Chapter 306 Colosseum (XIV) “Then let’s gamble our lives one more time.”

After dealing with Liu Yuhan, Qi Si continued down the stairs.

At 9:20, he stopped precisely, staring at the rotation of the hands on the clock face until the minute hand and the second hand had rotated for a total of six minutes and forty seconds.

If time were converted according to the mechanism of the Hopeless Sea instance, where one hour corresponded to eighty minutes on the clock, he would pause or continue forward based on a cycle equal to the minute hand rotating one full circle plus one-third of a circle’s arc.

The two methods of timing did not conflict; he only needed to be cautious enough to stop once according to both sets of rules, which would merely waste some time.

Qi Si stopped lingering, maintaining a steady pace as he descended the flight of stairs. The halo of light at the top of the Clock Tower was nowhere to be seen; only the blinding glare of the flashlight in his hand shone in the darkness.

The stairs spiraling around the central axis of the Clock Tower seemed endless, as if they led straight down to the Earth’s core and would pierce through the other side of the world.

Qi Si could hear the sound of the tide and smell the fishy scent of water. After he took the Sea-God Scepter out of his inventory, he gained an extra layer of hidden control, or perhaps… cognition, over this space.

After Frog Hospital, his connection with the Sea-God Scepter deepened further. Possessing the Sea-God Scepter, he was, at least in outward appearance, indistinguishable from a true deity.

He could freely use the power sealed within the Scepter in appropriate places—such as the Hopeless Sea—or remotely control and recall the Scepter at any time in specific worlds.

As he used the Sea-God Scepter to pin Liu Yuhan to the floor and continued his descent toward the bottom of the tower, he seemed to gain a global perspective for a few moments, allowing his consciousness to peer down the stairs and discover that there was no sign of any door for tens of thousands of meters further down.

This path had no end, and there were no exits along the way. Continuing downward would only take him further from the light and closer to the ground.

Plunging blindly forward would not be the method for clearance, and it seemed too late to return the way he came.

Chaotic whispers swirled in his ears, and the phantoms of marine creatures became increasingly solid, seemingly about to break through space and enter the real world.

Invisible gravity pressed in from all directions, as if he were walking on the seabed, bearing the weight of ten thousand tons of seawater.

Something seemed to have changed inside the Clock Tower, leaving no room for players to slowly attempt trial and error.

But… where exactly did things go wrong?

A wet, seawater-like sensation sucked at his skin, bringing immense pressure that squeezed his bones. For a moment, Qi Si considered returning to Liu Yuhan to retrieve the Sea-God Scepter and see if that could solve the problem.

But quickly, the Eerie Game shoved a new thought back into his mind, informing him that the Scepter, having lost the Sea God dwelling within it, could no longer alter the mechanisms of the Hopeless Sea.

The pressure on his body grew heavier. Qi Si took a very shallow breath; in reality, he only performed the action of inhaling.

After becoming a Ghost, his physical fitness actually improved significantly, and his tolerance threshold for fatigue and pain increased greatly; often, he didn’t feel anything too obvious.

But even though he didn’t need to breathe now, he still felt an intense sense of suffocation, accompanied by limbs as heavy as lead, unwilling to take another half step forward.

Thus, he readily stopped at the small, narrow platform at the corner of the stairs, sat on the lowest step, and began to ponder earnestly:

Would a Ghost who is one of The Undying die from the water pressure at the bottom of the sea? And what kind of death would that be?

…On the chessboard outside the tower, Chang Xu was carefully listening to the fragmented information Liu Yuhan was transmitting from inside the tower using the Team Ring’s internal communication function.

He thus learned that Liu Yuhan and Qi Si had met again in a stage suspected to be a slice of the Hopeless Sea instance. Qi Si had directly pinned the girl inside the tower using the Sea-God Scepter, utilizing the Sea God’s residual might to restrict all her movements.

“Qi Si is afraid.” Liu Yuhan was fixed in place like an insect specimen, unable to move.

Her voice carried a slight hiss caused by pain, yet overall, she was unusually calm: “He knows that our desire must be to kill him, and the realization of that desire, like other wishes, only requires three thousand points.

“It is known that team reduction leads to the convergence of resources, and our team’s total points are two thousand five hundred. We only need to clear one more stage to gather three thousand points.

“He is afraid that we will gather enough points and ask the Sphinx to grant our desire, so he doesn’t even dare to kill me. At the same time, he doesn’t hesitate to abandon a powerful item to restrict my movement, preventing me from collecting further points.”

Liu Yuhan paused, saying, “Of course, we must prepare for the worst. I will be unable to act for the next five hours today, and there will be no further points accrued.

“Furthermore, the number of points we have already accumulated will heighten Qi Si’s sense of urgency. He will try to kill you at all costs before we gather three thousand points.”

