SWBG - Chapter 7

The baby-faced man's response to He Suo Wen was a cold sneer filled with mockery.

Gu Jing Sheng noticed that when the baby-faced man leisurely walked past Ma Cong's spot, the latter's expression instantly turned sinister, and he spat in resentment.

She felt that "Happy Board Games" had no mandatory rules regarding participant friendliness, lacking reasonable options like reporting or banning to "purify the online environment and regulate community behavior."

The carriage was Old Ivan's self-equipped prop, and now, with the temporary exit of the game character, it had vanished backstage. The players could only rely on their own two legs, huffing and puffing as they climbed toward the mountaintop—except for He Suo Wen. Though he lacked a pair of eyes to discover beauty, he did possess an extra cane.

The loss of vision might have enhanced his other remaining senses. Without anyone needing to remind him, just by listening to the increasingly labored breathing around him, He Suo Wen managed to avoid taking wrong turns. Moreover, unlike the newcomers, he showed no obvious signs of fatigue from start to finish.

Equally relaxed, as if on a picnic, was that baby-faced man surnamed Shang. He clearly had energy to spare but never strayed from the group.

Yao Ruo Ling and He Nan were in slightly worse shape than the two above, but compared to the newcomers, their advantage was obvious. Gu Jing Sheng, meanwhile, trailed behind them, single-handedly occupying the third tier.

He Nan smiled at her: "You're holding up well—almost doesn't seem like you're a newcomer."

Gu Jing Sheng wiped the sweat from her forehead and replied politely, "Even before my death, I was quite fond of nature."

"Before my death"...

Although all players in "Happy Board Games" had been forced into this world after encountering various accidents in reality, beginning their rather unpleasant gameplay, He Nan was still taken aback by Gu Jing Sheng's words. After a pause, he asked, "Why didn't you invite your guide to join? Not on good terms with the others?"

Gu Jing Sheng skipped the first question and answered, "It's not their fault. Mainly, I just haven't managed to integrate into the group yet."

This was true—after all, all players in Room 08321, including the survivors and the eliminated, had known each other for less than an hour at most, and most of that time had been spent staring at the static snow blocking their views of one another.

He Nan nodded thoughtfully, though it was unclear what assumptions he was making. He smiled and said, "Seems like the dynamics in your room aren't very harmonious."

Gu Jing Sheng forced a dry laugh and looked up at the sun in the sky.

The sky was cloudless for miles. While Gu Jing Sheng could tolerate not having applied sunscreen outdoors, her thirst was growing and it became increasingly unbearable. She deeply regretted not bringing water with her before entering the instance.

In fact, while reading the instructions for the artifact, she had considered bringing water. But after searching the entire room, she couldn't find a suitable container—she couldn't very well use her toothbrush cup to carry water. Even ignoring the capacity issue, she had little confidence in her ability to keep the liquid from spilling.

He Nan looked at her, his voice softening further. "Are you thirsty?"

Gu Jing Sheng: "I can hold out a bit longer. If it gets really bad, I've got blood vials on me."

The special blood vials had a high drop rate in the prize pool. Even though Gu Jing Sheng omitted all the preceding adjectives, it didn't hinder their conversation. He Nan just kindly reminded her, "After drinking that stuff, you might not feel like eating anything else."

Gu Jing Sheng gritted her teeth. "Not eating for a day or two can count as weight loss."

He Nan twitched his lips and said nothing more—he was good at sensing others' emotional states, but he still struggled to understand women's strict self-discipline regarding weight.

The group took nearly 50 minutes to reach the mountaintop. The youngest members collapsed to the ground in exhaustion the moment they made it up.

Gu Jing Sheng glanced at the two who still carried a strong student aura. Even though she understood that everyone here had, in reality, been entangled with all sorts of calamities and misfortunes, it still made her uncomfortable—letting underage kids play a game with a group of scheming adults was like pitting a lamb against a pack of wolves in a race.

A crude, uneven fence separated the inside of the orchard from the outside, looking ready to collapse even without a breeze. Gu Jing Sheng could squeeze under it, step over it, or even give it a few kicks and wait for it to fall apart on its own.

The orchard's layout was also unique—the fruit trees were arranged in a perfect circle around the mountaintop, with equal spacing between each tree and its neighbors.

"..."

Gu Jing Sheng stared at the orchard, her expression a mix of speechlessness and disdain. The high altitude could at least be explained by the orchard owner's preferences, but not only was this orchard built at a ridiculous height, its land efficiency was abysmal. And not only was the land efficiency abysmal, they'd somehow hired a full ten workers to tend to it!

There were only ten trees in the entire orchard.

She wasn't the only one thinking about the cost issues.

He Suo Wen smiled. "Not only do they pay wages, but they also provide food and lodging. The NPCs this time are quite generous."

Yao Ruo Ling frowned. "But can the NPCs break even this way?"

The baby-faced man surnamed Shang, hands in his pockets, drawled, "Look on the bright side—maybe if you drop dead halfway, he can skip paying your wages."

"..."

Gu Jing Sheng thought that if the girl hadn't been so exhausted from the climb, she would've burst into another round of sobbing at Shang's remark.

He Nan said, "Picking the fruit isn't hard. The hard part is placing them into baskets of matching colors—at least to me, these fruits all look identical."

