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Chapter 74: Your Fate Depends on Sugoroku (3)

After Mr. Dot had revealed the choices for the first round, both Lin Sanjiu and that young man stood in the first squares with slightly tensed expression. As she looked at the question mark symbol on the second square, she frowned. [What is under that question mark?] She couldn’t help thinking to herself.

“One square,” she gave the same answer.

“For the second turn, one step forward for the White Team, and one step forward for the Red Team!”

When Mr. Dot finished his sentence, the non-participating members from each team looked as if they had predicted what would happen. The design of the game seemed totally meaningless to all of them. Since the number of steps forward was determined by one’s opponent, it was logical that both players would choose the slowest route forward for their opponent, until the finishing point where they will fight it out.

[But is that really the case?] Lin Sanjiu pondered as she stepped into the second square. [If the game could only be determined by a duel, then wouldn’t it make more sense for the game to be a pure fighting match?]

Once again, she heard the familiar “Ding Dong!” The question mark symbol beneath her feet disappeared and was replaced by a picture of a jam-packed road. Lin Sanjiu looked up and saw her opponent’s bewildered, frowning face.

“Oh dear!” Mr. Dot exclaimed in an exaggerated manner, “Just when the two contestants stepped into the next square, the new year bell has rung! As the contestant from the White Team set off some fireworks illegally, he was fined. -1 point for the White Team!”

Before anyone could process the fact that the New Year had arrived, the members of both team looked toward the fog with rather blank expressions — Shortly after, unlike the White Team, the Red Team quickly became excited, and all their faces lit up.

On the other hand, the young man from the White Team looked almost ready to rush into the white fog to argue with Mr. Dot. “Hey! There’s something wrong here! Didn’t you say that we will get one point when we win the game, how could you just deduct our points whenever you want? Doesn’t that mean that even if I win this game, it’ll be for nothing!” he raged.

Hu Changzai and Hai Tianqing, who were standing behind that man, exchanged a glance with each other when they heard his rant. They did not know if they should be happy or concerned. Despite their conflicted emotions, they did not show how they really felt — Both concealed their true expressions after they saw Lin Sanjiu’s signal. They did it so well that none of the members of the White Team realized that they actually had friends in the Red Team.

“Have you forgotten what I said in the rules regarding gaining and losing points?” Mr. Dot’s tone remained unchanged as he maintained his stance. “If you want to earn more points, you’ll have to try harder to look for ways to gain them!”

The young man spat angrily, and his eyes bore into the ten over squares in front of him, as if he could spot the difference between the multiple question mark symbols on the ground.

“As for our Red Team contestant…” Mr. Dot continued, “too many people wanted to watch the New Year fireworks, so she was unfortunately stuck in a traffic jam. She will have to skip the next turn.”

When they heard the word “skip”, their smiles fell off their faces.

“You must be kidding?” Lara jumped up, “If she skips a turn, that means that she won’t move forward the next round, right? Then, what’s there to compete? Wouldn’t that mean that the other team has already won!”

According to the rules, the smallest number than Lin Sanjiu could call out was one. If she was one step behind her opponent, and each of them could only move one step per turn, this would mean that she had already lost.

“No, that’s not right!” Zhong Junkai’s brows furrowed as he thought carefully about it, and he suddenly said, “This ‘skip’ penalty could determine whether a team wins or loses. It’s not possible that it exists only on our side, right? That would be too unfair… I’m sure that there is also that penalty on the opponent’s route!”

Everyone thought that what he said made sense. Old Wang clapped his hands and agreed wholeheartedly: “Xiao Zhong is right! I think the crucial point of this game is the squares with the ‘skip’ penalty. Whoever is unluckier would step on more of these penalties and lose the game.”

B.Rabbit shot a glance at the other and did not say a word. When everyone was introducing themselves previously, no one even bothered to ask for his name. He felt as if they didn’t treat him as one of the members but rather as Lin Sanjiu’s pet. When he thought about this, he decided to speak as little as possible and sat down quietly like any normal rabbit. While the four members of the Red Team discussed a little more, Mr. Dot revealed the outcome of the third turn, “One step forward for the White Team and the Red Team remains in the same spot.”

At that point, the young man’s fury over the point deduction had abated. He looked at Lin Sanjiu intentionally as he stepped on the third square smugly.

“During the year-end company dinner, the contestant from the White Team won a treasure chest in a lucky draw. But when he looked at it, he realized that it was a dirty, broken chest which was marked by the label ‘Chest of Misfortune’. White Team contestant, do you wish to open this chest?”

