Players Please Take Your Positions
Players Please Take Your Positions Ch. 34

Chapter 34: Deadly Room Numbers (Part 14 / 2nd Update)

As she was about to forcefully pull Xiao Muyu away, Xiao Muyu instead hugged her and flipped her aside.

With a loud crash, another figure slammed down heavily from the ceiling.

Xiao Muyu’s fingers went numb as she rolled over, putting Shen Qingqiu behind her.

When she saw the two-headed bastard in front of her, her gaze instantly turned icy.

It was Lin Hai. No wonder there was no portrait of him, the damn thing really wasn’t dead!

Right after crashing down, it started crawling on all fours like a beast, charging straight at Chen Kaijie.

Chen Kaijie let out a battle cry and ferociously swung the frying pan in his hand.

The pan smacked Lin Hai, immediately filling the air with a burning smell. Lin Hai jumped to the side, as if a hot wire had touched him.

Holding the red-hot pan, Chen Kaijie cursed, “How’s that feel? Come at me again, and daddy will roast you!”

It turns out he had controlled the temperature of the pan, heating it until it was red-hot before smacking it down.

It wouldn’t have felt pleasant.

Su Jin, seeing the situation, reacted quickly.

She rolled over, picked up Shen Qingqiu’s portrait, and then turned her head to shout at Zuo Tiantian.

“Tiantian, hurry!”

While Lin Hai was busy howling in pain, the red string flew out of Zuo Tiantian’s hand, quickly wrapping around him in a few moves.

Xiao Muyu hurriedly supported Shen Qingqiu and shouted, “Quick, into door 3!”

Without hesitation, she dashed towards the door, tension mounting high within her.

Everything was based on speculation—if they were wrong, they might not make it!

Chen Kaijie, with a tight grip on his frying pan, sprinted ahead of them.

“I’ll go in first this time. You take care of Miss Shen.”

Within ten breaths, the five of them cooperated flawlessly and retreated from the perilous room.

On the other side, Lin Hai was loudly roaring and banging his fists against the closed door.

As soon as they entered, a familiar scene spread out before them—they were back on the small path.

Tears almost welled up in Chen Kaijie’s eyes.

“Miss Xiao, your guesses were all correct. Doors 3 and 6 are safe!”

Xiao Muyu also felt relief. If they had been wrong, they wouldn’t have made it in their current state.

Once the five of them entered the next lantern, they no longer cared about appearances and collapsed to the floor in exhaustion.

They hadn’t spent much time in 7, but it was filled with danger.

If Xiao Muyu hadn’t reacted so quickly and hit pause, Shen Qingqiu would have died there. Then, they would be left with a mirror image identical to her, and Lin Hai’s monstrous form.

They might not have survived those two.

The lingering fear became overwhelming once they relaxed. The strength in their bodies was completely drained.

Shen Qingqiu was covered in wounds.

The stab wound on her chest fortunately didn’t hit a vital point, but she had lost a lot of blood and appeared close to passing out.

Xiao Muyu quickly took out the bandages Zhang Qiang had left behind.

As she pressed them against Shen Qingqiu’s wound, her fingers trembled almost imperceptibly.

Shen Qingqiu glanced up at her and softly said, “I’m just a little tired. The wound’s nothing serious. Don’t worry.”

Xiao Muyu ignored her. Only after she finished bandaging and helping Shen Qingqiu get dressed did she move closer to her.

“What’s your motive?”

Her voice was low, almost repressed, and only Shen Qingqiu could hear her clearly.

Shen Qingqiu lowered her gaze and smiled.

“What if I said it was instinct?”

“Maybe it was reflex. When I saw the blade coming, my body wanted to do something. You happened to be in front of me, so of course, I ended up pushing you away.”

She sighed, then continued with a dark tone, “You have no idea how much I regretted it when that blade came at me, but it was already too late. Luckily, you’re incredible. Even in that sudden situation, you managed to hit pause and save my life. That’s amazing.”

Her voice was quiet, but carried the familiar tone of teasing and banter, as she lightly spoke about the near-death experience she’d just survived.

“Honestly, I truly admire both of you, especially Miss Xiao. Your quick reaction just now… the more I think about it, the more unbelievable it seems.”

After he heard Shen Qingqiu’s words, Chen Kaijie found it hard not to agree, and expressed his admiration repeatedly.

