Chapter 599: The Enemy Will Definitely Seek a Quick Battle

"Clack." The woman with her back to the desk spun her chair 180 degrees.

She had long, pitch-black hair and wore half-rim gold glasses resting on the bridge of her nose. Her expression was serene, exuding a faint, intellectual beauty.

She looked at the Electronic Tablet handed to her by a subordinate.

The screen showed that just a few minutes ago, an abnormal fluctuation of Weird Energy had briefly surged within this Domain.

The woman's gaze was calm.

She silently calculated who the intruders might be.

Eldest Brother and Eldest Sister were out of the question; neither of them would stoop to hiding their strength.

Second Brother and Eighth Brother were also impossible; they were simply too far away.

Third Sister... lurking certainly fit her style, but given her personality, taking the initiative to attack would be strange.

Unless someone had already died, and their father had chosen her to be promoted to a Divine Envoy.

The woman thought for a moment before ruling out this possibility as well.

First of all, their father didn't like Third Sister. Second, even if Third Sister had advanced to the Tenth Tier, she shouldn't have come looking for her.

She would definitely go kill Eldest Brother and Eldest Sister first.

That only left Sixth Brother, Seventh Brother, Ninth Sister, Tenth Sister... and...

Chen Nian's figure surfaced in her mind, but she immediately erased the thought.

It couldn't be him.

That man was already ruined.

However... Chen Nian did remind her of two other people.

According to the intelligence she had received, her Seventh Brother and Ninth Sister had entered the Stone Realm and hadn't been seen since.

By that logic, there was a high probability that her Fifth Brother was already dead.

The two of them must have conquered the Stone Realm.

What exactly was in the Stone Realm? Why would they conquer it first, especially since their own Domain wasn't anywhere near it...

"Go investigate the Stone Realm..." the woman ordered. "I recall an elder served as the Lord of the Domain there for a time. Ask him what secrets lie hidden there."

The subordinate nodded immediately and slowly melted back into the shadows.

The woman stared at the points of light scattered across her tablet, her gaze deep and calculating.

"Game Result: Draw."

The Old Man across from him seemed rather surprised by this outcome.

He wasn't surprised that he hadn't lost, of course; he was surprised that he hadn't won.

He looked at Chen Nian and raised an eyebrow.

"You've got some skills."

Soon, the second round began.

Just like the first, it ended in a draw.

Scissors against scissors.

Now, the Old Man realized something was off.

He had played far too many rounds of rock-paper-scissors; he understood this game better than anyone.

Winning this game was easy—it simply meant you were stronger than your opponent.

Losing was just as easy—it meant your opponent was stronger than you.

But a draw meant only one of two possibilities.

First, your opponent's strength was exactly equal to yours.

Second, your opponent was vastly stronger than you.

The first possibility was incredibly unlikely.

Even if two people were closely matched in strength, changing a hand sign took only a split second; it was practically impossible to draw every single time.

If the Old Man hadn't realized the issue after the first draw, he completely understood it by the second.

Yet, rather than being grateful, he grew exceptionally angry.

His eyes went wide, bloodshot veins popping out as he glared at Chen Nian.

"Why aren't you trying to win?"

Chen Nian's expression remained perfectly calm.

"Not everyone wants to win, and you don't have to win every time."

"Wrong!"

Hearing this, the Old Man grew even more furious. He marched up to Chen Nian, stood on his tiptoes, and grabbed him by the collar.

"Dead wrong!"

"Everyone wants to win!"

"If you don't, it just means you've never lost! Anyone who has tasted defeat wants to win!"

Even with the Old Man twisting his collar, Chen Nian's tone was unwavering.

"I have lost. I lost miserably."

"And there is someone I want to beat, but it isn't you."

At those words, the Old Man seemed to suddenly calm down.

"That's more like it," he muttered, releasing Chen Nian and walking back to his side.

[Third Game Begins]

[Rock-Paper-Scissors]

The red light stopped flashing. For the first time, a complex emotion flickered in Chen Nian's eyes.

His opponent hadn't thrown any hand sign at all.

Unless Chen Nian also chose to throw nothing, he was guaranteed to win this round.

In the end, he had thrown paper.

High above the Old Man, a monstrous, pitch-black hand suddenly plummeted from the clouds. Its palm was massive enough to blot out the sun for miles around. This terrifying entity slowly descended upon the Old Man.

Yet, the Old Man simply smiled.

"Everyone in the Game Kingdom wants to win."

"Because everyone here used to be a loser."

"You said there was someone you wanted to beat."

"That means that person was once a winner."

"But there's only one ultimate winner here."

"Go west. Keep going west for seventy li, and she'll be right there—"

"Bang!"

Before the Old Man could finish speaking, the massive hand crashed down, crushing him in its grip. With a sickening sound like a bursting watermelon, a mist of blood and pulped flesh exploded across the ground.

Chen Nian remained completely expressionless.

