Chapter 255: Life and Death Casino (27)

  Although Ruan Qing had never directly gambled against the maid boy, based on the information he had obtained and his own speculations, the probability of him winning the bet was less than one percent.

It seemed that the maid boy could sense everything in the Life and Death Casino, not just what the staff could perceive.

He might even be able to sense everything within the entire game instance.

There was a chance that he could even perceive every card and every bullet in the game.

When Ruan Qing had gambled with Su Zhen earlier, he was certain that no one besides himself could have known his cards.

This was because he had never picked up the cards; he had placed them face down on the table immediately. He hadn’t even touched one of the cards himself.

Either the maid boy’s brain was comparable to a supercomputer or a quantum computer, allowing him to calculate Ruan Qing’s cards, or he could perceive the cards without even looking at them.

Ruan Qing believed it was the latter.

Under these circumstances, Ruan Qing’s chances of winning against the other were practically zero.

Practically zero, but not necessarily zero.

Ruan Qing’s eyes showed a hint of contemplation as he picked up the tablet and continued reading.

After blowing a kiss, the maid boy seemed to have seen something amusing, and the smile on his face grew even brighter.

He even reached out to touch the corner of his mouth, clearly showing his happiness and joy to anyone who saw him.

Seeing this, Ruan Qing turned his head to look in the direction of the restroom where Han Ze was, his delicate brows slightly furrowed.

Could the maid boy and Han Ze be sharing a connection?

Ruan Qing’s grip on the tablet tightened slightly, causing his pale fingertips to turn even whiter.

He didn’t believe that what had just happened was a coincidence. If it were just a coincidence, the maid boy wouldn’t have smiled so... suggestively.

No wonder the maid boy didn’t stop Han Ze and even sent him to Han Ze’s side.

Because if Han Ze won the bet, the maid boy would benefit as well.

The situation was even worse than Ruan Qing had imagined.

If the maid boy and Han Ze were sharing a connection, it meant that the maid boy knew everything about Han Ze.

Ruan Qing wouldn’t be able to command Han Ze to do anything.

Doing so would be equivalent to laying all of his plans out in front of the maid boy, leaving no possibility of victory.

Moreover, with nine flags already voided and almost no flags left on the outer edge of the maze, the only way to obtain a flag would be to venture deeper into the center or further inside.

The few who entered the maze were all strong, but even so, it was incredibly difficult to navigate, and they all suffered some injuries.

Even Su Zhen was no exception.

There were quite a few living creatures in the maze, but most of them were uncontrollable monsters. Whenever Su Zhen’s puppet strings connected with a monster, they would be devoured.

Su Zhen tried to figure out why—it’s not that the monsters could devour his puppet strings, but rather the blood within the monsters had the ability to consume them.

The others also noticed something strange about the maze. The real danger wasn’t the monsters themselves, but the golden-yellow blood that emerged after the monsters were killed.

As soon as a monster was slain, the golden-yellow blood would start devouring everything present, eventually merging into the green vines that crawled along the walls.

The group had a bad feeling about those green vines.

Although the green vines currently seemed weak and harmless, if they were ever to awaken, even they might not escape unscathed.

Su Zhen’s eyes also reflected a mixture of danger and seriousness.

The difficulty of this dungeon wasn’t much different from his own, and naturally, his strength wasn’t vastly different from that of this dungeon’s boss.

But the biggest issue was that a boss was only at its strongest within its own dungeon.

And he had been away from his dungeon for a long time.

In other words, if he were to directly confront the boss of this dungeon, victory wasn’t guaranteed.

Moreover, if the dungeon were to collapse, the main game system would intervene directly.

In that case, not only would no one get what they wanted, but they would also draw the attention of the main game system once again.

Su Zhen’s eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly for a moment, and he immediately lifted the seal on this dungeon, giving someone a chance to escape.

He could allow Ye Qing to escape again, but he would never let himself be used by others.

The deeper they went into the maze, the more dangerous it became. By the end, it wasn’t just about fighting monsters; they were battling various illusions and even themselves.

This required not only immense combat strength but also strong powers of observation and critical thinking.

Most of them were not strategic players, and the players outside the maze were already on the verge of mental collapse from staring at it for so long, rendering them completely useless.

In the entire maze, only the maid boy remained relaxed, even starting to walk in the direction of one of them.

The gamblers and players watching the game grew inexplicably tense as the maid boy drew closer. It was as if something terrible would happen if they encountered him.

Since Ruan Qing’s livestream had ended, the viewers quickly flocked to other players’ streams. Upon seeing the maid boy approaching, they also grew nervous.

[Guys, is this maid boy really a player? Why do I feel like something’s off?]

[Yeah, something’s definitely off. He’s navigating the maze like it’s nothing, almost like he’s just going home.]

[Is it possible that he’s... the boss of this dungeon?]

There was an intense debate among the viewers about whether the maid boy was the boss or just a player, with opinions sharply divided.

However, the argument didn’t last long; soon, everyone knew exactly who the maid boy was.

He was the big boss.

Everyone watching widened their eyes in disbelief as they saw the green vines controlled by the maid boy.

