PFRG: Chapter 94

“Alas, this is still a miss.”

It wasn’t until Ji Xingque’s voice sounded that Chi Ting looked back and found that Yue Ren’s second attempt to grab the doll had failed again.

If it could be said that he was unfamiliar the first time, then he was familiar after the second time. This time, Yue Ren’s demeanor was much more natural than before. He swiped the game card again very neatly. “It doesn’t matter. Failure is the mother of success. I have a feeling that I will get it sooner or later.”

Ji Xingque suggested, “Don’t you have your shadows? Why don’t you try to move the doll from before and poke it in?”

This did sound like a pretty good proposal, but Yue Ren rejected it without hesitation. “No, as a man, I must rely on my own strength.”

Chi Ting vaguely felt that this sentence seemed familiar. He slowly lowered his head and rubbed his temples, feeling both amused and helpless.

Here, Yue Ren and Ji Xingque quickly entered the game state. They took turns playing to see who could complete the first show of this claw machine first.

Soon, this claw machine experienced ten attempts. The price of game coins was increased from 2 coins to 3 coins per attempt. The two of them switched to a new machine next to it.

“Are you sure you don’t want to have them save some coins, Captain?” Song Xuefeng pulled a chair over and had been sitting and watching for quite a while. Finally, he couldn’t help asking this question.

It only consumed 2 game coins every time, but at the rate they were consuming it, the initial capital of 500 game coins felt like it wasn’t enough.

“It’s okay,” Chi Ting replied. “It is the cost of trial and error.”

They seemed to be addicted to playing the game but Chi Ting knew that Yue Ren wasn’t an impulsive person. The reason he didn’t stop it was mainly because the situation described in the claw machine’s user guide hadn’t occurred yet.

Thus, he stood quietly and waited for the rules to appear.

At this moment, a voice caught his attention. “You guys actually started playing it right away?”

Hearing this, Chi Ting’s group turned around and noticed three people standing not far away. They were the three people encountered at the door earlier.

After noticing their gazes, the leader walked over, extended his hand, and introduced himself. “Hello, I’m Wu Ruici, the captain of the Blue Mountain team. The two next to me are my teammates, Yu Gui and Ma Pian. We might not be as famous as the Jazz team, but we can be regarded as a team that is in the middle of the rankings.”

As he spoke, he slowly glanced at Chi Ting’s group and asked, “You all seem to have come in together, right? Let me guess… are you doing the team qualification certification mission?”

This person guessed quite accurately and this made Chi Ting look at him even more. He also extended his hand in a friendly manner. “Yes, I am Chi Ting, the captain of the Dawn team that is about to be officially registered.”

Wu Ruici shook his hand before glancing at the other two, who were still struggling with the claw machine and ignoring him. “Your team members are playing very seriously. So how do you feel about this game? If you feel there is anything you need help with, you can always tell us. We are all teams at the bottom and should be willing to help each other.”

When these words were spoken, a barrage of comments quickly passed through Wu Ruici’s live stream room.

[Hahaha, Brother Wu is fooling around again.]

[I didn’t understand before why the Blue Mountain team memorized all the teams in the rankings. Now I know. It is because it is easy to pick on the weak teams.]

[What type of team is the Dawn team? It sounds like it was just formed?]

[It doesn’t matter what team it is. I feel like they will be fooled by Brother Wu sooner or later.]

[Indeed… the new team targeted by the Blue Mountain team is quite pitiful, not to mention there is also the Jazz team in this instance.]

[What? The Jazz team is here too? I don’t know what type of hell this is!]

[Am I the only one who feels that this person’s name is a bit familiar…?]

The last time Chi Ting heard the team ‘mutual help’ was from Rong Jie, the captain of the Watchtower team. But when facing Wu Ruici, he had an inexplicable feeling. These words didn’t seem sincere.

But thinking about it, this was understandable.

The danger of this unlimited world was actually not much less than their apocalypse world. In such an environment, personal survival was naturally the first choice compared to the so-called sense of morality.

Chi Ting admitted that he did have a type of beauty halo about humans, but in fact, he knew the inherent bad qualities of this species better than anyone else.

After all, he had saved many people of all types and had naturally seen all types of people.

Therefore, when Chi Ting heard Wu Ruici’s words, he knew that this person was probably thinking of taking advantage of the situation.

He never minded sharing clues, but at this moment, he didn’t know if Yue Ren and their group was too lucky or unlucky. They hadn’t touched upon the content mentioned in the rules yet, let alone gained any useful information. “Thank you, but we haven’t encountered any difficulties yet. If you are interested, you can join us in the exploration.”

The expression on Wu Ruici’s face stiffened slightly.

He originally wanted to take the opportunity to get some useful information, but seeing that the captain of the new team was actually unmoved, he didn’t know whether this frank attitude was true or false.