Su Jin and Zuo Tiantian nodded in complete agreement, their eyes filled with worship as they looked at Xiao Muyu.

Xiao Muyu felt a complex mix of emotions at this moment.

After she reflected on it, even Xiao Muyu found it unbelievable.

When she saw the blade coming, adrenaline had made her use the stopwatch’s pause function without a second thought.

She glanced at Shen Qingqiu again.

Was it because Shen Qingqiu had nearly lost her life trying to save her, that she had been so desperate to prevent a tragedy?

This was the explanation she gave herself before her expression relaxed.

Xiao Muyu looked at the three people sitting on the floor, with warmth and admiration rarely found in her gaze.

“You guys did great too. If it weren’t for your teamwork, we wouldn’t have been able to make it past door 3.”

Everyone enjoyed praise, and Chen Kaijie laughed heartily.

“I think I did pretty well too! I never thought the frying pan could heat up even when it’s empty.”

Su Jin also gave a rare smile.

Suddenly remembering something, she quickly took out the portrait she had crumpled in her hands.

“Earlier, we were wondering why Miss Shen’s portrait hadn’t appeared. So, it seems the system held back the strongest enemy to mess with us. I remembered that the first seven portraits all had clues, so I figured this portrait of Miss Shen might have one too, and I grabbed it.”

She spread out the portrait, smoothing it out little by little.

Chen Kaijie immediately became excited.

“Yes, yes! We all forgot about that. Su Jin, you’re a real lucky star! Hurry up and show it to Miss Xiao!”

Xiao Muyu’s heart jumped, and she quickly stood up.

Taking the portrait, she walked over to Shen Qingqiu, and spread it open in front of her.

The silent attentiveness and consideration had Shen Qingqiu glancing at her quietly, with a smile in her eyes.

The other four gathered around Shen Qingqiu, all studying the portrait.

The person in the portrait was dressed exactly like the current Shen Qingqiu, and had a dagger in her right hand.

Xiao Muyu immediately focused on her wrist, but unfortunately, she didn’t see any noticeable marks.

Like Shen Qingqiu, the person in the portrait also wore an all-black outfit. In the dim light of the lanterns, it was hard to make anything out clearly.

Shen Qingqiu coughed lightly and pointed to the light source above them.

“Hold it up and take a closer look.”

Xiao Muyu glanced at her, then obediently lifted the portrait higher.

As the five all focused intently on the image, their faces were unconsciously tense. They couldn’t afford to mess up again.

Suddenly, Su Jin pointed at a shadowy area near the bottom of the portrait. “There seems to be something here?”

Xiao Muyu raised the portrait higher, angling that spot toward the light source. Faintly, they could make out a row of small symbols.

It was a bit blurry, so Xiao Muyu squinted and carefully examined it. Her brows furrowed slightly.

“They’re Roman numerals.”

“Numbers again? Is it some kind of code? How many are there?”

Chen Kaijie started firing questions somewhat impatiently.

“Eight, from 1 to 8,” said Xiao Muyu.

Just when everyone’s eyes lit up with hope, she added gravely: “They’re arranged in order, from 1 to 8.”

Everyone’s spirits sank again. It was yet another vague and cryptic clue.

“What does this mean? All the doors already have these numbers. What good does it do to give them to us again?”

Chen Kaijie, a bit irritated, tossed the pain aside.

Xiao Muyu didn’t respond. She lowered her head slightly, eyes becoming vacant as she contemplated.

Shen Qingqiu glanced at her sideways and reached for the portrait. Indeed, it displayed the eight Roman numerals in order from 1 to 8, but she didn’t have a clue at the moment.

Meanwhile, Xiao Muyu continued to stare blankly into space, but she was muttering to herself, “To draw conclusions, we must summarize and infer based on the observations we’ve made. Right now, we can gather two facts from this portrait.

One, it presents the numbers 1 to 8, but this fact is meaningless, since we already knew about these eight numbers’ existence without it. We suspect the password relates to the cyclic number, so emphasizing it again is pointless.

Two, the fact that it’s the same eight numbers but in Roman numerals rather than Arabic numerals, makes me think that the key isn’t the numbers themselves, but their form.”

“What’s special about the Roman numeral forms?”

Chen Kaijie and the others had overheard, but didn’t understand the last part.

