The Trial Game of Life
Chapter 14: On A Snowy Night, He Returns (8)

Half an hour later, the six-member team stopped in the forest. By this time, it had only been a bit more than 1 kilometer from the hostel.

The cold slowed them down, and the search for the glowing dust made them walk around quite a distance. Luckily for them, the trees in the forest were blocking a lot of wind and snow, so they could at least locate some traces of the dust along the way.

But everyone had been straining their eyes so hard they felt like they could go blind soon.

After a short rest, Peng Mingfan looked back and said: “Zhang Zhiqiu didn’t follow us.”

Qian Wei: “Does he feel guilty?” 

An Ning: “What guilty? Can a person like him still feel guilty? He dared to kill Li Ying Jun and was so sure he could clear the game, why would he run around in the forest then? He could comfortably lie down and sleep.”

Qian Wei scratched his head: “Also true.” 

An Ning: “Of course!”

After three days, Qian Wei and An Ning’s verbal fights had become almost a daily thing. Zhao Ping became a lot more relieved as he looked at those two fighting, his worries over the missing Li Shuangshuang lightening up.

He actually didn’t agree with Qian Wei’s deduction of how to clear the game. He had some doubts over why Zhang Zhiqiu was so sure of that theory. Thinking so, he walked to Peng Mingfan and asked: “Do you think Zhang Zhiqiu has a problem?”

Peng Mingfan shook his head: “I’m not sure now. I just started to suspect that Zhang Zhiqiu is an NPC, but why should an NPC kill Li Ying Jun? But then, if he isn’t an NPC, his behaviour raises too many questions.”

Qian Wei interjected: “In short, this man has some issues. “

An Ning: “You just haven’t seen enough people.”

The two almost jumped into yet another bickering. Meanwhile, Tang Cuo and Jin Cheng found another trace of dust and proceeded in that direction.

Tang Cuo was having his military coat on. Yesterday he took it off in the kitchen conveniently, then today he put it on on the way out, also conveniently. It was chilling outside and he already lost 1 point after walking around just a bit.

“What do you think we will replace?” Jin Cheng asked.

“The corpse.” Tang Chuo said concisely.

“You don’t seem to believe in his deduction on the game clearance requirement at all?”

“Because it’s impossible for Qu Li to clear this game.”

Jin Cheng suddenly became interested and continued to ask: “But Qu Li killed Li Ying Jun and disappeared, just like Li Shuangshuang. Isn’t this proving that this way of survival does exist? If you kill Li Ying Jun, you disappear ― this would scare most players from making any move. But actually if you are bold enough to kill him, you can clear the game, which is absolutely in line with Yong Ye City’s twisted philosophy.”

“But didn’t you notice?” Tang Cuo turned to look at him with his remarkably bright eyes. “Li Shuangshuang and Zhang Zhiqiu both wandered  off alone before they carried out the killing.” 

The two murderers both behaved strangely.

One was timid and reserved, one was selfish and cunning, both had nothing in common. But they both suddenly went mad and killed Li Ying Jun after wandering off alone.

Tang Cuo asked again: “How is Li Ying Jun’s combat power?”

Jin Cheng thought for a moment before replying: “Very strong.”

“He was killed twice, first poisoned then stabbed to death. Poisoning can certainly weaken his combat power, and he was tied up when Li Shuangshuang killed him, but he didn’t even have the power to resist just a bit?”

That was very odd.

From the first time he witnessed Li Ying Jun’s death, this strange feeling had been lingering inside Tang Cuo, until he saw Zhang Zhiqiu stabbing him to death again.

Why did Li Ying Jun’s combat power fluctuate between strong and weak so suddenly?

Tang Cuo didn’t believe that Jin Cheng couldn’t see it. He had been a wise man from beginning to end, almost like he could reach the finishing line any moment now. Jin Cheng shrugged and said: “What you said makes sense.”

That’s as good as saying nothing.

Tang Cuo wrapped himself tightly in the army coat and continued on.

Jin Cheng slowly followed: “Actually, I care more about Li Ying Jun himself.”

Tang Cuo didn’t talk. He wasn’t in the best mood now.

Jin Cheng however was in a better mood, so he continued: “The woodcutter, the firewood having a special smell, the pine tree logo of the hostel, and even how Li Ying Jun’s wood element is weakened by metal element ― they are all related to wood. The final truth may indeed be hidden in this forest.”

Hearing that, Tang Cuo looked up at the seemingly endless black forest.

Jin Cheng’s voice rang in his ears: “Our ultimate goal is not to solve the puzzle, but to kill him. Only by replaceing the right way to do so can we survive.”

The right way to do so…

As Tang Cuo chewed on this sentence, a vague figure appeared in his mind and memories of a long time ago came crashing onto him. He turned to look at Jin Cheng but only faced a silver mask.

