Shi Xin's face turned red in just a few seconds, and he looked at Ming Qiao with surprise.
Compared to this young boy, Mingqiao is older after all. After the novelty just now wore off, his mentality has calmed down. Talking about matters of the heart has indeed made him feel a lot less burdened. But perhaps he has been holding it in for too long, and now after the two of them expressed their feelings to each other, the atmosphere is a little awkward. Both of them said they liked each other, but no one mentioned being together.
Mingqiao sighed to himself.
He was well aware that the two of them had developed an unspoken understanding at this time - the time was wrong, the place was wrong, and nothing was suitable except the people. Even if they were together, it would not bring any benefit to the subsequent escape, but would instead distract them from worrying about each other.
Shi Xin didn't say anything else. He just stared at Ming Qiao, as if he was describing his appearance with his eyes.
Apart from the little man of Mingqiao made up of pixels on the screen, he had no chance to see Mingqiao in the past two days. Now that he finally met him, the man had to go in soon. One less sight would be the next, so of course he didn't want to miss a single second.
Mingqiao was reluctant to part with Shi Xin as he looked at him, but they had more important things to do, so he said to Shi Xin as if he was coaxing a child: "Wait for me outside, it's the last mission, it will be quick."
"Okay." Shi Xin nodded slowly, bending the corners of his mouth to pull out a slightly stiff smile. His eyes were full of nostalgia, and he couldn't hide it: "I'll wait for you."
Mingqiao still couldn't bear it, so he took the initiative to hug him. He patted Shi Xin's back slowly, feeling the man's hand rising from his shoulders, and finally hugging him tightly.
He heard Shi Xin let out a shallow breath.
Weirdly clingy, Mingqiao thought.
He gestured to Shi Xin to let go, and when he felt the force lessen, he immediately broke free, turned around and strode into the library.
The door of the library closed again, and Mingqiao took a few deep breaths. He had to keep his mind clear enough to eliminate all distractions so as to deal with various situations that might happen next.
"Let's get started."
After Mingqiao gave the order, Shi Xin also acted quickly. Before he finished speaking, the scene in front of him began to collapse. The walls around him began to peel off, bricks fell one after another, and a big hole appeared on the ground. Mingqiao got closer and took a look. It was pitch black and bottomless, as if the library was just a tiny building suspended in the darkness.
He didn't dare to get any closer, but when he looked around, he found that there seemed to be no place safe enough to stand. Even the ceiling was falling down, and the block swing he had built to escape the earthquake in the museum had fallen to who knows where along with the ceiling.
Without the obstruction and protection of the wall, Mingqiao gradually found himself in endless darkness. The area he could step on kept shrinking, and finally only a row of floor tiles that was originally close to the wall remained.
The collapse stopped and the world became quiet.
Mingqiao held the old phone tightly in his hand, and the flashlight on it emitted a strong light.
He looked around and saw a small bench and a set of pulley ropes on the ground not far away, with a two-claw iron hook tied to the end of the rope.
He fiddled with the pulley twice, trying to release and retract the hook below, and asked, "Shi Xin, how is the situation over there?"
"From now on, the specific content of Task 3 and the refresh rules are loading. Wait a moment." Shi Xin said: "There is a small bright yellow block in the middle of my screen, and it is slowly getting bigger."
Mingqiao understood. He looked in other directions with the flashlight, but found nothing but darkness.
At this time, Xin spoke: "Task 3: Within the specified one minute, the two players need to complete the given indicators together to enter the next round. A new rule: Do not touch the oil drum, no matter what tool you use, do not touch it. Try not to touch the person in gray clothes, no matter what tool you use, try not to touch it. Follow the rules, otherwise you will bear the consequences."
Before Mingqiao could figure out what was going on, he heard Shi Xin say, "It's very strange, it feels like déjà vu."
"Have you seen this?" Mingqiao's eyes gradually fixed on the claw hook at the end of the rope: "Claw machine?"
"No." Shi Xin thought for a while, and suddenly slapped his forehead: "It's a gold miner. Complete the target within the specified time, and enter the next round. If you fail to complete it, the game is over. If I'm not mistaken, there should be at least three kinds of people here, representing the targets that can be completed, one is 'gold', one is the more valuable 'diamond', and the other is 'bomb'. Don't touch the oil barrel, because it can blow up everything around it. If two oil barrels are close to each other, a chain reaction will occur. Try not to touch the gray clothes, because gray represents stone, which is laborious and has little benefit. The things you fish out can be accumulated. Generally, the first few levels are easy to pass, with few targets and many things, but the difficulty will gradually increase in the later stages. Gold miners can be played alone or in pairs. Task three directly requires two people to complete the target together."
Shi Xin looked at the half-yellow and half-brown game background that appeared on his screen, as well as the two little people sitting side by side, and continued, "And the game screen has already appeared on my screen."
The rules of the game of Gold Miner were explained very clearly by Shi Xin. It sounds simple. It is nothing more than trying to catch as much money as possible within the specified time. If possible, try to accumulate in the previous simple levels to prepare for the difficult levels later.
"Mr. Ming, I have a button to start the game. Sit on the stool and we'll begin."
Mingqiao sat on the small bench as Shi Xin instructed, and tried to release and retract the grappling hook a few times. After confirming that there was no problem, he said to Shi Xin, "Come on."
"Thump, thump, thump, thump." The brisk sound of the game loading rang in the ears of Mingqiao and Shixin at the same time. In the blink of an eye, the surroundings became brighter. The floor that Mingqiao had originally stepped on turned into brown mud, and the originally deep and terrifying darkness in front of him finally revealed its true face.
The sunken ground became an extremely huge mine, and in the middle of the mine, people wearing various clothes were suspended. Their eyes were closed, their limbs were all retracted, and they looked round. With their yellow or gray clothes, they really had a sense of "gold" and "stone". Maybe it was because of the first game, he didn't see the oil barrel.
But even though Mingqiao has experienced so much and his mental strength is much stronger than at the beginning, he is still shocked to see so many people become like this.
There was not a single student among the people this time. Judging from their appearance, they should all be teachers in the school. Mingqiao was very familiar with some of them. They were all very good and kind teachers.
No wonder he met almost all students along the way, and no wonder the playground was not cleared even though all the students had come out, it turned out that there were still "children" here.
Shi Xin reminded, "The target for the first level is $650. We have plenty of time. We can work together to catch all these people. Teacher Ming, there is only one way to pass this game, and that is to place the hook accurately and catch them all in one go. However, I still have to say that we should give priority to catching those wearing yellow clothes because they are more cost-effective."
"Okay." Ming Qiao didn't think too much about it. There were very few people in the first level, and they could indeed rescue everyone. In the later levels, they could only rescue a part of the people within a limited time, so they were destined to give up some of the others. If someone was really destined not to be rescued, he also chose to give up the sentiment of helping others.
His state of mind has changed with the passage of time. From the very beginning when he met Fendi who questioned him in the library, Mingqiao knew that he could never save everyone, so he might as well save as many as he could, without any lingering or hesitation, and without putting pressure on himself and wasting time.
After Shi Xin hooked a "gold" with his claws for the first time, Ming Qiao also hooked one right after that. He turned the handle on the pulley with great effort and brought the person to his feet.
The sound of a gold coin being credited was heard.
"We have one thousand." Shi Xin was obviously excited: "We have hooked the one with the highest value."
"Yeah." Mingqiao glanced at the "gold" he had hooked up. This was a middle-aged female teacher with half white hair. The bright yellow clothes she wore made her face look a little yellow, making her wrinkles more obvious.
Therefore, the older you are or the longer you have been teaching, the greater the value you represent.
Mingqiao tried to hook again and hooked up a younger one.
"Fifty dollars." Shi Xin gave him the price.
It seems that his judgment was correct. Mingqiao told Shi Xin about his discovery.
"Mr. Ming, you don't need to tell me," Shi Xin said, "My method is similar to the original game. It directly displays the size. The larger the gold, the greater the value. In my eyes, other people are mosaics whose gender and age are difficult to distinguish. Your method is not very practical for me."
"All right."
Mingqiao also fished out a lucky bag, which was actually a walking bag with a big red greeting card drawn on it, and there were only ten yuan in it.
There was no suspense in passing the first level. They cleared all the people and had only ten seconds left to do nothing in the one-minute time limit.
Mingqiao shook his arms which were sore from shaking and waited for Shi Xin to start the next level.
Shi Xin was in no hurry to start. He said to Ming Qiao, "A store popped up. Do you want to buy something?"
"What?"
"At present, only one stone book has been spawned, which can increase the value of the stone in the next three games." Shi Xin paused for a moment: "But it's a bit expensive, it costs $200."
"It's a bit expensive." Mingqiao thought for a while and said, "Let's buy it. We will still get stones. A big stone costs only twenty dollars after a lot of effort. If the props can be increased to make the stone almost the same price as gold, then instead of feeling sorry for the two hundred dollars, it's better to invest so that we can make a profit later."
"Okay, I'll listen to you." Shi Xin clicked the handle a few times, bought the stone book, and immediately entered the second level.
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