The Goblin Boss nearly choked with rage. He gritted his teeth. "Kid, you dare!"
Su Baiye, blackjack in hand, simply repeated, "Your turn to choose."
The rules of the Head Jar game were clear: the jar had to stay on one's head for over three seconds to pass. Su Baiye had smashed the Head Jar, so the Goblin Boss hadn't completed his turn. He had to go again.
The Goblin Boss took a deep breath to calm himself, then squatted down to study the jars. Seven jars remained, four of which were dangerous. He couldn't afford to make a mistake... What's more, he couldn't pick a jar that was too fragile! Otherwise, Su Baiye would just smash it with his blackjack, and the safe jar would be destroyed all the same.
Watching the busy Goblin Boss, Su Baiye casually remarked, blackjack in hand, "There's actually a contradiction here."
The Elf Assistant struck a pose of rapt attention. "I'm all ears, Coach!"
"The challenger's combat power." Su Baiye didn't beat around the bush. "If a challenger is too weak, they can't break the Black-hearted Boss's defense and are no threat to him."
When Su Baiye had just smashed him with the blackjack, the Goblin Boss wasn't even stunned. His only confusion came from the shock that Su Baiye would actually do such a thing!
"But if the challenger is too strong—say, if I had a Tier 1 or Tier 2 physique—then he could smash the jar without harming me in the slightest and use the same tactic against me."
Actively harming players is forbidden in the first three carriages. In other words, if an action doesn't cause any harm by itself, it's permissible.
"If I were too strong," Su Baiye mused, "he'd be the one hitting me with the blackjack."
His survival depended on the fact that he was weak enough! For him, a mere graze meant a serious injury; a single slap could be fatal!
The Elf Assistant offered his own analysis. "Actually, there's another possibility. Breaking a jar is considered intentional destruction of Lost Train property, and you have to pay a fine."
Su Baiye was shocked. "Hiss—how much?"
"Not much. The price of one life: 3 Points."
"'Luckily you're on the first floor, Coach. Revival is cheap here,' the Elf Assistant said casually. 'As you go up, the Revival cost is the carriage number raised to the power of the floor number...'"
On the first floor, in Carriage No. 3, Revival is 3 Points. On the second floor, in Carriage No. 3, it would be 3 to the power of 2, which is 9 Points. And so on.
"'By that logic, wouldn't Revival in Carriage No. 10 on the fourth floor cost 10,000 Points?'"
Su Baiye's entire fortune wouldn't even cover half a life in Carriage No. 4. It'd be gone in the blink of an eye!
What's more, a clean Revival without side effects required special items, which became rarer the further one progressed... Su Baiye figured that if he were ever seriously injured in a later carriage, he'd have to use his last breath to run as far forward as he could! That way, the cost of Revival would be significantly lower! A true race against death—every extra carriage he ran through would be Points saved!
Three Points for a jar wasn't enough to make Su Baiye feel the sting, but the Goblin probably wouldn't mind the cost either... right?
The Elf Assistant noticed Su Baiye's confusion and explained, "Goblins are stingy. Besides, as denizens of the train, our Revival cost is a hundred times that of a Player."
So while it only cost Su Baiye 3 Points to break a jar, the Goblin would have to pay a whopping 300 Points!
After much deliberation, the Goblin Boss finally picked a wooden jar and went to place it on his head.
Su Baiye circled behind him, saw his chance, and struck decisively with the blackjack.
In that moment, Su Baiye wished he could strike six times a second. He swung the blackjack so fast it left afterimages, landing more than ten blows in quick succession until the wooden jar finally gave way and shattered on the ground!
Points -3
The Goblin Boss was furious. "Bastard!! Pauper!!" (in Goblin tongue).
In the Goblin language, calling someone a "pauper" was the foulest insult imaginable.
The Goblin Boss had gone to great trouble to pick a safe jar, only for Su Baiye to smash it to smithereens.
[Blackjack (Silver, Upgradable), Upgrade Condition: Strike with the blackjack 20 times. Current Progress: 12/20]
From the start, Su Baiye had used his Silver Hand to upgrade the Blackjack from Bronze to Silver and had begun accumulating progress toward its next upgrade. Two jars, twelve strikes.
Su Baiye's hands were itching for more... It was like the old saying: when you're holding a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Now that he was holding a blackjack, he wanted to whack everyone a couple of times.
The Goblin Boss spent another few minutes dawdling before he finally selected the next jar and stuck his head inside.
This time, Su Baiye didn't hit him.
The Goblin Boss's heart sank. The expected blow from the blackjack never came, which paradoxically made him feel unsafe!
What was this... had he been beaten into developing feelings? Was this S&M?
The Goblin Boss's first thought was that if the Player wanted to engage in this kind of "special service"... he'd have to charge extra!
One second, two seconds, three...
Six steel bars shot out from the mouth of the jar, crisscrossing as they lunged for the Goblin Boss's neck!
