Gladiator Arena in the Tower of Death Chapter Sixty-Nine: The Team

Game players can form squads at level three, and countless squads in turn make up various organizations. True lone wolves are rare at higher levels. Humans, after all, prefer to band together for warmth; collaborators advance and survive at a rate much higher than solitary players.

Lone wolves die quickly, so most of the remaining players have joined all sorts of teams. Some belong to official organizations like the Tribunal. Others join large, influential and well-structured groups such as the Butterfly Organization. There are also secret societies like the Chessboard, whose membership numbers are unknown.

Of course, the majority are nondescript little squads.

A team like the Gothic Band is rather rare—a powerful elite squad where every member is a high-level player. This is unusual, since high-level players aren’t exactly common. Evergreen City has a population of two million, and altogether there are only four or five high-level players.

Among them, the Silver Mask was specially transferred from elsewhere. The Tribunal insists that every continental administrative zone has at least one high-level player stationed.

The main form of squads is actually players from level three to five banding together for survival.

Wu Hui, Ren Yin, and Li Xiaoyue have signed a cooperation pact. This is much like forming a squad, but a bit deeper—the squad system only ensures that players participating in the Card-Chess-Gladiator game won’t be split into opposing factions, and provides things like intra-team points and a team chat channel.

The cooperation pact, however, forbids any malicious attacks between the parties until it is dissolved.

In the next game, it so happens Wu Hui, Li Xiaoyue, and Ren Yin will likely be in the same round. The reason is unclear, but their chances of running into acquaintances are very high.

So far, except for the unknown Tower Deathmatch, every player encountered in games has been from Evergreen City. This seems to be a game mechanism—there’s a set range at the start.

Perhaps this means there aren’t many level two players in Evergreen City right now, and games at that level are rare.

Players at levels two and three have the highest mortality rate. At this stage, many are still unfamiliar with the game, having advanced mostly by luck. If they encounter a higher-level scenario, they’re doomed.

“It’s not just that,” Wu Hui said during a meeting with Li Xiaoyue and Ren Yin. “The Dominator’s game loves pulling in people with squad or cooperative relationships.”

“These games provoke internal conflict between players. But if everyone stays calm and rational, usually sacrificing a few is enough to win.” Wu Hui shared firsthand information he got from Wu Tong:

“But sometimes it’s more like Werewolf, where a few are tasked with deceiving the others.”

Ren Yin pondered, “If that’s the case, we won’t be able to trust each other when the time comes.”

And the game loves pitting friends or allies against one another—what a twisted pleasure. No wonder on the forums, everyone lists the Dominator as the second least desirable game type to encounter.

The least desirable is Black Death.

Card-Chess, Gladiator, Playwright—whatever their difficulty, at least their rules are normal.

Black Death and Dominator are the sorts that leave psychological scars regardless of victory. Wu Hui thought Du Ziming would be well-suited to such games.

“Why aren’t you worried about us being on opposing sides this time?” Li Xiaoyue recalled Wu Hui deliberately avoiding Li Xiaojing before, and found it odd.

Wu Hui replied, “First, you two are more rational than Li Xiaojing—you won’t let emotions cloud your judgment and go easy on me. Second, the books say communication is the best way to dispel suspicion.”

Li Xiaoyue nodded her understanding. Ren Yin glanced at Wu Hui.

The smarter a person, the more prone they are to suspicion, for they think too much. In Dominator-type games, what’s often needed is simply—not to overthink.

With several days still left before the game, Wu Hui went to the player market and bought a parrot sigil and an archer chess piece to strengthen his summons’ anti-air abilities.

So far, every game seems to have some combat element. Improving one’s fighting strength is always the right move.

As for Ren Yin… she bought high-grade bullets and a special pistol.

Wu Hui was puzzled—she needed glasses just like him, so why pursue a shooting specialization? Was she farsighted rather than nearsighted?

“...” Ren Yin replied, “You guessed right.”

She was indeed born farsighted. After training, her shooting skill quickly reached level three, and with two more skill points, she became a very proficient gunner.

So the glasses she wore weren’t for nearsightedness—in theory, they were reading glasses. The reading glasses we commonly refer to are, after all, just farsighted glasses. Many think nearsightedness in youth and farsightedness in old age will cancel each other out, but it’s possible to see badly both near and far. Thus, two pairs of glasses are needed.

Li Xiaoyue bought several items to boost her soul power—in short, to raise her mana bar maximum. On player panels, mental power and soul power are listed as the same, but skill descriptions treat them separately.

After some research, everyone found that tech or superpower-like skills are triggered by mental power, while magical or immortal arts are described with soul power.

Players just call it the mana bar.

But honestly, all three are essentially the same—like “mana,” “MP,” or “magic points” in online games. Which term gets used depends on what sounds best at the moment.

Most don’t delve into the deeper meaning, except to complain about the confusing terminology.

But Wu Hui noticed something special.

“It’s like two different systems forcibly fused together, leaving traces… Or maybe, more than two systems… Those chess pieces, spells, sigils, command tokens—are they really constructed by the game from nothing?”

He had some suspicions at that moment, but it didn’t seem to matter much.

As time passed, before he knew it, it was mid-July. The game was about to begin.

Wu Hui, Ren Yin, and Li Xiaoyue each received a text message, instructing them to check into a newly opened hotel nearby. They hadn’t encountered this format before, but Wu Hui immediately recalled Liu Ming showing up at their school.

The hotel’s design was peculiar—square and angular, without a single curve. Both the rooms and the building as a whole looked as if cut by a knife.

Check-in went smoothly. Ren Yin and Li Xiaoyue shared a room, and Wu Hui was next door. As he entered, he saw a few other players too. Quite a crowd…

At night, with one hour left before the game began, the app sent a message instructing everyone to stay put and not wander.

The next moment, as Wu Hui sat on his bed, he suddenly lost consciousness.