Author: 颜凉雨 / Yan Liang Yu
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 148: Taking Off
The final lottery results were as follows:
Launch Point A (Grid 1) — Qian Ai, Jiang Dachuan, Gu Nian, Kong Lizhe
Launch Point B (Grid 14) — Xu Wang, Kuang Jinxin
Launch Point C (Grid 27) — Chi Yingxue, Wang Duanran
Launch Point D (Grid 40) — Wu Sheng, Chen Guan
[Owl: Please arrive at the launch points within five minutes. Otherwise, it will be considered a failure to submit your papers~~]
Almost without giving everyone time to think, the prompt tone sounded again immediately.
The two teams were thus herded, like ducks, onto a perch, through the door, and into the “chessboard”.
The chessboard was drawn on the light gray stone floor, making the entire ground a large chessboard. It is comprised of 52 squares forming a large circle, with each square numbered. The four Launch Points A, B, C, D (Grids 1, 14, 27, 40) were precisely located on the chessboard’s cardinal directions.
Within a minute, all ten partners were in their places.
Launch Point B, Grid 14.
Captain Xu looked seriously at Kuang Jinxin. “The game of Aeroplane Chess really tests the luck of rolling dice. Do you understand what I mean?”
Kuang Jinxin nodded solemnly. “Captain, I will do my best.”
Launch Point C, Grid 27.
Chi Yingxue and Wang Duanran looked at each other. Perhaps because Chi Yingxue’s demeanor was too indifferent, it created a calm atmosphere. But the calmer it was, the more Wang Duanran felt there was a catch—he hadn’t forgotten that during the Castle Badge Battle, it was this guy who broke their [(Illusory) Mengpo Soup], causing a direct reversal in the battle situation. Afterward, he even left, saying, “Next time you try to put a control spell on me, make it for two people.”
To this day, they still couldn’t figure out how they lost. Every time Wang Duanran thought about it, he felt depressed…
“Did you get a perm again?”
A question that made Wang Duanran doubt his own ears came out of nowhere.
Wang Duanran looked up, confused. “What did you say?”
Chi Yingxue’s expression didn’t change much. There was just a bit of pure curiosity in his eyes. “Your hair is curlier than last time.”
Wang Duanran: “……”
“Last time it looked more natural.” Chi Yingxue pondered, sincerely suggesting, “Too curly makes your head look big, and it’s also messy.”
Young Master Wang Duanran, a rich second-generation, with his curly hair, held back for a long time. His face almost turned purple before he finally burst out. “This is my natural curly hair!”
Launch Point D, Grid 40.
Wu Sheng first looked at Xu Wang and Kuang Jinxin across from him, one in the south of the chessboard and the other in the north, separated by more than ten meters, but the chessboard was flat, so the view was clear.
The fact that there were no competing teams in Xu Wang and Kuang Jinxin’s starting points meant that in the initial period, they could move across the squares without interference from opponents, which was a good start.
After calming down a bit, he then looked at Chen Guan, who was standing in the same square as him.
Wu Sheng remembered clearly. In the last battle, this person was leading the charge. At first glance, he seemed unkempt and always half-asleep, but when it really came to fighting, he was no vegetarian. Of course, this time he didn’t yawn carelessly; from the first moment the two teams met, his face was gloomy, obviously brewing a plan to avenge his previous humiliation.
This wasn’t a good person to chat with, but looking around, he was the only one to talk to, so Wu Sheng still curiously asked, “How did you guys just get here?”
Since their last meeting, his team had advanced through two more challenges, then failed to submit, and to get the previous badges, they had to go all the way back to the first level and start over. Now here they were again.
Could this team have also experienced such a complicated retreat?
Wu Sheng always felt, based on their familiarity with the badge shown last time, that they seemed more like a team that had been collecting badges for a while, not one that needed to go back to the first level to start over.
Chen Guan heard Wu Sheng’s question, then raised his head to admire the grand and colorful glass dome.
“……” Wu Sheng suddenly wished he could borrow Xu Wang’s conversational skills, as breaking the ice wasn’t his forte.
“Fire in the backyard*, seeking to reconcile—” From the distant west came a gossiping voice.
*(后院起火) Idiom referring to internal conflicts and disputes.
Wu Sheng followed the voice and looked around. After a while, he locked onto the young man waving at him with a phone in hand from Launch Point A (Grid 1), which was a quarter circle away.
If he remembered correctly, this fellow traveler was also glued to his phone last time, swiping away in this disconnected world.
Seeing Wu Sheng look over, Kong Lizhe pocketed his phone, glanced in Wang Duanran’s direction, and signaled to Wu Sheng.
Wu Sheng had an epiphany—Wang Duanran’s “backyard was on fire”. He ran back to seek reconciliation, delaying the team’s progress.
“Kong Lizhe, aren’t you too idle—” From the east, Grid 27, Wang Duanran roared in indignation.
Kong Lizhe immediately put his hand to his mouth, making a zipping gesture, and shut up.
