Chapter 40: Are you happy to earn money with blood? (18) Baimatong...
“Rule 6: The bathroom is equipped with an automatic hand dryer and paper towels. You can choose the method you prefer to dry your hands after washing them.”
——This rule does not imply that either method is dangerous, but that is precisely why it makes people more suspicious.
Bai Ma thought to himself that most people, seeing this rule, would infer that one of the ways would trigger danger, and then perhaps take a gamble.
"Rule 7: To keep your hands moisturized, there are a variety of hand creams available on the sink; you can use them after drying your hands."
——This rule is most likely to lead to two speculations: 1. The rule means that hand cream must be used, and it is unsafe to leave the bathroom directly after washing hands; 2. This is a completely false rule, and hand cream cannot be used.
“Rule 8: Red hand cream is rose, purple hand cream is lavender, and green hand cream is aloe vera.”
——According to the common routine in ghost story novels, this should indicate that at least one of the three colors of hand cream is unsafe.
As for which one is unsafe, you may need to look for clues elsewhere to make a judgment, or... in some works that combine props and cheat codes, participants can also use props to solve puzzles.
Bai Ma had a busy academic schedule and had not read many online novels, but given her good IQ, she basically understood the routine after reading two books, and was able to analyze the rules smoothly after reading them for the first time.
But this is only the most superficial analysis.
In rule-based ghost story dungeons, more than half of the people are killed or injured, and the reason is often that "the participants are on the first level, and the designers are on the fifth level."
Si Ling and A Zhui watched as Bai Ma walked to the sink but didn't wash her hands. Instead, she looked around. She first checked every corner of the sink, then squatted down and opened the cabinet door below it to check the storage space. Seeing that it was empty, she also reached out and felt the blind spot behind the water pipe, not wanting to miss a single corner.
After making sure that there would be no gain here, Bai Ma turned around and went back to the area of bathroom cubicles, walked directly to the end, first checked the tool room used to store cleaning tools, and then checked each cubicle in turn.
In the next ten minutes, Bai Ma checked every corner of the bathroom except for the two cubicles in use.
After repeatedly confirming that nothing was left out, Bai Ma returned to the sink, looked down at the photo of the rules on his phone, and muttered to himself, "Rule 3 requires washing hands, so I can't just leave."
"Look at 4 and 5 together, and just avoid the manual faucet."
"Analyzing items 6 and 7 together, a certain hand-drying method may be dangerous. Between the two options of using hand cream and not using hand cream, one may be dangerous."
"Putting items 7 and 8 together, we can infer item 6. The initial judgment is that using hand cream is fine, but a new problem arises: it is unclear which specific hand creams may be dangerous."
Si Ling floated just a few feet away from Bai Ma, listening quietly to Bai Ma's analysis, which finally focused on the difficult problem, with a smile on his lips.
However, Bai Ma looked up at the mirror in front of him, a smile on his lips. "So, the last two rules about hand cream are just confusing rules, right? The purpose is just to attract the participants' attention. In fact, the real trap is not here."
"Holy crap..." Ah Zhui beside Si Ling was horrified and speechless, then couldn't help but clap his hands. "Top students are just different, haha. I don't know about the men's restroom, but 17 people have come into the women's restroom one after another. She was the first one to discover the hidden pit."
Si Ling's expression also changed, but he didn't say anything and just looked at Bai Ma quietly.
Bai Ma chuckled. "Rule 3 clearly states that hand washing is mandatory, but Rule 6 doesn't mandate hand drying. It simply entices participants to do so."
"Rule 7 again states that hand cream should be used 'after dry hands' - if your hands aren't dry, you can naturally not use it, right?"
"Without hand cream, the choice dilemma in Rule 8 doesn't exist."
Bai Ma finished speaking, then he heaved a sigh of relief and said meaningfully, "This 'He' in this strange story of rules has limited strength."
"..." Ah Zhui turned his head stiffly to look at Si Ling, "She humiliated you."
"Ha." Si Ling gritted his teeth and laughed.
Bai Ma's soliloquy ended here. She casually put her cell phone on the sink, took a half step forward, and reached out to the faucet.
Clean water immediately flowed out of the automatic faucet. Bai Ma washed his hands carefully, walked calmly to the left side of the sink, and pulled out two sheets of hand towels from the tissue box hanging on the wall.
"...Hmm?" Ah Zhui was confused. "Didn't she analyze it very clearly just now?"
How come you came to the conclusion that "keeping your hands dry is the shortcut to passing the level" and then wiped your hands right after?
Si Ling also moved slightly and looked at Bai Ma, as if thinking about something.
After wiping his hands, Bai Ma returned to the sink and picked out hand cream.
There are actually two ways to pass this rule. One is to leave without wiping your hands, which is what Bai Ma just analyzed; the other is to bet on the probability of hand cream after wiping your hands - the limitations of the ghost story scroll props prevent Si Ling from designing all three hand creams to be dangerous, so if the participant uses the green aloe vera hand cream, they can pass the level safely, and the probability of winning the bet is 33.33%.
