Chapter 575: 575: Welcome, Welcome
Upon their entrance, stunned expressions briefly flashed across their faces before quickly returning to normal. They started walking towards us.
There were no prompts or requests, but grouping was almost a natural human instinct. All the players had unconsciously formed different camps based on skin color and clothing style.
The men naturally approached towards the cluster of Asian players.
Once they noticed Shen Mo, they stopped in their tracks, stared this way, their faces filled with shock.
Bai Youwei noticed them, and quietly posed a question to the Shen Mo at her side: “Do you know them?”
“Yes.” Shen Mo gave a slight nod. “They were my subordinates.”
The two men continued to stand in their place, seemingly uncertain whether they should approach us or not.
Only when Shen Mo signaled them did they finally walk over—their faces could not hide their excitement—as they choked out: “Leader…”
Shen Mo held up his hand to stop them, his voice calm: “Call me Captain.”
“Yes, Captain!” Both of the men responded with red-rimmed eyes.
Shen mo introduced them to the others: “This is Fang Yu and Ya Chaohui, former members of a special forces unit. We lost each other on the way to meet up with Professor Song.”
Everyone shared their names in a brief exchange, and acquaintances were made.
At that moment, the white walls all around them suddenly flickered.
The walls began to display large amounts of text, as if on a liquid crystal screen. It was densely packed!
Upon further inspection, it turned out to me a single sentence, translated into various languages and arranged together—
“Welcome,”
ようこそ,”
welkom,”
Bienvenue,”
Willkommen,”
Graditevi,”
Bienvenida,”
…”
A cold mechanical voice echoed through the air:
“Number of pre-qualifiers for this game, 241 people;
Number of activated puzzle pieces, 502;
Progress, 56%;
Conditions for initiating the war have been met. Opening the sign-up channel for the war, please continue the game and strive to clear the level—”
Once the voice stopped talking, everyone was still puzzled.
What preliminary competition?
What war?
What sign-up channel?
No one knew what it all meant!
As everyone was lost in confusion, the walls underwent another change. The heavy blocks of text vanished, replaced with the image of the Rabbit-head Inspector.
“Welcome, everyone.”
In the image, the Rabbit-head Inspector courteously said:
“This preliminary round, will be moderated by me explaining the rules.
I believe you have all heard that if you collect all the puzzle pieces, you may clear all the games.
However, with the mazes located all over the world, it is unrealistic for one person to collect all the maze puzzle pieces.
So, for the sake of fairness, when the activation ratio of maze puzzle pieces surpasses 55%, the system will lock up the rest of the maps and initiate the Maze War.
You will, through the Maze War, achieve your collecting goal by plundering the puzzle pieces of others. After claiming victory, you will also win the opportunity to unlock new mazes.
However, please note—
One, once a player signs up, they may not withdraw midway.
Two, if a participant forfeits the race, their puzzle pieces will be collected immediately.”
Once these words were uttered, everyone was shocked.
Every person’s puzzle pieces were hard-earned. Now the Inspector was saying that if they didn’t sign up, those hard-earned pieces would be taken back?!
“If you have no intention of collecting all the puzzle pieces, then what is the point of keeping them?” the rabbit-headed figure said with a slight smile. “Everyone, there’s more, the sign up roles for the competition are divided into ‘King’ and ‘Subjects’. If you don’t want to take part in a brutal war, and yet don’t want to give up your puzzle pieces, I suggest that you sign up under the role of ‘Subject.\'”