Chapter 143 Tactics Unfit for Use
The room’s ascent continued to accelerate.
Qi Xia pressed his face to the small window, peering out. He saw the opposing room, now resembling an elevator without its cable, plunging toward the flames below.
A knot tightened in his chest.
Was the other team also four people?
Would they die—unseen, unexplained, and without a single clue as to why?
Just as their room was about to plunge into the fire, its descent suddenly slowed.
Qi Xia furrowed his brow, realizing that the other side had likely thrown out all their stool pieces as well. It seemed the other side also had a strong and sturdy member.
Now, both rooms were likely almost equal in weight again, potentially returning to the precarious balance they had at the beginning.
"Take mine too and throw it!" Qiao Jiajin called, immediately starting to remove his pants.
"Ah, you..." Yun Yao blushed, quickly covering her eyes. "Can’t you give us a warning or something...?"
"Don't worry! I’m not going all the way!"
"So... what about us?" Tian Tian hesitantly asked, feeling awkward.
"There is no need for either of you to go to such lengths," Qi Xia remarked, shaking his head. "Your clothes hardly weigh anything; it won't make a difference." With that, he grabbed Qiao Jiajin’s shirt and jeans, tossing them effortlessly out the window before promptly removing both his and Qiao Jiajin's shoes, flinging them out as well.
Yun Yao and Tian Tian, quickly followed suit, removing their shoes and slicing them with the knife before throwing them out too.
The two men, now reduced to their undergarments, stood anxiously against the wall, their eyes darting toward the outside.
Sure enough, the balance shifted once again. The other team’s room had shown signs of rising, but just as quickly, it began sinking again.
It was clear that the other side had a smart player, but their strategies were always a step behind Qi Xia. In a life-or-death game , being a moment too slow—just a fraction of a second—could send them plummeting into the abyss. This time, the other team’s room was doomed to fall into the flames below.
Qi Xia watched with growing tension as their room plummeted swiftly toward the flames below, his brow furrowing in silent calculation. A moment of realization struck him like a bolt of lightning.
“Everyone!” He pivoted sharply, his voice sharp and commanding. “Grab onto the metal mesh!”
For a brief moment, the three of them stood frozen, uncertainty flashing across their faces. Then, as if on cue, they crouched down in unison, instinctively following Qi Xia’s lead. With a shared urgency, each of them grasped the cold metal grids beneath them, their fingers digging in with all the strength they could muster.
Through the mesh beneath their feet, they glimpsed the chaos unfolding far below, the scene distant yet dangerously close.
From a distance, the other team's room collided violently with the flames below, the impact sending a burst of sparks into the air, lighting up the surrounding chaos in a brilliant flash.
In the blink of an eye, the room shot upward, propelled by the force of the collision, mimicking the motion of a seesaw in full swing. The metal column connecting the two rooms groaned under the strain, its screeching protest echoing through the air.
At the same moment, Qi Xia and his team's room was pulled into the same frantic motion, rapidly ascending before it too succumbed to gravity, hurtling downward once more. Had they not clung to the floor with all their might, the violent descent would have certainly thrown them into the air, leaving them vulnerable to injury.
Faint, desperate cries drifted from the other room, barely perceptible, yet carrying a heavy sense of anguish. The team exchanged grim looks—there was no doubt in their minds that their opponents had either been burned or grievously injured in the brutal impact. The devastation was impossible to ignore. Though the fall had lasted only an instant, the sudden surge of searing heat had been more than enough to scorch their clothes and singe their hair.
“Motherfu...” Qi Xia’s voice was barely a whisper, his teeth clenched in frustration as his fist collided with the ground. “Why is all this happening...?” He squeezed his eyes shut, unable to endure the sight or the sound any longer.
Yet, as he braced himself for the inevitable shrieks of pain, they never came.
"Hey... Swindler lad... something's not right..." Qiao Jiajin shook Qi Xia, "Take a look!"
Qi Xia opened his eyes to find their room slowly descending, while the other room rose steadily like a blazing sun, flames licking at the air.
