Chapter 26: "Life as Chess

…Oh no.

Su Ming'an's left arm involuntarily trembled, but he was unable to reach out.

His figure shuddered, then he plummeted.

The descent replaced everything, his eyes open, bracing for the next reincarnation.

"Snap!"

Just then, an almost transparent, white hand grabbed his.

Dark hair cascaded down, brushing against his cheek as he lifted his head to see the girl soaked in light holding his hand firmly. Sweat Rarely trickled down her cheek, and her usually indifferent eyes rippled with starlight.

His gaze was a bit stagnant as he saw the platform beneath Yuanyuan also fracturing.

The next moment, the sensation of the world spinning replaced everything, and he was yanked up single-handedly by the girl, slamming forcefully onto a broad platform beside them.

"Survive," he heard her say.

He felt his body instantly dominated by a burning will, immediately pulling himself over, stretching out his hand, but he could only see a plummeting white figure within his field of vision.

Like a butterfly, it appeared in the endless void and darkness and gradually disappeared.

…She had fallen.

He stared down below for a while, then turned to leave.

The next moment, he heard the sound of butterfly wings flapping behind him.

"…You're just going to leave?"

The second floor of the hospital was unusually bright, in front of him was a large French window. A youth wrapped in a gray scarf stood there with arms crossed, watching him, a blue mantis resting on his shoulder.

"I will survive," Su Ming'an said.

Lv Shu looked at him, light laughter carrying ambiguous meanings:

"—But she can also survive," he said, slightly raising his arm.

A massive, glowing red butterfly slowly rose from the endless abyss.

On its glittering, gemstone-like wings lay a girl clutching a thin sword.

"I attacked you before, although I don't know why you didn't die...but, what are you carrying that caused such a huge reaction from the hospital? There was nothing like this when I came up; you were obviously targeted by the entire hospital," Lv Shu asked him.

Su Ming'an thought of the purple liquid in his backpack, but he ignored Lv Shu and looked at Yuanyuan who was gradually being lowered from the butterfly.

It was only now that the barrage came to life:

[Damn, what just happened? I couldn't even send a barrage just now!]

[The host must have triggered some crisis, but it looks like he got through it.]

[Yuanyuan fell to save him, and he just looked and left?]

[…I feel so sorry for Yuanyuan, why did she have to desperately save the host?]

[Lv Shu is the best! Thanks to Lv Shu for saving Yuanyuan!!]

[Thank you, Lv Shu; fans of Yuanyuan are crying tears of joy]

[…]

Su Ming'an pulled the girl down, and with some effort, hoisted her onto his back, finding her body light as paper.

"Apologies for my previous actions," Lv Shu said. "Although I don't know why you revived...but my sneaky attack was truly disgraceful. Now, I've saved her once…can you forgive me?"

Su Ming'an didn't respond and carried the unconscious Yuanyuan towards the other side leading to the stairs of the third floor.

"…You're going to the third floor?" Lv Shu suddenly raised his voice. "It's dangerous there, it seems to be related to the final clues for the perfect pass. If you just want to reach one hundred percent of an advanced task, there's no need to go."

"Don't you want to perfectly pass?" Su Ming'an turned and asked him.

"I do. But it feels not worth it, to tackle the highest difficulty for some extra points, might end up dying," Lv Shu said. "We're both top Dragon Country players, though you are on the standby list…your skills are very interesting. If you don't mind, after I finish exploring the second floor, I could escort you out."

He felt the young man had always been quite polite to him and that he was very kind-hearted, his own previous attack was disgracefully stealthy, looking after the other party for a bit wouldn't be a problem.

However, he then saw that the young man's gaze towards him gradually faded.

"Is that so," Su Ming'an said.

"What?" Lv Shu was confused.

But he didn't get any more responses from the young man.

Su Ming'an carried the unconscious girl, waved at him, and without looking back headed towards the direction of the third floor.

"Hey—you're going to your death!" Lv Shu didn't understand what he was thinking—this person couldn't even free a hand to hold a weapon.

But he still received no response.

Su Ming'an seemed to have completely lost interest in him, without any reaction to his words, pulled by the long shadow, carrying the girl and her sword, gradually stepped into the deep, endless corridor.

...

Su Ming'an stepped onto the third floor.

