After a night of intense battles, ALEX slept until eight in the morning. The others were even more exhausted, especially the few junior high school students, who slept until noon. At two in the afternoon, ALEX and Li Wen went to the school supermarket to get some water and food. The other students woke up, divided the food, and started eating.
"I suggest we split into two groups. It's not good for all five of us to stay together. The official players can separate. The little fatty and the two boys can go together, and Shanshan, you can go with this little girl. Once you've grown stronger, you can all act together again," ALEX said.
Qiao Feifei was stunned. "I don't want to split up with everyone..."
Chen Shanshan thought for a moment and nodded. "You have a point. The five of us together are very conspicuous. Most people in this world are child soldiers, and there aren't many illegal immigrants. But at this point, killing is no longer exclusive to illegal immigrants. We've all killed people. Five junior high school students walking together are even more dangerous. Let's rest tonight and split up tomorrow."
The students listened to Chen Shanshan because she was always right. But they still didn't want to split up. Ultimately, it was their decision.
Before leaving, ALEX looked at Chen Shanshan and said, "I'm going to look for my friend now. He also lives in Shanghai, but in Pudong. I can't take you all with me along the way. If I have the chance, I'll come back to the school ten days later to check on you." ALEX didn't have the strength to protect these children forever. If they wanted to survive, they truly had to rely on themselves.
ALEX and Li Wen said goodbye to the children at the school gate. He touched the large matchstick tattoo on his wrist. The children had given it to him.
The next morning, a notification sounded: "Ding-dong! The large-scale multiplayer copy game 'Mario's Monopoly Game' has been triggered. Players Li Wen, Yuan Qi, Liu Feihao, Zhao Guo, Lin Bangcheng, Liu Simei, Qi Feng, and Alex have safely entered the game time."
"Sandbox loaded..."
"Data loaded..."
Under the loud and cheerful background music, the dazzling white light gradually dissipated, and everyone finally saw the scene before them.
In the vast white world, there was a small circular stage at the center. The two-meter-tall giant Mario stood on this small stage, proudly striking a classic thumbs-up pose but looking quite ridiculous.
Above the stage, an LED sign悬浮 in the air, displaying a red number "6456".
With the stage as the center, as the white light faded, the surrounding objects slowly appeared.
Alex's eyes narrowed.
In this entire white world, there was a giant Monopoly game map spread out!
Mario's stage was at the center of the map. One hundred and fifty one-meter-long squares were connected end to end, surrounding the stage. The square grids were vertically connected into long, slender rectangles, winding and twisting, starting from under the eight people's feet, stretching forward, making nine turns, and finally leading to the small stage where Mario was.
Under Alex's feet was a bright red square grid. This grid was different from the others.
The edges of the other grids were flashing with white light, but the grid under the eight people's feet was filled with red. Alex had seen this color before—it was blood-red. In the center of the grid was written an English word—
'START'
"Everybody, welcome to Mario's Monopoly Game!"
The deep male voice startled everyone. They looked up and saw that Mario had stopped posing. He stood on the small stage, hands on his hips, and said, "My dear children, welcome to Mario's Monopoly Game. I am your best friend from childhood, Mario!"
Alex often played "Super Mario" when he was young. This mushroom-loving Mario was once popular worldwide, and he was indeed very familiar with Mario. But whether it was Alex or the other seven people, looking at this giant Mario, no one could relax. They all warily stared at him.
Mario seemed unaware as he said emotionally, "Oh, don't cry, kids. I am your favorite Uncle Mario. The love from the children makes Uncle Mario so touched that he cries secretly every day. You love Mario so much, so I decided to start this Monopoly game for you! Kids, this game is opened for all humans who love Mario!"
Mario's expression changed abruptly. Before the aftermath of the earthquake subsided, he put on his amiable face again. "Uncle Mario knows you are all good kids. Good kids won't encounter those disgusting sinner squares. Only bad kids will land on them. Uncle Mario has specially prepared an interesting square for playful kids. It's called the 'Free Jump Square'."
As if oblivious to the fearful and wary glances from others, Mario continued, "When someone steps into the 'Free Jump Square', they can choose to jump to any square they want. There are two options: first, jump forward, up to 30 squares ahead; second, jump backward, to any previous square you haven't visited. Kids love the 'Free Jump Square' the most. It's such a fun square, you'll definitely like it a lot."
"And there's one last type of square, the biggest surprise Uncle Mario has prepared for you, it's called the 'Clear Stage Square'. Yes, you heard it right. Whoever is lucky enough to step on this square can clear the stage directly!" Mario waved his hands excitedly.
After a moment, he lowered his head and looked at the eight people: "So, kids, the game is about to begin. Are you ready?"
"Ding-dong! The large-scale multiplayer copy game 'Mario's Rich Man Game' has officially begun. Game rules—"
"First, only advance or retreat the corresponding number of squares according to the dice roll or the rules of the 'Free Jump Square'."
"Second, King squares account for 5% of the total squares, with prizes sanctioned by the Black Tower, which can be taken out of the copy."
"Third, Sinner squares account for 5% of the total squares, imposing a必死 punishment based on causality."
"Fourth, Free Jump squares account for 20% of the total squares."
"Fifth, Reward squares and Punishment squares each account for 20% of the total squares."
"Sixth, the player who steps on the unique Clear Stage square can clear the stage directly."
"Seventh, the rest are blank squares."
"Eighth, death in the game means death outside the game."
