The central hall of the living space bustles with people. The high glass dome lets in the starlight of the night.
In the very center stands a glowing stone pillar with various rankings on it. Every day, passersby squat here to admire the names of the big shots.
Today is different from usual. Not only are there leaderboards, but two huge banners are also hanging in the air, enthusiastically celebrating World Cat Day, blah blah blah...
Wen Zheng closed the game announcement pop-up and glanced at the time: 11:28. He randomly entered a basic dungeon called [Frost Cube], transforming into a streak of blue light and teleporting inside.
Blue light coalesced into a human form, and Wen Zheng's virtual character appeared at the starting point of the instance.
He was dressed in black, with a game-style tool bag slung across his waist.
Just as I stood still, a message from Deng Puyue came in.
"Holy crap, Zheng Ge, what are you doing here! Is the live stream on? Where's the cat?"
Wen Zheng silently swallowed the "I'll start immediately" that was about to come out: "Unconscious."
Deng Puyue is also a streamer on the platform. She has a one-sided friendship with Wen Zheng, and calls herself Wen Zheng's "accessory".
"Is the incubator lid closed? What if it wakes up, crawls out, scratches, and pees everywhere? Don't impulsively kill the cat..."
Wen Zheng's brow twitched, and he said irritably, "I set up a monitoring alert."
"……oh."
After a few seconds of internal struggle, Deng Puyue happily exclaimed, "You got into the basic game? Aren't we playing multiplayer games tonight?"
"No need to schedule it." Wen Zheng casually set the scope of the puzzle database, then said, "I'll stop after one hour."
"Okay!" Deng Puyue didn't press the matter further: "We'll talk about it when you have time! Don't worry when the cat wakes up, just call me if anything comes up."
"Don't get angry, anger hurts your health. I won't get angry if others do..."
Wen Zheng's external phone suddenly rang. Deng Puyue heard it too and said before he could reply, "Brother Zheng, you answer the phone, I'm hanging up!"
Wen Zheng took a deep breath and opened the communication.
“Master,” he said in a deep voice.
The voice on the other end of the phone was that of a refined middle-aged man, his tone filled with concern.
"Zhengzheng, did you see the message I sent you this afternoon? It's my colleague's relative's daughter, a year younger than you. She's well-behaved, sensible, and beautiful. She really likes you after seeing your picture. She said she'll be free tomorrow night, so I've made a reservation for you at Suiyu Tea Restaurant. It's not far from your workplace... Hey, Zhengzheng, are you listening?"
“…” Wen Zheng waited for the other person to finish speaking, then hummed in agreement.
"Don't be reluctant. Her family is quite well-off, and she even studied abroad. I've met the young lady; she has a good manner and demeanor... Take this seriously, remember to dress neatly, and don't go looking disheveled, okay?"
Wen Zheng took a deep breath, trying to control his agitation: "I understand."
The other party was very satisfied.
"It's settled then. I'll send you the girl's number right away. Okay, you should get some rest."
"Master too."
After hanging up the phone, Wen Zheng turned on the live stream.
The live streaming assistant for AiMao Live is displayed as a semi-transparent frame within the internal plugins of the survival space. Wen Zheng moved the frame to the upper right corner of his field of vision, shrunk it, and glanced at a barrage of comments.
- Oh my god, look what I found! The legendary streamer Z is streaming! My grandma's favorite streamer is actually streaming!
"..." Wen Zheng said, "Something really came up, so I got back late. There's nothing good to watch today, just the basic episodes, only an hour of broadcast."
After saying that, he stopped explaining, turned to the level in front of him, and clicked "Start".
The so-called basic level in the survival space is the single-player challenge mode.
The terrain is relatively simple, there's no storyline, and exploration is basically unnecessary. Puzzles are randomly selected from a puzzle library according to certain rules, and the final boss provides a weapon that can be used to defeat him during the game.
The Frost Cube instance, as simple as its name suggests, consists of cubes made of ice.
Wen Zheng silently observed his surroundings.
Three-meter square ice cubes are arranged on the ground in a 5x5 grid. There are 25 grids, but only 24 ice cubes; the missing one is the bottom left square from the direction Wen Zheng entered.
If we encode it horizontally as AE and vertically as 1-5, then cell E1 is missing.
Looking up, I saw three white "suns" hanging in the sky, each in a different direction.
The ice block suddenly rumbled and shook. Wen Zheng was standing on the initial E5 grid. At D5 directly in front of him, a convex lens about half the height of a person slowly rose up and was sealed inside the ice sculpture.
It seems they need to unlock the important prop, the convex lens, through some means.
Just then, a 5x5 grid suddenly descended rapidly from mid-air, with the twenty-six letters, excluding Z, shuffled and embedded in each square.
The checkered plate remained in sight for no more than three seconds before rapidly melting away.
