Ordinary Chapter 89: Uniqueness of the Rules

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: KarateChopMonkey

 

In the underground playfield, Jian Nian sat on the towering wall with two identical playing cards next to him, the number on them was the five of spades. One of the cards melted into the air in a flash of light, Jian Nian looked at the cards and put them in his pocket. He didn’t speak, and didn’t make any extra expression.

“Are you troubled?”

Jian Nian didn’t turn around, but he knew that the person who was talking beside him now was Cha Li, who claimed to be a former Survivor.

“What’s bothering you? The friend who came in with you?” Cha Li gossiped, “But, as someone who has been out of this playfield you should know very well that there is only one winner in this playfield, everyone must fight with their stakes and lives, and the loser becomes the sustenance of this place. Only the winner can leave.”

Jian Nian tapped his fingers against the wall, he neither agreed, nor did he refute, “Are you really a Survivor?”

“Of course, aren’t you?” Cha Li stepped on the wall and made a graceful hat salute, “You see, I have feelings, I have compassion, and I will try to help you. No playfield keeper would be like me, I am human, and I am a Survivor.”

Jian Nian’s nails kept sinking into the wall, and he didn’t continue speaking, but his dark eyes held a subtle hint of suspicion. Indeed, Cha Li behaved like a normal person, complaining, chasing them to announce the rules, not getting angry or punishing them after being rejected, but Jian Nian still found one thing odd.

Cha Li couldn’t conceal one point, even if he talked about his selflessness. His heart was looking forward to the opening of the game, and he stared at the people fighting with obsession in his eyes beneath the helpless grief.

That obsession broke his camouflage and emanated out. In fact, Jian Nian had seen many such people in the unlimited flow world, strife would wear out their heart or inspire the unnecessary parts out, and intensify others, becoming the group of people looking for excitement in the playfield.

He wondered if this Cha Li was one of them.

“Ah, yes, the reward for the first playfield.” Cha Li waved his hand and another card fell from the sky. Jian Nian reached out and took this card, which had two words written on it: Flying Bird.

“Please continue to cheer, since you are the winner of the past games, then I believe you can go to the end this time and become the only winner.”

Cha Li’s figure disappeared in the same place, Jian Nian threw the card of a flying bird in his hand, then a big black bird flew out from the card. Its tail feathers had a little red, looking extra flashy, the flying bird landed and stopped on Jian Nian’s shoulder, chirping at him.

“Still this kind of useless reward, not much different from last time.” Jian Nian shoved a slip of paper into the big bird’s mouth, “No swallowing, fly up there and give this to Shen Si. Shen Si is very recognizable, the one who is the best looking with white hair.”

The big bird opened its mouth to call, the note instantly fell down, the big bird hurriedly fluttered his wings to pick up the note and fly away.

Jian Nian tsked, “It’s still a little bit useful.”

On the upper playfield, Shen Si looked at the card in his hand, which looked strange because it was white throughout, with a question mark in the middle. Just then, a noisy sound came from the surroundings, and a big black bird suddenly rushed up from the ground, fluttering its wings as if it was looking for something.

“Oh! Isn’t this a flying bird? It’s awesome that the ability was used so quickly.” Cha Li clapped his hands and exclaimed, his face full of smiles, “It seems to be coming this way!”

The big black bird fluttered and flew to Shen Si. Shen Si looked at it, and after making sure that the thing was not aggressive, he stretched out his arm. The big black bird landed on his arm, at the same time opened his mouth and threw the note in his mouth into Shen Si’s hand. Shen Si unfolded the note with one hand and then saw the familiar handwriting.

They grew up together, so of course he could easily spot that it was written by Jian Nian.

The handwriting on it was simple: 5 of spades.

Shen Si thought about it, squatted down and pressed the paper on the ground, the red blood instantly dyed the spade part red, Shen Si refolded the paper, the big black bird was humane and opened its wings and flew away.

“The red five of spades, so it’s the five of hearts?” Cha Li rubbed his chin and sighed, “Fortunately you are in two playfields, fortunately fortunate.”

Shen Si looked at him, “What do you mean?”

“Didn’t I explain? About the playfields.” Cha Li blinked before he jerked his chest, “Ah yes, it’s me who didn’t tell you, I’ve been in this place for too long, causing me to forget that this playfield is divided into two levels, meaning that the only winner will be chosen in both the top and bottom levels. Finally, the two winners will open the ultimate showdown to decide who is the one to leave this place. Come on, you will be the last one to leave here.” Cha Li disappeared into thin air.

