Ordinary Chapter 86: Stakes

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: KarateChopMonkey

 

The surrounding area was bright, too bright in fact. Shen Si reached out to block the light, and the next moment the light diminished, the illusion around him changed and finally became a rather wide and well-lit hall.

And he was alone.

“Good evening.” A voice rang out as Shen Si looked up, and a man suddenly appeared out of thin air, sitting on a very high wall with a kind smile on his face, dressed in a clown suit but wearing a magician’s hat, looking out of place. “I’m Cha Li, this playfield’s guide. Welcome to the Adventurer’s Game!”

Shen Si stepped out of the room directly just as he appeared, shouting Jian Nian’s name, looking completely oblivious to the man named Cha Li.

“What? Don’t go, I haven’t finished explaining the rules yet!” Cha Li hurriedly jumped down from the wall, and followed Shen Si with his hands and feet flailing, “Hey, this is a playfield, be serious! In the playfield, the rules are the most important, so be serious if you cherish your life.”

Shen Si looked at him inexplicably, “Thanks for the reminder, but who cares anyway?”

“…I do.” Cha Li pointed at himself with a straight face, “Because it’s my job to explain the rules to Survivors!”

“I’m in a hurry, so I’ll listen to you explain the rules later.” Shen Si walked around him again, calling out Jian Nian’s name as he left.

Cha Li helplessly slapped his hand on his forehead, then shook his head sadly, “So hear me out first, after the rules are explained, the person you are looking for can be found, this is how this playfield works. Now will you listen to me?”

“Listen to you explain the rules?” Shen Si looked at him, and after a moment he nodded, “Then speak.”

Seeing that Shen Si wasn’t running out of the room anymore, Cha Li was relieved, so he opened his arm and bowed towards Shen Si like an elegant magician. Then he raised the out-of-place magic wand in his hand and explained the rules softly in a clearly feigned elegant tone, “Great gentleman, you are finally going to listen to the rules, so I shall tell you. This playfield is called the Adventurer’s Game, where each Survivor present will take out one of their own things as a bet, followed by a one-on-one game. Once you win, you can retrieve the bet and get a reward.”

“And if you fail?”

“It’s quite tricky if you fail, because you would lose your bet and have to continue gambling with your life, and if that life is lost as well, that’s it, the game is lost.” ¹

Shen Si rested his hands in his pockets, “Use your own thing as a bet? Is it possible to choose for yourself?”

“Of course not, but I got the benefits for everyone oh.” Cha Li smiled and closed his palms, “Everyone can pick their own bets from among the three we have chosen, after all, ah, I am so fond of everyone, trying hard to get better benefits for everyone.”

Shen Si frowned slightly, “Can you talk without being so disgusting?”

“Dis… Disgusting?!” Cha Li took a step backwards as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing, his tiger eyes were teary and he had an expression of betrayal. It was a complete drama queen look.

Shen Si turned to leave and didn’t bother to look at the bets Cha Li had picked for him. Cha Li looked at Shen Si’s back and sighed slightly, “This gentleman, you can trust me, I won’t harm you. I used to be a Survivor too, I lost my body in this playfield as a bet and became a ghost-like existence. In the end, even though my life came back, I still couldn’t leave, so I was confined in this playfield until now, even assimilated with it, so we feel the same because I used to be one of you guys. Believe me.” Cha Li showed a bitter smile, “I will try to help you guys get out of here.”

Shen Si didn’t stop, but turned away, then pushed open the door in front of him. The moment the door opened, three words appeared in front of Shen Si, blocking him, only allowing him to leave after he chose one, this was the bet selection.

When he looked back, Cha Li had already disappeared, there was nothing but emptiness behind him.

Turning back again, Shen Si looked at the three bets in front of him.

[Life Expectancy, Ability, and Taste.]

Taste?

Why would the third option be this one? The difference with the previous things was really too great. Shen Si strangely looked at ‘Taste’, and finally chose ‘Life Expectancy’.

After making the choice, the other two options vanished and the barrier in the doorway disappeared, so Shen Si walked out of the room.

Behind Shen Si, Cha Li appeared in the air, waved his hand, and the option not selected by Shen Si emerged. Cha Li’s eyes took on a bit of resentment looking at the ‘Taste’ option, then he squatted on the ground and drew circles with resentment with a look of aggression, “Really, I told you to trust me, I had to fight hard to get the only option from it that wouldn’t affect you life and it was ignored. You should have picked ‘taste’ ah!”

Unfortunately, Shen Si didn’t hear his complaint, but even if he did, he wouldn’t pay attention to him.

