Chapter 181#
Price 04#
Openly displaying everyone’s usernames, is this something a human would do?
No, wait. The City of Mist wasn’t human to begin with.
It was one thing for Everlasting Day, but how is even the City of Mist’s network not a lawless land?
If it were their Lord God setting the rules… though He was a little too exploitative, He would at least save everyone some face, right?
The Lord God’s own ID wasn’t very formal either, but He had no chess pieces and didn’t need to enter the field, so no one could see it. On the other hand, Little Yu’s ID was intriguing; his messages didn’t seem to have appeared on the blackboard.
The worst part was that Little Yu looked like a proper person. In the end, the ones suffering the ultimate social death were still them.
It was all to blame on how much fun they had when naming themselves. What “City of Mist I Praise You”, what “I Love Slacking Off the Most”, and what “Being xxxx’ed by Teammates”…
Amidst a chorus of wails, An Fei turned to Yu Feichen.
“What’s your username?” he asked his possession.
Yu Feichen’s reply came a bit slowly: “You’ll know when the time comes.”
An Fei seemed to understand something. His frost-blue eyes slowly drifted downward, yet he was still looking at him with a sidelong, supercilious glance. However, the corners of his eyes curved slightly upward, carrying a hint of a half-smile.
Like a cat lazily looking down at people from a high place. His face practically wrote, I’d like to see what tricks you have up your sleeve.
Seeing that An Fei really seemed about to say something, Yu Feichen decisively poured him more wine and handed it to him.
A hint of amusement flickered in An Fei’s eyes. He took the wine glass, said no more, and focused on tasting the wine.
He tasted the wine; Yu Feichen watched him.
An Fei had never mentioned to what extent his memory had recovered, but Yu Feichen felt that An Fei was drawing closer to his pre-amnesia state—at least when dealing with him.
But when looking at the other priests, especially the black raincoats, he still carried a trace of disdain. Those few people were currently collapsing in distress because they were about to lose their usernames.
Xina’s name was relatively normal, with no pressure of social death, so her mindset was relatively lively.
For the moment, the dealer made no other moves. The two people in the colosseum just stood there for observation, and she took the initiative to speak about information related to this “Monarch Chess” game:
“In ancient times, virtues of bravery and skill in battle were highly revered, and exquisite, powerful martial arts were pursued, thus giving rise to many forms of combat and competition. ‘Monarch Chess’ was a very popular large-scale event back then, held every few years, where outstanding participants would gain great fame.”
“Participants are divided into black and white camps, ranked by chess piece levels, and engage in one-on-one combat. As for the end condition of the game, it’s very simple—until one camp has no one left. The other side wins the final victory.”
“In one-on-one combat, why would a camp end up with no one left? Does the winner not leave the field?” Murphy asked with a frown.
Xina: “Yes, exactly.”
When two people fought, the loser was eliminated, while the winner remained on the field, waiting for the next opponent’s challenge until they were eventually defeated. The black and white sides would take turns fighting like this until one camp was completely eliminated.
The suspense of the outcome was high, and there were many spectators, which naturally gave rise to betting. People would place bets on who would win or lose and split the winnings based on the results, very similar to how things were heading now.
Xina: “This game has many betting formats, such as betting on a single round, betting on the overall game, or betting on the number of matches. Right now, it looks like we’re going to bet on a single round. According to the rules, it should be betting money, but since the City of Mist has no concept of money, I think it might be betting power. I just don’t know if the rules will change, after all, the City of Mist is nothing good.”
Yu Feichen: “And the scepter?”
—An Fei called that special golden chip the “Scepter,” and this game was called “Monarch Chess.” In any context, the scepter and the monarch were closely connected.
“The records about this are not very clear. I only know that it represents a very special bettor. His bet will affect the combat situation, and the stakes are extraordinarily high. The kind where if he wins, the organizers go bankrupt paying out, and if he loses, he loses everything. Just imagine it,” Xina said.
Speaking of this, a look of extreme envy suddenly appeared in Xina’s eyes, and her voice became intoxicated.
“I only know about this because of an anecdote recorded in the ancient texts. The texts say that originally, barely anyone took the ‘Scepter’ because the odds of winning were too small, and losing was too disastrous. But in one year’s Monarch Chess event, an unknown youth took the golden chip under the watchful eyes of the crowd. Under a leverage of nearly a hundredfold, he bet on only one person in every single match.”
“As for the one who was bet on, he was also a nobody. He hadn’t participated in the event before and was rated at the lowest level, with no one favoring him. Logically, the one betting on him should have lost everything, but this person somehow never lost once. He stood on the stage until the very end, taking down all the opposing chess pieces single-handedly… Don’t look at me like that. Even though it sounds fake, that’s exactly how it was written in the texts!”
“In the end, the one who took the scepter won the wealth of a full ten kingdoms, making the organizers vomit blood in anger. They insisted there was something fishy going on and wanted to find some temple or other to seek justice, haha.”
Xina rested her chin on her hands with an infatuated expression, as if looking at the legendary wealth of ten kingdoms.
