"As you can tell by the name, this is a word-guessing game,"
"Next, I’ll explain the rules..."
"First, there are fifteen players here. You will be divided into five teams, meaning three people per team. Each team must select one quiz-taker to enter a cage—those cages over there. Everyone sees them, right?"
Gu Mian glanced to the side of the stage where five large cages stood in a row.
These cages resembled dog kennels but were somewhat taller.
They were lined up against one of the stage walls. However, the area behind the cages, where the wall should have been, was pitch black. On closer inspection, it seemed that section of the wall was missing.
It looked as if a square hole had been cut into the wall, and the five cages were placed snugly against this opening, filling it completely.
A white board hung inside each cage, suspended from the top like a chandelier. Gu Mian estimated he could reach it by extending his arm.
"Once the quiz-taker enters the cage, it will be locked. The other two members of each team must stand behind that caution line—the yellow line over there."
The host gestured flamboyantly as he spoke. Gu Mian didn’t watch him much, his gaze fixed on the caution line instead.
About five meters from the row of cages, a yellow line was affixed to the floor—this was the caution line he mentioned.
"When the teams are formed and everyone is in their designated positions, the game will officially begin."
"You all saw the white boards in the cages, right—"
"After the game begins, content such as idioms will appear on the boards. Then, the players outside the cages must use gestures and actions. The quiz-taker inside the cage must guess the content on the board based on their teammates’ clues..."
"Pay attention! Players outside the cages absolutely cannot make any sound, mouth words, or directly write the words from the board with their hands. In short, apart from body movements, you cannot use any other form to give clues to the quiz-taker. Otherwise, the entire team will be directly eliminated."
"And for the quiz-takers in the cages, you absolutely cannot peek at the content on your own board. Of course, looking at it openly is also not allowed. You must guess the words based on your teammates’ clues..."
"If you can’t guess the answer, you can’t skip it."
Isn’t this just a slightly more formal version of ’charades’?
The host on the stage smiled faintly. "And next—I will explain the rules for winning and losing."
Everyone present looked up at the greasy green host on the high platform.
"Hearing this, you probably all think this game is very ordinary. But unfortunately, I must tell you, this game might be a bit different from what you imagine..."
"AHEM. This game uses a group elimination format. That is to say, only one of the five teams will be the winner—the last team remaining."
"All five teams will start the game simultaneously. Every ten minutes, I will pause the game to tally the number of words each team has guessed. And within each ten-minute interval, the team ranked last will face a penalty..."
"For the last-ranking team, the quiz-taker’s cage door will be opened—"
Open the cage? Doesn’t that mean they can come out? What kind of penalty is that?
"The cage door I’m talking about isn’t the one you entered through, but the one at your back after you enter."
Gu Mian looked closely at the row of cages again and only then noticed that each cage had two doors.
One door was the one the quiz-taker could open to enter, and the other door was pressed tightly against the darkness.
Gu Mian stroked his chin thoughtfully. "If that door is opened, something will probably crawl out of the darkness and give the person in the cage a scare, right?"
Fatty swallowed. "I’m afraid it’s not just a matter of a scare."
A man nearby also muttered, "This is a Mysterious Dungeon. When that door opens, there’ll be a ghost, right..."
If a ghost comes out, the quiz-taker usually won’t die too peacefully.
The greasy green host continued, "I must remind everyone here, if a team’s quiz-taker dies or is unable to continue answering, then everyone in that team will be immediately eliminated, oh."
Hearing this, everyone else present shivered.
The host’s meaning was already very clear: each time the tally is made, the team in last place would definitely be eliminated.
"Next, let’s talk about the rewards... Everyone, look at this platform in front of me."
The host’s tone became excited. "The final winning team, each member can take one item from here."
"These items here are all very rare special items. Considering the relatively greater pressure the quiz-taker has to bear in this game, the quiz-taker can take two items. With such generous rewards, I’m sure everyone wants to be the quiz-taker, right?" The host chuckled.
Fatty muttered very softly, "Like hell I do!"
"...Those are generally the rules. Now, please feel free to form your teams."
As soon as the host’s voice fell, everyone on stage began to move.
There were no audience members here, nor any cameras, so no one needed to consider how to maintain their image in front of a camera. Thus, everyone looked a bit flustered now.
Naturally, Gu Mian, Fatty, and Chu Changge grouped together, forming one team—just the right number, three people.
A young man had originally wanted to approach them, but seeing that the three of them seemed to have already formed a team, he had to turn and look for others.
It was clear that besides Gu Mian and his group, several others had also matched into this instance as teams. Instantly, three teams were formed on the stage.
The remaining few people, seeing this, didn’t care about the details anymore and just joined whichever group was short-handed.
Within a few minutes, everyone had completed forming teams.
Fatty was quietly asking Gu Mian beside him, "Dr. Gu, in our team, who’s going to be the quiz-taker?"
Chu Changge glanced at him. "Who do you think?"
Fatty meekly pulled his neck back.
"Naturally, it’s me, the brave, fearless, wise, and resourceful one, who will go." Gu Mian stroked his chin.
All the cages were currently open. Gu Mian directly picked the one at the very end and went in.
The other teams were still intensely discussing who should be the quiz-taker. Unexpectedly, they saw someone walk straight into a cage, leaving them somewhat dumbfounded.
Seeing this, the host became very excited. He laughed exaggeratedly, "Now we already have one player who has volunteered to be the quiz-taker! Let’s see what this player is called..."
Then, the host stared at Gu Mian, apparently looking at Gu Mian’s game information.
Immediately, he continued with a beaming smile, "So this Hero is named Gu Mian... Hmm... Hmm? Gu Mian?"
Fatty saw the smile on the greasy green host’s face gradually disappearing.