The Trial Game of Life

After a short six-hour break, Jin Cheng and Tang Cuo walked into Zone E. 

Levelling up was a very simple thing, for as long as the player saved enough points, the upgrade would be automatically completed the moment he stepped into a higher-ranking zone. From this moment on, the two rooms in East Cross Street no longer belonged to Jin Cheng and Tang Cuo. If they wanted to continue living in Yong Ye City, they had to rent another room.

Yes, renting another room.

Yong Ye City only allocated housing for new players who entered the city for the first time. After that, everyone needed to find their own rooms and pay the rent with points. The same principle applied to Jin Cheng’s big villa in Zone A.

However, the two weren’t in a hurry to rent any room. After swaggering around the new zone, they met again with Wen Xiaoming at the Ruby Bar in Zone E.

Wen Xiaoming brought the item needed for the special trigger dungeon, as well as the latest information from Lin Yandong: “This time the dungeon sounds very complex. It can’t be solved by force alone, and the trigger item turns out to be a lighter. It’s the type of ordinary lighter worth 50,000 RMB sold in Yong Ye City’s official store.”

Jin Cheng said: “It’s not surprising. Most of the trigger items are things that all players can get their hands on. How many have you brought?”

Wen Xiao Ming prepared two for each of them, since there was no such thing as too much preparation anyway.

The name of the dungeon was [Before Dawn], which had a similar format to the first dungeon Tang Cuo encountered here, [On A Snowy Night, He Returns]. [On A Snowy Night, He Returns] belonged to the series Blizzard Mountain Mansion, while [Before Dawn] belonged to the series Escape Room.

As Wen Xiaoming said so, his face couldn’t help turning grim: “Based on the intelligence, the dungeon has a Republican China background, and the player is required to escape from a place called Yu Mansion before dawn. But the space-time dimensions inside seem to be rather chaotic. Whether it’s space distortion or time skip, I’m not so sure. Moreover, there are only three people who’ve successfully escaped so far. One hid himself in the dungeon all the way till the end, while another one escaped entirely by luck and just anyhow found his way around. He doesn’t even know how to exactly play the game. Both of these are from Zone E. The last player is one demoted from Zone A, a teammate of Yao Qing The Puppeteer. But since he is a competitor from Zone A, we can’t expect him to reveal anything.”

In short, the situation could be described with this phrase ― Everyone was caught off guard.

Jin Cheng nodded, for he also didn’t expect to get many clues: “What about the twelve movements?”

Wen Xiaoming: “It’s said that there’s a piano room inside, and someone will play the [Song of God, Lambs and Crow] there. If you want to get the movement, you must enter this piano room.”

“By the way,” Wen Xiaoming took out a note from his pocket and handed it to them: “Lin Yandong asked me to give it to you. He said it may be used in the copy.”

There were three numbers written on the note ― 062.

Was it a password or a room number?

Jin Cheng asked: “Is this the information obtained from those three people?”

Wen Xiaoming replied: “This is from the one who was in hiding throughout the entire dungeon. He was also the one who leaked the news about the twelve movements in the first place. Then the one who escaped by luck later confirmed that he had indeed heard the song’s melody.” 

As he said so, Wen Xiaoming summarised all the information collected so far on a piece of paper and gave it to them. He believed in his boss’ memory, but caution was never too much. Besides, the people Jin Cheng took under his wing were always meticulous and thoughtful.

Tang Cuo quickly scanned through it, nailed the general content into his mind and passed it to Jin Cheng.

Wen Xiaoming finally gave a warning: “Because there’s distortion in time and space, players will be separated after entering the game. The player who escaped by luck said it was because he was sent to the right time dimension. Also, Rong Yi has arrived in Zone E. You must be careful.”

Tang Cuo was curious: “Rong Yi?”

Jin Cheng kindly explained: “No. D22422, a player whose overall strength ranking is second, and he’s also a man who is always second.”

Hearing his tone, Tang Cuo asked: “Is your relationship with him good?”

