The Empress and Her Servants (9)
Then, a huge pool appeared before them. The water was black, foul-smelling, and viscous, emitting an unpleasant odor.
There are hundreds of crocodiles inside, all eyeing the players on the shore with predatory intent.
Several small boats were in the pool, each surrounded by a golden bubble. The golden bubble seemed to repel crocodiles; none dared approach the boats.
The referee explained, "Players can only cross the crocodile-infested area in small boats. When there are golden bubbles around the boat, the crocodiles will not attack it. Each boat can only carry one person. Once someone boards, a word will appear on the boat. The passenger must say the color of that word. If they say it wrong, the golden bubble will disappear, and the passenger will be eaten by the crocodile."
If you say the correct word, the color will change, and the rider needs to say the color of the second word. Similarly, if you say the wrong word, you will be eaten by the crocodile.
The small boat drifts in an unpredictable direction; it might reach the other side in minutes, or it might take several hours. Throughout the journey, the color-guessing game continues, and a single wrong guess means certain death.
You may board the boat only when it comes close to your side of the shore.
Furthermore, Her Highness is not allowed to allow servants to help them get to the boat.
Qin Man asked, "What about people who can't speak? Qu Chen can't speak..."
Referee: "I'll give you an exception. Qu Chen can ride the boat with anyone, and the boat won't sink. However, the speed of the color-guessing game on that boat will double."
After saying that, the referee disappeared.
There are four small boats in the crocodile pool, currently floating in the middle. We can only get on them once they reach the shore.
Only one person can go at a time, which isn't a big problem; everyone can take turns.
Qu Chen can team up with anyone, it's not a big problem.
The biggest problem is that Xu Yunhong, Ouyang Ling, and Cassia are still unable to move.
Ouyang Ling said, "Your Highness cannot ask the servants for help... What should we do?"
Qin Man said, "Your Highness cannot ask the servants for help, but that doesn't mean you can't ask another lady for help. My legs can move, so I can kick you all onto the boat in a bit. That's the only way."
"But even if we get on the small boat and successfully reach the other side, how will we get off?"
Qin Man was at a loss for what to do.
Jian Tanxi said, "Xu Yunhong's golden rope is very strong. Tie the golden rope to my triangular pyramid, and then have Sister Qin Man carry the triangular pyramid. When a boat docks, Sister Qin Man will first kick the three ladies onto the boat, and then Sister Qin Man will board the fourth boat."
When the other ladies' boats reach the opposite bank, wait a moment. Once Qin Man's boat has also reached the shore, she can throw her triangular pyramid onto the bank, wedging it in a rock or somewhere else. Then, she can use the gold thread rope attached to the pyramid to pull her boat alongside the other ladies' boats, and then kick them ashore. After that, Qin Man can then go ashore herself.
"Once you ladies can get through smoothly, the rest of us will be able to get through no matter what."
After listening to Jian Tanxi's proposal, everyone thought it was feasible.
Cassia asked, "But what if my boat docks first, and Qin Man's boat docks later, and by the time Qin Man docks, my boat has drifted away again?"
Qin Man: "Then I'll wait for you on the shore. Your ship will eventually dock again. If you don't go ashore, I won't go ashore either. I have an interstellar triangular pyramid and a golden rope to hold me up, so once we dock, we won't drift away."
With Qin Man's promise, the other ladies-in-waiting were relieved.
Xu Yunhong said, "Didn't we leave the palace? Why is there still a distinction between the status of empresses and servants?"
Jian Tanxi said, "I think it's to increase the difficulty of this level. Once we get past the crocodile pool, our identities will revert to players, and there will be no distinction between empress and servants."
Cassia said, "There's another problem... I find color recognition games difficult to play, and I'm not good with colors."
Xu Yunhong said, "Actually, your difficulty level is already relatively low. You are a foreigner and not familiar with Chinese, so you can easily focus on the color of the character itself. However, if we Chinese see the character 'blue' but it is actually red, we are likely to say 'blue' instead of 'red.' In that case, we are doomed."
Ouyang Ling said, "In that case, I'm not sure I've guessed the color correctly either..."
Jian Tanxi said, "Let me see if there are any other ways to get to the other side."
Jian Tanxi activated his "the boat will straighten itself when it reaches the bridge" supernatural ability, and sure enough, a bridge appeared on both sides of the giant pool.
Everyone was overjoyed. Qin Man said, "It seems we can cross the bridge directly without having to think about it so much..."
However, at that moment, several crocodiles jumped up and leaped across the bridge.
Everyone was stunned by what they saw.
If you walk on the bridge, the crocodiles could jump up and eat you at any moment.
It seems that taking a boat is the only solution.
Jian Tanxi said, "Let's take a boat then. Let's all take one or two intelligence pills. We're already smart, and after taking the pills, our reactions will definitely be faster, and we should be able to play the color recognition game well."
So, everyone pooled their brain-boosting pills together, totaling 14 pills, enough for each person to take two, so Qu Chen didn't need to take any.
After taking two brain-boosting pills, everyone felt much clearer-headed and in great condition, as if they could play ten games in one go.
