Escape from Paradise (IV)
The five major projects closest to Fountain Square is Falling into the Starry Sky, located at the junction of the First Ring Road and the Second Ring Road.
This is a cylindrical building with a dark black exterior, no windows or doors, and a blue sheen and cross-shaped patterns on the surface. It looks both serious and cold, and its style is very postmodern.
At the door - let's call it a door - is a lonely security door frame standing next to the cylinder. When a person passes through, the scanning light on the frame will solemnly project a deep red laser to scan the whole body. After the scan, it will emit an electronic sound of "beep, danger eliminated". At this time, if the person takes another step forward, he will disappear out of thin air like a drop of water falling into the sea.
"Did they go in?" Xu Wei asked the woman in uniform skirt standing by the door frame.
The woman nodded and introduced with her usual formulaic smile and tone: "Tourists, welcome to one of the five must-see attractions in the Dark Paradise, Falling into the Starry Sky! Here, you can travel freely in the universe and experience happiness that does not belong to humans. The starry sky is like stones and gravel in your hands, which can be assembled and disassembled at will. Isn't it exciting? In addition, you can also transform into a god and experience the wonderful pleasure of crushing a civilization with your hands. What a meaningful thing it is..."
As the two people on the side of the crushed civilization: "..."
Xu Wei smiled: "Beautiful lady, what is it like inside?"
"You'll know once you get in. It's completely free! As a test, visitors will receive a cash reward of 100 yuan and a White Star Medal when they come out. This is a rare opportunity. Why don't you act quickly?"
Lu Fanye said in a subtle tone: "Test? Use tourists to test the machine?"
The woman laughed dryly, turned around and began to introduce to the crowd that had just gathered around her: "Tourists, welcome to one of the five must-see attractions in the Pitch Black Paradise, Falling into the Starry Sky! Here, you can travel the universe..."
"Don't listen to her."
Next to the dark black column, the girl in a pink sweatshirt and hood interrupted. She leaned there with her hands behind her back for a while and listened to the conversation of the three people: "Don't go in. You will know when they come out."
She raised her chin towards the cylinder, her eyes bright behind the beer bottle cap lenses: "My name is Fu Fenglou, a lone wolf player."
"Xu Wei, thank you for reminding me," Xu Wei instinctively wanted to shake hands, but then he remembered Li Xia's matter, raised his hand halfway and went back to scratch the back of his head, "Your clothes..."
She kicked the cracks in the bricks on the ground with her toes, looking a little bored: "Oh, I've tried it, it won't kill you if you change it, just put it on when the card comes out, those people only care whether you wear it at this time."
Xu Wei's eyes lit up: "If I don't wear this dress, I can't hang the nameplate?"
Fu Fenglou: “I don’t know, I haven’t tried it.”
"Thank you for telling us. This is very important news." Xu Wei extended his hand to show his friendliness. "Be careful of the card rain. We have determined that if the skin contacts the cards for a certain period of time, the cards will automatically turn into nameplates. The later the time, the more cards there will be. Be careful to avoid those with negative effects."
Fu Fenglou was startled for a moment, then he stretched out his hand and shook hers: "You are the first person who has taken the initiative to exchange information with me today."
"Have you been here all morning?"
She shook her head slightly. "It's best not to play these five major attractions. I've checked them all out. Falling Into the Stars can only get one out of a hundred people intact. Dinosaur World is not open. Secret of the Black Forest and Dreamer's Castle both have about ten people. Pennywort Park has the most people, with nearly twenty people."
The highest survival rate of the five major projects is less than 20 percent.
Xu Wei: "Do you include players in your calculations? Are they all ordinary tourists?"
Fu Fenglou looked at her in surprise: "Of course they are tourists. How can a player dare to rush in here? Didn't you check the information before you came? Paradise Escape is one of the only three large-scale looping and self-changing dungeons in existence. Only veteran players who have completed it twice can come in."
"Oh, there were two fools who thought they didn't listen to advice this morning. One went to the Black Forest and never showed up again, and the other fell to the ground not long after crawling out of the Copper Coin Grass Paradise."
"You don't look inexperienced, how come you don't know anything?"
"Uh..." Xu Wei glanced at Lu Fanye awkwardly, then looked back, "First of all, thank you for providing the information for free, but we are here to observe after completing the mission just like you. Even if you didn't remind us, we wouldn't go in today."
"Secondly, I hope you won't easily label people based on a few words when communicating. This will offend others and will not be conducive to the conversation."
"Oh..." Fu Fenglou looked surprised. She pulled down her hood, revealing her blue hair. "Are you sorry? I may not have been very polite."
Xu Wei shrugged, indicating that the matter was over: "I accept your apology. If everything is fine, we will leave first."
"Wait," she tried to persuade him, "as compensation, I can protect you for a while."
Xu Wei laughed and looked at the little kid in front of her who was not even as tall as her nose. "No need. It's just a small matter. I won't use it as an excuse to ask for compensation. You are so young, there is no need for you to protect me."
"If you care so much, just take it as a friendly reminder."
Fu Fenglou did not continue the topic of compensation, but asked: "How old are you?"
"Twenty-four."
"Oh, then you are indeed older than me, but I am an adult, nineteen years old." She pulled out a shiny black long sword from her back out of thin air and said seriously, "I am not bragging when I say I want to protect you. This is my skill, the Tang Sword. It has accompanied me through five dungeons."
