Enter the game (2)
At this moment, the clown spoke: "Welcome to the Genius Game. The rules will be announced in thirty minutes."
Jian Tanxi asked, "What is the Genius Game? Did you bring me here? Where are the others? Where are my parents?"
However, the clown did not answer these questions, but instead drifted away.
Jian Tanxi could only look around helplessly.
She discovered that there were indeed other people there besides her. They were all lying on the ground, still unconscious.
The white mist obscured their bodies, and Jian Tanxi could no longer see their faces.
However, it's not completely impossible to see.
Not far from her, there was a hospital bed.
An elderly man with gray hair lay unconscious on the hospital bed, with an IV drip attached to his arm.
Because he was lying on the hospital bed at a certain height, the white mist only covered the foot of the bed, but not the old man's body.
Jian Tanxi went over to him, intending to wake him up.
However, after calling out several times, the old man did not respond.
Jian Tanxi had no choice but to give up and conserve her energy.
I still don't know how to beat that so-called genius game. I need to save more energy for dealing with the game.
She glanced at the elderly man on the hospital bed a few times and noticed that he had a refined appearance, somewhat like a scholar. However, she didn't recognize him.
After a while, the others lying on the ground woke up. The clown floated over, spoke to them, and then continued to float away.
Those people stood up, their faces full of blank expressions.
Jian Tanxi counted and found that there were seven people in total, including herself and the old man in the hospital bed.
The person closest to Jian Tanxi was a middle-aged woman in her thirties, who was holding the hand of a boy, presumably her son.
This middle-aged woman is about 1.55 meters tall, slightly overweight, a little hunched over, with a haggard face and some gray hair.
But the child she was holding was only five or six years old. Logically speaking, the mother wasn't very old either, so she shouldn't have so much gray hair.
Jian Tanxi felt something was strange and planned to ask about it later.
Beside the mother and child was a middle-aged man in his forties. He had an honest face, dark skin, and messy hair, suggesting he was a manual laborer.
Next to the middle-aged man stood a girl who was about 1.6 meters tall, slender, and wearing a white dress.
The girl wore glasses, had a youthful face, and a small frame, as if she hadn't fully developed, so she was probably very young, maybe only a teenager. But she wasn't childish; her brows revealed a composed wisdom that didn't seem typical of her age.
However, she is too thin. I don't know if she weighs 80 pounds, maybe even less.
The person furthest away was a young man in his twenties. He was wearing a plaid shirt, was very thin, had an upright posture, wore gold-rimmed glasses, and was quite handsome, but there was a hint of impatience in his eyes.
The first word that came to Jian Tanxi's mind when she saw him was "refined scoundrel".
However, Jian Tanxi inwardly condemned herself, wondering how she could so easily form a negative opinion of a stranger.
Everyone looked at each other, and no one spoke first.
Everyone was waiting, hoping the old man in the hospital bed would wake up, and also to see if there were any other unconscious people on the ground.
Not far away, a clock was ticking away, so everyone could estimate how much time had passed.
After waiting for ten minutes, the elderly man on the hospital bed still did not wake up, and no one else stood up at the scene.
It seems that all the living people are here.
At this moment, the young girl in the white dress spoke up: "How...did you all get here?"
Jian Tanxi hesitated, unsure whether she should tell him what had happened.
She didn't know anyone here and dared not trust anyone.
The others hesitated as well, and no one answered.
Finally, the middle-aged man in his forties with a kind face spoke first: "I don't know what happened either. I was getting my car repaired at the shop today, and when I looked up, all my colleagues and customers were gone. I looked everywhere for them, but there wasn't a single person. I ran out onto the street, but there was no one there either, and many cars were parked with their engines still running."
It was like...like someone was driving one second, and the next second the driver was gone. I went to the police station to report it, but there was no one there.
I felt a little scared, so I called my family, but the call wouldn't go through... I then tried to send messages to my family and colleagues, but the messages wouldn't go through either.
So I had no choice but to go back to the shop. Suddenly, some documents on the table came to life, sprouted arms and legs, and walked towards me. They spun around and around, making me dizzy. When I woke up, I was here.
Just as I opened my eyes, a huge clown-themed piece of paper appeared before me. It said, "Welcome to the Genius Game. The rules will be announced in thirty minutes."
This middle-aged man's experience was similar to Jian Tanxi's.
The girl in the white dress who had just asked the question also said, "Uncle, my experience is similar to yours... I was reading in the library today, and in the blink of an eye, everyone else in the library disappeared. There were some white papers scattered on the table at the library counter. Suddenly, those white papers came to life and walked towards me, and I was so frightened that I fainted."
What happened to me after I woke up was exactly the same as yours.
The others were somewhat surprised to hear that two people had said the same thing.