He solemnly announced to himself that he would hate Jin Cheng from now on.

For no specific reasons.

“Why do I feel that the way you look at me doesn’t seem right?” Jin Cheng said.

“Your feeling is wrong.” Tang Cuo turned back to his emotionless face in a blink.

As he finished his sentence, Tang Cuo started to move faster and Jin Cheng followed suit. Qian Wei and the others also started to accelerate from behind: “Big brothers, wait!”

After walking for another half an hour and changing their direction twice, the six people found a mountain cave. Arriving at this point, the glowing dust on the ground seemed to have stopped and they couldn’t tell which way it headed to after this.

The cave was small and posed no danger, but the best thing was its dryness. Qian Wei ran in first and stomped his feet to shake off the snow on his shoulders, then immediately blew into his hands to warm up.

“Why are you so afraid of the cold?” An Ning stepped in after him.

“This is my normal physiological response. It’s you all that are abnormal… Hey?” Qian Wei stopped mid-sentence and suddenly ran back to the cave entrance, then he cleared away the weeds and snow on the ground: “There are bear footprints here!”

The rest all gathered to have a look.

Peng Mingfan, who didn’t encounter the real black bear, breathed in anxiously as he observed such a gigantic footprint and was reminded of what Qian Wei told him yesterday.

Jin Cheng seemed very delighted and asked Tang Cuo: “Is the bear yesterday this big?”

Tang Cuo nodded coldly.

“I suddenly think of a way.” Jin Cheng smiled. “The black bear is native to this forest, so it’s definitely familiar with this place. We can let it lead the way.”

Everyone looked at each other. What kind of way was this?

Tang Cuo asked: “Are you sure it will listen to you?”

Jin Cheng spread his hand: “You won’t know until you fight.”

“You want to fight it?”

“Aren’t you helping?”

“Don’t you see that I’m dying soon?”

Jin Cheng shook his head. I really don’t see it. This good sir who was dying soon just killed a bear yesterday.

But in short, the plan was settled.

Qian Wei and the others had no chance to voice their opinions, and even Peng Mingfan, the know-it-all, was assigned to cutting trees. Even An Ning, the only girl, failed to escape. Of course Zhao Ping wouldn’t be forgotten. The four were chased out of the cave and ordered to cut down the trees until they attracted the black bear.

Suddenly they all became labourers.

Tang Cuo, wrapped in the military coat, sat on the rock at the entrance of the cave to supervise them with his arms hugged closely to his body. From the corner of his eyes, he saw Jin Cheng take out his bow again. It was a grayish silver mechanical bow with a hollow grip, its body seemingly adorned with many intricate gears and accessories. The bow’s beautiful curve showed off the delicate technology that must have gone into its making.

With such a bow, it was unlikely to be used only for shooting arrows.

Tang Cuo was very intrigued but didn’t ask much, only thinking that he should also replace a way to get a handy weapon.

Just then, the first tree fell.

Tang Cuo looked up and glanced through the forest to replace it still as tranquil as before. 

“Continue.” He said.

The four labourers could only continue to cut trees, their hearts almost on the verge of jumping out. Yesterday, the black bears appeared a few minutes after the tree was cut, so the same thing might happen today. Having that thought, the four of them acted even faster.

“Snap ―” Another crisp breaking sound filled the air.

A bear’s roar followed right after.

“Run!” An Ning yelled and the four quickly fled. While running, they couldn’t help but glance back, and they saw ―

The black bear is also running away!

Running away from them!

It turned around and escaped!

The four came to a brake at once, then Peng Mingfan watched the black bear figure fading into the distance in disbelief and asked: “What did you guys do to it yesterday?”

An Ning, Qian Wei and Zhao Ping: “……”

“Look over there!” Qian Wei exclaimed suddenly and pointed at a big tree in front of them.

The other three looked up to see a sturdy shadow with a bow leaping from a tree a dozen meters high, his feet looking as though they were walking on the wind. The figure instantly landed atop another tree before making a few more ups and downs, heading straight towards the black bear.

“Whoosh!” His arrow moved as fast as his jump. He raised his bow and mounted another arrow in the midst of his leap and the arrow set off when his feet were still in mid-air.   

Wasn’t that figure in army green overalls Jin Cheng?

The metal shaft pierced the black bear’s right ear and nailed into the ground, painting blood flowers on the white snow. The black bear was forced to stop and started to turn to the other direction, but Jin Cheng had already reached the tree behind it. This time, he needed no arrows. He directly aimed at the ground and pulled on the bowstring.

“Ting ―” It sounded exactly like one coming from a guzheng.

The sound wave trembled and moved the tree leaves along.

