Qi Tianās smile froze on his face.
He didnāt quite understand why Gu Mian would say that.
The hostās voice came from the high platform at that moment: "The second round is about to end. It seems our two contestants have no strength left to struggle. Looks like this round will end with both teams tied for last place..."
The only fear was that someone might suddenly pop up at the last second and cause some unexpected trouble.
Only six seconds were left.
Qi Tian stared hard at Gu Mian, as if afraid he might suddenly blurt out a correct word at the last minute.
The hostās loud voice continued, "Five seconds left! Four, three, two... one! The second round is over!"
As the host spoke, confusion appeared on Qi Tianās face. He had originally thought Gu Mian had some trick up his sleeve, but it seemed that wasnāt the case.
"The second round is over. Unfortunately, the two remaining teams are tied for last place, so itās time for you to face judgment." The host smiled at the two men in their cages.
As he spoke, the cage doors behind them had silently swung open.
Qi Tian looked at Gu Mian. "What the hell are you up to?"
Why, when weāre both about to be eliminated, does he still look like āif someone has to die, itās you, not meā?
It didnāt take long for Qi Tian to figure out what Gu Mian was up to.
Gu Mianās luck was always awful. If he were put in a tiger cage with Qi Tian, the tiger would surely eat the unfortunate Gu Mian first.
By the same logic, now that both cage doors were open, it was only natural that the ghost would enter Gu Mianās cage first.
A deathly white hand slowly stretched out from the darkness, reaching towards the floor inside Gu Mianās cage. Then, another hand appeared.
This ghost was crawling out.
After the two hands appeared, a head followed closely behind.
It was a head whose face couldnāt be seen clearly, as it was entirely obscured by long hair. Crimson liquid slowly dripped from the hair onto the ground.
The scene looked just like Sadako about to crawl out of a television set.
Qi Tian swallowed and backed away slightly. Even with iron bars between them, he instinctively felt afraid of this kind of thing.
"Looks like youāre going one step ahead of me," he tightened his grip on the bars. "Even though weāre both getting eliminated, at least Iāll get to see how you..."
But before Qi Tian could finish his sentence, he saw the ghost do something surprisingly human.
It suddenly reached out a hand, parted its curtain of hair to create a gap, and sized up the person in front of it.
After sizing him up, it retracted its head.
Then, the entire ghost immediately disappeared into the darkness, vanishing without a trace.
Gu Mian: "..."
Although this scene was unexpected, he obviously wasnāt so shameless as to shout something like, "Hey buddy, stick around and play!"
Meanwhile, Qi Tian, who was next to him, had an extremely ugly expression.
His face had frozen, as if he still hadnāt understood what had just happened.
"Th-this... this is..." Qi Tianās lips twitched slightly. "What..."
Gu Mian turned to look at him. "Iām done. What about you?"
Qi Tian was also about to be done. Gu Mian had already seen an eerie face materializing in the darkness behind him.
It had to be said, Qi Tian was quite capable to have lasted until the second round. At the very least, his screams were louder than othersā, and they seemed to be laced with a few curses.
The host stood on the high platform, watching Qi Tian disappear. He pursed his lips. "Looks like our logistics team for cage number five has gone on strike, HEHE. If Iād known, I should have borrowed some Evil Ghosts to handle logistics..."
"Oh, right," he said, looking at Gu Mian who was still in the cage. "Could you hand over the board youāre holding first?"
Gu Mian felt his white coat. "Is the game over now?"
Even though they had tied for last place in the second round, the rules of the game stated that the last team standing was the winner.
If this game didnāt have so many flashy, complicated rules and directly eliminated the last-placed team, Gu Mianās team would have been out by now.
The game organizers probably didnāt expect the logistics team to suddenly go on strike when they designed the game rules.
The host touched his bright green hat, then reached out and took the electronic timer from the table. "Alright, although it feels like your team bent the rules a bit... I now officially declareāthe fourth Crazy Guessing Words game is formally over! Your team is the champion!"
The game was over, and Fatty and Chu Changge could finally speak.
The hostās words had barely faded when Fatty blurted out a question, "The fourth iteration?"
The host on the high platform put away the electronic timer. "Thatās right, the fourth iteration. You are the fourth batch of players to participate in this game, so itās the fourth iteration."
Fatty hesitated before speaking, "I thought the instance data would be reset after players cleared an instance..."
But since the host clearly knew there were three batches of players before them, it meant that, at the very least, the data for this instance had not been reset.
"What are you thinking? Weāre not some kind of..." The host seemed to want to say more but stopped himself. "Alright, everyone come over and choose your rewards."
The locks on the cages had automatically disengaged.
Gu Mian pushed the door open and walked out. Just then, Chu Changge suddenly turned his head, and Gu Mian noticed Chu Changgeās expression was suddenly a bit odd.
What kind of expression is that?
Gu Mian noticed Chu Changge staring intently at the cage behind him, as if looking at the word-guessing board that had been covered by a black curtain.
"What are you looking at?" Gu Mian naturally followed his gaze and looked back.
Just then, the host on the high platform suddenly shouted something, but Gu Mian didnāt hear clearly.
Because Qi Tian had been eliminated, the āpitch-black curtainā on the word-guessing board had disappeared, revealing the boardās original appearance.
He saw three characters on the board that were gradually disappearing. Before Gu Mian could make them out clearly, the characters vanished completely.
He turned back to look at Chu Changge and saw that Chu Changgeās expression had returned to normal. However, Fattyās gaze had, at some point, also shifted over, and Fattyās complexion now looked a bit strange.
Were those three characters on the board the issue?
Gu Mian wanted to ask something, but the host interrupted him, "Are you all just going to stand there? Donāt you want your rewards?"