Yu Hanjiang was soaked to the bone by the rain. He was wearing a suit, and his wet hair clung to his body. His originally strong facial features were softened by the wet hair, giving him a touch of sexiness.
Xiao Lou glanced back at Captain Yu, who was soaking wet, and couldn't help but ask Guardian, " Plum Blossom A, since we're teammates, if we draw a grid we're not good at, can we switch positions?"
For example, Xiao Lou just drew the Spade puzzle and raced against Tibetan Mastiff, which Captain Yu would have found very easy. Similarly, the diamond puzzle that Yu Hanjiang drew would have been a breeze for Xiao Lou. If they could switch roles, they could each utilize their strengths and win more rewards.
Plum Blossom Youth said calmly, "The squares cannot be exchanged; you have to deal with the ones you draw yourself."
Xiao Lou: "...Okay."
His hopes were dashed.
Plum Blossom Youth then changed the subject, looking at the soaking wet Yu Hanjiang and saying, "But you can take the punishment for your teammates."
Yu Hanjiang said, "You mean, if a teammate fails a challenge in a certain square, another person can take the punishment for them, and any kind of punishment can be substituted?"
Plum Blossom Youth nodded: "Yes."
Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang exchanged a glance. Yu Hanjiang thought to himself that if Xiao Lou were to be drenched again later, he could take his place. After all, there was no difference between being drenched once and being drenched twice. He couldn't let Xiao Lou get so soaked and miserable.
After Yu Hanjiang finished his water-splashing punishment, it was Liu Qiao's turn.
In the first round, Liu Qiao was very lucky and rolled directly onto the plum blossom square, winning 100,000 gold coins. In the second round, Liu Qiao rolled a 4 and landed on the plum blossom square again. However, this time a red warning popped up on the screen: "Entered the plum blossom penalty square by mistake. Please leave 200,000 gold coins!"
Liu Qiao: "..."
The 100,000 yuan she had just earned was barely in her pocket when she was suddenly faced with another 100,000 yuan to lose. Liu Qiao's face was grim. She didn't have much money on her; the cat's eye bracelet and jade rough she had obtained after clearing Liuxi Village hadn't even been sold yet. This punishment had left Liu Qiao with almost all her savings, instantly turning her into a penniless pauper.
Masked Man number 4 rolled a 6 and landed in the diamonds square. The question he drew was also a math problem. Masked Man couldn't come up with the answer within 10 seconds. Like Yu Hanjiang, his body suddenly plummeted and fell into the pit, where a bucket of icy water was poured over his head!
The man, soaked to the bone, returned to the ground looking extremely disheveled. He couldn't help but complain, "These questions feel like a final review after three years of high school, like a college entrance exam?"
Xiao Lou was amused by his words, and upon closer reflection, it made perfect sense—passing the fourth level would allow entry into the main city, and setting up a "question-answering" section in this level did indeed resemble an entrance exam.
Those who aren't serious usually have to be punished if they can't answer the questions. Masked Man was clearly not serious; for example, Xiao Lou remembered the question about the hearts grid and the Fenglin High School building very clearly, but Masked Man couldn't answer it.
After one round of the game, it was Xiao Lou's turn again.
Xiao Lou carefully observed the grid distribution of the rhombus. Each of the four sides has 13 grids, arranged in a cyclical order of [ hearts, spade, diamonds, plum blossom ]. He is currently in the middle, in the spade grid. The next grids are diamonds, plum blossom, hearts, spade, diamonds, plum blossom, and the king of hearts at the corner.
He was seven steps away from the King of Hearts at the corner.
The dice can only roll a maximum of 6, so in the next round he can't jump directly from the King of Hearts to the central lottery area. To land on the King of Hearts, he has to roll at least twice, and the total number of points must be 7.
Xiao Lou took a deep breath, picked up the dice, gently rubbed them in his palm, and dropped them into the disc.
—4 o'clock.
In other words, he's going to go back into Spade!
Xiao Lou looked rather grim. Spade, who was least suited for physical confrontations, had just been chased around a lap by Tibetan Mastiff, and his legs were still a bit weak. If it happened again, he probably wouldn't be able to reach the finish line.
However, this time, the pop-up request on the screen was quite bizarre: "One minute to do push-ups on the spot. 35 or more is acceptable, less than 35 will result in punishment."
Xiao Lou: "..."
Damn it!
