The king looked a little nervous. After the ground stopped shaking, his tense muscles gradually relaxed.
Wen Zheng shifted his gaze to the paintings.
"What are all these?!" Deng Puyue asked, bewildered. "Sparrows? Frogs? Butterflies? Snails... And what is this?"
The king walked over and said confidently, "Cicada."
The small animals in the picture frame each stand upright like a person, dressed in medieval finery. Sashes are pinned from their shoulders to their hips.
"Freedom Castle?" Deng Puyue clutched her head. "What does that even mean?! Is there any key plot diary that can give us some background information?! This is just blind guessing; we don't even know what we're supposed to be guessing! What a crappy game company!"
I don't know which word struck a chord, but suddenly, all the little animals in the picture frame started singing loudly!
“Vittoria! Vittoria!”
"Your Majesty, I am your Sparrow Knight!"
"Your Majesty, I am your Minister of Cicadas!"
…………
"Your Majesty, I am your Butler Butler!"
"Vittoria! Vittoria!—"
The sudden chorus almost gave them a heart attack, and the comments section was filled with curses. Wen Zheng took a breath and glanced at the King out of the corner of his eye.
The king's hair was even more disheveled than before... He stared at the sparrow steward with a bitter and resentful look, as if he wanted to tear it off the painting, his eyes filled with murderous intent.
Author's Note: Ughhhhh, even I think it's so short!
But that's all for now, thank you. Once I become a paid user, it'll get much longer! I hope you won't abandon me 555
Dahei's nickname for today: Pearl!
Mingzhu: He spoke ill of me!
Chapter 22
After the song ended, the paintings slowly moved to both sides, revealing a grid pattern on the wall with red on the left and blue on the right, four squares on the left and four on the right.
Above the grid strips, there were small animal stickers resembling refrigerator magnets.
Suddenly, the foreign friend clapped his hands and exclaimed, "I know! This is victory!"
"What?" Deng Puyue was stunned. "What victory?"
The translation system assumed that everything the foreign friend said had to be translated, so he could only point to the sign on the wall: "None of you have played this? Before the era of holographic games began, our parents' generation all played it when they were kids! VITTORIA, this puzzle game! Oh dear, you Chinese-speaking people really didn't have a childhood!"
Upon hearing this, Wen Zheng and Deng Puyue both vaguely remembered it.
Before holographic games become widespread, we live in an era of artificial intelligence revolution, where children have many new types of toys, such as plush animals that can talk to children and Barbie dolls that can play chess with them.
Although its behavioral logic is imperfect, it's enough to deal with children.
During that period, there was a comprehensive game that swept across Europe and America: Vittoria. Almost every child played it.
Since Wen Zheng and Deng Puyue were unfamiliar with its rules, their foreign friend Mo Ya took over the operation.
But his first step was to ask for everyone's opinions: "Uh, first of all, we need to categorize the existing lineup."
The grid is divided into two camps, red 4 against blue 4, and the goal is to separate eight small animals—sparrow, butterfly, frog, cicada, rabbit, pill bug, swallow, and snail—into two categories.
There is no standard answer to traditional VITTORIA, but since this is a space for survival, everyone still needs to come up with a set of rules.
“King,” Deng Puyue murmured to herself, “They kept calling him ‘King’ while we were singing. The King is the master of this castle, and should also be the protagonist of this instance. These little animals are his…ministers? Knights? I’ve forgotten the rest.”
After a moment of silence, everyone felt that this king... was in a rather miserable state.
There are four types of insects, and others include birds, mammals, and amphibians. Everyone thought about food chains, phyla, classes, and orders, but Wen Zheng stared quietly for a while before finally speaking: "It's wings."
“VITTORIA is an educational game for children, and birds and insects are things that children are close to, so the classification cannot be too scientific. Freedom Castle, freedom, swallows and sparrows, cicadas and butterflies, these four things can fly.”
Deng Puyue suddenly realized and continued, "So, those that fly in the sky and those that run on the ground are fine!"
Moya supported it, and the king had no objections, so the classification was finalized, and the "refrigerator magnets" were moved to the grid.
Just as they were moved, a flash of white light appeared, and the framed pictures started singing again, swapping positions according to their original order.
The only door behind them slowly opened, revealing a brightly lit staircase before them.
It's bright white.
The stairs go down on the left and up on the right. There's also a notice hanging at the entrance saying that once you've chosen a route, you can't retreat.
"I want to go down!" Moya clenched his fist: "According to this fairytale setting, going down can take me to the Earth's core!"
Deng Puyue shook his red coat: "Big brother, look up at the headline!? Freedom Castle, what freedom is there if you don't fly!?"
As soon as they finished speaking, the three veteran players quickly realized that they had reached a fork in the road in the game.
Aside from the clueless king, the three quickly followed their tacit agreement and played rock-paper-scissors.
