Chapter 103

Actually, Mortar himself was feeling unconfident.

But he didn’t want to show weakness in front of this newcomer, Bai Xuechao, so he found a high-sounding reason: “Let’s change the game. This one is a bit too simple.”

As soon as he said this, the expressions on everyone’s faces were a sight to behold.

From where Bai Xuechao was sitting, he could easily see the expression on Lin Lang’s face opposite him.

That expression was incredibly obvious to him. The slightly puffed-up cheeks and the lips that were pressed together again and again fully revealed how hard the other person was trying to restrain himself. It was estimated that in order not to laugh out loud on the spot, Lin Lang was about to grind his back molars to bits.

This game was definitely not simple for Mortar.

Was the difficulty in assembly or shooting?

“No—way—oh—!” A mischievous smile played on Yuan Lan’s lips as he dragged out his words, waving the paper in his hand. “Whatever is drawn is what we play. We don’t have a precedent for changing the game.”

Suddenly, he changed his tone and said maliciously, “Besides, by saying that, are you looking down on Little Xuechao? Do you think he will lose to you?”

He was really good at fanning the flames.

Now that Yuan Lan had said that, how could Mortar continue to insist on changing the game? He could only cough a few times to cover up his embarrassment and admit defeat, “I didn’t mean that. Let’s compete in this then.”

“What do you think, Little Xuechao?” Yuan Lan looked at Bai Xuechao again.

Bai Xuechao’s clear and translucent red eyes stared at Yuan Lan. He was strangely silent for a few seconds before saying, “I’m quite accurate with my shots.”

“Good,” Yuan Lan said, “then let’s go to the game room. The guns are over there.”

The Apocalypse Society actually had a dedicated place to play games.

Yuan Lan was the first to pick up the paper box containing the game slips and get up. The others followed suit, but they dawdled and fell behind, seemingly reluctant to move.

Yuan Lan’s other hand rested on Bai Xuechao’s shoulder, and the two of them walked at the very front.

As Yuan Lan led Bai Xuechao, he introduced, “The game room is very close to here, just a few steps away. It was originally a dance hall, but it seems that everyone doesn’t really like to dance, so it was changed into a game room.”

The other members of the Apocalypse Society: “…”

They had long since regretted it. Who knew it would be that kind of game room?

If they had known earlier, they would have voted against changing the dance hall into a game room back then.

At this moment, Bai Xuechao knew nothing about the game room.

Yuan Lan lifted his chin, “There, that one in front.”

He let go of Bai Xuechao, walked a few steps faster to what was once the dance hall and now the game room, pushed open the door with one hand, and said to Bai Xuechao with a smile, “Ta-da—”

The thick double-leaf wooden door was pushed open by Yuan Lan with one hand, and the full view of the game room was revealed to Bai Xuechao.

The first thing he noticed was the wide variety of “game props” inside.

There was a large turntable with armrests, a box with several swords stuck in it, a unicycle… At first glance, one would think they had entered the backstage of an acrobatics troupe or a magic troupe. In addition, there were strange iron hooks, a rack of unknown purpose, a row of small knives on a table, and so on and so forth, so many that it was dazzling.

The next thing he noticed was the architectural style of the room. It was still the consistent European style, with landscape paintings resembling oil paintings on the ceiling and surrounding walls.

Bai Xuechao stood at the door, looking at the things inside, and fell into silence.

How should he put it? It felt a bit ridiculous.

Yuan Lan had already walked in. After placing the box for drawing games on the table, he found that apart from Mu Xinyue and the barely noticeable Yu Ruolan, the others were still standing outside the door.

“How about this,” he tilted his head and revealed a brilliant smile, “the last person to come in will be the target~”

Except for Bai Xuechao and Mortar, who were about to play the game, everyone else hurried into the room.

Yuan Lan said, “It seems the last one was A-Qing?”

“Absolutely not!” Lin Changqing held onto Qiao Wenjie next to him and said seriously, “I came in with him, but my foot landed before his, so he should be the last one.”

Qiao Wenjie looked bewildered. He took out the broken glasses from his trouser pocket, put them on, and looked at Lin Changqing through the remaining single broken lens. He smiled and said, “Sorry, Senior Lin, I wasn’t wearing my glasses just now, so I didn’t hear what you said clearly.”

“Does being nearsighted affect your hearing?” Lin Changqing shook his shoulders forcefully.