It was as if the gruesome scene before him had absolutely nothing to do with him.

But a second later, a metallic sphere materialized in his palm.

He dropped the sphere to the ground. It immediately gathered up all the blood and gore before burrowing deep into the soil.

A small mound of dirt slowly rose from the earth.

Chen Nian turned back to the others.

"Let's go," he said.

The group continued their trek down the mountain.

Following the Old Man's dying words, they headed strictly west. About half an hour later, they crossed out of the mountains and finally spotted a city.

In truth, long before they even approached the city limits, everyone could sense the shift in the atmosphere. Even from a distance, the sky overhead had taken on a pale blue hue.

That blue was perfectly identical to the light that had enveloped Chen Nian and the Old Man during their duel. Seeing that pale glow painting the sky, they knew they were heading in the right direction. Sure enough, the moment they stepped onto the paved highway, they found both sides of the road packed with people. They were gathered in clusters—some in small groups of two or three, others in massive crowds of dozens—and all of them were entirely enclosed in the glowing spheres of game battles.

Yan Jing briefly scanned the area.

There were logic-based games like Werewolf and murder mysteries, physical competitions like footraces and long jumps, and mind-bending original games. There were even a few painfully simple ones.

Things like coin tosses, guessing people's ages, or just drawing poker cards to see who got the higher number...

Absolutely anything could be turned into a game here.

Huo Tong glanced around and even spotted two people competing to see who weighed more.

Though these games seemed incredibly simple on the surface, once Weird Energy was thrown into the mix, they warped into something utterly bizarre.

"Care for a game?"

A lone man had spotted their group and called out to them.

"Forget it,"

Huo Tong said, holding out a hand to block the man from approaching the rest of the group.

"We're not in the mood to kill anyone today."

Unexpectedly, the man burst into laughter.

"Who said anything about playing a death match?"

"This is a points match. Do you want to play or not?"

"What are points good for?" Yan Jing asked.

"You guys from out of town?" the man chuckled, looking them up and down.

"You don't even know what points are? Points are money."

"We don't need money," Huo Tong replied, shaking her head.

"You don't need money?" The man howled with laughter as if he had just heard the funniest joke in the world.

"That's exactly why you're a bunch of hicks."

"Do you think this is like the spare change back wherever you came from?"

"All points are issued directly by this Domain. Even the Lord of the Domain can't control the flow, and no matter how much authority someone wields, they can't alter it. Once you earn points, you gain access to the Points Mall. As long as you have enough points, you can do almost anything you want. You could buy a house that pierces the sky, or outright buy the ownership of some poor sap who gambled all their points away. You can buy lifespan, or even achieve true immortality! You can buy time, space, or even enlightenment regarding one's own path... Hell, if you really wanted to, you could even buy the chance to kick the Lord of the Domain right in the ass!"

Huo Tong stood with her arms crossed, quietly watching the man brag without saying a word.

She didn't believe a single word that came out of his mouth.

Immortality...

The rules of this Domain couldn't even bind someone in the Demigod Realm, so how could it possibly grant immortality? It was pure nonsense.

Even Demigods couldn't live forever!

But to her absolute shock, Chen Nian and Yan Jing simultaneously stepped forward from behind her.

"That sounds like a fine proposal. Let's play a game,"

Chen Nian and Yan Jing said in almost perfect unison. After speaking, the two men exchanged a brief glance.

Chen Nian blinked.

It seemed Yan Jing's thought process was exactly the same as his own.

That was incredibly rare.

In his experience, practically no one ever operated on his wavelength.

Except for those two guys, of course.

But their thought processes were even more unhinged than his own.

"Come, come!"

The man was absolutely thrilled to hear they were willing to play. He immediately moved to deploy his blue light.

"All of you are joining, right?"

He was preparing to cast a wide net and drag the whole group into the match.

Every newcomer started out with 1,000 points. That was the prize he had his eye on.

"It's fine. I'll play you alone,"

Yan Jing said with a faint smile. He then turned back to the rest of the group.

"Everyone, fan out. We'll earn points faster if we split up."

"Hey, don't split up!"

The man desperately tried to stop his easy points from walking away, but Yan Jing repeatedly refused to budge. Left with no other choice, the man finally deployed his blue light.

The azure light washed over them, locking the two men into the game.

Several lines of text popped up in front of Yan Jing.

[The game has begun!]

[Current Game: Name Guessing]

[Game Rules:

Simple and brutal game rules!!!

The Domain will select individuals. Both players will take turns answering. Guessing the target's name earns one point.

An incorrect guess earns no points.

There will be a total of ten selections.

The player with the highest score wins.

The winner will receive 1,000 points from the loser.

Note:

If both players tie, it will trigger a Super Duper Lucky Moment!

Both players' points will be combined and split equally!]

Staring at the rules, everyone in the group was stunned.

This was considered a game?

Wasn't this a complete joke?

Who in their right mind would ever agree to play this?

