Chapter 119 - Challengers Association (1/2)
Ch119 – Challengers a.s.sociation
Xiao Lou thought that the airport broadcast was definitely a real world friend looking for Yu Hanjiang.
However, the trio had just entered the airport when they heard the announcer’s soft voice come from the radio again. “This is a broadcast looking for someone. Foreign vistor Mr Xiao Lou, Mr Xiao Lou, please come to the airport information desk. A friend is waiting for you.”
The three people stopped at the same time and looked at each other.
Yu Hanjiang frowned. “Do you have friends looking for you?”
Xiao Lou shook his head. “No, none of my real world friends have died unexpectedly in recent years. If something happened to them after me, they wouldn’t have pa.s.sed the fourth level so quickly.”
Liu Qiao suddenly thought of a possibility. “Is it because the two of you set a new secret room record, making the challenger organizations look for you? I saw the news in the floating box at the time and you are probably the most famous challengers among the new arrivals.”
Liu Qiao’s words made sense. No matter the situation, since the other person in the airport was looking for them, the two people couldn’t ignore it. They would go and see the ident.i.ty. Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang glanced at each other, turned and continued towards the information desk.
The three people walked over to the information desk and saw a woman wearing sungla.s.ses quietly waiting to the side. The woman was 1.75 metres and had a thin body. She had a typical oval face, white skin and s.e.xy, curly hair. After seeing the three people, she took the initiative to say, “Excuse me, are you Mr Yu and Mr Xiao?”
Yu Hanjiang nodded. Then the woman took off her sungla.s.ses and took the initiative to reach out. “h.e.l.lo, my name is Xue Mingyue.”
Xiao Lou didn’t remember this person and glanced at Yu Hanjiang in a puzzled manner. Yu Hanjiang didn’t reach for her hand and spoke directly, “Sorry, I don’t know you.”
Xue Mingyue smiled. “It is enough that I know you.” She glanced around at the pa.s.sengers and suggested, “We should go somewhere else and speak.”
The trio followed her to a secluded corner of the airport. Xue Mingyue looked around alertly and said, “There were many local people at the information desk just now and it wasn’t convenient to talk.” She lowered her voice. “I am also a challenger. The president sent me to pick you up. The two of you who have set new records in the Hearts secret rooms are the strongest challengers in this group of new people.”
After perceiving that the other side had no malice, Xiao Lou smiled with relief and asked, “President? What president?”
Xue Mingyue answered, “The president of the challengers a.s.sociation, ‘Distant Guild.’ It is one of the largest a.s.sociations in the City of the Moon and has only one principle—to go back using every means. We know that our home isn’t here.”
The aim of this a.s.sociation happened to coincide with Yu Hanjiang and Xiao Lou’s goal.
Both of them glanced at each other and continued to listen.
Xue Mingyue found that the two people were watching seriously and went on to say, “We will select some strong challengers from each group of new people and invite them to join the guild. An elite team will be set up within the guild to cope with the World Weekly and subsequent difficult levels. The two of you have done well and refreshed many world records. Thus, our president ‘Old Gui’ has been paying attention to you for a long time.”
She spoke a long paragraph. Yu Hanjiang captured the key information and frowned. “World Weekly? What do you mean?”
Xue Mingyue explained, “The airport is full of people. Can I ask you two…” She found that the two people had been followed by an indifferent looking female and awkwardly changed her words. “Please come back to the a.s.sociation’s headquarters with me. Our president would like to talk to you personally.”
Xiao Lou was worried about a scam but the main city looked peaceful and force shouldn’t be openly used. If there was danger then Yu Hanjiang had his guns. Even so, he glanced at Yu Hanjiang and said, “Group Leader Yu, please wait for me for a few minutes. I want to go to the bathroom.”
Yu Hanjiang was very cooperative. “Yes, I’ll wait for you here.”
Before leaving, Xiao Lou secretly opened Qin Guan’s heart channel with Yu Hanjiang. The heart channel was established and his thoughts were conveyed to Yu Hanjiang’s mind.
After a few seconds, Xiao Lou’s voice rang in Yu Hanjiang’s mind. “Group Leader Yu, we have been in a closed off level and didn’t expect our names to appear so many times in the challengers’ floating box. Now almost all challengers in the Card World know our existence and this can be a good and bad thing.”
Yu Hanjiang understood what he meant. “I understand. Xue Mingyue’s origin is unknown. She says she is from a challengers a.s.sociation but her credibility is still uncertain. We can gain information from her but we have to be ready to retreat at any time.”
“I think so as well. First, I’ll open Tao Yuanming’s Peach Blossom Spring in a place where no one is present. In 30 minutes, if the situation isn’t right then we will immediately transfer back to the airport.”
