When Xiao Lou re-entered Peach Blossom Spring, a notification appeared in the floating box above his head.
— Card [ Tao Yuanming ] growth +1.
—[ The Peach Blossom Spring ] effect improved, now allows you to bring two companions into Peach Blossom Spring.
—[ Peach Blossom Spring ] has 04:30 remaining.
Tao Yuanming's card growth rate is indeed related to the number of times he enters Peach Blossom Spring.
Fortunately, Xiao Lou went to the Hearts and Diamond Secret Rooms first, obtaining many useful cards, including Tao Yuanming, Nine Palaces Grid, and Compass, all of which saved his life in those rooms. If he had come to the Spade Secret Room first, unarmed and surrounded by zombies, he would have definitely died a terrible death.
Xiao Lou took a deep breath, turned around and left Peach Blossom Spring, returning to the tobacco and alcohol supermarket at the entrance of Peach Blossom Spring.
Shortly after he left, Peach Blossom Spring disappeared due to the 30-minute time limit, and the lower right corner of the Tao Yuanming card displayed a gray "Unsummonable" message with a 24-hour cooldown.
This means that he can no longer rely on Peach Blossom Spring for spatial teleportation.
If he encounters another large group of zombies, he must be extra careful.
The time limit for completing Spades 2 Secret Chamber is 60 minutes, and he has already used 35 minutes.
Xiao Lou glanced at the clearance timer and quickened his pace toward the central hospital.
He had deliberately lingered at the entrance of the inspection building for a moment, using the 30-meter vertical range of the Rose Perfume to lure all the zombies on the ten floors to the playground and trap them with the Ring. Therefore, after entering the lobby of the inspection building, he did not encounter any zombie attacks.
Xiao Lou stood in the lobby and carefully examined the green sign.
The first floor houses the imaging testing area, including CT and MRI scans; the second floor is the pathology laboratory; the third floor is the pathogenic microorganism testing laboratory; and the fourth floor is his destination—the blood testing center.
Xiao Lou walked to the elevator and pressed the up button, but the elevator did not respond. He immediately turned around and started climbing the stairs.
Strangely, as he reached the stairwell, a chill suddenly ran down his spine, as if a pair of eyes were watching him from behind. Xiao Lou turned around abruptly, only to find a long, empty corridor behind him.
He frowned, ignoring the strange feeling, and strode quickly upstairs.
There were some mangled corpses at the corner of the stairs, emitting a strong stench of decay. The higher you went, the stronger the stench became. Xiao Lou covered his mouth and nose with his sleeve and strode towards the blood center.
He had lured the zombies from the testing building to the playground, and aside from the nauseating stench, he hadn't encountered any trouble along the way. However, he froze the moment he reached the blood testing center on the fourth floor—
Countless blood samples are displayed here.
Red, green, purple, black, yellow, blue...
Rows of test tubes, each a different color, numbering at least several hundred.
As a forensic doctor, Xiao Lou certainly knew what the colors of these glass tubes represented. When drawing blood from patients, the hospital uses different colored tubes to dispense the blood according to the different tests being performed: red tubes for blood biochemistry, purple tubes for complete blood count, black tubes for erythrocyte sedimentation rate, blue tubes for prothrombin time, and so on.
For ordinary inpatients and outpatients, it usually takes three days to get the test results after blood is drawn. Large hospitals draw blood from hundreds or thousands of patients every day, so it is normal for blood testing centers to accumulate a large number of blood samples.
How do I find it?
Xiao Lou's eyes quickly scanned his surroundings. Suddenly, he noticed that all the test tubes had barcodes and patients' names on them. Xiao Lou had a flash of inspiration—the plot summary had mentioned that the little boy was admitted to the emergency room with a persistent high fever and eventually died and was sent to the morgue.
A death in a hospital is a very serious matter. Doctors must compile the deceased's medical records, write a "death analysis report," and issue a "medical death certificate" to the family within 24 hours. After the little boy died, the Emergency Department must have kept his medical records. If they knew the little boy's name, wouldn't they be able to identify his serum sample?
—That's right, as the protagonist of Spades 2 Secret Chamber, the little boy must have a name!
With only 20 minutes left to clear customs, Xiao Lou decisively turned around and went downstairs.
He ran back to the outpatient building as fast as he could and rushed into the emergency room doctor's office on the first floor.
The chaos caused by the virus outbreak had left the office in disarray, but Xiao Lou immediately spotted the medical record shelf in the corner, piled high with medical records. He pulled out all the records and quickly flipped through the first page—
He discarded all cases that did not match the gender or age, and in just half a minute, he identified three male child patients. Among them, only one patient's admission reason was "fever," and the last page contained an analysis of the cause of death.
Zombie Leader, 8 years old—which matches the description of the scene when entering the secret room.
Xiao Lou's eyes lit up. Holding Zombie Leader's medical records, he quickly turned and ran back to the blood testing center.
There were countless serum samples at the testing center. Xiao Lou scanned them row by row, ignoring all the serum samples from random people. Finally, he successfully found the serum sample of the patient named " Zombie Leader " in a corner.
Blood test tubes of various colors—red, yellow, blue, green, black, and purple—are preserved.
This child's condition was too complex for the doctor to diagnose, so they drew a lot of blood for a comprehensive examination. Performing a full range of tests is common practice in hospitals for difficult cases.
Standard operating procedure.
Xiao Lou took the six blood samples off the test tube rack one by one and turned to go downstairs.
He has already used up 45 minutes.
As long as he returns to the outpatient building and takes the elevator directly to the rooftop, he can pass the test perfectly.