As the maid boy approached one of the players, he directly controlled the green vines to attack that person.

The target of the attack was Su Zhen.

Su Zhen instantly leaped backward, dodging the green vines that were attacking him.

After steadying himself, Su Zhen looked at the mass of green vines behind the maid boy without a trace of surprise.

During their previous encounter in the gambling game, he had already figured out the maid boy’s identity.

He was one of the dungeon boss’s avatars.

Although not exceptionally powerful, the maid boy was extremely cunning and adept at using everything in the casino for attacks.

His precognitive abilities were almost on par with Feng Ye’s.

The maid boy couldn’t defeat him, but because Su Zhen had to take the dungeon and its containment into account, he also couldn’t kill the maid boy.

But now it seemed like the maid boy no longer had that concern.

He didn’t need to worry about containing the dungeon anymore. Since the maze was the core of this dungeon and could withstand his power, he could do whatever he pleased.

Su Zhen might not necessarily win if he were to face the full boss of this dungeon, but against just one of its avatars?

The outcome was uncertain. 

As long as he seized the maid boy’s power, even the game’s main system would find it difficult to restrain him.

Su Zhen looked at the brightly smiling maid boy, and the corners of his mouth lifted slightly.

When enemies meet on a narrow path, this time it could not end in a draw.

Ruan Qing watched very intently, trying to discern the maid boy’s moves.

But the speed of the two was too fast; even Ruan Qing’s eyes blurred, making it difficult to see clearly.

Moreover, the sky was filled with green vines, making the scene even harder to make out.

Click. The bathroom door opened.

Han Ze walked out wrapped in a towel, his face flushed, with a hint of confusion.

Ruan Qing glanced at him and then withdrew his gaze, raising his chin slightly and gesturing toward the changing room nearby. “The clothes are over there.”

“Oh.” After meeting Ruan Qing’s eyes, Han Ze once again didn’t know what to do with his hands and feet, awkwardly walking toward the changing room.

Ruan Qing then directly turned off the maze’s live stream, no longer paying attention to what happened next, and instead opened other gambling games to watch.

Ruan Qing had watched the Life and Death Casino’s gambling games countless times, so many that he could almost recite them by heart.

It wasn’t just the content of the gambles; Ruan Qing had also meticulously calculated and analyzed the rules of the gambling games several times.

It seemed... there wasn’t a single gambling game that could allow him to win against the maid boy.

Anything from the Life and Death Casino or exchanged within the Life and Death Casino was likely within the maid boy’s perception.

Even a mere coin was no exception.

To win a gamble against the maid boy, one must not use anything from the Life and Death Casino.

However, because Ruan Qing owed too many points, he hadn’t exchanged for anything from the system store in the last instance.

The items he had exchanged before were all thrown away by the player who had kidnapped him.

The only thing related to the instance that he had was the phone provided to each player by the Infinite Horror Game.

A phone with no offensive power whatsoever.

Ruan Qing looked at the phone beside him, falling silent.

Although it had been half a day in the maze, in reality, it was already late at night, with no light outside the window.

Looking out of the window, the darkness obscured everything, as if it was a void.

This Life and Death Casino only allowed entry, not exit; apart from breaking the casino’s rules, no gambler had ever found a way to leave.

It was like being on a deserted island.

Ruan Qing put down the tablet and walked to the window, quietly gazing into the endless darkness outside.

The scene appeared overwhelmingly oppressive.

It felt as if one were imprisoned in a cage that one could never escape from, a place where prolonged confinement would inevitably drive a person mad.

Madness…

Han Ze didn’t take long to change his clothes. After finishing, he walked out of the changing room with a flushed face.

Seeing Ruan Qing standing by the window, he walked over and stood beside him, stiffly, like a bodyguard.

It seemed as though he didn’t know what to do, nor did he know what he wanted to do.

Han Ze had been stuck in this Life and Death Casino for a long time, so long that he couldn’t remember when he had first arrived.

So long that all he could remember was his name.

His daily life was exceedingly monotonous. Aside from eating and sleeping, he spent his time in Area Two of the Life and Death Casino, participating in gambling matches.

His life was one where the end could be seen at a glance.

There was no hope, no meaning—just a numb existence.

But now, things were different.

Han Ze looked at the slender figure in front of him, his heartbeat so loud that he could hear it himself.

It was as if a stone had been suddenly dropped into the still waters of a lake, creating waves that rippled out endlessly.

The ripples spread out in circles.

Han Ze wasn’t standing too far back, just to Ruan Qing’s left, where he could clearly see the side of Ruan Qing’s face.

Noticing that the person beside him hadn’t paid him any attention, Han Ze remained standing stiffly upright, but his gaze secretly fell on the corner of Ruan Qing’s eye.

Because he was looking at him from the side, he could clearly see the young man’s long eyelashes and the alluring teardrop mole at the corner of his eye.

After staring for a few seconds and seeing no reaction, Han Ze’s gaze uncontrollably drifted to Ruan Qing’s thin lips.

Then, for reasons he couldn’t explain, his gaze became slightly dazed, and his throat moved involuntarily.

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