Haidu: Top of the Tower

Chapter 21 The Executioner's Third Son
In the first tens of seconds, no one seemed to realize that there was something wrong with this series of numbers.

Until Luo Geng suddenly frowned slightly, and looked at the bookcase closest to him with twenty or thirty small flags on it—it was the one that represented the martial arts gladiatorial game.

"Excuse me, have you chosen this gladiatorial game?" He seemed to be in disbelief, as he still needed to confirm a word in front of the big cabinet flag.

Amelia shook her head.

Amidst the uproar of surprise, the entire hall was firmly gripped by confusion.

"Let me just say, something seems wrong." Luo Geng maintained a decent demeanor, smiled and said to the staff: "It seems that you got the number wrong, just look at the number on the flag."

A staff member glanced at Amelia.

"That's right," he whispered, "I counted this bookcase."

Luo Geng laughed "ha" and said, "No, Miss Amelia just said—"

He stopped talking.

...he reacted.

Milady could almost see how that burst of enlightenment came down like the light of the sky, fell into Luo Geng's mind, and illuminated the mystery.He wasn't stupid, he understood it in an instant, and before he could say a word, he turned his head and rushed to the other side of the bookcase.

On the other side of the bookcase, there is a number plate with "Number 10" written on it.

"No, no—who remembers the number of this bookcase, what was it at the beginning?" Luo Geng frowned, looked at the contestants, and asked sharply.

"Ah...it seems to be No. 4." Among the sisters and brothers who had talked with Milady, the elder sister raised her hand and said, "We voted for No. 10 at the beginning, I remember that .But number 10 is the bookcase over there, solving puzzles..."

Luo Geng no longer needs to continue asking.

His rising anger washed away the cover of his demeanor; he tore off the number plate, hurried to Amelia's desk, and slammed it on the table, Said: "Someone replaced the number plate. It was originally number 4, so the number of flags should be counted to number 4. Please do it again!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he walked towards Milady with strides, and the wind he stirred up seemed to slap her.He gritted his teeth and asked, "When did you do your hands and feet?"

"While you are counting the flags." Milady replied in a low voice.

"Why do you refuse to be quiet when you are about to die, and insist on annoying people with useless tricks?"

Milady tilted her head. "Is it really useless?"

There was a few moments of silence in the hall.

Amelia looked down at the number plate; the contestants of the major families, some looked at Luo Geng, some looked at Milady; and Milady was looking at Amelia at this time.

She can experience hundreds of emotions, like ice floes in winter, flowing through her blood in pieces and hard, making her tremble like a shiver at any time.Ten minutes ago, she felt like she had fallen into a river under the thick ice and couldn't find the exit, but now she was about to see the sky...

It is still one step away from truly turning defeat into victory.

Milady didn't seem to notice that the attention of the whole hall was focused on herself, and said slowly: "The goal of the warm-up match is to choose the game number you want, not to choose these few Bookcase, right?"

Luo Geng opened his mouth for a moment, but made no sound.

"If you are not convinced, you might as well ask Miss Amelia to read the rules of the warm-up match again."

Milady's eyes were tightly locked on Amelia, and she said: "'When the warm-up match is over, the staff will count the number of flags on the bookcases, and the five bookcase numbers with the most flags will determine the next one. The content of the trial match." Excuse me, is this the original sentence of the warm-up match rules? The only things that are not allowed to move during the warm-up match are the books and props on the bookcase, but it has never been said that the flag and number plate cannot be moved, right? ?”

Amelia sat behind the desk with her back straight, noncommittal.

The reporters were staring at this scene from a distance, and the video organs were all held up and down in their hands. I don't know who made the "click" sound, which brought everyone in the hall back to their senses.

"That's right!" Malt patted his forehead and said, "I understand, because every game exists on the bookcase in the form of metaphors and mysteries, so the committee can't use the game name to count the number of flags, only The serial number on the bookcase represents the corresponding game. And each bookcase is very different, and you can tell what it is at a glance, so you didn't pay attention to the number when you planted the flag..."

"Shut up," Luo Geng turned his head and slammed her hard, "What's the use of making such an afterthought now?"

The person being scolded was obviously Malt, but several female contestants from other families showed expressions as if they had been slapped.

