Ten Day Ultimatum

Just as Ole Lu was on the verge of being captured, he finally reached Qi Xia’s side.
“Punk Qi! I’m gonna die!!” Ole Lu exclaimed, shoving Qi Xia in front of him in desperation. “You’ve got to save me…”
“What happened?” Qi Xia asked, bewildered.

Seeing Qi Xia obstructing his path, A'Mu’s fury boiled over. “Move it!!”
Instead of yielding, Qi Xia calmly extended his hand to block A'Mu.
“Hey, let’s talk this through. What exactly happened?” he asked, adopting an air of feigned anxiety. “Did my teammate do something to offend you?”

A'Mu slowed his advance, shooting a suspicious glance at Qi Xia. “Are you their leader?”
In response, Qi Xia merely scratched his head, sidestepping the question. “Let’s not rush into anything. Just explain what’s going on.”
“All right, since you’re so curious, I’ll make sure he understands before he dies,” A'Mu snarled. “Just now, this old bastard—”

Before he could finish, an iron box flew through the air and struck him squarely in the face.
Caught off guard by the sudden attack, A'Mu had no time to react and took the full blow to the nose.
In that fleeting moment of disorientation, A'Mu quickly regained his balance.

“Motherf*cker… you really are something,” he muttered, wincing as pain radiated through his face. Realizing the man before him was no ordinary opponent, A'Mu understood that any lapse in vigilance could be costly before the {punishment} was enacted.
Just as A'Mu steadied himself and prepared to counterattack, Qi Xia unleashed a punch that landed squarely on his face.
A'Mu, having dismissed Qi Xia’s amateurish stance, was stunned to find himself knocked to the ground, his temples throbbing with pain.

Without pause, Qi Xia followed up with a swift kick to A'Mu’s jaw, leaving him incapacitated and unable to rise.
Seeing that his opponent had lost all ability to fight, Qi Xia slowly discarded the padlock he’d been gripping. A strike to the temple with that would leave most people unable to get «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» up again.
“Who cares what happened?” Qi Xia said coldly. “You dare lay a hand on my teammate… In any gamble, there’s always a loser.”

Just then, the bald man and the blond man rushed over, urgency etched across their faces.
Qi Xia felt a pang of confusion—why had the opposing team’s cabinet opened too? Had they cracked the code right after him?
“A'Mu!” they shouted, rushing forward, only to find him sprawled on the ground.
“Kill them…” A'Mu ordered weakly, his voice barely audible. “If we don’t act fast, we’ll face punishment…”

“F*ck!” the two cursed, drawing folding knives from their pockets and taking up fighting stances.
Seeing the tension escalate, Qi Xia and Ole Lu instinctively stepped back.
Despite his earlier ruthlessness, Qi Xia found himself at a loss for how to handle two knife-wielding thugs now fully on guard.

“Hey! Terrestrial Dog!!” Qi Xia shouted through clenched teeth. “Aren’t you supposed to handle private confrontations between participants?!”
After a few agonizing seconds, a dispirited voice drifted in from the distance: “Of course! But please wait just a moment; I’m tidying up and will be there shortly.”
“Heh…” The bald thug raised his knife slowly, a smirk spreading across his face. “The {Earthly Branches} love watching us kill each other in this game—why would they stop us?”

Qi Xia’s expression turned grave; he hadn’t expected that player-on-player violence would be tacitly allowed by the {rules}.
Thinking back, he recalled the brutal clash with Zhang Shan in Terrestrial Ox’s venue, where the intervention had come only at the last possible second.
Now, the stakes seemed even higher.

“Ole Lu… take Zhang Chenze and run,” Qi Xia whispered. “There’s a window in the room I was in—break it and escape.”
“Punk Qi… what about you?!” Ole Lu asked, his voice trembling.
“I’ll find a way to deal with them.”

“You…” Ole Lu’s eyes darted, quickly making a decision. “Then be careful!”
He spun around, grabbed Zhang Chenze’s hand, and pulled her into the room. He shoved Jiang Ruoxue aside and smashed the window with the chair she had been sitting on.
“Go! Now!” Ole Lu urged Zhang Chenze. “Those guys are serious criminals—they won’t hesitate to kill!”

Jiang Ruoxue, watching from the side, observed with interest, a faint smile curling her lips.
“No, I can’t leave,” Zhang Chenze said calmly. “And sir, please don’t touch me.”
“What the hell? Think about the situation!” Ole Lu exclaimed, frustrated. “We’re running for our lives! Who cares if I touch you now?!”

“If Qi Xia stays, I’m staying too,” Zhang Chenze replied with quiet resolve. “If you want to flee, go alone.”
Without waiting for a reply, she bent down, picked up a slender shard of glass from the floor, and gripped it tightly as she steeled herself and headed toward the door.
“Girly, are you out of your mind?!” Ole Lu nearly panicked, rushing to grab her wrist. “What do you think you’re doing with that flimsy thing? They’ve got knives!”

“Please do not touch me.” A glint of icy resolve flashed in Zhang Chenze’s eyes. “In a place like this, running alone won’t ensure survival. I have to fight to the death.”
Jiang Ruoxue, overhearing, burst into laughter.
“You two are really something…” she said, covering her mouth, her laughter bizarrely out of place.

Both turned to look at her, but neither responded.
Ole Lu continued pleading, “Little girly, haven’t you ever seen those movies? As long as they escape, everything turns out fine. But some folks always go back to throw their lives away… Aren’t you being one of those right now?”
Zhang Chenze thought for a moment. “If Qi Xia’s alone, his chances of survival are very low. But if I join with a weapon, our odds will increase exponentially.”

“What the hell…” Ole Lu was dumbfounded. “You think charging in with a piece of glass will magically raise your odds?!”
Jiang Ruoxue couldn’t hold back and burst out laughing again.
“What are you laughing at?” Zhang Chenze asked, turning to her.

“I…” Jiang Ruoxue stepped closer and asked, “Could you tell me how you plan to handle those two?”
“I’m not sure,” Zhang Chenze replied, glancing at the shard of glass. “If I’m lucky, maybe I can stab one in the throat.”
Jiang Ruoxue slowly reached out and gripped Zhang Chenze’s hand.

Speaking slowly, she said, “Jie jie, you must understand the {logical relation} here.”
“Logical relation?” Zhang Chenze echoed, confused.
“Exactly. Just like you said…” Jiang Ruoxue smiled as she explained, “Because you’re stepping in, the odds of survival for you and Qi Xia increase. That means one of them will inevitably die. So you must stab one in the throat with that glass. There’s no need to talk about {luck}—it’s already decided.”

“What do you mean…?” Zhang Chenze still didn’t understand. “Miss, aren’t you on their side?”
“I’m on the brink of death. Does it really matter whose side I’m on?” Jiang Ruoxue slowly let go of her hand. “Go on. A life is waiting for you to claim.”