Wind Chime Pavilion
The countdown reached zero, and Yun Shuo and Yu Heng were pulled into an unfamiliar space.
This is an ancient Japanese courtyard. When the wind blows, the wind chimes in the courtyard jingle, crisp and eerie.
[Instance: Wind Chime Pavilion]
Difficulty: C+
【rule:
1. When the wind chimes ring, all the mirrors in the museum will turn towards you.
2. Don’t answer anyone’s call during the sound of wind chimes.
3. At midnight, the owner will call the roll. Everyone whose name is called must respond.
4. Find the "owner's name" and write it on the list at the entrance before midnight.
There were three other players in the courtyard. After a brief introduction, they decided to explore separately.
Yun Shuo and Yu Heng were a team, and they first checked the entrance. The roster was densely packed with names, with a single empty space at the top labeled "Master."
"It seems we have to find the museum owner's name first and then write it down before midnight." Yun Shuo analyzed.
They came to the mirror corridor, and when the wind chimes rang, all the mirrors turned towards them at the same time, reflecting countless of their figures.
"Don't look in the mirror." Yu Heng reminded.
"No, look." Yun Shuo pointed to a mirror, "There's something in the mirror."
Yu Heng looked carefully and saw a wooden door that shouldn't have existed at the end of the corridor in the mirror.
"Rule One is actually giving us a hint," Yun Shuo explained. "When the wind chimes ring, the mirror will 'turn towards you.' In other words, only then can you see the true entrance hidden in the mirror."
They seized the moment when the wind chimes rang, successfully passed through the mirror, and came to a hidden storage room.
In the storage room, they found a burnt piece of paper with the remains of a name on it.
"This might be the clue to the museum owner's name," Yun Shuo deduced.
Then they found a broken wooden sign under the floor tiles in the corridor, which also had a radical on it.
"Combining these two radicals..." Yun Shuo pondered, "It's very likely to form the character '槐'."
"Huai?" Yuheng was a little confused. "Is that a name?"
"In Japan, '槐' can be pronounced 'Kaede' and is a common name," Yun Shuo explained. "But it could also be a trap. We need more clues to confirm it."
They continued their exploration and came to the "Music Room," where wind chimes hung on the walls and a piano sat in the center.
"Rule two says, don't answer anyone's call during the sound of wind chimes." Yun Shuo pondered, "What if I don't answer during the sound of wind chimes?"
He asked Yuheng to trigger the wind chime, while he stayed where he was. As the wind chime rang, a voice came from the room: "Yuheng——"
Yuheng did not answer.
When the sound of the wind chimes stopped, Yun Shuo called out tentatively, "Yu Heng."
"Here." Yuheng responded immediately.
At this moment, a wind chime on the wall made a different sound, spelling out a syllable in the air: "Kae——"
"Sure enough," Yun Shuo said excitedly, "Rule two tells us that we can only get the owner's name if we answer when the wind chimes are not ringing."
They repeated the same process and got the second syllable: "——de."
"Kaede!" Yu Heng suddenly realized.
Now, they can basically confirm that the owner's name is "Kaede (槐)".
However, when they returned to the entrance and prepared to write their names on the roster, they found that a name had already been written in the "Master" column on the roster: "Kagino".
"Someone got there first, and it's very likely that they're wrong." Yun Shuo's face changed.
"What should we do?" Yu Heng asked.
Yun Shuo looked at the time and saw that there were only a few minutes left until midnight.
"Let's go to the clock tower first," he decided immediately. "The owner will call out the names at midnight, and we must confirm them there."
They rushed to the clock tower and the clock struck midnight.
"The roll call begins." A deep voice echoed in the hall, "...Kagino."
No one answered.
"It seems that 'Jingye' is not the owner's name." Yun Shuo said in a low voice.
The bell continued to ring, and with each ring a mirror shattered.
"If we don't answer, all the mirrors will shatter." Yu Heng said worriedly.
"No," Yun Shuo looked at the piece of paper in his hand, "We have another name."
He picked up a pen and wrote "Huai" forcefully on the list at the entrance.
Just then, the bell stopped.
"Huai." The low voice sounded again.
"Yes." Yun Shuo and Yu Heng answered in unison.
All the wind chimes in the museum rang at the same time, and then stopped in an instant.
【Clearance conditions have been met.】
[Reward: Life Point +1, Fragment +1.]
[Next instance: Midnight Train.]
[Countdown: 23:59:59]
The world spun and they returned to the real world.
"We passed again." Yu Heng breathed a sigh of relief.
"Yes," Yun Shuo looked at the fragments in his hand, "but I always feel that someone is guiding us in secret."
"Who is it?" Yu Heng looked around vigilantly.
"Maybe it's the 'Gym Master', or maybe it's someone higher up." Yun Shuo mused, "But no matter who it is, as long as we keep figuring out the rules, we'll definitely be able to move forward."
The countdown begins again and the next challenge is about to begin.
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