The school bus had traveled all night through ‘copy-paste’ streets with no end in sight, and a total of 37 orphans (22 boys and 15 girls) were picked up.
Yi Chen leaned against the window and, despite the endlessly flashing past of similar buildings, felt no hint of sleepiness. The thought of returning to the Orphanage in this way had him so excited that he couldn’t sleep at all.
The night had passed,
The postman’s voice echoed throughout the school bus via the loudspeakers, piercing like a needle in the ear, forcibly waking so of the orphans who had been asleep.
“First of all, congratulations on standing out from the nurous ‘child bodies.’ Among you, so are close to turning ten years old. We have a rule here, if by the age of ten you have not freed yourselves from the bonds of your original families, you will be classified as defects to be digested internally by the family.
Next, you will be heading to an important area—the Orphanage. Due to the secrecy of the path, you need to sleep a little.”
...
The postman pulled out a gas mask from under his high hat and put it on himself, then promptly pressed a green button.
Hiss—a strong green aura emanated from various areas, quickly filling the entire bus, and all the orphans, including Moon Scar, fell asleep within seconds.
Everyone knew this was a necessary procedure, that it was safe, and that the hypnotic gas would help individuals achieve a deep sleep state, quickly recovering from the fatigue of ‘leaving ho.’
A minute passed,
When the gas concentration reached an extrely high value, the postman inspected the bus through the rearview mirror, only to find a boy in the last row next to the window, still with his eyes open, looking outside,
Even though his eyes had beco bloodshot and green from inhaling the hypnotic gas, he still hadn’t fallen asleep.
“You seem to have an abnormal obsession with the Orphanage, but if you don’t sleep, your condition will be worse than the others, and the purpose that you want to achieve will also be affected.”
Yi Chen responded indifferently:
“I simply can’t fall asleep. If it’s clearly stated here that one must not rember the route taken by the bus, you are more than welco to co and knock
out.”
However, the postman just waved his hand and continued driving, “No need~ After all, I’m just a worker following the rules. Since the hypnotic gas doesn’t work on you, there’s not much I can do, right?
Stay put, I’m about to make a turn onto the main road.”
Suddenly, the postman jerked the steering wheel, causing the car to turn 90° and collide head-on with a residential house, followed by a violent shake and the sound of bricks and tiles scraping past the window…
A brand new highway appeared before them, as if entering an uninhabited western area.
After continuing to drive for a full two hours on a road full of forks in the no-man’s land,
a colossal structure appeared in sight, equipped with black hexagonal high walls like a prison. Although the scale was more exaggerated, the external structure was exactly the sa as in his mory.
A larger sign was also erected by the roadside.
It bore four different marks: the[Biohazard Warning Sign], the[High Voltage Warning Sign], the[Caution: Explosion Warning Sign], and a new type of sign featuring a skull being smashed by a club.
Beneath these signs was a small string of unobtrusive letters.
[Black Mountain Orphanage]- Orphanage in Black Mountain
When Yi Chen confird the Orphanage was similar to his mory, a satisfied smile appeared on his face. The sleepiness blocked by his fixation suddenly surged into his brain, and he slumped against the window into a deep sleep. ????N????????
…
Old World – Surface
The Duke, having consud two bags of snacks, let out a whistle, and a mysterious arm from the shadows of the Ancient Castle handed out an extra-large goblet filled with red soda, which even had an ice cube the size of a human head in it.
Gulp gulp~
The Duke downed more than ten liters of soda in one go.
Belch! A trendous burp escaped his lips, causing his entire body of flesh to shudder.
The desert sand field was directly blasted with a pillar-shaped indentation stretching several hundred ters long.
“That’s better. I didn’t expect to enter the core gambling ga so soon. Let’s see what luck and strength you’ve got.”
The Duke slapped his mountainous belly, and the internal gambling arena within his body changed accordingly.
The Golden Chess pieces representing Yi Chen and Moon Scar moved towards the center of the board, and they also had to make their first[Rolling Dice].
…
As Yi Chen fell asleep in the school bus,
his consciousness was drawn to a special Dream Space, and his companion, Moon Scar, was there too.
