Chapter Thirty-Six: The Game Begins

"Now, I, Yuri Nakamura, will announce the rules of the game." At some point, Yuri had appeared, hands on her hips, standing before the five of them.

"First, the entire academy has become a giant board game. Starting from the Student Dormitory, you must pass through the Grand Cafeteria, Baseball Field, and Gymnasium as checkpoints, and finally reach the Principal's Office. The first player to arrive at the Principal's Office wins. All actions are turn-based, with movement determined by the number rolled on a die. Players may choose their own routes, but must pass through all three checkpoints, or the run is invalid. The properties of all tiles are hidden—only the first player to step on one will trigger a special event. Each player may spend 3 LP per turn to draw one item card. The LP cost for drawing a card increases by 1 with each subsequent draw. Each player may hold up to ten item cards; excess cards must be discarded. All players' HP is displayed: Constitution times ten is HP; half the sum of Intelligence and Spirit is MP; half the sum of Strength and Agility is ATK. MP and ATK values are not shown. When two or more players occupy the same tile, combat is triggered with rules generated randomly. Certain items or skills consume MP; when MP reaches zero, the player is forced to faint for one turn, and MP recovers by 10%. When HP drops to zero, elimination occurs. All temporary skills have been cancelled."

"The game will begin in five minutes. If anything is unclear, please ask." Yuri had a look of supreme confidence.

The rules were quite game-like, though the elimination part was a bit frightening. The immortal body had been cancelled too—well, it was a newly generated instance after all, but it was a shame he could no longer recover quickly from injuries.

Hao Ren’s 590/590 HP displayed above his head made the others wary.

"Can we kill people?" Lilith was the one who asked, licking her lips in a bloodthirsty manner. To Hao Ren, it seemed a bit forced, and her lips were peeling.

"Except for combat triggered by the system, all fighting behavior is invalid."

"Tch." Lilith seemed quite interested in Hao Ren—did she have some ultimate move? Was she planning to drain him to death?

"If only one person can win, what happens to the others?" The man with thick black hair, prompted by his six-pack abs, asked.

"Elimination—death!" A professional smile appeared on Yuri’s face.

The previously friendly thick-haired man and the six-pack instantly split apart, faces contorted. The speed of their change stunned Hao Ren.

"Actually, saying elimination might be a bit extreme. If you’re lucky enough to draw a card that negates elimination, wouldn’t that be great?" Never mind the odds—just the LP cost would be prohibitive! Hao Ren estimated that aside from his own 130 LP savings, the others probably didn’t even have triple digits. Judging by those two uncles, they might not even have two digits.

"Ah, the friendship between men, shattered in an instant by a single event. In the ensuing battles, awakening ensues: love and hate entwined, and finally, after a PK, intimate skin contact occurs—the strong black-haired man pins the abs down to the ground, and they do the deed in the wild. Though their looks aren’t much to admire, the plot is definitely there!" The office lady dressed in 801 spat out a string of words that made Hao Ren’s skin crawl, pulling out a laptop from God knows where and typing furiously while drooling.

She’s terrifying! Hao Ren trembled all over and regarded her as the primary threat.

"Um, the game is about to start. Please roll your dice according to the rules to determine the order," Yuri hurriedly gave them something to do, evidently unable to accept the prospect of male-male romance herself. "Shout ‘dice’ loudly, and your own die will drop from the sky. The number facing upwards is your roll."

"Tch, you’re interrupting my train of thought." 801 was quite displeased, right in the middle of her typing.

"Dice!" x5

A golden die, about the size of an apple, dropped at Hao Ren’s feet, showing a five before vanishing.

"Looks like I’m last."

Boom!

With a deafening crash, a violent gust sent Hao Ren flying.

Landing awkwardly, Hao Ren looked back to see a thick, massive die gleaming with metallic light embedded in the ground—it must have just fallen. But what was with all the blood around it?

Scanning the area, Hao Ren realized the abs uncle was gone. Could it be...

The thick-haired man who had been closest to Six-Pack now lay collapsed on the ground, pale-faced, a shadow in his crotch area.

Hao Ren thought, I understand how you feel.

"Player 'Six-Pack' is out. The other players may continue." Yuri looked extremely excited at this point. Was she a sadist?

A death at the very start, and killed by the die no less—what kind of madness was this?

The metallic die vanished, revealing... a corpse?

Well, it couldn’t even really be called a corpse—blood and dirt mixed together described it better.

"I’m first." Unfazed, Lilith continued chewing her gum, shouted "dice," then quickly darted to the side, eyes fixed on the sky.

To Hao Ren’s disappointment, nothing similar happened again.

Five.

Lilith’s body seemed to move uncontrollably five spaces forward.

The moment she stepped onto the tile, it turned blue.

Tile property: Lucky tile. A random lucky event occurs.

"Learn to dance with TK—HP minus 10, ATK plus 1."

"Hey, you! Let’s dance!" TK appeared in front of Lilith, performing outrageous street dance moves. Lilith’s body, beyond her control, mimicked the actions, resulting in a sprained right wrist.

233.

Was this lucky or unlucky?

"How dare you mess with me like this!" Lilith trembled furiously, her HP showing 230/240.

"Next is me, I suppose." The black-haired uncle forced himself to perk up, choosing to draw an item card. Judging by his pained expression, he must be broke.

"Player 'Thick Black Hair' spends 3 LP to draw the item card 'Cafeteria Omelette Rice.'"

Item: 'Cafeteria Omelette Rice.' Use to increase HP by 50.

Hao Ren glanced at his own shining 590/590 HP, feeling not the slightest envy.

But looking at the uncle’s pitiful 80/80, it was definitely the constitution of a bureaucrat—all that smoking and drinking, surely.

"Dice!" Hao Ren was hoping for another crushing incident, but it didn’t happen.

Three.

Red tile.

Tile property: Unlucky tile. A random unlucky event occurs.

Suddenly, four plates of Mapo Tofu appeared before the uncle.

"Finish four plates of the cafeteria’s special Mapo Tofu within five minutes, or HP minus 50%."

Hao Ren thought, even with rice and cold water, that was an impossible task.

Under threat of HP loss, the uncle forced himself to swallow.

Watching his misery, Hao Ren truly felt that spiciness was pain.

"Task failed. HP minus 50%. Ate two plates of cafeteria special Mapo Tofu—HP minus 20, MP max plus 10."

With only 20 HP left, the uncle hurriedly used the 'Cafeteria Omelette Rice' to pull his health bar back up.