The snow shivered and was shaken off the treetops by an invisible force as the black bear roared in pain. It ran blindly in all directions, smashing down any trees that might be in its path.

“Ting ―” Yet another sound wave came and the black bear crashed down, crumbling on the ground while clutching its head.

Jin Cheng jumped down from the tree and landed steadily on its back. He conjured a needle out of thin air and injected it into the back of its neck in one assertive move.

The black bear went silent in a blink.

The other four who just hurried over had their jaws dropped.

Tang Cuo was the only person who remained unflinching: “What is that?”

Jin Cheng dropped the needle into the snow: “A very strong sedative.”

Hearing that, Tang Cuo walked over to stand face to face with the black bear. The creature apparently was still struggling, albeit feebly, its roar slowing turning into a sob.

Immediately afterwards, Jin Cheng took out a red collar and put it around the black bear’s neck. A rope extended from the collar, making the whole thing look no different from a dog leash.

Qian Wei took the courage to ask first: “Big brothers, what are we going to do now?”

Tang Cuo: “You ask him.”

Jin Cheng raised his eyebrows: “We just walk around, I don’t speak bear language anyway. The bear stays around this area all the time and doesn’t even allow people to cut down the trees. He must have been to the place where Li Ying Jun cut his firewood. Maybe we’ll replace that spot after a while.” 

The black bear didn’t understand a word and just continued to sob while trying to reach the collar on his neck, but his claws were sadly not made to do so.

Over the next hour, Qian Wei and the others witnessed one of the craziest things in their lives — in the middle of a bizarre black forest, against the heavy wind, a man was sliding through the snow with a bear pulling his sled.

Perhaps the bear was too big and the strong sedative couldn’t send it into a coma, so it was able to move around within a few minutes. But that was also the beginning of its sad fate.

The black bear didn’t totally surrender. It attempted to pull out and run away, but no matter how fast it moved or wherever it ran to, Jin Cheng always firmly pulled on the leash around its neck. He slided through the snow with his feet securely on a broken wooden board, Santa’s sleigh seemingly following right behind.

“Grrr ―” The black bear roared and crashed into a tree, trying to throw Jin Cheng out. But Jin Cheng just stepped on the fallen trunk and did a backflip, landing himself on top of the bear’s head in a flash before giving it a heavy punch.

The black bear screamed and surrendered again.

Equally made to surrender were the four labourers, who were panting behind and exhausting all their strength to barely follow him. Qian Wei had it worst because he also carried a Tang Cuo on his back.

It wasn’t like Tang Cuo didn’t want to run, but he couldn’t run fast. As a new player, he had zero equipment and even had a debuff imposed on him. There was no need for any bears to try to attack him ― he could simply run himself to death in this ice and snow.

After another half an hour, the person carrying Tang Cuo changed to Zhao Ping.

“Big brother!” Qian Wei yelled towards the front, his tongue almost giving up: “Where are you going?! This marathon is, is… Oh f**k!”

Qian Wei stumbled on the snow, pulling all others who were behind to fall down with him.

Jin Cheng had no choice but to turn back. By this time, the bear was almost at its limit because he was so tired and he had been banging onto trees to look for death a few times. Although Tang Cuo didn’t run, the tedious route also had him so fed up that he decided to keep sitting on the ground, refusing to get up.

The first person who got up was the energetic Qian Wei. He was embarrassed and turned to replace the culprit hidden in the snow: “What is it that blocked my way?” 

After searching for some time, he found a knee-high sapling and, without saying another word, tried to plug it off. But the sapling was so unusually sturdy that Qian Wei had to exert all his strength, then he fell backwards on his buttocks as it got pulled out.

He cried out in pain and rubbed his buttocks, then conveniently threw the sapling away.

The sapling landed in front of Tang Cuo. He looked down and his expression changed suddenly.

“What’s this?!” An Ning also saw it and was terrified.

All eyes gathered as Tang Cuo picked up the sapling. It was densely packed with tiny black roots that looked like human hair, with even some bloody flesh stuck on those roots.

Tang Cuo solemnly named them: “Human skin, and human hair.” 

In an instant, everyone felt like electricity just shot through their body and they had goosebumps all over. Qian Wei even touched his scalp subconsciously with a horrified look on his face.

Jin Cheng also frowned slightly. His eyes quickly turned to where Qian Wei pulled out the sapling and he dusted off all the dirt and snow to replace ― a human head.

The scalp was torn off.

“This, did I tear it off?” Qian Wei almost fainted on the spot, but apparently, this was the truth.

“Relax, this person is dead.” Jin Cheng said, taking a step back before continuing: “Let’s replace a way to dig this person out. Perhaps we will replace out where Li Shuangshuang and Qu Li are soon.”