Translator-Rhapsodite
Editor-Pierce, Proofreader-adjective
To be honest, Ji Dong was very calm at this moment. He knew very well that they had successfully obtained an ace card, which was a crucial card in this game.
Looking at the group of people across from them, all looking disheveled and defeated, they couldn’t have done any better.
[Alright, no time to waste.]
The rabbit-faced man said, waving his hand.
[Now, please submit today’s playing cards within two minutes, red team and blue team.]
As soon as he stopped speaking, Ji Dong saw the hand of the rabbit puppet that had come through the glass wall rotate a few times.
The card slot at the top was flashing while making a ticking sound.
Ji Dong took out the golden Ace of Hearts from his pocket, held it in his hand with the face down, and walked up to the card slot, inserting it.
The machine swallowed the card.
At the same time, a red light strip appeared on the right ear of the rabbit puppet.
Meanwhile, the Handsome Team from the blue side just stood there, five people staring at each other without handing over any poker cards.
Two minutes quickly passed, and the bright light and rhythmic ticking sound from the card slot stopped.
Ji Dong and his team finally confirmed that the opposing blue team, Yin Jun’s group, most likely didn’t obtain any poker cards last night.
[Alright, next, I’m sure all the participants are eager to know what changes have occurred on our city’s Strange Tales map after one night, right?]
The rabbit-faced man didn’t summarize or comment on the actions of the two groups just now, but instead moved on to the next step.
[Come on, everyone. Pay close attention!]
The close-up of the rabbit mask on the fluorescent screen disappeared, replaced by a city map with 13 urban legend locations that they have become familiar enough to memorize.
On the map, the coordinates of two locations in the shape of inverted water droplets have turned gray. Ji Dong immediately recognized them as the Tzu Chi Hospital they visited last night, as well as the urban legend location with the number “9” on the card.
Then, the rabbit-masked man handed out the second night’s access card to both the red and blue teams.
Ji Dong compared it and noticed that although the card was still transparent with embedded target and gun patterns, the colors and positions of the bullet holes were different from the ones they received on the first day.
[Everyone, you’ve all worked hard!]
The rabbit man waved his hands and made a hug pose towards the space.
[Please continue to do your best tonight, GOOD LUCK!]
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Qjla!”
Al Gbcu revvfcis gjlrfv tlr tjcv. “Jjc P jrx j defralbc?”
Ktf gjyyla-tfjvfv wjc’r tjcv atja kjr tjculcu wlv-jlg ribkis ibkfgfv.
“Xb jtfjv, jrx jkjs.”
Lf vlvc’a rffw jcugs ja jii.
Pcrafjv, tf mifjgfv tlr atgbja jcv jcrkfgfv lc j rboa abcf.
[What question do you have?]
Al Gbcu rjlv, “Po beg afjw jcv atf afjw cfza vbbg mtbbrf atf rjwf tjecafv ibmjalbc…”
He pointed toward the blue team across from them, “Can both of our teams enter?”
[Great question.]
The rabbit man chuckled and answered.
[In principle, as long as you have the access card, you can enter any haunted location that hasn’t been closed yet. So the possibility of the two teams appearing in the same place exists.]
He paused and added.
[As for what happens when the two teams meet… Well, that’s up to you!]
———————————-
Coming out of the rabbit doll’s basement, Ji Dong and the other four returned to the living room of their villa and immediately sat together for a brief meeting.
“The situation is very favorable for us!” Fan Luming expressed, opening the map and marking a big red cross on the completed “A” and the already marked gray “9” with a pen.
“Those people from Yin Jun’s group probably couldn’t get the playing card last night.”
He pointed at the crossed-out “9” with a pen.
“That’s right!” Mo Tiangen nodded vigorously.
“Only being able to exchange one playing card per day is indeed a big advantage!”
Ji Dong furrowed his brows and pondered, “But they surely won’t be willing to accept defeat like this, right?”
“Of course not!”
Based on Fan Luming’s understanding of their former group leader and teammates, he didn’t even have to think twice before answering, “If it weren’t for the fact that they can’t leave the villa during the day, they would want to kill us right now!”
Ji Dong looked at Fan Luming and Fan Hemian, who were sitting across from him, and asked, “So, based on your understanding of Yin Jun, what do you think they will do?”
Fan Hemian smirked and replied, “Actually, it’s not that hard to guess…”
She confidently said, “If it’s them, once they realize they can’t catch up with our progress, they will try their best to prevent us from collecting 24 points.”
“Hmm.”
Ji Dong nodded in agreement.
He wasn’t surprised by this answer. The rules of this game didn’t allow for cards to be submitted late.
Even if the Blue Team could earn a maximum of two cards per day for the next two days, they wouldn’t be able to make up for the gap from the first day.
