The door slowly opened, and the white light and the scene inside the room were reflected in Ren Yifei's eyes, while the young man was completely speechless.
Snakes, snakes everywhere, with triangular heads, round heads, black and white, and colorful ones. They crawl around on the floor covered with stained glass, swing on the fake tree branches, and hiss with a chilling sound.
The young man froze, and he stammered, "I...I'm allergic to snakes."
"This is a game world. Theoretically, there are no real snakes here, nor are they actually poisonous. Of course, if you're just having a psychological allergy, then disregard what I said."
Ren Yifei went inside and gripped the iron hook tightly in his hand.
The long iron hook attracted the attention of many snakes, who raised their heads and made threatening noises.
Surrounded by snakes, Ren Yifei remained calm. He tapped the ground with an iron hook, using the sound and vibration to scare them away, but he did not attack any of them.
Snakes are quiet, homebodies, but they are also very sensitive. If they feel threatened, they will become extremely ferocious.
Seeing that he had already gone inside, the young man hesitated for a long time, not wanting to stay, and had no choice but to follow him in.
Although Ren Yifei said the snakes here were all fake, he still felt uncomfortable. There are indeed many people in this world who like snakes, but he certainly isn't one of them.
Aren't furry things cute? Why does it have to be a cold-blooded animal?
"Shh." Ren Yifei stopped. "Don't move. Snakes have poor eyesight. They're not very interested in stationary things, but they can accurately detect moving things."
They are now standing in a place with relatively few snakes, and it is also the very center.
Ren Yifei also discovered that the stained glass floor beneath their feet was actually a pattern of a large, colorful snake.
"Have you ever seen an escape room like this?" Surrounded by snakes, Ren Yifei had no idea where to start looking for clues.
He wasn't afraid of snakes, but he didn't want to share a room with them, especially so many of them.
"Never seen one before." The young man dodged the snakes, walking with great difficulty. If such an escape room existed, countless people would have heart attacks—while games are meant to be thrilling, no one would actually be thrown into a snake pit.
There were so many snakes in this room that even Ren Yifei, who had no prejudice against snakes, felt a chill. He stood there for a while, maintaining his aloof persona, while his eyes scanned his surroundings, searching for possible directions.
A gray-black, triangular-headed venomous snake suddenly appeared in front of him, and Ren Yifei was so frightened that he almost swung the iron hook away.
"Hmm?" At this moment, a pattern on the snake's belly caught his attention.
That wasn't a pattern; to be precise, it was a word: flower.
Ren Yifei thought of something, and turned to look at the other snakes. He noticed that when they raised their heads, there were words on their bellies: "Look, these snakes have words on their bellies. What do these words mean?"
Do I have to recognize all these characters and figure out how to form sentences?
"Words? What words?" The young man was terrified. How could he notice words on the snake's belly? Moreover, these words were too small, about the size of a peanut. If you were a little far away or had poor eyesight, you wouldn't be able to see them clearly.
Ren Yifei also realized this problem. Unlike this uninvited black venomous snake, most snakes don't like to get too close to humans; if they get too close, they will feel threatened and attack. But if you stand too far away, you can't see the words on their bodies.
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"This is the character for 'flower'." Ren Yifei decided to deal with the black venomous snake in front of him, which looked very dangerous, first.
"It's not a poetry game, is it?" the young man blurted out.
Ren Yifei looked up, inspired by the young man's words: "Maybe?"
He looked at the black snake, which he couldn't tell was an African black mamba, and said, "Is spring city filled with flying flowers?"
He had barely finished speaking when the black snake transformed into a cloud of smoke and exploded. When the smoke cleared, a puzzle piece lay on the ground. Was it really a game of "Flying Flowers"?
They were both very surprised, but also a little happy, because they had finally found the end of the yarn ball.
The two spent the rest of the time reciting various classical poems. There was a restriction: each line could not exceed seven characters, so longer lines were excluded.
Furthermore, once a character appears, it will not appear again, so the remaining characters become increasingly rare as the story progresses.
The ancient poems that Ren Yifei could recall were mostly those he was required to memorize in his textbooks, and some he had encountered at work and memorized in order to understand his roles.
So basically, he could only recall about half of the poems related to the characters on these little snakes.
If seeing the word 'illness' reminds one of 'Huo Qubing,' then it's because of his extraordinary good fortune.
The young man, who didn't seem to fit the poetry scene at all, was practically scooping up dozens of puzzle pieces in a row.
"I majored in Classical Chinese in college," he said shyly.
"That's amazing." With such a great major, understanding oracle bone script and bronze script would be a piece of cake.
Encouraged by Ren Yifei's praise, the young man became even more interested and walked back into the snake pile, forgetting even his fear of snakes.
Actually, some snakes were startled and tried to attack them, but Ren Yifei quickly swung them away with his iron hook. However, generally speaking, as long as they didn't do anything first, the snakes wouldn't bother with them.
Working together, the two quickly collected about two-thirds of the puzzle pieces, and most of the snakes in the house were gone.
"You take care of the remaining third, and I'll do the jigsaw puzzle." Ren Yifei knew that this wasn't his forte, so he decisively gave up and chose the jigsaw puzzle, which he was more skilled at.
Seeing that Ren Yifei could spot the edges of a jigsaw puzzle from a pile of similar pieces with just a glance and then quickly put them together, the young man realized that he was not up to the task, so he focused on reciting poetry.
