Font Size:
Chapter 22: Deadly Room Numbers (Part 2)
The group quickly surveyed the corridor. Indeed, doors lined both sides, but there was no staircase.
The girl who had been screaming earlier had finally calmed down, and was tightly clinging to Xiao Muyu, asking softly, “How are we supposed to get out?” It was clear that she placed a lot of trust in Xiao Muyu after Xiao Muyu saved her.
Xiao Muyu remained calm as she surveyed the rooms. “There must be an exit. They’re not going to make us walk through walls.”
While they were inspecting the rooms, the second girl who had come out looked timidly at Xiao Muyu and the others, before introducing herself. “Hello, sisters. I- I’m Zuo Tiantian, a freshman English major. This is my second instance. Thank you for saving me.”
“My name is Wang Yushan; I’m a nurse. This is my second instance as well,” said the young woman who had been screaming earlier.
“My name is Su Jin. I just graduated, and this is my first instance.” This admission drew a slightly surprised glance from Xiao Muyu. She was able to walk out and stay calm, an impressive feat for a first-timer.
“Xiao Muyu, second instance.”
“Shen Qingqiu.”
Both of them kept their introductions short and to the point. No one asked them further questions. After all, their composure was too reassuring.
The room numbers on this floor all started with 43. As Xiao Muyu’s gaze moved from one door to the next, Shen Qingqiu understood what she was doing and offered, “There are a total of 20 rooms.”
Xiao Muyu looked at the room at the far end of the hall, numbered 4320—the highest number they had seen.
“The highest number is 4320, but I remember the lowest being 4300,” Su Jin informed everyone with some confusion.
That meant a number was missing.
“4316 is missing,” noted Shen Qingqiu, who was highly conscious of numbers. She had checked each door as they were walking down the corridor. Twenty numbers weren’t that many, so anyone paying attention could have noticed.
As soon as she finished speaking, *bang bang bang*—six of the doors suddenly swung open.
The five of them stared at the open doors, their expressions turning grim. Some looked completely lost.
“What does this mean? Do we have to walk back through one of those doors?” Zuo Tiantian trembled, thinking about what she had experienced in her room. There was no way she was going back in.
Xiao Muyu silently stared at the six open doors. The room numbers were 4311, 4318, 4312, 4314, 4315, and 4317.
After a moment, she asked, “Do these seem familiar to you?”
“I came out of 4315,” Su Jin responded. Zuo Tiantian and Wang Yushan froze, then one of them admitted in embarrassment, “I didn’t look at the room number.”
“Me neither, I was too scared,” added the other.
“Wang Yushan was in 4314, and Zuo Tiantian, you were in 4318,” Xiao Muyu stated, before glancing at Shen Qingqiu.
Shen Qingqiu winked at her with a grin. “I was in 4312, the third one to come out, just five rooms away from you, Muyu.” She had started calling her ‘Muyu’ again, but Xiao Muyu simply turned away indifferently, not wanting to engage with her.
“Then 4317 is… is the one who didn’t make it…” Wang Yushan, her voice filled with fear, could barely bring herself to speak of it.
“That’s right,” Xiao Muyu replied and glanced at the time, her expression growing more serious. There was one more person who hadn’t escaped, so why didn’t their door open? Had they not triggered the conditions?
Countdown: 11 : 32
The ticking of the countdown clock gripped the hearts of Wang Yushan and the others. Wang Yushan’s expression shifted, and she said anxiously, “Only eleven minutes left. Does this mean we have to go back the way we came?”
Su Jin didn’t have experience and was clueless about this game, so she gave no opinion. However, Zuo Tiantian, who had already been through an instance before, refuted, “But if that’s the case, the game would be way too simple.”
To notice that a room was missing, and triggering the six doors wasn’t particularly difficult to achieve within fifteen minutes. As long as someone remembered their room number, they could deduce the correct path. Those who forgot their number could try each door one by one, which wouldn’t take long, but that would be too easy.