Even the Lord God, after stealing a glance, let out a guilty cough and tried hard to manage His expression.
At this moment, the dealer spoke again: “To demonstrate the rules of the chess game, I will randomly select ten people to place bets.”
It started.
The dealer: “Black Queen: 02.”
—The first one to be called was Precept.
Xina covered her face, not surprised in the slightest.
Since Precept was on the list, betting was undoubtedly a bad thing. Ten chosen out of two thousand, a 0.5% probability—she wondered who the remaining nine unlucky bastards were.
Only to hear the dealer read out the next unlucky bastard’s number: “Black King: 01.”
This time, it was Yu Feichen’s turn.
Claros burst out laughing, and even An Fei smiled.
Yu Feichen felt an even stronger urge to toss away Claros’s parasol.
The dealer then read out eight more numbers. The distribution of the numbers had no pattern whatsoever, and none of them were people they were familiar with.
“This is what real randomness looks like,” a black raincoat spoke up, and then hastily added to cover up his blunder, “Not that I mean the first two weren’t.”
After the number of the last bettor was called, a beam of cold white light suddenly shone down on the heads of the ten bettors. The white light illuminated them, also drawing the attention of the entire venue.
The dealer said, “Guests, please place your bets.”
Under the eerie light, the expressions and movements of the bettors were clearly visible.
Yu Feichen’s gaze rested on the field, his deep, dark pupils showing no trace of emotion, like the midnight sky after the stars had faded away.
The breathing and footsteps of “Shorthair Cat” and “Cheetah” as they walked onto the stage, their expressions and postures as they confronted each other… every detail was replayed before his eyes.
He picked up the red-and-white chip, not even glancing at the demon statue on the table, and lightly tossed it with a flick of his hand.
The chip landed accurately in the mouth of the black demon. With a “clack,” the black demon closed its mouth and swallowed the chip. The demon that didn’t receive the chip had its eyes bulging and its fangs bared, striking a hideous, jealous pose.
Almost at the same time, Precept also tossed his chip to the black demon. They both voted for “Cheetah,” that petite female.
People placed their bets one after another. A minute later, seven people had completed their bets, some black, some white.
The dealer’s eerie, cold voice rang out: “Countdown: 10, 9…”
One second before the countdown hit zero, the remaining three people hurriedly completed their bets.
The countdown ended.
After a brief silence, the dealer’s gaze slowly shifted to An Fei, who was at the very center.
She bowed slightly to An Fei once again, but the coldness in her voice did not fade in the slightest: “Monarch, please place your bet.”
A bright light lit up around An Fei, brighter than the light on the ten bettors.
Under this light, every single detail on his body became visible down to the finest hair. The atmosphere in the venue suddenly froze for an instant, as if everyone had involuntarily held their breath for a second.
In the Evernight, if one learned the method of controlling power, they could naturally alter their appearance.
But even so, such a flawless countenance was rarely seen in the world.
At this moment, An Fei lowered his eyelashes slightly, looking at the flowing gold chip in his hand.
His focused expression carried a faint, elusive melancholy, as if he were looking at a rose sent by a former lover.
—And he still delayed making a decision.
“Monarch, please place your bet.”
“Countdown: 10, 9, 8… 4, 3—”
The chip drew a faint, glittering golden arc in the air, landing in the black demon’s mouth.
The female dealer withdrew her gaze. This time, her mechanical and cold gaze fell upon the black chess piece “Cheetah.”
“Black Knight 463, swear allegiance to the Monarch.”
The next moment, Cheetah’s right hand suddenly rose uncontrollably. Her arm trembled slightly, and a look of struggle appeared in her eyes, which had always been sharp and resilient. She was clearly resisting that power, but the resistance yielded no result.
Ultimately, her right fingernails dug deep into the skin of her left chest, slashing diagonally downward to leave a deep bloody gash, which ran right across her entire heart.
With a barely audible sound, bright red blood dripped onto the ground.
After doing all this, her arm suddenly relaxed, and she regained control of her body.
Under the tear in her clothes, the wound was vivid.
In combat, any weakness could be fatal. How much of an impact would a wound of this severity have on her?
Yu Feichen’s gaze was dark and cold.
After the “allegiance swearing,” her strength had dropped by about three to five percent.
The casino respectfully addressed An Fei as “Monarch,” but this phase was clearly setting up obstacles in secret to lower his win rate.
Looking at An Fei’s indifferent expression, he didn’t seem surprised by this.
However, the City of Mist’s arrangements did not end there.
Only to hear the dealer say, “Unarmed, armed, mounted.”
“Armed combat only allows the use of ordinary cold weapons.”
“White Knight 463, please choose the combat method.”
“Shorthair Cat” pondered for a few seconds.
He had originally thought the side chosen by the monarch would receive a blessing buff, but to his surprise, the opponent had slashed herself, and he had even obtained the right to choose.
He quickly said, “Armed.”
As soon as the words fell, grey mist flickered on their shoulders. They closed their eyes to concentrate, and a moment later, each of them drew a handy weapon.
The dealer announced expressionlessly, “Begin.”