Ren Yifei has a good memory and strong analytical skills. These puzzle pieces are like numbered pieces in his hands. He knows where each piece should be placed without even thinking.
One person searches for the pieces, while the other pieces them together. As the puzzle gradually comes together, a cartoon-style painting appears before their eyes.
This is a colorful snake coiled in the shape of an 8, composed of fragments of five colors: red, orange, yellow, green, and blue. It is the pattern on the floor beneath their feet.
The picture shows a colorful belly with a small yellow fragment bearing a red dot—a clue from the puzzle. They found this tiny shard of glass.
"Inside is a far-infrared receiver, a common mechanism in escape room games," the young man with extensive game experience told Ren Yifei. "You need to shine a far-infrared laser into this device for the door to open."
Far-infrared rays... Ren Yifei looked down the corridor, where there were many far-infrared lasers.
"It's over." The young man began to exude despair again.
The line over there will shoot fire if it moves, and to refract it here, it would require at least two lenses. Where are they going to find those two lenses?
"That's it?" Ren Yifei only thought for two seconds before taking off the phone case.
This is the phone that came with him. After entering the game, all functions are disabled, but the appearance will not change. Even the protective cover is retained as a whole by default.
The young man didn't understand what he was doing until a palm-sized mirror appeared on the back of the phone.
Ren Yifei tore off the lens, broke it into two pieces with an iron hook, and handed one piece to the young man: "Have you studied specular reflection?"
"I've learned it." The young man was still in awe of this 'god-like teammate'.
"The two cars can only hold out for a few dozen seconds at most. I'll do the first reflection, and you're in charge of shooting the laser into the sensing device." Ren Yifei stood up, holding a shard of glass, ready to get started.
"Are you... in danger?" The young man asked anxiously, his expression conflicted. He longed to be brave and strong, yet deep down he was still afraid.
"No." Ren Yifei didn't turn around.
What in this world is completely without danger? You can choke even while eating, let alone something like this. But he didn't trust the young man and was worried that he might panic and smash the glass on the ground.
He only has these two broken mirrors. If he loses them, even if he's incredibly skilled, he'll be like a skilled cook without rice.
The young man knew the seriousness of the situation. Holding the glasses in his hand, he said with a resolute expression, "I'm ready."
Ren Yifei stood in the corridor, his head darting back and forth, searching for the perfect angle for the laser beam. In truth, he wasn't as calm as he appeared. But young men aren't easily frightened; if he panicked too, the man would be finished.
Therefore, while another person may feel fear and tension, he absolutely cannot.
"Begin." He found the most suitable laser, but the first thing he did was not to reach out, but to push out the hearse. Just as flames shot up below, Ren Yifei reached out with a lens in his hand. The lens connected to one of the laser beams, and he adjusted the angle to shoot it into the room.
"catch!"
The young man suddenly realized what was happening and quickly used a mirror to catch the laser beam, then tried to adjust the angle to reflect it into the device below.
The young man tried very hard to adjust the angle, but he just missed it by a tiny bit.
Ren Yifei's face was covered in sweat, but his hands didn't tremble at all, his glasses were steady, and the reflected laser light was steady. He wanted to urge him on, but he was also worried about making the player more flustered.
The flames below were extremely hot; in just a short time, several red-hot spots had appeared on the steel plate. Those spots grew increasingly red, almost turning orange-yellow, while the temperature felt by the hand on it was also soaring.
Finally, the steel plate began to melt and was about to crumble. Ren Yifei made a decisive move: he kicked the hearse away and withdrew his hand.
In that split second, flames melted the steel plate and shot out. But before they could reach Ren Yifei's hand, the car was kicked away, and his hand was pulled back.
The young man inside witnessed this dangerous scene and was very annoyed. Actually, the laser had almost refracted into the device twice, but his hand trembled, and it bounced to the side.
"You did a good job." Ren Yifei's words rescued the dejected young man. "Wait three minutes, then do it again. Follow your previous rhythm, there won't be any problems."
His words were so certain that they gave the young man, who had been devastated by failure, renewed courage: "This time I will be very careful."
"Hmm," Ren Yifei responded, closing his eyes. He simulated the laser's deflection and reflection in his consciousness space, preparing to find a better angle.
The young man raised his arm to a height that felt relatively comfortable for his hands. If the laser beam had been positioned there from the beginning, his hands might not have been shaking so much.
Ren Yifei wanted to adjust his angle more precisely to reduce the difficulty of the second reflection.
After a short three-minute break, they began the second experiment. This time, Ren Yifei lowered the point of impact of the laser beam. Sure enough, the young man received the laser as soon as he raised his hand, and reflected the laser beam into the laser receiver without much effort.
It all happened so fast, almost in just a few breaths, that the glass shards on the floor were glowing.
"It worked? It worked!" The young man almost jumped up.
Ren Yifei also put away the mirror and walked over. He stood on the glowing glass snake, waiting for the door to open.
But to their surprise, instead of a door, an entire floor opened—and they instantly fell into darkness.
Ren Yifei felt as if he had fallen into water, but when he opened his eyes, he was standing in a familiar yet unfamiliar place. In front of him stood a refined man in a blue robe.
That was Nian Tianxi, a 'dead man'.