After taking him to the designated location, the staff quietly left. At this time, the voice of the field controller came from the headset: "Everyone can take off the blindfolds now."
Wen Xia took off the blindfold. The room he was in looked like a simple small room. The neon light hanging on the wall was a little ugly face, with a dim light of red and blue. This was the only light source in the room.
The sound outside could not be heard in the room. Each of them had a decibel meter hanging on their body.
They challenged the highest difficulty, so one of the precautions was to try not to make loud noises. If the sound made exceeded the decibel limit, the decibel meter would sound an alarm, and the alarm would attract "bad things". This bad thing refers to ghosts played by real people.
However, this does not mean that you will not encounter ghosts if you make a small sound, but that a loud sound will definitely attract ghosts.
There are two solutions to encountering NPCs. One is to run and not be caught, and the other is to find a place to hide. There are also requirements for the hiding place. It must be closed on all sides, such as cabinets and closets with doors that can be opened and closed. Of course, rooms are also OK, but there is a danger of being broken into by the door or window of the room. Cabinets and closets are 100% safe and are set as blind spots for ghosts.
If you are caught by an NPC, you will not be eliminated immediately, but will be locked in the circus's cage, and then other players will look for the key to the cage to rescue your partner. The rescue is time-limited. If the time limit is exceeded, the person in the cage will be considered to have died at the mouth of the beast, which means he is out.
With the dim light, Wen Xia looked around the room. The door was naturally locked. Needless to say, Lin Fengqi and the others were probably in the same situation as him, locked in a room, so this was the first level of the entire secret room.
He leaned in to look at the lock. Probably because it was the first level, the lock was the simplest combination lock. All you had to do was find the corresponding digital information in the room.
Generally speaking, after the precautions were repeatedly emphasized, no one would make too much noise at this time. Wen Xia didn't hear anything after walking around. But this was a misunderstanding.
Because at least the environment he was in was absolutely safe, the door was locked, and there were no windows.
So Wen Xia asked in a normal volume, a little louder than normal: "Is there anyone around me who is also locked in the room?"
The decibel meter didn't ring.
Someone next to him actually responded: "Me. Uh... hello."
It was one of the two high school girls.
They didn't exchange names, they just played a secret room together. Wen Xia approached the wall and asked her: "Is your place safe? No windows?"
"No, the door is also locked."
"Okay."
Wen Xia didn't lower his volume when he spoke. If there were other people around, they should be able to hear it, but only this little girl responded to him.
Since there was no one else around, he was relieved to shout at the top of his voice: "Anyone who is in a safe situation and can hear this sentence, please make a sound and determine your respective positions!" As
soon as he finished speaking, the decibel meter instantly sounded an alarm.
Soon, footsteps approached the door, and then someone outside banged on the door frantically.
At the same time, there were also different sounds from far and near. Wen Xia calmly listened to the banging sounds and distinguished them. There was no sound of Lin Fengqi among them.
Because of the response of a few people just now, they also vaguely heard the alarm sound, so the footsteps at the door left in a chaotic manner and went somewhere else.
After the NPC left, Wen Xia quickly searched for clues in the room, and soon he cracked the code. At the same time, he also found a small flashlight with weak light but better than nothing.
After unlocking the door, he carefully opened a crack in the door and used the flashlight to observe the situation outside. Outside was a corridor. There was no room on the other side, but a wall with many paintings and photos. The left side was a dead end, and the right side was a fork in the road, where you could turn left or right, forming a T shape.
Wen Xia recalled the left and right turns that the staff had taken when they brought him here, and he had a better idea.
After making sure there was no danger, he slipped out of the room. The little girl was in the room next to his, but the door of the next room was not next to his. You could only see her after you turned right at the end of the corridor.
After walking out of the room and walking to the end, there was another large corridor. Wen Xia turned right first and found the door of the next room. With the cooperation of the inside and outside, he finally got the little girl out.
It was the first time for the little girl to play in a secret room. She looked very lively and brave from the outside, but she was still a little scared when she was really there.