“It’s actually quite hard to recall your room number when you’re scared and panicked. Most people would only think about crawling out, and likely wouldn’t even notice the door number,” Su Jin analyzed. Zuo Tiantian, with pursed lips, studied her face for a few moments.
For example, Su Jin hadn’t thought to remember her room number either. She only happened to glance at it when Xiao Muyu and Shen Qingqiu rescued her. Also, they couldn’t find their respective room numbers after they came out and the rooms were shuffled. How was that not difficult?
“You’re right, but six doors have opened, which means it’s no longer possible to go back to our respective rooms, and someone who should be coming out hasn’t come out,” said Shen Qingqiu, dismantling the theory. She was still staring at the open doors. There was no sound, or any sign of movement inside the rooms.
“We don’t have time to waste. There’s currently no objective basis for our reasoning, so we’ll just have to try,” Xiao Muyu said and checked the time—10:25 remaining.
Shen Qingqiu nodded, her gaze shifting to room 4311. “Were you the first to come out?” she asked Xiao Muyu.
“Yes,” Xiao Muyu replied. Shen Qingqiu then turned to her with a smile. “Then let’s see what’s inside your room.” She stepped inside the room first.
Zuo Tiantian and the others looked visibly tense. Xiao Muyu gave them a reassuring look. “We’ll go in together.”
After all, staying outside was just as terrifying.
As soon as they stepped inside, the door slammed shut with a bang.
Wang Yushan couldn’t help but let out a scream before quickly covering her mouth with her hand, tears welling up in her eyes.
Sheng Qingqiu immediately turned around to stare at the door, while Xiao Muyu nervously examined the room. They found nothing unusual.
As Xiao Muyu and Shen Qingqiu took the lead, Zuo Tiantian pulled Su Jin the newbie and Wang Yushan to follow behind the former. They were a little afraid of Shen Qingqiu, even though she often smiled.
Despite it being rather dark inside, Xiao Muyu realized that the room had changed.
“The layout is different. The room has become a passage.”
Although everything was still a mystery, the thing in the mirror was at least gone.
This passage was a bit too long, though, completely deviating from the structural logic of a standard building. Xiao Muyu walked forth step by step, and Shen Qingqiu glanced back at her with a hint of amusement in her eyes, which went unnoticed in the dim light.
“It’s a dead end,” Shen Qingqiu whispered when her toes touched a wall.
To avoid missing any clues in the room, and because it was too dark, they had been making their way a little slowly. There was only 9:05 left on the clock.
Shen Qingqiu felt around the wall and quickly said, “There’s a door.”
“Let’s get out,” Xiao Muyu said decisively. Shen Qingqiu opened the door the next moment. Almost simultaneously, a strong force pushed all five of them out.
Shen Qingqiu utilized her capabilities to stand firm, but the other four weren’t as lucky, and got thrown out. Shen Qingqiu reacted quickly, only staggering a few steps before steadying herself. She then wrapped an arm around Xiao Muyu’s waist and extended her left leg to stabilize herself.
Wang Yushan, Zuo Tiantian, and Su Jin yelped as they tumbled into a heap. When they looked up in a panic, they saw Shen Qingqiu holding Xiao Muyu securely.
The startled Xiao Muyu had also instinctively grabbed onto Shen Qingqiu’s shoulders and back, creating a rather ambiguous scene.
Feeling slightly confused, Xiao Muyu turned and saw the teasing smirk on Shen Qingqiu’s face. She quickly stood upright, adjusted her clothes, and murmured, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Shen Qingqiu replied, not taking advantage of the situation. She gave a slight push with her left arm, helping Xiao Muyu stand properly.
Xiao Muyu brushed her slightly messy hair aside and glanced at the three people on the floor staring at them. She averted her gaze, and immediately, her expression turned serious.
“We’re back.” The long passage had somehow led them back to the corridor. Xiao Muyu instantly looked up at the doorplate number. It was still 4311!
In the next moment, it was like the entire corridor was attached to a giant roulette, and was spinning clockwise. The corridor itself remained still, but the six rooms had rotated like a carousel lantern1, and beside them, 4314 had become 4317.