“I understand. Even if he restricts your actions today, you can still enter a new stage tomorrow and accumulate the final five hundred points regardless. Therefore, today is his last chance to turn the tables.”

Chang Xu quickly clarified the logic and nodded slightly: “When he comes out of the tower, I will immediately use the teleportation effect of the Broken Blade to kill him.”

“The worst-case scenario still exists.” Liu Yuhan gently drew a breath and said, “The maximum time limit for one stage is three hours, meaning nine hours for three stages. I worry he might drag out his time in the tower for eight hours, and then use an unknown hidden mechanism of the instance against us.”

Chang Xu fell silent. He knew Liu Yuhan’s deduction was not alarmist talk.

In the Rose Manor instance, he deliberately used him and Lin Chen to trigger the Time Reversal mechanism and break the deadlock;

In the Hopeless Sea instance, he discovered the time problem when others were unaware and forcibly held back until the very end to reveal the answer;

In the Red Maple Boarding School instance, he was suspected of manipulating the entire situation from behind the scenes, and finally directed him and Shuomeng to run around, achieving te clearance.

Someone like Qi Si always seems able to dissect the confusing surface of an instance, grasp and utilize the most core crucial points hidden within, and deliver a fatal blow to others.

Chang Xu inexplicably thought of Fu Jue, whom he had only met a few times in the Investigation Bureau. Fu Jue was equally capable of calmly dissecting the texture of game instances and was equally suited for the Eerie Game… He couldn’t help but be wary of such a person.

Inside the high tower, after Liu Yuhan delivered her final warning, she unilaterally cut off communication via the Team Ring.

The Sea-God Scepter was embedded in her flesh like a wedge, piercing through her body, and the accompanying great power cemented her in place, preventing her from moving an inch.

Any attempt to mobilize items was extremely difficult; large sections of her inventory were grayed out, and skills were unusable. Only the Team Ring, a bug-like existence, could still function somewhat, but unfortunately, it was of no help.

She stared blankly at the orange-yellow halo above her head. The pain had long been numbed by endorphins, leaving behind a drowsy sense of suffocation, like having a wet tissue covering her mouth and nose.

Over the years, she had been exhausted from running around, traveling between one instance after another, writing guide after guide amidst the hopes of other players. She was too rushed and too tired, and it had been a long time since she had quietly thought about herself.

Only now, forced to halt in stagnant time and space, stranded in the mire of fate, unsure if she would leave alive, did she unconsciously begin to chew over her life, which lacked much bright color.

Countless images unfolded in her mind—people, objects, and events taking turns on the stage. She was a perfectly ordinary person, born into a poor but education-focused family, hoping, like all the lower strata of The Federation, to change her fate through knowledge.

She had encountered many obstacles that she thought were insurmountable at the time, but after gritting her teeth and overcoming them, looking back only brought a faint smile; she had also met many interesting people and things, but they had all silently melted into her memory, only recalled during occasional flashbacks.

At the age of eighteen, she stumbled into the Eerie Game, a completely unfamiliar field with no standard answers, and awkwardly navigated the most difficult novice period amidst chaos and upheaval.

Relying on the steady and tenacious spirit she had cultivated since childhood, she did not take shortcuts or wait to die like other players, but actively matched instances and climbed step by step to her current position.

And then?

“What is your desire?” the Sphinx asked her.

At the time, she gave the same answer as Chang Xu: “My desire is to kill Qi Si.”

The Sphinx smiled without speaking, and a voice sounded in her mind, advising her to think carefully again about what she truly wanted.

A quarter of an hour ago, Qi Si inserted the Sea-God Scepter into her abdominal cavity.

It was clearly a cruel act, yet after pausing for a moment, the young man wore the benevolent smile of a deity deceiving a believer: “Liu Yuhan, honestly, I am very curious about what your desire is.

“That stubborn fellow Chang Xu is set in his ways once he decides something, and he probably wishfully asked the Sphinx to kill me. So—what about you?

“I don’t believe our conflict is irreconcilable, nor has it reached the point where you must waste such a precious opportunity to deal with me.

“In fact, many of your demands can be resolved through negotiation. For example, after leaving this instance, perhaps I can sign a new Contract with you, granting you more freedom.”

Qi Si spoke unhurriedly, seemingly considering the interests of the tool who betrayed him, and his suggestions sounded flawless at first listen.

But Liu Yuhan knew this person was a complete liar. If she hadn’t consolidated information with Chang Xu, she would still be kept in the dark, believing Lin Chen was the one who killed Tang Yu.

She absolutely couldn’t follow the thought process of such a dangerous individual, or who knew if she might inadvertently fall into a trap… “I don’t trust you.” Liu Yuhan swallowed and said hoarsely, “You dare not kill me, because you are afraid Chang Xu will gather three thousand points.”

