Chapter 69

Bai Xuechao did indeed have such thoughts. I had to say, the male lead’s intuition was quite accurate.

Perhaps it wasn’t just intuition?

He didn’t answer Zhou Chenhao’s question directly, but instead smiled amicably and said, “If you can’t hold on, you can choose to quit the game. I won’t go easy on you anymore, you know.”

Bai Xuechao’s last sentence made Ling Feng even more certain that the other party had deliberately not answered the previous question and had given it to him.

“We don’t need you to go easy on us.” Whether it was out of respect for the seriousness of the game or a young man’s self-esteem, Ling Feng was unwilling to accept Bai Xuechao going easy on them. He looked at Bai Xuechao with a serious expression and said, “As long as it’s a fair and just competition, I can accept any outcome.”

Zhou Chenhao echoed from the side, “That’s right, we don’t need you to go easy on us.”

He thought for a moment and added, “Although I might not be able to answer many questions, hanging here is definitely no problem.”

Ling Feng: “…”

That sounded very unambitious.

Bai Xuechao chuckled lightly and said, “Alright, as you wish.”

The game continued.

The big screen displayed the 15th question…

Next, Zhou Chenhao and Ling Feng deeply experienced what Bai Xuechao was like when he wasn’t going easy.

For six consecutive questions, Bai Xuechao answered them all correctly.

Almost every time, the moment the question appeared, Bai Xuechao would give the answer, his face a picture of calm indifference. His speed was so fast that one couldn’t help but wonder if he had even finished reading the question. If they didn’t know that these questions were randomly drawn from the knowledge of all current players in the Dream Game City, they would have suspected that the game system had leaked the questions to Bai Xuechao.

It wasn’t until the seventh question that Ling Feng managed to snatch one and answer it correctly.

【Player A’s current game coin amount: 379,999,998】

【Player B’s current game coin amount: 332,333,331】

【Player C’s current game coin amount: 1,741,666,670】

【Player remaining ropes】

【Player A: 0】

【Player B: 0】

【Player C: 5】

【Current prize pool: 680,000,001 game coins】

Bai Xuechao’s game coin amount was in a league of its own.

Ling Feng had exchanged his special ability, eyes, hands, and personality for a total of 540 million game coins. He was now short of 160,000,002 game coins and needed to answer another 4 questions correctly.

Zhou Chenhao had exchanged his special ability and personality for a total of 589 million game coins. Although he hadn’t answered any questions correctly, he had pulled all his safe ropes and also gained game coins. He was now short of 256,666,669, and needed to answer another 6 questions correctly.

Since game coins could be transferred after the game ended, as long as they answered a total of another 9 questions correctly, they could redeem their own things and would still have 33,333,329 game coins left over.

However, besides that, they also needed to win another 166,666,671 game coins to save Xia Xiaoxi. Although Gong Ting was out, Xia Xiaoxi was still locked up.

That would require answering another 4 questions correctly.

In total, they needed to answer 13 questions correctly.

And the current number of game coins in the prize pool was just enough to provide rewards for another 13 questions.

In other words, only if they answered the next 13 questions all correctly could they achieve the goal they had come to Dream Game City for.

This was not good. If things continued like this, they were doomed to lose.

Zhou Chenhao and Ling Feng subconsciously exchanged a glance, and both saw a grave expression on the other’s face.

They couldn’t just start discussing what to do either, after all, Bai Xuechao was right there. If they discussed it, what was the difference between that and plotting out loud?

What to do, what to do!

The big screen began to display the 22nd question.

In a moment of desperation, Zhou Chenhao shouted the moment the question appeared, “A!”

When he shouted the option, Bai Xuechao had just started reading the question.

A normal person’s reaction speed is about 0.3 seconds. A trained person can reach 0.15-0.18 seconds. And just now, Zhou Chenhao’s reaction speed was definitely not more than 0.12 seconds!

【Incorrect Answer】

Then the big screen froze for a moment.

Because Zhou Chenhao had no ropes left, even if the system punished him by making him pull another one, he had no ropes to pull.

The wavy line on the big screen jumped silently for a good few seconds. It might have given up on punishing Zhou Chenhao, and just continued to display the next question as if nothing had happened.

