Card Room

Chapter 55 - Financial Crisis 15: Traitor

Yu Hanjiang and Shao Qingge had two purposes for going to the city today. One was that Shao Qingge was afraid of the power failing and the Internet being cut off. He needed to complete his operation of shorting the stocks as soon as possible.

The owner of Shanshui Guesthouse said that Xu Zhengyanghad checked out but Yu Hanjiang needed to be sure. He placed a listening device on the boss while the other two were placed on the second floor of the Shanshui Guesthouse and the hotel where Shao Qingge previously stayed.

After leaving the room, the two men found a quiet placed and listened carefully to the movements on the eavesdropping device.

Half an hour passed before a gentle female voice was heard from the Shanshui Guesthouse bug. “Boss, we don’t have any cash. Can we pay for the room rate with milk and instant noodles?”

The boss smiled. “Okay, I want four boxes of milk and four boxes of instant noodles.”

The girl said, “Can we discuss it again? We don’t have much left to eat... how about three boxes?”

The boss said, “Prices have doubled in a day. Yesterday was two boxes and today is four boxes. I’m not wrong!”

The girl and her partner discussed it. “We don’t have that many materials. Why not go out and live?”

Another person spoke, “Okay, I don’t think it is a good idea to swap four boxes of milk and fox boxes of instant noodles for a night’s accommodation.”

The two of them finally made a decision. “Then let’s check out. If the prices continue to rise then perhaps the boss would make us pay eight boxes of milk tomorrow.”

The boss smiled. “Don’t hurry to check out. I see that you are two girls. Won’t it be unsafe sleeping on the streets? Three boxes will be fine and you can pay for a few days at once.”

The two girls didn’t expect the boss’ attitude to soften and immediately agreed. “Then we will first use six boxes of milk and instant noodles to pay for two days in advance.”

Not long after, there were two male challengers who came to the front desk to find the boss to negotiate about paying for the room in advance with materials. Just as before, the boss offered four boxes of milk and four boxes of instant noodles at first. The two people weren’t happy and the boss gave them a preferential price.

At the Shanshui Guesthouse, only two challengers checked out. The others stayed and used their supplies in exchange for accommodation.

Shao Qingge’s hotel was very different. Several groups of challengers went to the front desk to try and exchange materials for accommodation. However, the hotel didn’t allow it and the receptionist spoke coldly, “if you can’t afford to pay for this hotel then don’t continue to stay here. We also need to live!”

Several challengers had to helplessly check out.

Yu Hanjiang frowned slightly. “It isn’t quite right.”

Shao Qingge thought carefully. “I remember Ye Qi mentioned that since their group of challengers had a large amount of materials stolen, they collectively left the guesthouse on the third day. Under the leadership of the lawyer, they went to the construction site, distributed their materials together and lived together. If they weren’t idiots and cooked noodles at night, leading the prisoners over, they should’ve passed the instance, right?”

Yu Hanjiang didn’t think so. “I feel that even if no one lit a fire, it would be very hard for them to collectively clear the instance.”

Shao Qingge was a bit surprised. “Group Leader Yu, you mean the keeper dug more holes for us?”

Yu Hanjiang nodded and carefully analyzed. “First of all, the reason why they left the guesthouse was because 80% of their materials were stolen and they didn’t have much left to eat. By acting together, they had milk, bread and chocolate. There is also strength in numbers and there is a chance to survive together.”

Shao Qingge slightly raised his eyes. “However, today the challengers in the Shanshui Guesthouse didn’t have their materials stolen.”

Yu Hanjiang said, “Due to my actions with Professor Xiao, we forced away the traitor last night when he came to steal things. In order to escape, he also killed his temporary teammate and didn’t have time to steal the materials of the other challengers in the Shanshui Guesthouse.”

Yu Hanjiang and Xiao Lou’s vigilance was too high. After becoming aware of the existence of the thief, they forced the snake out of the hole. Driving away the thief changed the original story of 3 of Spades. In the case where no materials are stolen, there are enough materials left to pay for seven days of accommodation without needing to check out.

In addition, the owner of the Shanshui Guesthouse was very good. In accordance with the price doubling, the third day’s room rate should be four boxes of milk and four boxes of instant noddles. Yet he conceded to three boxes, allowing most of the challengers to stay.

Shao Qingge responded immediately. “Is there a problem with the owner of the guesthouse?”

Yu Hanjiang nodded with a calm expression. “There are two possibilities. First, the owner of the guesthouse is very shrewd and knows that in the case of the financial crisis, there are few locals who will come to stay here. An empty room doesn’t earn any money so he might as well let the strangers stay and earn a bit of money by selling the materials.”

He paused slightly before following up, “The second possibility is that he deliberately gave a discounted price to let the challengers stay.”

Shao Qingge frowned. “You mean that because Xu Zhengyang’s theft failed last night, the challengers still kept their supplies. He deliberately let everyone stay just to facilitate Xu Zhengyang’s continued theft. The boss is accomplices with the thief?”