She couldn't figure it out for a while. If Wen Xia hadn't helped her, she might have to wander around in the room for a while. There was no flashlight in her room, which meant that this thing was not prepared according to the number of people, but was a scarce resource.
Wen Xia looked around and finally decided to continue to walk to the right. This was the route he took when he was brought here. He was the last one to be locked up in the small dark room, so he should be able to find the rooms where others were imprisoned when passing by.
The surroundings were pitch black, the scene was dilapidated and gloomy, and many of the paintings on the walls were of weird little ugly people, or old yellowed photos with bloodstains.
The little girl followed Wen Xia with some fear.
The journey was surprisingly smooth, and they didn't encounter any NPCs. Wen Xia led the girl around and around, and they almost bumped into someone at a corner.
The flashlight flickered, and the girl behind him thought she had encountered an NPC. She was so scared that she screamed briefly and was about to run away. Fortunately, she was just below the alarm line and the decibel meter didn't sound. Wen Xia hurriedly grabbed her, made a "huh" gesture, and pressed down with his palm to calm her down.
The girl nodded with lingering fear, and subconsciously grabbed his clothes to look at the person who scared her.
The person they almost bumped into was Lin Fengqi.
Lin Fengqi didn't have a flashlight either, and he groped over like a blind man. He squinted at the flashlight and then saw that it was Wen Xia and... His eyes fell on the girl's hand holding Wen Xia's clothes.
He reacted quickly and observed the girl's reaction. Is this what fear is like?
"Where did you come from?" After comforting the little girl, Wen Xia whispered to Lin Fengqi, "I just asked you to speak up and report your location, why didn't you say anything?"
Lin Fengqi pointed in the direction he came from: "My place is a semi-open place."
The place where Lin Fengqi was taken was the men's restroom, where he first met the ghost played by the NPC. It was Wen Xia's shout during the chase that triggered the alarm and attracted the NPC who was originally chasing him.
So after the NPC left, he also followed the direction to find it. He didn't have a flashlight in his hand, so it took him a long time to grope his way here.
After meeting up with Lin Fengqi, the three of them heard the voice of the venue controller in their earphones at the same time: "Everyone, please gather in the dressing room within ten minutes."
"Where is the dressing room?" Wen Xia asked Lin Fengqi, "Did you see it when you came here?"
Lin Fengqi shook his head and moved closer to him.
"Then we can only...separate our groups." Wen Xia glanced at another fork in the road that was the opposite of Lin Fengqi's, and then looked back at the road he and the little girl had taken. There was another fork in the road that they hadn't visited.
But with three people, one of them was bound to be left alone.
How could they separate?
Of course, it was impossible to leave the little girl alone. Wen Xia remembered that she still had to pretend to be scared. Although she really wanted to go the same way as Lin Fengqi, now only Lin Fengqi was brave enough, so they could only separate for a while. Anyway, they could meet again when they found the dressing room.
So Wen Xia said, "I'll go with this classmate, and you can go alone first."
However, Lin Fengqi was stunned for a moment, and suddenly moved closer and said, "No."
Wen Xia: "?"
"I..." The man pursed his lips and said in a low voice, "There is only one flashlight." He still didn't dare to say the word "afraid".
"..." This is true.
The little girl couldn't help but speak: "If we don't hurry up, I feel that time will not be enough. And if there is only one flashlight, it will be inconvenient for the other person to move after we separate."
"Then we can only go together as three people," Wen Xia sighed, "We have to choose a road and clear the mines as quickly as possible."
At this time, Xiao Ma's voice rang loudly not far away: "Come and gather here, I'm in the dressing room-" As soon as
the voice fell, the alarm sounded.
There were footsteps approaching from another direction. The three looked at each other and hurriedly ran. There were no rooms or cabinets to hide nearby. They could only escape from the NPC approaching from behind and run in the direction of Xiao Ma's voice. He dared to speak loudly, which meant that the dressing room must be safe.
For a while, the footsteps were chaotic.
Finally, they ran around a corner. A flashlight came out from the crack of the door in front of them, shaking up and down, and then there was Xiao Ma's surprised voice: "I'm coming, Brother Wen, hurry up!"
