Players, Please Board the Train-Chapter 136: The Trap in the Life-and-Death Round

"Exactly what trick did I play on you?" Xu Huo retorted. "Have I spoken a single false word?"
The information he had given Brother Feng and the others was all verifiable.
First, in the life-and-death round, having no fear of death offered a certain chance of victory.
Second, the distinction between black and white pointers was indeed a trap—only the white pointer could potentially grant a survival opportunity.
Third, not spinning the pointer allowed one to safely exit the life-and-death round.
He had successfully verified the last point, which proved that in this life-and-death game, the more one disregarded life and death, the less susceptible they were to the roulette wheel's temptation.
He had previously seen transparent chains in the roulette wheel, and those who had entered the life-and-death round before would grow increasingly frantic as the countdown neared its end. This suggested that the greater one's inner fear, the more severe the hallucinations would become, luring people to spin the pointer in hopes of finding a way out.
But if one saw through this, the hallucinations would naturally vanish.
The black and white pointers constituted a double trap.
When the white pointer appeared, there was indeed a possibility of obtaining a survival opportunity, but not every white square represented a chance—among half of the white squares in the roulette wheel, it was questionable whether even one-third offered a path to survival.
However, there was no need to judge the accuracy of the black and white pointers or whether white squares represented survival opportunities. The true way to break this game wasn't to obtain two survival opportunities, but to avoid spinning the pointer entirely.
As long as one eliminated their fear, this wasn't difficult to achieve.
That Old Gentleman was also an ordinary person, yet he had managed it too. This aligned with the item's name: "Seeking Life Is Worse Than Seeking Death." It wasn't about actually spinning the pointer with a fearless attitude toward death, but rather that maintaining such a mindset was what freed one from the life-and-death round's control.
"How did you do it?" Brother Feng gritted his teeth. "You must know more, otherwise you couldn't have casually landed on white squares like that."
"Those last two rounds—you were clearly toying with me!"
In the final two rounds, Xu Huo had only made the motion of spinning the pointer without actually touching the roulette wheel. The white marks on the back of his hand were merely a diversion created by Painting Woman's cooperation.
"Explaining everything ruins the fun," he said, looking at the man across from him while mentally simulating attack strategies.
"That can't be right," Brother Feng said, denying his own words with probing intent. "You couldn't possibly have mastered the life-and-death round's method, otherwise you would have already obtained two survival opportunities and left..." However, Xu Huo's expression remained completely unchanged, revealing no flaws.
"Could it be you're trying to save people?"
"Brother, stop wasting words with him—attack already!" Wang Chaoqing cheered from the sidelines.
Brother Feng suddenly sneered, his figure vanishing from where he stood and reappearing in front of Wang Chaoqing in an instant!
Wang Chaoqing leaned backward, but the Baseball Cap beside him pulled out a red ping pong ball and smashed it on the ground!
Unexpectedly, Brother Feng's true target wasn't Wang Chaoqing—he had only made a feinting move. Before the ping pong ball even hit the ground, he withdrew, perfectly avoiding Xu Huo who had turned back to rescue someone!
Baseball Cap's rescue attempt not only failed to help but also trapped Xu Huo within the rapidly rising red smoke.
Sensing faster movement to his right within the smoke, Xu Huo immediately protected himself with the Ox Shield while simultaneously slashing with his sword!
The sound of metal clashing came from within the smoke, and the force feedback through the sword made Xu Huo's arm go numb. He retreated a step, then immediately controlled the flying arrow to attack and relieve the pressure.
Once the flying arrow locked onto a target, it could pursue and attack. Even with obscured vision, it could accurately locate Brother Feng's position.
The smoke didn't spread far, occupying only about ten square meters, so the other side of the roulette wheel remained unaffected. As the two emerged one after the other, Xu Huo first swung his sword through the air, while Brother Feng raised a long metal block in his hand to block!
When the sword energy's cutting surface contacted the metal block, it rapidly contracted to equal width before being completely absorbed into the metal block as if swallowed whole. The metal block merely vibrated from the impact without breaking.
Both the attacker and defender showed varying degrees of surprise at this. Xu Huo quickly gathered his scattered attention and launched a second sword strike, but Brother Feng had no intention of meeting it head-on. Instead, he turned and lunged toward Painting Woman nearby, wrapping an arm around her neck while the metal block in his hand transformed into a short sword coated with unknown black liquid, pressing against her throat!
The hovering flying arrow halted several meters away as Xu Huo stopped moving and stood still.
"What do you want?"
Brother Feng suddenly sneered coldly, his figure vanishing from where he stood and reappearing in front of Wang Chaoqing in an instant!
"I've already told you the method—don't touch the pointer," Xu Huo said. "That's the only way out."
"Do you take me for a fool?" Brother Feng pressed the short sword closer until it touched Painting Woman's skin. "I want the method to obtain survival opportunities!"
"There is no method," Xu Huo said, looking at him. "The high mortality rate of the life-and-death round should tell you that whether it's black or white pointers, or landing on black or white squares, the outcome is most likely death. Maybe one or two white squares among them might grant survival opportunities, but do you really think they appear so easily?"
Unexpectedly, Brother Feng's true target wasn't Wang Chaoqing—he had only made a feinting move. Before the ping pong ball even hit the ground, he withdrew, narrowly avoiding Xu Huo who had turned back to rescue someone!
"That's because I landed on a black square!" Brother Feng's forehead veins bulged. "Landing on a white square is different!"
As if to refute him, someone standing in the pointer circle of another roulette wheel suddenly screamed: "I got..."
Before finishing the sentence, the person exploded with a bang, startling the crowd that had grown somewhat numb under repeated bloodshed into panic and tears once more.
Xu Huo glanced toward that direction—that same smile, he had seen it on the face of the deceased female server earlier.
"Could it be there's truly no way out of the life-and-death round?" Brother Feng's attention wavered for a moment before focusing back on Xu Huo. Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his abdomen. Looking down, he saw a hand piercing through his stomach—and this hand belonged to Painting Woman, whom he was holding hostage!
Painting Woman turned her head and blinked at him with a confused, questioning expression, then began stirring her fingers inside his stomach!
"You damn bitch!" Brother Feng screamed in shock, raising his sword to stab at her. But unexpectedly, she directly caught it with her hand. He tried to pull back with force but couldn't break free from her grip!
By now, Xu Huo had already charged forward. Brother Feng shot a resentful look at both of them before disappearing from the roulette wheel.
"Seems he took a ride out of here," Xu Huo said, stopping. He turned to see Painting Woman clutching the short sword and a broad bean-shaped blood clot in her hand, frowning slightly. "Why are you holding onto dirty things? Throw them away."
Painting Woman promptly tossed everything in her hand onto the ground.
Strangely, when the short sword hit the ground, it transformed back into the metal block's appearance.
"This is an item!" Wang Chaoqing exclaimed as he ran over, picking it up and eagerly handing it to Xu Huo.