The other two, the purple lavender hand cream will trigger pollution, and the red rose hand cream will cause death fright.
Si Ling privately felt that his design was logical: green is the source of life, red signifies warning in many places, and lavender's most well-known effect is to help with sleep and calm the mind, while people dream while they are asleep.
What a significant hint!
However……
Bai Ma hesitated for a few seconds in front of the hand cream storage basket in the middle of the sink, then picked up the green aloe vera hand cream and squeezed a little into the palm of his hand.
After putting it back, he immediately picked up the purple hand cream and squeezed a little on it.
Finally, she put the purple one back, picked up the red one, unscrewed the lid, and squeezed a little rose-scented hand cream into it.
"?"
This smooth and flowing operation not only confused Si Ling and A Zhui, but also confused the ghost story scroll.
So within just a few seconds, both Si Ling A Zhui and Bai Ma saw that the bathroom suddenly fell into darkness, and a skinny woman appeared a few meters behind Bai Ma. Bai Ma saw her back in the mirror.
But she didn't even have the chance to see the shadow clearly, the darkness and the woman disappeared again, and the light returned in an instant. It was still the clean bathroom, and even the pervasive aroma quickly returned.
Bai Ma heard a slight squeaking sound above her head, and at the same time something gently touched her crown.
When she looked up, the surroundings suddenly fell into darkness again, and the woman's back appeared in the mirror again.
...The props are buggy!
In these two images, the bony woman in the dark is the pollution effect triggered by the lavender hand cream, and the light sound on the top of the head is the death shock of the rose hand cream. Under normal circumstances, after applying the hand cream, the participant feels something strange on the top of the head and looks up, and they will see a white-haired old lady in Chinese funeral clothes hanging above their heads. The old lady shaking her feet is gently touching the participant's head.
But Bai Ma activated two systems at the same time, making it difficult for the props to trigger which one!
Si Ling and A Zhui were speechless. Fortunately, Mammon, as a senior worker in Western Hell, knew that he had to have a backup plan for his work. When this bug was triggered, the ghosts using the props could make manual selections or directly turn off the original design.
Si Ling thought quickly and chose pollution, but considering Bai Ma's high IQ and mysterious operations, Si Ling chanted a spell and made some minor changes to the originally designed scene.
The lights flickered again, and Bai Ma saw the skinny woman's back appear behind him again, but this time there were two of them, one behind her left and one behind her right, their positions and movements completely symmetrical.
Bai Ma looked at them quietly in the mirror, waiting for their next move.
Then, in the blink of an eye, the two women with their backs to her suddenly moved closer. Their movements remained unchanged, but the distance between them was shortened by one third.
If I say I'm not afraid at all, that would be a lie!
But Baima Qiang calmed his mind and continued to stand there, staring at his reflection in the mirror.
The fear that surged in her heart forced her to hold back her blinks this time, and soon her eyes began to ache. She continued to hold back, tears welling up, and she could almost feel the nerves in her eyelids twitching.
Finally, she couldn't hold it anymore and blinked again.
She looked again and saw two figures approaching from behind her, one on the left and one on the right, very close to her.
And this time, they turned around.
They had identical faces, and were actually not ugly. Even with disheveled hair, they still looked pretty. But standing quietly behind her, they looked sinister.
Looking in the mirror, their jaws were almost touching her shoulders.
Her evening gown was off-the-shoulder, and their scattered, dry, yellow hair rubbed against her back intermittently, causing a subtle but noticeable itch. She could also feel their breath on her shoulders, again and again, cold and damp, and even a little damp... making her inexplicably think of the underworld.
She continued to look at them, her eyes fixed on them.
Si Ling and A Zhui were also staring at her intently from a meter away.
"...She is quite brave." A Zhu said with a complicated expression.
If Ah Zhui had not personally assisted Si Ling in designing this scene, he would have been a little scared when suddenly facing all this as a ghost, but Bai Ma was as calm as a rock.
Si Ling didn't bother to pay attention to this comment because she saw confusion in Bai Ma's eyes.
The lustful look was as thick as ink and silk, filling Bai Ma's bright eyes and completely dispelling the fear.
Si Ling frowned slightly, vaguely aware of something in her heart, but considering the age gap, she felt that this idea was completely impossible.
After all, Bai Ma is only 22 years old and was born in the 21st century.
However, the next second, Bai Ma confirmed her guess.
Bai Ma turned around, looked left and right, and asked in confusion: "Gam, Zhuoerga, why are you here? Why are you here? What happened?!"
Bai Ma asked three questions in a row, but the two female ghosts still stood there silently.
...Although the paper figures used by Si Ling have a certain degree of self-awareness, such as being able to handle regular jobs as waiters in a restaurant very well, it is obviously beyond their scope for them to be asked three consecutive questions by the participants.
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