In his earlier Foresee Death vision, Su Baiye had seen himself being impaled by these very steel bars, his neck snapped, dying instantly! That was why, when the Goblin Boss chose this jar, Su Baiye hadn't intervened. He just stood by and watched, waiting for the Head Jar to devour the Goblin Boss.
But to his surprise, when the steel bars struck the Goblin Boss's neck, they only produced a harsh scraping sound, unable to penetrate any further!
Su Baiye blinked. He didn't understand what he was seeing, but he was utterly stunned!
Damn, what kind of superhuman physique was this?!
The Goblin Boss grabbed the steel bars and began to bend them with his bare hands, trying to pull his head free.
Without a second thought, Su Baiye became a whirlwind of motion, his blackjack raining down on the jar like a hail of bullets!
12/20... 14/20...
20/20!
[Blackjack (Gold): Attacks from behind have a high chance to cause effects such as Stun or Faint...]
The Blackjack's evolution capped out at the Gold tier. The wooden club in Su Baiye's hand now had metal caps on both ends. A single strike was crisp and loud, and the feel of it was completely different!
Su Baiye raised the blackjack and brought it down on the jar again.
*Thwack!*
This time, the Goblin Boss's body visibly stiffened. For a split second, the defense on his neck weakened, and the steel bars plunged in.
"Aaargh!!!"
The searing pain jolted the dazed Goblin Boss back to consciousness. He flew into a rage, red patterns glowing on his green skin as his fingernails shot out. With a surge of strength, he tore the entire jar in half with his bare hands!
The enraged Goblin Boss, half a steel bar still protruding from his neck, roared at Su Baiye, "I'll kill you!"
The Elf Assistant quietly moved to shield Su Baiye, whispering, "Don't worry, he can't do it!"
He said the most confident words in the most cowardly tone.
Su Baiye knew the goblin couldn't kill him, because he hadn't foreseen his own death.
Still, the fact that the Goblin Boss had not only tanked the Head Jar's damage but also ripped it apart was beyond his expectations. New chapters come out on g.com first.
*Is the Administrator online? There's an NPC hacking over here... Wait, why did I say 'again'?*
"A Challenge Task is supposed to be challenging..." The Elf Assistant's confidence was back in full force. "Don't be afraid, Coach! What's the point of killing you? You'll just revive for 3 Points, while he'll have to pay a fine a hundred times that amount. Trust me, Goblins are the greediest creatures alive. He wouldn't be willing to waste 300 Points on you even if it killed him!"
Su Baiye: "..."
For a moment, he didn't know whether to argue or agree.
But, just as the Elf Assistant had said, the Goblin Boss made no further moves.
Su Baiye knew, however, that this was only temporary.
The Goblin Boss had an absolute advantage in this game; even if he chose the wrong jar, he could survive. Su Baiye was different. There were only four safe jars in total. Su Baiye had already destroyed two, and another was made of fragile ceramic... The moment all the safe jars were gone would be the moment of Su Baiye's death!
Not wasting any time, Su Baiye picked up the ceramic jar and placed it on his head.
One second, two seconds...
He never made it to the third.
A pair of blood-soaked hands grabbed the rim of the jar and snapped it in half!
The jar was broken, but Su Baiye was completely unharmed!
A blood-and-grime-smeared goblin face appeared before him, a ferocious, mocking grin on its lips. "Pauper," he gloated, "did you think you were the only one who knew this trick?"
The Goblin Boss held the two halves of the jar, having not harmed Su Baiye in the process.
He hadn't done this before because he didn't want Su Baiye to learn the trick. Besides, with the jars having a 50% chance of killing Su Baiye outright, the Goblin Boss could afford to wait. The advantage was his.
But now, things were different!
The Goblin Boss was certain that Su Baiye had some special method to identify which jars were safe! That put the Goblin Boss at a disadvantage. As long as there were safe jars, Su Baiye would never die!
Therefore, destroying all the safe jars was the Goblin Boss's formula for victory!
At this point in the game, of the original nine jars—five Head Jars and four safe jars—Su Baiye had destroyed two safe jars. The Goblin Boss had destroyed one Head Jar and one safe jar.
That left five jars: four Head Jars and only one safe jar.
If Su Baiye chose a Head Jar now, he was a dead man!
"It's over..."
The Elf Assistant felt as if he'd been plunged into an abyss. He could already picture Su Baiye's defeat.
He'd never seen a goblin willingly destroy train property before! The fine for a Player was the price of one life, and it was the same for train personnel like them.
The only difference was... their lives were a hundred times more expensive than a Player's!
In other words, to win this game, the Goblin Boss was willing to spend 300, or even 600 Points!
When even a goblin was willing to spend money, what wouldn't he do? Things had come to this... there was only one option left!
The Elf Assistant made up his mind. He carefully tugged on the corner of Su Baiye's shirt and whispered, "Coach, how about... we surrender and cut our losses?"