The Masked Man standing at the back couldn't help but laugh out loud: "Is this considered a physical education exam?"
Seeing the countdown start at 60 seconds on the screen, Xiao Lou had no choice but to do push-ups on the spot.
He had been hovering around the passing mark in push-ups since middle school. Today, he was under a lot of psychological pressure, and he had just run a lap like he was running for his life, which had severely depleted his physical strength. Moreover, wearing a suit and leather shoes made it very inconvenient to do push-ups because his body was restricted by the clothes. So, when the countdown ended, Xiao Lou only did 34 push-ups.
Just one more!
Xiao Lou stood up and looked at the big screen with concern.
A red exclamation mark appeared on the screen: "Challenge failed, please accept the punishment!"
Before he could ask about the punishment, Yu Hanjiang whispered, "I'll take his place."
Plum Blossom Youth looked at Yu Hanjiang with a cold gaze: " Spade's punishment will be quite cruel. Are you sure you want to take his place?"
Yu Hanjiang walked to Xiao Lou's cubicle without hesitation, looked at Professor Xiao with gentle eyes, and said, "You just ran a whole lap, you must be very tired. Take a rest for a while, I'll take your place during the punishment."
Xiao Lou felt a warmth in her heart, but
Still a little embarrassed to let Captain Yu do it for me: "I'll do it myself..."
Yu Hanjiang gently pressed his shoulder, shook his head at him, and whispered in his ear, "Don't push yourself too hard. You're too exhausted. Save your energy. You might be able to jump to Spade next. "
The man's gaze was resolute. Xiao Lou met his deep eyes and could only nod and stand to the side.
The screen displays the punishment for Spade: "Please find the Spade 8 playing card accurately from the box full of spiders in front of you."
A transparent box appeared before him, filled with large, hairy spiders crawling around, a sight that was quite frightening. Several playing cards were placed at the bottom of the box, and Challenger needed to reach inside and retrieve the cards from the spider swarm.
Xiao Lou's face turned pale upon seeing this.
His least favorite animal is the spider, and if it weren't for Captain Yu doing it for him...
He couldn't even bear the thought of putting his hand into the spiderweb.
Yu Hanjiang's gaze was calm. The moment the punishment began, he slipped his hand through the opening in the box.
Surrounded by spiders, Yu Hanjiang searched for cards without the slightest tremor or stiffness; his expression was as calm as if he were searching for cards in the sand.
He gently pushed the approaching spider aside with his long, slender fingers and swiftly drew a card.
It's spade 4, which doesn't meet the requirements.
Yu Hanjiang reached in again and picked up a playing card, this time a 5.
He remained calm and reached into the spider-infested box for the third time—this time finally pulling out the 8 of Spade.
Yu Hanjiang handed the card to Xiao Lou, thus completing the punishment for Xiao Lou.
There were several spider bite marks on the man's fingers and the back of his hands, with a few bright red beads of blood. Xiao Lou met his calm gaze, felt a slight jolt, and whispered, "Thank you."
Yu Hanjiang smiled slightly: "Don't mention it."
Seeing this from behind, Masked Man couldn't help but say, " Liu Qiao, even though you're a girl, I won't take the punishment for you, and we're not that close. If you jump into this square, you're on your own." He was afraid of spiders too!
Liu Qiao glanced back at him and said, "I don't need you to do it for me, and I won't do it for you either."
Compared to Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang's mutual support, these two temporarily matched partners clearly lacked the awareness to "take the punishment for their teammates." They seemed to be playing solo, each doing their own thing.
Next up was Yu Hanjiang. This time he had a good run of luck, throwing a 2 and moving from the diamonds to the hearts.
A question pops up on the screen: " Fenglin High School, how many chocolates are in Yu Hui's backpack?"
Even Xiao Lou, who is good at heart- related questions, felt a headache when he saw this problem—who would notice such details? When they searched the classroom, they only noticed a box of chocolates in Yu Hui's backpack, and Xiao Lou didn't even count how many chocolates there were.
I thought Yu Hanjiang wouldn't be able to answer, but to my surprise, Captain Yu answered without hesitation: "14."
As a criminal police officer, he wouldn't overlook any detail at the crime scene. Yu Hui's chocolate box was square, with four chocolates in a row, for a total of four rows and 16 chocolates. He gave two of them to Ying Xiaoya, so there were 14 chocolates left in the box.
