Chapter 179#
Price 02#
The wine rack was exquisite and meticulous, but aside from the wine and drinking vessels, there was no tool for opening bottles.
Yu Feichen took down a long-necked bottle, thought for a moment, and pulled out a dagger.
“Item: A dagger that can cut iron like mud.”
“Function: Aside from being much sharper than other daggers, it doesn’t seem to have any other use.”
“Special Trait: Often cuts through its own sheath, not suitable for carrying around.”
“Grade: Medium.”
Under the sharpness enhancement, the blade of the dagger aligned with the appropriate spot on the bottleneck, slicing diagonally with moderate force.
The upper half of the bottle neck, along with the cork, fell to the ground, glass hitting the floor with a crisp sound.
Then, that half-cut bottleneck rolled out of the booth. The seating was tiered, and the bottleneck bounced down step by step, eventually falling straight out of the second tier and landing on the first, continuing to roll. In the silent Colosseum, the clattering sound echoed, drawing even more attention.
Now everyone was looking this way.
Yu Feichen acted as if nothing had happened, raised the bottle, and poured deep red wine into the glass container.
His technique might have been slightly lacking, but he felt his attitude was proper enough to make up for it.
It would have been better if An Fei didn’t have that faint, teasing smile in his eyes.
By the time the severed half of the bottleneck finally stopped rolling, a third of the people had already arrived.
“Eh, the doctor isn’t here… Shouldn’t matter, he’s fast when running for his life.” Clara, in her loli form, hopped along, pulling the expressionless Murphy with her into the VIP area, sitting down near An Fei.
Aga and Xina arrived almost at the same time, spotted An Fei, and also came over.
A while later, several black raincoats trickled in. As the roving priests of Eternal Day, they naturally had to gather around their main god.
Murphy glanced at the crazy loli holding an umbrella indoors—blood still splattered on her face and clothes—and couldn’t help but sigh.
On the other side, Xina was wrapped in an eerie black witch’s robe, and the figure of Fate was hidden under a heavy cloak, revealing only snow-white hair and a slightly melancholic, world-weary face.
The black raincoats sat unusually neatly, five of them in identical attire, each revealing only half their faces, looking like a gathering of serial killers.
In the middle, Yu Feichen, standing beside Him, wore a black stand-collar trench coat of a familiar design—clearly an outfit created by the Painter. The Painter couldn’t give up his hobby of dressing people up, and this coat further accentuated Yu Feichen’s aloof, keep-away demeanor.
At the very center, surrounded by all, even the god himself was dressed in emotionless black.
Among the group, only Aga’s outfit was relatively normal, but amidst this crowd, what was normal seemed to carry deeper meaning. Just like that cute rabbit perched on Yu Feichen’s shoulder, which looked particularly eerie.
In short, from any angle, it didn’t look like Eternal Day going out—it looked like a mafia gathering.
What Murphy could see was also visible to others.
Strangers would never sit this close together; these people must know each other.
The loli—crazy loli—the black raincoats, and that guy with the rabbit… they were all notorious dangerous figures on the blacklist. Now it seemed they were in the same gang? Birds of a feather flock together. When did the Eternal Night add a new group of psychopaths?
The one surrounded by them must be their leader. No telling who that was.
In inconspicuous corners, some people averted their eyes with inscrutable expressions.
Time passed. Among the arrivals were some who had lost to the circus. Spotting the figure in the central seating, they were furious but dared not approach to start trouble.
“Damn it…”
“Just wait.”
“Looks like their people haven’t all arrived; probably dead.”
“Serves them right.”
The circus.
People came in a blaze and fled in disarray.
After the overwhelming commotion, only the cold night wind remained, brushing the high platform.
—And brushing the lonely Windsor and Bai Song on that platform.
Windsor looked at the fleeing figures in the sky, a hint of bewilderment and sadness in his voice. “Did Brother Yu… forget something?”
Yet Bai Song wore a profound expression.
“Brother Yu never forgets anything.”
“He must have guessed long ago that I still have one more item.”
A small, precise instrument materialized in Bai Song’s hand.
The Mirror Star Wormhole Generator, a reward from the previous occupation of Windsor’s homeland. It could open a teleportation channel between any two locations in the current world, lasting one minute. Effective uses: 3, remaining uses: 2. Before reuniting with Brother Yu, Bai Song had already used it once to escape death.
The wormhole generator activated, and instantly a deep, mysterious portal appeared in the void before them.
“Not bad,” Windsor nodded, agreeing with Bai Song’s statement. “We can always trust Brother Yu. … Huh, Sir Precept, why are you here too? Come on, come on…”
VIP tranquility.
Xina looked around, “Feels like home.”
Yu Feichen suddenly remembered something. “Forgot Bai Song. Should I go pick them up?”
He looked at An Fei, only to see An Fei lost in thought, as if also recalling something. After two seconds, “The item?”
“Damn,” Xina twitched her mouth, “He’s going to run on his own.”
Just then, Yu Feichen glanced down in their direction, as if questioning why the Precept had no flying item.
Xina: “Long story short, Xiao Yu, just remember one thing: Don’t get close to the Precept, it brings bad luck.”
