Xiao Lou quickly solved the numerical puzzle on the two walls in just 30 seconds. The hour and minute hands on the clock still pointed to 19:00, but the second hand pointed to 30 seconds.
Xiao Lou solved two math puzzles in 30 seconds, thanks to his extensive experience playing escape rooms and his ability to instantly figure out the solution as soon as he saw the puzzle.
The two special effect cards gave Xiao Lou a lot of motivation. After putting the cards away, he immediately went to the third wall.
The questions on the third wall are different from the first two.
Four black Chinese characters were written on the wall—
Tian, Wang, Zhi, Ri
There are no hints for this question; you can only rely on your imagination.
The four Chinese characters represent the final password, and it can't be as simple as just counting the strokes of the characters. If it were just about counting strokes, you could just write a few random characters instead of these four on the wall.
To convert Chinese characters into numbers, you must find their commonalities.
Xiao Lou shone a flashlight on the wall, observed it carefully for about ten seconds, and quickly came to a conclusion—
Don't treat them as Chinese characters, and don't think about surnames or phrases. Just treat them as "graphics".
What these four figures have in common is that each figure has a "symmetry axis" in the middle that allows it to be folded.
The character 田 (tian) can be folded symmetrically in the middle to form the number 8.
If you fold a king in half, it will become the number 3.
The character 屮, when folded in half, becomes the number 4.
The sun, when folded in half vertically, becomes the number 0.
— Each of the four characters has an axis of symmetry, and they all coincidentally become numbers when folded in half. This is the "logic" of the puzzle.
Without hesitation, Xiao Lou adjusted the gears on the combination lock to the four-digit number 8340.
As he expected, a crisp sound of unlocking rang out, and inside the treasure chest was still a card—
[ tool card; Folding Paper ]
Rarity: A
Description: Can be obtained from the treasure chest after solving the Chinese character puzzle in Square Block 2 Escape Room.
Note: Have you ever played origami? Unleash your imagination and fold this piece of paper into the shape you want; it can be quickly enlarged into a real object. For example, fold a paper boat and put it in the sea, and it will become a small boat. Fold a horse, and you can have a horse to ride. Folding an airplane is not recommended because, with most people's origami skills, the resulting airplane, when enlarged into a real object, is very likely to crash.
Usage count: This Folding Paper is so amazing, it's a pity it can only be used once.
Xiao Lou can only fold the simplest paper airplanes. Even if you enlarge them a hundred times, they still can't carry people. He doesn't know any other origami. It's better to keep this card for now and give it to someone skilled in origami later. After all, it's an A-grade rarity card with a strong ability to transform into real objects, so it shouldn't be wasted. In a pinch, you could fold a car or a boat—it could be a lifesaver.
Xiao Lou puts the card " Folding Paper " into the card holder and turns to solve the final puzzle.
There's one treasure chest left; opening it will grant you a perfect completion.
He shone his flashlight on the last wall, where he saw many messy arrow symbols drawn on it—
←↓→↓←
→↓←↓→
←↓↓→↑←
→↓↓←↑↑
At that moment, Xiao Lou slightly raised the corners of his mouth.
He happened to have done this kind of question before.
At the time, he and his friends were playing a vampire-themed escape room game. They encountered similar mechanisms in the escape room, except that instead of arrow symbols on the walls, there were English characters, such as RDDLUU, where U stands for Up, D for Down, L for left, and R for Right, which also means the four directions "up, down, left, and right".
What is the relationship between up, down, left, right and numbers?
You'll know once you extend your finger and follow the pattern in the instructions to write it on your palm.
←↓→↓←, left-down-right-down-left, written out as 5.
→↓←↓→, right down left down right, written out as 2.
←↓↓→↑←, the answer is 6; →↓↓←↑↑, the answer is 0.
The arrow code on this wall has a final result of 5260.
Xiao Lou quickly turned the combination lock to the numbers 5260, successfully opening the treasure chest and obtaining the last card from Square Block 2 Escape Room.
[ tool card: Four-Way Arrow ]
Rarity: A
Description: Can be obtained in the treasure chest after solving the arrow puzzle in Square Block 2 Escape Room.
Note: This tool card is versatile, especially useful in mazes where you can use arrows to give teammates hints and prevent them from getting stuck. It has high adhesion and can be stuck to the ground, branches, buildings, or any other surface. Seven custom colors can be used when placing the tool card to ensure it's easily visible to those with poor eyesight.
Number of uses: Unlimited.
Xiao Lou read the description again and found that the tool card " Four-Way Arrow " mentioned a key word - maze.
This suggests that in future Diamond Secret Rooms, you may very well encounter mazes filled with traps!
Furthermore, this card explicitly mentions "teammates," proving that the later dungeons are indeed played in a multiplayer team-based, multi-path exploration mode. Perhaps one person stepping on the wrong mechanism could cause all teammates to be riddled with arrows.
If Diamond Secret Room develops into a "mechanism maze," Challengers will not only have to find their way out of the maze, use their brains to solve puzzles and activate the correct mechanisms, but they will also constantly face the potential penalties for activating the wrong mechanisms. Arrow rain, blade arrays, boulders, puddles, poisonous fog, flames... the ways to trigger these mechanisms are numerous, and the later stages of Diamond Secret Room will exceed his imagination.
