Chapter 54: Killing Competition

Lu Qingyu's answer left Qin Changsheng momentarily stunned, as if he had not yet fully digested the immense weight hidden within those words.

"What do you mean?" Qin Changsheng hoped he had heard wrong. "Are you saying that to clear the game, we have to compete against everyone else?"

"To be precise, we need to kill the others," Lu Qingyu replied calmly.

"Bullshit!" Qin Changsheng instantly lost his patience. "Lu Qingyu, I knew you bastard were up to no good! You want me to kill people? Get lost!"

"We have no other choice," Lu Qingyu said solemnly. "These are the rules of the game. If you don't kill, you will only be killed by others!"

"I don't believe it! Not everyone among these people is as depraved as you. I refuse to believe they'll come after me!"

"If they don't, they will die themselves." Lu Qingyu sighed. "Do you think I have no empathy? But I know how to look at the problem more realistically!"

"Shut up!"

Just as Qin Changsheng was about to burst into curses, a piercing pain suddenly flared in his arm. It hurt so much he almost cried out, choking on several mouthfuls of water.

"Ah, it's finally starting."

Lu Qingyu shook his head helplessly. Qin Changsheng hurriedly looked at his arm to see a brand-like string of numbers burned into his skin, so hot that even the surrounding water seemed to warp from the heat.

"What is this!?" Qin Changsheng was startled by the sudden appearance of the numbers on his arm. This branded sequence had also appeared in the previous game, but there seemed to be subtle differences.

In the previous game, the numbers branded on Qin Changsheng's arm were a countdown, but this time was different. The numbers on his arm were not ticking down; instead, they formed a stagnant "74."

"What... what is this?" Qin Changsheng was dumbfounded, while Lu Qingyu beside him seemed entirely unsurprised.

"This is the number of people remaining," Lu Qingyu said. "In this game, seventy-four people have not yet been eliminated."

"Seventy-four people." Qin Changsheng suddenly realized, "Wait, I remember there should have been eighty-one people when the game started!"

"Simple. The ones who disappeared have already been eliminated."

Eliminated...

Qin Changsheng understood instantly. In that very brief moment just now, seven people had died all at once.

"How could this happen..." Qin Changsheng felt like vomiting. More people had died. Clearly, he had wanted to save everyone, but reality offered him no hope whatsoever.

"Don't you understand yet?" Lu Qingyu said. "Think about it, how much time has passed from the beginning of the game until now?"

"This..." Qin Changsheng couldn't answer, the sensation of nausea and dizziness still lingering in his mind.

"Four minutes and thirty-two seconds. In the time we've been talking, this number keeps accumulating and increasing." Lu Qingyu was as calm as an unwavering ruler. "The limit for an untrained ordinary person holding their breath underwater is about two minutes. A strong one might reach four or five minutes."

"Once this time is exceeded, what do you think happens to a person?"

The answer to this question was crystal clear. Without waiting for Lu Qingyu to spell it out, Qin Changsheng already knew: "They... they'll drown to death?"

"The reason you and I still have the luxury of having such a time-wasting conversation is because we possess the abilities of the Mountains and Seas Beasts, which ensure we can breathe underwater," Lu Qingyu said. "But don't forget, among those participating in the competition, the majority are ordinary people without any abilities."

As they spoke, the numbers on Qin Changsheng's arm suddenly began to drop, changing to "68" in the blink of an eye.

"Six more people are dead." Lu Qingyu sounded somewhat regretful, but not overly so. "Those ordinary people without abilities can no longer hold on. As long as the people underwater die, their teammates will be eliminated along with them."

"No, how can this be?!" Qin Changsheng could not accept something so cruel. "Then... then let's hurry up and clear the game! If we clear the game before they drown, we can keep them alive, right?"

"Do you think it's that easy?"

Unexpectedly, Lu Qingyu's words easily shattered Qin Changsheng's remaining illusions once again. "There is only one condition to clear this game, and it's very simple."

"As long as the number of survivors drops below twenty, the game is cleared."

Qin Changsheng was frozen. Lu Qingyu's words forced him to instantly recognize the most brutal reality: "Below twenty people... That means!?"

"These people have to die," Lu Qingyu stated mercilessly, pointing it out directly.

"No! This is impossible!" Qin Changsheng was on the verge of a breakdown. Even if he were given just a shred of a chance, he would try every possible means to save people, but reality often refused to even leave a path to walk on.

"You can continue waiting here and do nothing. After all, those without abilities will all suffocate to death anyway, and people like us can enter the next game without lifting a finger." Lu Qingyu paused. "Or, you can listen to me, take the initiative, and eliminate others."

Qin Changsheng's heart turned to ashes by this point. Hearing Lu Qingyu's words, he couldn't help but sneer, "Do what? Since, according to you, these people are bound to die anyway and we are guaranteed to enter the next game, why should I dirty my hands? As expected, you're just a heartless, cold-blooded scum!"

"You're wrong." Lu Qingyu shook his head, showing no anger. "Every choice I make is for survival. I do not take pleasure in killing."

"Of course we could do nothing. That way, once all those without abilities die off, we would automatically clear the game," Lu Qingyu said. "However, have you ever considered what kind of situation will follow after that?"

Qin Changsheng did not answer, furrowing his brow as he stared at him.

"Once the people without abilities are all dead, it means that starting from the next game, everything we face will be ability-wielders just like us who possess the power of the Mountains and Seas Beasts."

Terrifying as Lu Qingyu's words were, they instantly brought a flicker of realization to Qin Changsheng.

"As long as the number of survivors drops below twenty, the game ends, and the rest can live," Lu Qingyu continued calmly. "Therefore, if we take the initiative now and wipe out those ability-wielders like ourselves, then in subsequent matches, the majority of the remainder will be ordinary people without abilities. Our odds of winning all the way to the end will increase dramatically!"

"Do you understand?" A calm madness gleamed in Lu Qingyu's eyes. "Those ordinary people are merely lambs to the slaughter for us. To monopolize them, we must kill off the other hunters competing with us for the prey."

"Only we can survive to the very end!"