A grid of letters appeared in front of the convex lens, completely empty. A large golden countdown suddenly appeared in the air, displaying one minute and thirty seconds.
Viewers who just entered the live stream: ………………
What happened? Why is there a countdown?
-I remember! It was something like SA...D...Sorry, goodbye.
Why did you even bother with this question?! Ugh, ten seconds have passed!
- My view of basic puzzle games: Connect-the-dots, match-3, spot the difference. Z's view of basic puzzle games: Memory disk, password replacement, rotating pipes :)
-It's that horrible memory disk I hate the most again! Why is it flashing so fast?!
The levels that test short-term memory are collectively known by players as the Devil's Memory Palette.
The more numbers there are, and the more complex the symbols, the harder they are to remember.
But in essence, it's not difficult at all, and you don't even need to think about it. Just point out what you see in order.
Wen Zheng stepped forward, dialed the number as if making a phone call, his movements fluid and without pause.
The ice sculpture on the convex lens shattered with a crack, and the cat paw firework symbolizing the completion of the level sparkled.
Then, several clumps of thorns rose from the ice.
Passersby started spamming ellipses and "666," while longtime fans in the live chat opportunely recommended it—
-Hey friend, have you heard of Z, who's number one on the memory disk ranking? He's also on the crystal ranking!
-I've heard of him, and I've also heard that he's mute.
A passerby answered frankly.
Wen Zheng glanced at the comments at that moment, then hesitated to speak.
No.
You're the one who's mute.
I can speak.
The opening greeting, the closing farewell, the plot guessing, and the explanation of the puzzle's pattern—not a single word was omitted.
Why do people always spread rumors?
I didn't say anything earlier because there wasn't much to say about the memory disk.
The basic levels aren't complicated because there's no story or background, and there's very little to explore; they're mainly for players to practice. Wen Zheng usually doesn't talk much about the basic levels, but that person's rumor just now made him very unhappy.
So he forced himself to speak: "Besides burning thorns, convex lenses will also be useful at the bottom of the gate. We see that there are three suns in the sky, so there will also be three convex lenses on the field. According to the line connecting the direction of the sun and the position of the thorns, the other two convex lenses will appear at A3 and E2 respectively."
Comments: ? ? ? ? ?
Comment: When did you see three suns?
Comment: What connection?
Comments: Wait, slow down!
“Another piece of evidence that the convex lens is still useful is that burning thorns only requires adjusting the up-down flip angle, but this convex lens device can also be flipped left-right. So let’s bend it to about this angle…” Wen Zheng looked up at the sky: “That’ll do.”
Comments: ? ? ? ? ? ?
Comments: Why are you arguing like this?
Comments: What's ready?
Comments: Please, Z-sama, let me die knowing why!
Wen Zheng solved various puzzles along the way, including jigsaw puzzles, variations of push-box puzzles, circuit wiring, and disassembling small mechanical keys... He smoothly made his way to the end of the level.
The locks on the three convex lenses were unlocked, and he finally stood on grid B3, which had a handle that could only be moved forward, backward, left, and right.
“Ah, this is a simple numbered Huarong Road puzzle,” Wen Zheng said. “Leave the center square empty, and burn the three convex lenses right there. That should be enough to burn out the boss.”
As he spoke, he moved the wrench, the ice beneath him rumbling loudly, the sensation of moving the ground often making him a little dizzy.
But Wen Zheng was clearly very adaptable, and soon he had cleared out the center square of the 5x5 grid.
Surprisingly, after the displacement, the three convex lenses were now perfectly positioned, refracting the sunlight overhead, which shone directly into the central open space, converging into a single point.
- I understand.
How did I come to understand `-ls`? Brother, please explain so I can die knowing why!
-Seeking understanding +1
-Seeking understanding +2
In other words, when Z first entered the map, he knew that he would eventually have to create a digital Huarong Road puzzle, and he knew that the center position should be left empty. He even figured out where the squares containing several convex lenses would be moved to, and he could adjust the convex lenses that were not in that position by imagining the refraction angle of the convex lenses in that position.
- ...Goodbye.
- Goodbye +1
-I thought it was Clara's magic.
-Clara Magic +∞
Normally, you don't need to play the basic levels like this.
To enhance the player's gaming experience, the countdown for the first instant memory can be repeated. If you don't remember it the first time, you can watch it two or three times; it just takes longer.
As for the final adjustment of the convex lens angle, it can be done after the Huarong Road has been moved, and then adjusted towards the sun.
Wen Zheng was just trying to reach the final boss as quickly as possible. He had spent half the day grinding just to beat up some monsters and have some fun.
The boss can only emerge when the light melts the ground. While waiting, Wen Zheng glanced at the comments and casually asked, "What is Clara's magic?"
-Didn't Z see the announcement?! It's an event to celebrate World Cat Day! For the next week, there will be random time extensions or temporary hints as rewards in the dungeon~~~ The reward is called Clara's Magic~~~