So, in the situation where they were one day behind, Yin Jun and the others definitely wouldn’t naively hope that the red team would make a mistake in the next two days, giving them a chance to catch up.
The points on each poker card at every haunted location were publicized, which meant the opposing team could easily know that they obtained an “A” today.
If there was only one “A” card, it would be hard to judge, but as long as they could see which locations turned gray when they exchanged cards tomorrow, the opposing team could easily deduce their combination.
“That’s right, by the third night, Yin Jun and the others will try every method to sabotage our plan.”
The question of whether the two teams would enter the same haunted location was also based on this consideration, which was why Ji Dong asked the rabbit-head man.
In the rules of the game, there was more to just being the first to gather 24 points.
As long as they could make the other team lose, it was equivalent to winning.
Most people, when playing the game of “24 points,” would easily fall into a psychological misconception that the larger the point value of the playing cards they received, the easier it was to collect 24 points.
In this mindset, as the game progresses, a fatal problem may arise—the risk of “busting” (going over 24 points).
At this point, if the opponent held onto small cards, there would be no turning back, leading to a desperate situation.
“And Yin Jun and the others trying to cause trouble is just too easy for them. Whether it’s trying to run us over while we’re on our way to a haunted location, finding a way to get the points we need before us, or simply giving up on the cards and causing chaos during our actions…”
Fan Hemian tapped the map with her pen.
“Sheesh, they’re more troublesome than flies!”
Ji Dong rubbed his chin. “In that case, it seems like we have to get two playing cards tonight, right?”
“You’re right!”
Fan Hemian nodded enthusiastically.
“Tonight, we have to get two cards to confuse Yin Jun and the others about our strategy!”
The others agreed with her.
“But, is it too much of a stretch to rush to two haunted locations within six hours and still complete the game?”
Fan Luming propped his chin up, his gaze scanning the city map, then deeply frowning at its intricate scale.
“These locations are quite scattered, and just the time spent on the road would require at least a two-hour allocation, right?”
He clearly remembered that if they didn’t make it back before six o’clock, they would be eliminated on the spot.
“Exactly,” Ji Dong nodded.
“So, we need to plan our route…” He paused for a moment, his gaze scanning over his four teammates.
“Or, we could split up.”
Upon hearing the suggestion to “split up,” Fan Luming immediately expressed doubt.
“If last night’s ‘Tzu Chi Hospital’ is the difficulty standard for each haunted location, wouldn’t it be too risky to split up?”
Indeed, it took them over three hours last night to defeat the vengeful spirit created by the antisocial killer and successfully obtain the playing card.
Fan Luming felt that if it weren’t for the five of them working together, the outcome probably wouldn’t have been much better than Yin Jun’s blue team.
Mulling over it, the younger brother lowered his head and carefully looked at the map for a while. His finger landed on a few haunted locations.
“Look, these two places, as well as here and here, are all near the same main road and in the same direction. It should save us time on the road!”
The rest of the group followed his directions and looked at the map, discovering that those four locations were near the “Q” and “2” on the western ring expressway and the “6” and “3” at the ends of the bridge across the south of the city.
“This combination won’t work,” Fan Hemian immediately denied the feasibility of one of the groups. “The card we have in our hands is ‘A,’ which is either ‘1’ or ’11.’”
She continued, “So, if we want to reach a total of 24 points within three days, ‘2’ is too small for us, and the opponent won’t be fooled either.”
This was a first-grader’s addition problem.
24-11-2=11. However, they couldn’t get another 11 anymore, so they could only treat ‘A’ as 1 and take an extra 10, or find two other numbers to add up to 11.
Either way, it would take an additional day, which was not cost-effective.
“So, we can only go for the ‘6’ and ‘3’ combination?”
Mo Tiangen rubbed his chin.
“‘6’ and ‘3’ are quite close, just separated by a river. If we speed over, it will take at most ten minutes. Plus, these two locations are not too far from the villa. If we manage our time well, we can try to solve both places in one night.”
“If we go for ‘6’ and ‘3’ tonight, then tomorrow night, we’ll need either ’10’ or ‘7’.”
Fan Luming grinned after thinking for a moment, “Well, there are 4 of ’10’ anyway!”
“No, wait!” Ji Xiao’niao’s brows narrowed, “I think we’ve got our approach backward!
He tried to immerse himself in a cunning and treacherous mindset, pondering how he would speculate on the enemy’s actions and disrupt them if he were part of Yin Jun’s group.
“The other side will definitely want to push us into a desperate situation, so it’s really not safe to confuse them with a 50% chance.”
Read it in one go. That’s a very good story ! And I got attached with all the characters Thank you very much for the translation 💖