Actually, it wasn’t surprising that Kong Lizhe, from so far away, still engaged in such gossip. Being at Launch Point A, with four grown men squeezed into a 1-meter square, front to back, was “intimately fatal”. If they didn’t divert their attention, how could they even live?
Launch Point A, Grid 1.
Qian Ai looked around at his unbeatable captain and Xiao Kuang, at the equally matched Chi Yingxue, Wang Duanran, Wu Sheng, Chen Guan, and then at himself, surrounded tightly by three opponents, with nowhere to even cry, afraid to drop tears on the enemy’s shoulder.
“Ding—”
The countdown of five minutes was up.
The ground suddenly shook, and aside from the 52 numbered squares, all other stone slabs collapsed. Deep water surged from below, and in just a few seconds, the entire chessboard turned into a vast ocean. The 52 squares, forming a circle, looked like a ring-shaped bridge in the sea.
In the middle of the ocean, a circular stone slab with a diameter of one meter slowly rose, with a sign standing on it, painted in red oil paint showing “Finish Line”.
The stone slab rose about two meters above the water surface and stopped, extending five steps in four directions, leading to the four launch points A B C D.
Four paths, twenty steps, each also numbered.
The steps from Launch Point A to the finish line are, in order, A1, A2, A3, A4, A5; from Launch Point B to the finish line, they are B1, B2, and so on.
Thus, the originally 52-square enclosed “口”-shaped bridge became a “田”-shaped bridge with the addition of the finish line and four sets of steps, encircling above the vast ocean.
Xu Wang watched quietly, his frown deepening. It indeed resembled the outline of Aeroplane Chess, but people from different teams were at the same launch point, which differed from the rules of Aeroplane Chess. Moreover, aside from the squares, steps, and finish line, all other areas were deep water, not to be taken lightly.
The noise from the shaking slabs and surging water gradually subsided, and the battlefield finally stabilized and quieted down.
[Owl: Finally, it’s time for the rules. Are you little darlings impatient? Listen carefully~~]
[Owl: In Lucky Aeroplane Chess, simply put, you roll the dice to move across the squares. Starting from the launch point, you circle around 52 squares, return to your launch point, then enter the 5-step staircase, and finally, the person whose dice roll exactly reaches the finish line completes the game. If the roll exceeds the finish line, the exceeded steps must be retraced. For example, starting from Launch Point B (Grid 14), the route to complete the game is 14-15-16…51-52-1-2…13-14-B1-B2…B5-Finish Line.]
[Owl: The team with all five players completing the game first, succeeds in submitting their papers.]
[Owl: Next are the details~~ Details are also very important~~]
[Owl: 1. Lucky Aeroplane Chess uses a ten-sided dice, with numbers from 1-10. A roll of 6 or 10 is required to take off, i.e., move forward one square. After taking off, another roll of 6 or 10 grants a second roll opportunity.]
[Owl: 2. There are three types of squares in Lucky Aeroplane Chess: reward squares, surprise squares, and blank squares, each bringing different experiences~~]
[Owl: 3. Members of the same team can stop at the same square. If members of different teams enter the same square, they must engage in a stationery PK, with the winner staying in place and the loser returning to the launch point.]
[Owl: 4. The following two situations are considered fouls, requiring a return to the launch point: (1) Entering a square not corresponding to one’s dice roll; (2) Falling into the water.]
[Owl: 5. Each square’s attribute is fixed, so thank the little darlings who helped you identify the attributes of the square~~]
The rules were actually not complicated, but they were overwhelming to listen to, and in the end, it was hard to remember everything, filled with a sense of each sentence being elongated.
Qian Ai focused on “reward squares, surprise squares, blank squares”.
Blank squares were easy to understand—nothing happens on these squares. Reward squares were straightforward—gifts. But those surprise squares… definitely needed to be understood separately for “surprise” and “joy”!
[Owl: Almost forgot another rule. No use of any form of force against opponents, except those conforming to the [Pond Fish Rule].]
Xu Wang’s team: “……”
Pond Fish Rule? What the hell is that?!
“Rolling—”
A Rubik’s cube-sized ten-sided dice seemed to appear out of nowhere and rolled into Grid 1.
“Ding—”
A single sound resonated from Jiang Dachuan’s arm.
[Cheat Sheet]: Please roll.
He was the fastest in drawing lots among the four at Launch Point A.
Jiang Dachuan immediately picked up the dice and threw it forcefully onto the water’s surface.
The dice glided effortlessly across the surface of the water, naturally rolling to an appropriate distance along the path of inertia and came to a stop. Despite the slight undulations with the ripples, the side facing upwards, directly under the glass dome, remained remarkably stable.
Above the dice, a crystal-clear shadow was cast—7.
Jiang Dachuan frowned, unable to take off, naturally feeling frustrated.
Even the slow Qian Ai understood by now—anyone not throwing the dice into the water on their first try had definitely been through this level before.
Beside him, Gu Nian quietly opened his palm.
