Chapter 321: This Is Not A Game of Survival
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The owner of the pub was an ordinary man, Benjamin had been observing him for the past few days and determined that there was nothing special about owner who lived here. He drinks and chats every day just like everyone else.
However, when the owner saw the red and black card, he had a stern expression.
"Come with me," he took the card and said.
Seeing this, Benjamin nodded his head, and followed the owner of the pub through the back door of the pub before arriving at a sparsely populated corner. Other than a big carriage, the was nothing here.
The pub owner pointed at the carriage.
"Get up, it will take you to where you want to go."
Benjamin was confused.
Wasn’t he already here, why couldn’t he just explain? Did he not actually know what was the "Seven Days of Hell"?
However, as he was just about to ask, the pub owner turned around and went back inside. It seemed like he did not plan to explain anything.
Seeing this, Benjamin could only shake his head and walk towards the carriage.
He reckoned this was not the ultimate destination - they just needed to move to another place.
"Quick, get on. This is the last ride." The driver seemed to be an illegal mercenary, he stared at Benjamin and spoke gruffly.
Only then did Benjamin realized that there were a lot of people in the carriage.
Most of them were big and muscular; they wore thick leathers and had sheathed swords on them. They sat there without speaking a word. There atmosphere was tense and felt dangerous. It looked as though they were about to rob someone.
They also looked at Benjamin. Most of them was surprised, probably because Benjamin looked very different compared to the rest of them. However, they still chose to remain silent.
Benjamin nodded thoughtfully.
These people are most probably participants of the "seven days of hell".
Although he was still filled with doubt, but after using water element sensing technique to scan through the carriage, he did not find anything wrong with it, and there weren’t any mages inside too. So, he did not question it and boarded the carriage.
Anyway, he had nothing to fear, let’s just see what this was all about.
After Benjamin got on the carriage, the cart driver cracked his whip and the carriage began to move. Before long, they started to head towards the north side of town.
"North from here, where is that?" Benjamin saw and asked the system.
"It’s the woods." The system replied, "A very remote place, you can hardly find magical beast there, so it might be a suitable location for them to start something."
... …The woods?
After hearing this, Benjamin’s eyes lit up in sudden realization.
Could it be... ...this group of people were engaged in the big fight?
Although it was just a guess, it was not impossible. "Seven days of hell" sounded like there was a time limit, this place was a very suitable setting for a survival game.
Benjamin looked at the others who were sitting on the carriage quietly. Although they were sitting together peacefully on the same carriage, but in a little while, they would fight each other to the death.
However, Benjamin still found it a little strange. This survival game, how could it be profitable?
The underground mercenaries definitely organized this event to make money. The idea of putting a group of people in the woods to fight each other did sound interesting, but wouldn’t really make you any money.
At that point, Benjamin would have liked to ask the other mercenaries who were about to participate in "seven days of hell", or the cart driver at the front. However, the atmosphere of the whole carriage was extremely dull, as though a curse had been cast here, there was not even a bit of liveliness. When Benjamin looked at someone, he was fiercely glared back at.
Benjamin figured that even if he said something, the others would just pretend to not hear it.
Therefore, he kept a low profile and chose to remain silent.
The woods were located not too far from the Town of Torrey. About half an hour later, the carriage finally arrived at its destination, Benjamin followed the other mercenaries got off the carriage.
But now, what they see in front of them was not just a simple forest.
The woods were surrounded by a large group of people. Of course, most of them were ordinary mercenaries. Other than mercenaries, Benjamin was also surprised to see a few mages in the crowd.
In addition to this, he even saw a few of them who were dressed in expensive clothing. It was obvious that they did not earn their wealth by themselves, and also - that they definitely would not be fighting.
What are they doing here?
"You guys are late."
As they climbed down from the carriage, the merchant who gave Benjamin the red and black card came forward and spoke while cursing.
The cart driver laughed and briefly talked to the merchant. Then, they brought Benjamin and the group of people over.
Throughout this period, some wealthy men repeatedly looked at them, pointing and nodding from time to time with a satisfied expression.
Benjamin felt chills just by looking at them.
What are these people doing here?
While thinking about this, Benjamin’s group together with the previous participants who were already gathered here were herded by the mercenary organization. Benjamin observed, hmm… ... there were roughly twenty of them who participated in "Seven Days of Hell" and managed to get three wins.
To be able to get here, they were certainly ruthless with great fighting skills.
Who knew what would happen next.
Since everybody was gathered here already, was it time to distribute the prize money?
Benjamin wasn’t the only one thinking along these lines of course. One of the mercenaries, who couldn’t hold it in anymore shouted, "Derek! We are all here now, shouldn’t you start paying?"
The others also started to back him up.
Hearing this, the mercenary named Derek grinned and said, "What’s with the hurry, I still need to let all of you know the rules of the game. Rest assured, we will not go back on our word."
He clapped his hands and a mercenary appeared while pushing a trolley. It was loaded with tons of heavy bags.
Instantly, it caught everyone’s attention.
Benjamin could not help but raise his brow.
Through the water element sensing technique, he saw five thousand gold coins evenly distributed into more than 20 bags. Obviously, this meant that they would not get five thousand gold coins each; did these people really want to play the game?
So… the people dressed in wealthy clothes, they were here to bet?
"These are bags of gold coins and everyone will be given one later. The amount in the bags add up to a total of five thousand gold coins." Derek slowly spoke, "But before you get the gold coins, each of you must turn over your weapons and sprain your own hands."
Suddenly, the contestants were all fired up.
"Bastard! What did you say?"
"My hands, I dare you to try and take it!"
But Derek was still smiling as he continued, "This is one of the rules of the game, if you do not wish to comply, you may leave. The others will need to bring the bag of gold coins into the woods and live there for seven days. Throughout the seven days, you may kill each other to take each other’s coins. At the end of the seven days, the survivors can leave with their amassed gold coins."
The contestants suddenly quietened down and looked at each other – trying to observe as much of each other as possible.
It seemed that they were quite confident in their abilities. Each one of them felt that they were the strongest and that they could stay alive throughout and eventually get all the gold coins.
Sprained hands were not a very serious injury, it was just to increase the difficulty of the game. When faced with a large enough amount of gold coins, nothing was a problem.
Benjamin subtly shook his head.
"Then, what about those people?" Benjamin suddenly piped up, pointing at the group of wealthy men.
The other contestants heard this and looked at Benjamin strangely, as though they did not understand why he cared.
However, Derek heard this and laughed, he was slightly amused as he replied, "Nice observation, these people are the sponsors of the 'seven days of hell'."
As expected...
Benjamin did not say anything, but already had a rough idea of what kind of sick event this was.
His thoughts were verified by what Derek said next.
"After you sprain your hands and enter the woods, the sponsors will also enter the woods accompanied by our elite members. They will start hunting you." He laughed, "You cannot fight back, otherwise, the mages that we hired will slaughter you. "
"Throughout the seven days, you can only escape, and try your best to stay alive for our sponsors entertainment."