“Don’t play dumb, you brat!”

Yuan Lan had seen enough of their squabbling and said with a smile, “Then let’s draw lots.”

The others who had rushed into the room immediately felt like they had been tricked.

Bai Xuechao was certain that Yuan Lan had no intention of making the last person to enter the target from the beginning. He just said it on purpose to watch everyone scramble.

Furthermore, Bai Xuechao was certain of one more thing, and that was that Mortar’s marksmanship must be very poor, otherwise, everyone wouldn’t be trying to avoid being the target.

Yuan Lan found another box and threw it on the table, “You guys draw it yourselves.”

Lin Changqing drew a slip of paper as if he were mourning his parents. He had a handsome face that was refined and full of Eastern classical charm, but now his image was completely gone.

Well, his image was already gone from the moment he started crawling in the dark.

Also with their images completely gone were Lin Lang, who was cross-dressing as a woman, and Mortar, who had been repeatedly scared into fainting.

Lin Lang’s face was androgynous, with high brow bones that gave him a hint of heroic spirit.

Although it was only a matter of time before his true gender was discovered by Bai Xuechao, if he hadn’t been so scared by the “female ghost” that his composure broke and he failed to maintain his voice, exposing his male voice, he could still be passing as a tall and stunningly beautiful woman in a cheongsam, and wouldn’t have been exposed so quickly.

After a few people had drawn their lots, Yuan Lan then said, “Number 6 is the target.”

Lin Changqing immediately let out a long sigh of relief.

Those who had avoided it had a hint of relief on their faces.

Only Qiao Wenjie was staring blankly at the slip of paper in his hand. After a long while, he smiled and said, “Sorry, my glasses are broken and I can’t see clearly. Is this a 9?”

Lin Changqing snatched his slip of paper, took a look, and grabbed him by the collar, retorting, “You’re the target, stop playing dumb!”

“…Alright.” Qiao Wenjie closed his eyes, resigned to his fate.

“Why don’t you just take off your glasses?” Lin Changqing’s long and narrow phoenix eyes held a hint of pity as he helped him take off his glasses. “Not being able to see clearly might be better for you.”

Qiao Wenjie: “…”

Bai Xuechao let out a short laugh and deliberately asked, “Is Mortar’s aim really bad?”

“No! Absolutely not!” Mortar immediately retorted loudly.

Qiao Wenjie looked at him without saying a word.

“Oh, alright, it was a bit bad before.” After Mortar admitted it, he immediately tried to save face. His deep blue-gray eyes stared at Bai Xuechao as he said, “But that was half a year ago. They don’t know how much I’ve improved in the past six months, nor do they know that my current accuracy would amaze even God.”

…Amaze him at how his aim was still as rotten as ever.

But Mortar wouldn’t say that.

He had already thought it through. Since Bai Xuechao had personally said, “I’m quite accurate with my shots,” he would deliberately move a little slower later and let the other person win. That way, he wouldn’t have to shoot.

He thought to himself: Very good, Mortar, you are truly too clever, much cleverer than your foolish nephew.

Yuan Lan just smiled without saying a word, and he glanced at Bai Xuechao.

Bai Xuechao noticed Yuan Lan’s gaze and raised an eyebrow at him, “Since Mortar is so confident, when does the game start?”

“Mortar, have you asked someone to bring the apples?” Yuan Lan asked.

Mortar said, “Not yet, I’ll say it now.”

The servants came quickly, bringing a basin of ordinary apples.

Yuan Lan casually picked up an apple and handed it to Qiao Wenjie. He pulled over a table and placed it in front of the sofa, then started hosting the game, “Please, Little Xuechao and Mortar, sit facing each other~”

The two sat down on the two long sides of the table respectively.

Yuan Lan rummaged through a box and found two identical M1911 hand/guns. With his back to them, he disassembled the guns without letting them see the process.

At the same time, Qiao Wenjie took the apple and walked with somewhat heavy steps to the wall opposite the short side of the table, facing the sofa with the table in between.

The others sat together on the sofa to watch the show, leaving the middle seat empty for Yuan Lan.

Yuan Lan placed the disassembled M1911 hand/gun parts on the table and then sat down on the sofa.

At this time, their order was the sofa, the table, and Qiao Wenjie.

Yuan Lan casually crossed his legs and said, as if he was enjoying the drama, “Before the game officially starts, you guys say a few harsh words first. Mortar, you go first.”