The three hour duration of the bug ended. Yu Hanjiang put away the bug and spoke coldly, “Otherwise, how can Xu Zhengyang freely move in and out of the Shanshui Guesthouse while clearly grasping the information of the challengers?”

Thinking of the guesthouse owner who warmly greeted the guests and smiled when helping them check the information of Xu Zhengyang, Shao Qingge felt cold. “Isn’t the Spades secret room too pitted? Is this deliberately bringing the challengers into the wolf’s den?”

Yu Hanjiang’s face was ugly. “The challengers coming here would subconsciously find the accommodation with the cheapest price. They don’t know that this is actually a black store. The boss and free person worked together to master all the foreigner’s information, steal the foreigner’s supplies and rely on the financial crisis to profit!”

In fact, the 3 of Spades secret room had decided from the beginning that the challengers would face serious difficulties.

Look for expensive accommodation and they couldn’t afford it. Find the cheapest accommodation and a trap was already dug.

At check in, the boss would first judge the identity of a ‘foreigner.’ Then when challengers were transporting things back from the supermarket, the boss standing at the front desk would naturally see how many things they brought back.

Xu Zhengyang only needed to live as a challenger in the Shanshui Guesthouse and use the invisibility cloak and universal key to steal the challengers’ supplies at any time before returning to his room.

Shao Qingge felt some doubts. “According to Group Leader Yu’s statement, the invisibility cloak and universal key are rewards from secretly clearing the 3 of Hearts secret room. This Xu Zhengyang is a free person. How can he have so many cards?”

Yu Hanjiang looked down for a moment and suddenly thought of a possibility. “There is a way if he wants to pretend to be a challenger. Kill a challenger and replace it.”

This explained why he had a challenger’s cards on him.

He closely followed the trends in the city and the moment he saw a lone ‘foreigner’, he struck. He killed the other person, took their cards and took on the identity of the deceased. Then he mixed in among the challengers to steal supplies.

He wasn’t Xu Zhengyang but the challenger he replaced was called Xu Zhengyang.

The real Xu Zhengyang had been killed by him and the teammate matched to Xu Zhengyang died under his knife.

Shao Qingge was cold. “Fortunately, I didn’t match with any teammates in this secret room. In a random match, if he killed my teammate and posed as him then maybe I would also fall for this trick.”

As early as when they cleared 2 of Clubs, the C-grade secret rooms suggested that they should build a good team in advance so it was unknown what type of people they would match with.

For people like Shao Qingge and Ye Qi who didn’t want to team up, the 3 of Spades room couldn’t put them because they had no teammates. A teammate couldn’t suddenly pop up. Meanwhile, Ye Qi and Yu Hanjiang were a team early on and acted together. They didn’t give the boss a chance.

Only those who hadn’t found a regular teammate after passing the second level could match with a random person. Those who lacked vigilance might be killed and replaced by the boss and his teammate would be accompanied by a wolf without knowing it.

Shao Qingge felt some sympathy for this group of challengers. The man called Xu Zhengyang was killed by the boss in the beginning and then his teammate was killed by the boss pretending to be Xu Zhengyang. Both of them died without knowing why.

Yu Hanjiang stated, “Their strength wasn’t bad if they could perfectly clear 3 of Hearts. However, they were too confident and too careless. They weren’t cautious enough when encountering a strange ‘teammate’ and the boss took advantage of this loophole.

Shao Qingge had a headache and held his temple. “The 2 of Spades secret room had the zombie leader Liu Xiaoyuan and the 3 of Spades secret room has a boss posing as a challenger to steal things and actually has the owner of the Shanshui Guesthouse as an accomplice. If it wasn’t for Group Leader Yu’s analysis then I would never think the owner of the Shanshui Guesthouse was so unscrupulous!”

“Last night, someone died in the Shanshui Guesthouse but the boss was still so calm today. There must be a problem.”

The boss and free person joined forces and the Shanshui Guesthouse became a special pit for ‘foreigners.’

The hotel on the opposite side of the street had fewer challengers so on the first night, ‘Xu Zhengyang’ picked a few places to start. The next night, he aimed for the challengers at the Shanshui Guesthouse, where there would be two outcomes.

The first one was what Ye Qi experienced. The challengers weren’t alert enough and most of their materials were stolen. They were forced to collectively move to the construction site. Apart from the senior teammate who left Ye Qi and acted alone, the other challengers gathered at the site where they met something that destroyed them.

Secondly, the challengers were sufficiently alert like Yu Hanjiang and Xiao Lou and tried to catch the thief. The secret room’s boss used extreme methods to escape and the other challengers kept the supplies. However, the boss would use the ‘preferential’ price to stop challengers from leaving, allowing ‘Xu Zhengyang’ to continue stealing things from everyone.

If things happened as expected, Xu Zhengyang would return to the Shanshui Guesthouse tonight. Once most of the challengers’ suppliers were stolen, they would leave here and once again gather at the construction site.

