An Unlikely Alliance

It was evident that the young woman harbored a significant wariness towards her surroundings. While beautiful girls were not uncommon in the game, one of her striking caliber was a rare sight indeed. Such individuals inherently drew attention, and she, naturally, became the blue-haired youth’s primary focus.

Yet, the young woman’s actions failed to register as a genuine threat to him. People who constantly maintained their guard appeared troublesome, but in reality, they were often easily managed.

He could readily exploit her overly cautious nature, laying a grand trap to make her stumble with ease.

Undeniably, the young woman possessed some capability. However, her lack of experience left her behavior riddled with flaws, perfectly aligning with the standard of a newcomer.

Xiang Qi, of course, was unaware that in mere moments, she had been branded as an amateur.

****

The other person of interest was the man in the suit, who had been intentionally, if subtly, distancing himself from everyone since the beginning.

His skill level was even worse, the blue-haired youth thought with disdain.

At least the young woman earlier had known how to mask her caution, not revealing it too obviously. This man, however, didn’t even know how to feign trust; his distrust was practically written all over his face.

If a beautiful girl acted this way, people might be understanding. But for a plain-looking grown man, who was he putting on such airs for?

Of course, the blue-haired youth knew he wasn’t some exceptionally talented individual himself. He merely possessed significantly more experience than these others, but sometimes, that experience was more valuable than anything else, enough to easily determine life or death.

He also held another item, which was the true key to victory.

In such a low-tier game, truly formidable veteran players wouldn’t appear. The blue-haired youth was well aware of this; his own potential had plummeted after a disastrous previous round, which was why he found himself in this level of game.

Similarly, to balance the difficulty, the system would inevitably arrange a player of comparable skill to him.

He also understood that they could not possibly be on the same side.

This was the reason for his earlier probing, solely to identify this dangerous individual in advance.

As for the uncle who had spoken up, he had some skill but lacked composure.

This was a clear weakness, and the blue-haired youth naturally classified him as non-threatening.

Then, only one possibility remained! He seemingly inadvertently glanced at the woman in denim shorts beside him, only to find her staring back with a knowing, almost mocking smile.

His heart instantly sank. ‘I was too careless,’ he thought.

‘My opponent is likely far more formidable than I imagined.’

Just as the blue-haired youth was about to speak, the woman beat him to it.

“Little sister, come over to Big Sister here.” The woman beckoned to Xiang Qi. Seeing no reaction, she walked over herself.

“You know me?”

Xiang Qi hadn’t anticipated such a situation and felt a little bewildered. ‘Who are you, Big Sister? Are we close?’

Even so, she played along, feigning ignorance to lower any potential assessment of her.

“Of course, aren’t we on the same team?” The woman winked at her, simultaneously using her body to block the blue-haired youth’s line of sight.

“You’re Potassium Permanganate from the team, right?” Xiang Qi noted the word ‘team’ and tried to pursue that line of inquiry.

She also overheard what the woman said.

“Beware of the blue-haired one. He has ill intentions; he’s a dangerous individual.”

The words were spoken quickly and softly, heard only by Xiang Qi. Before the sentence even finished, the woman swiftly changed the topic.

“Yes, that’s right, that’s me.” The woman secretly grumbled to herself about the absurd name but had to continue the charade based on Xiang Qi’s words. “You must be Sodium Hydroxide from our Chemistry Team.”

In that moment, Xiang Qi truly understood the meaning of shooting herself in the foot.

“Yes, I am Sodium Hydroxide.”

The two girls then naturally struck up a conversation.

After all, they were supposedly from the same team; it wouldn’t make sense to prevent them from interacting.

This interaction, however, inevitably increased the perceived threat level of both women in the eyes of the others.

Potassium Permanganate knew this. She also knew that she had been targeted by the dangerous-looking individual and thus needed to seek allies to strengthen her position.

Naturally, the same actions were judged by different standards in different people’s eyes.

In the blue-haired youth’s eyes, Xiang Qi was an amateur, utterly unthreatening. But in the woman’s eyes, such a personality was prudent and reliable.

The main reason, of course, was that the woman lacked sufficient confidence in her own combat abilities, believing she couldn’t control the middle-aged uncle and the man in the suit. So, she set her sights on Xiang Qi, who clearly possessed no fighting strength. Even if the young woman tried to cause trouble, she could quickly subdue her.

And Xiang Qi? She understood the drawbacks of this situation but could only comply with the woman’s wishes. Before drawing attention, she could have hidden herself, but now this woman had already made her conspicuous.

Regardless of whether she agreed or not, her perceived threat level in others’ minds would increase. Agreeing meant gaining an ill-intentioned ally for free; refusing meant gaining an enemy. Anyone not foolish would know how to calculate that equation.

Similarly, Xiang Qi realized she had been exposed, most likely due to unfamiliarity with the game mechanics leading her to reveal something.

She had to consider the worst-case scenario: that everyone present saw her as a potential enemy.

The situation might not be that dire, but it was always wise to plan ahead. She also needed to acquire more information to make further judgments, so forming an alliance to some extent with this Potassium Permanganate seemed highly necessary.

Xiang Qi was very familiar with the art of extracting information.

As mentioned before, she was a vengeful and rather malicious individual. Given the opportunity, she would certainly make this woman pay dearly.

In this short time, she had already deduced that this game was no trivial matter. One misstep could easily lead to death; it was certainly not like the casual, cooperative mission scenarios of the Main God Space.

‘Have you ever seen a Main God Space with this level of intrigue?’ Xiang Qi certainly hadn’t.

Naturally, she held no goodwill towards the person who had made her presence so obvious.

“Almost time,” Xiang Qi heard the woman beside her murmur. Just as she grew curious, she understood its meaning the very next second.

“Game start. This round is ‘Hunt Mode,’ with sixteen escapees and one hunter.”

“The hunter gains a special template, all stats enhanced tenfold, and receives additional talents: ‘Relative Displacement,’ ‘Wide-Area Search,’ and ‘Mental Shock.'”

“Note: Additional talents can be used once every four hours.”