Chapter 52.3
Probably not.
Perhaps she knew that she couldn’t leave. She knew that even if they found the key and opened the door, she would never leave the escape chamber.
Maybe it was because she had been locked up in this room for too long that her consciousness, behavior and will had been completely controlled by the escape room.
Perhaps it was because… she had completely a.s.similated with the escape chamber. They had already merged into one. She was the chamber of secrets and the chamber was her. She had incarnated into the will of the chamber. Therefore, no matter how many times she started from scratch, no matter how many players she killed and how many ident.i.ties she took, in the end, she would still return to the escape chamber.
She really didn’t know where the key to the escape chamber was?
Click.
The door opened.
When the fresh air and the light from outside made its way into the chamber, Xiao Tangqiu almost cried. He took a big breath of fresh air and once again deeply realized the beauty of life.
However, just as he was about to rush out through threshold, he felt a sharp pain from his calf.
Xiao Tangqiu looked down in disbelief and found that it was the black worm.
G.o.d knows where the black worm was hiding earlier. Just as he was preparing to escape from the chamber, it rushed up to him and took a bite… This was the real oriole behind the mantis stalking the cicada.
Was he going to die like this?
He was unwilling! He clearly was about to escape!
However, the sharp pain was really brief and soon he didn’t feel anything anymore.
Xiao Tangqiu subconsciously turned around and looked at the female player.
Ever since the door to the chamber opened, the girl had stopped moving. She stopped attacking Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian, floating motionless in the water, just like a piece of furniture in this house.
She looked at Xiao Tangqiu with a blank expression, impa.s.sive eyes that held no resentment or other emotions.
Tang Mianmian didn’t know why Xiao Tangqiu suddenly stood motionless at the door. He also turned around and looked into the chamber. He was about to die from holding his breath for too long so he quickly pushed Xiao Tangqiu out of the door.
Xiao Tangqiu’s eyes were still fixed on the scene behind him before his body completely left the chamber. He saw that the broken walls in the chamber that had been ruined by the girl’s whip had been restored in an instant and changed back to their original appearance from when they first entered the place.
And that female player was still floating in the water and had no intention of rushing up to leave the Chamber of Secrets with them. She didn’t move, just like a piece of furniture or part of the decoration in the house.
She looked at the players who left the chamber with a straight face. Her eyes were vacant, without a trace of sadness or happiness.
It seemed that her fate would be the same as all the furniture in this room; they would all turn dusty with the pa.s.sage of time.
Until the next group of players entering the instance step into this room again.
The moment they escaped from the chamber, Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian fell to the ground, gasping, taking in the fresh air outside. They had never felt that the air outside was this fresh and sweet.
“f.u.c.k… What the h.e.l.l was wrong with that girl?! Didn’t she want to escape?! I can’t believe she even tried to stop us from leaving!” Tang Mianmian was the first to slow his breathing. He shouted at once, “Even if I want to die together in the name of love, I’d choose a young, beauty to die with me! I don’t want to die with that kind of freak auntie who likes to play with whips!”
He looked back and found that only he and Xiao Tangqiu had escaped. Suddenly, he was shocked. “Huh? Where is she? Didn’t she come out?”
Xiao Tangqiu shook his head. It took him a long time to recover his breath. “She didn’t come out. She stayed inside.”
Tang Mianmian froze, but for him, this wasn’t the main point anyway. He immediately asked the question he was most concerned with, “By the way, how did you find the key earlier? Didn’t we search the whole house before? Where on earth did you find it?”
Xiao Tangqiu gasped, slowly expressing his thoughts at the time.
“The most dangerous place is the safest place?”
After hearing this, Tang Mianmian couldn’t help but clap his hands and exclaim, “f.u.c.k me! Why didn’t I think of that? You’re so clever! The most dangerous place is the safest place, the most dangerous place is the safest place… But wait! Why is it that only you have a key in your pocket and it wasn’t in mine?”
Xiao Tangqiu shook his head. “I don’t know, but I guess everyone should have a key in their hand and that key may not be in the pocket. Because for me, I think that the safest place is my pocket, so that’s why I turned out my pockets at the last minute. But for others, they may think that it is safest to put it in their underwear or socks, and maybe their key will be in those places.”
Tang Mianmian had a complicated expression on his face. “For me, I really think that it’s safer to put it in my underwear. But if there’s something extra in my underwear all of a sudden, there’s no way i wouldn’t notice it… Don’t say if there’s something extra, I’ll know even if there’s something missing!”