And this few seconds of silent blankness allowed Bai Xuechao and Ling Feng to figure out what Zhou Chenhao was trying to do—

As long as they answered the moment the question appeared, faster than Bai Xuechao could answer, they had a chance to guess the answer correctly and get the game coins!

As it turned out, this was feasible.

Zhou Chenhao let out a low laugh, a hint of smugness in his smile for having achieved his goal.

His pair of amber-like, dark brown eyes curved into a pleasant arc, a smile touching the corners of his eyes and brows. The light reflected in them as tiny specks of light.

He sighed with a smile and said, “The system wasn’t lying. You can win by luck even without using your brain.”

There was no need to answer the questions seriously anymore. From now on, they just had to compete on who could shout out an answer faster.

Xiao 6 held up a red-hearted star eye: “The male lead is so handsome!”

Bai Xuechao chuckled, perhaps finding Zhou Chenhao’s way of breaking the deadlock interesting. He looked at Zhou Chenhao with a smile in his eyes, but said nothing, just smiled silently again.

How should I put it, worthy of being the male lead?

If it was just a competition of who could shout faster, Bai Xuechao should be a little faster than Zhou Chenhao, not to mention Ling Feng.

Although Zhou Chenhao’s physical enhancement with each level-up was very high, an officially stamped setting in the manga, Bai Xuechao had barely improved his strength when he leveled up to level 8. His enhancements were mostly in his five senses, speed, and other aspects. Speed naturally included reaction speed. Therefore, if they were only competing on speed, Bai Xuechao should have a slight edge.

But Bai Xuechao had ropes. He still had five, three of which were safe ropes.

Logically, he couldn’t just shout out answers as recklessly as Zhou Chenhao.

But would Bai Xuechao care?

Bai Xuechao made his decision almost instantly.

Either his answering speed was faster than Zhou Chenhao’s snatching speed, or he would join Zhou Chenhao in snatching and guessing wildly.

What if he got the snatch-and-answer wrong?

It didn’t matter. After pulling his first system rope, he could still stand on the swing board.

If he pulled another system rope, even if his strength wasn’t enough to hang on for a long time, he could still manage to actively quit the game before he couldn’t hold on anymore.

Bai Xuechao had exchanged his life and personality for a total of 1.455 billion game coins.

Adding Zhou Chenhao’s personality, worth 289 million, he needed 1.744 billion game coins, and he wasn’t far from that number. As for Gong Ting’s special ability, he could choose to redeem it or not, because at worst, he could still use his own special ability to perform Devourment.

But he had just asked the system about the priority order for redeeming from the prize pool.

Since his own things would be redeemed first, he couldn’t let Zhou Chenhao earn 589 million game coins, nor could he let Ling Feng earn more than 540 million game coins, and the sum of the two could not reach 1.129 billion. Otherwise, after the game ended, Ling Feng could completely transfer game coins to Zhou Chenhao, allowing Zhou Chenhao to redeem his own personality.

Therefore, on the premise that Ling Feng would have a surplus to transfer to Zhou Chenhao after answering four questions correctly, he could at most let Zhou Chenhao answer four questions correctly.

Calculating all of this only took Bai Xuechao a few short seconds.

He curled his lips and said, “Come on, let’s see who’s faster.”

He had a margin of error of at most eight questions.

So, if the question was long, he would follow his intuition and compete with Zhou Chenhao in snatching the answer, betting on the probability of being correct. If the question was short, he would read the question before answering to ensure a 100% correct answer, and he had to be faster at answering than Zhou Chenhao was at snatching. Although it was difficult, wasn’t a challenge more interesting?

【Question 23: In contrast to Mencius’s theory of “human nature is inherently good,” which Warring States period thinker proposed the theory of “human nature is inherently evil”?】

【A. Laozi】

【B. Xunzi】

The moment the question appeared on the big screen, Bai Xuechao realized it was a long one and immediately said, “A.”

Zhou Chenhao continued to shout, “A!”

Ling Feng shouted almost at the same time as him, “B!”

The two had a tacit understanding, each guessing one answer.