There seemed to be no difference between the third floor of the hospital and the other floors, but by those dull walls, he saw the little girl in a red dress, head bowed, waiting for him.

"Big Brother?" Duoduo slowly raised her head, looking at him, "We meet again."

The barrage was still discussing Lv Shu:

[Why is the streamer acting so weird… I thought they would start fighting]

[The streamer has a Clone Skill?? Dual control? I remember seeing him die in Brother Lv Shu's live stream??]

[Ah… so it turns out that the streamer can send out information he knows, but it couldn't be sent out in Brother Lv Shu's live stream.]

[I thought the streamer only had a Black Hole Skill, and the range was so short.]

[Does this mean the pre-selection list is going to change again… Adding another Clone Skill, Ming'an's Combat Power is actually quite strong…]

[? Am I the only one curious about how he can have both of these decent skills simultaneously?]

[Oh my god, how many Points does this Dragon Country boy have on his novice level? Is his rating S or A? Why are his skills so powerful?]

[When will Yuanyuan wake up… I feel like her swordsmanship combined with Ming'an's would really be unbeatable…]

[...]

"..." Su Ming'an looked at Duoduo smiling in front of him, "You really are inescapable."

"What happened to Big Sister?" Ignoring his remark, Duoduo peered over with curiosity, "She's really gentle… and takes good care of Duoduo, but how come she has fallen asleep?"

"…She might be too tired, so she's sleeping deeply," Su Ming'an said.

He had tried to wake Yuanyuan, but to no avail, she seemed completely asleep, her eyelids blocking out an entire world, impervious to any sound that might stir her.

"What a pity, what a pity, one less person to play with Duoduo." Duoduo's tone was somewhat excited, as if she was anticipating something:

"But—never mind, Big Brother, you came to the third floor of the hospital to get the final clue, right?"

"State your terms," Su Ming'an said.

"Duoduo used to love playing chess… but there was never anyone to play with Duoduo, now, Duoduo doesn't need a companion anymore." Duoduo said with a smile, "But… Duoduo has taken a liking to watching others play chess. Big Brother, Duoduo wants to watch you… play a game of chess with another player—with each other's lives as chess pieces, can you agree to Duoduo's request?"

The next moment, Su Ming'an heard the system prompt.

[You have entered Central Hospital·Third Floor]

[Automatically entered Perfect Pass Route·Sub-instance·World Chessboard]

[Reward for passing the sub-instance: Final Clue· Duoduo's File Bag (leading to Perfect Pass)]

[Final evaluation and reward will be based on match performance, difference in strength between enemies and allies, and can reach as high as SS (Perfect Level)!]

[Current Combat Power (individual): 210, Squad Total Combat Power: 210]

[Perfect Pass Progress: 60%]

"Ah... Big Brother, why do you seem a bit weaker?" Duoduo tilted her head, "Never mind, it doesn't matter! Duoduo believes in you, Big Brother, even alone, you can be very strong, right!"

The next moment, Su Ming'an found that his attire had changed, he was no longer wearing a modern long-sleeved shirt, but a magnificent blood-red robe adorned with rolling, wide fur edges and embellished with dazzling blue sapphires, and in his hand appeared a long sword engraved with intricate patterns.

He looked up and saw that the scene in front of him had changed from the dilapidated third floor of the hospital to an overhead space as vast as the Star Sea and a huge black and white chessboard beneath his feet.

...A game with lives as chess pieces?

What kind of game mechanism?

Su Ming'an heard the system's prompt sound.

[Ding Dong! You have been appointed as (Red Side) King, game rules will be published afterwards]

["World Chessboard" instance is a PvP player squad combat mechanism, randomly matching players from 50,000 parallel X cities as opponents, selecting from teams entering the third floor of the hospital in 50,000 X cities, please wait…]

[...]

[Ding Dong! Match successful!]

[Our squad: Su Ming'an, Yuanyuan (incapacitated)（Total Combat Power: 210）]

[Opposing squad: Eni, Qiao Liya, Hubert, Hans, Selt (Total Combat Power 868)]

[Enemy and ally strength difference: SS]

Su Ming'an's expression hardened.

...He felt a deep-seated malice from the matching mechanism.

He hesitated, thinking of touching his temple. But after seeing that [SS (Perfect Level)], he slowly relaxed.

...He had to secure this SS rating.

After all, there was death rollback.

——Let's go for it.