By this point, everyone was exhausted.
No one knew how much time had passed outside. All the phones were put in the locker. There were no clues to be found, and the clues that were found couldn't be put together. Everyone was completely confused.
And while searching for clues, they would often face frights.
In particular, Liang Shi obtained a crystal ball while searching for clues in the sixth level, and then fell into a trap. A wooden board suddenly opened, and she fell vertically onto a soft cushion. The scene changed directly for her, while the others were trapped in another space.
The space she was in was pitch black, so dark that she couldn't see her own hand in front of her face. After entering, she called out to Xu Qingzhu several times, but found that the other person couldn't hear her at all, but she could hear the voices of other people.
She heard Xu Qingzhu calling her, and she also heard everyone discussing what kind of space she had entered.
She sat on the cushion and boldly reached out to touch it, but found nothing.
After a while, she heard Xu Qingzhu call out, "Liang Shi, if you're scared, lean against the wall, close your eyes, and wait for me to come over."
“Impossible,” the veteran player said. “She’s doing a solo mission now. She must have clues waiting for her to find, and then she can combine them with the clues on our side to get out of this level together.”
Liang Shi replied in a low voice, "I'll try to look for it."
Those outside couldn't hear her reply.
Liang Shi didn't particularly like dark environments, but he wasn't afraid of them either.
This is because darkness amplifies all of our senses, making us more sensitive to sounds and touches.
It was probably because she behaved so badly while watching the horror movie that day that Xu Qingzhu thought she was ridiculously timid.
Liang Shi felt it was necessary to correct the erroneous image he had in Xu Qingzhu's mind.
She slowly stood up, supporting herself against the wall. Knowing nothing about the secret room, she tried to find the light switch on the wall, but there was nothing there.
The wall was smooth, and there was nothing on it.
Once her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she was able to see a little bit of what was there, such as a reflective mirror in the right corner.
I don't know where the light was reflected.
When she got the mirror, she found that it was a mirror that could be lit up, the kind of touch-sensitive makeup mirror.
But in this situation, in this environment, a glowing mirror that allows you to see a face is even more frightening.
At least when Liang Shi opened the mirror and saw his own face, he thought he was an NPC and was startled.
However, since the mirror could be turned upside down to serve as a light source, she still looked for a lamp first.
She searched the wall she was leaning against but couldn't find any light switch, and she heard an argument taking place up there.
Xu Qingzhu wanted Liang Shi to stay put, believing that there were no usable clues on Liang Shi's side. However, the rest of the people believed that there must be clues on Liang Shi's side, and that they needed to work together from the inside to get through this.
The immersive escape room experience they bought was a complete package, which was very expensive, costing nearly three thousand yuan per person, and was limited to ten hours. Only if they couldn't get out within ten hours would they be allowed to use the safety exit.
At other times, there is no way to leave unless you are so frightened that you faint or your soul leaves your body, and you cry out that you don't want to play anymore. If you wave your hand at the camera and say the safety word, someone will come to pick you up. Once you leave, it is considered that you have given up and there will be no refund.
Therefore, most people want to finish the game.
Most people who come here to play are not short of money, but spending several hours in an escape room can be very uncomfortable.
It was a dark and crowded place, and even the air wasn't fresh.
There's simply no way to get people to speak properly.
When we first entered, everyone seemed easy to get along with, but by the later levels, everyone's patience was almost exhausted, and all they wanted to do was solve the puzzles, pass the levels, and leave this place as soon as possible.
Xu Qingzhu's suggestion was like trapping everyone in a locked room, so naturally no one agreed.
But Xu Qingzhu firmly said, "If she has any leads, we should be able to hear her voice, but right now we can't hear anything, so I tend to tell her to stay put."
The others disagreed and started discussing it amongst themselves.
Xu Qingzhu ignored him and continued searching for clues, her movements becoming much faster than before.
Seeing her remain silent, the other players all looked at the veteran player from the escape room, who instantly became the backbone of the game.
They relied heavily on Xu Qingzhu in the first few rounds because Xu Qingzhu had strong logical reasoning skills and could even solve problems like astrophysics. So everyone joked at the beginning that they had met a top student and didn't have to worry about not being able to solve the problems. Analyzing logic and finding clues were Xu Qingzhu's strengths.
Now Xu Qingzhu is doing everything by herself, and no one else agrees. The veteran player finally said, "Let's find a tool to contact them. There must be one."
She still preferred to work with Liang Shi from the inside, and then she tapped the floorboard where Liang Shi had fallen, "Player 4, do you have any tools on your side that can communicate with this side?"