Milady rolled her eyes.No matter how much they quarreled, it was not the point; the point was only one person—Amelia.

The Prosperity Committee is like a gate that guards the road to wealth. After the patriarchs of the major families take office, they must first establish a good relationship with the committee... If Amelia insists that Milady's actions are against the rules, she will obviously take sides Luo Geng, then she actually has nothing to do.

Seeing that Amelia hadn't spoken yet, Milady took another step closer, staring straight at her and said, "Miss Amelia, which five games are the five bookcase numbers selected in the warm-up match compared with? Not only us, but I think journalists would also like to know."

Amelia's eyes flashed quickly toward the edge of the hall.

It is really a good thing that the trials are open to newspapers and the general public.

Amelia finally spoke. "What is not prohibited by the rules is allowed. There are many ways to win in the warm-up match. Moving the number plate and making the opponent vote for their own goals is also one of the ways to win. Therefore, in this round of warm-up match, the number of the bookcase with the most flags, I hereby judge it valid."

The hall was surprisingly quiet, as if everyone suspected that they had heard wrong.

Her expression was still very indifferent, and she calmed down her tone to Luo Geng, and said: "You failed in the warm-up match, just because you were selected for a different batch of games, it doesn't mean you can't win in the end. Remember your Identity, even in setbacks, you can't lose your composure."

These few announcements are like a huge wave stirred up by a stone, and the ceiling is about to start trembling.Luo Geng naturally refused to give up, and was still desperately arguing with Amelia, and even smashed the table with his fist once, but his voice was drowned in the buzzing noise.

Everyone was talking, everyone was watching Milady.The reporters couldn't believe that there was such a change in this year's trial competition, and they had already rushed forward, surrounding her in a circle composed of video organs, pens and paper, and asking questions, trying to hear her answer.

Among them, the most frequent question is undoubtedly the one that cannot be avoided: why does Milady dare to challenge the current patriarch of the family?

"What's so special about this?" Miledy replied, "Aren't most of the contestants participating in the trials challenging the current patriarch?"

The reporters were taken aback.

"When I have an experience worth mentioning, please rest assured that I will definitely tell you. Now, my experience has not yet begun." Milady nodded to the reporters, squeezed out of the crowd, and strode towards Amelie Asia's desk.

Luo Geng was standing beside her; she could almost feel the heat on his body stimulated by anger, like a pulse, and it was astonishingly hot one after another.

"Miss Amelia," Milady looked at the folder on the table and asked with a smile: "According to previous years' practice, it's time to announce the inclusion in the game, right?"

Ever since Amelia announced that the result of the warm-up match was valid, her gaze had hardly left Amelia for more than three seconds.Or rather, never leaving the folder on her desk.

Even though it seemed unlikely that the Prosperity Committee would deliberately cancel the game for Luo Geng alone, she had to guard against it.Only when Amelia read out the game content prepared in the morning on the spot, Milady dared to rest assured.Otherwise, the committee is the organizer. Isn't it easy for them to change positions?

Amelia's facial features and skin seemed to be frozen, and she was not moved by Milady's suspicion.

When she reached out and found five game folders, the noisy voices in the hall gradually subsided, and everyone's eyes turned to the desk.

"Now I will announce the content of the selected games for this trial. First of all, the four games used in the second part of the trial—"

The first game, "Kidnapping the King": a faction game, where all players are divided into two factions, and the duration is unlimited.

As the name of the game suggests, you only need to successfully capture the opponent's king, and each player in the winning camp can get [-] points.

The second game, "Survival in the Chamber of Secrets": single-player game, three hours long.

All the players are locked in a small room alone. There is no corridor passage in the building, and there is only one room connected to the outside world.Players must find a way to leave their room and find a way out, out of the building.

But while leaving, never be in the same room as others.If you enter a room that is already occupied, the outsider loses and is out; the person who was originally in the room wins and is out.

The third game, "is a simple answering game": camp game, all players are divided into two camps, with a total duration of 120 minutes.

Each camp will get twelve puzzles, although the two sides have different problems, but the difficulty is almost the same.Whichever camp gets more than 6 correct answers first, the camp wins, and all the players of this camp get [-] points.