Without revealing too much, Wu Ruici managed to control the expression on his face. “Okay, let me take a look at the rules of the game here first.”

He smiled politely at Chi Ting. After turning around, he winked at his other two teammates and led them to the row of claw machines at the back.

It wasn’t until the three people left that Ji Xingque, who had been burying his head in front of the claw machine, straightened up and took a look. “There is something wrong with this Blue Mountain team. There are so many amusement projects in this Starry Sky Arcade. Why did they have to squeeze in with us?”

Chi Ting said noncommittally, “After all, they just want to save the cost of the trial and error.”

Ji Xingque was at a loss. “What is the cost of trial and error?”

Chi Ting: “……”

It could only be said that Ji Xingque was indeed the only person he knew who relied entirely on his sixth sense to make judgments. This sixth sense that varied in strength and weakness was sometimes a bit too metaphysical.

In contrast, Chi Ting suddenly realized that it was really the most effortless to communicate with Yue Ren. He sighed silently and looked at the man. Just then, he heard a slightly laughing voice. “See, I told you it isn’t a big problem.”

The claw attempt that had just ended allowed Yue Ren to successfully earn the first harvest of the claw machine game.

He leaned over and took out his spoils from the storage compartment. He looked at it and saw the number ‘800’ printed on the blue dolphin.

There was the sound of a coin falling in his mind. Then Yue Ren noticed that the number on his game card had risen from ‘456’ to ‘1256’.

He smiled and stuffed the dolphin doll in his hand into Chi Ting’s hand. “44 coins for 800 coins. This game is quite profitable.”

Before Chi Ting could react, he found that he had already taken the dolphin doll very naturally.

He had never received such a small thing that was only cute but had no real use. He felt the soft texture and said, “But we came to this area as a group. According to the requirement of Rule 7, ‘Please make sure that everyone grabs dolls of different colors’, we need to choose dolls of other colors if we want to continue this game. There are only five colors in total. If each color gives 800 coins, grabbing five will only give 4,000 coins, unless…”

Yue Ren naturally knew what Chi Ting meant.

One project only earned more than 3,000 game coins after deducting the investment costs. In this instance, this profit was too low no matter how they looked at it, not to mention that there were unexpected problems that could occur at any time.

He smiled slightly and said, “Unless the doll caught is like this one and the reward is very gratifying.”

He sighed softly. “It is a pity that we are destined to have no chance of meeting each other.”

The moment these words came out, the fluorescent claw machine in his line of sight became particularly eye-catching.

Ji Xingque also noticed this and asked in surprise, “Did someone put in a coin just now?”

Seeing that Chi Ting and Yue Ren didn’t respond, he turned around and looked at Song Xuefeng. But all he got in response was silence.

Ji Xingque was slightly shocked. “This means…”

“It runs on its own.” Yue Ren gently tapped the claw machine in front of him and read slowly. “Rule 4, please make sure that only one claw machine in each row is in operation. Don’t insert coins into two or more machines at the same time. If you find that other claw machines in the same row have received the same number of grabs, please pretend that it didn’t happen.”

He said sincerely, “We switched to the sixth machine along the way and one of the rules has finally appeared. It isn’t easy. I don’t know if we are too lucky or unlucky.”

The words that had just appeared in his mind were suddenly spoken by Yue Ren, causing Chi Ting to turn around and look at Yue Ren again. Then he soon returned his gaze to the claw machine.

There was a brief silence before he asked, “That doll shouldn’t have been in that position before, right?”

Under the flashing lights of the claw machine, he could see a doll hanging on the edge of the exit. It looked so shaky that it seemed like it would fall out with just a slight touch.

The reward number of ‘10,000’ above it was particularly eye-catching.

10,000 game coins was already an absolutely attractive reward.

But Chi Ting clearly remembered that there didn’t seem to be such a doll until Yue Ren and the others left the claw machine.

During this process, no one except for them had entered this area. According to Chi Ting’s guess, either something they couldn’t see had secretly placed the doll there, or the doll itself had moved silently to the edge of the exit.

Unexpectedly, Yue Ren replied even more directly, “Yes, it should’ve hung there by itself.”

Chi Ting wondered, “How do you know?”

“Guess?” Yue Ren wanted to tease Chi Ting, who was staring straight ahead. However, before he could finish his words, he saw the man in front of him slowly raise an eyebrow. He immediately continued speaking very naturally, “I saw it move just now.”

He smiled calmly and stated, “To be exact, many of the dolls here are no longer in their original locations.”

Hearing this, Chi Ting slowly scanned the row of claw machines that looked extremely ordinary.

The doll moved.

Such an answer made Ji Xingque next to him also have a subtle expression.