However, just as he reached the first floor of the testing center, he suddenly heard a clear and pleasant voice behind him: "Congratulations on your perfect completion of Spades 2 Secret Chamber. I am the Ace of Spades. You can come here to collect your reward."
Xiao Lou was startled and looked in the direction of the sound.
The sound was coming from behind an iron door at the end of the corridor on the first floor of the testing center.
Xiao Lou turned and walked to the door, finding that the upper part of the door was made of sturdy iron bars, while the lower part was locked from the outside. Through the gaps in the iron bars, he could see that it was a small room of about 10 square meters, with a bed and security guard uniforms hanging on the wall, which was probably the security guards' rest room.
A little boy, only up to Xiao Lou's waist, was standing by the bed. He was dressed in black, with his back to Xiao Lou, and his voice was very clear: "The key to the door is in the pocket of that security guard in front. Help me open the door."
Xiao Lou looked back and saw that the security guard on the side of the corridor had become a corpse—his neck had been cleanly bitten off, and his head was nowhere to be found.
The little boy said, "Yes, it's him. Take the key out of his pocket..."
Xiao Lou didn't take the keys, and calmly asked, "Why are you turning your back to me?"
The little boy laughed and said, "Being a Guardian makes it even more mysterious."
Xiao Lou said calmly, "The person who was watching me from behind when I went upstairs just now was you, wasn't it— Zombie Leader?"
He used a declarative sentence, and his tone was very certain.
Upon hearing this, the little boy's back stiffened slightly: "What are you saying?"
"The first Infected, Zombie Leader locked up by security, I didn't expect you to still be conscious." Xiao Lou smiled slightly, "Trying to trick me into opening the door for you? Too bad, I'm not that stupid."
The little boy suddenly turned around—
His face was as pale as paper, his lips were stained with blood, his two small tiger teeth were as sharp as the most ferocious wild beast, and his eyes had no whites or pupils, only a chilling pure black.
Xiao Lou didn't back down in fright; instead, she looked at him calmly as if she had expected it.
Realizing his deception had failed, Zombie Leader's features contorted in pain. He suddenly stretched out his bare, skeletal hands and lunged forward, pounding on the iron door: "Let me out! Let me out—ah—"
His cries quickly turned into shrieks.
It was a loud voice, like that of a beast leader summoning his subordinates, echoing in the empty testing building, almost distorting the surrounding air.
Xiao Lou's eardrums throbbed with pain. Realizing that he was summoning a horde of zombies, Xiao Lou didn't hesitate any longer and turned to run!
The zombies trapped in the ring on the playground began to stir after hearing his sharp shriek. If Xiao Lou hadn't trapped them with the ring trap beforehand, he would have been buried alive by the horde of zombies.
Xiao Lou: "..."
Spades 2 Secret Chamber even left a cliffhanger at the end.
Many Challengers, after obtaining the serum, know they are about to achieve a perfect victory, and their mental state tends to become relatively relaxed. At this point, if they hear someone say "I am the Ace of Spades," they might believe it.
Fortunately, Xiao Lou was careful enough to notice that something was wrong with the little boy and did not listen to him and unlock the door.
This little boy is actually the boss of the Spades 2 Secret Chamber!
A shrill scream summons a horde of zombies—it's terrifying to even think about!
Xiao Lou ran all the way back to the outpatient hall, pressed the elevator button, and took the elevator directly to the rooftop.
A helicopter was waiting for him on the spacious rooftop. The moment he stepped onto the rooftop, the helicopter started up immediately, its rotors roaring, and a wave of heat swept over him.
A familiar notification then popped up in the floating box above their heads.
— Congratulations to Xiao Lou for perfectly clearing d-class secret room [ Zombie Town ] in 50 minutes! Your overall score is higher than 85% of all players!
—This level is rated A. A perfect level completion will grant you an extra chance to win a prize. Please return to Personal Space to claim your reward.
See? This is the right style for escape room art.
Before you clear the Challenger level, the Guardian won't randomly appear and disrupt your progress. Even if the Ace of Spades does appear, he won't be locked behind the iron door. Besides, the little boy is speaking to him with his back to him and asking him for the key; a little thought reveals that this guy is the Zombie Leader who was initially locked up by security after the infection.
Xiao Lou completed the 60-minute escape room challenge in 50 minutes, almost getting tricked at the end – a truly thrilling but ultimately safe experience.
He's not very good at survival escape rooms. In the previous Hearts and Diamonds, his completion score was higher than 99.9% of the players. This time, it was only higher than 85% of the players, which means that 15% of the players completed the game more easily than him.
Perhaps another method was used?
Xiao Lou was sitting in the helicopter, pondering something, when a notification popped up again in the floating window in front of him—
Congratulations to Challenger [ Yu Hanjiang ] for a perfect completion of Spades 2 Secret Chamber [ Zombie Town ] in 15 minutes, setting a new world record for Spades 2 Secret Chamber!
Xiao Lou: "..."
15 minutes?
While he was frantically luring zombies, kiting them, and running for his life, Yu Hanjiang actually completed the game perfectly in 15 minutes?
Excuse me, is that Yu from the Criminal Police Officer squad?
Team, did you push us over like a bulldozer?!
Author's Note: ===
Captain Yu is making his presence known to Lou Lou like crazy:)
The Spade Secret Room can be solved by strategy or force.
The protagonist clears the game using his intelligence, while Captain Yu... a slow-moving zombie? No problem, one slash and he's done.
Zombies: We've really had the worst luck to run into you two!
PS: The D-Class Secret Rooms are relatively short, more like introductory levels, and the two meet quickly.
P.S.: I'm home now! I'll be sending out red envelopes like crazy this afternoon. Those who left messages can check their private messages. Thanks for your support!:)