End of Chapter)