This made even Shen Qingqiu’s face turn grave; time was running out.
Xiao Muyu closed her eyes, mentally replaying every scene she had witnessed since entering the instance. She couldn’t stop herself from thinking, ‘What does this all mean?’
The instance shouldn’t be this complex at the start. Otherwise, they might just die before they could get out of here.
Why did these six open rooms have to be the ones they came out of? That couldn’t be a coincidence. The key often lay within the oddity.
‘Does stepping through a door shuffle the rooms once?’ As soon as Xiao Muyu thought of this, she turned and entered room 4311 again.
Shen Qingqiu blinked, but quickly followed without a second thought. Su Jin was the fastest to react among the remaining three. She also stepped in, grabbing Zuo Tiantian and Wang Yushan, who were standing close by. Before they had time to process what was happening, Su Jin pulled them inside just as the door closed.
This time, Xiao Muyu kept her hand on the wall as she hurried down the passage, and after covering the same distance, she pushed the door open again—only to find themselves back in the corridor.
Xiao Muyu stared intently at the six doors and muttered, “They didn’t shuffle this time.”
“So, our first choice wasn’t wrong. At least it triggered something,” Shen Qingqiu quickly remarked, her gaze locking on the second door, 4314.
“We’re going into 4314,” Xiao Muyu decided.
Wang Yushan and Zuo Tiantian were completely bewildered, their minds struggling to keep up. One of them asked, “Why 4314?”
“Because it was the second door that opened.”
Countdown: 8 : 25
Shen Qingqiu seemed to have complete faith in Xiao Muyu as she followed her to room 4314. She casually tossed over her shoulder: “Do as you like.”
Su Jin quickly followed them. Her intuition told her that following those two would lead her out.
Zuo Tiantian and Wang Yushan had no clue what was going on, so they had no choice.
Room 4314 was another pitch-black passageway. Xiao Muyu counted her steps: 199, just like in room 4311. When she pushed open the door, it brought them back out to the corridor, and the six doors rotated clockwise again.
“4312.” They entered without hesitation, and upon exiting, the doors had shifted position yet again.
Countdown: 7:20
“4318.”
“4315.”
“4317.”
Countdown: 5:30
After completing the sixth room, they pushed the door open, only to find themselves still in the corridor.
Su Jin’s heart sank—how could this be happening?
Wang Yushan, on the verge of tears, cried out: “What do we do? We guessed wrong.” With only five minutes left, if this attempt had been a mistake, they would have little hope of getting out.
“It shouldn’t be wrong,” Xiao Muyu muttered, frowning. The logic of entering the rooms in the order they were opened made sense, because each time, they triggered a reaction.
She looked up at several rooms in the corridor. Every time the six rooms rotated, she glanced at the adjacent rooms, and noticed their numbers had changed too.
“The room numbers are changing. Let’s check the rooms again,” she suggested.
They quickly spread out after that. Su Jin and the others scanned the room numbers with haste. They were still jumbled, and started with 43, but no new ones had appeared. There was 4310, 4319, and 4316.
Su Jin’s gaze flickered across the numbers, then suddenly froze. She murmured, “4316.”
Su Jin pushed the door, and 4316 opened effortlessly.
“Found it!” she shouted, unable to contain her excitement.
Xiao Muyu and the others gathered around her. Xiao Muyu glanced up at the doorplate—it was indeed 4316; it had reappeared. But this time, instead of another room, there was a staircase behind the door.
“Just as I thought, let’s go,” said Xiao Muyu.
They descended the stairs, and finally, upon reaching the first floor, they saw light.
After stepping outside, they finally understood where they were. It was a school, and they had just come out of a dormitory building.
They needed to go to the multi-purpose building, which stood ahead of them, to the left. It was a big white building with a clock tower on the roof.
They didn’t take time to observe the surroundings and entered the building as soon as possible.
Just as they stepped inside, the system voice began to sound.