The three rushed in, and Xiao Ma closed the door with a "bang". Before he could lock it, people outside started pushing and banging the door, accompanied by the sharp laughter of the NPC, which made people shudder.
There were two NPCs, and they were very strong. It took six people to block the door together. The moment the door closed, Xiao Ma quickly locked it. Now, no matter how hard people outside pushed or banged on the door, they couldn't get in. There were no windows in the dressing room, and the noise outside lasted for about ten seconds before it died down.
Dahuoer breathed a sigh of relief, and the people were finally all there.
In addition to Wen Xia's flashlight, Xiao Ma and his two companions found two flashlights, a total of three flashlights, and the light was not strong, just a small one.
It was not yet ten minutes, and Xiao Ma said with his experience as a high-level player that the field control asked them to gather in the dressing room, and it was very likely that they would start assigning tasks in ten minutes. If they did not gather in the dressing room at the specified time, the players who had made a lot of noise but luckily escaped might be caught and caged directly.
No more guessing. Fortunately, Xiao Ma and his two companions found the dressing room first.
In the remaining few minutes, they exchanged some information, mainly about the map. There was paper and pen in the dressing room, and Wen Xia roughly drew a map based on the information from both sides. Then he found that none of them had been to the middle.
"The middle may be where the circus performs," Wen Xia scanned the marked rooms, and the tip of the pen pointed at the only empty center, "This may be an important place for the final clearance."
As Xiao Ma said, after the ten-minute deadline, the venue control began to assign tasks.
"Now, please ask Charles and John to go to the office of the circus owner together, check the notes he left behind, and destroy the notes."
Wen Xia and Lin Fengqi looked at each other.
Wen Xia remembered that the character she got was called Charles, and John... If I remember correctly, it was Lin Fengqi.
"Wow, it's good that we didn't start off as a solo mission," Xiao Ma breathed a sigh of relief, "If we're two people, we can have a companion."
The two of them left the dressing room with a flashlight and headed for the circus owner's office.
The corridor was silent, and no sound of NPCs walking nearby was heard for the time being. Lin Fengqi held a flashlight, and this time there was no third person. Wen Xia was trying to pretend to be scared and act more naturally as he walked.
But the journey was so smooth that he didn't have any time to waste,
and the two of them soon arrived at the office. The door of the office was ajar and not locked, and it opened with a light push. However, at the moment the door opened, a fake human corpse suddenly hung down from it, and the bloody face almost gave Wen Xia a passionate kiss.
Wen Xia calmly took two steps back to avoid it, and then realized that this seemed to be an opportunity.
He controlled the volume and let out a small scream to express that he was scared, and then wanted to take the opportunity to hide behind Lin Fengqi, and it would be best if he could fold his waist or something. However, before he could take the second step, the person next to him also made a shallow sound of sucking in cool air, and then grabbed his... sleeve.
Wen Xia: "?"
Lin Fengqi: "......?"
The two looked at each other, and their expressions were blank for a moment.
At this moment, the weird corpse that was hanging upside down and still shaking suddenly let out a sharp and piercing laugh. The extremely penetrating laugh echoed with the ugly little smile painted on the corpse's face with blood, which was both devilish and weird. Both of them were startled by the volume. The laughter became louder and louder, making their heads buzz and alarming the decibel meters on their bodies.
The laughter did not last long. Soon, it went silent with a "bang" like a balloon, but the sound of the alarm followed closely.
The footsteps of the NPC were coming from not far away.
Wen Xia and Lin Feng reacted quickly. At this time, they did not get entangled in the act and quickly pushed the fake corpse into the room. However, the door lock of the office was broken and could only be closed, not blocked.
Within a few seconds, the footsteps had reached the corridor, and the NPC's weird laughter was very similar to the weird laughter of the fake corpse.
Lin Fengqi held a flashlight in his hand. He quickly scanned the room with the light and pulled Wen Xia over: "Here, the closet."