At this moment, two small boats came ashore.
Qin Man kicked Cassia and Xu Yunhong onto the small boat first.
Cassia and Xu Yunhong lay on their sides on the small boat, and sure enough, words began to appear before their eyes.
What appeared before Xu Yunhong was the character "black," but the character itself was white. Xu Yunhong said, "White."
Then, the word in front of her changed to "yellow," but its color was black. Xu Yunhong said, "Black."
Cassia is in a similar situation. She's also putting all her energy into thinking about the color of the words and answering.
Ten minutes passed, and Cassia and Xu Yunhong had recognized many colors, but their boat was still on the shore and had not drifted to the other side.
The boat's location was not fixed, so they could only wait, but they couldn't help feeling a little anxious.
Professor Pan said, "Don't rush, rushing will only make you make mistakes. As long as you stay calm, it doesn't matter if you play the word recognition game until tomorrow morning. The most important thing is to survive."
After listening to Professor Pan's words, Cassia and Xu Yunhong calmed down a bit. They focused only on recognizing the colors and ignored the location of the small boat.
After a while, the other two small boats also docked.
Jian Tanxi tied her interstellar triangular pyramid with a gold thread and handed it to Qin Man.
Qin Man kicked Ouyang Ling onto a small boat, and then she herself boarded another one.
The four of them were playing a color recognition game at the same time, and thankfully no one made a mistake so far.
Before long, all four boats drifted away, but only two drifted towards the opposite bank, while the other two drifted downstream.
The people on the ship had no choice but to remain calm. After all, the slightest lapse in concentration could lead to annihilation.
About twenty minutes later, Qin Man's boat arrived at the other side first.
She quickly threw the triangular pyramid onto the shore, where it got stuck in the middle of a boulder. Qin Man held onto the other end of the pyramid, which was enough to resist the current and prevent it from drifting away.
At that moment, the golden bubble on Cassia's little boat suddenly burst, and several crocodiles pounced on it, killing and devouring Cassia.
Everything happened so fast that before anyone could react, all they saw were fragments of Cassia's clothes floating on the pond. And Cassia herself was gone.
Jian Tanxi's heart pounded with fear; this was the first time she had witnessed her teammate die in front of her. She couldn't believe it, and she wanted to cry.
The timid Xu Yunhong had already started crying, and while she was crying, she was still trying to recognize the colors.
Professor Pan, being older and more composed, spoke loudly to his teammates on the other ships: "Don't let anything distract you, focus on recognizing the colors! You have no room for error!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the golden bubbles on Ouyang Ling's small boat disappeared, and everyone watched helplessly as Ouyang Ling died before their eyes once again.
Xu Yunhong's face turned pale, but she could only suppress her fear and continue to recognize the colors.
Finally, her small boat reached the other side, right next to Qin Man.
Qin Man forcefully kicked Xu Yunhong onto the shore, and then went ashore herself.
All four boats are now empty, and the boats that didn't have golden bubbles before now have bubbles again.
While the small boats were still at the shore, the remaining people discussed their strategy for getting through the checkpoint.
Professor Pan said, "The game of recognizing colors is easy in some ways and difficult in others. Everyone needs to be fully focused. As for Qu Chen, he's in the same boat as me."
Jian Tanxi said, "No, you're too old, your reactions aren't as quick as a young person's. Let Qu Chen come with me instead."
“I’ve spent my whole life reading and doing scientific research, which means I’ve used my brain my whole life, so it’s definitely more flexible than a young person’s brain. You should hand Qu Chen over to me.”
Zhong Xiaoying said, "I'm not optimistic about my color recognition ability, so I won't compete with Qu Chen. Whichever of you pairs with Qu Chen will have to double your color recognition speed, which is very dangerous. I think it would be better to let Qin Man come back and take the child herself. That way, regardless of success or failure, she won't have any regrets or harbor hatred towards anyone. What do you think?"
Jian Tanxi objected: "That's not appropriate. Sister Qin Man finally got through there, and coming back would increase the risk. Why don't Professor Pan take Qu Chen with him? I have confidence in Professor Pan."
At this point, three ships docked, and they no longer had time to discuss the matter further, so they proceeded with the proposed plan.
Zhong Xiaoying boarded one ship, Jian Tanxi boarded another, and Professor Pan took Qu Chen onto a third ship.
On Jian Tanxi's boat, the first thing that appeared was a blue "black" character.
Jian Tanxi said, "Blue."
Another red "red" character appeared.
Jian Tanxi thought for two seconds before saying, "Red."
Then the word "red" appeared in green.
Jian Tanxi: "Green".
The other two also recognized colors like Jian Tanxi, except that Professor Pan was twice as fast.
Professor Pan answered succinctly and forcefully: "White, green, orange, yellow, black, black, green..."
Qu Chen noticed that Professor Pan's mouth was moving incessantly, so he curiously touched it.
Professor Pan was not distracted by him and continued to focus intently on the words in front of him, judging their color.
After a while, Qu Chen imitated Professor Pan's mouth shape and uttered the word "red".
Unexpectedly, all the words that appeared next turned red.
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