“Congratulations to players Xiao Muyu, Shen Qingqiu, Zuo Tiantian, Wang Yushan, and Su Jin for successfully reaching the first-floor meeting room in the multi-purpose building, with a time of 10 minutes and 30 seconds!”
Hearing the familiar voice, Su Jin and the other two sighed in relief, feeling as if they had returned to the real world. In contrast, Shen Qingqiu and Xiao Muyu remained incredibly composed, already examining the only open meeting room on the first floor.
The projector in the meeting room displayed large blood-red text of a task countdown, which, as Shen Qingqiu and the others looked up, had just reached 3:40.
“Why is it still counting down?” Su Jin asked a little nervously.
Xiao Muyu stared for a moment before pulling back the curtains in the meeting room. The window gave a clear view of the building they had just run from, situated behind and to the right of the multi-purpose building.
Simultaneously, to the left behind the multi-purpose building was another building, with a large metal number ‘4’ prominently stuck onto its exterior.
Xiao Muyu paused and then turned to stare at the dormitory building they had just exited. Shen Qingqiu was already glancing at her and gave her input, “The building we were in is Building 4, opposite this one.”
“Look at the building number on that one,” Xiao Muyu said, pointing.
Shen Qingqiu looked, and then quirked an eyebrow. “Another Building 4—it’s a mirror image?”
Xiao Muyu was looking at the other building’s windows, all completely covered. She quietly said, “There are probably players still inside that building. But whether they can make it out… I don’t know.”
As the seconds ticked away, and the timer on the projector reached 59 seconds, Su Jin nervously spoke up, “Some people are coming out.”
They all turned simultaneously toward the meeting room doorway, watching as one, two… a total of four men appeared.
The men had been visibly tense, running as fast as they could. Upon entering the multi-purpose building, the system voice announced it again.
“Congratulations to players Lin Hai, Zhang Qiang, Chen Kaijie, and Ni De for successfully reaching the first-floor meeting room of the multi-purpose building, with a time of 14 minutes and 30 seconds!”
Three of the men were completely out of breath, unable to even speak properly. Two of them collapsed into chairs, eyes closed, gasping for air. Only one, a tall man in a black coat, stood silently to the side, observing the meeting room.
The countdown on the projector had come to a stop.
The five women didn’t speak as they waited for the men to catch their breath.
Before long, the tall man who had been standing shifted his gaze toward the ladies, pausing briefly on each of them. When his eyes landed on Shen Qingqiu, they quickly moved on, and finally settled on Xiao Muyu, saying, “You girls are impressive, beating us by a full 4 minutes and 30 seconds.”
Xiao Muyu calmly responded, “Just surviving is impressive enough.”
Just as she finished speaking, mad cackling echoed from outside the meeting room, reverberating within the two dormitory buildings.
The man and Shen Qingqiu rushed to the window almost at the same time. When they looked outside, their expressions changed.
Seeing their reaction, Xiao Muyu and the others quickly gathered by the window. What they saw terrified them so much that they nearly scrambled backward.
At the third-floor windows of both buildings, all the curtains had been pulled back, revealing a row of ten figures, standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows. They had ghastly pale faces that exuded a deathly aura in the sunlight, and blood-red lips, a reminder of what they were. Their eyes were staring directly at the people in the meeting room, and then they broke into grins.
Xiao Muyu’s keen eyes clearly saw that those figures looked exactly like them.
But strangely, those things seemed to be showing their faces just to scare them before vanishing without a trace.
“What does this mean?” the tall man asked in a low voice.
No one answered. In fact, no one could.
The meeting room fell into a brief silence.
Xiao Muyu frowned and sat down. The man from earlier finally broke the silence, “We should exchange information. You must have come from the building opposite us. What was the situation over there? Also, I’m Chen Kaijie. This is Zhang Qiang, Lin Hai, and Ni De. May I ask the names of the five ladies?”