Before Wen Xia could see clearly, Lin Fengqi pulled her into a closet.
Almost at the same moment, the door of the office was slammed open with a "bang".
The NPC stopped running, and the footsteps lingered at the door of the office, and then walked inside step by step. He was like a police officer catching a criminal suspect, pacing slowly in the office, looking for their hiding place. He seemed to have a knife in his hand, and the blade hung on the wall, making a rattling sound, and gradually approached the direction of the closet.
Although we know that the closet is set up as a blind spot that NPCs will not open to check, such movement can still bring a certain sense of pressure to people psychologically.
The closet is actually not very spacious, and two 1.8-meter-tall adult men squeezed in it are somewhat crowded.
Wen Xia and Lin Fengqi are close to each other, so close that they can hear each other's breathing - and heartbeat. It seems that if they just tilt their cheeks, they will kiss each other.
What's even more embarrassing is... his thigh seems to have touched a delicate part.
Wen Xia is obviously not afraid, but for some reason, while listening to Lin Fengqi's slightly heavy breathing and the sound of the NPC approaching outside, he feels nervous for no reason.
It's a little hot, I don't know if it's because of the life and death speed just now, or something else. He actually felt sweat on his back. He wanted to move his legs to get out of that awkward situation, but as soon as he moved, he heard Lin Fengqi's breathing become disordered.
He immediately dared not move again.
Finally, the NPC's knife hit the closet.
The sound of the knife tip on the wooden furniture was hoarse and dull. Suddenly, he retracted the knife and slapped the closet door with both hands, making a loud noise. Wen Xia vaguely saw the tiny wood chips that were shaken off in the light of Lin Fengqi's raised flashlight. Then, with a slight "creak", the closet door was opened a crack. The NPC's face with exaggerated ugly makeup was just stuck to the crack, seemingly smiling, but his eyes were bloodshot.
He laughed strangely, his tone was extremely weird: "I found you--"
Most timid people would probably be scared to tears here.
But two seconds later, Lin Fengqi did something. He turned off the flashlight. The light suddenly went out, Wen Xia's eyes went dark, and he couldn't see his hand in front of him.
As the saying goes, out of sight, out of mind.
Then, Wen Xia felt someone grabbing his sleeve again.
The heat source emitting mint fragrance came closer imperceptibly.
In an instant, his heart beat like thunder.
"...Scared." Lin Fengqi whispered in the dark.
"..."
The NPC probably didn't expect to eat a mouthful of dog food. After a few seconds of silence, there was another "creak--" and the closet door closed.
The footsteps faded away, and the office that had just experienced a thrilling moment fell into silence again.
Lin Fengqi was slow to turn on the flashlight.
He was still holding Wen Xia's sleeves, and his breathing was so close that Wen Xia felt the hot air spraying on his earlobes for several moments.
Wen Xia finally couldn't help but speak: "The ghost is gone."
Lin Fengqi: "Yeah."
The voice was low and deep, as if rubbing the roots of his ears, and Wen Xia suddenly felt a little dry in the mouth: "We can go out."
"Wait a little longer." Lin Fengqi said.
"...Wait for what?"
In the cramped and closed space, the air is limited.
The man's voice was mixed with a trace of hoarseness: "Wait...I'm not afraid anymore, then go out."
"..."
Too close.
Wen Xia turned his head silently in the darkness and looked in the direction of Lin Fengqi.
The force holding the cuffs suddenly tightened a little.
Wen Xia couldn't help but licked his dry lower lip and asked him: "Then... how long will it take for you to no longer be afraid?"
Lin Fengqi didn't say anything, obviously he didn't know himself.
As a man, Wen Xia could understand this feeling to some extent.
He turned his head away again, breathing in and out, at least to calm himself down, so that when Lin Fengqi was no longer "afraid", he would start to be "afraid" instead.
Not long after, it seemed like a century had passed, Lin Fengqi turned on the flashlight, and the sudden light filled the small closet again.
Wen Xia squinted and looked at Lin Fengqi.
The man looked normal, but there was still a trace of dark desire in his eyes, which made his heart skip a beat.
"Get out." Lin Fengqi turned his face away slightly in a wolfish manner when he met Wen Xia's gaze.
His red ears could be clearly seen.
This man seemed to have never known how well his ears could reveal his emotions.
But why wasn't he like this before?
Wen Xia carefully untied his legs while thinking, and the two of them finally broke free from this strange closet prison.
The NPC's visit delayed the mission for some time, so they calmed down and began to concentrate on the mission.
The circus owner's notes were not so easy to find. They originally thought they were on the desk, but they couldn't find them after searching through all the papers and documents on the desk. So the two of them divided the work, one looking for the bookcase and the other looking through the drawers of the desk.
Wen Xia quickly discovered that one of the drawers was locked, and thought that this was it: "Look for the key."
Lin Fengqi finally found the key in the compartment of a book. At this time, the field control said to them: "You don't have
much time left, please complete the task as soon as possible." The field control did not tell them how much time was left, and even if they did, they would not be able to count the time, because the mobile phone had been handed in for unified safekeeping before entering.
Using the key to open the drawer, there was indeed a notebook inside.
Wen Xia read ten lines at a glance and quickly flipped through the notebook. When he was about to reach the last page, he found a note inside, which looked like a clue to the solution of a puzzle. This should be the message that the entire notebook wanted to tell them.
At the same time, some plots can be sorted out from the notes, which are about the circus, roughly recording how the circus went from prosperity to decline, and what kind of horrible events happened, leading to the haunting. After reading it, the two destroyed the notes according to the mission - the simplest and crudest way, just tear it up.
"Now start the last half minute countdown," the field control said coldly, "30, 29, 28--"
The two stepped on the last "1" and returned to the dressing room.
Xiao Ma breathed a sigh of relief: "I was scared to death, I thought you two would never come back after you left. How about it, did you get anything?"
Wen Xia handed over the note that seemed to be the clue to the puzzle.
The venue controller then said, "Charles, who got the note, discovered the hidden story behind the circus, and he decided to keep the note for future use."
Several people looked at each other, thinking that this note had a bit of a death flag flavor to it.
But Charles and Wen Xia, who were named, could only accept their fate and put it away.
"By the way, why did you take so long?" Xiao Ma didn't know that he had grasped a key point. "Is this mission difficult? I heard a lot of laughter in the office. Did your alarm go off? Did the ghost stay there for a long time?"
It stayed... but not for a long time.
Wen Xia glanced at Lin Fengqi and lied casually: "Yes, you should be more careful when doing missions in the future. The ghost may kill back and shoot. We almost fell into it."
Several people nodded in doubt.
The next one was a single-player mission. The one assigned was one of the two high school girls, the girl who was with Wen Xia before.
Unfortunately, she was caught by the NPC and locked in the beast cage.
The field controller said, "You have fifteen minutes to find the key to the cage and rescue your companions."
Xiao Ma scratched his hair, "Help, how do we know how long fifteen minutes is——"
Wen Xia said, "It's always better to move faster."
The danger of rescuing people is very high, because according to the settings, the NPCs are in a violent state at this time, and there are more than one NPC. During this period, all the NPCs will be dispatched to capture players, and at the same time, another person has to complete his own single-player mission.
The lively music of the circus sounded in the field, and the red and blue lights flashed continuously. The alarms on everyone's body also began to ring endlessly. The scene can be said to be thrilling, exciting and chaotic.
Time was running out, and several people quickly divided the work, and each person went to an area to look for clues. Wen Xia had just run out of the dressing room for two steps when he felt his sleeve being pulled again.
He was forced to stop, turned around and asked, "What's wrong?"
Lin Fengqi raised his hand and brushed the hair on his head, and said, "Sawdust."
Just now, the ugly NPC in the office slapped the closet door and shook it off.
The memories of the closet that were finally put behind his mind suddenly flooded up, and Wen Xia glanced down subconsciously.
Noticing his gaze, Lin Fengqi paused and whispered, "...I'm not afraid now."
The author has something to say:
Out of the closet (physics)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
