Deceitful Game

Chapter 255 The situation really took a sharp turn for the worse!

Once Ai Shiping arrived at carriage number seven, all the players were present.

So far, no one has died. The game is progressing very slowly.

Seeing that everyone was alive, several people breathed a sigh of relief.

Upon entering carriage number seven, one can see the short Mo Qian squatting in front of a machine that is half the height of a person.

He looked very ordinary, with a standard barrel-shaped build. He wore round-framed glasses and simple, unassuming clothes, giving off the vibe of a tech geek, or perhaps a leader. Yet, a cunning glint shone in his small eyes, making him look somewhat like a translator from World War II. But now, the way he intently examined the machine actually gave him a more down-to-earth air.

Do you have any blue parts?

Seemingly noticing Mingpo enter out of the corner of his eye, he asked without turning his head, "We're still missing one blue screw."

Mingpo looked at the machine he was fiddling with.

This thing looks a bit like one of those under-sink water purifiers. Underneath the countertop, there are many pipes whose purpose is unclear.

Next to a container in the middle that resembled an inverted cylindrical tin can, there were some holes that looked like they had been punched. It was much easier to repair than Mingper had imagined. It didn't seem much more complicated than installing a computer, and might even be simpler.

Basically, anyone with hands can do it.

The locations where different parts were needed were marked with larger blue, pink, and green icons.

The machine has been mostly assembled, except for one last blue screw.

"Yes, there are."

As Mingpo spoke, he pulled out a tripod that looked like a caltrop and waved it in front of him: "But I think this isn't what you want."

He spent too much time chatting beforehand and didn't really look for the parts carefully, so he only found this one in the end.

"I have some pink screws here...can't I use them?"

Liao Tinglan nervously took out the parts she had found from her pocket.

Mo Qian glanced back at her, his tone indifferent: "Do you understand what 'blue parts' means?"

Startled by the harsh rebuke, Liao Tinglan immediately cowered and fell silent.

"Ah, I have some here."

Seeing Liao Tinglan take a half step back, Ai Shiping smiled and took a blue nail from his bag, handing it to him. Mo Qian took it without thanking him and immediately bent down to screw it on.

The pipes under the cabinets were densely packed, like tangled tree roots. Because of this, even if they had screwdrivers, they couldn't use them at all; they could only awkwardly tighten the screws by hand, one turn at a time.

Although Mo Qian appeared arrogant, he was the only one among them who attempted to repair the machine.

Of course, Mingpo knew... it wasn't because he was particularly hardworking.

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Rather, it's because for someone like Mo Qian, being able to fix something like this by himself means that he has shown everyone that "I did a great job."

Just like how he always likes to tell mysterious anecdotes in his speeches about how he personally went to the front lines to discover various bugs and optimize products... It's almost like a peacock that's always displaying its plumage.

Once the screws were fully in, the machine suddenly roared to life.

Mo Qian was startled and almost bumped his head on the machine wall. He fell off and scrambled backward to get out.

"It seems we don't need to worry about how these machines work anymore."

Mingpo glanced at him and said casually.

"..."

Mo Qian stood up and patted off non-existent dust from his knees.

He turned to look at the crowd, a solemn yet triumphant smile on his face: "Quickly? In just five minutes, we've solved the first problem!"

"Even though it's limited to half an hour, I don't need to use it at all!"

He spoke, laughing somewhat arrogantly.

It's like when Old Deng tells a joke he thinks is funny at a company party and expects the employees to laugh along. But almost everyone is willing to give him that face.

When the first machine was repaired, almost everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

The timely repair of the navigation system means that no one will die randomly, which means that they can survive.

It was a genuine sense of relaxation. Some people even laughed out loud, patting the shoulder of the person next to them in celebration.

With the help of unity and caution, they successfully passed the first hurdle!

"If this continues..."

The gaunt man who had been startled and fallen by Mingpo's identity spoke with great excitement.

"If this continues..."

Ai Shiping narrowed his eyes, a mocking smile playing on his lips, and interrupted the man: "Then people will be dying soon."

"W-what?"

He's right.

Mo Qian said coldly, "Can't you use your brain for once? This is a death game. You don't usually get your classmates to help you pass your exams, do you?"

He glanced at Ai Shiping warily. This guy, always squinting and speaking in a sarcastic tone, was putting a lot of pressure on him. Then, he turned back and gave the skinny guy a disdainful look.

Why did I get assigned to this useless thing?

"The navigation task is the simplest task; in a sense, it might be considered a 'beginner's task.' It teaches us what the parts are for, how to fix this thing..."

As he spoke, Mo Qian patted the machine in front of him: "But the next machine may not only need these few parts."

"Moreover, it may not be as easy to repair as it."

"Most importantly..."

He stopped abruptly at this point.

Ai Shiping merely sneered, unconcerned about taking on the inevitably offensive line: "After the navigation mission is complete, the next phase is the dining car. The countdown begins now; we must find the dining car and repair it within one hour."

"If we fail

"So, after the node is repaired, every player who hasn't killed anyone dies within the past hour."

The carriage was silent for a moment.

"If...we can fix it..."

The gaunt man spoke in a dry, sallow voice.

"What if it's not fixed?"

Mingpo casually asked, "Do you dare to bet?"

It only lasted a moment.

The sense of relaxation that had been building up inside the carriage was shattered by those words!

"In other words," Chen Bingwen pushed up his glasses, "from now on, someone will definitely die every hour."

"Because not everyone dares to gamble... that the mission will definitely be completed. In order to collect more parts, we must spread out and search as efficiently as possible... which also means that we will inevitably get separated from others."

"And in order to secure your 'spot,' it's definitely safer to act as early as possible..."

He hadn't finished speaking.

Suddenly, someone next to Mo Qian clutched their neck, foamed at the mouth, and collapsed!