The text on the screen turns green when the answer is correct: "Challenge successful! Random reward: Generate a copy card from one of the cards in your card holder. Please select the card you wish to copy."
Yu Hanjiang took out his card holder and looked at it. Some of the cards he and Xiao Lou currently possessed were team-limited, such as [ Di Renjie ], [Human Bone Medicine Jar], [ Balance ], etc. Copying these cards would be useless, as a team could only bring one.
For non-limited cards, it's naturally more cost-effective to copy S-rarity cards.
For weapon-related cards, Xiao Lou, CEO Shao, and Ye Qi don't know how to use them, so copying them wouldn't be very useful. It's better to copy the ones that are easier to use.
Yu Hanjiang asked Guardian, "Can I copy cards from my teammate's card holder?"
Guardian nodded: "Of course."
Yu Hanjiang walked over to Xiao Lou and asked in a low voice, "Do you have any cards in your card holder that you want to copy?"
Xiao Lou thought about it carefully, took out Qin Guan from the card holder, and said, "How about we copy this one? Qin Guan's ' Telepathic Connection ' channel is very useful. You don't need to speak; you can convey your thoughts to the other party. If we have an extra Qin Guan, we can split up and establish multiple communication channels when the team grows."
Yu Hanjiang nodded: "Okay."
He took the Qin Guan card from Xiao Lou and copied it.
In this way, they will have two S-level Qin Guan cards with the second skill "If Love Lasts Forever". Once they are divided into groups, the groups can establish a Telepathic Connection channel to maintain contact at any time, and can also communicate across the main city and across secret rooms.
This reward is really great.
The " card board" game in Plum Blossom 4, although the penalty rounds are a headache, are nothing compared to the rewards...
Liu Qiao stepped into the diamonds square this time. She was very fast at solving math problems and succeeded, earning a reward tool card, just like Xiao Lou— [ tool card: scissors].
Masked Man #4 had a bad day, stepping on the plum blossom grid and losing 200,000 gold coins.
In the fourth round of the game, the disc and dice returned to Xiao Lou's hands.
He stood in the spade square; the first two squares were diamonds and plum blossoms, and the third square was the king of hearts at the corner.
If he hits 3 points, he can directly step on the King of Hearts to pass the level.
Xiao Lou
Xiao Lou spun the die in his palm and gently tossed it into the disc. The die's spinning speed gradually slowed down, and Xiao Lou thought it was about to stop at 3. But then, the capricious die suddenly flipped over and turned into 5.
Xiao Lou: "..."
He needs to take five steps forward, past the King of Hearts, and stop at the Diamonds on the other path.
Although he couldn't stop at King of Hearts, Diamonds was something he excelled at, which made Xiao Lou breathe a slight sigh of relief.
This Diamonds puzzle is the Five Elements Mechanism. A large disc appears on the screen, consisting of five smaller discs arranged clockwise. The discs are labeled with the elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. You need to adjust their order to make the Five Elements array form the correct "mutual generation and mutual restraint" relationship.
Xiao Lou quickly reached out and adjusted the order to "wood," "fire," "earth," "metal," and "water," thus conforming to the rule that wood generates fire, fire generates earth, earth generates metal, metal generates water, and water generates wood, with adjacent elements generating each other and separated elements restraining each other.
Xiao Lou successfully solved the puzzle with a 10-second time limit.
The screen displays the message: "Correct answer, receive a random reward: [ tool card: luminous pearl ]"
This is a rarity A-grade tool card with a single description: "In the pitch black of night, especially in the wilderness, you can use the luminous pearl for illumination. Using the luminous pearl will illuminate a fan-shaped area approximately 10 meters long and 180 degrees in front of you. The luminous pearl has no cooldown time limit and no usage limit."
Xiao Lou was overjoyed—this card is a functional tool card. It has no combat power, but lighting is very important, especially in the wild or in harsh weather conditions. Holding a torch for light is inconvenient, so the luminous pearl can play a great role.
Xiao Lou turned to look at Captain Yu. It was his turn to play. Yu Hanjiang was currently in the hearts square. He was four steps away from the king of hearts square around the corner. He hoped that Captain Yu would have good luck and land a 4.
However, Yu Hanjiang threw a 3 – which only allowed him to enter the plum blossom square, just one step away from the king of hearts!