Xiao Muyu was contemplating their situation, while Shen Qingqiu’s gaze fell on the men staring at her, her cold expression making it clear she had no intention of dealing with them. Su Jin, having gotten a sense of both Xiao Muyu and Shen Qingqiu’s personalities, took it upon herself to speak on behalf of the group. She explained what they had encountered, and briefly introduced her group.
Both groups had faced similar challenges, but unfortunately, the men had lost two members at the start due to their slow reaction.
“May I ask, how exactly did you manage to get out?” Chen Kaijie inquired.
Su Jin instinctively turned to glance at Xiao Muyu before describing how they managed to escape.
“Our experiences were mostly the same. First, we mysteriously ended up facing a mirror, and then a mirror ghost appeared. To open the door and escape, we had to stop it from completing its bloody message. But the fact that your group was able to get out so quickly is truly impressive, Miss Xiao,” Chen Kaijie said to Xiao Muyu.
Su Jin and the others didn’t find anything unusual in his words, but Shen Qingqiu coolly glanced at him. From Su Jin’s one look, he had deduced that it was largely due to Xiao Muyu that the girls had escaped so quickly. This observation was proof of his experience. Clearly, he was the reason his group of four men had managed to escape.
Xiao Muyu looked up at Chen Kaijie, picked up a pen from the meeting room table, and placed a sheet of paper in front of her. “What were your room numbers?” she asked.
“They started with 43, from 4300 to 4320, but 4313 was missing,” Chen Kaijie replied.
Xiao Muyu wrote down six room numbers, then handed the paper over to the four men.
“Did you get these same six room numbers?”
Chen Kaijie and his group looked surprised, but nodded. “So, besides the missing room numbers being different, we had the exact same situations in our building. You passed the challenge by going through the six rooms in order, right?”
“Yes,” Xiao Muyu confirmed.
“But what’s the point of this stage? There are no rules, no tasks for clearance… We came here and just…” Ni De, a slightly chubby man among the four, grew frustrated and couldn’t help but complain.
Before he could finish his sentence, the projector screen suddenly turned black. Lines of white text began to appear, accompanied by audible typing noises.
[Congratulations to all players for successfully completing the first round of the ‘Deadly Rooms’ game. The game instance has already started, and there is only one rule: survive six rounds of the game.]
The words ‘survive six rounds of the game’ were displayed in large letters, stark white against the pitch-black screen, creating a vivid contrast. The system clearly knew how to set the atmosphere; the text seemed to flow and drip like water, amplifying the sense of dread.
Those six words weighed heavily on the minds of the nine players. Six rounds. The first round had already been so hair-raising.
[You still have fifteen minutes to prepare. The second round of the game will begin in exactly fifteen minutes. Cherish your time in the meeting room—time is life.]
Once again, the countdown appeared on the screen: 15:00.
“The mirror in the room when we first entered the instance, was just too…” Zuo Tiantian trailed off, unable to continue. Just thinking about the scene when she opened her eyes made her feel like she was about to lose her mind.
Lin Hai’s lips turned pale as he recalled his own ordeal. He asked, “What was that thing, exactly? Are we going to face similar situations in the next rounds? And, what was the word we interrupted?”
“Have any of you heard of the game ‘Bloody Mary’?” Chen Kaijie, still staring at the screen, suddenly spoke in a low, grave voice.
Most of the group looked confused, clearly unfamiliar with the reference.
“Consider yourselves lucky for interrupting it,” Chen Kaijie said with a hollow laugh, devoid of humor.
“It’s a forbidden game, mostly forgotten now,” Xiao Muyu continued with a solemn expression. “It was a scary summoning game, said to have caused the deaths of many who dared to play it.”
Lin Hai couldn’t help but stare at the woman, who was cold and elegant with a unique presence.
“So the complete words on the mirror, would be the two English words: ‘Bloody Mary’. The entity summoned in this game is an evil spirit, and no one knows what consequences it brings.”
After Xiao Muyu’s explanation, everyone fell silent. Was this game really about playing Bloody Mary?