Somewhere else, Jian Nian stood in the doorway and looked at the three options in front of him, which were: [Memory, Shen Si and Sense of Smell], Jian Nian subconsciously wanted to choose ‘Sense of Smell’, but just when his hand was about to touch ‘Sense of Smell’ he stopped, checking his surroundings, feeling as if he had seen this image before.

What did he choose then? Temperature perception?

His hand retracted and Jian Nian looked at the words floating in the air with no expression on his face.

“Hmm? You haven’t chosen yet?” Cha Li suddenly appeared behind Jian Nian, looked at the options from behind, then smiled and spoke, “Someone is looking for you outside, his name seems to be the second of your options, seems to have been looking for you outside for a long time.”

Jian Nian turned his head and looked at Cha Li, “You knew?”

“Of course, because I’m the guide for all Survivors!” Cha Li spun around, “Okay, okay, in order to get to the person we like as soon as possible, we have to make a decision as soon as possible. Three options, which one will we choose?”

“If it were you, which one would you choose?”

“Me?” Cha Li blinked, then he came close to the three options to look carefully, and then began to rationally analyze, “The first option is memory, this memory is similar to the same as amnesia, in fact, it’s not life threatening, you can just never remember who you are. The second is the outsider, upon failure the outsider will die, so it seems to be a good option. As for the third, the sense of smell.” Cha Li huffed, “Gee, it looks like this is the best of the three, you should choose this option.”

Jian Nian nodded, then he smiled and chose ‘Memory’ to leave, leaving Cha Li completely behind.

Remaining in place and blinking, Cha Li looked at the options again and again before he finally grunted, “Well, another one that fooled me… Really, what’s wrong with choosing the third option? Even if it fails, it’s just a matter of losing something that won’t endanger your life. If you regret it later, then I won’t have any regret pills for you.”

… 

After Shen Si came out of the room he realized that there were already quite a few people waiting outside, most of them looked timid, with a frightened look, only a few half-grown children looked a bit excited and walked around in pairs. Shen Si walked through the crowd looking for Jian Nian’s figure, but couldn’t find it.

At that moment, he heard a click, a light flashed, and Shen Si moved his gaze in that direction to look, seeing Jian Nian standing there wearing a black jacket with his hands in his pockets.

“Jian Nian!”

Someone shouted Jian Nian’s name, but it wasn’t Shen Si. Jian Nian subtly turned his head to look where the voice just came from. A man with wide eyes pointed at Jian Nian, shivering when he saw Jian Nian’s unhappy eyes, but he walked out from the crowd while trembling.

“Sorry, I was just too excited to see S-Rank Survivor, we must be saved, right?” The man smiled sarcastically. He was a Survivor, or a Survivor who was lucky enough to have been in the same playfield as Jian Nian. To him, Jian Nian was very scary, but no more scary than a playfield.

Jian Nian was a very shady person, he kills gods and ghosts, but he never just attacks people when they don’t provoke him. So, so! Even if you have to die, you have to follow his side!

In order to get out alive, what was face?!

“You want me to save you?” Jian Nian smiled a little, his thin lips curved out in an arc that clearly had little good intentions, “What are you going to pay to make it more challenging for me?”

“I… I…” The man’s face turned pale as he looked at Jian Nian in horror before he spoke with a shudder, “What do you want? Is it money or something else? I can give you money, my father has a company, you can have as much money as you want!”

Jian Nian stretched out his hand, thin and slender fingers patted the man’s shoulder, “Unfortunately, I don’t have time to earn extra money now, goodbye.”

Watching Jian Nian pass by him, the man hurriedly turned back, then he saw Jian Nian walk to another man, they said a few words and then walked together in a certain direction, and soon disappeared in the crowd.

The man waiting for Jian Nian was wearing a gray jacket, his hair was dyed white, looking all white like a fairy. They were of similar height and the same size, standing together in a black and white harmony. However, Jian Nian’s attitude towards that person was completely different from the one toward him. When facing that person, Jian Nian’s whole temperament was milder, and the flair was all smoothed out.

Why? Who the hell was that man? Was he Jian Nian’s friend in the real world?!

It was only when the man reacted did he realize he had followed them, he couldn’t control his footsteps, mixing in the noisy crowd while trying to listen to their conversation.

“This is probably the source of the problem with your temperature perception.”

“Are you saying that I once went through this playfield and the bet I chose then was temperature perception and I lost?”

“Pretty much. You got out alive, probably won with your life.”

Jian Nian sighed. “Well, Shen Si what did you choose as a bet this time?”

The man froze for a moment, paused, suddenly being afraid to move forward.

Shen Si?

Was this the Shen Si everyone was talking about? The legendary ordinary person who mistakenly entered multiple playfields and awakened an S-Rank’s natural ability?

The terrifying person who could manipulate time?