In the pitch-black space,
the two of them still retained the forms of children from the gambling ga,
and as Yi Chen fell asleep and arrived here, sothing seed to be falling perpendicularly from above towards their heads.
On closer inspection, it turned out to be two Golden Dice (six-sided) larger than a human body.
Yi Chen instinctively rolled backward,
while Moon Scar adopted a superior displacent skill. Without any apparent stepping motion, his body instantaneously moved backwards by just enough distance to avoid the dice.
Thud!
The hefty Golden Dice landed in front of the two n, and the voice of the Duke echoed through the Dream Space.
However, this voice originated from the gambling consciousness within the Duke’s body, deep and cold, lacking the ‘friendly and approachable’ tone he used when communicating with the outside world.
“§For the opening bet, you must toss the Golden Dice at least [five ters] high and let it spin at least three tis without using any abilities to deliberately influence the dice. If I consider your actions cheating, I will deem the gambling attempt a failure and impose a penalty of tenfold the bet.”
The level of difficulty for your opening situation will be determined by the number of points; the higher the points, the greater the difficulty. If you throw [double sixes], you’ll enter ‘Disaster Mode’ imdiately.
Begin! §
“So it really is a gamble?”
Yi Chen attempted to lift what seed like a heavy Golden Dice, only to find out that in his hands, it was as light as foam, easy to toss to a height of five ters.
“William, you go first.”
“Alright!”
Bending his calves to drive his whole body, Yi Chen threw the dice over ten ters high.
After bouncing on the fall and several spins, it finally settled…
[6]
A bead of cold sweat slid down Yi Chen’s cheek. This ant that even if Moon Scar threw the lowest possible point of one, the overall difficulty would still be above average.
Glancing embarrassingly at Moon Scar not far away, he said, “My luck… it’s up to you now.”
Moon Scar, however, didn’t seem to care in the least. What he wanted was a [high difficulty].
The outco of this gamble did not directly concern his personal interests. He was rely keen on participating. If through this he could get a grasp of the fluctuation in difficulty—and especially the upper limit of the highest difficulty—it would be of extraordinary significance for Moon Scar.
After all, the ‘Moonlight Greatsword’ he covetted was worth a fortune, and the re act of trading for points could take an eternity. [Gambling] was undeniably the fastest route.
Moon Scar slightly lifted his head,
and a Moonlight Barrier carried the dice into the air, throwing it just the right amount, exactly five ters high.
The dice also didn’t cause any violent collisions when it landed but slightly spun to a stop—[3].
A perfectly average number.
Yi Chen took a deep breath of relief, grateful he didn’t roll another [6]. Otherwise, they would’ve faced a challenge surpassing the ga itself right from the start, which wouldn’t bode well for the upcoming orphanage operation.
“§A total of [9] points corresponds to a difficult start. Good luck.§”
Smack! The Banker clapped his gigantic palm made of blood and flesh,
and the Dream Space shattered instantly like a mirror.
Consciousness returned to the physical body.
In a communal bath that constantly leaked cold air (-68℃), a total of 22 naked boys were piled up in the center of the room like a heap of corpses.
As Yi Chen woke up, he imdiately felt the extre cold. Although the flora within him provided so resistance, it could only delay the body’s complete freezing.
The other orphans woke up simultaneously,
and the mound of flesh quickly disintegrated into individual entities. Everyone swiftly surveyed their surroundings, assessing the situation in the bathroom to snatch precious survival ti from the icy hands of the grim reaper.
There were ten “shower points” set up here.
In everyone’s eyes, these shower points represented their hope for survival. If there was no hot water, they would surely freeze to death here.
Urged by the extre cold, many of the orphans dashed to the nearest shower point, vying for an advantage… but Yi Chen and Lorrian had no intention of competing and moved more slowly.
As the ten faucets were turned on.
Ahh!
Piercing screams imdiately filled the enclosed bathroom,
as not all of the shower points were intended for rescue. Four of the nozzles sprayed cold water that instantly froze upon contact, accelerating the freezing of the body.
Another four nozzles discharged boiling acid with an extrely high flow rate, devouring the boys underneath in an instant, the screams ceasing in less than three seconds.
Only [two] shower points were releasing normal warm water.
The eyes of the survivors all shifted in that direction…
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