Shen Qingqiu, who had been silent up until now, began to examine the meeting room. Besides the meeting table, there was a simple bookshelf filled with many books. Shen Qingqiu carefully inspected the bookshelf, and Xiao Muyu walked up to her without saying anything.
The others, amidst their despair and fear, were a bit confused. Xiao Muyu didn’t look back, and continued to study the book in her hand. She spoke slowly and calmly, “Have you ever played an escape room game? In such rooms, some seemingly obscure texts often contain crucial hints for solving puzzles. When entering this world, the system should have told you not to overlook any word, or sentence, because the game rules might be hidden in them.”
Chen Kaijie gave her a pensive glance, then began to search the meeting room as well.
At this point, even those who had been clueless, realized that there might be clues hidden in the meeting room. Lin Hai, in such a hurry to search, nearly leapt at the task.
The books on the shelf seemed to have come from a library. They were all labeled with numbers, and neatly arranged.
Lin Hai, a businessman in his thirties, was a typical speculator. Although he was a wealthy man with abundant assets, he was no genius. He had never liked reading, and books only gave him headaches.
However, he was unwilling to miss any key information, so he pulled out all the books from the shelf and started flipping through them. Xiao Muyu frowned at the now messy bookshelf.
At that moment, Lin Hai was holding a book on linear algebra. His confusion grew as he glanced at the mathematical symbols and formulas, and he casually tossed it aside with a muttered, “I can’t make sense of this even if it contains information.”
Shen Qingqiu walked by, and stopped to stare at him. She could be quite charming when she wasn’t being aloof, and with such a great beauty looking intently at him, he became flustered. He hastily stood up straight and gulped nervously.
Lin Hai blushed and stuttered, “M-Miss Shen, is there s-something you need?” Ni De and Zhang Qiang, his fellow men, shot him disdainful glances.
Shen Qingqiu merely pointed at the bookshelf and said, “It’s fine if you don’t understand, but put things back where they belong.”
Lin Hai misunderstood her intention, and his face immediately went red in humiliation. He protested, “Why are you being so overbearing? These are just in-game items, not your personal belongings. I’ll put them however I want; what’s it to you?”
“Idiot,” Shen Qingqiu threw out the insult with contempt. She quickly returned the book to its original spot and rearranged the rest as she remembered. Lin Hai’s face darkened with anger.
“What did you say?” Already frustrated by the game’s challenges, Lin Hai’s bottled-up negativity flared at Shen Qingqiu’s insult, making him furious.
Xiao Muyu, sensing the situation, spoke up coldly, “If you don’t want to die early, you’d better start being smart. The information may not even be in the books themselves, but in the arrangement. You’ve disrupted the order without noticing anything. Are you that eager to reduce the number of survivors?”
Xiao Muyu’s words caused Lin Hai to freeze for a moment. Chen Kaijie then added with a slight frown, “Miss Xiao makes a good point. Search all you want, but don’t mess things up.”
Lin Hai, who clearly respected Chen Kaijie’s authority, immediately shut up and indignantly turned his attention back to the books, this time making sure to replace them properly after checking.
Shen Qingqiu had indeed been considering this, but she hadn’t figured anything out yet. Only, her instincts told her something was off. She leaned closer to Xiao Muyu and asked quietly, “Have you noticed anything?”
Xiao Muyu replied without looking up, “No.”
“Oh~” Shen Qingqiu responded meaningfully. She bent down and tilted her head to watch Xiao Muyu flip through the books, whispering, “So, were you standing up for me?”
Xiao Muyu rolled her eyes briefly before calmly saying, “You could probably snap his neck without any effort. You don’t need me to defend you.”
“They say the smarter the woman, the more prideful she is. Looks like that’s true,” Shen Qingqiu muttered, and she happily resumed her search.
Xiao Muyu paused in her actions and pressed her lips together, thinking to herself that confidence wasn’t just a flaw men have—Shen Qingqiu certainly had her share.
Just then, Su Jin, who had been staring at a book in her hands, unwittingly read aloud, “Numbers are the foundation of all things.”
