Two minutes later, the countdown ended, and Xu Huo was still standing where he had been, and not only had there been no explosion, but no white stripe had appeared on the back of his hand either.
"You actually managed to do it," Brother Feng said, quite surprised. No matter how much information was available online, nothing compared to Seeing is Believing. He sized up Xu Huo, "You really aren’t afraid to die, are you?"
"Afraid? Of course, I’m afraid." Xu Huo said, "But I gritted my teeth and got through it."
As he spoke, he provocatively glanced at the tall man in the camouflage uniform, "If you’re scared, I’ll take my turn again."
The tall man in the camouflage uniform immediately exploded with anger, saying, "Brother Feng, I’ll take this one! I can’t believe I’ll lose to this kid again!"
"You don’t have a chance of survival; this time, Qi Shan will go," said Brother Feng decisively, with a glass sand timer suddenly appearing in his palm.
The man named Qi Shan, who was tall and thin in camouflage uniform, took the sand timer and walked to the center of the turntable, saying to the tall man in camouflage uniform, "Stop scowling, you can go next round."
The tall man in the camouflage uniform, with reluctance written on his face, herded the old man and the female gamer out with his gun, making them stand next to Qi Shan.
"What is this for?" the female gamer asked, trembling, "Isn’t only one person supposed to go in at a time?"
"Bang!" The tall man in the camouflage uniform shot through her calf, then dragged her by the hair to a spot near Qi Shan. The old man hurriedly tried to intervene and received a pistol whip to the face.
"If you don’t want to die, then stay put!"
The old man was angry but didn’t dare to speak, and he could only help the teeth-gritting, silently enduring female gamer sit at Qi Shan’s feet.
The life-or-death situation began quickly. Qi Shan’s eyes changed and he simultaneously flipped the sand timer, with the grey sand pouring from the full end toward the emptier one.
Xu Huo’s arm was touched twice, and when he turned his head, a colorful graffiti was thrust in front of him; then, the Girl in the Painting poked her head out from the side, her smile indicating first the drawing and then him.
She’d drawn the image with a fluorescent pen she’d borrowed from a child a while ago, depicting two people, one was Xu Huo and the other was herself.
"Sister’s drawing isn’t pretty," said the child, suddenly speaking softly while held in her mother’s arms. Her mother quickly covered her mouth, her eyes filled with fear as she glanced towards Brother Feng, and she sighed in relief when she noticed they weren’t looking in their direction. She whispered, "Thank you."
This woman was the very first one that the old man had swapped out.
Xu Huo crouched down and patted the child’s fluffy head, then picked up the fluorescent pen and drew a piglet on a piece of white paper, before pointing at the Girl in the Painting.
The little girl shook her head, "Pretty sister doesn’t look like piggy."
Xu Huo smiled and handed the Girl in the Painting a paper flower.
"Uncle, I want a flower too," the little girl said shyly.
Xu Huo took another piece of paper, tore off a corner, and with a white fluorescent pen drew a line on it before holding it in his palm.
"Can it become real?" he asked, turning to ask the Girl in the Painting, nodding towards the back of his hand.
The Girl in the Painting gently grasped his hand and then immediately let go. When Xu Huo spread his hand again, the snippet of white paper clung to his palm like real skin, sliding to the back of his hand with the flick of his wrist.
And the white line drawn with the fluorescent pen had become one with the white paper under the Girl in the Painting’s ability, just like she herself, with even her clothes and jewelry able to become indistinguishable from real flesh or objects on paper. Now it looked almost identical to the white stripe that indicated a chance for survival.
"Uncle..." the little girl started to exclaim in astonishment, but her mother hurriedly clamped her mouth shut again, speaking in a hushed voice, "Don’t speak, don’t let the uncles hear you, okay?"
The little girl nodded, and Xu Huo put the folded paper flower in her hand and stood up, then turned to look back at the three people in camouflage uniforms.
Qi Shan stood inside the circle of the pointer, while the female gamer and the old man stood outside the circle. Brother Feng and the tall man in camouflage uniform guarded either side, each about two meters apart.
After observing their positions, he frowned slightly, his gaze moving to the sand timer in Qi Shan’s hand—the upper layer of sand was almost gone, but the sand within had changed from greyish-brown to grey and white. When the last grain fell, Qi Shan turned the pointer.
As he made his move, the female player and the old man suddenly fell to the ground, lifeless. The hourglass’s sand began to emit a faint colored glow that enveloped Qi Shan completely. As he finished his action, the light vanished.
"Get back!" the tall man in the camouflage suit raised his gun at Xu Huo.
"Brother! Don’t be rash!" Wang Chaoqing quickly pulled him back.
Xu Huo didn’t advance any further and, after glancing at the two bodies, retreated.
He now finally understood why these three had brought so many people into the mall: they might have secured their chances to survive at the expense of others’ lives.
Unfortunately, they might not get their wish this time.
Indeed, when Qi Shan emerged from the game between life and death, the white bar on the back of his hand had disappeared.
"How is this possible!" the man in camouflage exclaimed in disbelief, "You didn’t land on a white space?"
Qi Shan’s face darkened, "No. Has the Lucky Hourglass stopped working? Or have we been deceived?"
"It appears two people are far from enough." Brother Feng, with a grim expression, kicked the two bodies of the female player aside and turned to look ominously at Xu Huo and the others.
"What just happened? Why did the two of them suddenly die!" Duck Tongue Cap, now without a chance of survival, cautiously leaned at the edge of the crowd.
"Are you blind? Didn’t you see that glowing hourglass, it must be some kind of murderous gadget." Wang Chaoqing swallowed his fear, "They wouldn’t involve us in it, would they?"
"They won’t." Xu Huo said at this moment, "That hourglass probably has usage restrictions; it might not work on ordinary people, that’s why they chose two individuals who had secured survival chances."
"Am I right?" He turned to ask Brother Feng.
Brother Feng chuckled without humor, "What else have you figured out?"
Xu Huo asked Qi Shan, "What color was the pointer on the spinner you saw?"
Xu Huo stroked his chin, "I see."
"Out with it, don’t beat around the bush!" the man in camouflage urged impatiently.
"Haven’t you noticed that the spinner in the game of life and death has pointers of two colors?" Xu Huo said, "What color was the pointer when you received your chance of survival?"
"White." Qi Shan looked to Brother Feng, who nodded, then asked Xu Huo, "Are you suggesting that only the white pointer can land on a white space?"
"Just a guess." Xu Huo stepped forward voluntarily, "Maybe it’s not that your gadget is ineffective, but there’s an issue with the game of life and death."
Qi Shan and another person looked at Brother Feng, who spoke with evident irritation, "Kid, this time you don’t have a second life!"
Xu Huo entered the game of life and death composedly and, ten minutes later, he stretched out his hand, a new white bar appeared on the back of it.
Qi Shan rubbed it and said, "It’s real."
"You’re up for the next round." Brother Feng said coldly.
Xu Huo began the second round, this time taking out the Dual-color Cube, but after it was over, the white bar on his hand had disappeared again.
"Are you playing us?!" Qi Shan stepped forward and seized him by the collar.