"Cute Mario loves obedient and well-behaved kids the most, but for bad kids, he never shows mercy."
The crisp voice of a child echoed in everyone's ears, and their expressions changed.
Great danger also accompanies great rewards. The Sinner square is a必死 square based on causality. The Black Tower has said so, and everyone understands that stepping on a Sinner square means death. But it only accounts for 5% of the total squares. But if someone steps on a King square? Abilities, saves, Mario said these things exist, and the Black Tower said these things can be taken out of the game!
If they step on a King square, if...
Mario stood on the stage, smiling, looking at the eight humans below. He said, "Oh, my kids, let the game begin!
But seven of them started arguing about the order.
"Stop arguing!" Mario's deep and loud voice suddenly sounded, overwhelming everyone else. "Obedient kids never argue. Are you all disobedient kids, hmm?!"
At this moment, Alex, who had been insignificant, suddenly said loudly, "It's time to start the game. Cute Uncle Mario, there are eight of us playing the game, but there's only one dice, so there must be an order. When we entered the game just now, I heard the Black Tower announce our names in order. How about starting the game in that order, can we?"
Alex reacted too quickly and said a long paragraph at once, leaving others not reacting yet.
After ten seconds, someone came to their senses and glared at Alex angrily, "What the hell do you mean..."
"Oh, my smart kid, you have a point. Uncle Mario didn't consider it well. Let's start in the order the Black Tower announced the names. Let me see... The first is Li Wen? Li Wen, kid, where are you? Come roll the dice!"
The middle-aged woman's face turned iron-blue, and her shoulders trembled as she didn't move forward.
Mario asked again, "Li Wen, my kid, where are you?"
The middle-aged woman took a trembling step forward.
Suddenly, Mario's voice turned cold, "My kid, don't you want to play this fun game?"
Then, under Mario's friendly inquiry, all seven people rolled the dice.
Li Wen, like the young woman and the bald man, rolled a six and obtained a Magic Mushroom.
The man with a beer belly landed on the fifth square, just like the first woman.
The young man and another middle-aged man who had never spoken rolled a four. It was a blank square.
Finally, it was Alex's turn.
Alex had always felt that his luck was very bad. After the Earth went online, he participated in three games in total. Every time, he was forcibly pulled into the game by others.
In summary, Alex's luck doesn't seem to be very good.
He looked at the dice in his hand with complex eyes and quickly rolled it.
Thunk!
The dice landed on the '3' spot.
No one had been to the third square yet. When Alex rolled this number, the other seven people looked at him curiously. The two people standing on the fourth square looked relieved: Mario had said he would leave the last-place player here, and now with Alex, they were not the last ones temporarily.
Alex walked to the third square expressionlessly. When he stood there, suddenly, the white square changed to red.
"Ding-dong! Triggered a level-one Punishment square. Punishment content: Within three minutes, say one bad thing you have done."
Alex: "..."
Feeling extremely speechless inside, Alex didn't react much on the surface, and his brain was spinning fast.
Level-one Punishment square, maybe there will be level-two, level-three Punishment squares later. This punishment requirement is not painful, will other Punishment squares be so simple?
While thinking about these, Alex opened his mouth and calmly said one bad thing he had done.
On the other side, in Mario's Rich Man game, the first round of dice rolling ended, and the eight people rolled three more rounds.
After four rounds of dice rolling, everyone had moved forward more than ten steps.
From the second round onwards, Alex's luck seemed to improve, and he stood in second place among the eight people without any danger.
Alex wanted to be the last one to roll the dice because he wanted the first seven people to explore the path for him and determine the content of each square. Unfortunately, when he tried it himself, he found that this dice was too strange. It seemed that the game itself eliminated the possibility of players controlling the dice roll.
Currently, the player in first place stood on the 22nd square, followed by Alex on the 20th, and the last player on the 14th.
Just as Alex imagined, Punishment squares also had levels, and the higher the level, the greater the difficulty of the punishment.
So... what is the highest level of Punishment square, and what kind of danger would be encountered?
The reward exists for five minutes, and it takes ten minutes to walk to the next square.
Alex completely wasted these five minutes standing in place, making no progress and encountering no danger.
So... what is the purpose of this reward?
What is the meaning of this reward?
Alex's brain was thinking rapidly, but he couldn't come up with an answer.
At this moment, the middle-aged woman was about to roll the dice, but Mario suddenly spoke, "Oh, kids, I forgot to say something earlier. Getting old means having a bad memory. Uncle Mario is already thirty-six years old this year, an old man in the game world. I actually forgot to mention such an important thing."
The middle-aged woman looked up at Mario blankly, holding the dice she hadn't thrown.
Alex sensed something was off and felt a strange sense of unease.
It's wrong, definitely wrong...
Something is wrong!
Mario raised his big mouth, and his dark eyes looked at each player standing in the squares without emotion. He was smiling, but his voice carried a kind of unmasked gloating: "Starting from the fifth round of dice rolling, players standing on the same square will trigger the 'Suffer Together' effect, meaning only one person can be in the square. The smile on Mario's mouth grew wider, and the excitement and gloating in his voice became more apparent.
"If triggered, regardless of what the square originally was, it will immediately become a level-seven Punishment square. No matter what method is used, as long as there is only one player left on the square, or no players, it will revert to its original state. But the 'Suffer Together' effect only applies to players after the fifth round."
Alex's eyes widened slowly, and his hair stood on end.