“What’s happening?” Qi Xia’s voice was tight with disbelief, his mind racing to make sense of the chaotic shift. The recoil from the impact should have been enough to cause a brief, momentary rise; it was impossible for it to sustain such an ascent.
Had their opponents devised a new strategy?
Could there be something else to throw that hadn’t crossed his mind?
‘What could it be?’ His eyes darted around, scanning every inch of their surroundings. There was nothing left, no extraneous objects or hidden tools to explain the shift. And yet, the question gnawed at him—why, despite everything, was the other room still rising
In that tense moment, Tian Tian slowly extended her hand, raising it deliberately in front of Qiao Jiajin.
"What are you doing?" Qiao Jiajin asked, eyes wide.
"My hand is small and thin... it should be able to fit through that window," Tian Tian said, her voice trembling.
"I told you it’s a no-go!" Qiao Jiajin’s voice was firm, shaking his head vehemently. "There has to be another way! We’ll think of something else!"
"We don’t have time to think of anything else!!" Tian Tian screamed, "In less than a minute, we’ll fall into the fire! I’d rather die from pain than be burned alive!"
"No, no, no..." Qiao Jiajin continued shaking his head. "Swindler lad is here; he’ll find a way!"
"If you’re not going to do it, then I will!" Tian Tian said, "Give me the knife!"
The cacophony of their voices hammered relentlessly at Qi Xia's mind, each word amplifying the pain in his head.
He couldn’t let Tian Tian sever her hand, but… was there truly no other way?
The thought gnawed at him—perhaps cutting off one or both of Tian Tian’s hands could offer a solution. Or perhaps...
Qi Xia suddenly furrowed his brow, and without hesitation, slapped himself hard across the face. ‘Qi Xia, what the hell are you thinking?’ he scolded himself silently. ‘You can’t do this to her—steady yourself... steady yourself... think through which knowledge to draw on!’
Yun Yao turned to glance at Qi Xia. He appeared utterly tormented, the despair in his eyes far more pronounced than usual.
"Is it the Yerkes–Dodson law...?" Qi Xia muttered to himself, his grip tightening on his hair. "No, no... it's the Normalcy Bias... no... this isn't..." He continued to murmur, lost in his thoughts.
The room slowly descended, and the stifling heat began to suffuse the entire space. The collective were drenched in sweat, and every second felt like an eternity.
Qiao Jiajin cast a sympathetic glance at Qi Xia before walking to the corner of the room. Without a word, he raised the knife and struck the metal mesh on the floor with a forceful blow.
"What are you doing?" Yun Yao wiped the sweat from her brow and asked.
"I want to help Swindler lad," Qiao Jiajin calmly replied. "But I’m very stupid, the only thing I could think of is cutting away part of the mesh."
"Cutting... the mesh?" Both Yun Yao and Qi Xia froze in surprise.
"Yes, that’s all I could come up with."
"Right!" With a frantic motion, Qi Xia stood up, his features contorted. "Brilliant idea!" He stumbled over to Qiao Jiajin’s side, his gaze fixed on the knife as it struck the iron mesh.
Yet the mesh proved far more formidable than anticipated. Qiao Jiajin swung the knife with all his might, each blow reverberating through the room, but the metal barely yielded. Sweat beaded on his forehead as he continued to hack away, until, after what seemed like an eternity, one of the iron wires finally gave way.
At this rate, it was clear—without a breakthrough, they would inevitably plummet into the fiery abyss below.
Yun Yao crouched down in defeat, her hand pressed firmly to her forehead, the weight of their hopeless situation sinking in. Every instinct screamed that they were running out of time. Everything seemed lost.
Yet, despite the overwhelming odds, Qiao Jiajin and Qi Xia refused to relent. They set the knife aside and, with renewed desperation, reached for the gap in the iron mesh, their hands pulling at it with every ounce of strength they could summon. A deafening screech filled the air as the mesh creaked and strained, but it did not break.
Their weight, however, remained unyielding, the descent relentless.
"Qiao Jiajin, hack at the joint here!" Qi Xia commanded, his finger pointing urgently at the vulnerable connection in the mesh.
"Got it!" Qiao Jiajin responded, his face grim with determination. He turned to grab the knife—only to freeze in place.