Chapter 597 - Pandemonium - 2
Tears were flowing profusely out of his eyes.
"I"m sure you know better than me whether or not this is a legitimate business. I"m a gentle lady, and I don"t like to harm other people. Therefore, if you can understand what I mean, we can talk properly, don"t you think so?"
"Mmhm! Mmhm!"
The person in charge nodded profusely.
Fu Zhi retracted her hand from his neck and patted his head. "Good boy," she commented, leaving the person in charge speechless.
After that, Fu Zhi headed out to the field.
—
There was only ten minutes left before the start of the match.
Countless cages containing wolves were lifted onto the field with a lift, and several loud, b.e.s.t.i.a.l roars filled the air.
The wolves inside the cages were hissing and growling restlessly. They clawed at the ground impatiently, and their eyes were glowing red with bloodl.u.s.t.
On the other side of the door, a group of contenders were released from the dungeon. The oldest of them was 48 years old while the youngest was 16 years old.
The 16-years-old teenager"s legs were shaking as he was seized by his fear. His sister was dying from cancer, but his family could not afford the expensive treatment.
Therefore, he accepted his friend"s suggestion, signed the contract, and came here.
Originally, he thought he was going to fight with another human, but upon hearing the howling of those ferocious beasts in the arena, he knew what was awaiting before him.
Death.
The moment the thought surfaced in his mind, his blood turned cold and he wanted to run away.
Sitting on one side, the oldest contender let out a cold smirk without lifting his eyelids.
"Save your breath," he said, "Once you"ve signed the contract, there"s no going back. I suggest you conserve some of your energy to fight with the wolves later. Besides, the entire arena is protected by a group of professional bodyguards, so there"s no way you can get out of here safely."
"I didn"t want to come here! I didn"t know I have to fight with beasts!" The teenager shouted hysterically as he covered his face with his hand. "My sister is still waiting for me to go home. I can"t die! I can"t die yet! I want to call the police! I want to report this to the police! I want to bring them to justice, and put an end to this arena!"
"Justice? Hah! What a foolish dream!" The man sneered as he ran his fingers over the bite marks on his body. "My name is Li Hao. I"ve been here for 13 years .At first I had the same thoughts as you, but now…"
The teenager widened his eyes in shock.
Li Hao continued, "Do you know who owns this arena? The Mu Family. The Mu Family has a lot of influences in Yu City. Besides, since they work in the media industry, they"ll be able to keep the news down right away if something happens. Even if the police would like to do something about this industry, they would need to reconsider their decision. After all, the Mu Family is not the only family in this industry. There are a lot more of them. If the police try to uproot this industry, they would be facing the combined attack of a few families, and this is something that they don"t want to happen. Therefore, no one will be coming to save you. You can only depend on yourself to survive here."
"But I don"t want to die… I don"t want to die yet. If I die, n.o.body is going to take care of my sister…" The teenager dropped to the ground and bawled his eyes out.
Li Hao glanced at him and continued, "You should forget about your past the moment you step into this arena. Besides, it"s not like we don"t stand a chance of surviving in this battle."
The teenager jerked his head up to look at Li Hao, his eyes filled with disbelief.
"How can humans like us defeat a pack of wolves?"
He turned his head around to look at the rest of the contenders. Most of them were about his age, and they all did not look like they were competent fighters at all.
"There"s no way we can come out alive from this!"
"Nope! There is a way!" Li Hao said, "Haven"t you noticed? There are only nine people here, including you and me.
"There"s one more contender and we all call him Black Demon. He grew up in the mountains, and he knows how to fight with wild beasts. Compared to us, he"s a professional hunter brought in by the arena. He has partic.i.p.ated in more than 100 matches, and his team usually has the highest survival rate."
The teenager gulped and replied, "Re… Really?"
"Why else do you think I"m so calm? There"s an unwritten rule in the arena. If a team has a strong member like Black Demon, the other nine people are bound to be old and weak. Besides, what do you think the people outside come here for? What they want to see is not an evenly matched battle. They want to see blood! They want to see dead bodies! They want all of us to die!" Li Hao paused for a moment before continuing, "Once you"re in there, try your best to stay behind Black Demon. He"ll kill every wolf that goes near him, and maybe he could save your life as well."
The teenager did not know whether he should believe Li Hao or not. Then, a man standing beside the teenager suddenly saw something and his blood turned cold. He turned to the man and shouted, "Li Hao! Li Hao! Look! Why is the contender no. 6 a girl?"
"What did you say?!" Li Hao opened his eyes. He rushed forward and pressed his face against the door, trying his best to see through the slit who the contender on the big screen really was.
However, the screen only lit up for a moment before it went dark, and a fervent voice erupted in the air.
"Monkey, what did you see? What the h.e.l.l is going on with contender no. 6?" Li Hao shouted as he grabbed the skinny man standing beside the gate.
Monkey"s face was blanched with fear as he stammered, "I… I don"t know. I"m not sure if I"m seeing things or not, but I saw a woman with a mask just now…"
"You"re not seeing things. Black Demon is not going to join you guys this time," a voice rang out, startling everyone. They all then turned their heads to the source of the voice, and they saw a staff member walking towards them with a girl behind him. The staff pointed at the girl and said, "Her name is Li Zhi. She"s going to replace Black Demon and join you guys in the fight."
"Why?!" Li Hao shouted as he stared at the short and frail-looking girl. "I thought we were supposed to be on the same team as Black Demon in this game? Why has no one come to inform us about the change?"
"Hah," the staff let out a scoff as if he had heard the funniest joke in the world. He looked at Li Hao contemptuously as if he was asking him why they should inform them about the change.
