The Trial Game of Life

Table of Content | Character Guide

“It’s crazy!”

That was how a player who had watched the entire thing summarised the deeds that Jin Cheng and Tang Cuo carried out during that one hour. The two rode the tram all the way back to East Cross Street from the edge of Zone F, then took a detour halfway into Zone F, sprinkling the singing of ‘Night Jasmine’ at every corner.

The residents of Zone F had never known that the song could be so brainwashing.

During the trip, the tram also changed from its original “ding dong ding dong” to “kang dong kang dong”, but no matter how much the tram was destroyed and even at the verge of shattering into pieces, it still stayed firm and continued its path, its speed as fast as lightning.

As such, Tang Cuo gradually came to forgive its high fare.

Amid its “kang dong kang dong”, the tram finally arrived at its final destination ― East Cross Street.

Jin Cheng still couldn’t find where the puppeteer was. He likely wouldn’t have a pleasant appearance, or he could be any random person on the roadside. The only thing that would distinguish him from other people was the silk thread wrapped around his fingers.

But Yong Ye City was, after all, a city engulfed in eternal darkness, so no matter how bright the lights are, there was only so much the naked eyes could see.

Most of the people who struck this time were long range attackers or crowd controllersRefer to players who are capable of influencing or preventing other players’ actions and abilities. that came carrying various items, and very few of them actually came to fight heads-on. No one knew how many people were hidden in the dark alleys, behind the windows or on the roofs. They all had their own purposes to be here, but none of them managed to deal a devastating blow at Jin Cheng and Tang Cuo.

Mr. Crow was still jumping.

Yong Ye City had an automatic repair function, so it could be crushed to bits today and went back to normal the very next day. In the past, Mr. Crow never bothered about players inflicting damage to the city, in fact, he even watched the show with relish. The more fiercely they fought, the happier he would be.

But today was different.

The two blacklisters swaggered through the city and smashed his bronze statue, but these unceasing horrendous deeds weren’t done inside a dungeon, so there was nothing he could do to them. He could only jump from one roof to the other, trying to curse them to death.

Even though he was cursing them left and right, he couldn’t help but feel regretful.

Look at this 79081, what ferocious strength, what an annoying yet charming personality. Mr. Crow used to love him so much, but he never listened to orders.

Then look at this 27216, this tiny face full of righteousness yet expressionless, he wouldn’t flinch even in the face of dangers. Mr. Crow hated him yet loved him dearly at the same time.

Crow was infuriated.

Crow was so angry.

All of these cunning players in sheep’s clothing are no good, grrr.

“Just you wait! One day the great and benevolent Mr. Crow will peck you to death one by one!” Mr. Crow fluttered his wings, thought about it for a moment and found something wrong, so he immediately changed his words: “No, I want to pierce you both together and put you on the tree! Be my exhibit! That’s it!”

“I will make you into statues and put them in all the streets and alleys of Yong Ye City, so that everyone knows my greatness hahahahahaha!”

Mr. Crow became happier as he blabbered more nonsense, his good mood returning and the feathers on his head no longer falling.

Tang Cuo looked up at him and asked Jin Cheng: “Is he wrong in the head?”

Jin Cheng didn’t answer. Mr. Crow immediately turned around: “What did you say?! 27216! I heard you! Do you think I couldn’t hear you? I heard you!”

Tang Cuo shut up.

Mr. Crow really wished he could peck him.

At this point, the tram finally drove into East Cross Street and Tang Cuo could clearly feel the killing intent lingering around him becoming much weaker and all the eyes peeping at him starting to disappear.

The tension that felt like a thorn on his back was slowly receding.

The tram driver sent them to the bus stop closest to Tang Cuo’s place and waved his hand. He hadn’t grown tired of that song yet, and in any case, there was only one disc that was still intact inside this broken carriage. The singing that had been soaked in the tides of time drifted with the night of Yong Ye City, spreading a nameless, inexplicable charm along its path.

East Cross Street was cold and quiet.

Under Chi Yan’s warning, the players huddled back into their room one by one, only having enough guts to step into the corridor or poke their head out from the window to examine the situation, but they were all tremendously anxious. They had heard the turmoil outside just now. East Cross Street was like an isolated island in the storm that might seem safe, but no one knew when the next wave would crash.