The others immediately turned to look at her. Su Jin opened the book, and then showed it to them.
“I’ve read ‘Lectures on the History of Western Philosophy’ before. While the book does have this line, it shouldn’t appear alone on the front page, and it’s far too conspicuous.”
It was rather odd to see this one line on an otherwise blank page.
“But what does this one sentence tell us? We only have six minutes left.”
Xiao Muyu pondered the sentence, and then explained, “This line was originally proposed by Pythagoras, who believed that numbers are the essence of everything. After the emergence of numbers, people realized they were everywhere. In the East, you have the Bagua, feng shui, and physiognomy; in the West, astrology and tarot. These all relied on numbers. Numbers themselves are regarded as a form of divination, thus they were given symbolic meanings tied to fate.”
Shen Qingqiu watched her from the side.
Xiao Muyu was beautiful, with long, straight black hair that flowed like silk. She had fair skin and delicate features, exquisite in every angle. Even though she was often as cold as frost, whenever she spoke, or thought calmly and methodically, there was an artistic grace to her that made it impossible not to focus on her.
Just like in this moment.
Shen Qingqiu had already recognized Xiao Muyu’s intelligence. In the short few days they’d spent together, Shen Qingqiu had come to understand the allure that surrounded her. It wasn’t something her indifference could hide. At first, Shen Qingqiu found her intriguing, but now she was genuinely curious—what kind of environment had shaped someone like her?
“So, this sentence must be important, right? What use do numbers have? Speaking of which, this instance does seem to be tied to numbers. The room numbers are in digits, after all,” Su Jin chimed in, her speech quickening as her thoughts raced.
“This instance is also called ‘Deadly Room Numbers’. It seems like the room numbers are the key to this game,” Chen Kaijie noted, starting to put the pieces together. But there was another issue—what were they supposed to do next? What significance do these numbers have?
“Could it be our original room numbers?”
With only three minutes left, Xiao Muyu and Shen Qingqiu had remained silent. Xiao Muyu sat quietly, listening to the others discuss. Shen Qingqiu appeared lost in thought, her eyes fixed on the bookshelf, as if everything was unrelated to her.
Chen Kaijie finally couldn’t hold back any longer. “You two seem completely unconcerned. Do you already have an answer?”
The others immediately turned expectantly to Xiao Muyu and Shen Qingqiu.
Xiao Muyu shook her head. “No, I don’t.”
“Miss Xiao, Miss Shen, there’s no competition between us, so if you’ve found any clues, we’d be grateful if you could share them,” Chen Kaijie couldn’t resist saying, not knowing what was going through their minds.
“There’s no need to worry, Mr. Chen. We’re all on the same boat, and only by working together, can we hope to get off alive. I understand that. But I truly don’t have a clear idea yet—there are too few clues. That said, please rest assured, everyone. There are six rounds in this game… It would be too boring if all the players are eliminated in the first round. If I’m right, this round shouldn’t be very dangerous. That would fit with its preference.”
“Its preference?” Chen Kaijie asked, confused.
“We’re already in the second round, and everyone here knows how cruel this game can be,” Xiao Muyu said. They all nodded; it was hard to disagree with her words.
Shen Qingqiu continued to ignore the others, her attention focused on the bookshelf. She noticed that the books were all categorized, following typical library practices. Books on Marxism, literature, natural sciences, and other subjects were all in their respective groups, except for the mathematics books.
Her gaze involuntarily landed on those math books. She had examined them earlier and found nothing unusual, but the placement didn’t sit right with her.
With only 1 minute and 30 seconds left on the countdown, Xiao Muyu and the others still hadn’t discovered anything. It was impossible not to feel anxious. Zuo Tiantian was leaning against the wall, thoughtlessly picking at a wall calendar with her fingers, producing a constant noise.
Xiao Muyu couldn’t help but glance over at the calendar. It showed the month of July, with a background featuring the Egyptian pyramids, which felt a little out of place.