She drew the knife from its sheath, and there was a crisp buzzing sound. The knife flashed, and the passing tourists were so scared that their legs went weak and they knelt down and shouted for help.
She glanced at the man and had to put the knife back.
The whole action is very fast, smooth and completed in one go, and it is very handsome when coupled with the tourists crawling away in fear and the sudden diversion of the crowd.
Xu Wei couldn't help but be moved.
"So, do you want me to protect you?" She was still serious.
Xu Wei wanted to nod, but he was worried that as an adult, he could not threaten a child to protect him by saying that the conversation was not going well...
I still can’t do it!
"No, just protect yourself."
Fu Fenglou tilted his head to observe her expression.
"Are you too embarrassed to admit it? Or you just don't believe in my ability."
“No, no, no,” Xu Wei spread his hands in surrender, helplessly, “Well, I really can’t save face. I shouldn’t let someone…someone younger than me protect me.”
"Sister," she continued to tilt her head to look at her, trying to emphasize, "I'm not a child anymore."
"You are being ageist and I find it offensive."
"Okay, sorry, my bad."
"If you don't mind, then I will nominally join your team for a period of time."
She would not tolerate any refusal, and from then on followed Xu Wei silently, wherever she went, like a ghost.
It was difficult to rush, and Xu Wei was inexplicably embarrassed: "..."
After hesitating for a moment, he pulled her over from behind, put his arm around her shoulders and said in a gentle voice: "Xiao Lou, can I call you that? Okay, I agree. You join us, but I don't need your protection. If there is any danger, take care of yourself first. We can protect ourselves."
"I won't be in danger."
"How can there be no danger? You also said that it is a cycle of self-evolution. This dungeon updates and evolves every time. It is useless for you to read the experience posts of the previous waves of players?"
"I'm great." She refused to listen.
"If you are powerful, just take care of your own safety!"
"I can protect you."
Xu Wei looked at Lu Fanye helplessly, completely at a loss.
Lu Fanye glanced at the child who couldn't be seen unless he lowered his head.
"Don't get in our way when we're fighting."
Fu Fenglou immediately said seriously: "It's impossible to interfere."
"Then don't be so self-righteous as to help."
The child stopped talking.
It has to be him.
Xu Wei secretly sent him a look of admiration, and received a little pride in the latter's eyes.
When the clock struck three, Fu Fenglou still hadn't left. She followed the two of them and put on a nameplate, then continued to follow them after they finished.
The three of them walked from the southernmost end of the ring to the northernmost end.
The road was long, and the other two people in the team were silent. After a long silence, she finally couldn't hold it in and spoke: "Sister, where are you going? Are you going to play the pirate ship again?"
Xu Wei was studying the map, and he didn't even raise his head when he heard this: "No, the card rain at three o'clock has passed, and the next wave is at six o'clock. It's getting dark, so we have to check the location in advance."
"By the way, do you know what these densely packed red dots on the map mean?"
Fu Fenglou shook his head: "I don't know, I went to the specific place, but there was nothing."
"Well, we just stepped on a few specific spots, and there is indeed nothing there." Xu Wei slid his finger along the red dots until he came to a sparse area. "Let's go check here later. Since it's marked, it must be useful. If there's nothing during the day, it should appear at night."
If it is a good thing, there will be a lot of people snatching it in the densely populated area. If it is a bad thing, it will be easier to escape in a sparsely populated area.
I hope there aren't too many people who share the same views as them.
Not many indeed.
Xu Wei came out of the women's restroom and gestured at the map again and again: "I suspect the copy is mocking us."
It was almost evening, and I hadn't eaten anything, so I randomly picked a spot on the map, which turned out to be the toilet. I covered my nose and searched all the cubicles, but found nothing unusual.
It’s hard not to suspect that the copying was intentional.
Lu Fanye was washing his hands in the sink, and the large mirror in the middle reflected his indifferent expression: "I don't have any."
Fu Fenglou: "If you don't like it, change to another place."
Xu Wei waved his hands and explained: "Let's just stay here. I just complained that the dungeon is always not run by people. This is a good place, not crowded, and close to the second ring. It will be very convenient to enter after it is unlocked."
Although they completed the mission, they could not enter the second ring. There was a huge 100-meter transparent light curtain blocking the way, isolating all the players in the first ring world.
Through this transparent light curtain, you can still see the hustle and bustle of the Second Ring Road. The roller coaster, the bungee jumping machine, and the big pendulum are all there. Even at five o'clock, when it's almost time to get off work, there are still many people queuing up. People are constantly being tortured by the facilities and dying on the spot, with screams coming one after another.
"So what's missing?"
In the sunset, Xu Wei sat on a stone bench. The twilight was not warm, but rather brought the chill of the evening breeze. She picked up a fallen leaf and stared at the veins on it in a trance.
Lu Fanye looked up at the somewhat dim sun.
"What's missing?" Fu Fenglou asked while leaning against a tree.
Xu Wei put down the leaves and sighed: "I don't know what's missing. The copy told us a lot of rules, but I always feel like something is missing."
"Oh, I see." She casually caught a fallen leaf and crushed it gently. "I think I know what you are talking about."
"Escape from Paradise. We have the paradise, but what about the escape?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