“Ahem.” Mortar straightened his back. Even though he had already decided to let Bai Xuechao win in his heart, he showed no sign of it on the surface. He said in a deep voice, “I am the youngest son of a Mafia family boss in Country Y. My father taught me how to use firearms since I was a child. I can assemble it even with my eyes closed. This is too easy for me.”

Bai Xuechao imitated his sentence structure, his tone lazy and somewhat careless, with confidence flowing from his bones, “I was previously an executive of the Dark Organization.

The first thing I learned when I joined the organization was how to shoot. I can hit the target even with my eyes closed. Guns are very familiar toys to me, something I’ve grown tired of playing with.”

When Mortar heard this, was Bai Xuechao really that good?

But he couldn’t just back down like that, otherwise the lie he had just told to save face would become a joke. Anyway, it was just trash talk, he had to act like an expert.

Moreover, Bai Xuechao had even imitated the way he spoke. His competitive spirit for trash-talking was ignited.

Mortar spoke again, “M1911, AK-47, CZ83, P229, I disassemble and reassemble these few guns every day. Assembling them is as natural as eating and drinking.”

Bai Xuechao tilted his head and looked at him, “I use guns often. No matter what kind of gun it is, I can hit a target from 800 yards away with one shot, just like using a cheat in a game.”

Xiao 6 couldn’t help but say, “Host, I haven’t even seen you use a gun before.”

“Nonsense, of course you haven’t,” Bai Xuechao replied to it. “I don’t know how to use it at all. The number of times I’ve fired a gun in my entire life can be counted on one hand, and the distance never exceeded two meters.”

For shooting within two meters, you don’t even need to aim.

Xiao 6 was shocked, “Huh??”

Then why are you still trash-talking here? You’re just bluffing, aren’t you??

At the same time, Mortar rested one hand on the table and leaned his body slightly forward to look at Bai Xuechao, “I can assemble this gun and shoot in thirty seconds. It’s not too late for you to admit defeat now.”

“Thirty seconds?” Bai Xuechao sneered, “Thirty seconds is enough for me to shoot three apples. I’ll return those words to you if you admit defeat early.”

Both of them were telling the other to admit defeat, perhaps they were using trash talk to speak their true feelings.

As long as the other person admits defeat, wouldn’t they win?

As for why not admit defeat themselves—

Now that the trash talk has reached this point, who would be willing to admit that their skills are inferior?

“The thirty seconds I mentioned is blindfolded,” Mortar added a patch, not to be outdone, and continued, “Now you have two choices. One, admit defeat; two, be brutally defeated by me, as pathetic as a rooster being chased by a dog.”

Xiao 6 burst out laughing, “His description is too funny, isn’t it?”

“What a coincidence, isn’t it? I was also talking about being blindfolded,” Bai Xuechao said calmly. “But I’m willing to leave you some face. If you admit defeat now, your loss won’t be too tragic.”

The trash-talking session had turned into persuading the other person to admit defeat.

“Alright, let’s stop the trash talk here,” Yuan Lan stopped them in time, with a hint of teasing in his tone. “Do you need to be blindfolded to increase the difficulty?”

Bai Xuechao: “…”

Heh, let alone being blindfolded, he couldn’t even assemble this gun without a blindfold.

In all his life, this was the first time he had seen a disassembled gun.

The reason Bai Xuechao dared to follow up with the trash talk just now was that he had already seen through Mortar’s bravado.

He had lie-detection abilities and could tell that most of the trash talk Mortar had just spewed was false, but it was true that he could assemble a gun. Moreover, the other party didn’t mention a word about his shooting accuracy, which showed that it was truly terrible, so bad that he was too embarrassed to even boast about it. On the other hand, he was a very fast learner with a photographic memory. He could learn how to assemble the hand/gun from Mortar in real-time, and then shoot one step ahead of him.

If Xiao 6 knew what Bai Xuechao was thinking at this moment, it would definitely secretly retort: You’re also truly terrible, but you’re not embarrassed to boast about it!

“Ask Mortar,” Bai Xuechao said with a faint expression, “If he’s blindfolded, I’ll be blindfolded.”

He knew that Mortar would not be blindfolded.

Mortar hadn’t expected Bai Xuechao to throw the question at him. He pretended to ponder for a moment and said, “Hmm… let’s not be blindfolded. That would be too much of a show-off. I want to be more low-key.”

