Chapter 380: King Meets King

The avalanche that buried everything came and went in a flash. The Alps Valley quickly fell silent… Snow still drifted down, the landscape remained cloaked in white, as if nothing had ever happened.

Against the vast, white sky, a helicopter banked and flew away.

In the cabin, the Witch took one last look at the snowy landscape below. She then pulled her gaze from the window and looked down at her phone.

She opened the [Genius Playground] app and glanced at her points in the upper-right corner of the screen—

497,210,000

Then she looked up at the members’ avatars, arranged in two rows at the top.

There were eleven avatars in total, and four had now turned gray:

No. 3 Priest, No. 7 King, No. 8 Puppet, and No. 11 Princess.

These were the four contestants who had been eliminated so far, permanently losing their spots in the Genius Playground.

“The competition has been so fierce lately,”

she muttered to herself,

“but from now on… it’s bound to get even more intense.”

After that, the Witch opened the push notification list and scrolled through it from bottom to top.

The most recent notification at the bottom was the announcement that she had just spent 49,000,000 points to trigger the avalanche. The one just above it was the announcement of No. 8 Puppet’s elimination.

Both announcements were her handiwork, and with such a short interval between them, it was self-evident. Everyone would be able to guess that she had killed the Puppet.

Of the four members eliminated so far, she had personally taken out two of them… It was almost comical when she thought about it. Everyone called her a shit-stirrer, yet she unexpectedly had the highest kill count.

‘But what do I do now?’

Her delicate brows furrowed as she began to think.

She had been forced to be so active lately. The original plan had been simple: have Fang Ze infiltrate Jiang Ran’s circle, playing the part of the oriole that stalks the mantis, ready to reap the profits from their conflict.

But she never expected Fang Ze to be unable to resist the temptation of a permanent spot in the Genius Playground and betray her.

In truth, the Witch wasn’t surprised by this.

Such is human nature. She had long known this day would come, that this situation would arise.

No member would ever willingly give a spare Identity Coin to someone else. Doing so was tantamount to creating a new opponent—and one who knew you best, at that. It was the most dangerous and irrational thing one could do.

Her goal when she gave the Princess Coin to Zhou Xiong was to have him stir up trouble at the class reunion and disrupt the Priest’s plans.

She had investigated Zhou Xiong’s personality beforehand. He was the type of person who would definitely use Lilith to satisfy all sorts of base desires, and he certainly wouldn’t think twice about the all-member notification triggered by spending over 10 million.

Therefore, it was inevitable that Zhou Xiong would expose his identity and be killed by another member. She had originally wanted to use him as bait to lure out more “fish,” but unfortunately, the Priest was one step ahead and sent someone to kill Zhou Xiong first.

This wasn’t surprising. The Priest’s focus was also on that class reunion; faced with bait delivered right to his doorstep, it was impossible for him not to take it.

In the end, her plan proved to be perfect. A perfect execution of killing with a borrowed knife. She had eliminated the most powerful member, the Priest, completely shattering the oppressive atmosphere in the Genius Playground and reigniting the battle.

The “knife” she had borrowed was Jiang Ran, and the member backing him.

But now, having lost the pawn that was Fang Ze, she had completely lost her connection to Jiang Ran… This was going to be tricky.

“This is going to be tough,”

the Witch muttered under her breath.

With Fang Ze now vanished from the face of the earth, it was impossible for Jiang Ran not to raise his guard. People around the boy were being killed or disappearing one after another. Even a fool would have realized the danger by now.

So, the most prudent course of action was to lie low for a while, stay away from the conflict, and watch the tigers fight from her mountaintop.

‘Little Jiang Ran and his friends won’t be slowing down; they’ll only pick up the pace.’

The Witch continued her analysis:

‘After all, his situation is already very dangerous. East Sea City is about to become the epicenter of the battle. If he doesn’t put in some effort, he’ll be caught by someone else. Heh heh, now that’s a situation I’d like to see.’

The Witch continued to scroll her phone screen, looking at the third-to-last all-member notification…

It was a push notification from October 2nd, 2025, announcing the elimination of No. 3 Priest. But to this day, no one within the Genius Playground had stepped forward to claim responsibility.

And this person had even given up the most precious and powerful ability, the [Veto Power]. This was something the Witch couldn’t wrap her head around.

The Genius Playground allowed for the inheritance of a seat. Upon inheritance, one would not only receive all the points left by the predecessor but could also inherit their Veto Power.

“Hmm…”

She reasoned, holding her chin:

‘It seems this person thinks like me. They also want the battle in the Genius Playground to reach a fever pitch, a bloodbath where everyone suffers, so the game can be won as quickly as possible.’

Very clever.

The Witch approved of this killer’s line of thinking.

If he had chosen to inherit the Priest’s points and Veto Power, he would have become everyone’s enemy, placing himself at the center of a whirlpool.

That was obviously not a good thing.

Because enemies were destined to be enemies. Even if they feigned submission or agreement for a time, they would eventually seize any opportunity to eliminate you…

Humans were just too fragile.

The Witch knew this from personal experience.

No matter how powerful a person was, once their identity was exposed, death was the only outcome.

If bullets didn’t work, there were missiles. If assassination didn’t work, there were bombs. It didn’t even matter if they were surrounded by teams of bodyguards… In fact, those bodyguards were easier to deal with, easier to turn.

She hadn’t treated Fang Ze poorly and had never thought of getting rid of him. Even during their final conversation just now, she had given him three chances, willing to let bygones be bygones.