The Abyssal Garden: No Room for the Idle

All the spotlights from around the grand arena converged on contestant number one.

The surrounding screens also displayed his figure.

Contestant number one was somewhat mysterious, wearing a strange mask on his head that concealed his face. He looked at the microphone in front of him and spoke with a hoarse voice, "My name... is Carl, and I am a knight."

No sooner had he finished speaking than the seat flashed red, and a shrill noise seemed to make contestant number one a bit flustered.

The next moment.

The entire seat glowed red-hot, and he let out a scream of agony in the horrific heat.

The surrounding audience let out a sigh of "tsk tsk" and hissed in response!

Nancy, holding the microphone, laughed and said, "It seems contestant number one didn't read the rules before entering, introductions must be truthful! You have to provide at least three important pieces of information, yet you... lied about everything!"

Contestant number one's body, wherever it had been in contact with the seat, was already showing scorch marks, and the smell of charred flesh and blood drifted over with the smoke.

He spoke tremulously, "My name is John... I'm a serial killer, and my weapon is a chainsaw."

Nancy snapped her fingers, "It seems this time it's true. However, you, having been punished, are still very cunning, splitting 'chainsaw killer' into... two pieces of information."

Contestant number two was a clown smeared with bizarre watercolor makeup and clothing; the mouth cracked open with a creepy smile, "I am here to bring joy to everyone as a clown... but also immense terror; my favorite thing is to toy with my opponents little by little."

Nancy held the microphone, "It seems the second contestant has made a dangerous declaration."

Su Qi was number nine.

And the ones before were all sorts of abnormal figures, creatures, with few being normal.

A gentleman with a burned and terrifying face, wearing a hat, had claws on his hands as weapons, laughing strangely.

Su Qi was astonished.

This could also make a sound.

Everyone was on guard against everything like usual, wary of each other, speaking extremely briefly within the rules, careful not to reveal too much key information.

But it was obvious that all of them radiated extreme danger.

"...I..." Contestant number eight was a doll, with a head of red hair, dressed in overalls, short in stature: "Hee hee hee, my name's Ah Ji... I'm good at killing people, it doesn't matter what weapon, hee hee hee!"

The laugh was childish, but it carried an air of terror, as if something else was hidden.

It was Su Qi's turn now, and the microphone twinkled with light.

A large number of spotlights gathered on him, and the screens also displayed his figure.

The other beings around the round table also watched this seemingly most harmless guy, with varied expressions but eyes radiating a startling chill.

Very obviously.

In their eyes, Su Qi seemed to be the weakest of them all.

Su Qi moved the microphone a bit towards himself and began to speak slowly, "Um... comrades."

His voice echoed through every corner of the arena.

"I'll keep it brief."

"First of all, I am very honored!"

"To sit together today with so many dragons and young phoenixes, in front of so many audiences from different places, one cannot help but feel a bit excited..."

Nancy was somewhat stunned, as everyone else had given brief self-introductions. What are you going on about?

The other abnormals stared coldly at Su Qi, who wouldn't stop talking.

"Secondly, to the other eleven contestants, I hope you can put friendship first, competition second... and not always have 'killing' on your lips. Think about it, everyone sitting together harmoniously, eating hotpot and singing songs, sharing contact information, discussing life - wouldn't that be nice?"

Nancy: "...."

Was this contestant showing weakness to the others? And after talking so much, all of it was nonsense... not a single useful piece of information.

Su Qi gave a faint smile, "Of course, if you don't accept that, then that's too bad, just pretend I didn't say anything earlier."

Nancy: "..."

He really wanted to ask, what the hell are you doing, but since the other party didn't break the rules, he couldn't do anything about it.

"Lastly..." Su Qi spoke into the microphone:

"Let me introduce myself."

"The person sitting in front of you now is..." His gaze turned sharp, his voice thunderous:

"The champion of the third-quarter marble championship! Winner of the 38th Junior Firepower King! The reigning champion of the neighborhood Landlord card game! The youngest winner in the old folks' home mahjong competition! A soccer enthusiast, a haggling expert, a swindler spotter, the Savior of Srilan, a sunny and cheerful big boy—Sect Hierarch of The Hustlers Sect!"

A series of rapid sounds filled the entire arena.

The audience was dumbstruck!

The abnormals also paused in amazement, apparently not having caught on.

Nancy's eyes were wide open, his mouth agape, unsure what to say!

What the hell was all that? It sounded impressive, but on closer inspection, it felt like nothing—key point was that it somehow didn't break the rules and trigger punishment.

Nancy fell into a cursed silence!

Su Qi paused for a moment, seized the brief gap and commenced, "It seems you all haven't had enough, so let me say just a few more words."

His tone was sincere, reaching every ear.

"That won't be necessary!"

Nancy responded quickly as a professional host, hurriedly interrupting Su Qi.

"But I haven't finished yet, I was just about to talk about the five-dollar..."

"Cut this guy's mic," Nancy couldn't help but roar.

Su Qi's voice abruptly stopped, and Nancy wiped his forehead where there was no sweat, let out a dry laugh to the audience and said, "Sorry for losing composure there, but for the sake of the show's progression, let's first listen to the next few contestants introduce themselves."

Su Qi's microphone even automatically moved two meters away from him.

?

Su Qi looked dissatisfied.

Don't you understand freedom of speech? Besides, didn't I pay a registration fee to participate in this show?

The last three seemed much more normal.

A regular cat just meowed a few times to complete its self-introduction.

A starfish wearing shorts, seemingly not very clever, smiled dumbly, "I don't have a brain, I'm an idiot, I like to catch jellyfish."

Somehow, also did not break any rules.

And the last one... he had three eyes, all with a mysterious gleam, and when he extended his hand, he actually only had three fingers, "I am a gambler, from Linyuan Land... if I lose, I will cut off one of my own fingers, otherwise... it's the other guy's fingers that get cut, hee hee hee."

He laughed creepily, high-spirited.

Su Qi sighed.

It seemed that besides himself, there was not a single normal person here.

Nancy sighed as well.

This batch of contestants... were all bizarrely abnormal.