Huo Tong furrowed her brow.

She couldn't think of any way to win a game like this.

More accurately, it was entirely unwinnable for her.

If they asked her to fight, she would do just fine. But if she had to guess random names, she could guess a thousand times and still get it wrong.

'I need to make sure I only play physical games...'

She quietly rejoiced that she hadn't been the first one to step up.

Otherwise, she would have completely humiliated herself.

At the same time, she looked at Mao Si, fully believing that their captain was going to face-plant today.

His opponent had clearly spent his time memorizing as many names as possible. Out of ten attempts, if the man managed to guess even a single one right, he would easily win the round.

"Hehe, do you want to guess first, or should I?"

The man grinned confidently at Yan Jing.

"I don't want you saying I bullied you, so I'll let you pick who goes first."

He relied on bullying newcomers to get by every day. Among that crowd, his reputation had long since been established.

"You can guess first," Yan Jing offered, appearing very humble.

"That works," the man replied without overthinking it. He figured Yan Jing was just like everyone else and had already given up.

The blue light began to flicker, and moments later, a holographic figure materialized between the two men.

The man frowned.

He actually didn't recognize this person at all.

Though he knew a massive number of people, he didn't know absolutely everyone. After all, not everyone was willing to share their name, and even when they did, they often used fake ones.

But it didn't matter. Just as he expected, Yan Jing also failed to guess the name of the next figure.

Then it was his turn once again.

The projection froze on a new figure, and a smirk curled his lips.

Here was his easy win.

"Luo Qiwei."

He announced the name, and the game immediately pinged with a correct notification.

Certain of his victory, he couldn't suppress his grin any longer. He turned to the crowd outside the blue light and laughed out loud.

"Don't be sore losers! Consider this a cheap lesson. The Game Kingdom isn't like the outside world. Just because you have a high Tier doesn't mean you can do whatever you want!"

"Charging you just 1,000 points for tuition is a steal."

"Sigh... if only all of you had joined..."

The man shook his head in pity, deeply regretting that he hadn't managed to trap the entire group at once.

But at that exact moment, Yan Jing's raspy voice drifted over.

"Hu Qiao."

[Correct]

The man's eyes bulged as he stared at Yan Jing in utter disbelief.

Yan Jing was standing there holding a pen and a slip of paper, casually scribbling something down.

Seeing the man staring at him, Yan Jing cheerfully waved his pen.

"Lucky guess!"

Lucky guess... of course it was a lucky guess! What else could it possibly be?

The man cursed inwardly, though he had to admit it was incredibly good luck.

There was no time to dwell on it; the next target for the name-guessing game appeared.

The man scrutinized the figure.

Once again, he had no idea who it was.

Fortunately, Yan Jing couldn't guess the next one either.

But on the very next round, the man successfully identified the projection.

But...

Yan Jing immediately matched his score with a correct guess of his own.

A cold bead of sweat rolled down the man's forehead.

"Impossible... that's impossible..." he muttered, his voice growing louder and louder. He suddenly snapped his head up to glare at Yan Jing, practically screaming, "That's utterly impossible!"

"Let's go, let's go..."

Wen He grabbed Huo Tong's hand and pulled her away.

Chen Nian and Chen Chunshui also wandered off to find their own games to play.

It was glaringly obvious how this was going to end.

The man had fallen directly into Yan Jing's trap and couldn't escape.

From the moment the man agreed to guess first, his fate was sealed in an unbreakable knot.

Yan Jing never had any intention of winning; he had aimed for a draw to split the points from the very beginning.

Securing a perfect tie in this game was supposedly impossible.

But who could have guessed that Yan Jing was such a freak of nature that he possessed an ability perfectly suited for this?

"What kind of ability is that... 100% Name Guessing?" Huo Tong muttered under her breath, before throwing herself into the relentless grind to earn points. "...My Lady, that is the situation in the Stone Realm."

The subordinate dutifully relayed every secret they had uncovered about the Stone Realm.

The woman behind the desk nodded.

The Stone Realm was capable of launching surprise attacks on other Domains.

Everything added up perfectly.

The intruders had to be Seventh Brother and Ninth Sister.

"They even knew to hide their tracks. Quite clever," she said, her lips curling into a faint smile.

She liked clever people.

"Issue a game. Call it 'Find the Newcomers.'"

"Whoever can locate the most newcomers that have arrived in the Domain within the last twenty-four hours wins."

"Deploy our forces to the east immediately. Use long-duration games to stall them and slow their advance as much as possible."

"Since they launched a surprise attack, they will definitely be seeking a quick battle."

The woman spoke in a frosty, indifferent tone.

"Once you find them, put an end to this immediately."

"Big, big, big! Give me a big one!"

Yan Jing lifted the dice cup to reveal three sixes. He pumped his fist in sheer joy, then looked across the table at his opponent, his tone tinged with genuine reluctance. "How about one more round?"