Lin Changqing looked at Mortar in surprise. He thought, was Mortar really that good now?

Yuan Lan, who seemed to have seen through something, suddenly laughed silently.

He said, “Then I’ll count 3, 2, 1, and we’ll start?”

Bai Xuechao hummed in agreement.

Mortar also replied, “Okay.”

Yuan Lan counted, “3, 2, 1.”

The scene was completely silent.

The two of them were still sitting face to face, like two hard statues. Neither of them moved.

This time, Yuan Lan slapped his thigh and laughed out loud. His bright golden eyes were filled with joyous laughter, “Hahahaha… why aren’t you guys moving?”

“I plan to give Mortar five seconds,” Bai Xuechao said.

Mortar said, “I also want to give the newcomer a handicap.”

Hearing this, Bai Xuechao slightly raised his chin. Under his snow-white, thick eyelashes, a pair of pigeon’s blood ruby-like eyes looked at Mortar with an arrogant and proud demeanor.

He said slowly to Mortar, “I’m very fast at assembling guns. I don’t want to discourage you.”

Mortar paused for a moment, “No, I’m still faster.”

“Mortar,” Yuan Lan rested the back of his hand on his chin, looking at them with great interest, and directly decided, “you start first.”

“…Yes, boss,” Mortar said with difficulty.

Mortar lowered his blue-gray eyes, his gaze sweeping over the scattered hand/gun parts on the table. He decided which one to pick up first and which one next, then took a deep breath and began to assemble—

As if his hands were on fire, he frantically picked up the gun barrel and inserted it into the slide. He didn’t even align it properly at first and had to poke it a few times before it fit.

Seeing Mortar’s flustered state, Yuan Lan laughed out loud without any restraint.

He had long expected it to be like this.

Seeing this, Mu Xinyue also started to snicker. Lin Changqing couldn’t bear to look directly, and Lin Lang awkwardly slapped his forehead. Tao Ru and Jing Han either showed no reaction or were trying hard to hold back their laughter, trying not to laugh out loud.

Only Qiao Wenjie, who was standing far away with an apple on his head, saw Mortar’s terrible assembly skills through his single broken eyeglass lens and typed a row of ellipses in his heart.

He suddenly felt that perhaps Bai Xuechao was more reliable, and hoped that the other person was really faster at assembling than Mortar, just as he had said.

Hearing Yuan Lan’s loud laughter, the little person in Mortar’s heart shed tears.

He thought to himself, if he had known it would turn out like this, he would have reined in his trash talk earlier, and he wouldn’t be so embarrassed now.

As he thought this, he tried to install the barrel bushing, but no matter how he twisted it left and right, it wouldn’t fit. He couldn’t help but curse in his native language. Suddenly, he noticed that Bai Xuechao was still sitting opposite him without moving, and the five seconds had long passed.

“What are you looking at? Haven’t you ever seen a good-for-nothing before!” Mortar flew into a rage out of humiliation and shouted loudly.

Bai Xuechao was shocked.

How could someone so brazenly call themselves a good-for-nothing?

He picked up the gun barrel and quickly inserted it into the slide, his movements as smooth as flowing water, then he stopped, “Your turn.”

Mortar: “…”

Damn it, this detestable fellow.

Suddenly, Yuan Lan said with a smile, “Little Xuechao, you’re learning from Mortar on the spot, aren’t you?”

His tone was very certain.

Since he had been seen through, Bai Xuechao didn’t try to force an explanation for himself.

He leaned back in his chair, resting against the backrest, and admitted frankly, “Yes.”

Mortar stared at Bai Xuechao in disbelief, “What did you say?”

“I said, yes.” Bai Xuechao was even more bold and confident than Mortar, who had just called himself a good-for-nothing. “I don’t know how to use a gun, so what?”

Mortar stopped his assembly and asked, “You don’t know how to assemble or shoot?”

Bai Xuechao said resolutely, “Yes.”

Mortar’s head was full of question marks.

So everything Bai Xuechao said just now was false?

Oh my god, he only dared to exaggerate the skills he possessed and didn’t dare to boast about things he couldn’t do. How did Bai Xuechao manage to lie with such a confident attitude, making it sound so real?

Yuan Lan was a little curious, “Why didn’t Little Xuechao learn?”

Bai Xuechao crossed his arms in front of his chest and said even more brazenly, “I’m a special ability user with an offensive ability. What do I need a hand/gun for?”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep