I am the Clone of a Death Row Inmate

Chapter 246: Chapter 211: Hitting a Bug in the First Round

CLANG!

A strange phenomenon suddenly appeared overhead.

Su Ze looked up and saw that on the massive Divine Dice, the ”dots” that had been emitting a black glow were gradually dimming, revealing deep, dark holes.

They were called ”dots,” but each one was actually several meters in diameter, looking more like massive holes.

”The Divine Dice has opened!”

Someone cried out in surprise.

”It’s finally opened!”

”As expected, all six entrances on the sixth face have opened this time. I wonder what that means.”

”It means more people will go in, and it means more people will die!”

All 21 entrances on the six faces of the Divine Dice were now open.

Previously, 45 people would enter, and at most, 36 could come out.

But this time, 63 people were going in. If the number of people who could come out remained the same, it meant that at least 27 of those 63 people would die inside!

The scene erupted into a clamor.

Just then, an elderly man with white hair suddenly appeared, slowly descending from the sky.

Upon seeing the man, Zhou Wenshan and the other powerful leaders from the various factions all stepped forward to greet him. ”Mr. Ji!”

Mrs. Yun didn’t recognize the elder, but seeing how respectful even Zhou Wenshan was, she quickly followed suit.

Soon, Zhou Wenshan’s voice rang in the ears of Su Ze and the others, explaining the elder’s identity to them.

It turned out this Mr. Ji was a Saint-level supreme being from the Lin Hua Country government, responsible for presiding over this Divine Dice trial.

Mr. Ji’s voice was slow and deep as he spoke, ”The entrances to the Divine Dice are now open. All Trialists will enter immediately!”

Su Ze, Mr. Ya, and the other two stood together. They didn’t rush forward, choosing to observe first as other teams flew toward the Divine Dice one after another.

Just as they had read in the materials, each entrance on the Divine Dice could only admit three people.

Once an entrance—one of the ”dots”—had admitted its limit of three people, it would immediately seal shut, reverting to a closed black dot.

”Let’s go, too,” Zhang Tai said.

Li Yongguan gave a cold nod and took the lead, flying toward the Divine Dice.

Just as Su Ze and Mr. Ya were about to move, Mrs. Yun’s voice came from behind them. ”You two brats, you’d better come back to me alive!”

Mr. Ya grinned. ”Don’t worry. With me here, everyone else could die, but the Boss and I won’t.”

The two of them, along with Zhang Tai, flew toward an entrance that no one had yet entered.

As for Li Yongguan, he had already flown in by himself.

Su Ze stopped just outside the entrance and peered inside. It was pitch-black; he couldn’t make out anything at all. Without overthinking it, he flew into the entrance with Mr. Ya and Zhang Tai.

The moment the three of them entered, the entrance sealed shut.

Su Ze felt his vision go black, unable to see a thing. Before he could even use his Eye of Truth to scout ahead, his sight suddenly returned.

It was still pitch-dark, but this was different from the blindness he had just experienced. Now, it was simply a lack of light.

Everyone here was a Butterfly Stage expert with superior vision. They could make out their surroundings even in total darkness, not to mention some had already lit up their own evolutionary light.

Su Ze activated his Eye of Truth anyway and sent out his Perception Tentacles. His initial assessment was that they were now standing inside the giant die. The six walls looked bare from the inside, with no ”dots” or entrances, yet people entering from the outside would suddenly appear near the walls.

The first round of the trial would only begin after all the Trialists had entered and all 21 entrances were sealed.

Su Ze first led Mr. Ya and Zhang Tai to find Li Yongguan, and the four of them regrouped.

The Trialists from the other factions were doing the same.

The entire Divine Dice suddenly shuddered. Someone shouted, ”Everyone’s in! The trial is about to start!”

Su Ze recognized the voice as coming from the official Lin Hua Country team; the person was reminding everyone to get ready.

In this sealed, dark space, Su Ze’s superhuman sense of smell and hearing, combined with his Eye of Truth skill, allowed him to have a complete grasp of every movement around him.

...

「Outside the Divine Dice.」

With all 63 Trialists now inside the Divine Dice, only the leaders of the various factions remained outside. Almost without exception, these were all Saint-level experts.

They watched as all the entrances on the massive die sealed shut, knowing the first round of the trial was about to begin. Expressions of worry or tension appeared on each of their faces.

No one knew if their own prodigies would make it out.

Suddenly, the giant die began to turn, tumbling over and over in the air before finally stopping. The face representing ”1” was facing up, its single, enormous black dot faintly flickering.

Mr. Ji stood with his hands behind his back and sighed. ”The first round of the trial has begun.”

There were six rounds to the trial. Before each round, the die would roll, successively showing 1 through 6. Whichever round it was, the corresponding number of dots would face up.

Inside the die, however, Su Ze and the others didn’t feel it rotate. They only felt the entire space tremble, and then a beam of light lit up overhead, like a sun appearing above them.