Jin Cheng: “It seems not very good.”

Tang Cuo: “Then who do you have a good relationship with?”

I don’t think you have a good relationship with anyone.

Jin Cheng blinked and stared at him: “I have a good relationship with you.”

Tang Cuo went silent. That was a statement he couldn’t refute.

On the opposite side, Wen Xiaoming looked at one person then the other, curiosity and innocence cast all over his face. What happened between these two in the few days I was away?

He must have missed something.

After they were done with the information exchange, Jin Cheng and Tang Cuo didn’t waste time and went straight to the game hall after purchasing more potions. Here, the two ran into Chi Yan, who was standing guard in front of the mission wall.

Chi Yan brought them information about the dungeon that An Ning had gathered. Although it basically overlapped with Wen Xiaoming’s and had no use, they appreciated the goodwill.

“Ge, you two must be careful. I heard that only a few will be able to come out alive. It’s horrible.” Chi Yan was worried, but he didn’t dare to enter the dungeon himself.

In the end, he took out a protection talisman and handed it to Tang Cuo: “Ge, I prayed at the temple and got this from there. Take it with you. Maybe it can give you a buff of good luck!”

Tang Cuo: “The temple?”

Chi Yan: “That’s right, the temple in the dungeon. I went to the dungeon and became a monk!”

Oh, and you seem really happy about it.

At this time, everyone else in the game hall noticed the arrival of Jin Cheng and Tang Cuo, and countless pairs of eyes were staring at this small corner, watching their every move.

Jin Cheng folded his arms, chuckled, tilted his head and said to Chi Yan: “Go back to An Ning as soon as you get out. Don’t come out if there’s no reason to, and don’t inquire about anything.”

Chi Yan was stunned for a few seconds, then immediately understood. He stealthily looked around and playfully stuck out his tongue. Throughout the entire time he was sitting here alone, no one actually paid him any attention.

“Then, ge, Cheng ge, I’ll head back first.” Chi Yan took his leave. After going through several missions with An Ning, his dexterity seemed much better, and he smoothly swam through the crowd like a fish.

Halfway through, he turned back and energetically waved at them, his mouth seemingly trying to say: “All the best!” 

After Chi Yan’s figure disappeared from sight, Jin Cheng and Tang Cuo glanced at each other, then calmly turned around and entered the mission wall. From the crowd, a few figures quietly walked out and rushed at the moment the people around didn’t notice.

“Ding ―”

“We’ve detected a special trigger item. Congratulations to the players for triggering the mission [Before Dawn] of the Escape Room series. There are six players in this game, and your goal is ― to escape from Yu Mansion before dawn.”

“Happy surviving!”

The announcement from the system came extremely fast, almost right after Tang Cuo entered the mission wall, which had Tang Cuo raise his eyebrows. Back when he triggered [On A Snowy Night, He Returns], he waited for five minutes.

Were there really so many people rushing to this dungeon? Or was someone peeping at them and waiting for them to enter the mission together?

Tang Cuo was more inclined towards the latter.

The important thing right now was that Tang Cuo was alone.

He looked around and found himself standing in an old attic. The attic wasn’t very small, and a tiny incandescent bulb was hanging from the top beam to barely illuminate the room. The secluded corner in the west was filled with stacks of wooden boxes, while beside the window in the east lay a simple wooden bed and a small coffee table scattered with many items.

The window was made of gorgeous stained glasses, and through it, he could see the darkness outside. He couldn’t tell that time it was now, and the window couldn’t be opened either.

Tang Cuo picked up the teacup on the table and smashed it against the window. The cup broke into several pieces, yet the window remained completely intact.

So the window was sealed by the system, which meant that escaping via this route was impossible.

There was a door in the attic that led downstairs, but it was currently locked with a bolt. Not only that, Tang Cuo also saw through the crack on the door that there were a few layers of iron chain wrapped around the door, tied with at least three padlocks.

Apparently, someone was living in the attic, and he (or she) was being locked up here.

Tang Cuo turned around and continued searching.

