252: Chapter 252 Chinese Players Dominate the Rankings!
"Bang!"
Two hundred-plus pounds of flesh collided with a dull thud.
Marcus was lifted off his feet by the Former Middleweight Boxing Champion's underhanded headbutt, his body tracing a parabola in mid-air before crashing heavily back into the -180 degree white mist of the Liquid Nitrogen Zone.
The American giant landed on the back of his head, didn't even let out a scream, rolled his eyes back, and passed out completely.
"Beep—"
The blood-red countdown on the giant electronic screen hit zero at this exact moment.
[00:00]
The nursery rhyme stopped abruptly.
The entire deep pit arena fell into dead silence.
The Mechanical Doll on the cliff face spun its head 360 degrees, its motion-tracking red light scanning at full power.
"Puff, puff, puff, puff—"
The walls on all sides spat out dense streams of fire, covering the entire arena with tranquilizer darts.
The Former Middleweight Boxing Champion stood half a meter outside the finish line, gasping for air.
He stared at Marcus, who had passed out in the Liquid Nitrogen Zone, and a cocky, manic laugh rolled out of his throat.
A tranquilizer dart pierced precisely into the Former Middleweight Boxing Champion's thick neck.
Potent anesthetic was injected into his bloodstream.
The Former Middleweight Boxing Champion's laughter cut off, and his body toppled straight backward, kicking up a cloud of yellow dust.
On the other side.
Li Li's right leg was locked tightly by David, Taylor pounced from the side, and Gu Zeyan was still flailing around on the ground.
The red light scanned over this chaotic tangle of human limbs.
"Puff! Puff! Puff!"
Three tranquilizer darts struck Li Li, Taylor, and David respectively.
Taylor's thick arm was still gripping Li Li's shoulder tightly. Before the drug took effect, the American giant gritted his teeth and squeezed out a threat through his teeth.
"You're dead meat later!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Taylor's head lolled to the side, his chin hitting Li Li's shoulder, and he fell into a deep, unconscious sleep.
David's tense muscles also relaxed, and he slumped limply onto the ice.
The last thought this senior intelligence officer from Israel had before losing consciousness was: Plan succeeded, finally dragged this Alpha-1 down with me. As long as he's unconscious, the upcoming point settlement will definitely make him pay dearly.
Li Li took a hit.
[Extreme Physical Fitness] took full control, and his liver metabolized the anesthetic components at a terrifying speed that defied biology.
But he didn't resist; he closed his eyes and let his body fall onto the cold yellow earth.
He was all about blending in.
Gu Zeyan looked at the mass of strong men who had fallen around him, his lower body encased in a cement shell, shivering uncontrollably with a bewildered look on his face.
Then he took a hit too and fell asleep.
The hidden doors on both cliff sides slid open completely.
Hundreds of mechanical NPCs wearing red clothes and square masks flooded into the arena, pushing stretchers.
The sound of tracks crushing the yellow earth merged into one, and they efficiently threw the unconscious competitors scattered on the ground onto the carts.
Behind the finish line.
An NPC wearing a triangle mask walked up to the players who had crossed the line, its electronic voice devoid of inflection.
"The first round, Red Light, Green Light, is over. Surviving players, please follow me to the rest area."
Jiang Rumu brushed the dust off her sportswear and followed with long strides.
Behind her, Anya, Hunter, Mia, and the others dragged their exhausted bodies and joined the line in silence.
The group passed through a giant metal door and entered a wide underground passage.
The light was dim, and the walls were made entirely of cold, hard concrete.
The group went up and down complex, winding stairs for a full ten minutes, completely disorienting everyone's sense of direction.
The path ahead suddenly opened up.
As everyone stepped out of the passage, sounds of gasps rose one after another.
A giant enclosed space.
The dome was extremely high, and the surroundings were all illuminated by cold light sources.
In the center of the venue, 465 shipping containers had been converted into tiny rooms, arranged in a hemispherical, receding four-tier staircase, stacked together.
The ruggedness of the industrial style blended perfectly with the oppressiveness of a prison, the sense of pressure hitting straight to the crown of one's head.
"Players, please remove the GoPro cameras from your heads and place them on the ground," the NPC interrupted everyone's exclamations. "Next, you can find your respective rooms based on the numbers displayed on the outside of the shipping containers."
The players took off their devices one after another.
"Swish—"
Directly in front of the shipping containers, a massive electronic black screen, two stories high, suddenly lit up.
White text on a black background, ranking data scrolled and refreshed.
[1st Place: No. 930, Jiang Rumu, China, 300 points]
[2nd Place: No. 001, Li Li, China, 299 points]
[3rd Place: No. 222, Anya Sokolova, Russia, 298 points]
[4th Place: No. 321, Hunter Smith, USA, 297 points]
[5th Place: No. 505, Mia, USA, 296 points]
Scanning down.