Looking at the King of Hearts grand prize so close at hand, Yu Hanjiang felt helpless. He took three steps forward and stopped at the Plum Blossom square. A notification popped up on the screen: "Enter the Plum Blossom reward square and receive 100,000 gold coins."
The plum blossom grid appears to be random, with some squares being rewards and others being penalties. The reward so far is only 100,000 gold coins, but the penalty for Liu Qiao stepping on one is 200,000, all depending on luck.
When it was Liu Qiao's turn, she looked up and ahead.
The King of Hearts is 6 steps away from her at the corner. If she can hit a 6, she can reach the King of Hearts directly.
Liu Qiao silently prayed in her heart before picking up the dice and gently dropping them into the round plate.
The dice spun rapidly for a few minutes before finally coming to rest under the eager gazes of the other three.
The upward-facing side—that's exactly 6 o'clock!
Liu Qiao was overjoyed and looked up at Xiao Lou nearby.
Xiao Lou was also very happy for her, saying, "Xiao Liu, you can clear the level directly now."
Liu Qiao nodded: "Yeah, I'm lucky today."
She landed on the plum blossom tile in the first round and was awarded 100,000 coins. In the second round, she landed on the plum blossom tile again, but was penniless after losing 200,000 coins. In the third round, she landed on the diamonds tile and drew a utility card. In the fourth round, she landed on the king tile at the corner.
Entering the K-brand Challenger, you can take a shortcut around the corner to reach the center of the venue, draw a prize, and complete the challenge.
The red King card was for drawing from the gold box. Liu Qiao quickly walked to the box, reached in, and randomly drew a card.
—Congratulations to Liu Qiao for obtaining the S-rank summon card [ Poison Queen ]!
Liu Qiao paused for a moment, picked up the card and looked at it carefully. Xiao Lou also turned around to look curiously.
The card depicted a queen dressed in black, holding a beautiful bronze mirror in her hand.
Xiao Lou asked, "Is she the poison queen from the fairy tale?"
Liu Qiao said, "Yes, from Snow White."
[Summoning Card: Poison Queen ]
Rarity: S
Description: Limited-time gacha pool for the reward room, with a certain probability of obtaining it.
Additional Skill 1: Who's the prettiest in the Magic Mirror?
The Poison Queen looks at the mirror in her hand and asks, "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?" The mirror answers, "Snow White." Enraged, the Poison Queen throws the mirror. When it hits a designated 10x10 meter area, it reflects the image of any enemies within that area. Seeing their reflections, they realize how ugly they are and, ashamed, collectively cease their attacks. If an enemy is already attacking, their image is reflected back by the mirror.
Simply put, this is a magical realm where silence can be broken and damage can be reflected.
Additional Skill 2: Poison Apple
The Queen takes out an apple containing a deadly poison. Feeding the Poison Apple to the designated target will immediately put the target into a near-death state. If the target does not receive an antidote card within 10 minutes, the target will die.
Xiao Lou couldn't help but exclaim, "This card is very strong."
Liu Qiao seems to have a special affinity for fairy tale cards. She drew a [ Little Red Riding Hood ] card before, and today she drew a [ Poison Queen ] card from the fairy tale Snow White. The Poison Queen's first skill, Magic Mirror, deals area-of-effect damage, and her second skill, Poison Apple, can be used to kill in one hit if used well.
This is a very strong attack card among S-rank cards.
Liu Qiao was clearly happy and put away the S card.
Plum Blossom Youth said calmly, "Contestant number 3, Liu Qiao, has cleared the level first. You can choose to leave the Plum Blossom 4 secret room or wait for your teammates to finish the game."
Liu Qiao didn't rush to leave. She stood to the side, wanting to see the outcome of Professor Xiao and Captain Yu's game.
She lost all the money she had in this round, but fortunately, she could sell the cat's eye bracelet and the rough jade for money. However, she was alone...
Women are often outnumbered and lack knowledge about jade prices. If they try to sell it themselves, they are likely to be scammed. It would be more reliable to entrust it to CEO Shao for unified handling.
CEO Shao and Professor Xiao have already agreed to team up and will definitely meet in Moon City.
Therefore, the wisest thing to do is to wait for them to finish their game and then go to Moon City together.
Upon noticing Liu Qiao waiting nearby, Xiao Lou guessed her thoughts, smiled slightly, and said, "Xiao Liu, then wait for us to clear the level, and then we'll all go to Moon City together."
Liu Qiao immediately nodded: "Okay!"