After a long pause, he asked, “Are all these things in the claw machine alive?”

“All of them?” Yue Ren glanced at him. “I just gave one to Chi Ting. Do you think I would be willing to let your captain hold a living thing other than me like this?”

Ji Xingque: “……”

Chi Ting: “………”

“This one isn’t alive, at least, not now.” Chi Ting’s conclusion was as rigorous as ever. He looked at the dolphin quietly hanging at the exit and felt that something was wrong. Then he saw a faint pink line at the end of the tail.

Yue Ren’s gaze also lingered for a long time on the dolphin doll that seemed stranded on the edge.

Just as Chi Ting was about to ask if he had come to any conclusion, Yue Ren suddenly sighed with some regret. “Really, the temptation is too obvious. It feels like I can get 10,000 coins just by touching it.’

The moment these words were spoken, the lights around the claw machine flashed even more brightly.

Yue Ren sighed slowly again. “This doll too. Why does it need to throw the game to this extent? Isn’t it better to jump down the exit by itself?”

The lights that seemed to be shining brightly in the whole venue paused subtly for a moment. Even the background sound of the claw machine was slightly interrupted.

At this moment, Chi Ting seemed to feel the speechlessness coming from the claw machine in a very absurd way. “…….”

Yue Ren had already smiled and retracted his gaze. “Okay, don’t care about it. Whoever wants to go can go. In any case, I have already won.”

Ji Xingque heard the word ‘won’, and his pink hair stood up slightly. “Just wait, I’ll catch one and come back to show you right away. It must give more game coins than your one!”

Yue Ren slightly raised an eyebrow and said casually, “Oh, I’ll wait for you.”

Ji Xingque: “……”

Why did this tone inexplicably make people feel so angry?

Ji Xingque’s fighting spirit was aroused, and he walked toward the area of dolls of other colors without hesitation.

However, when he came to the next row, he found that several members of the Blue Mountain team were gathered in front of a claw machine. He thought about how it was forbidden to insert coins into two devices in the same row at the same time and could only choose to go to the third row.

Chi Ting always felt that Yue Ren was deliberately teasing Ji Xingque. “Why are you provoking him?”

Yue Ren looked back at him strangely and corrected him innocently. “He was the one who proposed the competition. I think he is the one provoking me.”

Chi Ting shook his head. He followed and stared at Ji Xingque.

Just as he passed by, he heard a commotion coming from the Blue Mountain team.

Chi Ting stopped and looked. He saw that the captain of the Blue Mountain team, Wu Ruici, and another person were trying to press the short and fat team member hard in front of the crane machine. They shouted, “No! Have you forgotten what the rules said? No matter what, you can’t leave now.”

Chi Ting had seen the team member who was pinned down. His name seemed to be Ma Pian. When Wu Ruici was introducing the team to them, he was standing not far away and watching quietly.

But he was completely different at this time. His original honest and gentle look was gone, as if he had seen something extremely terrifying. His pupils were slightly dilated and the state of extreme panic made his expression slightly distorted.

Wu Ruici and Yu Gui were trying hard to control him, but he was still trying to break free. The rough and stiff movement was like being restrained by a doll’s costume. It was unknown if he was naturally very strong or if there were other reasons, but every movement he made was so powerful that he almost threw the two people on top of him away.

“Let… Let me go…” As if he couldn’t hear the voices beside him, Ma Pian’s pained voice was full of struggle. His blurred vision didn’t seem to see the surrounding scene. Faintly, one could see silk threads twisting from his cheeks and trying to drill out of his pores. “H-Help… Help me… I can’t stay here. I can’t—!”

Wu Ruici obviously hadn’t expected something like this to happen so suddenly. He could only raise his voice again to try and wake this person up. “Calm down! 10 minutes. The rules say that if the equipment fails, you only need to wait here for 10 minutes…”

Unfortunately, Ma Pian couldn’t hear his hint at all. In that time and space that no one else could understand, he was obviously completely immersed in his own extreme fear.

Gradually, his strength increased a lot.

Just as they couldn’t hold him down any longer, there was a clicking sound, and the struggling Ma Pian was pressed firmly back in front of the claw machine by a hand that suddenly reached out.

The lack of resistance was in stark contrast to the fierce struggle just now.

Wu Ruici couldn’t help being distracted for a moment. He looked up and met the very kind gaze of the person who came.

Chi Ting used one hand to gently control Ma Pian, who was on the verge of going crazy and smiled gently, just like when he first met Wu Ruici. “I just happened to notice the situation here and came to take a look. I hope I can be of help to you, Captain Wu Ruici.”

Helping others was a virtue, and mutual help among human beings had always been the most pleasant thing.

Apart from this, Chi Ting was naturally very happy to satisfy his curiosity.

He really wanted to know what this Ma Pian saw.