Professor Xiao’s caution was truly appreciated. Yu Hanjiang immediately agreed. “Yes, it is just as you say.”
Xue Mingyue found that since Xiao Lou went to the toilet, the handsome man in front of him had fallen silent. His eyes were fixed on the ground, slender fingers touching his chin like he was thinking of something. As for the girl, she had been silent from beginning to end and had a very low sense of existence.
Xue Mingyue took the three people with the parking lot. She drove a red car and the license plate should be that of the Card World. Liu Qiao consciously sat in the pa.s.senger’s seat and left the back seats to Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang. They got on one after another.
The back row was extremely s.p.a.cious. Xiao Lou asked, “This car is very good. How much is it in the Card World?”
Xue Mingyue’s lip curved. “Change to yuan, it is around 120,000.” She saw Xiao Lou’s surprised expression through the rearview mirror and shrugged. “This world’s prices are really low. It is very easy to buy a car and a house so many challengers who stay here for a long time are attracted by the ultra-low price and don’t want to go back.”
Xiao Lou had expected it but his heart was still uncomfortable when he heard her say so.
The vehicle started and Xue Mingyue drove from the airport at high speed. There were roads in every direction and several sky highways, making traffic jams almost nonexistent. The scenery here was very beautiful. Street lights were hung from the trees and the tall trees beside the road formed a natural shade. The fallen vines looked like large green waterfalls from afar.
Cards drove on the road like they were driving through the jungle.
Xiao Lou looked out the window at the beautiful scenery and endless starry sky as he chatted with Xue Mingyue.
Thanks to Xue Mingyue, he knew that the proportion of locals and challengers in the City of the Moon was around 6:4. There were around 40 million challengers and 60 million locals in the city, with a total population of more than 100 million. This was much larger than the Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou areas on Earth.
Xue Mingyue told them, “The only difference between the locals and challengers is that the locals go to work from Monday to Friday and get off work on Sat.u.r.day and Sunday. Meanwhile, challengers have a fixed time to break through on Sat.u.r.days and Sundays.”
Xiao Lou made a guess. “The breakthrough every week is what you call World Weekly?”
Xue Mingyue nodded. “The World Weekly forces all challengers to enter. There is a mysterious force that sucks us directly into a large secret room. Many locals always wonder why us outsiders disappear over time…in fact, they don’t disappear but die in the secret rooms.”
Her eyes stared straight ahead and a trace of loss flashed through them. “Thus, you can live a normal life in this world but it is precarious… no one knows what will happen next week and who will come back alive.”
Liu Qiao looked at her from the pa.s.senger’s seat and spoke her first sentence. “The World Weekly’s secret room is random?”
“Yes, it might be Hearts, Diamonds, Spades or Clubs.”
Xiao Lou frowned. “I remember that there are tens of millions of challengers who enter the secret room. So many people are sucked into the same secret room? What would the plot be like if tens of millions of people are involved in the Hearts secret room?”
Xue Mingyue smiled and explained, “The tens of millions of people would be scattered to different instances of the same secret room. Every secret room can accommodate up to 100 people. If it is a Hearts secret room then there will probably only be a dozen people.” She took a look at Xiao Lou in the rearview mirror. “In fact, it is very similar to a game world. We are game players and forced to perform weekend tasks. The locals are NPCs who don’t need to do tasks.”
The car fell silent. Xiao Lou looked out the window and thought about it. Unexpectedly, the challengers had the random World Weekly in addition to the fixed secret rooms clearance.
The World Weekly mission would pull tens of millions of challengers into secret rooms. There might be complex homicides, oversized mazes, extremely harsh conditions or the Clubs secret room that would eliminate one of the two camps.
The challengers experienced a thrilling life-and-death game every week. Maybe someone who was talking to you yesterday would never come back after the weekend.
Thus, even if the material conditions of this world were good, the challengers had no sense of ‘security.’ No one knew if they could live through the World Weekly. Even if they came back one week, could they make it the next week?
There was only one way for a truly secure life. Clear the SS secret rooms and return to the real world.
Xiao Lou took a deep breath and looked at Yu Hanjiang sitting beside him. Yu Hanjiang was also looking back and the two people used their heart channel to continue speaking.
Yu Hanjiang told him, “The World Weekly routine should be to randomly create a secret room every week. This is different from the fixed secret rooms of the 52 playing cards. Moreover, all challengers have to go to this weekly mission. It definitely won’t be too simple.”
Xiao Lou said, “World Weekly is on the weekends. Then the other secret rooms can only be cleared on Monday-Friday?”
Yu Hanjiang agreed. “For us, challenging the secret rooms is like going to work.”