A cabinet with five drawers stood against the wall. Opening the drawers, he found men’s clothes, whose materials and workmanship seemed pretty decent. Tang Cuo opened the drawers before looking through the wooden boxes, and ten minutes later, he came to a general conclusion ―

Male, about 20 to 30 years old, 175cm tall, shoe size 40.

Tang Cuo picked up a few strands of hair from the ground and from the pillow: short black hair, slightly curly. He glanced over the pen and paper on the coffee table, then at the enamel cup and toothbrush beside the window — left-handed.

This place was Yu Mansion, which meant that it housed a big family. This man could write and there were English books in the room, so even if he wasn’t the house owner, at least he wouldn’t be a servant.

Tang Cuo even found handwritten scores clipped inside a pile of books in the corner. The scores weren’t signed, but the handwriting should belong to the occupant of this attic.

Music score, piano room, twelve movements?

Tang Cuo felt that he should first go to find the location of the piano room, but how would he get out? This mission requested them to escape from the mansion before dawn. Since the window couldn’t be opened, he must go downstairs.

The door was locked from the outside, which meant that either other players downstairs would help him unlock it, or it had to be destroyed by violence.

But such an Escape Room dungeon would unlikely allow the latter method.

Tang Cuo decided to embrace his practical side and tried it nevertheless, and sure enough, the door couldn’t be destroyed at all. Tang Cuo had been in the dungeon for fifteen minutes, so if Jin Cheng was downstairs, he would have come up.

So the player who could help him unlock it was likely someone else.

“Tsk.” For once, Tang Cuo expressed his dissatisfaction with the system. But it wasn’t like he missed Jin Cheng, rather, he was worried that other players would have malicious intentions and not open the door for him.

Then he could only wait for Jin Cheng to break through the dangers and come to save the damsel in distress.

Wait.

What the hell am I thinking?

Tang Cuo felt that after being with Jin Cheng for too long, his head began to have problems. It was also possible that Jin Cheng’s peacock tail had glaringly flashed too many colours before his eyes. They said the eyes were windows to the soul, so his soul must have been contaminated. 

Bored and disgruntled, Tang Cuo sat down on the bed and began to play with the radio by the bed. This radio was still very new, likely one of the earliest models, and he recalled the time the radio was first introduced to China: it should be after 1923 or 1924.

The publication years of those books just now also coincided with this: The latest book was published in 1922.

Unfortunately, the radio couldn’t be used.

Tang Cuo put the radio back to its original position, then he frowned as his eyes caught a glimpse of the ink bottles on the bedside table. There were two bottles of ink, one black and the other red.

Tang Cuo only saw handwriting in black ink, yet the red ink had clearly been used by two-thirds. Where did he use it?

Tang Cuo carefully searched the attic again.

He roughly turned over all the cabinets and wooden boxes that he could find, then thoroughly looked at all the room corners. All that was left was ― under the bed. Just now, he briefly bent over and glanced at it. Since the room wasn’t bright enough, he thought he saw nothing and turned away.

Thinking of this, he went back and took a look again ― something seemed to be written under the bedboard. It was red. Under the dim light, it actually carried a dark crimson shade.

Tang Cuo decisively crawled under the bed, lay flat and looked up. What he saw was astonishing.

There were countless 正 charactersA character often used as a way to count days. It is written with five strokes, each stroke representing one day. written in red, ranging from the darkest red that was now covered in dust to the brightest red that was likely newer. With each stroke, a day went by.

Tang Cuo quickly counted them. There were probably more than 30 characters, which, when converted into real time, represented about half a year.

In other words, had the occupant of this attic been locked up here since half a year ago?

At this moment, the sudden sound of footsteps interrupted Tang Cuo’s thoughts. He listened attentively to find that it should have come from the stairs, from far to near.

A short while later, the chain outside the door started moving.

“Is anyone inside?” A young man’s voice came, his tone full of suspicion and alert.

Tang Cuo didn’t answer.