The dice floating on the water seemed to sense it, immediately took flight, and fluttered into Gu Nian’s hand.
Qian Ai: “……”
Does this level have a fixation on little white wings in terms of artistic aesthetics?!
As the dice settled and the wings disappeared, Gu Nian’s expression remained calm, gently nudging his hand towards the next grid.
The dice slid off, rolling a few times in Grid 2, then stopped.
Light and shadow projected—6.
Qian Ai frowned, trying not to let his envy show too clearly. A 1/5 probability, and to roll it in the first roll was considered good luck.
Suddenly, Gu Nian floated up ten centimeters, as if on an invisible conveyor belt in the air, moving him slowly into Grid 2, where he landed and steadied himself.
“Ding—”
[Cheat Sheet]: Grid 2 revealed, blank.
Qian Ai was previously worried about not remembering every grid’s attribute, but he hadn’t expected the cheat sheet to be so considerate, keeping a record.
The dice reached Kong Lizhe’s hand.
He gripped the dice tightly and narrowed his eyes. He aimed at the notice board on the finish line and threw it like a baseball!
“Snap!”
The dice hit the notice board squarely, then bounced off, landing on the water next to the finish line.
Light and shadow projected—3.
Kong Lizhe still maintained his cool baseball throwing pose. “……”
Seeing that he had just sent gossip to his advisor, Qian Ai kindly gave him some advice. “If I were the dice, being thrown so hard, I wouldn’t be happy either. Be gentler next time…”
Kong Lizhe slowly turned his head to look at him.
Qian Ai patted his shoulder. “No need to thank me. After all, we’re still opponents.”
Kong Lizhe: “……”
Unaware of Classmate Kong’s fiercely burning gaze, Qian Ai focused on his own spread palm.
The dice fluttered over.
Previously, Qian Ai had disliked its wings, but now he suddenly put on a doting expression and said silently in his heart, “Little cutie, it’s all up to you.”
Taking a deep breath, Qian Ai imitated Gu Nian, gently sending the dice towards Grid 2.
“Rattle-“
The dice rolled past Gu Nian’s feet, stopping at the junction of Grids 2 and 3.
1.
Kong Lize patted him on the shoulder. “Being too gentle isn’t good either.”
After Launch Point A, naturally, came Launch Point B.
Kuang Jinxin threw a 10, successfully taking off from Grid 14 to 15, which was also a blank grid.
Xu Wang rolled an 8 and continued to wait.
Following that, Chi Yingxue, Wang Duanran, Wu Sheng, and Chen Guan all failed to roll a 6 or 10.
The second round began.
Jiang Dachuan, 9, failed to take off.
Gu Nian, 9, moved from Grid 2 to 11.
Ding—
[Cheat Sheet]: Grid 11 revealed, reward.
Ding—
[Cheat Sheet]: Congratulations to Gu Nian for winning a cash prize of 10,000 yuan!
This prompt appeared on every player’s arm.
The next second, a stack of cash neatly fell into Gu Nian’s arms, who happily accepted it and put it in his backpack.
Wang Duanran and the others, who were already experienced, remained calm.
But Xu Wang’s team was different.
Qian Ai’s eyes nearly popped out. Real, actual, money?! This place was like a miniature Endless Sea, with higher winning rates and more frequent payouts! No wonder the Owl called this a “reward level”; he even doubted it! How could he be so inhuman!
Xu Wang wondered whether 10,000 yuan was the upper or lower limit.
Kuang Jinxin glanced at the money and then continued to build his momentum. More than the rewards, he wanted to roll higher numbers and reach the end quickly.
Wu Sheng narrowed his eyes. Rewards were good, but the Owl was never just about sweet deals without hardship.
Chi Yingxue was still staring at Wang Duanran’s head. Definitely freshly permed; no doubt about it.
The dice returned to Kong Lize’s hand, 4.
Qian Ai, 2.
Jiang Dachuan, Kong Lize, Qian Ai: “……”
Why are 6 and 10 so hard to roll!
In Launch Point A, three faces clouded with gloom.
Kuang Jinxin threw the dice onto the water surface, neither too lightly nor too heavily, 5.
Like Gu Nian, he slightly lifted off the ground, moving forward 5 grids, and landed on Grid 20.
“Ding—”
[Cheat Sheet]: Congratulations to Kuang Jinxin for winning a cash prize of 20,000 yuan!
“Pat! Pat!”
Two stacks.
Next, Xu Wang still rolled an 8, Chi Yingxue a 7, Wang Duanran a 4, and Wu Sheng a 1—none of them taking off.
The second round ended with only Gu Nian and Kuang Jinxin soaring in the sky, each having ascended to a reward of 10,000 and 20,000 yuan respectively.
The lines between friends and foes blurred in their weary hearts.
The remaining eight players unanimously thought, ‘Why not just let those two have a one-on-one showdown?’
The author has something to say:
The eight-person group at the Launch Point: Taking off is as difficult as ascending to heaven (╰_╯)
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