After guessing, Deng Puyue and Mo Ya waved and went downstairs. Wen Zheng then called out to the King, "You're in my group, let's go upstairs."
The king grunted and followed.
Bullet comments:
- Waaaaah... Mingzhu is so good.
Mingzhu became very well-behaved after being frightened by the sparrows' singing.
I'm sending gifts to Mingzhu!
-Breaking news, breaking news! I just checked the platform homepage and our Z-Da live stream has climbed to third place... while Shan Yu is only fourth.
-What?!? We bet on Shan Yu?!? Damn it, it's all Mingzhu's fault for using her beauty to seduce me in such a cruel way.
-P.S., Once I put my mind to Z's photos, I felt the scenery was so beautiful that I couldn't help but tip.
Yes, if my Z University is a wild sports car, then Mingzhu is the beautiful model on the hood of that sports car.
- Hahaha, please shut up!
The comments scrolled by quickly. Wen Zheng glanced at them briefly and, seeing that there were no discordant words or arguments, let it go.
However, he agreed on one point: the king was much more obedient today than when he first met him.
I'm not used to him touching things carelessly, nor saying anything outrageous or telling him to get lost.
"You've never played Vittoria? Have you?" Wen Zheng asked casually as he went upstairs.
"...No." The king's voice was muffled, as if he was not very happy.
"So what have you played?" Wen Zheng pushed open the door, and a spacious hall came into view. He heard Da Wang say behind him, "...playing mahjong."
Wen Zheng: "..."
He almost laughed, then pointed to the sparrow knight holding a sword in the corner: "Then you can handle this one."
The basic gameplay of VITTORIA involves battling various intelligent toys. Wen Zheng hadn't played it before, but he knew it definitely wouldn't be a contest of independent diamonds against the Butterfly Butler...
The butterfly butler, taller than a person, spread its wings and proudly declared, "Outsider! Only by defeating me can you see the king's decree!"
Upon hearing the word "King," Wen Zheng's interest was piqued. He thought he could fight monsters, but the Butterfly Butler conjured up a cross-shaped chessboard with a wave of his hand.
Solo Diamonds is an ancient single-player board game invented in the French court. Having lived in the survival space for so long, Wen Zheng has played countless variations of this game.
"Your Majesty, would you like to play?"
"No." The king turned his head away. Wen Zheng said, "Then if I come across something you know how to do, I'll let you play it."
Having successfully passed the Butterfly Butler, the next one was the Cicada Minister, who brought out a nine-linked ring.
The king's eyes lit up as soon as he saw it: "I know how to do this!"
He took it, deftly disassembled it, his long, beautiful fingers flying up and down, it seemed he had played with it quite a bit.
Wen Zheng did not disturb him.
Next up was the Mahjong Knight's Huarong Road puzzle. The King quickly solved it again, and was overjoyed. As he left the area, he glanced triumphantly at the Mahjong Knight, who was holding a sword and weeping sadly.
Wen Zheng silently thought that perhaps this king was indeed more suited to the game "Survival Space," just as the comments suggested. After all, most people... rarely take the plot seriously, but the king seemed to have deep feelings for every NPC.
The last of the swallow guards brought a Rubik's Cube.
These four toys are all world-renowned educational toys, and they are all single-player games.
It's fun, but it's also really lonely.
Wen Zheng quickly solved the Rubik's Cube and handed it back to Captain Swallow. The captain looked utterly shocked, as if he couldn't breathe: "You, you guys, solved it so quickly!? Waaah... Alright then, the king's decree is—"
At the call of the head guard, a little boy with pure white hair walked down the stairs step by step.
He was expressionless, wearing a crown and a scarlet cloak.
The minister, the knight, the steward, and the captain of the guard all prostrated themselves on the ground: "Your Majesty!"
The king looked at him with disdain: "This is it? Your Majesty?"
Wen Zheng: "...This game is sometimes like that."
Although the king was only as tall as their thighs, he had a very imposing presence. With a wave of his small hand, he declared magnanimously, "Commoners entering the palace must change into fine clothes. Butler Butler, you have failed in your duty."
The butterfly butler, sweating profusely, nodded slowly with its antennae, saying, "Yes, yes!"
With a flap of its wings, colorful light spots floated around the two of them, and their clothes suddenly changed!
Wen Zheng was dressed in a blue velvet knight's outfit, with wide-legged trousers tucked into riding boots, and a long sword inlaid with jewels hanging at his waist.
Turning to look at the king, his long hair was tied up with a gold and red ribbon, he wore a red double-breasted gown with wide lace sleeves and a cloak.
Wen Zheng was stunned.
The barrage of comments exploded like fireworks—
I swear! This dungeon is amazing!!!
-Seriously amazing! Took so many photos! This is the first time I've ever seen Z in a dungeon wearing anything other than a black top and pants!
- Mingzhu is so beautiful, it's so beautiful it's made my head fall off. Has anyone seen my head?
-……