He Suo Wen chuckled softly. "When it comes to visual observation, I defer entirely to your judgment."

As a fellow guide, Yao Ruo Ling understood He Nan's point. "If we work together and use the hints the NPC gave earlier, we can clear this easily."

He Nan continued, "We'll start with red. Each person will pick from one tree and place the fruit into the red basket. Once the NPC verifies them, we'll have at least one color confirmed by the end of the day."

Yao Ruo Ling added, "Actually, two colors. One of Old Ivan's hints was, 'The yellow fruit tree is the farthest from the red one,' meaning they're directly opposite each other."

Gu Jing Sheng, who—whether by choice or circumstance—had to keep a low profile, listened as He Nan and Yao Ruo Ling hashed out the plan. None of the other players objected, not even the notoriously unapproachable baby-faced Shang.

The players assigned numbers to each tree, with Tree #1 being the closest to the entrance and the rest following counterclockwise.

Gu Jing Sheng was assigned Tree #4.

Though the number's homophone wasn't exactly auspicious, having survived a meteor strike, Gu Jing Sheng wasn't fazed.

Before they began, He Suo Wen tapped his cane against his shoe and asked somewhat sheepishly, "What time is it now?"

Gu Jing Sheng instinctively woke her phone screen to check: 11:23.

Forget nostalgic devices—even a pager could display the exact date and time down to the second. But the brick phone produced by "Happy Board Games" stubbornly refused. Back in Room 08321, Gu Jing Sheng had already confirmed that her phone couldn't show the time.

Yet after entering the game instance, the time function miraculously returned. A glance at the bottom-right corner of the screen revealed it—identical in format and position to reality.

The youngest player glanced at He Suo Wen and answered softly, "Eleven twenty-three."

He Suo Wen, unable to check even with a phone, thanked her politely before reminding the others, "There's still a long way till evening. Stay alert."

Gu Jing Sheng placed the red basket on top and walked unhurriedly toward Tree 4. The orchard was large enough that once the players scattered, they'd hardly see each other.

Before dispersing, one player seemed to want another to accompany him in picking fruit, but she flatly refused.

Bees buzzed around the fruit trees. One circled Gu Jing Sheng before transforming into a card in her hand.

...So you finally decided to come back?

[Little Fool's Bee Friend: The only difference between a king and a fool is a bee! Brave Richard, to save his honey-gathering friend, chopped down an oak, tore through spiderwebs, and even stuffed three spiders and cream into Arthur's oven.

Where the bee flies, flowers bloom; where it lands, the honey you seek awaits.

"What makes a king? A bee, a fool, a golden goose!

What makes a little fool? An axe, a cleaver, and Richard!"

Item Rating: ★★★★

Note: This item can be used up to three times. Already used twice. Remaining uses: 1.]

Gu Jing Sheng stared at the item description, her mind full of question marks.

She could tolerate the description being poetic rather than straightforward or illustrated—after all, reading comprehension was a skill honed over a decade in school. But "already used twice"? Since entering the game instance, this was the first time the item had even appeared in card form!

For now, she treated the confusion like an unsolvable exam question—best set aside and forgotten until there was time to revisit it. Especially when a far more pressing issue arose—

[From: Happy Board Games

Your exaggerated movements have disturbed the orchard's bee swarm. Proceed with caution.

Swarm activity remaining: 9:59 minutes]

Gu Jing Sheng: "..."

She had no idea what the others had done, but in her case, she'd barely skimmed the item description. So why had the bees been provoked? Were the others using anti-aircraft guns to harvest fruit?

As screams echoed from other players, Gu Jing Sheng immediately bolted for the orchard's exit in a full sprint—a move she'd wanted to try since playing "Marvelous." Leveraging her nature-loving physique to the fullest, her movements were seamless. With a light push against the fence, she vaulted over—

CRASH—

She didn't know how fast the bees were, but she was definitely faster—the dilapidated fence couldn't support her weight, and with a series of thuds, it collapsed, sending her tumbling down the hillside alongside it.

Author's Note:

Gu Jing Sheng's current items: [Elderwood Brand Bandage], [Forest Clinic's Special Sale Blood Vials], [The Great Detective's Friend], [One-Hour Resurrection Trial Coupon], [Little Fool's Bee Friend], [Shattered Pot Suspected to Be a Palace Artifact].

I actually quite enjoy writing these item descriptions.

Translator's Notes

风水 (fēng shuǐ)

• Literal Meaning: "Wind-Water"

• Definition: An ancient Chinese practice of arranging spaces to harmonize with natural energy (qi). Balances yin-yang and the five elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, water) to enhance health, luck, and prosperity. Used in architecture and interior design.

Number 4 (四 - sì)

• Cultural Significance: Considered unlucky in Chinese culture because its pronunciation (sì) sounds like the word for "death" (死 - sǐ).

PHS (小灵通 - Xiǎo Líng Tōng) was a low-cost mobile phone system popular in China (1998-2011), known for:

• Limited mobility (worked only in local zones like cordless phones)

• Cheap call rates (priced closer to landlines than cellular)

• Simple handsets (basic calling/SMS, no internet)

• Phased out as 3G/4G networks expanded

I will interchangeably use Happy Board Games vs Happy Tabletop Games when it fits the context of the story better.