[24th Place: No. 058, Former Middleweight Boxing Champion, China, 277 points]
[57th Place: No. 154, Yin Ruoying, China, 244 points]
[113th Place: No. 547, Gu Ya, China, 188 points]
[114th Place: No. 112, Lei Zhen, China, 187 points]
The hall exploded into chaos.
Team USA's Hunter stared at the two bright red Chinese flag icons at the very top of the screen, his fists clenching until they cracked.
This survival fanatic with tens of millions of followers had never been so thoroughly suppressed in his entire life.
Anya shook out her half-dry hair and let out a long breath.
If it hadn't been for that No. 001 giving way to her in the Liquid Nitrogen Zone, she definitely wouldn't have gotten this high score.
Yin Ruoying stepped in her sneakers, her bright red nails tapping rhythmically against the seams of her pants.
She stared at her name on the screen, glanced at the first-place Jiang Rumu, snorted coldly, and swayed her waist as she went to find her container.
Team Japan's Sato Kenji sat cross-legged on the floor, staring at the name No. 001, his palm pressed against his virtual sword hilt, his battle intent soaring.
A harsh crackle of electricity sounded over the loudspeaker.
"Attention all players, we are now announcing the additional rules for the Squid Game."
The mechanical female voice echoed through the empty hall.
"In the first game, some teams had teammates who failed to complete the level, were eliminated, or fell unconscious. According to the rules, if a teammate did not pass, the surviving player's points for this round will be halved."
As soon as these words were spoken, a few suppressed curses erupted from the crowd.
"The second game will take place in two days. Please rest well in your rooms."
"Additionally, the tournament committee will distribute different levels of meals based on your current point rankings. There will be significant differences in food, please understand."
"We wish you a pleasant game."
The broadcast cut off.
Jiang Rumu ignored the noisy foreigners around her and walked straight to the container in the center of the bottom level labeled [001-930].
She pushed open the iron door.
The room was very simple.
Two single iron-frame beds, a paint-chipped dining table, and a tiny bathroom separated by frosted glass in the corner.
Except for the bathroom, all four corners of the ceiling were equipped with blind-spot-free surveillance cameras.
The red dots blinked, transmitting everything in the room in real-time to the global live stream.
On the single bed on the left lay a familiar figure.
Li Li.
His soaked and frozen sportswear had been changed; he was now wearing the green sportswear uniformly distributed by the tournament committee, his eyes closed, his chest rising and falling rhythmically.
Jiang Rumu locked the door behind her.
She walked to the bedside and looked down at the man.
This madman had caused the Americans so much trouble in the arena and rubbed the Israeli spy's face into the dirt, but now, he was sleeping more peacefully than anyone.
Jiang Rumu pulled over a plastic stool and sat down by the bed.
In the domestic TikTok live stream, tens of millions of netizens were staring at this scene.
[A man and a woman alone! In the same room! I approve of this match!]
[Shen Jue: Sister-in-law, go for it! Strike while he's down! Just make it official right now!]
[The one above, tone it down! This is a survival game, not a special episode of a Dating Reality Show!]
[Dean Li's sleeping posture is so well-behaved; you can't tell at all that he was the fierce bandit who rammed into the American earlier.]
Jiang Rumu extended her index finger, preparing to poke Li Li's defenseless face.
Just as her fingertip was halfway there, Jiang Rumu's movement paused.
Li Li's breathing rhythm was half a beat faster than a normal sleep state.
Someone less careful wouldn't have noticed it at all.
But who was Jiang Rumu? A tough character who had struggled in the entertainment industry and looked at people's micro-expressions with a magnifying glass every day.
Jiang Rumu's heart jumped.
This man had been hit by the tournament committee's special-made potent tranquilizer gun; according to the rules, he should be unconscious for at least one to three hours.
It had been no more than ten minutes since he was shot and carried onto the stretcher!
Ten minutes! Even an elephant would be paralyzed for half a day after this dosage, and he's already awake?! Is his constitution alien or something?!
Jiang Rumu retracted her finger without changing her expression.
She stood up, walked to the coat rack by the door, and pulled down her oversized sports jacket.
Turning around, Jiang Rumu walked to the bedside table and draped the jacket over it.
The large piece of fabric accurately covered the main surveillance camera facing the head of the bed.
The live stream screen went black in one corner, leaving only the other three long-range cameras, which couldn't capture the specific actions at the head of the bed at all.
[What the f*ck? Queen Jiang blocked the camera?!]
[What is there that we noble VIPs can't see!]
[Director! Take my money! I want the uncensored HD version!]
After doing all this, Jiang Rumu sat back down on the plastic stool.
She leaned forward, approached Li Li's ear, lowered her voice, and whispered four words in a volume that only the two of them could hear.
"Are you awake?"
A faint sound of fabric rubbing came from the iron-frame bed.
Li Li's eyes remained tightly closed, and his breathing frequency didn't even falter by a beat.
There was no fluctuation on his face, his voice was very low, and his tone carried the huskiness of someone who had just woken up.
"Not awake, you can kiss me."