The remaining people no longer concealed anything and briefly explained how they came to be there, and Jian Tanxi also spoke.
Everyone's experiences are very similar.
The handsome man in the plaid shirt said, "It seems everyone has gone through something similar... Wait, there's one more person I haven't mentioned."
The handsome man looked at the old man on the hospital bed.
The old man remained with his eyes closed, not yet awake.
The handsome man frowned and said, "Sir, stop pretending to be asleep. We're all awake now. Get up too, and we can discuss how to escape together."
However, the elderly man on the hospital bed seemed not to hear, his eyes remained closed and his breathing slow.
The handsome man tried to pull the old man up, but was stopped by the kind-hearted middle-aged man.
The middle-aged man said, "If he were awake, he would have woken up long ago. I think he might be a coma patient, different from us. Look, he's still on an IV drip."
The handsome man said, "We were also unconscious just now, but we're all awake now. There's no reason why this old man shouldn't be awake."
Jian Tanxi added, "We were all healthy before, but this old gentleman was probably a seriously ill patient who had been in a coma for a long time. Even after arriving here, he might not wake up. Otherwise, why were we all lying on the ground while he was the only one lying on the hospital bed?"
The handsome man was skeptical: "The situation is very dangerous. Many people have disappeared, and we've been teleported here. We don't know how we can get out. Perhaps this is a conspiracy against all of humanity. And this old man might be deliberately lurking among us. He can observe us secretly and find an opportunity to attack us. He might be on the villains' side."
The middle-aged mother in her thirties had a different guess: "If this old man is really faking his coma, he probably just doesn't want to exert himself and wants to wait until we find a way out before waking up, so he can get through unharmed. He's unlikely to be a villain; he just doesn't want to take any risks."
If there really was a villain, or a group of villains, who orchestrated today's events, since they have the ability to wipe out humanity, they could also simply wipe us out. Dealing with us would be incredibly easy for them; there's no need for them to resort to roundabout methods like planting spies.
The middle-aged mother spoke very logically, and everyone nodded in agreement. Even the handsome man couldn't find any words to refute her.
Jian Tanxi initially thought this middle-aged mother was just an ordinary mother, but she was surprised to find that she was intelligent, calm, and rational, quite different from her appearance.
Jian Tanxi suddenly had a flash of inspiration: Could the so-called genius game be a game that only geniuses can participate in?
However, although Jian Tanxi considered herself intelligent, she was not shameless enough to think she was a genius.
The young and handsome man looked to be very intelligent; the elderly man lying unconscious on the bed also looked to be a highly educated professor or something similar. The two of them could be considered geniuses.
However, the middle-aged man was just a manual laborer and couldn't really be called a genius; and the five or six-year-old boy, who hadn't said a word and was just timidly holding his mother's hand, couldn't be called a genius either...
So, does this genius game have another meaning?
Besides, even if only geniuses can participate in the game, surely there are more than just seven geniuses in the world, right?
This is completely unreasonable.
We'll just have to wait and see what the clown has to say.
Although everyone had various speculations about the old man, his expression remained unchanged. It was unclear whether he was unconscious and unable to hear them, or whether he possessed exceptional composure and was adept at feigning composure.
At that moment, the teenage girl in the white dress looked at the elderly man on the hospital bed and suddenly exclaimed, "Isn't this Professor Pan Xian from the Chinese Academy of Sciences?"
Jian Tanxi asked in surprise, "Professor Pan Xian? You know him?"
The girl in the white dress nodded: "Yes, although I'm just a high school student, my dream is to work at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in the future. So, I know a lot about the staff at CAS. This person is Professor Pan Xian, who studies biology, and he is also the vice president of CAS."
A few days ago, I saw a news report that Professor Pan Xian had fallen into a coma due to a sudden heart attack and was rushed to the Third Affiliated Hospital of China for emergency treatment. No wonder he appeared in a hospital bed; he must still be in a coma.
Therefore, the previous guess was wrong. He's neither on the villain's side, nor is he feigning unconsciousness to avoid effort; he's genuinely unconscious. He doesn't not want to wake up; he simply can't.
After the girl in the white dress explained, everyone suddenly understood.
It seems my earlier worries were unfounded.
Professor Pan Xian's name is known to most Chinese people. He has made outstanding contributions to the field of biology in China and has won numerous awards both domestically and internationally. The Chinese Academy of Sciences is also the most prestigious research institution in China, and those who work there are among the best.
However, most people, although they have heard of him, do not know what he looks like.
Fortunately, the girl in the white dress was there, otherwise no one would have been able to figure out the old man's identity.
At this moment, the handsome middle-aged man spoke again. He looked at the girl in the white dress and said, "Wait, you're saying he's Professor Pan Xian? What proof do you have?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
