Chapter 76 Countering the Rules "You have five seconds left, good luck..."
The swing ropes behind him had been lowered to the bottom, and after a "click," it meant that the sixty seconds he had mentioned had begun to count down.
The slender steel cables swayed gently in the mountain breeze, and the brand-new swing chair landed steadily on the ground, quietly waiting for the player who had chosen it.
After completing the task of transferring the players, the staff member in yellow turned to leave.
"where you go?"
Liang Xun called out to him, "As the person in charge of this project, where are you going?"
Beneath the brim of his baseball cap, a glint of ruthlessness flashed in the eyes of the staff member in the yellow shirt. But he still slowly turned around, his tone remaining consistently polite and official.
"I need to prepare souvenirs for our distinguished guests," he said, a slight smile playing on his lips beneath his wide-brimmed hat. "Our limited-edition souvenir stock is always quite tight, so if there's any delay, our esteemed guests might miss out on this perk!"
"A souvenir, it's a souvenir."
Having finally managed to glean the key words, Jiang Chunhua moved closer to Jiang Zhiling.
"Ling'er, the souvenir he just mentioned, is it the item that will allow us to pass the level?"
Jiang Zhiling nodded, but her expression remained serious.
That's true, but given the high risk factor of high-altitude swings, how long they can actually endure it is still unknown.
"You have forty seconds left."
The staff member in the yellow uniform subtly took a small step back. "If we don't start now, it might be too late!"
Old Ren was in a panic. Even though Luo Chuange was still holding him back, he used both his hands and feet to find the safest-looking spot.
Qi Zhixia's situation was relatively complicated. To save time, Wang Jianping moved her to one of the swings and fastened her safety belt early on.
Tang Cailei calmly chose a spot nearby. Gu Keke and Jiang Zhiling remained standing to Liang Xun's left and right, while Shao Feng, though terrified, mustered his courage and stood behind Jiang Zhiling.
Liang Jun was not intimidated by his threats at all.
"Where are you going to get your souvenirs?" Her gaze, like a sharp eagle's claw, pierced through the other person's carefully constructed facade. "Are you leaving this area?"
The staff member in yellow, puzzled, said, "Well, I need to go to the warehouse to pick up a souvenir—so, esteemed tourist, what can I do for you?"
He looked up at the towering steel structure, "You only have twenty-five seconds left..."
Caught in a dilemma, Jiang Chunhua was driven to desperation. She pushed Jiang Zhiling, who refused to sit on the swing, over and over again, her voice trembling with tears.
"Ling'er, let's not waste any more time! There are only twenty-odd seconds left, let's hurry up and get on the swing!"
Her hateful gaze turned to Liang Jun's retreating figure. "Stop wasting time, okay?! You may have had enough of living, but we don't want to die!"
However, Liang Jun's thinking was not affected or disturbed by Jiang Chunhua.
"The first known rule does not have any objects it constrains—meaning that this rule also applies to staff."
She stared intently at the other person's trembling figure. "In that case, if you want to leave, you must experience the high-altitude swing with us."
Looking at the body trembling like a leaf, Liang Jun tightly gripped the wrists of Gu Keke and Jiang Zhiling beside her, and backed away step by step towards the swing seat.
Liang Jun's expression was unusually relaxed and at ease; she even deliberately imitated the other person's tone of voice—
"You have five seconds left, keep going!"
There were four empty seats behind Liang Jun, and she, Gu Keke, and Jiang Zhiling quickly took their seats. Just as Shao Feng was about to sit next to Jiang Zhiling, Jiang Chunhua grabbed him by the collar and threw him out.
After adjusting his glasses and taking a clear look at the situation, Jiang Chunhua had already fastened his seatbelt.
"Go away! I'll sit with Ling'er!" She spat at Shao Feng.
With only a few seconds left, no matter how reluctant he was, Shao Feng had no choice but to run towards the empty spot.
With everything prepared, Liang Jun's lips were pressed tightly together, her gaze never leaving the figure of the staff member in yellow, while she silently counted down in her mind—
five.
Four.
three.
two.
one.
The expected spiral ascent did not occur, and the yellow-clad staff member was dragging his weak body toward the center.
"The 60-second countdown is fake, right?"
Liang Xun's eyes followed the other person's movements. "You lied to us, didn't you?"
His feet dragged on the muddy ground, leaving two prominent shoe marks.
As he walked to Liang Xun's side, he sighed softly, "You're very smart. Really, you're very smart..."
Completely unlike their initial enthusiastic demeanor, the staff member in yellow was like a walking corpse, shuffling along in their shoes as they found an empty swing spot.
He happened to be positioned between Tang Cailei and Lao Ren, and skillfully but extremely reluctantly fastened his seatbelt.
After doing all this, he raised his hand, took off the yellow baseball cap that was pressing tightly against his head, and threw it heavily on the ground.
A hairless bald head appeared before everyone's eyes.
Liang Jun, sitting on his other side, did not notice any of this.
Just as she was about to ask, "When does it start?", Luo Chuange, who was sitting next to Lao Ren, noticed the subtle movements of the staff member in yellow.
“Sister Jun,” he said, digging his feet into the ground and trying to turn his body to the side, “he pulled a remote control out of his pocket.”
Just as the words were spoken, a "beep" sounded as the other party pressed the remote control.
Immediately afterwards, Liang Jun keenly noticed the sound of gears turning coming from behind her.
The high-altitude swing was rising steadily. Liang Jun's feet, which had previously landed steadily on the ground, were now dangling in the air. Fortunately, she didn't feel any weightlessness yet, which made her breathe a small sigh of relief.
