Seeing Rainbow Hair’s skill and ease, Yu Hua felt an unwillingness to be bested. 

To tell the truth, in a situation like this where falling meant dropping into acid, which was certain death, and your special abilities were sealed, anyone would be scared. Fear would make a person’s breathing rapid, speed up their energy consumption. Under the stimulus of adrenaline, at first they might be able to display more strength than before, but in a game of physical strength where you had to eat at least fifty cookies, move at least 2,500 meters along the cable wires, and go over at least 49 meters of cable wire covered room, the initial rush of energy provoked by fear couldn’t hold out that long. 

The levelers had undergone ten levels of improvement to their physical strength. Their conditions were good. But they weren’t this abnormally strong. 

Yu Hua was out of breath by the time he ate the fortieth cookie. Meanwhile, Rainbow Hair went around the fiftieth cookie and came up next to Yu Hua to encourage him. 

“Go on! There are only a few cookies left, you can do it!” Rainbow Hair’s eyes sparkled, full of faith in Yu Hua. 

They were opponents. Even when he had made the proposal to Rainbow Hair, Yu Hua had still maintained his caution. In this game, rather than going over 2,500 meters of cable wire to eat the cookies, it would obviously be easier to cross a 49 to 99 meter distance to attack your opponent. The result of eating the cookies might be that both sides would be unable to hold out, and they would both lose. The easier victory lay in disposing of your opponent first. 

Yu Hua knew very well that when only one person could survive, a human would choose the means of victory easiest for himself. But if there was a way for both people to survive, as long as a person wasn’t too antisocial, they would choose the more difficult means that would nonetheless let both people have a mutual victory. 

Perhaps conscience wasn’t worth mentioning in the face of death, but its influence on humans wasn’t all that small. 

He had originally wanted to first stabilize his opponent and then, if his opponent agreed, to discuss how they could win. But Rainbow Hair clearly had the ability to win hands down. Instead, he was still willing to wait for Yu Hua’s method. 

He really is a good-hearted person, Yu Hua thought inwardly. 

Anyone who has done long-distance running has probably had this sort of feeling. When your strength is exhausted, if there’s someone beside you running with you and cheering you on, your strength and speed will increase significantly. This is the strength of fighting shoulder to shoulder. 

With Rainbow Hair beside him, Yu Hua smoothly ate the first forty-nine cookies and came to the fiftieth. 

Rainbow Hair meanwhile hung across from Yu Hua. The one centimeter radius little cookie dangled between the two of them. 

“My idea is…” 

Yu Hua was just about to explain his idea when he saw Rainbow Hair take the cookie between his teeth, then approach him with the cookie in his mouth. 

Yu Hua instantly understood his intention. That wasn’t what he had meant. Rainbow Hair had misunderstood. 

But now, Rainbow Hair had already started to eat the fiftieth cookie. If he didn’t cooperate, he really would lose. 

Watching the approaching lips, Yu Hua gently closed his eyes and bit down on the other half of the cookie. 

There was a sensation of softness. Yu Hua’s heart beat like a drum. His senses instantly shut off, and all that remained was the banging of his pulse in his ears and the warmth and softness on his lips. 

After a long time, the half a cookie dissolved in his mouth, and Yu Hua opened his eyes amid the sweet taste. He moved back and turned his face away, saying, “What I meant was that we should break the twine or the cable wire with the fiftieth cookie and drop the cookie in the acid. That way, we both would have eaten forty-nine. That would be a tie. Either there would be no way to decide it and we would both get the prize, or we could both lose, and neither of us would get the prize. But either way, we wouldn’t have violated the rules, and we wouldn’t have fallen into the acid. Both of us could survive.” 

“Really? So that’s what you meant.” Rainbow Hair’s voice was a little empty, and there was a sliver of disappointment hidden in it. 

“In this game, apart from the ways you mentioned, there’s also a third way to win.” Yu Hua held onto the cable wire with one hand and took out a series of small knives, thin as a cicada’s wings, from the back of his waistband. 

He tossed a blade towards a cable wire, which snapped in response. 

“There’s a problem with this contest. The System claimed we couldn’t use our special abilities, but it didn’t limit our use of items,” Yu Hua said. “This is one of the items I collected during my first ten levels, ‘blades that can cut through iron like sand.’ A one-time use item. Each blade can only be used once. The true way to win on my own would have been to toss a knife from my position at one of the cable wires in front of you. The cookies had to be eaten in sequence. As long as it was near your cable wire, no matter which one broke, you wouldn’t be able to eat in order. If you lost one, you would be sure to lose.” 

“Is that so?” Rainbow Hair took a blade from Yu Hua’s hand. “What if I had decided not to eat the cookies but instead went over to kill you?” 

Yu Hua said, “After getting rid of that cookie, I would have kept throwing out blades, breaking ten more cable wires. We can only move along the cable wires. Without using special abilities, a distance of ten meters is a natural moat. My opponent would have been sure to lose.” 

“And those blades are just a coincidence? It’s only luck that you brought those blades in,” Rainbow Hair said. 

Yu Hua shook his head. “No, the System knows what items the levelers have on them. It definitely targets levelers with the most suitable games. In a contest, both sides must have some trump card, and whoever is the most ruthless and the fastest will be the victor.” 

“Speaking of that, I have a water gun that I don’t know how to use.” Rainbow Hair pulled a toy water gun from the back of his waistband. He aimed at a distant cable wire and pulled the trigger. Strong acid shot out, melting the distant cable wire. 

Rainbow Hair stared blankly and handed the water gun to Yu Hua. “You were right. That’s how it is. But you didn’t act while I was eating the cookies. You just watched me eat all the way to the forty-ninth cookie.” 

“Because if you meant to eat the fiftieth cookie, I could cut that cable wire in time. Even if you could switch to another cable wire in time, you still couldn’t skip number 50. You’d go directly from 49 to 51. As long as I got rid of number 50, I could negotiate with you again whether I would bear the weight of a life, or whether we were going to come to a draw.” Yu Hua suddenly blushed. 

He had always been good at planning. When he had heard the rules, he had thought of countless methods. But the person in front of him had played a card too far outside of common sense. 

When he thought of that, Yu Hua pursed his lips. 

“You were running a risk again,” said Rainbow Hair. “You were willing to give up on certain victory and run the risk of trusting your opponent. What were you thinking?” 

“I want to find a companion,” Yu Hua said. “A companion I can pass through levels with, a companion to join hands and advance with. We could mutually support each other and not betray each other. If I don’t run a risk, how could I find a person worth trusting?” 

The System seemed not to want to let them keep talking. The room quickly went back to normal, returning to the original big white room. Yu Hua opened his hand. There were red welts on his palm and varying degrees of muscle strain in his arms. 

Yu Hua ignored these injuries. He looked ardently at Rainbow Hair. “Are you willing to be my companion?” 

“I am…” 

Before Rainbow Hair could finish speaking, they heard the System’s notice: “Both sides have eaten the same number of cookies. There is no way to declare a victory. The reward will be evenly divided. The food from this contest will be split evenly among the two teams.” 

After the mechanical notice ended, the rainbow-haired You Zhengping was thrown back among his teammates. He pulled off his mask, looking regretful. He had wanted to look some more at the young Yu Hua. 

The sweetness of the cookie was still lingering. You Zhengping licked his lips. 

Just then, a person with a strange expression stood in front of You Zhengping and hesitantly said, “Why were you chosen as the contestant this time? According to history, I’m the contestant in this match.” 

This was Guan Shaoguang! 

You Zhengping was surprised. He fiercely punched Guan Shaoguang in the face and angrily said, “So you were the one who ate the fiftieth cookie with Yu Hua?” 

In this world, levelers from different groups couldn’t use any force outside the rules to harm their opponents, but there were no limitations within a group. You Zhengping could beat Guan Shaoguang all he wanted. 

This Guan Shaoguang didn’t seem to be a past projection. You Zhengping straddled him and punched him repeatedly, and he only barely escaped by using a special item. The calm coldness from before had vanished from his face. He said rather urgently, “What are you talking about? Eating the cookie together? Yu Hua and I thought of the same method back them. He used his flying knives and I used my water gun to dispose of the fiftieth cookie, and we reached a draw.” 

“Oh.” You Zhengping, who had wanted to vent his spleen by giving Guan Shaoguang another beating, calmed down. He straightened his clothes and put on a civilized look. 

As long as they hadn’t eaten the cookie together, then everything was fine. 

“The acid water gun? This thing?” You Zhengping asked, getting out the water gun. 

He had arrived in the little world less than a day ago. Just when he forced himself in, he had seen his name appear on the big screen, making him go take part in the match. Confused, he had chosen a mask and been taken to the contest room. Up to this point, he was still totally unaware of the color of his hair. 

“You’ve even snatched my item? Who the hell are you?” The Guan Shaoguang in front of You Zhengping now seemed to be only eighteen or nineteen. He was very young, and the look in his eyes was clear. He wasn’t like the man in black he had seen in the estate with that deathly stillness in his eyes and no sign of vitality. 

“Can’t you communicate with the Guan Shaoguang outside?” You Zhengping asked. “Do you have memories of the future?” 

Guan Shaoguang said, “I’m the formulator of this little world’s rules. Of course I have memories. But I’m limited by the time law. My power now has returned to what it was during this level.” 

“But my special ability…huh?” You Zhengping only now had time to investigate his special ability. It had returned to the level it had been at before he had met Yu Hua. He only had two spaces, one for people and one for things. He didn’t have the third space, which could change shape at will, or the second space, which he could use to teleport. Never mind natural law power. 

Guan Shaoguang laughed coldly. “This little world was constructed with Yu Hua as the target. The target’s condition will revert to its historical state on all points, and people apart from the target will revert to what they were before they met the target and stop there.” 

So that was it. 

“So will Xiao Ha and Junjun also revert to their state before they met Yu Hua?” 

“No, they won’t. They entered the little world before Yu Hua did, so their condition wasn’t impacted.” This Guan Shaoguang was very young. He was different from the one in the estate, who was mysterious and never answered any question to the point. 

“So right now, Junjun and Xiao Ha remember everything, but Junjun may not know why he’s come to this world. He may think that he’s travelled to another world like in kids’ stories. I’ve reverted to what I was like before I met Yu Hua, while you’ve kept your memories and returned to this level,” You Zhengping analyzed. 

“Right, this is the level where Yu Hua and I met. I originally meant to kill him in that acid hell. Though this is only a historical flashback that won’t impact reality, if Yu Hua dies in this little world, he’ll die for real. He’s too strong. If I want to kill him, this is the only means I can use,” Guan Shaoguang said. “Though my powers have also been suppressed, I can use the rules of the game to get rid of him!” 

“I’ll kill you right now!” You Zhengping took a dagger from his first space and aimed it at Guan Shaoguang. 

But this time, he came up empty. When he brought down the knife, this turned out to be a past projection again. While he had been talking to You Zhengping, Guan Shaoguang had used You Zhengping’s desire to collect information to stall for time and taken the opportunity to flee, leaving behind only a past projection. 

“You’re very treacherous,” You Zhengping said in dismay when his attack failed. 

“It was my blunder,” Guan Shaoguang said. “The main body only receives information when the energy of a past projection vanishes. I only knew you were coming when you entered the little world.” 

He couldn’t hit Guan Shaoguang, anyway, so You Zhengping might as well obtain information. “What is your aim?” 

“Either kill Yu Hua or force him to unseal his powers to kill me,” Guan Shaoguang said. “I chose this time node because it’s the level where we met. We acted in concert without discussing it in the acid hell and approved of each other’s ideas. We saw through the System’s goal, brought each other’s teams through the level, and became allies in the System’s space.” 

“You two were like-minded companions before. Are you only trying to kill him because the System is forcing you?” You Zhengping said in confusion. 

You Zhengping thought that with a person like Yu Hua, the more you understood him, the more you would like him. How could anyone stand to kill him? Guan Shaoguang must be under the System’s control, like the other levelers. 

“No.” Guan Shaoguang suddenly smiled brutally. “The reason I chose this point in time is that I’ve longed countless times to turn back time, longed to kill Yu Hua the first time I saw him.” 

“Why?” You Zhengping couldn’t understand what Guan Shaoguang was thinking. In his eyes, companions were like Cen Xiao, Luo Huai, and his other comrades in arms. They might play pranks on each other, they might fool around, they might be far away from each other and out of contact, but they wouldn’t betray each other. 

Guan Shaoguang didn’t answer his question, saying to himself, “I just didn’t expect that you would change fixed history. You stole my place in the contest, and you stole my acid water gun, and my current power isn’t a match for yours now. 

“Fortunately, the little world hasn’t ended yet. In the next point in time, I’ll be stronger than you are now.” 

Then Guan Shaoguang’s past projection vanished, and You Zhengping felt the flow of time speeding up endlessly around him. In an instant, he had come to another time node.

---

Author's Note

Yu Hua now (feeling his lips): That rainbow-haired person promised me that we would become friends in the System’s space. 

He waited for hundreds of years.