Hyperthermal Hell || Apocalypse Paradise #1 [Complete]

71: Rules and Regulations of Red vs. White

It was indeed the end of December. If the apocalypse world hadn't descended upon their universe, everyone would have been busy making preparations for celebrating the new year, but now...

"Oh no! The fog is too thick! The contestants can't see each other... We'll just have to blow it away!" the loud voice bellowed, and subsequently, he huffed and puffed, using his own mouth. The thing that weirded everyone out was that the white fog actually started to move gradually. Most of the fog dissipated, revealing the original surroundings.

'No, that can't be. These aren't our original surroundings...' Lin Sanjiu's eyes widened when she saw the ground. She was standing in a large circle. There was a line in the middle of the circle, and one half of it was red while the other half was white.

Lin Sanjiu, B. Rabbit, and the four other strangers standing close to her made up a six-people team on the red side. Meanwhile, the white half of the circle was about 50 meters away, and there were also six people there. She saw two very familiar faces out of the six on the other team — one of them was the glasses-wearing Hu Changzai, who always looked prim and proper; the other was Hai Tianqing, who was so large that the others withdrew from him, forcing themselves to stand at the sides of the circle.

The three people and rabbit exchanged glances with one another, finding it a little hard to respond to what had just happened. When Hu Changzai saw the circle on the ground, his mouth moved anxiously, and he started gesturing with both his hands. Lin Sanjiu watched him for a while but couldn't hear him at all. It was as if there was an invisible partition that blocked off all sound from the other half of the circle.

Lin Sanjiu finally reacted when she heard that loud voice again. She turned around and tried to search for its source. Oddly, even though the wind, which dissipated the fog around them, came from the direction where the announcer was standing, the announcer himself remained hidden in the thick fog, so she couldn't make out his face.

"I'm Mr. Dot, the host of this pocket dimension. It's an honor to meet all of you here... Can you see all your team members now? The people who are standing within the same semicircle are your team members, and your opponents are the people in the opposite semicircle! Come on! Before we begin the Red vs. White Challenge, why don't you introduce yourselves to your fellow members?"

As Mr. Dot finished his sentence, a man standing beside Lin Sanjiu immediately retorted, "Hey, are you crazy? This is not the right time to hold such a stupid challenge... I don't have time to play your games!"

The man looked to be only about slightly over twenty. He had a crew cut, and he seemed to be quite irascible. "Are all of you just gonna stay here?" he yelled out. Since nobody replied, he turned and left, ignoring the others. His silhouette quickly disappeared into the fog.

Mr. Dot appeared to be unaffected by the man's departure. He remained silent as if waiting for everyone to start on their introductions.

Due to the man's action, the remaining five people didn't say a word as they stared at the retreating figure. They only started interacting with one another when they could no longer see him. Other than Lin Sanjiu and B. Rabbit, the Red Team consisted of two people, who were obviously a couple, and a middle-aged man. The petite young woman with bangs looked very nervous as she held the corner of her boyfriend's shirt. Her partner was not very tall, but he was fair and slightly plump; he reminded Lin Sanjiu of milk pudding — milk pudding in clothes. He was currently comforting his girlfriend with a gentle voice.

The middle-aged man had a gloomy-looking face, and he stood alone on the side. As the warm rain was still pouring down on them, everyone was soaked. Their clothes stuck to their skins tightly, becoming partially transparent. The round beer belly under the middle-aged man's shirt could clearly be seen as he leered at all the women in the arena nonstop. This seemed to be a habit he'd had his entire life, something that wouldn't change even after the end of the world.