While his heart rate sped up, Yu Hua wanted to laugh. Luckily, he held it in. 

Yu Hua had no malice against other levelers, though he knew that some levelers weren’t good people at all. 

Having gone through the ten newbie worlds, he knew very well that human nature couldn’t withstand trials. Most people existed in ordinary surroundings, led regular and conventional lives. Sometimes, because of a bad mood, they might have a few ideas of wrecking society, but they were only thoughts to vent their anger. They wouldn’t resort to actions, and it wouldn’t impact their regular lives. 

But in extreme surroundings, human nature would display all of its varieties. 

Yu Hua thought that no man was a sage. He had been unable to avoid putting a foot wrong in these surroundings, so he wouldn’t demand that others remain incorruptible. 

Even in this battle mode world, he still maintained respect for his opponents. 

You had to respect everyone’s hobbies and choices. You didn’t have to approve, but you couldn’t mock. 

Though it really was ridiculous. 

Yu Hua remembered very well that this world didn’t require changing your appearance. There were some worlds where you had to cooperate with that world’s living beings and may have to become some different form of hominid. In some worlds, you had to assimilate by hiding your identity; the System would provide a fake identity and make the levelers equip masks to change their appearances. But that wasn’t necessary in this world. You could use your own identity among teammates, though not with opponents. 

From this he could guess that his opponent had deliberately chosen the rainbow hair. Normally, the sort of person who would choose such a striking style either didn’t want a certain person to recognize them, or they were using this sort of eye-catching mode to be viewed in another light. People who used external appearance to attract notice generally looked down on themselves. 

Whichever reason it was, it was still no reason for him to mock. 

Yu Hua’s mask was a half-mask, only hiding his eyes and nose, leaving his mouth uncovered. The corners of his lips didn’t rise, but his eyes narrowed. He couldn’t resist being amused; luckily he had the mask. 

“Hello.” Yu Hua politely stretched out his hand. “Though we’re opponents in this round and I’ll do my best to defeat you, that doesn’t mean that we’re enemies. Clearing is our common goal, so let’s work towards it together.” 

Yu Hua extended the hand of friendship to each leveler. Though most of them wouldn’t answer him, and some would even say he was hiding evil intentions with a smile, he still didn’t give up on extending that hand of friendship. 

The levelers weren’t enemies. They were kindred spirits trapped in this game. 

His rainbow haired opponent’s hand didn’t hesitate. He shook Yu Hua’s hand in a friendly way, and even rubbed Yu Hua’s palm with his fingers in an ambiguous way. 

Yu Hua felt numbness spread from his palm to his whole body. He wanted to yank back his hand, but Rainbow Hair added his other hand, holding Yu Hua’s hand in both of his. He said, “You seem very young? Are you twenty-two yet?” 

Twenty-two was the legal age of marriage for males. 

“I’m old enough.” Yu Hua struggled to take back his hand while giving an answer that could mean anything. 

Beep-beep-beep!

But Rainbow Hair held on tightly to his hand, looking into Yu Hua’s eyes. 

Looking past the riotously colorful but still tidy short hair, Yu Hua saw his opponent’s very clear eyes with his own face reflected in them. 

These eyes made Yu Hua feel composed. He didn’t try to snatch back his hand anymore. He answered earnestly, “I’m twenty.” 

He had skipped grades and graduated two years younger than other people. 

“Twenty…” Rainbow Hair whispered. “That’s very young. A year younger than when I went on the blind date.” 

Yu Hua found to his surprised that his opponent’s voice was very pleasant, bright and clear as the sun. The wariness he had felt because of his opponent’s overly intimate physical contact was weakened by this clean voice. He softened his own voice. “Why would you reach the stage of blind dating at only twenty-one?” 

Then he reconsidered and shook his head. “No, I’m not supposed to ask personal questions. Do you miss your original world? That’s all right, the System says that our time in the game won’t have an impact on reality. We only have to work hard to pass levels. When we’ve cleared, we can go home, and we can have a wish fulfilled. Let’s work together to clear.” 

Beep-beep-beep! 

“Is that what the System says to new levelers?” Rainbow Hair clenched his teeth. “What a cheat!” 

“What did you say?” Yu Hua used his free hand to pinch his ear. He found that he hadn’t heard anything Rainbow Hair had said just now. He had only seen his lips moving. There had been no sound. 

Yu Hua didn’t know how to read lips. He couldn’t understand. 

“Is this because the System doesn’t let newbies know the truth about these worlds, or is it that I can’t change history?” Rainbow Hair said anxiously. “Pooh! You call this history? It’s not time travel in the real world, it’s only a little world!” 

“What did you say?” Yu Hua once again hadn’t heard a word. 

Beep-beep-beep! 

“It’s nothing.” Rainbow Hair was still tightly holding Yu Hua’s hand. “My name is…” 

Before he could say his name, Yu Hua quickly covered Rainbow Hair’s mouth with his free hand. “Levelers from different groups can’t exchange names. Don’t say it. You’ll be punished.” 

Rainbow Hair was also wearing a half-mask. He blinked. His lips accidentally touched Yu Hua’s palm. 

Yu Hua quickly drew back his hand, and simultaneously yanked back the hand tightly held by Rainbow Hair. 

Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep! The urgent notice from the System had been sounding all along, and the two who had been chatting only now heard it. 

They looked together at the System’s big screen and written on it: The match is about to start. Levelers please get in position as soon as possible. If you aren’t in place after three seconds, both of you will be counted as forfeiting the match. The count begins: 3, 2…

The two of them rapidly went to their places and were standing on high platforms before the count reached “1.” 

As soon as the two of them got into position, the floor of the room, which was over ten thousand square meters in area, began to sink, while their high platforms moved towards two corners of the room, only stopping when they were in the two most distant corners. 

On the ceiling, cable wires appeared at every meter. The room was a hundred meters wide. With a cable wire at each meter across the ceiling, it was one-hundred minus one, ninety-nine cable wires. 

Then the area that had fallen away at their feet filled with thick acid. The high platforms were gradually corroded by the acid, leaving the two of them with nowhere to place their feet. 

Yu Hua and Rainbow Hair jumped at the same time, grabbing hold of a cable wire. The high platforms collapsed entirely and dissolved in the acid. The originally bright and clean room instantly became an inferno. Anyone who couldn’t hold on and dropped would fall into the acid and be dissolved like the high platforms. 

From each cable wire hung a round little cookie with a radius of one centimeter, attached by twine. The positions of the cookies were arranged in a snake lemma pattern. The cable wire Yu Hua was hanging on was furthest to the left. The cookie on that cable was about ninety-nine meters from the left and one meter from the right. The cookie on the nearest cable wire, though, was two meters from the left, ninety-eight meters from the right. 

It was the same for Rainbow Hair. He was hanging on the right most cable wire. On his cable wire, the cookies was at ninety-nine meters right, one meter left. 

“No way. This kind of physical contest?” Yu Hua dimly guessed the rules of the contest. 

As expected, a mechanical female voice came from the loudspeakers in the corners of the room: “Welcome to the cookie eating game! The rules are as follows—

“First, levelers may only eat cookies in sequence. They can eat from cookie 99 to cookie 1, or from cookie 1 to cookie 99, but the cookies may not be eaten out of sequence. You must begin at 1 or 99. You may not eat cookie 2 first, or eat cookie 1 and then skip cookie 2 to eat cookie 3. If you eat out of sequence, your cable wire will snap, and you will fall into the acid.

“Two, you may not use your hands to touch the cookies. 

“Three, you may not touch the cable wires with anything but your hands. 

“Four, of the 99 cookies, whichever leveler eats the greater number will win. If either leveler eats cookie 50 first, that will indicate victory. 

“Five, anyone who falls into the acid will be considered as having lost. 

“Six, this game is a game purely of physical strength. No special abilities are permitted. Levelers are asked to conduct themselves with dignity. Do not use special abilities to cheat. 

“Seven, eating the cookies in order does not mean that the levelers must be on the same cable wire as the cookie. Levelers may move freely on the cable wires. There is no problem as long as you don’t eat the wrong cookie. 

“Eight, this game has no time limit. As long as your strength holds out, levelers may take as long as they like. 

“Nine, the loser will fall into the acid. 

“Ten, after a leveler is judged to have lost, they may use special abilities to protect themselves.

“Game begins.” 

Neither person moved. They looked at each other from opposite ends of the room full of cable wires. 

What kind of physical strength game was this? It was clearly a killing each other game! The seventh rule was hinting to the levelers that they could move to where their opponent was and kick him into the acid. Once the other leveler fell, there would be no need to struggle to eat cookies. The attacker would win by default. 

It was either go directly to fight the other side at close quarters, or wait until the other side’s strength was exhausted and he fell. Even if both of them were very strong, then when it came to the fiftieth cookie, they would still have to have a life and death struggle over it. 

Yu Hua had an idea and hesitated over whether to share it with Rainbow Hair. This was his first time seeing Rainbow Hair. He didn’t know whether he could trust this person. 

But Rainbow Hair at once said acutely, “After we’re judged to have lost, we can use our special abilities. There are two ways for us to lose. One is if we can’t hold on and drop into the acid, and the other is for the other person to eat more cookies, or to make a stupid mistake and eat the cookies out of order ourselves. 

“If it’s the first type of loss, we can only be judged as having lost after falling into the acid. That way, we’re dead for sure. But with the second type of loss, we’ll be judged as having lost before falling into the acid, and we’ll have time to bring our special abilities into use and protect ourselves.” 

Rainbow Hair was effortlessly holding onto the cable wire with his right hand and holding his chin with his left as he pondered; his physical strength seemed excellent. 

While Yu Hua was deliberating about what he should say, Rainbow Hair said, “My special ability will definitely be able to protect me from the acid. You go ahead and eat the cookies. When you eat the fiftieth one, I’ll lose the contest. That way, at least we’ll both survive.” 

“You aren’t going to try?” Yu Hua asked. 

“Try what? Am I supposed to watch you go to your death?” Rainbow Hair asked. “I don’t know what your special ability is, though it must be a special ability that’s very weak to start out with and awesomely powerful later. As far as protecting ourselves against the acid, I definitely have the upper hand. So let me do it.” 

He hung indolently from the cable wire, really looking as though he wasn’t going to move. 

Yu Hua licked his lips. “I have a proposal. Maybe it’ll mean we both lose, and maybe it’ll mean a draw. Will you try it with me?” 

“All right,” Rainbow Hair agreed cheerfully without even asking about his method. 

Yu Hua was moved. He said, “We’ll each eat the cookies in order, and when we both get to the fiftieth cable, we’ll discuss it further, all right?” 

“Fine.” Rainbow Hair didn’t suspect Yu Hua of treachery. He was even concerned about him. “Are you strong enough to get to the fiftieth cookie? Otherwise, I’ll just eat a cookie out of order and lose.” 

“I can do it,” Yu Hua said stubbornly, hearing him question his strength. “My arms and back are very strong.” 

“I know your back is strong…” Rainbow Hair whispered, though of course, as before, Yu Hua didn’t hear this. 

Rainbow Hair’s strength really was exceptional. He held the cable wire with both hands, did a handstand on it, and easily travelled over the cables wire as though his hands were feet. In a few seconds, he reached cookie 99 at meter 99. 

He lowered himself from a handstand to hanging from the wire, opened his mouth, and gently ate the first cookie. 

Seeing his skill, Yu Hua felt a faint unwillingness to be defeated. While he was an ordinary university student, he regularly looked after his health, and after several months in the game, his physical strength was good. 

But he couldn’t move as easily as Rainbow Hair over the cable wires. He had to move his arms along toward the cookie. 

Rainbow Hair saw that he was going slowly and stopped, moving at the same speed as Yu Hua. 

“You don’t need to wait for me.” Yu Hua had the frustrating feeling of someone going easy on him. 

But Rainbow Hair smiled and said, “It’s all right. This time, I’ll be the one waiting for you to grow up. 

---

Author's Note

You Zhengping (hands proudly on his hips): I’m stealthily taking advantage while Yu Hua is fresh and tender.  

Yu Hua (recalling after the fact): During the cookie eating game, Xiao You was tastier than the cookies…no, I mean he was stronger than me.