When the beans were all scattered, the dolls returned to the stage one by one, and a vortex appeared on the wall covered with flowers. The vortex gate grew larger and larger, soon reaching the height of a person. One doll went in, then two dolls went in…
'Hiss—' The mascot costume was ripped off and thrown aside. Ren Yifei, who was hiding behind a cartoon mascot nearby, rushed forward with an iron hook.
The dolls' expressions changed instantly, and they reached out to grab their clothes. But Samantha, who had previously acted as if he was scared, was faster. He had already taken off his white rabbit costume and kicked away a doll that was trying to attack Ren Yifei.
"Go!" Saman used his arm to block the dolls, reached out and pulled Ren Yifei into the vortex.
The players hiding nearby, harboring the same thoughts, couldn't wait any longer. However, by the time they rushed over, the vortex gate had shrunk to half a meter in size once more. If they tried to squeeze in under these circumstances, they might end up halfway through and be compressed into a pancake.
"Just who are those two guys?"
Following the dolls' footsteps, Ren Yifei and Samantha, hand in hand, jumped into a special room. Unsurprisingly, they were attacked by the dolls.
Saman unleashed his props, while Ren Yifei focused his attention on observing his surroundings.
The entire wall on the left was filled with small windows leading to live-streaming rooms. Each live-streaming room was a separate secret room. Ren Yifei saw the secret rooms he had passed through before, and the lion was already asleep in its cage.
"This is indeed the main control room."
Is Mr. X just sitting here watching the players die one by one?
Here, there is also a desk and a swivel chair, on which is a half-read book and a cup of tea.
The book, titled "The Voyeur," is a horror novel.
Ren Yifei stared at the swivel chair. He sat down and felt slightly uncomfortable; perhaps a higher chair would be more suitable.
"Mr. X seems to be shorter than you." Saman brought the doll over and immediately saw what Ren Yifei was doing.
Ren Yifei nodded, and suddenly, he remembered a prop.
It was the silk map prop. This was something that the Wasteland Corner rarely sent by cheating, so logically it couldn't be that simple.
Sure enough, the front of the silk was still the escape room map, but a picture appeared on the originally blank back as well, with two small red dots in a square with a small TV pattern drawn on it.
"This is us, follow this path…" His fingertips traced the only exit forward until they stopped at a distinctive yellow dot.
Ren Yifei didn't say it, but Saman knew what he meant. The red dots represent the two players, and could the yellow dot be Mr. X?
"I'll go first." In Ren Yifei's eyes, the blackness was like ink being washed away by water, revealing a translucent red underneath. Tiny black runes swirled around his pupils; they weren't embedded in his eyes, but rather floated on them, moving according to certain rules.
Saman had seen such red eyes before, and he had always thought it was Crane Lord's ability, carrying a mysterious aura that made people afraid to look directly at them. He never expected that it was Ren Yifei's own ability.
So, is his decision to no longer conceal this ability a sign of his 'power' and 'trust' in Saman?
Saman stepped back, relinquishing control.
Ren Yifei tossed aside the long iron hook, and a small, dark-colored fan appeared in his hand. The yellow dots on the silk began to move, drifting outwards; the opponent was trying to escape.
We need to hurry.
Ren Yifei reached out to open the door when it was suddenly kicked open. If Saman hadn't pulled him away, the door would have slapped him across the face.
Even Ren Yifei, usually so calm, gritted his teeth at this moment. A round-headed figure carrying a burlap sack stood behind the door, holding a long iron hook, giving them a cruel yet foolish smile.
Samantha squinted and took out a prop, but Ren Yifei placed his hand on Samantha's: I'll do it.
The round-headed man expected his lambs to flee in a frenzy, but Ren Yifei only glanced at him.
The black runes in his eyes changed their trajectory, and the round-headed man's eyes became even more vacant.
"See that? Your prey."
The round-headed man nodded blankly, a blood-tinged smile spreading across his face. In his hallucination, there was a mirror in front of him, and a prey was perched on his head. So he raised a long iron hook, aiming it at his own skull…
Ren Yifei led Saman past the fallen corpse, casually wiping the blood splattered on his face, leaving a trail of blood.
The round head had been pierced by the iron hook, and the white eyeballs were almost bulging out of their sockets.
This foolish man thinks this is a game where NPCs have the upper hand? He underestimates the players who came from the Desolate Corner.
They went out the door and walked into a long corridor.
There was no door in the corridor, nor did it end; in the distance, there was a vast expanse of white light.
Ren Yifei walked ahead, Saman behind, their pace quickening. Saman cautiously glanced behind her, also watching Ren Yifei. It had to be said, the feeling of being protected by someone, especially someone you like, was wonderful!
Ren Yifei, who was walking in front, didn't think too much about it. He just felt that 'I can do it' and that he should walk in front.
The yellow dots on the silk handkerchief in their hands had already traveled quite a distance, but a large army of paper animals appeared ahead, their eyes red, their target being them.
The two of them were stopped again.
These are a group of large paper animals, including cats, dogs, and geese.
