Chapter 7 Welcome Party (Part 7)
...Who turned on the flashlight?
No one among them would do this, as they all knew that this action would attract monsters from underground, unless -
Before Mu Yu could think more, the lights in the prop area suddenly came on.
To be precise, the pure black wall disappeared in an instant.
The room behind the wall appeared in front of the two of them.
The long incandescent lamp flickered, and the pale light seemed to shiver.
There were many objects scattered on the floor of the room, with cabinets placed in a haphazard manner on both sides. In the depths of the room there was a huge enclosed empty glass tank, so big that it seemed like one could keep sharks in it. It had probably not been cleaned for a long time, and the outside was gray and looked very dirty.
There is a small and narrow space behind the glass tank, but the glass tank blocks it and obviously people can't pass through.
There was no sound in the whole room, and no one was seen. It seemed peaceful.
But if there was no one there, then who was the one who turned on the flashlight just now?
The two looked at each other, then quickly turned their heads to the right.
On the right, the pure black wall blocking the entrance also disappeared. There was no one in the aisle either. In the middle of the waiting area at the other end of the aisle, Jiang Shuyue and Su Mingyun stood in the middle of the waiting area, looking confused, staring at them from a distance.
What happened? Why did the black wall appear, and why did it suddenly disappear?
Where are the others? Where have they gone?
The song ended quickly.
Mu Yu and Lu Chongnian rushed into the prop area first. They searched the room quickly separately but still couldn't find anyone.
There was no other way, so they could only turn around and go to the waiting area immediately.
When they ran there, Jiang Shuyue and Su Mingyun were no longer in the waiting area. They continued to move forward until they entered the rehearsal area, where they saw the two men and Jing Qiao.
——There are only three of them.
Jiang Shuyue turned around and said to them solemnly: "Something happened to Wang Lei."
Mu Yu and Lu Chongnian stopped.
Jing Qiao was trembling all over. "He's dead. The monster bit his throat and dragged him away! New rules have appeared here. We encountered two monsters!"
Mu Yu instantly tightened his hands and looked at Jiang Shuyue.
Jiang Shuyue whispered, "I went inside and looked for it, but I didn't find Wang Lei's...body."
There was no bloodstain on the ground. Wang Lei and the traces he left behind disappeared out of thin air, just like the other four people.
The stiff hand hanging by his side was held, and Mu Yu trembled. He heard Lu Zhongnian calmly ask: "Where are the new rules?"
Looking around, he didn't see any different rules in this large rehearsal area.
Jing Qiao stretched out his hand tremblingly and pointed to the right front of them——
Everyone looked in the direction she pointed.
It was a wall with a landscape oil painting hanging on it.
"The rule was right there just now, but it disappeared as soon as the monster disappeared, and the spot became this painting! I don't know what happened, it can't be an illusion, the rule and the monster are real, and Wang Lei is also -"
Jing Qiao was a little emotional, and it seemed difficult for him to explain things clearly in one breath.
Su Mingyun was comforting her, but there was a hint of fear on her face.
Jiang Shuyue's face looked very ugly.
He explained to Mu Yu and Lu Zhongnian, "Just now, the eight of us divided into groups to search these four areas. The two roommates were responsible for the props area, the two sophomores were responsible for searching the corridor, Su Mingyun and I checked the waiting area, and Jing Qiao and Wang Lei were responsible for the rehearsal area."
"After Su Mingyun and I entered the waiting area, we quickly focused our attention on a cabinet, because that was the only cabinet in the area that might have something hidden."
"We were banging around in the closet for a while, and when we came out we found that the aisle in front and the rehearsal area in the back were blocked by black walls. The performance outside started, and we couldn't move. It wasn't until the two walls disappeared that we saw you."
Lu Zhongnian: "Did you encounter any monsters in the waiting area?"
Jiang Shuyue shook his head: "No, nothing happened there! And the two walls I mentioned are not blocking the front and back ends of the waiting area, but blocking the aisle area and the entrance to the rehearsal area. I don't know if you understand what I mean?"
The aisle area and the waiting area are connected together, with a black wall in the middle separating the two sides.
The rehearsal area is on the left side of the middle aisle between the auditoriums in zones A and B, and the waiting area is on the right side of the aisle.
The two areas are separated by the passage, and there is still some distance between them.
However, the black wall only blocks the entrance to the rehearsal area at the other end of the passage, but not the entrance to the waiting area at this end of the passage.
This seemed to indicate that the waiting area was not his target at all. The only places he really wanted to surround were the aisle area and the rehearsal area.
Mu Yu listened to the conversation between the two and quickly calmed down.
There was no point in thinking about their friend's death at this point... they had to hurry and solve the problem now.
He asked hoarsely, "So now, except for Wang Lei who was dragged away by the monster... by Qiao himself, the other three groups of people just disappeared like that?"
Jiang Shuyue replied stiffly: "Yes."
They had all searched separately, and now there were only five of them left in these four areas.
The wall disappeared, the lights came on, and the other four people disappeared, and no one knew whether they were alive or dead.
If everything really went wrong...
Jiang Shuyue suddenly felt a sense of fear.
Was it his fault? Shouldn't he have suggested that they search in groups of two? If the eight of them searched one area at a time, maybe the speed would be slower, but wouldn't it be less tragic?
Even if they really encounter a monster, there is strength in numbers. They can always come up with some solutions. Maybe there is a chance that everyone will survive?
But now——
Mu Yu's question interrupted the quiet collapse that was happening inside him.
"Jing Qiao," he looked at the girl, "Please calm down and think back. Did you notice when the black wall appeared?"
“I…” Jing Qiao shook her head. “I didn’t notice the exact time because we kept walking forward after entering the rehearsal area. It was not until I wanted to turn back to look for others that I realized the door was blocked by a black wall.”
"So when did the black wall disappear? Did you notice?"
"I know this! The black wall disappeared as soon as the monster disappeared. At that time, I saw the backs of Su Mingyun and Jiang Shuyue in the waiting area!"
Mu Yu and Lu Zhongnian exchanged glances.
"The black wall blocks the prop area, the aisle area, and the rehearsal area. Once the monster disappears, the black wall disappears with it. Similarly, when the monster and the rules first appear, the black wall is likely to have already appeared."
Mu Yu analyzed: "In other words, the appearance of the black wall is a sign that the graded copies of these three areas have been triggered."
Jiang Shuyue was stunned: "Graded copy?"
But after thinking about it, he understood!
These three areas are separated separately. New monsters and new rules will appear in them, and players have to find ways to escape from them. Isn't this a graded copy?
Mu Yu: "The eight of you entered here from the middle passage between the two areas of CB. The two people from the roommate group stayed in the prop area, and the other six people went forward in groups until Jing Qiao and Wang Lei entered the rehearsal area. Only then did the four groups of people disperse, right?"
Jiang Shuyue: “Yes.”
He gradually realized what Mu Yu meant.
"Jiang Shuyue, when was the last time you saw the other six people?"
Jiang Shuyue: "Before Jing Qiao and Wang Lei walked into the rehearsal area! At that time, I took a special look forward to confirm the situation of the senior group and the roommate group!"
The black wall hadn’t appeared at that time!
In other words, the black wall only appeared after Jing Qiao and Wang Lei entered the rehearsal area!
He was surprised and said: "The condition for triggering the graded copy is——"
There are players in the prop area, aisle area, and rehearsal area at the same time!
Six people dispersed into three areas, the graded copy was triggered, the black wall descended, the rules within the area were born, and monsters appeared.
This is also the reason why they failed to find any clues here in the previous search!
Because of the previous search, only two people from the senior group entered here. The two of them had been acting together, and the three graded copy areas had never met the triggering conditions.
Su Mingyun's hands and feet were cold: "Now that the black wall has disappeared, does that mean that all the graded copies are over? The other four people are gone, which means something has happened to them?"
Lu Zhongnian shook his head: "The black walls disappeared collectively at the moment the monsters disappeared in the rehearsal area. It is impossible for the three groups of people to escape the threat of the monsters at the same time by such a coincidence."
"There are three possibilities."
"The first one is that the rehearsal area was the last instance to be completed. Before that, the other two groups had already encountered problems. Therefore, as soon as the rehearsal area instance was completed, the black walls disappeared collectively."
"The second possibility is that as soon as one of the graded copies ends, the other two will automatically close, and all the players who haven't come out will die inside."
Jiang Shuyue subconsciously denied it: "No game would be so deceptive!"
But as soon as the words came out of his mouth, he felt choked.
In reality, game companies don't dare to go crazy like this because they want to make money, but what about Him? How could He care about the players' opinions?
Lu Zhongnian did not comment on this, and continued, "There is another possibility. The two groups of people did not show up because their grading copies are still in progress."
Jiang Shuyue, Jing Qiao and Su Mingyun were stunned.
"When the triggering conditions are met, the black wall descends along with the monsters and rules. Assuming the monsters in the rehearsal area disappear and the dungeon ends, Jing Qiao is excluded from the current batch of players in the graded dungeon - then it is equivalent to no players existing in the rehearsal area at that time."
"The triggering conditions are no longer met, and the black walls disappear uniformly. But the copies that have already been carried out cannot be forcibly ended. They have been extracted to another dimension that we cannot see. They will not be able to come out until the graded copies are resolved."
Su Mingyun's heart was of course inclined to the third possibility, but -
"I don't understand. If the black wall is there or not, the two groups of people can't get out. Then what is the point of the black wall continuing to exist for such a period of time?"
"The meaning is," Lu Zhongnian looked at her, "while the black wall still exists, players outside the graded instance can pass through it and join the current instance and those players."
At that time, his hand was able to pass through the black wall as proof.
If he had gone in at that time, perhaps he would have met the two seniors in the corridor.
Once the black wall disappears, all graded copies will be completely isolated from the outside world.
For a moment, the whole space fell silent.
Five people were standing in the rehearsal area. They could not hear any sound. However, in another space, where they could not see or touch, the two seniors and the two roommates were probably still struggling in the hands of the monster.
This feeling...
Jiang Shuyue clenched his hands, forcing himself to calm down and clear his thoughts.
"...Okay, then let's analyze the third situation."
"Assuming that the two groups are still in the aisle area and the prop area respectively, then the five of us are now in the rehearsal area. There are people in all three areas, and the conditions for triggering the graded dungeon have been met. However, the black wall has obviously not descended again, and we have not entered the rehearsal area dungeon."
"Let's put aside the possibility that the graded dungeon can only be triggered once - because if that's the case, then there's no point in discussing it any further. Let's assume that the graded dungeon can be entered again."
"So does this mean that once the black wall disappears, there will be differences in the batches of players? Players from different batches cannot supplement each other to meet the conditions?"
"The seniors and roommates are the first group of players, and we are the next group. If we want to trigger the graded copy again, we can only split into three groups and redistribute them to three areas?"
Su Mingyun added worriedly, "But it's also possible that we triggered a new instance, which has the same rules and monsters as the instances where the seniors and the two roommates are, but they are not in the same space."
All five people understood that this possibility was not small.
Mu Yu said: "There is another possibility. Even if we spread out now and meet the triggering conditions, the graded copies will not appear. We have to wait until all the first batch of players pass before we can trigger the second round of graded copies."
"No matter what, we must first figure out what we will face after entering the graded instance," he said quickly, "After we figure it out, we can start the next round of action."
No matter how anxious they are, they can't just rush to open a new dungeon. That would be meaningless and would just be giving away lives.
Therefore, the clues that can be provided by Jing Qiao, the only one who has escaped from the graded copy so far, are crucial.
What happened to the two of them, and how did Jing Qiao escape death?
Jing Qiao has calmed down.
She took a deep breath and said, "I, I will tell you the whole process of Wang Lei and I encountering the monster just now."
"We walked straight inside after entering the rehearsal area. By the way, I don't know if it was because the black wall blocked the exit, but we couldn't hear the sound from the stage outside in the rehearsal area. We were walking around all the time and nothing happened. But we were too nervous at the time and didn't notice it right away. Jiang Shuyue had clearly reminded us to pay attention to the sound..."
"It was not until they arrived at this place that Wang Lei first noticed a KT board hanging on the wall with three rules listed on it."
Jing Qiao frowned and tried hard to recall.
"The three rules are——"
“1. If you encounter performers rehearsing, please do not disturb them.”
“2. If a performer comes up to you and asks you what you thought of the performance, please answer, ‘Your performance was great.’”
“3. If a performer approaches you and invites you to rehearse together, please agree.”
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