Non-Human Seeking Re-employment

(Part 2 – Mutual Killing)

Edited by Silver Wind

To cosmoose, thank you for the Ko-Fis!

Death roulette?

It sounded dangerous just from the name alone, alright?

All the players at the scene did not even have time to verbalise their ridicule when the Clown's voice landed and the Queen's statue in the middle emitted a dazzling white light which covered the entire square.

Shen Dongqing grabbed onto the person next to him.

Zhou Wenyan flipped over his hand to hold him back. "Don't be afraid."

The white light did not last for a long time, and the receding of it was accompanied by cheerful and light-hearted music. Then, the true face of the death roulette was revealed to them.

All the players were standing on a gigantic circular plate which was divided into boxes near the perimeter, and each section was slathered with a different colour. One box accommodated two players each and every one of the boxes was filled.

Shen Dongqing turned around to scan his surroundings.

The circular plate was suspended in mid-air and below them was an endless abyss where nothing could be discerned from its dense darkness.

Centre of the circular plate was a signboard with flickering lights that was displaying the number "1". Additionally, a pointer was stuck to the bottom of the signboard and it was rotating leisurely.

Someone asked: "What is the meaning of this?"

It was unknown where the Clown's sharp voice came from but he said: "This is the death roulette, haha—"

Without warning, the circular plate shook.

Soon after, Shen Dongqing noticed that the crack running through the originally pitch-black sky was becoming bigger and bigger before it finally revealed the huge and distorted visage of the Clown.

—— They were currently inside a box.

The players were already accustomed to the bizarre means the game had, and their panic only lasted for a moment before they reverted back to normal even under such circumstances.

"What are the rules of the game?" Someone asked the most crucial question.

"Game rules?" The Clown laughed exaggeratedly, "Of course it is to— survive!"

Two enlarged fingers pinched the turret of the roulette and twisted it forcefully, causing the entire circular plate to rotate at a high velocity.

Shen Dongqing did not stand firmly and he was flung into Zhou Wenyan's arms.

Zhou Wenyan caught him and barely managed to stand stably on the circular plate.

The circular plate was smooth and level to begin with but it did not have a fulcrum point; now that it was being spun abruptly, the players on top were caught off guard and all of them desperately tried to maintain their balance. Some even resorted to plastering themselves to the surface firmly to stop themselves from being thrown off.

No one knew how long it spun for but the disc gradually slowed down.

The clown clapped his hands. "Di di da da, whoever the pointer lands on, are the ones who have to die oh."

The players stiffened and lowered their heads. When they saw that the pointer was not aimed at their box, they felt like a weight had been lifted off their shoulders immediately.

"Thankfully, it's not me." The thought flashed past their minds.

Shen Dongqing glanced over as well.

The pointer was lined up with the box opposite of his and a young pair of sweethearts were standing within it. The girl's face was ashen white and she looked like she was about to pass out while the boy was faring no better.

Clown: "Haha, let us welcome the punishment for fortune's favourite pair."

Ktf ulgi teuufv tfg ybsoglfcv ofjgoeiis: "Rb, vbc'a, P vbc'a kjca ab vlf!"

Lbkfnfg, atf ybs qertfv tfg jkjs jcv tlr mbecafcjcmf kjr ofgbmlber. "Qtb abiv sbe ab ub jcv abemt atja lcnlajalbc mjgv? Pa'r jii sbeg ojeia, lo rbwfbcf tjr ab vlf, la'r sbe!"

Ktf Jibkc ijeutfv yblrafgberis jr tf kjamtfv atf qjlg bo rkffatfjgar jguef jcv tf revvfcis rjlv: "P obguba ab gfwlcv beg njglber uefrar, ys Lfg Zjpfras atf Heffc'r mifwfcms, atf uefrar klat jc lcnlajalbc ifaafg jgf fzfwqafv ogbw vfjat bcmf."

When his voice landed, the girl from the chosen box took a few steps back to pull her distance away from the boy. However, the space for movement that the players had was limited to their assigned boxes and she was quickly forced into a corner as she hit a translucent wall.

The boy reacted as well; with a pair of blazing hot eyes, he glared at the girl.

There was only one invitation letter but there were two of them.

"Qian Qian, give me the invitation letter, alright?" The boy said as he advanced towards the girl.

The girl shook her head like her life depended on it, "No, I refuse!"

The Clown did not feel like the commotion he was spectating was big enough. Thus, he added: "There's only ten seconds left oh, ten, nine, eight…"

He stalked towards her in time with the countdown. The boy tore off his façade and pounced on her fiercely, pressing her onto the ground.

"Invitation letter, invitation letter…"

"AH—" The girl struggled desperately, "Don't, don't!"

But the difference in strength between the boy and girl was too big; the boy managed to press the girl down easily as he groped her body for the letter of invitation.

"Hahaha—" The boy ripped out the invitation letter, "I don't need to die uuh…."

The boy let out a dull groan and slowly lowered his head to see a shiny dagger impaled into his chest and the person holding onto the hilt of the dagger was the girl.

The girl's body was trembling and she whispered hoarsely, "I already told you not to."

She pushed the boy away with one hand and pried open his fingers to retrieve the invitation letter in his hand.

Pa pa—

The Clown applauded: "How splendid."

The girl raised her head to look at him, "Does this mean I don't have to die anymore?"

Bowing, the Clown spoke with a comical smile: "Of course."

The lit-up sign board changed to "2".

The next round began.

The boy's corpse was still on the roulette as the girl sat on the ground with a cold expression and tried her hardest not to fall off.

The other players showed no reaction to the outcome, only grateful that it was not their turn.

When the disc started spinning this time around, Shen Donging was more than ready for the task.

He hugged Zhou Wenyan's arm and scoffed out a line: "This game is boring."