Li Hao"s blood froze and he felt as if his heart had fallen into an ice cave.
Fu Zhi looked around her, and she had no idea why but she had a hunch that she was not welcomed here.
As if he wanted to intensify the conflict between them, the staff added, "According to the instructions from the people up there, you must not let her die first. In other words, all of you have to do your best to protect her."
Li Hao could not believe what he had just heard. They were nothing but tools for the arena to earn money, but now they wanted them to protect Fu Zhi…
Li Hao refused to accept it and he replied, "No one can guarantee what would happen once the fight starts, and everyone has to be responsible for his own life. There"s no way I would put my own life at stake to protect her. I"m sorry, but I"m not going to do it!"
"That"s right. You can"t expect us to protect her just because she"s a girl, right?"
"It"s Black Demon who protects us when he"s around, and now only has she taken Black Demon"s place, but she wants us to protect her? No way! We want Black Demon to come back to our team! We don"t want to be in the same team with a useless woman!"
"It"s over… I don"t want to die! Why… Why… Please, I beg you. Please give Black Demon back to us! I don"t want to be in the same team with this woman!"
Just when the staff was about to say something, Fu Zhi interrupted, "Don"t worry. I don"t need you guys to protect me."
The staff remembered how this girl beside him grabbed his boss"s neck and lifted him up the ground singlehandedly. He then said, "She volunteered to come and fight. She"s not like you bunch of wimps at all!"
"You don"t need us to protect you? You"re different from us?" Li Hao shook his head as he clenched his fist tightly, "We"re a bunch of cowards because there"s no way we can defeat a pack of wolves! It"s fine if she wants to come here to seek excitement by fighting the beasts, but how can you take away the only person who could protect us? We"ve been working for the arena for so many years, and this is how you guys treat us?"
"Stop yelling! There are plenty of people who work for the arena, so who do you think you are? You guys should feel proud of yourself for being able to sacrifice your own lives for the arena! I"ll make it very clear right now. If you guys don"t follow the instructions, don"t blame us if anything happens to your family!"
After that, the staff turned around and left, leaving Fu Zhi in the waiting zone with the rest of the contenders.
The other seven contenders and Li Hao stood at one side as they refused to stand together with Fu Zhi and the teenager.
The teenager realized the gravity of the situation and his heart dropped. His eyes turned gla.s.sy as he mumbled, "It"s over…"
Fu Zhi pulled a paper towel out of her bag, spread it on the ground, and sat on it with her legs crossed.
The teenager continued to cry loudly.
Since the staff had taken her phone away, she could only turn her head around and observe the crying teenager.
He was now lying on the ground, his legs kicking the air as he sobbed, "Mom! Dad! Save me! I don"t want to die! I don"t want to die!"
Fu Zhi was speechless.
She could not bear his ceaseless cries, so she nudged him with her elbow and said, "Stop crying."
"If you want me to stop crying, give Black Demon back to us!" The teenager replied before continuing to kick the air. "I"ve never killed anything in my life before! I don"t want to kill those wolves, and I don"t want to get killed by them!"
Fu Zhi said, "You"re not going to die, so what are you crying for?"
"How do you know that I"m not going to die? If you want to die or to seek excitement, go ahead and have fun yourself. Why must you drag all of us down with you? You"re nothing like my poor sister! You"re the vilest woman I"ve ever seen in this world!"
"You did nothing wrong, so you don"t have to be afraid of anything. They"re the ones who should be cowering in fear." This was what Fu Zhi wanted to say initially, but then she swallowed it back to her stomach pit in the end. She tried to imagine what Xu Wei would say in a situation like this and said, "Don"t worry. You won"t die. I"ve found you a strong supporter."
"Huh? A supporter?" The teenager asked, "Who would support poor people like us?"
"Of course there is," Fu Zhi replied, "I"ve asked Buddha to protect you inside of my heart."
"What? What did she just say? Buddha?"
The teenager was stumped. He gazed Fu Zhi into the eyes, and none of them spoke for a few seconds...
"Waaaa!!!"
He began to cry again.
Fu Zhi became speechless.
"Well, at least I tried."
The teenager continued to cry for a long while, but n.o.body went up to comfort him anymore. The rest of the people were shivering in fear as they could imagine what was going to happen to them once they got into the field.
They all waited with bated breath until the audience outside burst into a great uproar. It was then they knew the game was going to start soon.
Fu Zhi then rose to her feet and started to stretch her body.
As the gate rolled up, she walked towards the field.
The crowd burst into another fit of outburst when they saw a young lady was marching towards the field with confident steps.
Jiang Ningbei"s heart skipped a beat as well and the fear that he had been suppressing the whole time surfaced once again.
He was worried about Fu Zhi. However, when he thought about her objective of doing this, he could only heave out a sigh and pulled his phone out of his pocket. He pointed the camera at Fu Zhi to record the entire procession as well as watched over Zhao Wu, who was forced to sit beside him.
The seats in the arena were fully filled to the brim. Everyone was waving the device in their hands as they roared excitedly at the top of their lungs. Their blood was boiling, and they were looking forward to the fight.
Li Hao and the other"s faces turned pale. One of the contenders clenched his fist and said, "Li Hao, I will protect the woman later. You still have a family, but I am alone, so I should do the…"
"Don"t be silly! There is no reason to let you die to protect her because you don"t have a family!" Li Hao cut him short. "If anything happens later, try to push her into the wolf pack. After all, anything could happen in the field during the fight, and n.o.body was going to notice it.
"Then, we can wait until the wolves are all focused on her, and strike at the right moment. Maybe all of us can make it out of here alive!"