The fourth game, "Tear down the east wall to make up the west wall": single-player game, as long as the participation time is enough for 10 minutes, the players can decide whether to quit or not.Otherwise, the game will last six 10 minutes.

Every player will tie a score card around his waist, and for every twenty points he has, there will be a score card.Winning a small card from others is equivalent to taking twenty points from others.

It should be noted that during the competition, any armed conflict is not allowed.The score card is actually a small mechanism with built-in sensors. When a player's body is hit by someone with an intensity of 4 or higher, the attacker will be punished for violation.

At the end of the game, the number of score cards will be counted for the players who have not withdrawn from the field, and those who have three score cards can qualify.

All players with sixty points will enter the final round of sinking battle.

In the sinking battle, the No. 7 game "Gold Rush Hunter" was used.

"Gold Hunter" lasts two hours, and the venue is located on a small island far away from Haidu.Qualified players cannot carry any personal items, and must wear the "Hunter Badge" with the family logo. If there is no badge on them at the end of the time period, it means they have been sunk.

Those who meet the victory criteria will serve as patriarchs for the next year.

From Milady's point of view, every game can be called challenging, but she also sees that if the contestants are willing to cooperate with each other, these games can't stop them from transferring points to each other, making the already predetermined The candidate wins the game.

On the contrary, if there is a player who has to fight against a family's team, or even the committee that organizes the game, the trial match will be full of hardships and dangers, and the sky will not be seen.

"Hey, there's not even a team game?" After Amelia finished her introduction, someone in the arena murmured, "There's no two-player game either..."

of course.

Luo Geng wanted to choose a game aimed at Milady's weakness, and Milady wanted to choose a game that could avoid the advantage of the Gaota family, which naturally led to the current result: all players must either fight on their own or be divided Go to a big camp of 15 people and share the fate with half of the players—games that can give the Gaota family a chance to win Milady one-on-one or with a small team have already been eliminated.

"The first trial match of this year will be held in three days." Amelia clasped her hands on the table and said, "Before the trial match starts, I will give you a detailed introduction to the rules. .”

She looked around the hall and said, "Then, all contestants, please follow the guidance of the staff and return to your residence. Everyone, see you in three days. Good luck to everyone."

Milady didn't want to walk among the eyes that were constantly peeping, sizing up and judging her, so she didn't rush to leave; it's just that even if she deliberately stood in a corner, she still couldn't avoid being spotted—the first one was Malt.

After Milady won the result of the warm-up match that she wanted, Malt's complexion might be the lightest in the audience. When she walked past her, the girl quietly made a "well done" gesture, and then made a small gesture. He waved his hand as farewell, and left in a hurry.

Although she left with the Gaota family at the end of the warm-up match, Milady really couldn't feel angry.

The second one is the three members of the Gaota family.Luo Geng was much calmer now, and didn't even look at Milady when he passed her; but Li Wei and Nava behind him cast glances at her, like Milady after a warm-up match, has become a different creature.

But what really caught Milady's attention was a strange boy who walked past her after that.

The young man was obviously the designated heir of the patriarch of a certain family, and several contestants followed closely behind him, waving their hands and raising their feet, all showing silence and obedience.It's just that compared with the entourage, the boy is short and thin, and at first glance he is only fifteen or sixteen years old, which makes people doubt whether he is really old enough to compete.

Only when he turned his head and glanced at Milady, did she really realize that he had not only reached his age, but might even be far more mature and dangerous than most of the contestants—those iron-gray eyes , as if they were really made of some kind of dull metal; Milady had never seen such... hard, smooth, dry eyes.

She remembered that when she was out at sea, she once saw a huge lizard-like reptile that was half the height of a person on the island. Its eyes were full of "heterogeneity" like this... Although the boy and the lizard Nothing like it.

Just the moment when the white horse passed by, the boy had gone far away.

Milady stood where she was, still lingering in her heart, as if she was touched coolly by something when she reached under the bed at night to find something.

The thing seemed to want to sniff her blood deliberately, and think about what to do with her next.

"Excuse me, who was that person who just passed by?"

When a reporter passed by, Milady stopped the reporter and asked.

"Oh, that," the reporter was glad that she found him, and replied courteously, "It's the third son of the head of the executioner's family, Siyado."

(End of this chapter)