Chapter 141: Winning Without Effort

“Is that really how it ends?”

Chen Fan stared at Jiang Gan’s retreating back, so astonished that he hardly knew how to react. Everything had gone far too smoothly.

To be honest, Second Fool Jiang was rather pitiful. After being deceived by the two of them in turn, he had even thanked them profusely and sung their praises.

“Of course. How complicated did you want it to be? Think about your Left Alliance Leader—lying low won’t always let you coast to an effortless victory.”

Once the card retrieval had been taken care of, Cao Cao picked up a drumstick with great interest. He began tapping the bronze bells of various sizes one after another, listening with enjoyment as familiar melodies rang out. Before long, his hands and feet were unconsciously moving to the rhythm as well.

“What a retro hippie,” Chen Fan remarked, offering a relatively fair assessment of the old eccentric entertaining himself.

After his previous miserable experience of having his body controlled, Chen Fan decided it was best to ask everything clearly and take precautions first.

“By the way, what kind of card is it? It won’t be something like the knight who fought to the death, will it?”

“Relax. It’s absolutely docile—guaranteed to be as obedient as a servant. Hahaha.”

With a wave of Cao Cao’s hand, the restored card suddenly landed on the table.

“A blank card isn’t in my dormitory? You can reproduce it too?” Confused, Chen Fan stepped forward and picked up the card. It read:

Submissive Maid.

“Just an illusion.” Cao Cao swept his sleeve, and with the sharp snap of his fingers, the card vanished with a bang.

“Retrieving this card was simply too easy. I was afraid that if I let you handle it yourself, you would make things needlessly complicated and miss this excellent opportunity, so I came personally.” The Elder hummed a little tune as he explained.

Chen Fan grew wary instead. When something was out of the ordinary, there was usually a hidden catch.

“That card doesn’t contain some strange black technology, does it?”

“Hahaha. Which card isn’t black technology?” The Elder struck the largest bronze bell hard with his drumstick and laughed. “It’s probably similar in type to the scapegoat card. You suffer so that the world may benefit.”

“I knew there was no such thing as a free lunch…” Chen Fan sneered. Still, switching cards was something for tomorrow. Once today’s preliminary round ended, he would stay in his dormitory and go nowhere.

The two continued chatting for quite some time. Whenever the Elder became especially animated, he would give the bronze bells another strike. The tune remained the same; only the tones differed, ranging from deep and resonant to sharp and piercing.

“I didn’t expect you to have such a good ear for music.”

For someone who was tone-deaf, Chen Fan felt that the Elder’s musical skill had already reached the level of worship.

“Hey, why can’t you inherit the abilities of the characters? When you were Invincible East, you got pinned to the ground and beaten. Now that you’ve become Zhou Yu, you’re still the same musical idiot. What’s that saying again? ‘When the tune goes wrong, Zhou Yu turns his head.’ And then there’s you… Tsk, tsk, tsk.”

Chen Fan had no way to argue, so he changed the subject. “Could you do a little more work in the future? You have to admit, the cooperation between us this time was fairly pleasant.”

“No. Overtime requires overtime pay. This time was merely a complimentary demonstration, just to let you see a little of what I can do.” The Elder refused without hesitation, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly. “Think carefully. Haven’t you forgotten something?”

“Forgotten? What?”

“Still can’t remember?” The Elder raised one finger and pointed toward the sky.

“Did the tent break?” Chen Fan looked up and glanced around. Then he suddenly realized. “Damn it, it’s dawn! I have to go back and keep fighting.”

“Hahaha, no need. The game is already over. You did an excellent job lying down and letting yourself be carried to victory.” The Elder settled back into his seat. His connection was linked to the observer’s perspective, and the game’s results had already been transmitted in real time.

After reviewing the match, the Elder offered a brief assessment.

“You accomplished absolutely nothing the entire game. Your only contribution was saving a hunter on the first night. Apart from that, you had nothing to do with anything.”

“You understand all this too?”

Chen Fan felt a strange curiosity toward the system. It knew everything and understood everything. Sometimes it was rigid to the point of absurdity; at other times, it was remarkably human.

“Have you spent so long with Jiang Gan that your brain has started to deteriorate? Let me ask you: where do your abilities come from? Don’t they come from the cards I created? And what are those cards? Playing cards? Uno? Neither. They’re Werewolf cards. Do you understand the connection now?”

“Oh… I suppose that is how it works.”

Following the Elder’s reasoning, Chen Fan straightened out the entire chain of logic. Apparently, he really had suffered a brief bout of brain failure just now.

“Someone is still complaining about the Witch after the game.” After reviewing the post-game information, the Elder began reading the players’ comments.

“That Witch had no idea what he was doing. If he hadn’t saved me on the first night, I would have cursed him to death. Guanyu and I practically begged him to join us, but he refused to believe us and insisted on testing the village route. If I hadn’t aimed my gun accurately, we would have crashed just now.”

“Was it that Zhuge peasant?”

Chen Fan finished reading the comment at a glance, and his expression froze. Only the faintest twitch between his brows betrayed the resentment slowly surfacing in his heart.

The Elder picked up the thread. “It could only have been him. Fortunately, there weren’t many spectators in the preliminary round. Otherwise, you would have been cursed to death. Remarkably, every good player correctly chose a side at the start. That’s an unusually rare sight. Still, the wolf team’s lineup was genuinely weak; they completely fell apart on the first day.”

“There are spectators for the championship tournament?” Chen Fan’s attention was clearly focused on something other than the game.

“Of course. A lot of people came just to experience the virtual reality matches because of their reputation. The finals will even be broadcast nationwide. I hear it’s the first time virtual reality has ever been televised, so the organizers have prepared plenty of gimmicks.”

“Broadcast nationwide…” Chen Fan sank into thought.

The Elder poured cold water over him. “Forget it. With your level of skill, unless you use a cheat, you’ll be lucky to lie your way into the semifinals. If you draw a wolf, just blindly go for a deep-cover strategy. You can also relentlessly slander the real Seer and at least make some contribution to your teammates.”

Chen Fan fell silent.

“All right. The game connection will be cut off in one minute. Hopefully the next setup won’t have any magical anomalies. I’m going to take a long vacation. Goodbye.”

The Elder was an incorrigible chatterbox and gave Chen Fan no chance to interrupt.

“The game has ended. You have successfully advanced to the next round. The second preliminary match will be a standard twelve-player game. The setup is Seer, Witch, Hunter, and Guard, with a Sheriff and a side-elimination victory condition. Before the game begins, you have fifteen minutes of rest. You may take a short break.”

Chen Fan removed his virtual reality headset and checked the time. The match had lasted nearly an hour, but it had still been satisfying. Although he had contributed almost nothing himself, he had successfully joined the high-speed chase under the guidance of a group of seasoned veterans.

The ordinary Werewolf setup featuring a Seer, Witch, Hunter, and Guard was one of the most balanced formats in the game. The win rates of the two factions differed by no more than one percent, leaving the wolves plenty of room to maneuver while giving the villagers more than one way to catch up in elimination count.

“All right. Time to begin the journey through the second round.”

Chen Fan stretched and reentered the virtual reality environment.

“Matching you with opponents…”

“Loading game…”

“Scenario Instance: Investiture of the Gods”