Su Ze looked at the round ”sun” above his head and said, ”Is that the ’1’?”

He instantly made the connection to the large circular dot representing ”1” on the die.

Everyone was bathed in the light, and the space inside the die instantly brightened.

”Look! At your feet!” someone shouted, having noticed a change beneath everyone’s feet.

Su Ze glanced over and saw that rings of light were beginning to appear at everyone’s feet.

It seemed the rings only appeared after being illuminated by the beam of light from above.

The rings were gradually forming, constantly expanding...

After about a few dozen seconds, the rings stopped spreading and completely stabilized.

”What do these rings represent?” people began to discuss.

Not everyone had the same number of rings at their feet. Some had two, some had three, and some had even more...

And upon closer inspection, it became clear that most people didn’t have exactly two or three whole rings; there was often an overflow.

For example, among those with two rings, some had just over two, some had two and a half, and some were close to three...

Of everyone present, the person with the most rings had over five!

Among Su Ze’s group of four, Mr. Ya had just over three rings, Li Yongguan had a little more than two and a half, and Zhang Tai had exactly four.

As for Su Ze... he had none!

Not a single one!

Su Ze was also baffled. ’What in the world do these rings represent?’

His gaze swept toward the two ”five-ringed people” in the crowd who had the most rings. One of them was none other than Mr. Ya’s enemy, Firoz.

A flash of insight struck Su Ze. He thought of a possibility, and looking down again at the rings at the feet of Zhang Tai and the others... he understood!

It wasn’t a difficult puzzle, and Su Ze wasn’t the only one to figure it out.

At the same time, someone in the crowd shouted, ”I get it! The rings represent age!”

”One ring is ten years!”

Realization dawned on everyone. They looked down to verify it and found that it was indeed true.

The two ”five-ringed people” were indeed the oldest two in the arena, both over fifty years old.

Everyone else’s age also matched the rings at their feet.

One ring represented ten years of age, so someone who was twenty-five would have two and a half rings.

Mr. Ya, who had been standing beside Su Ze all along, subtly moved to block him. He used the rings at his own feet to cover Su Ze’s, creating the illusion that their rings had overlapped.

Su Ze’s group was already standing in a corner. Plus, when the rings first appeared, everyone’s initial focus was on themselves, then their teammates, and only then others. So, besides Su Ze’s three teammates, no one else noticed that he had no rings at his feet.

Li Yongguan and Zhang Tai both glanced up at Su Ze at the same time, but they quickly masked the shock and confusion in their eyes, saying and asking nothing.

Su Ze, of course, knew what was going on with him.

’I don’t know how the Divine Dice determines everyone’s age, but in a way, it’s very accurate.’

’Because this clone body of mine is, at most, only half a year old. It’s only been half a year since I transmigrated to Blue Star.’

’I’m not even one year old, so of course no rings would appear.’

’But my body is indeed in the physical state of an eighteen-year-old... I guess you could say I’ve glitched the system.’

With Mr. Ya covering for him, no one noticed the anomaly at Su Ze’s feet.

Su Ze’s gaze swept over the rings at the others’ feet, and he discovered that he wasn’t the only Trialist under the age of twenty.

Among the prodigies from Lin Hua Country, two had rings that were close to, but not quite, two full circles, meaning they were also around eighteen or nineteen years old.

Su Ze had completed his third evolution at the age of 18, an unparalleled feat in the six countries, but in Lin Hua Country, it was clear that other prodigies were also capable of it.

’Now that the meaning of the rings is confirmed, a new question has arisen: what exactly is the first round of the trial? And what does it have to do with the rings at our feet?’

SHHHHHHH...

The beam of light overhead suddenly intensified, pouring down like a torrential rain and instantly disrupting all of Su Ze’s perception of his surroundings.

His vision blurred, and the scene around him gradually faded, as if an eraser were slowly wiping away all the color around him. In a daze, he found himself in an empty void.

There was nothing around him. Above, below, left, right—all directions were empty, devoid of any color.

’Has the first round of the trial begun...?’ The thought had just crossed Su Ze’s mind when something appeared before him.

’What is that? Why is it moving?’

Su Ze cautiously approached the object, which was not much larger than a watermelon, and his brow furrowed.

’This is a living thing, but what kind of life form is it?’

Its entire body was a transparent crystal. It looked as if it were made of quartz, but through its see-through, crystal-like body, he could see some simple, human-like internal organs.

Its basic shape was somewhat similar to a human’s, with four limbs, a head, and facial features. Its crystalline face sparkled like a diamond, and he could even see its tofu-like brain inside.

Judging by its size, however, it was only about as big as a human baby.

Su Ze searched through the memories of his two lives, as well as his limited knowledge of evolution, and confirmed that he had never seen or heard of such a creature.

This was no mutant beast, and it certainly wasn’t a Spiritual Plant!

As Su Ze drew closer, the strange creature suddenly began to flail about, trying to strike his knee.