He thought ghosts and monsters of some kind would appear.

In the end, it was only a circular plate going around in circles.

"I'm going light-headed from all the spinning."

Zhou Wenyan patted his shoulder. "You'll feel better if you close your eyes."

Shen Dongqing closed his eyes for a while before he opened them again. "I feel dizzier."

Fortunately, the whirling stopped quickly this time around.

The pointer landed on the box with a pair of females.

Instead of panicking, they discussed with each other in low voices.

Slightly displeased by the lack of mutual killing, the Clown urged: "Hurry up, hurry up, you only have one invitation letter!"

One of the ladies in a ponytail said: "We're willing to accept the punishment together."

The Clown stared fixedly at the both of them.

When the Clown finally spoke, begrudging and unwilling, the ladies' cold sweat was already dripping. "Fine, death punishment—"

Peng—

A red club guard descended from the skies.

Its body was a red club poker card and its four limbs were similar to that of matchsticks, although it did not stop it from holding an axe in one hand and a shield in the other. Its drawn on facial features were scrunched together.

Once the red club guard touched the ground, it charged at them, axe swinging.

The area in each box was not big and the red club guard blocked the two players effortlessly, giving them no path of escape.

It was apparent that the red club guard was of extraordinary strength for each vigorous wave of his axe caused its own wind.

Thankfully, the two ladies' stature were slender with a complementing agility and they dodged away from the red club guard's attacks.

Their cooperation was extremely tacit; one person attracted the red club guard's attention while the other attacked. Even though that was the case, the two of them were still injured, energy depleted and one of them even broke an arm.

At the end, the red club guard released an unreconciled roar and gradually disappeared from the circular plate.

The ladies managed to live on but with their current conditions, being chosen a second time meant that their deaths were certain.

Seeing such a conclusion, the other players started making their own plans.

The Clown pinched the turret at the centre of the roulette and the spinning began anew.

Shen Dongqing held onto his forehead: "My head is dizzy."

Zhou Wenyan contemplated for a beat before he pulled out a sweet from his pocket and placed it in Shen Dongqing's hands. "Eat something, it might get better."

Holding onto the sweet, Shen Dongqing crossed his legs and sat down before he peeled off the candy wrapper to bite down on the sweet with a crunch. The sweet taste suffused through his mouth and sure enough, the dizziness he felt reduced slightly.

He squinted his eyes, satisfied.

Zhou Wenyan could not help but laugh when he witnessed his expression.

Really cute.

Shen Dongqing raised his head and happened to meet Zhou Wenyan's gaze. Thinking that he wanted to eat the sweet too, he unwrapped a sweet and handed it over.

Zhou Wenyan leaned closer to take it and sucked on the squarish fruit candy. Then, with the candy on the tip of his tongue, he tossed out a sentence, "It's not sweet."

Shen Dongqing: "How is it not sweet?"

Dead earnest, Zhou Wenyan said: "Why don't you taste it?"

Shen Dongqing actually got up, pulled Zhou Wenyan closer and gave it a taste.

"Isn't it quite sweet?" He asked, puzzled.

Zhou Wenyan chuckled lowly.

Realising that he had been deceived, Shen Dongqing turned his head around to fume.

When the players from the other boxes saw their actions, they could not help but laugh coldly.

Was their love of any use right now? When they reached the verge of life and death, wouldn't they be the same as the previous sweethearts who ended up mutually killing each other?

As they were thinking that, the disc slowly came to a stop. This time around, it came as no surprise that the pointer landed on the box that Shen Dongqing and Zhou Wenyan were in.

The Clown looked down and his focus was on this pair of partners. "What's your choice?"

Zhou Wenyan stood up: "I'll do it."

Shen Dongqing tried to cut him off as he said: "Let me do it!"

Both of them were deadlocked.

The Clown thought that he was going to witness a good show again and he gurgled out a hearty laugh. "Hurry up, quickly, there's only one invitation letter, and only one of you can be exempt from dying!"

The Clown gazed at the pair with a look of interest.

Unfortunately for him, they did not devolve to the point where they mutually killed each other in order to snatch the invitation letter. Instead, they were trying to choose who was going to accept the punishment.

"Tch, how meaningless," the Clown revealed an exaggerated smile, "I don't like modest concessions, I don't like the two of you, go and die—"

Shen Dongqing raised his hand, "I have a question."

The Clown paused. "Speak."

Shen Dongqing: "How many rounds are  left in this game?"

Clown: "The game has a total of eighteen rounds~ Are you scared now?"

"No," Shen Dongqing shook his head, "I just find that this game is quite boring and the spinning is making me kind of dizzy. Do you have something more stimulating?"

Other players: ……

The Clown's smile became stiff and he raised his voice by an octave: "What did you say!?"

Shen Dongqing replied to him honestly, "It's boring."

The Clown jumped in anger, "You actually said I'm boring? I am the Clown that Her Majesty the Queen likes the most, you, you, you, you deserve to die! Guards—"

The Clown went into a state of frenzy, shaking the entire roulette into a wobble. Then, he twisted his head and he grabbed two things from somewhere before he threw it in.

Peng peng—

Two guards landed on the ground.

The two guards were made out of chocolate and cotton candy, their bodies covered with popping candy. Their weapon of choice was a huge doughnut.

The other players had a face of vigilance.

From a glance, it was evident that the two guards were stronger than the red club guard from before.

In reaction to them, Shen Dongqing only rubbed his stomach and fretted a little: "Hungry."

The two candies he ate could not stave off his hunger.

And the two guards in front of him looked very delicious.

Zhou Wenyan immediately knew what he was thinking with one look. Supporting his forehead, he said: "You're not allowed to eat them."

Shen Dongqing felt very sorrowful.