However, Gu Keke, sitting next to her, was clearly not so relaxed.
She seemed to have a fear of heights, and as the swing continued to rise, Gu Keke's brows furrowed more and more.
In order to bring her racing heartbeat back to normal, Gu Keke dared not look down at her feet anymore. She could only look at Liang Xuan beside her and try to find some topics to talk about to numb her mind.
"Sister Jun, how did you come up with the idea of involving the staff in the project?"
Her voice was light and airy, carried by the whistling wind, and reached Liang Jun's ears.
Liang Jun spoke frankly, "I suddenly really want to try and see if the system's established rules can restrict the actions of NPCs in the dungeon..."
She swung her legs in mid-air again, a move that terrified Gu Keke.
"I didn't expect that we could actually succeed in counterattacking."
It is indeed a major discovery.
This also means that in the endless dungeon levels to come, they can at least use this loophole to restrict some of the actions that NPCs—or even the system—can take against the player.
"Can……"
The swing had already climbed to nearly halfway up the height. Gu Keke glanced at it unconsciously, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw the hillside and trees below that looked like ants. She was so frightened that she shuddered.
She swallowed hard, her voice hoarse from nervousness. "But doesn't he still need to prepare the souvenirs? What if something happens to the staff during this part, then our..."
The swing ropes began to swing without warning, startling Gu Keke so much that she lost her ability to speak and started screaming loudly in mid-air.
"We will have no shortage of souvenirs, and our staff will be fine."
Liang Jun endured the incessant soprano voices in her ears, trying to soothe her restless heart with her rational logic.
"Although the known rules provided by the system may contain some false clues, it still conscientiously and strictly enforces every true clue."
Liang Jun gripped the connecting rope next to the seat tightly.
"Since he's the employee in charge of this project, since we'll receive a souvenir after we clear customs, and since the souvenir must be delivered to us by him—"
"Then the system will definitely guarantee that nothing will happen to the staff..."
Gu Keke temporarily stopped screaming, and her thoughts gradually returned to normal. "Or rather, what the staff did on the high-altitude swing is the correct way for players to pass the level!"
That's exactly what I mean!
Once they reached more than halfway up the mountain, the high-altitude swing began to rotate. The rotation speed increased with each increase in altitude, and the scenery before them began to blur into afterimages.
The rotation speed was faster than they had estimated, and it hadn't even reached its maximum speed yet. To alleviate her dizziness, Liang Jun closed her eyes tightly, and the sound of the wind suddenly became more pronounced in her ears.
Under the influence of centrifugal force, Liang Jun had a vague feeling that she was about to be thrown out.
She knew it was all just her imagination—
What we imagine is all false.
Her hands, gripping the connecting rope tightly, began to sweat uncontrollably; her waist and hips were also struggling against the outward force, trying to fit more closely into the narrow swing seat.
Gu Keke screamed again, accompanied by low chorus from Lao Ren and Shao Feng.
Liang Jun suppressed the urge to vomit and shouted into the wind, "Remember the rules—stay calm, stay relaxed, we'll be fine!"
The howling wind tore her words to shreds. Liang Xun wasn't sure if they had heard her advice, so she could only scream and repeat herself several more times.
Sensing the rotation speed was approaching its peak, Liang Xun once again exerted all her strength—
"Luo Chuange, you need to pay close attention to the staff's movements! We need to keep up with his movements as much as possible in order to have a chance of surviving in this project!"
Old Ren was still screaming his heart out, and Tang Cailei didn't seem to be able to cooperate with her, so Liang Xun could only place all her hopes on Luo Chuange.
And he certainly lived up to expectations. The instant he received Liang Jun's instructions, Luo Chuange opened his eyes against the gust of wind, determined not to miss a single detail about the yellow-clad staff member.
It's much easier to observe than at the beginning.
The swings have been stretched out in all directions as they rotated, and although the viewing distance is greater, the blind spots have also been greatly reduced.
The staff member in the yellow shirt sat calmly on the swing chair, and as the equipment spun violently at high speed, no emotional fluctuation could be seen on his face.
Unlike other players who hold the connecting rope, he raises his hands high above his head, with the inside of his arms pressed tightly against his ears, gripping the upper end of the steel wire rope in a stretched posture.
This obvious abnormality startled Luo Chuange.
While maintaining his balance, he shouted towards Liang Xun, "Stay calm! Raise both hands and grip the steel cables connecting the main steel frame from the opposite direction. Don't grab the seat connecting ropes!"
Luo Chuange's voice was much louder than Liang Jun's hoarse voice.
His shout was heard by all the players on the same machine.
Jiang Chunhua couldn't understand what she was hearing. Her overloaded brain no longer allowed her to logically reconstruct the events.
At this moment, she could only maintain her original movements with numb hands and feet, and her face looked as if she had swallowed a bitter melon.
"How do I catch it... how exactly do I catch it..."
She anxiously turned her head back and forth, but her torso below the neck was as stiff as if it were encased in plaster. "I should have let that kid sit here. I went and sat next to the staff..."
Jiang Zhiling was much faster than her sister.
She certainly had a healthy body and a youthful mind. Although there was a certain risk in freeing her hands to grab the rope at a higher position, she steeled herself and decided to do it anyway.
Not only that, she also reminded Jiang Chunhua, who was standing next to her.
"Sister, look at me, do just like me—"
However, before she could even raise her arms, a sudden, sharp cracking sound came from the connecting rope beside her.
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Author's note: Here are some random little red envelopes~
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