Just then, the big black bird fluttered its wings and flew over again. Instead of landing, it threw a card down the moment Shen Si looked up. Shen Si picked up the card on the ground and turned the card over, Shen Si saw the suit and numbers on it.

5 of Hearts.

Before Shen Si could take a closer look, there was a click, the card in his hand cracked, it floated out of Shen Si’s hand, the pieces turned into a little bit of star-crushing light, and then blended into the surrounding rainbow light, Shen Si looked at those rainbow lights, and kind of understood.

The behavior just now was considered a violation, and was directly cleared by the playfield.

The bird didn’t understand what happened, after all, it was just a consciousness shaped by the game field. The bird stalled for a moment in front of Shen Si, then turned around and flew back. The master gave it the task of simply delivering the card to Shen Si, and now that the stuff was delivered, of course it had to go.

Watching the flying bird leave, Shen Si continued to lean against the wall and think about things. In such a short time he was clearly aware of a problem that Cha Li seemed to have been very deliberate in emphasizing that it could only be one person, only one victor, only one who could leave alive.

He kept saying such things in front of Shen Si, as if he was ready to engrave this theory in Shen Si’s mind. Every grid game field had rules in place, the Survivors followed the rules of action, from the rules to find a way to escape. If it was the rules, why emphasize that only one could live?

Unless this rule could be broken.

…… 

The second game started as expected, this time without Cha Li announcing that there was a change on the backs of the playing cards they held for each other, with an additional very small graphic on it, as well as new words and phrases.

【The first one to find an item in the playing field is the winner, and the loser gets his bet back】

Instead of killing or attacking each other, they were looking for something. Those who didn’t want to fight got up full of surprise, then quickly ran out and started rummaging for their item. Shen Si looked at the message on the card, and after a moment he stuffed the card into his pocket and was the last one to walk out of the place.

His card had a star drawn on it, like a child’s sketch, with a little iridescent light, it didn’t look like something real. To be honest, Shen Si didn’t quite believe that this was just a search for something, this playfield was empty, so how could an ordinary game of finding something be possible here?

As in this case, the outside was also empty, there was nothing.  Some of the people were standing in the middle, dazed and confused, compared to having a clear goal, such as to attack someone, they were particularly confused about this lack of goal to find the target.

What was it that they were looking for? What to look for? Those were the main questions.

Shen Si put his hands in his jacket pocket and walked out. He had no idea what to do now, and could only guess it had something to do with Jian Nian, but unfortunately Jian Nian and he weren’t in the same place.

At that moment, suddenly, a figure passed by Shen Si’s side.

Shen Si’s footsteps paused and looked towards the side, but next to him was an iridescent wall, which meant… there shouldn’t be anyone there.

When Shen Si thought he was mistaken, a figure appeared in front of Shen Si, put his hand on the glass like a person in a glass, then waved to him. Shen Si looked at the person, then walked to the iridescent light. At that moment, the inside of the iridescent light began to distort and form a vortex, in the center of the vortex there was a picture playing.

It looked like a memory, or rather the experience of the person who made up the iridescent light itself. Shen Si watched as the man struggled through the playfield and finally fell to the ground handing something in his hand to the person next to him, and the thing he handed out was a key.

The key… seemed to appear on someone’s deck, an item that needed to be found by someone.

“Ah!!! No!” A miserable scream broke Shen Si’s thoughts.

Shen Si looked towards the place where the voice came from, not far from him, a youth kept struggling outward. The rainbow light coalesced into a human form to pull him inward continuously, the youth’s already sunken body had assimilated into the light. Planning to go over to help, Shen Si found the corner of his coat was clutched hard.

Turning his head violently, in the center of the rainbow light, the man on the screen gave him a grim smile, then lunged out, and in the moment of coming out his body quickly melted into a point of light.

Light could not be touched, could not be knocked down, but light could touch them.

Time was suspended, Shen Si turned away from the rainbow light that was stagnant in the air, then quickly walked towards the youth who had only his head left. Since he didn’t know what could go wrong, Shen Si didn’t forcefully yank him out, time rewound until the youth was swallowed in before time ran again.

“Get out of the way, there’s something inside.”

“Huh? Of course I know there’s something in there!” The youth looked at Shen Si warily as he dodged Shen Si to block the rainbow light, “Who are you? Are you looking for the same thing as me? Saw that I have a clue here and came to grab it?”

Shen Si looked at him, “…Is that what you think?”

“Pretending to be a good person before attacking me? Only a fool would be deceived!” The youth sneered.

Just then, a rainbow light wrapped around his waist from behind him and dragged him in in a flash. The rainbow light became calm again, while Shen Si stood in place, and after a moment he turned away. Forget it… Let’s leave it at that.