The wide river was filled with boats, each around two ters long. The boats were lined up side by side, separated by less than half a ter.
Fatty stretched his neck to look around. He saw these wooden boats neatly lined up on the dark green river, extending endlessly in both directions, like athletes lined up at the start of a sprint race.
Each boat had a passenger who seed to be as confused as Fatty about what was happening.
He saw soone pick up an oar and paddle a few tis, but apart from creating a few ripples in the water, the boat didn't move, as if the race hadn't started yet and there would be instructions montarily.
This is scary. Fatty glanced at the water and nervously pulled his neck back. Gu Mian and the others were nowhere to be found, and there were murderous Evil Ghosts under the water.
There were also players around him who wanted to push others off...
At that mont, Fatty's heart was in his throat. He firmly held onto an oar, observing his surroundings and trying to identify potential enemies before the event officially started.
In the boat on his left was a young girl with a ponytail. She didn't look very strong, and Fatty felt he could lift her with just one hand.
On his right was a young man who looked quite scholarly, wearing a pair of gold-rimd glasses. He looked just as frail as Chu Changge. Fatty felt he could easily lift him too.
Seeing this, Fatty felt a surge of confidence. He bravely let his gaze travel further into the distance.
His eyes quickly found a familiar face—007. She was only about a dozen boats away from him.
On the boat next to hers was a shifty-looking burly man, who was currently craning his neck and furtively glancing around.
At this mont, 007 clearly also saw Fatty looking around and cast a bewildered glance at him.
Fatty stared at 007 in surprise too. He knew 007 would be participating in the dragon boat race, but he was surprised to be matched up with her.
I wonder if she ever found her parents… Fatty mumbled to himself.
This clearly wasn't the right place to ask her if she had found her parents, so Fatty swallowed his questions. His attention was drawn back to the shifty-looking burly man in the boat next to 007, who was still craning his neck with shifty eyes.
At this, Fatty suddenly rembered Brother Chu's remarks about gasoline, and he grew tense.
Could that guy be one of those people Brother Chu ntioned who bought gasoline? Fatty swallowed, looked at the less than half-ter gap between 007 and the man, and, feeling extrely anxious, began yelling at her.
However, his shouts didn't attract anyone else's attention. Only 007 kept looking at him with a puzzled expression, as if no one could hear his voice.
Fatty called out a few more tis and finally confird it: others truly couldn't hear his voice. He thought for half a second and reached out towards the scholarly man beside him, but an invisible barrier blocked his hand.
It must be a protective chanism before the ga officially starts.
Unable to do anything else, Fatty resorted to winking and making faces.
007 looked sowhat confusedly at Fatty, who was a dozen or so boats away from her.
Just then, an announcer's voice suddenly bood across the river, enormous and instantly reaching everyone's ears.
"Dear players, I am the referee for this event."
Referee? Hearing this professional title, Fatty subconsciously thought of Host Green and Coach Che. Their outcos didn't seem to be very good…
The clear and sonorous voice continued, making Fatty suspect this fellow had secretly taken broadcasting lessons.
"Next, I will announce the specific rules for this 'Dragon Boat Race' competition."
"This competition is divided into two stages. The First Stage is to find your teammates. Four checkpoints are set up along the course, and your other four teammates have been placed separately within these Dragon Boat Race checkpoints. Each ti you pass a checkpoint, you will recover one teammate. After passing the final checkpoint, the First Stage ends, and the second stage begins."
"The second stage is 'Minesweeper on Water,' which requires teammate assistance to complete as quickly as possible. Completing the second stage allows you to freely race towards the finish line."
"The event reward chanism is based on ranking. The shorter the ti taken to reach the finish line, the higher the rank, and the more generous the rewards."
"To ensure the ga is fair and transparent, this event will feature live data broadcast throughout. Participating players can monitor ga data in real-ti via the live feed above."
Fatty instinctively looked up. In the sky ahead, there was indeed a semi-transparent screen. On the screen was a long, blue bar graph divided into two sections. The far-left end of this graph showed their densely packed small boats.
"A protective chanism is in place before the event officially starts. In three minutes, a whistle will sound to signal the official start, and the protective chanism will be deactivated. Within these three minutes, everyone can na their dragon boat. To help players distinguish them, unnad dragon boats will be automatically assigned a number."
Na...
Fatty, who had been winking and making faces at 007, stopped abruptly. Countless nas instantly flashed through his mind.
007 looked at Fatty in confusion, not quite understanding what he was trying to say. She saw that after hearing about the naming, Fatty, who was a dozen or so boats away, suddenly paused as if thinking about sothing. But he didn't pause for long and imdiately started making faces at her again, as if there was sothing extrely urgent.
Fatty's hand kept pointing backward. 007 looked back several tis; behind her was also the wide river, with nothing but water.
Three minutes passed quickly. 007 watched Fatty continuously contort his face, but she couldn't hear any sound.
Then, a piercing whistle suddenly blared across the river. As the protective chanism vanished, a torrent of noise instantly flooded her ears. With her excellent spiritual power, 007 imdiately distinguished Fatty's voice amidst the cacophony—
"Row backward!"
007 reacted very quickly. Although she didn't quite understand why Fatty was shouting this, her hand holding the oar instinctively paddled backward rapidly.
Imdiately afterward, she caught a whiff of a strange sll on the fiercely windy river, and sothing grazed past the bow of her boat.
She turned her head to look. It was a can, about the size of a baby formula tin, that had been opened. A peculiar-slling liquid was leaking from it. It had been thrown by the man in the boat right next to hers.
Because 007 had paddled backward a few strokes, the object didn't land on her but in the boat of a girl on her other side.
Next, 007 saw the man frantically paddling, moving his boat forward so distance before throwing another object backward.
007 didn't see what it was, but the flas that suddenly erupted from the boat ahead told her everything.
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