Xiao Tangqiu shook his head again. “No, I didn’t feel anything in my pocket before I turned it out. I’m guessing this key will exist only when I a.s.sume that it’s there. Otherwise, no matter how many times I put my hand in my pocket, I won’t find it.”
Tang Mianmian laughed dryly, “It’s very complicated, but it’s good that we managed to escape!”
Just then, the others who weren’t far off realized that they had come out and walked over to welcome them.
The geek quickly asked, “Why are there only the two of you? Where are the others?”
Xiao Tangqiu shook his head and said nothing.
But his expression made everything clear.
“Are they all dead?” The geek’s expression suddenly froze. He was obviously frightened by the extremely high mortality rate and his entire body was on the verge of collapse.
Moments later, he stepped aside and said nervously, “There’s still one last event… It won’t be my turn the next event, will it… Will I die… No… my luck has always been very good… It won’t be me… It won’t be me… It won’t be…”
Aside from the geek’s reaction, the others had deadpan expression after hearing the death of their companions. Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian looked at each other. Since they knew that these people should be the last group of players who died in this instance, they didn’t think that their behavior was abnormal anymore. Anyways, from the beginning, they didn’t regard these people as their companions.
Of course, Xiao Tangqiu didn’t intend to expose these people. Firstly, he didn’t want to expose what they already knew and arouse the vigilance of those people. Secondly, there was no need. Anyway, there was only the last event left.
There was still the last event left, and there were only seven players still alive.
Originally there were 14 people, but now only half were left.
Xiao Tangqiu knew that half of the seven people couldn’t be considered “alive.” He only knew that if the last group of players successfully killed anyone from their group of players and lived to the end, they could seize the ident.i.ty of that person and return to the city of the abyss. But he didn’t know what would happen if these people failed in their mission. Would they stay here like that female player and wait for the next group of players to enter the instance, or would they be killed directly by the system?
Just as Xiao Tangqiu was thinking about this question, the clown appeared again.
This time the clown didn’t do anything else. He appeared in front of the crowd on a wheelbarrow.
“Did you have a good time? Welcome to the last event in this amus.e.m.e.nt park… Before announcing the event, first draw lots. Same rules!”
This seemed to be the first time that the clown didn’t announce the event after drawing lots, which made Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian uneasy. This implied that this event was unusual… But this was also to be expected. After all, this was the last event and naturally it would be different from the others.
Xiao Tangqiu tried his best to comfort himself – this was just a D-level instance and there should be no super crazy difficulty leading to a complete ma.s.sacre… But thinking back to the female player in the escape chamber, he felt uncertain again.
Although he didn’t know who the girl was, what her name was, and how many instances she had gone through, he had the feeling that she was a very good player, at least much better than he and Tang Mianmian combined. But even such a person died in this D-level instance so all the more he couldn’t take this lightly!
Recalling the female player, he suddenly felt a dull ache in the place where the black bug bit his calf…
Could that black worm be poisonous?!
Xiao Tangqiu’s heart sank immediately, but he soon got over it. If he didn’t make it through this last event, sooner or later he would be dead. If he did make it through the last event, as long as he returned to the city of the abyss, then all his serious injuries and diseases could be cured. What was he afraid of?
Thinking up to here, he immediately calmed down and began to prepare for the draw.
At this last event, the geek who claimed to be the reincarnation of the invincible king of luck suddenly became timid and insisted that Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian go first. Naturally, Xiao Tangqiu didn’t mind. He shrugged and was the first to draw lots. Anyway, he had already prepared himself for the possibility of drawing a black ball in all four events.
He casually fished up a ball. Sure enough, it was black again.
Tang Mianmian said, “Oh dear!”
Xiao Tangqiu glared fiercely at Tang Mianmian and motioned with his eyes, “If you can do it then go ahead ah!”
Tang Mianmian rolled up his sleeves and stepped forward confidently. “This time I have to draw a red ball! I want to prove that I only have unlucky hands once in a while and that I’m not a jinx that the heavens have given up on!”
He reached out his hand and righteously fished out… another black ball.
Xiao Tangqiu, “…… Oh dear.”
Xiao Tangqiu mercilessly laughed at Tang Mianmian, but reacted in the next second.
What was he laughing for? Clearly, he, himself, was also an unlucky jinx.
They were both jinxes, why hurt each other?
Why should a jinx embarra.s.s a fellow jinx ah!