No one expected that the contestant could actually choose whether to open a treasure chest that was on the square. The young man seemed apprehensive and found that he could not decide. After some time, he turned to his team members, seeking their opinion. Even though he could not make any conversations with them, they could see each other, so they only needed to nod or shake their heads. The old woman nodded her head, but the others shook their heads, frowning.

Since it was clearly stated that it was a “chest of misfortune”, why should he take the risk?

The young man turned back and said something, gritting his teeth. From his reaction, Lin Sanjiu guessed that he gave up opening the chest.

He made the right decision, and this was proved by Mr. Dot’s words. “The contestant from the White Team decided not to open the chest. The venomous snake in the chest was unable to bite anyone.” The young man couldn’t help sighing a breath of relief when he thought about the possible consequences of getting bitten. Ever since the game started, both teams had suffered heavy penalties; he felt lucky just to have avoided that calamity.

For the next turn, both contestants moved forward one step as predicted. This time, the Red Team lost another prize because according to the square, they borrowed money from a loan shark. Whereas, the White Team had to skip a turn because their car broke down. Just as what Zhong Junkai said, there were “skip” penalties on both routes.

When it was the fourth turn, both contestants were in the 4th square, so they were at the same pace once again. Both contestants had better luck for this turn — the contestant from the Red Team rested at a hotel and did not win or lose anything; the contestant from the White Team found a treasure chest and received an “Undo 1 move”.

Current stats:

Red Team: 3 prizes, -1 point, a chance to “PASS”, 4th square.

White Team: 4 prizes, -1 point, a chance to “Undo 1 move”, bound by a -1 curse, 4th square.

After the fifth turn, both contestants moved another 1 square forward, and each lost a prize. The Red Team watched helplessly as the prizes they had offered was reduced to only two items, and their expressions turned sour. Chen Fan even suspected that this setup was just a scam to cheat people out of their items — but that was just his conjecture, and ultimately, he couldn’t muster up his courage to enter the white fog and confront Mr. Dot about it.

Both contestants went through seven turns in this fashion still maintaining their tied position, suffering losses with every step. Even though the scenarios behind each question mark symbol was different, almost all of them had bad outcomes. It was to the extent that they felt lucky when they set on a square with no particular effects. Everyone seemed to have forgotten their goal to win items from the other teams and were instead concerned about reducing their losses.

Current stats after 7 turns:

Red Team: 2 prizes, -2 points, a chance to “PASS”, a chance to “Take a 5-minutes break mid-game”, 7th square.

White Team: 3 prizes, -2 points, a chance to “Undo 1 move”, bound by a -1 curse, 7th square.

When Mr. Dot was about to announce the outcome of the eighth turn, all the members of the Red Team were already sitting on the ground, looking at the game listlessly, occasionally making some conversation. They were all dejected and even bored with the game. Anyway, both contestants had already decided to move forward one step per turn, suffering losses with each step, so there was really nothing they could look forward to. So, they had already decided to just wait for the duel at the end.

With such an atmosphere, B.Rabbit was the first one to realize that something was different because Mr. Dot did not announce the outcome of the eighth turn even after some time. Feeling curious, he looked and saw that Lin Sanjiu was facing the white fog. She seemed to be talking to someone — and Mr. Dot was the only person in that direction.

Even though they couldn’t hear what she was saying, Lin Sanjiu’s action quickly drew the attention of the members of both teams. After a while, Mr. Dot suddenly said, “Okay.” Then, they heard nothing else.

“Huh? Why does it seem like Miss Lin is talking to the other contestant?” Lara muttered to herself after watching them for some time, “Did she just made a request to Mr. Dot to allow her to speak to the other contestant?”

When they heard what she said, the other members of the Red Team watched what happened in astonishment. They were unable to see Lin Sanjiu’s face as her back was against them, but they could clearly see the face of the contestant from the White Team. First, they saw the young man looking quite shocked. After that, he frowned and eyed Lin Sanjiu suspiciously. Observing her from the back, Lin Sanjiu seemed rather worked up as she gestured her arms wildly for some time. After they had both chatted for a long time, the young man nodded hesitantly, and they both seemed to have reached an agreement.

Once she got the cooperation of her opponent, Lin Sanjiu immediately heaved a sigh of relief, and her shoulders relaxed. Shortly after, Mr. Dot announced the outcome of the eighth turn with great curiosity and suspicion from both teams. “Three steps forward for the White Team. One step forward for the Red Team!”