However, since only the first player to answer was counted, they also needed to compete on who was faster.

Bai Xuechao’s voice was 0.05 seconds faster than Zhou Chenhao’s.

【Incorrect Answer】

【Player C must pull off one rope within ten seconds.】

Bai Xuechao sighed, “Guessed wrong.”

He was a little bit faster, but he didn’t guess correctly. Luck was just that unreasonable.

But he didn’t lose out too much. As long as he pulled a safe rope, he could get 50 million game coins.

Xiao 6 didn’t know who to cheer for at this moment. As Bai Xuechao’s system, it naturally had to cheer for Bai Xuechao. But according to the plot, it should support Zhou Chenhao and Ling Feng’s victory. Otherwise, how would the plot of “winning after playing a game with the City Lord” be completed?

So it fell silent, conflictedly banging on its wooden fish.

Bai Xuechao casually picked one of his remaining five ropes and pulled it down. At this moment, his luck was very good, and he was safe and sound.

【Player C’s current game coin amount: 1,791,666,670】

【Question 24: Does the King of Spades in a deck of cards look to the left or to the right?】

【A. Right】

【B. Left】

Zhou Chenhao shouted, “A!”

Ling Feng said, “B.”

This question was relatively short, so Bai Xuechao answered “A” only after reading it, about 0.8 seconds slower than Zhou Chenhao, which was his normal answering speed.

His answering speed varied, sometimes fast, sometimes slow. Ling Feng noticed this and was lost in thought.

【Correct Answer】

【Player B’s current game coin amount: 382,333,331】

【Player C must pull off one rope within ten seconds.】

Zhou Chenhao shouted correctly.

Bai Xuechao had to choose the two safe ropes out of four, a 50% chance. Yet even so, he didn’t hesitate at all and directly pulled one off.

He was also lucky enough to be safe again.

【Player C’s current game coin amount: 1,841,666,670】

Xiao 6 was afraid of disturbing Bai Xuechao’s answering, so it didn’t even dare to knock on the wooden fish. It was so nervous that its code was rolling its eyes, unable to watch. It was unacceptable for Zhou Chenhao and Ling Feng to lose, but it also couldn’t imagine its Host losing.

【Question 25: Gypsum is a hydrate of which substance as its main chemical component?】

【A. Calcium oxide】

【B. Calcium sulfate】

It was hard to say whether Bai Xuechao’s luck was too good or too bad, but this time the question was very short again.

He still read the question before saying the answer, “B.”

Zhou Chenhao still mindlessly shouted, “A!”

Ling Feng also said, “B.”

The two were almost simultaneous again.

Whether it was intentional or not, this time Zhou Chenhao was somehow a little slower. Ling Feng was 0.01 seconds faster than him, even though his normal speed was faster than Ling Feng’s.

【Correct Answer】

【Player A’s current game coin amount: 429,999,998】

【Player C must pull off one rope within ten seconds.】

This time it was Bai Xuechao’s turn to choose one out of three.

But neither Zhou Chenhao nor Ling Feng’s expressions could be called relaxed, because they discovered that Bai Xuechao was not only answering normally, but his answering speed was getting faster and faster.

For the last question, Bai Xuechao was only 0.04 seconds slower than Ling Feng.

What did this mean?

Under normal circumstances, Zhou Chenhao’s reaction speed was within 0.12 seconds, and Ling Feng’s reaction speed was within 0.13 seconds.

Bai Xuechao’s reaction speed was 0.05 seconds faster than Zhou Chenhao’s, which was within 0.07 seconds.

For the 24th question, Bai Xuechao’s normal answering was still 0.8 seconds slower than Zhou Chenhao’s. This meant that it took him about 0.92 seconds to read the question, think of the answer, make a choice, and say it out loud.

And just now, Bai Xuechao was only 0.04 seconds slower than Ling Feng, using 0.17 seconds. His speed had improved by a large margin! It was almost as fast as a trained ordinary person’s immediate reaction!

If Bai Xuechao continued to evolve like this, would his answering speed become faster than their snatching speed?

Was that really possible?

Or rather, was that something a human could even do?

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep