Wen Xishu thought about it and decided he needed to stay with Zheng Zai at all times, to prevent Old Zheng from being assigned to another area where he couldn't protect him.
As the dividing lines created ten regions, the scene also began to shift.
Wen Xishu and Zheng Zai both saw ten enormous, square mirrors appear in the sky.
They could no longer see the conditions in other areas; in their own area, there were only these ten mirrors in the sky.
Wen Xishu looked at the mirror, finding it extremely strange. In it, he couldn't see others; he could see only himself, fully reflected, turning him into a square.
At the same time, all the display platforms disappeared. In their place were numerous coffins appearing.
The scene appeared eerie and suffused with ghost qi.
In the region where Wen Xishu was, there were a hundred people, so a hundred coffins appeared.
The coffins were large enough to accommodate beings with unique body shapes.
The hundred coffins were all numbered, from 01 to 100.
The host said:
"From one to start, to ten to end. Everyone, the first round of the challenge, the Punishment of the Ten Mirrors, is about to emerge. Inside the mirrors are mysterious creatures from another world…"
"They will take your lives. Isn't that interesting?"
"But only ten specially numbered coffins can let you resist the Punishment of the Ten Mirrors. Choose your lucky number, hehe, and good luck to you all."
The host vanished.
With one hundred eighty seconds on the countdown, only ninety-five seconds remained.
Zheng Zai panicked; he chose the blue card pool, a card pool costing 30 points, and drew two cards. He didn't dare to draw too many because there were many challenges ahead.
He was worried that if he used them all now, he'd be left dumbfounded later.
So he only drew two cards, spending 60 points, feeling pained but even more panicked, because both cards... were Chaos Cards.
The worst cards, the so-called Chaos, meant the cards could even have negative effects.
For example, the card Zheng Zai drew— "Silent Marathon."
[Card Name: Silent Marathon.]
[Level: Chaos Card.]
[Effect: You will be unable to speak, but your running speed will be doubled.]
For the first test, the Punishment of the Ten Mirrors, it was completely useless.
Zheng Zai had four card slots in total, and he didn't immediately equip this card. Instead, he looked at the second card.
[Card Name: Good and Evil Repaid]
[Level: Chaos Card]
[Effect: If you are wicked enough, then you will be lucky enough, but if you are kind enough, then misfortune will follow you.]
Two useless cards.
Sixty points, just gone like that!
Zheng Zai was about to despair. And at this moment, Zheng Zai received a prompt—
[Detected that you have no extra cards, and slots remaining, will forcibly load the card you've drawn.]
He couldn't speak anymore.
Because of the effect of the Silent Marathon. Zheng Zai was completely panicked; he started gesturing, trying to let Wen Xishu know his predicament.
He didn't know which numbered coffin to choose. If he chose according to luck... he had no luck to speak of now.
Zheng Zai felt it now, the Deceit Tower had nothing easy.
But soon after, Zheng Zai discovered he could speak again.
"Damn, Younger Brother Wen… I just found out I couldn't speak, I was so anxious, what… what exactly happened?"
"It's fine, Old Zheng, all four of my card slots now have Divine Cards. I reckon there'll be ways to expand card slots later. Oh, and one of the Divine Cards is called the Great Healer, which can make teammates immune to negative card effects."
Zheng Zai exclaimed in delight:
"Amazing! Younger brother, you're simply amazing!"
Wen Xishu smiled faintly.
With enough points, what card couldn't be drawn? He even sacrificed a bunch of cards. Wen Xishu directly did a ten-card draw from the top tier card pool at the start. The prompt he then received was that the cards exceeded the limit, and he could choose to sacrifice cards to improve the chance of drawing better cards next time.
This plan was quite considerate.
In total, Wen Xishu only spent forty thousand points to get four Divine cards.
One card instantly made Old Zheng immune to negative attributes.
And another card allowed Wen Xishu to find a scapegoat.
In other words, in this round, Wen Xishu could choose someone to die for him.
With these hundred coffins, no matter which one he chose, he would survive the Punishment of the Ten Mirrors.
[Card: Calamity Transfer. Consumable.]
[Level: Mysterious God Card.]
[Effect: This round, you won't sustain any damage. Correspondingly, you will designate someone to bear all damage you receive until this round ends.]
This is the Mysterious God Card, a card so powerful it could directly affect the outcome.
Normally, Wen Xishu would need to clear levels repeatedly, accumulate points, and only in the finals stage might he have one.
But now, it's still in the elimination audition stage... he's got four Divine cards equipped.
"No need for skills, relying on numbers alone I can win this round... but I just want to try."
Theoretically, he could avoid playing the puzzle and just force his way through.
But Wen Xishu was also curious if he could try clearing without using the Divine equipment.
There were twenty-five seconds left on the countdown.
From one to start, to ten to end...
This was the only hint from the host. It seemed like a puzzle, and Wen Xishu also saw that the coffins numbered one to ten were already occupied by various mysterious creatures.
After all, on the literal surface, it seemed that one to ten were the lucky numbers, and hiding in these ten numbered coffins would allow survival.
But Wen Xishu felt that wasn't it.
He looked at the ten mirrors in the sky, smiling slightly. At this moment, nineteen seconds remained. Zheng Zai was anxious:
"Younger Brother, time is running out!"
Wen Xishu said:
"It's okay, I think I've found the answer."