Xiao Lou was pondering when two lines of prompts suddenly popped up in the floating window.
Congratulations to Xiao Lou for perfectly clearing the d-class secret room [number puzzle] in 58 seconds! Your completion score is higher than 99.9%!
—This level is rated S. A perfect level completion will grant you an extra chance to win a prize. Please return to Personal Space to claim your reward.
Seeing the "Perfect completion" notification, Xiao Lou confidently pressed the "Exit" option in the floating window and returned to Personal Space.
***
At the same time, in the Escape Room of Square Block 2.
Yu Hanjiang frowned slightly as he looked at the pile of equations on the wall.
He hates math the most. When he sees something like 4894=1236, he feels a splitting headache.
Just then, a large red message suddenly appeared in the floating frame above their heads—
Congratulations to Challenger [ Xiao Lou ] for perfectly completing Square Block 2 Escape Room [Number Puzzle] in 58 seconds, setting a new world record for Square Block 2 Escape Room!
Yu Hanjiang, who hadn't solved a single problem in a minute: "..."
Once inside the escape room, moving around the four walls and turning the cipher gears takes time. Xiao Lou completed the puzzle perfectly in 58 seconds, solving all four puzzles. This means that Xiao Lou's average time to solve each puzzle was no more than 10 seconds.
This Xiao Lou, his speed in cracking digital mechanisms is just too fast!
Yu Hanjiang frowned and looked at the announcement again.
The Xiao Lou he knew was from Medical University. Professor at the Forensic Medicine Department.
The initial contact came about because a female student at the medical university fell to her death. During the investigation, she heard from her classmates that her last class was Professor Xiao's class. The students had a very high opinion of Professor Xiao. Yu Hanjiang initially thought that Professor Xiao, who was so respected by the students, should be an old expert in his forties or fifties—but he didn't expect Xiao Lou to be so young.
It was raining the day Xiao Lou came to the police station to give her statement.
The man's jet-black hair was soaked by the rain, clinging to his ears and making his face look exceptionally handsome. His eyelashes were long and thick, glistening with raindrops, and his dark, clear eyes seemed to shimmer with a gentle, watery light.
He wore a white shirt, which clung to his body despite being soaked by the rain, yet he didn't look disheveled at all. The man's posture remained upright and dignified, exuding a clean and pure aura. His smiling eyes made him instantly approachable.
Yu Hanjiang has met people from all walks of life, and Xiao Lou's temperament is undoubtedly unique—gentle, elegant, and talented. These are the students' evaluations of him. Medical students regard him as a male god. It is said that every class of his is packed. In a university with a serious truancy rate, students from other departments even come to audit his classes.
Throughout the statement-taking process, the man remained calm and composed, demonstrating exceptional mental fortitude and good manners.
Yu Hanjiang had a very good first impression of him.
The case of the girl falling from the building was quickly solved, and it was thought that the two would never cross paths again. However, the Major Crimes Unit encountered a heinous poisoning case. When Yu Hanjiang delivered the poison to the Forensic Identification Center, he met Xiao Lou again.
The two became acquainted through the poisoning case and added each other as friends. Xiao Lou helped a lot during the investigation. Yu Hanjiang originally wanted to invite him to dinner, but since the Spring Festival was approaching, the dinner was postponed until after Xiao Lou returned.
Unfortunately, Yu Hanjiang didn't have a chance to meet Xiao Lou on the seventh day of the Lunar New Year...
The familiar name brought back a flood of memories. Yu Hanjiang took a deep breath and quickly calmed himself.
Being able to perfectly navigate the digital puzzle room in 58 seconds clearly indicates a master of numerical reasoning games— could this Xiao Lou be the same person as the young Forensic Doctor he knew? Yu Hanjiang couldn't be sure.
He only knew that Xiao Lou was highly regarded at school, but he had no idea whether he often played puzzle games in private.
Perhaps I can find an opportunity to get in touch with this Xiao Lou in the future?
Yu Hanjiang put aside the chaotic thoughts in his mind and continued to focus his gaze on the mathematical puzzle on the wall.
***
Back in Personal Space, Xiao Lou also saw the news that he had "broken the world record for Square Block 2 Escape Room ".
He was somewhat surprised.
Solving a question every 10 seconds is normal for him. After all, he has played too many escape room games, and the most common mechanism in escape rooms is the number mechanism.
Perhaps among those who come to Card World, few have such strong mental fortitude as him, and even fewer are those who frequently play number puzzle games, which is why he got a good deal and broke the world record.
The questions in Square Block 2 Escape Room are actually not difficult. Ignore the ticking of the clock, calm down and observe carefully. As long as you find the logic in the numbers, you can quickly get the answer.
Xiao Lou completed the digital-themed escape room with a 15-minute time limit in just 58 seconds.
What cards will I get if I clear this stage perfectly?
Seeing the green "Completed" message appear in the bottom right corner of the [ Diamond 2 ] card on the card wall, Xiao Lou calmly said, " Where's the Guardian from the Diamond Secret Room? Come out and meet us."
Author's Note: Thank you for your patience, Jinjiang is finally open
If any little angels can't understand math logic problems, just...
Just shout "666" to Xiao Lou. The Diamond Secret Room has many types of mechanisms; numbers are just one of them. There are also musical mechanisms, stomp mechanisms, and many more fun features later on.
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