Chapter 219 - Game Over!

Aunt Su walked to the corner and went back to hugging her legs and Zhihao could almost imagine seeing a dark depressing cloud hovering over her head. 

Zhihao scoffed as he suddenly didn't know if he was supposed to laugh or cry. 

"Just so you know..." Zhihao spoke up, "I won't be feeling thankful for this." 

Aunt Su smirked as she shrugged and responded, "I don't care. You can just take it as me repaying the debt I owe you." 

Zhihao took a sharp breath in and looked down at his phone. The timer on his screen had stopped while the timer on Aunt Su's phone had turned red. 

Soon enough, another screen popped up on Aunt Su's phone. 

[Game over!] 

"One minute remaining," Liang Feng informed as he broke the awkward atmosphere. 

Zhihao's grip around his phone tightened as he felt a bit unsatisfied. 

Li Ling patted his shoulder and tried to reassure him before he threw his phone down and showed everyone his screen.

White Bishop. 

[The one beside the king. The one who protects him from everything. Your mission is to make sure that the king is well protected and doesn't get overthrown.] 

Just as expected, Li Ling's timer had also stopped as he cleared the mission automatically due to the exchange between Aunt Su and Zhihao. 

Jiangshi had also managed to take off his phone cover by now so he placed his phone down and showed the screen to everyone. 

The king's knight.

[With a flexible move and powerful armor, you can survive and fight a lot of battles for your king. Your mission is to capture the pawn.] 

Everyone was silent as they looked at the screen. 

Zhihao was quick to collect himself as he paid back all his attention to the game. 

"Let's play," Zhihao announced. 

"Eh?" Li Ying tilted her head in confusion. 

"Thirty seconds," Liang Feng breathed out and the ticking timer seemed to be giving him a heart attack. 

Zhihao, "We'll play rock paper scissors." 

Liang Feng's eyebrows creased together in worry as he heard his plan and at this moment, he was surely regretting the fact that he had ever agreed to go along with Zhihao's plan. 

"No time to explain. Just do it. You guys know what chess piece the other has so the loser has to hand over their phone to the winner. You lose on purpose. This would not be considered as cheating or helping others since it's part of the rules of the rock papers scissors that can be considered as a competition as well." 

"Argh!" Li Ying sounded to be annoyed as she shouted and walked up to Zhou Xinyi, "I'll take out papers so you better lose." 

The queen's knight.

[You fight for the queen and the king. You protect them with your life and you control the pawns. Your mission is to capture a pawn.] 

Zhou Xinyi who had gotten a pawn simply nodded as he took out a rock and lost the game on purpose before handing over his phone to Li Ying. 

The timer on Li Ying's phone suddenly stopped while the timer on Zhou Xinyi's phone kept going. 

"That's it!" Zhihao exclaimed in delight, "Hulk, you win against Kaoru. Kaoru you win against Li Ying. Richlord would win against Trash. Wang GuiYing you win against Jiangshi. Jiangshi you win against T-Rex and Liang Feng you win against the black bishop, Andyzz. Andyzz you win against Li Ling." 

Even Zhihao felt as if his brain was about to short-circuit as he calculated and tried to remember everyone's mission. The players themselves had no time left to calculate it and since their hearts couldn't calm down due to the stress and tension, they simply decided to believe Zhihao and did exactly as he had instructed. 

They went around announcing the move they were going to take out as they played rock paper and scissors with the partner that was assigned to them. 

"Ten seconds!" Liang Feng announced as he looked down at his timer that had stopped since he had already completed his mission. 

The Pawn. 

[You listen to others and never rebel. You are loyal and insignificant yet without you, a battle cannot go on. Don't you wish to rebel sometimes? To make your superiors feel what you go through every day? Your mission is to capture the Black Bishop.] 

One by one the other timers also stopped as they all one by one cleared their mission. 

Jiangshi also sighed in relief as he looked down at his phone screen. 

The King's knight. 

[You are loyal and brave. You rule the battle and save the people but it seems that the pawns aren't listening to you well. Your mission is to capture a rebel pawn and bring back order to this battlefield.] 

"Five," It was Li Ying who announced the timer as she looked around to see who was still left. 

"Four," Liang Feng continued the counting. 

Tian Xifeng sighed in relief as she looked down at her phone timer that had stopped exactly at four seconds after she had won against Wang GuiYing. 

She was also a pawn and her mission was to capture the rook. 

The rook, Wang GuiYing, won against the king's knight who was Jiangshi. 

"Three," Mastermo also joined in on the countdown as he looked around to see that most of them had already managed to complete the mission. 

"Two," Li Ling added. 

"Done!" Before the word 'one' could roll out of anyone's tongue, Andyzz had already exclaimed as he held up his phone that stopped at exactly one second. 

The black Bishop 

[You are amazing but you stay by the queen's side. You're just as powerful and yet further away from the king. Wouldn't it be amazing if you could be a little more trusted? Your mission is to overthrow the white bishop.] 

Zhihao also let out a breath that he didn't even know he was holding. 

"Damn it... That was the most stressful thing I had ever gone through," Wang GuiYing suddenly commented as he slid down and sat on the ground as he had run out of energy. 

"Are we all alive?" Zhihao gulped as he questioned just in case. 

Li Ying sighed as she glanced at Aunt Su who was still sitting with her knees hugged close to her chest, "Except for her, everyone else is safe." 

Zhihao still felt a bit annoyed by it but he didn't feel bad for the woman. It was her choice to lose in any case. 

This game was organized in a way that made it impossible for all eleven of them to pass and this also broke their previous theory where they thought that as long as they work together in unity, they would be able to clear all the levels with ease. 

Li Ling gulped in worry and said nothing although it looked like he wanted to say something. 

Everyone else was also naturally silent as they contemplated what they were supposed to do next. 

If this competition was organized in such a way then surely all the games in the future would also be organized in this exact manner. 

They had already managed to survive the first two competitions and now they only had three more before they finally got to enter the absolute final level where they would probably get the mission to kill the gamemaster. 

Like an elephant in the room that nobody dared to address, this thought slowly haunted their minds. 

As expected, working together as a group would indeed be difficult. 

Zhihao was also aware of this fact and he knew that with Aunt Su's failure to complete the mission, a small hint of distrust had been planted in the hearts of the other players. 

If the system asked them to betray each other in the future, Zhihao could no longer confidently say that all the players here would try to work together and find a way around it. 

At the end of the day, there could only be one winner, and if they kept on helping their competitors like this, their chances of winning would further be slimmed down. 

In the future three competitions, Zhihao was sure that there would be someone who'll betray them and once a player finds the courage to go against the others, other players would surely follow the example as well. 

This was a bit worrisome. Especially when Zhihao looked around and realized that he personally knew and trusted most of them. 

[Ding~]

[Congratulations on clearing the second competition within ten minutes!]

[Sadly, not all of you could make it.] 

[Does your heart hurt with guilt for that player that would not be able to accompany you from here on out?] 

[Well, as the organizer of this game, I'd like to remind you that a competition is still a competition. If you feel bad for each other, you might as well just quit.] 

[You are all here for a purpose and I hope you never forget that.] 

[You might be familiar with the one that stands beside you but you must never forget that the friend that stands beside you is also here with the purpose of winning the game. You can be betrayed at any moment so why not betray before you get betrayed?] 

Damn it... 

Zhihao almost wanted to curse out loud. 

This system was clearly trying to light a fire of suspicion within the group.