This peaceful time felt more like the calm before the storm.

Chi Yan didn’t dare to make any loud noise and simply waved at them from Tang Cuo’s broken window, then he nodded to express that “Everything is okay”. Jin Cheng put back his bow and walked into the corridor, Tang Cuo by his side.

There was no one in the corridor, but a small few were occasionally looking out through the tiny gap of their doors, no words leaving their mouth while their eyes wholly filled with fear. It wasn’t until they entered the second floor that someone finally walked out and asked them cautiously: “Is that Meng Yufei really dead?”

Jin Cheng looked over and smiled: “Yes.”

The person blushed and said with a choking voice: “He killed someone who arrived here with me, but I don’t have the courage to take revenge. Thank you, thank you…”

Hearing the voice, Chi Yan poked out from the corner of the stairs on the third floor and nicely caught sight of Tang Cuo and Jin Cheng: “Ge!”

Tang Cuo and Jin Cheng looked up together, then right at that moment, the player who just said “Thank you” suddenly threw a card at them. Chi Yan, who clearly saw it, had his eyes widened and cried out: “Behind you!”

Even before Chi Yan could finish his words, the card flipped over mid-air and a bright light flashed on its surface. 

As though he had expected this to happen, Jin Cheng immediately turned around, raised his hand and tossed a throwing knife right at the middle of the card.

“Ding!”

But before any impact could be felt, a pungent smoke spanned out from the spot where the throwing knife hit the card and filled almost the entire corridor within a few breaths.

“Hold your breath!” Jin Cheng’s expression changed suddenly and he quickly retreated to the third floor.

The pungent smoke rapidly spread upwards, almost chasing after their footsteps. Tang Cuo just took in a puff and already felt his head a little dizzy and his strength not quite right. He immediately held his breath, covered his mouth and dragged Chi Yan, who was slowing down behind, away with him.

Stepping on the last step of the third floor, Jin Cheng swiftly turned around, a small red fire extinguisher suddenly popping up in his hand. He aimed at the stairs below and activated the fire extinguisher, spraying a good deal of foam and closing off the whole stairs in the blink of an eye.

“Smoke won’t come up here for a while, you stay here.” Jin Cheng threw the fire extinguisher into Tang Cuo’s arms, then turned to Chi Yan: “Use the speaker, ask everyone downstairs to jump out from the window.”

Without another word after that, Cheng turned around, ran into Tang Cuo’s room and jumped down from the broken window. Seeing such a scene, Chi Yan felt his heart almost leap out of his throat, but before he could calm down, Tang Cuo slapped him on the shoulder.

“Come back to your senses.” Tang Cuo said.

As his mind returned, Chi Yan wiped away his cold sweat and quickly took out the speaker to yell into it. After a petrified moment, he had now come back to his senses and his quick wit was working again, so the words spewed out smoothly from his mouth: “There’s a gas bomb in the building. Everyone on the first and second floor please immediately jump out through the window! Do not go through the door, just jump through the window! Quick!”

At the same time, Jin Cheng quickly rushed to the stairs on the first floor and nicely came face to face with the card thrower earlier, who was now trying to escape.

“Didn’t we ask you to jump out through the window? Which stairs are you taking?” Jin Cheng’s mouth slightly curled up but his eyes were strangely cold, then he flew a kick right at the other player.

“Crash!” The player hit the stairs, his landing instantly bending the iron handrail. He spurted a mouthful of blood and fell to the ground in pain, but Jin Cheng swiftly approached him again and pressed one knee against his chest. With a “click”, the mechanical bow was split into halves and two scimitars lay at his throat.

“Who asked you to come here?” Jin Cheng asked.

Jin Cheng of this moment was as cold as a demon hiding behind the deep night of this never-changing yet long-lived Yong Ye City. The card thrower trembled with fear and felt even more painful with every shiver, all while stumbling on his words: “No, no, I’m not…”

The scimitars cut through his skin.

“I, I, I, I’ll talk! It’s a man, about 20 years old and wearing a jacket. He said that as long as I use that card on you, he’ll give me equipment and take me out of Zone F. It wasn’t my own intention, it really wasn’t my intention. Big brother, please forgive me, I’ve been on East Cross Street for a long time and I’ll never be able to go to Zone E like this. Please have pity on me, have pity on me, I really don’t know what he’s called…” 

The man kept blabbering, as though this was the only way to relieve his fear. By this point, the enveloping smoke finally had drifted away from the second floor. The smoke took a much longer time to be drowned out compared to how quickly it spread earlier.

When the players on the first and second floors heard Chi Yan’s urgent call, they immediately jumped out of their windows to escape. For a moment, the entire East Cross Street looked like a scene of dumplings being lowered into a boiling pot with window-jumping players everywhere.

And it happened not only at East Cross Street, and also not only on the first and second floors.

As the players on the third and upper floors heard of the gas bomb, they panicked at once and decided to also jump after the others. Only when Chi Yan leaned out of the window to watch the glorious scene of everybody jumping that he remembered — this speaker could f**king broadcast to the entire Zone F.

In other words, his warning was heard throughout Zone F.

No one knew which building had the gas bomb, so everyone thought it was their own.

The entire zone heard it.

They all heard how rushing and sincere the voice was.

So they didn’t have to ask more questions, let’s just jump right away.

Players in Zone F had always been the most enthusiastic to hang onto their dear life because of their low strength. Only after they had jumped out that they found something wasn’t quite right ― why did the guys in the building next door also jump?!

All over the streets, the players jumped. All over the streets, their jaws dropped.

The aftermath of their shock spread all the way to the central area. Due to the great success of the ‘Night Jasmine’ tour, everyone was now paying attention to the happenings of Zone F. Exactly a second after such a spectacular scene took place, words rippled out.

As the gossip passed from one person to the next, by the time it reached the game hall, it transformed into —

“Jin Cheng forced the players in Zone F to jump off the buildings!!!”

From a secluded corner, Wen Xiaoming looked up in shock and blinked, thinking that he had heard it wrong. The next second, he bounced from the ground, pricked his ears up and listened to a few more words, then he raced to Zone F as though someone was burning his ass.

It wasn’t because he didn’t believe in the two bosses’ innocence. It was because he felt that they really could do such a thing!

Zone F, East Cross Street.

Jin Cheng eventually tied up the card thrower and blocked the stairs on the first floor. Because the players jumped through the windows and their doors were closed, the smoke was contained within their building for now. Tang Cuo and Chi Yan walked out of the building last and even brought Jin Cheng bad news.

“A few people fainted inside.”

“?”

“They were either scared of heights, didn’t jump or walked through the door.”

“…”

Jin Cheng asked with a smile: “Do I look okay now?”

Tang Cuo answered in earnest: “Not quite okay.”

Jin Cheng brought back the fire extinguisher, feeling as though his lungs were about to explode. As the only one with a gas mask in the group, he had to return to the building, carry the unconscious players out one by one, then block all possible vents with foam.

A total of six people fainted in the building, and their faces had turned blue by the time they were brought outside, looking utterly unwell.

Chi Yan didn’t dare to touch them and asked anxiously: “What is this powerful poison? They will be fine, right?”

“This isn’t a common poison, it’s a virus.” Jin Cheng said in a deep voice. “A common poison can’t be infectious, but a virus can.” 

Tang Cuo finally understood why Jin Cheng was so angry back then, because such a strike would bring tremendous damages. If it weren’t for Jin Cheng’s quick response, perhaps the number of victims wouldn’t be this few.

The people standing on the cobblestone street didn’t hear their conversation but were also frightened. They were fully aware of how powerful Jin Cheng and Tang Cuo were, so it must be quite a serious matter to have them looking this grim.

Someone plucked up the courage to walk over, at which point Chi Yan was startled and subconsciously stood in front of Jin Cheng and Tang Cuo, his expression dreadful: “If you have something to say, say it to me.”

The person wanted to ask about the situation. It was Chi Yan who had been communicating closely with them all this while anyway, so he turned to talk to Chi Yan. But at this moment, Jin Cheng’s body suddenly shook up. He grabbed Tang Cuo’s shoulder and his eyebrows furrowed, his expression clearly off.

Tang Cuo was stunned for a second, then he quickly reacted and threw a stern look at the player: “Grab him!”

Chi Yan exploded instantly.

Why were people falling down one after another? When would they even be done with this?! He hurriedly called out to the other players to take down the person together. The guy was terrified and captured alive without resisting much, insisting that he was wronged.

Jin Cheng raised his head again and seemingly let out a sigh of relief, but still didn’t look well. Chi Yan nervously asked if anything was wrong but was waved off at once. Jin Cheng gave out the next instructions one by one, all swiftly and decisively.

“Lock him up and we’ll judge him later.”

“All those who were poisoned should be isolated. Wear protective clothing and don’t touch them with your hands. The rest pay attention to the changes in your own body and report immediately if you feel something wrong.”

“East Cross Street is now on full alert. Without my permission, no one is allowed to leave or enter.”

As he was done talking, he took out a set of protective clothing from his Inventory Bar and threw it to Chi Yan, naturally giving Chi Yan the duty to take care of this matter. The others watched the entire thing in silence, and for a moment, they completely forgot about them being forced to jump off the buildings.

East Cross Street was, after all, a place where everyone trembled at the slightest move.

Chi Yan went to clean things up while Tang Cuo and Jin Cheng headed to the building next door and temporarily borrowed another player’s room. Closing the door behind him, Tang Cuo’s solemn expression vapourised immediately, not a single trace left behind. He folded his arms and looked at Jin Cheng: “You’re putting on an act again.”

Jin Cheng shrugged, turned around and sat down on the chair: “But didn’t you cooperate really well?”

Sometimes, Tang Cuo actually thought that Jin Cheng was a genius. That was the only way to explain how he could work out such a thorough plan in just a few minutes after the card was activated.

Letting Chi Yan announce to the whole zone through the speaker was the first step. It could not only evacuate innocent players but also quickly send out the news to inform the people standing behind the curtain that ― Your men have done it, and they may succeed.

Pretending to fall down under everyone’s eyes and even treating an innocent player as another perpetrator would clearly tell the other side that ― I’ve fallen.

Following all that with a series of instructions and making the matter look so serious would increase the likelihood of the other side falling for this act. Now, what they needed to do was to prepare themselves well and wait for the enemies to turn up at their doorstep.

“You took the tram and swaggered across the whole zone, then put up another act here in order to lead them to East Cross Street and catch them all at once?” Tang Cuo said.

“What you said is all correct.” Looking at Tang Cuo’s remarkably bright eyes, Jin Cheng could no longer feel angry. Indeed, against a foul villain, having a well-matched partner was truly important.

“You have the movement in your hand. If it is that powerful, will those people really dare to come? Looking at how much they know you, won’t they suspect that this is a trap?”

“If I’m not down, they won’t have the guts to come and won’t have any reasons to take the risk. They will turn to other means to weaken me and finally kill me in one strike. But if I’m down and debuffed by this powerful virus, then under the temptation of the movements, there will always be people who can’t help but make a move.”

It might be just one single movement, but it could do so much.

After a pause, Jin Cheng spoke again: “The most important thing is ― those who want to kill me because of the movement don’t believe that I will use it hastily in a garbage dump like East Cross Street. They don’t believe that I will just waste this movement to do some random good deeds here. On the other hand, those who believe in me, or those with at least some moral principles, will never come to kill me.”

Tang Cuo was convinced by this incredibly strong logic.

Jin Cheng switched to a more relaxed pose and continued: “However, this virus is troublesome. When this kind of debuff is put on people, ordinary healing medicines and antidotes are useless. You have to first find out which virus it is. It isn’t convenient for me to show up now, so help me bring this message to Chi Yan and ask him to find Wen Xiaoming.”

Hearing this, Tang Cuo opened the Character panel, took a look and directly informed him: “It’s called ‘BS101’, and its definite symptom is that the upper limit of the infected person’s HP will decrease by 1 every passing minute. In addition, the three attributes of Strength, Intelligence and Charm as well as his Skills will all be locked. The probability of infection should be very high.”

Jin Cheng: “???”

What have you done to your HP’s upper limit again?

The translator has something to say:

Honestly, this novel might as well rename itself to “Saving His Boyfriend Who Constantly Dances Around Death: Jin Cheng’s Life Story”……（￣□￣；）