Hearing this, Qi Si laughed, a very happy laugh.

After laughing for a while, he offered a sincere blessing: “Then I wish you both the best in gathering three thousand points quickly and killing a scumbag like me.”

But… accumulating three thousand points just to kill one person seems too wasteful, doesn’t it?

She could have wished for other things, like saving people, or resurrecting certain people… Her thoughts returned, and Liu Yuhan looked blankly at the small patch of sky above her, her mind in turmoil.

She forced herself to stop thinking about herself and instead analyze Qi Si’s every move, but the more she thought, the less she could grasp his true intentions.

Is he making other arrangements, or is he bluffing? What should her next step be?

Will the worst-case scenario happen, where Qi Si spends eight hours exhausting the time in the high tower, giving Chang Xu no chance to act?

Liu Yuhan lowered her eyes to look at the wound on her abdomen and the long handle of the Sea-God Scepter, managing a small, wry smile.

Since things had come to this, she could only gamble that fate wouldn’t favor Qi Si too much… “Then let’s gamble our lives one more time.”

On the other side, under the invisible heavy pressure, Qi Si sat on the steps, resting his chin on his hand, and suddenly burst into a brilliant smile.

He suddenly realized the problem. The Eerie Game was a cruel existence most of the time; even the safest clearance method inevitably had hidden risks. How could it possibly offer an option that allowed him to play both sides?

Simultaneously adhering to two timing methods was too safe, which was undoubtedly something the Eerie Game did not want to see.

What the Eerie Game liked was “gambling.”

In the Hopeless Sea instance, Qi Si, as a newcomer, maneuvered among veteran players—that was gambling.

He gambled on the lack of information among the others, gambled that impersonating another faction wouldn’t be exposed, and gambled that few players knew he was a newcomer… In the later stages of the instance, when the Puppeteer surfaced, he even gambled his life to seek greater benefits.

He staked all his chances on the Evil God Finger Bone, gambling that he could break free from the Puppeteer’s control and seize the value behind it that touched upon divinity—he won the gamble.

As his instance experience accumulated and his inventory increased, the number of times he gambled his life decreased. He was more accustomed to preparing everything and meticulously planning his layout… It was quite boring, and the Eerie Game probably felt the same way.

Therefore, this stage, by presenting two possible clearance solutions without any prerequisite information, was forcing him to gamble.

—To choose one of the two timing methods to follow.

The hour hand pointed to the Roman numeral X. According to the first timing method, the player was forced to stop moving at this time.

Qi Si watched the tirelessly rotating hour hand, suddenly chuckled softly, and reached out to steady himself against the wall and stand up.

Immense pressure bore down on him from all directions. He laboriously lifted his foot and took a step forward.

In an instant, the world spun. The surrounding darkness rapidly collapsed, and when it settled again, it had color.

Qi Si found himself standing on an unmanned boat, sailing under a yellow sky and over a blue sea.

A pitch-black stone slab stood abruptly in the center of the deck, engraved with three options in silver-white characters:

【One Action Point】

【Five Hundred points】

【Two Portions of Food】

Qi Si knew he had gambled correctly.

A fifteen-minute countdown was displayed in the upper-left corner of his vision, and silver-white characters informed him:

【Please make your selection within fifteen minutes】

The position of the Pocket Watch of Fate’s hands was the same as before entering the stage. Dreams do not occupy real-world time, meaning the time he spent clearing this stage was zero.

The time delayed in the 【Rock-Paper-Scissors】 stage was returned here. He didn’t know if this was intentional by the Eerie Game or pure coincidence.

Things had become a bit troublesome.

There were still four and a half hours until the end of today’s Colosseum Game. Leaving the high tower before it ended would inevitably expose him to Chang Xu’s all-out attack.

The time spent selecting the reward and the halftime break before entering the next stage could delay things by half an hour, but that still left four hours.

Could the final stage take up all that time?

As the fifteen-minute countdown ended, Qi Si pressed his hand toward 【Five Hundred points】.

Nian Fu outside the tower immediately received the corresponding prompt, as did the other players, who exchanged looks of consideration.

Lin Ye clicked his tongue in wonder: “Has Qi Si changed his ways? He’s not dragging out the time anymore? Wow, he finished it in fifteen minutes. This guy is quite strong.”

Chang Xu remained silent, only truthfully transmitting the information to Liu Yuhan.

Inside the high tower, the girl pinned down by the Sea-God Scepter revealed a pale smile: “Dreamscape doesn’t take up real time. There are four and a half hours left, and one stage can’t drag on for that long.

“We won the gamble. Fate is on our side this time.”