Just as Yu Feichen decided to go out and check, a deep void portal appeared at the entrance to the last tier, and Bai Song, Windsor, and the Precept stepped out.
“Brother Yu!” Bai Song sat down nearby.
Yu Feichen abandoned the thought of going out, his expression unchanged. He gave a slight nod to Bai Song and Windsor as a greeting.
—Brother Yu was completely unsurprised by their arrival, further confirming Bai Song’s guess.
Brother Yu’s image in his heart grew even larger.
At the very center of the Colosseum, a gray hourglass stood on a patch of old bloodstains, gray sand flowing slowly. As it was about to run out, most of the seats were filled. Those who had arrived each steadied their breathing; occasionally, acquaintances exchanged low whispers about the tension and rush of their arrival.
Hasty footsteps echoed through the stairwells of the casino, like the frantic drumbeats of a pounding heart. Breaths came in ragged waves, stretched to the breaking point, like a kite about to snap its string.
When the doctor finally burst through the entrance gate of the Colosseum, gasping for air, he had no time to adjust his breath or look around. With trembling hands, he pulled out an old golden pocket watch.
The second hand had just ticked one full circle—exactly ten minutes.
At the center of the Colosseum, the gray sand released its last grain.
A rumbling sound echoed from far behind. An Fei turned to look.
—The massive black stone doors slowly closed from both sides, the bottom edges grinding against the rough stone floor, producing a thunderous roar.
On the stairs, a stream of people was still pouring into the arena. Hearing the sound, horror spread across their faces.
The one at the front was only two steps from the door. A look of determination flashed in his eyes as he lunged forward—
The doors slammed shut.
An Fei’s gaze lingered on the tightly sealed crack. Just a second before, he had seen the person lunging forward, his outstretched fingers, his leaning body, and all the others running behind him, dissolve into gray mist in the magnificent, ornate stairwell, vanishing without a trace.
He turned back, his eyes fixed for a long time on the crimson wine in the glass.
The entire venue was silent.
All along, people had been slaughtering each other, ignoring the fact that the will of the Mist City was far above them. According to established rules, the Mist City could erase someone directly.
Therefore, its punishment would inevitably be a harsh execution.
In the terrifying silence, only two patients’ crazy, eerie voices rang out.
“Doctor, you actually made it… haha… hahahaha.”
“What a shame, Doctor, why didn’t you die…”
Catching the content, people couldn’t help but look sideways.
They saw the Doctor walking down the steps with a look of annoyance, his posture slightly probing as he entered the VIP area.
His voice was gentle and polite: “Apologies for being late. Their illnesses are too severe; they kept obstructing me on the way, causing much trouble.”
An Fei said blandly, “They do need discipline.”
Receiving An Fei’s response, the Doctor sat down elegantly. Murphy noticed that the Doctor, despite wearing a pure white lab coat, blended seamlessly into the pitch-black VIP area—an evil, twisted organization having medical staff was, of course, a common sight.
The gazes from others toward this side became even more cautious.
The depleted hourglass dispersed into mist, which then coalesced into text: “Begin faction division.”
Everyone’s consciousness was instantly pulled into the mist on their shoulders.
Yu Feichen looked up and saw his own black knight chess piece, shaped like a horse’s head.
Each person had such a piece. The black or white faction was randomly assigned, and the grade was determined by the scale of world power the person possessed. The grades, in order, were: Soldier, Knight, Rook, Bishop, Queen, King.
The pieces had always been there, but during the free hunting and siege phases, they had played no role; killing someone simply gave you that person’s piece as a trophy.
Beneath the black knight piece, a mix of various other pieces lined up in a row, nearly three hundred in total. The numbers of black and white were extremely close.
At a glance, white had two more than black.
The siege phase was chaotic, making it impossible to know each person’s color, but the free hunting phase had deliberately widened the gap between white and black, and now it was maintained.
The mist covered the knight piece, then additional mist flowed in sequence through the pieces below.
—Probably counting, Yu Feichen thought.
Not as fast as he could count himself.
Half a minute later, after the Mist City finished counting, the flowing mist reached the world projection Yu Feichen held, turning into myriad gray specks flowing through the veins of his world.
—Now it began evaluating his world structure.
Over these days, while resting against An Fei with his eyes closed, Yu Feichen’s consciousness had remained in the gray mist, using the power he had gained to build his world.
A vast, well-ordered world, extending outward from the mechanical fortress, with no errors or fractures.
Many different types of power had found their place in this world. The chaotic forces that served no purpose and only caused trouble had been bundled together and thrown into the newly established garbage disposal station in the fortress—after all, trash belongs in the trash can.
Looking at the world illusion before him, Yu Feichen was confident he would receive a higher rating than Knight. But he didn’t think the final rating would be very high—at least not King or Queen.
The process of fabricating his world had been too smooth, almost to the point of strangeness. All kinds of powers had submitted obediently without needing suppression or combination. Even forces that were theoretically absolutely repulsive coexisted peacefully when placed together. It made him suspect something was wrong.
After all, according to the rumors of Eternal Night, constructing a complete world was an extremely difficult task.
Another long period of time passed before the Mist City’s inspection finally ended.
The mist dispersed.
The black piece remained, but the horse-head shape had silently changed into a crown.
Black King.