“Don’t pretend, I heard it from below. Are you a player? I’m also a player, so we’re in this together. Now there are only two of us in the whole mansion. I can unlock the door and release you, but you have to promise not to attack me, how about it? “

Tang Cuo still didn’t answer. He found the bed to be a good hiding place, so he simply lay flat and didn’t move. He wanted to wait for the man outside to open the door by himself.

This wasn’t a role-playing copy and their outfits hadn’t changed, so as soon as the man came in, Tang Cuo could immediately tell whether he was a player or an NPC.

After waiting for five minutes, he finally heard the movement of the man unlocking the door. That person had no other option anyway, because he was the only one in this whole mansion. Not even a ghost was in sight.

As the man tried to unlock the door, he also looked inside through the crack, his expression alert and his words trying to test the waters: “I can open it, but you mustn’t hide behind the door and attack me. I know you must be here for the twelve movements, but we’re now in the same boat. The twelve movements haven’t yet appeared, so it’s no good for us to fight each other to death.”

Tang Cuo basically agreed with that but was in no mood to nurture any companionship with him.

Players that could break into this dungeon at this time to snatch the [Twelve Movements] were either those who were as strong as Rong Yi and wouldn’t care about teaming up, or those who came with other teammates.

There were six players in this game. If Tang Cuo and Jin Cheng were excluded, there remained four others. Judging from the footsteps of the man outside the door, he was unlikely any adept player, so he must have come with his team.

Not receiving any response after a long while, the man outside felt doubts piling up in his heart. However, he still boldly opened the door, clutched his weapon and cautiously walked in.

No one?

He was dumbfounded, but he looked left and right and couldn’t even find half a shadow. As he walked a few steps in and was about to speak again, he noticed something behind him.

He immediately turned around to find a black muzzle facing him.

“Player?” Tang Cuo was expressionless.

“Really!” The man nodded at once, a drop of cold sweat almost slipping down his temple.

“Why did you follow us into the dungeon?”

“You, what are you saying?” 

The man smiled awkwardly, but he couldn’t stay firm under Tang Cuo’s cold eyes, as though those remarkably bright eyes could see right through his heart. But the man really didn’t have any evil intentions. They wanted to take the movement but didn’t want to die in the dungeon, so they found a compromise ― enter the dungeon with Jin Cheng and Tang Cuo and hug their thighs.

They unanimously believed that if it were these two big bosses, at least they wouldn’t attack their team inside the dungeon. That was why, even if the person in the attic wasn’t his teammate, he still had the guts to open the door and walk in.

But now it seemed that this big boss was a bit different from what they thought.

The next moment, Tang Cuo did something that had him flabbergasted even more. He took out a brown pill from his trench coat pocket and threw it over, then said coldly: “Swallow it.” 

The man caught it: “What is this?”

“Delayed onset poison. As long as you’re obedient, you won’t die.”

“You, are you forcing me to take poison?”

“You can also choose to die now.”

“You!” 

The man quickly felt a thorn pointing at his back, because he could clearly feel the killing intent in Tang Cuo’s eyes. Tang Cuo’s finger had already pressed on the trigger.

With one shot, he could blow my head off. Can I even avoid it?

This was the man who stayed by the side of that famous Jin Cheng!

The man started feeling scared and was subconsciously made to step back under Tang Cuo’s intense gaze. He struggled for some time just to stand firmly. But he was between the devil and the deep blue sea now, the air around him almost frozen, the sounds of his own heartbeat and heavy breathing ringing loudly by his ears.

“Three.” Tang Cuo began to count down.

“Two.”

“I’ll eat it! I’ll eat it all!” The man desperately made up his mind and swallowed the entire pill without even tasting it. When Tang Cuo put down the gun, he finally breathed a sigh of relief, but Tang Cuo glared at him again, having him totally shaking in his boots.

This big boss is not only a little different from what they thought. He’s completely different!

If Jin Cheng was here, he certainly would see that the pill Tang Cuo used just now was one of his chocolate beans. It was sweet, and also crunchy when bitten on.