Her thoughts drifted for a moment—she couldn’t even recall the date or which day of the week it was in the real world.
Out of nowhere, a strange idea flashed in her mind. Xiao Muyu felt like a corner of her consciousness had suddenly opened, and just as she was about to peer into it, Shen Qingqiu nudged her arm.
“Miss Xiao, do you notice anything odd, about how these books are arranged on the shelf?” Shen Qingqiu asked, and pointed at the specific row of books. “Look at the 9th, 15th, 23rd, 25th, 30th, and 33rd books.”
Shen Qingqiu had already carefully examined that row and quickly listed the exact positions of those books. However, she called her ‘Miss Xiao’ again in a distinct tone. Xiao Muyu glanced at her and, sure enough, caught the mischievous glint in her eyes.
Xiao Muyu was a bit speechless—No normal person could instantly pinpoint the 9th, 15th, or 33rd book on a shelf like that.
But, of course, Shen Qingqiu wasn’t exactly normal, and while Xiao Muyu hadn’t noticed all those books at once, a glance over the shelf gave her a clear idea of what she meant.
“They’re all math books,” Xiao Muyu said.
Shen Qingqiu’s eyes lit up. “I knew you’d get it. So, have you figured something out?”
Xiao Muyu’s expression remained unchanged. “If you haven’t figured it out, how could I?”
Just as she finished speaking, the countdown hit zero!
At the same moment, a deafening roar sounded from outside the building.
Xiao Muyu quickly turned around and saw that the two mirrored buildings outside had begun to move! The four-story dormitory buildings, which were originally more than fifty meters apart, started to draw closer and eventually fused into one.
“Are my eyes playing tricks on me?” Ni De murmured.
“This is a supernatural instance, so anything is… possible.” Lin Hai barely finished his sentence, when the world before them suddenly blurred, and they were back in the corridor!
The dreaded mechanical voice sounded again above their heads.
“Attention, players. The second round of the game begins!”
As soon as the announcement ended, a door in the corridor slammed open, drawing an immediate glance from Xiao Muyu, who noticed that previous room numbers were now gone.
“Please enter the room, players.”
The room was pitch-black, and some people’s hearts were pounding. They hesitated, reluctant to be the first to enter, and even Chen Kaijie appeared somewhat hesitant.
Xiao Muyu took a breath, thinking, ‘Might as well get it over with.’ Just as she was about to step forward, someone stopped her—it was Shen Qingqiu.
“I’ll go in first,” Shen Qingqiu said softly, glancing at the four men with a hint of a smile that made heat bloom across Chen Kaijie’s face.
Xiao Muyu watched as Shen Qingqiu took out her dagger. She extended her left hand slightly, positioning it defensively in front of Xiao Muyu. Her expression was no longer the nonchalant one from before, but rather, serious and alert. Xiao Muyu couldn’t help but watch her.
Soon, Shen Qingqiu’s radiant and delicate face disappeared into the darkness. Xiao Muyu turned her gaze away, trying to adapt to the pitch-black surroundings.
The darkness, as dense as ink, swallowed up all the light from the nearby corridor. It was said that light could dispel darkness, but here, darkness devoured light.
After the two of them entered, Su Jin glanced at Chen Kaijie, who also looked ready to go in, and said calmly, “I’ll go first.”
Chen Kaijie’s expression turned a bit grim.
The always fearful Wang Yushan and Zuo Tiantian trusted their original group more, and squeezed in after them.
The four men left behind were awkward and speechless.
Footnotes:
Author had something to say:
This chapter is a 3-in-1. I hope everyone can grant me more support. A little cutie had previously said that short answer questions had no affinity with science students, so let’s solve math problems this time. Haha.
TL: There are lots of clues in this chapter now that I’ve re-read it after translating up to c24 (this is where the MCs figure it out).
D[Translator]
Been doing this for over a year now. I don't do simple translation but aim to retell a story as engagingly, smoothly, and true to the author's intent as I can, which means lots of editing and googling as well. Click on my ko-fi button if you want to support my work.
man up bro