“The appearance of this portrait must have some significance. Right now, our only goal is to find the password. To achieve that, we have three things to rely on: 1. The password is a seven-digit code cyclic number; 2. The original eight letters we have, or the seven chemical elements; 3. These Roman numerals right in front of us.”

Xiao Muyu was sitting by herself as she cleared her head, and organized her thoughts into a simple mind map centered on the objective facts.

Shen Qingqiu’s expression was hard to read. As she listened to and watched Xiao Muyu seriously, it felt like a visual and auditory feast.

Xiao Muyu was truly exceptional. ‘No wonder’, she thought to herself.

Shen Qingqiu was a cold-hearted and emotionless person, whose past twenty-odd years had been filled with nothing but quests and obedience. She also hadn’t known Xiao Muyu for long. Even though she didn’t want to admit it, the fact remained.

She was unconsciously paying attention to Xiao Muyu.

As she touched the bandages on her chest, a hint of confusion flickered in her gray eyes. This was starting to get beyond her control.

But it was only a fleeting emotion. When Xiao Muyu looked at her again, Shen Qingqiu smiled and picked up where Xiao Muyu left off.

“The logic becomes much clearer once I heard all that. Since these three clues point to the same goal, we should find their connection. If the password based on the cyclic number is really seven digits, then it’s highly likely that those letters correspond to the seven chemical elements. And, chemical elements ultimately need to be converted into numbers. It would make the most sense for them to fall within the range of 1 to 8. So what, then, is the significance of the Roman numerals?”

After following their line of thought, Chen Kaijie’s mind suddenly cleared up, and he quickly caught on.

“In other words, we’re looking for the connection between the chemical elements and the Roman numerals, right?”

“Exactly.”

Too many ideas could hinder reasoning, so at this point, they didn’t worry about whether the conclusion was right or wrong. Moreover, they had an inexplicable trust in Xiao Muyu and Shen Qingqiu’s brains.

For a moment, everyone fell silent, focusing on this problem.

When it came to chemical elements, they naturally thought of the periodic table.

For those who had been working for some time, their knowledge of this was somewhat rusty.

But for Zuo Tiantian, who had just started college, and Xiao Muyu, whose memory was far sharper than most, everything was still within reach.

Xiao Muyu closed her eyes, and the colorful periodic table, which had been at the last page of a textbook, slowly unfolded in her mind.

Suddenly, she paused and snapped her eyes open.

Meanwhile, Zuo Tiantian became so excited that she could hardly speak coherently, exclaiming, “Ooh, I got it, I got it!”


Author had something to say:

Lo and behold, whether they’re alive or dead, the involved parties refuse to admit!

Regarding the deduction, the clues for the 7th door are crucial. I think someone might have figured it out by now, right? Although one of the comments mentioned something unrelated to this clue, it was still the correct answer—it was more of a speculative guess, but still very impressive. Earlier, there was a reader who guessed isotopes, which is quite remarkable. To think of that without any direct clues and still meet the 1-8 requirement is really impressive.

In my setting, whenever something is too obscure or there are too many directions, or if there’s no clear direction at all, there will always be hints. The system is also designed in a way that there won’t be something overly obscure, because that would be unfair—it would leave no path for people who excel in other areas.

The cyclic number concept is actually quite obscure, so in the first round, it’s possible to clear the stage without knowing about it, as in Chen Kaijie’s case.

In the second round, the book shelf hints are there, and they can keep trying since they won’t die.

The third round is a verification round, where they won’t die without a password. The purpose of that round is to make them aware of 142857, and rounds two and three are to let them know that the characteristics of 142857 can be used to derive the password by multiplying it by a number.

Even if smart players don’t know about the cyclic number, those who are good at math or quick-thinking can still figure out the pattern.

The sixth round is the hardest, even in terms of reasoning. So, even if the players overlook the cylic number setup, they can still guess the password using the chemical elements. They won’t die simply because they don’t know the cyclic number.

D[Translator]

Hello, I'm D. I mainly translate yuri stories. My language pairs are CN-EN and JP-EN. If you want to commission/request me to translate a story, ping @D in Shanghai Fantasy's Discord server. I don't translate stories over 1 mil character/word count, or ones that contain many NSFW scenes. Support me at ko-fi only if you're able.

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