Ren Yifei frowned. These paper figures had no intelligence and were completely unaffected by the illusion. Saman's props didn't include any that could quickly wipe out a group of them.
"I'll stay here to handle this, you go quickly," Saman said.
"No, I remember you had a prank box among your props, which contained a very strong adhesive." Ren Yifei recalled the prop.
Samantha immediately understood what he meant; they were perfectly in sync: "Flypaper."
The two of them took out their tools, poured glue on the ground to draw a horizontal line, then stepped back and poured another straight line thirty centimeters away. In this way, five sticky lines were laid out, forming the first defensive formation.
The paper animals have absolutely no intelligence. They are controlled by humans and run towards Ren Yifei and his companion without a care in the world. *Snap*, they get stuck together.
The paper animals behind them, oblivious to the lesson, walked past them, and *snap*, they stuck together again.
In just two minutes, most of the paper animals were densely stacked on the five lines, with their feet or tails stuck together.
"That guy is getting away."
Ren Yifei and Saman rushed over, stepping on the exposed pieces of paper.
Because there were too many pieces of paper crammed together, they were interfering with each other, and not a single piece of paper managed to hit them. They could only watch helplessly as the paper ran to the other side of the corridor.
Then another wolf grandmother appeared, carrying a basket. As soon as her furry gray head broke into a smile, Ren Yifei, both anxious and annoyed, waved his fan at her and said, "Get lost."
The two figures flashed by like shadows, leaving behind the corpse of the wolf grandmother who had bitten into a poisoned apple and 'committed suicide by poisoning'.
The NPCs that followed all became easy targets. Ren Yifei, with his illusionary powers fully unleashed, was utterly unstoppable, killing anyone who stood in his way. His power burned faster and faster, and they drew ever closer to the small yellow dot, almost completely separated by a line.
Isn't it just a line? They've already seen that figure from behind.
"Stop! Mr. X!...Hmm?"
Just as they were about to catch up, the corridor suddenly burst into a blinding light. The white light was so intense that they had to close their eyes to avoid it.
When they opened their eyes again, they were not in a corridor, nor even in the game. They found themselves on an empty playground.
Ren Yifei's face instantly darkened: "...Damn it."
He rarely swore, but he would bite his teeth until they bled.
The moon cast a soft glow across the sky, the night breeze caressed their faces, and they could see the lights on in the student dormitory building in the distance.
Before they could even react, the air in mid-air distorted, and one by one, equally bewildered players fell out, as if something transparent was vomiting.
One, two, three... about twenty players, Chen Shen was there, and so was Ke Bei. Ke Bei was in a rather dire situation; he had lost an arm and was injured all over. If he continued to stay in the game, who knew what the outcome would be?
By a twist of fate, they indirectly saved this person's life?
Since things have come to this point, getting angry won't help. It's better to think about what to do next.
He put away the ink-bone fan in his hand, the red light in his eyes faded, and Ren Yifei took a deep breath to calm himself. He looked down at his wrist; the Rolex watch was back. The time was 10:07. They had indeed exited the game.
They exited the game without even going through the train process? Looks like they were really pushed to the limit.
But this actually exposed something.
Ren Yifei sneered inwardly: The idiot agent and the idiot game, they're both idiots.
"What happened?" the other players asked Ren Yifei and his companion, as they were the first to arrive.
Moreover, although the two were dressed as mascots, the long iron hook was previously in Ren Yifei's hand and later appeared in the Tyrannosaurus Rex mascot's hand, so the two are basically equivalent.
"Probably because we almost blew up his control room." Saman shrugged, his words half-truth, making it impossible to discern the truth.
None of the players present were fools; they suddenly realized something: "What did you find? A ghost?"
They were thrown out of the game before the game time was up, and there wasn't even a train to stop them, so this was clearly not a problem with a small game.
Only ghosts would need to go to such great lengths for such a small game.
Ren Yifei and the other man remained silent, their expressions indifferent.
That's right, that's their understanding too. Mr. X's hasty retreat and loss of composure must be because he has a reason that the players absolutely cannot see.
For example, he is a 'ghost', a 'ghost' that could be identified at first glance.
Ren Yifei initially guessed that the 'ghost' was both the game's agent and a player. But now, he has to add another factor to his guess: the ghost, as an agent, could also be an NPC within the game.
And this agent was even more important than Ren Yifei had imagined. His near exposure caused the mini-game to lose its principles and choose to terminate it.
Either the agent is the only medium through which the mini-game can exist in this world, or the mini-game itself cannot leave the agent due to some contract or other reason.
Of course, he wouldn't share this information with these players.
"Who? Who's wandering around the playground in the middle of the night instead of sleeping?! Which class are you from?" A beam of light shone down, followed by a school security guard cursing.
"You..." The security guard stared wide-eyed at the group of people, covered in blood and looking extremely disheveled. Terrified, he dropped his flashlight and ran, yelling, "Help! Call the police!"
The twenty or so players present looked at each other, feeling that everything before them was inexplicably absurd.