"What, you want to use me as a scapegoat?"
"I just don't understand the situation…"
Li Tianming smiled, "You still want to take turns fighting it? No such luck. No matter how many people come, the Doom Fate Octopus will only gamble with one person. If that person loses, everyone on the same side dies."
"Then… then you do it. I really don't understand what's going on."
"The Doom Fate Octopus picks who it gambles with, not you. From the fact that it had me introduce you to the rules, it seems like it has already chosen you."
"Huh?", Qin Siyang glanced at the Doom Fate Octopus again and found its eyes locked onto him.
He instinctively sucked in a breath. Only to be hit with the corpse stench on his mask, making him gag.
"Old Li, is there any way you can use [Earth Bind] to control it while we escape?"
"Impossible. The moment we try to run, it'll enter a berserk state, and my skill won't be able to suppress it at all. With its size, hunting down two people like us would be effortless."
"So this doesn't work, and that doesn't work either?"
Qin Siyang was so angry he pointed at Li Tianming, "This is all your fault. You just had to kick me down here. I told you this place felt dangerous."
Li Tianming said flatly, "When you called me out to hunt the Gods, you didn't sound like this. Besides, my life is in your hands right now. You think I'm not frustrated?"
"Hah, so what, you're looking down on me?"
"Not necessarily. Since you claim you have good luck, then it's all you. My luck's always been terrible, otherwise, I wouldn't have ended up teaming up with a rookie like you."
"You bald old bastard, who the hell are you looking down on?"
"I know you have a background, but against the Doom Fate Octopus, no matter how powerful your connections are, they're useless. We're both stuck in this mess together. You really think I'm scared of you?"
"Old Li, you're pushing it. I just helped you take care of Zhou Xing, and this is how you treat me?"
"Less talking, more gambling. It's a one-shot deal—live or die. I can't do anything now except watch. Sitting around waiting for death is worse than just getting it over with."
Qin Siyang snorted. "Fine, tell me how the gamble works."
"No idea. Every Doom Fate Octopus has its own rules for gambling. You'll have to ask it. But… its rules seem tricky."
"How do you know? That big-headed thing told you?"
"No. But have you seen its forty-eight tentacles?"
"Yeah, a disgusting mess, like a pile of intestines."
"A Doom Fate Octopus starts with just two tentacles. Every time it wins a gamble against a Sequence user, it grows another one."
"It's won forty-eight times. It's stronger than any Doom Fate Octopus I've ever heard of."
"Forty-eight wins in a row?", Qin Siyang's face turned pale, "So its winning odds aren't fifty-fifty?"
"Each one's different. Judging by probability, this one's win rate is probably nine-to-one. You one, it nine. Maybe even worse."
"Great, just great. So basically… no way to survive."
Qin Siyang sighed, looking utterly defeated.
Hopeless.
"If I'd known, I would've written a will before coming out. Old Li, did you leave a will?"
"Yeah. I set it as a timed email. If I don't change the schedule, it'll send itself out in a month."
Qin Siyang rolled his eyes. Timed emails really were everywhere.
"Old Li, you're such a schemer."
"In this line of work, you never know when you'll die. It's just a normal precaution. But I'm curious, if you had to write a will, what would you even say? Who would you send it to?"
Qin Siyang thought for a moment, then nodded, "Good question. Now that I think about it, I have no idea what I'd even write or who I'd send it to."
Li Tianming chuckled, "That's great. It means you have no regrets in life and no attachments after death. I wish I could be as carefree as you."
"Old Li, thanks, really. You sure know how to comfort a guy."
"Why are you cursing your elders again?"
"Look at the situation we're in. Drop the high-and-mighty act already. You don't care about my background either, do you?"
"Fair point."
Just then, the Doom Fate Octopus seemed fed up with their conversation. It shifted its body and extended a tentacle, pointing deeper into the cave.
"It's telling us to go gamble. No more talking—let's go."
"Mm. Old Li, don't you think its gesture looks like a hotel doorman inviting guests inside?"
"…Kinda does."
Following the eerie blue glow flickering in the cave, they walked deeper inside.
Until three massive rock piles, each three to four meters high, appeared before them.
The gaps between the rocks were filled with mucus, seemingly glued together by the Doom Fate Octopus on purpose.
Then, the Doom Fate Octopus stared at Qin Siyang, raised a tentacle, and pointed at the three rock piles.
Qin Siyang turned to Li Tianming, "It means… one of these rock piles has a heart inside. If I find the one with the heart, I win?"
"I think that's the case…"
Just as Li Tianming finished speaking, a tentacle wrapped around him, peeled open his mask, and sealed his mouth shut with a suction cup, leaving him to breathe only through his nose.
Qin Siyang realized the Doom Fate Octopus didn't want anyone interfering with his choice.
A gamble for life—something only he could take part in.
But seeing Li Tianming's face turning green from the corpse-stench-filled mucus, Qin Siyang couldn't help but feel a twisted sense of satisfaction.
He turned around and grinned at Li Tianming, "If I lose, I'll just kill myself right away. But you, Old Li? You'll probably drown in this lovely goo."
Li Tianming's eyes widened in fury, as if he wanted to kill Qin Siyang with just his gaze.
Qin Siyang stopped messing with him and asked the Doom Fate Octopus, "Can I go up and examine the rock piles?"
The Doom Fate Octopus' head lowered slightly.
"Alright. Thanks."
Qin Siyang stepped forward, carefully inspecting the leftmost pile.
The rock gaps were completely sealed with mucus. He couldn't see inside at all.
Holding back his nausea, he pressed his ear against it. No sound.
The other two rock piles were the same.
'Can't see inside, can't hear a heartbeat… So how am I supposed to choose? Just random luck?'
But Qin Siyang felt like it wasn't that simple.
Right now, he had a one-in-three chance of winning. The Doom Fate Octopus had a two-in-three chance.
But—
This Doom Fate Octopus had won too many times.
Forty-eight consecutive wins.
Qin Siyang quickly ran the numbers in his head. If the gamble had always worked like this, then for the Doom Fate Octopus to win forty-eight times in a row, the probability was in the ten-thousandths.
'Way too low.'
Could it be survivor bias? Did all the Doom Fate Octopuses that lost just die, leaving only this one with extreme luck?
Qin Siyang glanced at Li Tianming and saw his brows furrowed in deep thought.
Then, suddenly, Li Tianming's gaze met his, filled with an urgent warning.
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