Yu Hanjiang thought of all this and felt that the layout of A of Spades and A of Clubs was really precise.

Most of the challengers’ actions were arranged by them.

There were three categories of challengers who could smoothly survive in 3 of Spades: Those who abandoned their teammate and ruthlessly monopolized the materials, those who didn’t live in a guesthouse from the beginning and lived directly on the streets and those who were vigilant enough to store their materials in batches and could move places at any time.

The other honest challengers who lived in the guesthouse were almost doomed to be eliminated.

Yu Hanjiang stood up. “We have to go back as soon as possible. I’m afraid that those who left the hotel will rush to the construction site and Professor Xiao’s side will be in danger.”

Shao Qingge also stood up in an alert manner. “Let’s go!”

***

It was just after noon.

Under the scorching sun, the road was about to melt and the trees on the street were hanging listlessly.

The several main roads in the city were still tightly blocked. There was no traffic police to command them and cars moved at a crawl. In addition, there was a number of rear-end accidents and collisions caused by the traffic jam. Some drivers got off and started arguing, making the congestion situation even more chaotic.

There was a large number of exhaust gas from the cars, which made the surrounding temperature seem to rise even more. The horns blaring in the streets were deafening.

As long as a car had fuel, the air conditioner could be turned on. However, a car would always run out of fuel and the price of fuel had risen so that most people couldn’t afford it. Many people hid in their cars with the air conditioning on and were full of anxiety. Some people couldn’t wait and directly abandoned their vehicles.

On the streets, someone smashed open a roadside store and went inside to loot it.

Someone smashed the self-service ATM machine and found there were no gold coins inside.

The bank was robbed and forced to close.

The supermarket in the central square no longer had people patiently lining up. There was a large influx of residents into the supermarket, hitting, smashing and looting the shelves, sweeping up every idea. The supermarket manager’s face was full of horror as he tried to close the supermarket. However, it was too crowded and he couldn’t shut the door. Someone accidentally fell and the person behind them couldn’t stop. The old man lying on the ground was surprised to find himself trampled to death...

The crowd fell down one by one like a ‘domino effect’. Yu Hanjiang’s ears constantly heard the sound of cries and screams as a very serious mass stampede occurred in the supermarket!

Shao Qingge’s back was cool and he couldn’t bear to look. “It is terrible. I don’t know how many people died...”

Once this mass stampede occurred, the number of people who died or were injured would be countless!

Yu Hanjiang’s expression was becoming uglier. He was alone and couldn’t help even if he went to the scene, but he found it hard to dispel his anger when he saw so many people being trampled to death!

Xiao Lou was right... this world was crazy.

Yu Hanjiang clenched his fists and forced himself to turn his head and stop looking at the cruel scene. He directly used the teleportation card and returned to the construction site at a very fast speed with Shao Qingge.

At almost the same time, Xiao Lou sent him a text message. “Group Leader Yu, there are many challengers who suddenly came to the construction site.”

Yu Hanjiang hurriedly asked, “Are you okay? Did they steal the supplies or hurt you?’

Xiao Lou, “...”

Did he have no sense of self-protection in Group Leader Yu’s heart?

Perhaps in Group Leader Yu’s view, Xiao Lou was a gentle and mild university professor. He usually never fought with people and his physical strength wasn’t very high. He could barely keep up with Yu Hanjiang while wearing the acceleration shoes.

Still, don’t forget that this was the Card World.

Any gentle person in this world must make themselves strong and the weak could only wait to be eliminated.

If Xiao Lou needed to rely on the protection of others then he wouldn’t be Xiao Lou.

Yu Hanjiang saw him return an ellipsis and thought Xiao Lou had encountered trouble, making it inconvenient to speak. He immediately sped up and flew back to the site with Shao Qingge.

However, the scene in front of them shocked both Yu Hanjiang and Shao Qingge at the same time.

They saw that in the northwest corner room on the third floor, Xiao Lou looked calm and there was even a smile on his face.

His fingers were raised and there were several silver metal rings floating in front of him. Next to him were two men trapped head to foot by dense rings. Two females had their feet trapped by rings and they could only maintain their balance by leaning against the wall. A man and woman were directly hung up by the rings, their faces filled with horror and begging for mercy.

Yu Hanjiang, “.........”

Professor Xiao was awesome.

It seemed that he had been worrying too much.

Seeing Yu Hanjiang and Shao Qingge had returned, Xiao Lou smiled and walked to them. “These people saw that only me and Ye Qi were in the room and there were so many materials. They directly came running in to grab the materials and were caught by me.”

Ye Qi looked at Xiao Lou with an expression of worship. “Professor Xiao really has foresight. After you left, he drew a lot of spare rings. I didn’t see the operation just now when he already tied them up in twos. It was just like magic!”

The six people tied up, “......”

There was only a seemingly gentle man and a delicate teenager at the construction site so they thought it would be easy to deal with them.

The result was that they fucking walked into the ring trap and were defeated 6V2. They were all trapped and became prisoners. This was a really big shame!