"Why are you so sure she can hear you?" someone asked.
An experienced player said, "There was a warning when she fell."
The instant Liang Shi fell, a voice rang out, "Ding-a-ling! You took my crystal ball! Gotcha! Now your friends can't hear you anymore!"
She only said that her friends couldn't hear her, but didn't say that she couldn't hear her friends.
If it were normal, they would definitely say – you can't contact each other anymore!
Xu Qingzhu also used this as a basis for her judgment.
However, she ignored them and buried herself in searching for clues.
Meanwhile, in another space, Liang Shi searched for a long time with the mirror but still couldn't find the lamp. Instead, he was confronted by an NPC who gave him a close-up look.
And it happened one after another.
The first one was an NPC dressed in red, like a woman getting married, with gorgeous makeup and long black hair that almost dragged on the ground, hanging upside down from the roof.
As she waved the mirror around the wall, she was reflected directly in the mirror, her face only five centimeters away from Liang Shi's.
A very intimate close-up shot.
The mirror reflecting Liang Shi's face was enough to startle her, let alone encountering the red-clad NPC. She was so frightened that she screamed and grabbed at a wig.
But the wig was sticky, so she threw it on the ground in fright.
...
It's scary.
It's terrifying.
Liang Shi's heart was pounding, and her mind went completely blank.
It was much scarier than watching the horror movie that day. She had no idea what to do or where it would be safe to go.
She just wanted to leave.
While she was still in shock, a hand grabbed her foot; it seemed to be a glowing object.
She had clearly thrown away the mirror, and as long as she didn't look, she wouldn't encounter that terrifying close-up attack again, but an NPC dressed in fluorescent white grabbed her foot and stuffed something under her feet.
Liang Shi didn't even feel what she had stuffed in her; just seeing her figure was enough to make him scream.
The two NPCs felt as if their eardrums had been shattered, but it was only one sound. After the initial shock, Liang Shi stood still, not moving at all.
She didn't know what to do.
Until she heard Xu Qingzhu say, "Liang Shi, just find a corner to hide in, I'll come find you."
Liang Shi's foot, which had been grabbed by the NPC, had lost all feeling. She numbly moved her body and curled up in a dark corner.
This feeling is very familiar, as if I've experienced it many times before.
...
Liang Shi felt as if she had fallen into a boundless deep sea, surrounded by endless water that threatened to engulf her.
Memories kept regressing, tinged with a somber hue, like watching an old movie from the last century.
The forgotten things came crashing down on her like a tidal wave, filling her mind.
All memories of darkness.
She has huddled in the darkness like this more than once.
Including the original owner's.
When her luck stat reached 80, the system said she had unlocked the right to use this body and given her some memories, but those memories were mostly bright and didn't contain much anything special.
The system said that most of the memories were possessed by the original owner's powerful consciousness and were unwilling to be given to her, and the Resentment Management Bureau could not forcefully seize the memories.
But now... a flood of dark memories are coming back.
In the dark basement, she huddled in a cold corner, next to a girl in a blue princess dress.
That's Qi Jiao.
Qi Jiao sat beside her, hugging her knees, and asked, "Why did your mother send you here?"
She said, "I don't know."
Qi Jiao asked her, "Did you do something wrong?"
She shook her head again: "I don't know."
She wasn't as old as Lingdang is now back then; she was definitely at an age where she didn't understand anything.
She didn't know what she had done wrong, nor did she know why Qiu Zimin had sent her here, especially under the pretext of giving Qi Jiao more playmates.
After a while, she said in a muffled voice, "I broke Mom's favorite vase."
Qi Jiao said, "It's just a vase, we can just buy another one."
"Mom said I was being naughty and disobedient."
"..."
The innocent conversation echoed in the dark space, but not long after, Qi Jiao was called away.
According to Qi Jiao, who returned later, she needed to change into a brand new and beautiful princess dress, take a fragrant bath, and then play the piano in front of the guests because guests had come to visit.
But she played a wrong note.
There were too many people, she was too nervous and too afraid of making a mistake, but she still made one.
Normally no one would have been able to tell, but the person who came was the father's classmate and friend, and the friend's son was also learning to play the piano.
That syllable was insignificant to the piece, and playing it wrong wouldn't have made any difference, but the little boy noticed it and immediately shouted, "You played it wrong!" after she played it wrong.
This caused her to pause for a moment.
Although I played the whole piece very carefully afterward, I didn't make any more mistakes.
However, because of this syllable, her father belittled her in front of the guests, and she could only bow her head and admit her mistake.
The mother's expression was not good.