Fang He looked at Xiao Cheng's outstretched hand, remaining quietly in place with a deep gaze and no response.
Xiao Cheng's smile gradually froze.
"What? You think my hands are dirty? Seriously? When did you become so fussy?"
She joked awkwardly, while somewhat uncomfortably putting her hands behind her back, and said in a conciliatory tone, "Alright, alright, let's hurry up and go, we're running out of time!"
"How did you find me?" Fang He asked casually, looking at the slowly closing gap behind her.
On the other side of the gap was a dim chaos, with occasional flashes of light, like shooting stars falling hastily.
"Of course...of course you're here! What strange questions are you asking? We're running out of time! Get out of here!"
"Where are we going after we get out?" Fang He turned aside to avoid her hand reaching out to grab his arm and asked again in a calm tone.
Xiao Cheng in front of him visibly became impatient.
"Where to? To leave hell, of course! What are you stalling for?! Are you even Fang He?! We still have a third bet to settle! There's no time to waste!"
"No rush, I have one last question."
Fang He looked behind her and saw that there was only a narrow gap left.
It's impossible for anyone to get in or out, but it looks like...
There's still a knife that can be passed.
For example, the black knife above one's head.
"Put the knife down first, then get out! We can discuss any problems outside. Is it really worth a few minutes?!"
Fang He nodded without any change in expression: "It's just a matter of two or three minutes."
Xiao Cheng: "..."
She stomped her foot in exasperation: "Ask! Ask already! And after you've asked this ridiculous question, you'd better come out of here with me right now!"
"Don't worry, I'll leave here." Fang He gave a barely perceptible smile. "One last question."
"As Xiao Cheng... how did you know that you needed to take this knife?"
The words fell.
The room filled with mirrors suddenly became deathly silent.
Xiao Cheng instantly suppressed all expression, staring at Fang He's face with a sinister gaze.
The last narrow gap closed silently behind her.
The knife hanging there suddenly began to vibrate violently, emitting a faint humming sound.
Are you kidding me?
"To be honest, you were the one who played me first." Fang He sighed, feigning helplessness. "Actually, from the beginning, our goals were the same, so temporary cooperation wasn't out of the question."
“But…” his tone suddenly turned somber, “why did you pretend to be her?”
"This is who I am."
The person in front of me, "Xiao Cheng," said coldly.
"So it's not imitation, but copying?" Fang He nodded knowingly, then easily took the sword from his hand and casually twirled it.
The knife wasn't made of metal; it felt warm and smooth to the touch, and I didn't notice anything unusual about it yet. But for some reason, this thing in front of me seemed to be trying to urge me to take it with me.
"It's too late."
Suddenly, "Xiao Cheng" in front of him spoke calmly.
As she spoke, all the mirrors around her suddenly shattered, the fragments scattering outwards as if weightless, their shadows reflected on them, frozen frame by frame.
The clicking sound of mechanisms turning filled his ears, and the phantom of a huge, multi-layered Rubik's Cube slowly appeared in the air, with each square constantly shifting. Fang He's current location, the only place shrouded in darkness, was the center of the Rubik's Cube.
"It's too late."
"Xiao Cheng" kept repeating this, looking up at the rapidly changing grid, and suddenly burst into exaggerated laughter.
Then the smile abruptly stopped.
She grabbed Fang He's arm and then rammed him straight into the sharp blade.
The incident happened so suddenly that Fang He had no time to react.
His pupils contracted sharply as he saw blood splattering everywhere, then abruptly stopping in mid-air. Every drop of blood was drawn in and flowed into the blood groove on the black blade.
A flash of red light appeared, quickly outlining strange rune shapes, before abruptly receding.
The black blade fell silent again, the phantom of the Rubik's Cube in the air slowly disappeared, and then the grid where Fang He was located began to slowly change, and the surroundings turned from dark to white.
He returned to the original, empty room.
Then there was a crisp click.
The center of the floor suddenly caved in, then a hole appeared. Half of a rope ladder slowly emerged and drooped downwards.
It's like luring someone into a trap.
As time passed in the death chamber, Xiao Cheng and the others gradually noticed something amiss.
"Something's not right. Even if no one outside activates the mechanism, is the three-hour interval for automatic refresh really that long?"
Nineteen didn't seem to mind, and was playing with his gun with great interest.
"Aren't you overthinking it? It's normal for time to feel like it's passing very slowly when you just wait like this. Isn't that what they mean by 'time drags on'?"
“It’s definitely not a problem with perception.” Xiao Cheng firmly denied his words, but before she could finish speaking, she suddenly heard a creaking sound coming from the ceiling.
Before she could even begin to feel that the scene was somewhat familiar, the void suddenly split open, and Fang He plummeted from above, using a few tumbles to dissipate the force and get up, staring at them in astonishment.
"You guys are here too?!" He brushed the dust off his clothes, looked at Xiao Cheng and Nineteen, and finally fixed his gaze on Nineteen's gun.
"Items from the dungeon." Xiao Cheng noticed his doubt and explained succinctly.
"No time for nonsense, hurry up and follow me." He pointed to the hole in the ceiling that hadn't been fully repaired yet. "Go up from there!"
"Where to?" Xiao Cheng frowned slightly, looking at Fang He with some suspicion.
Something seems a bit strange.
But I can't quite put my finger on what's strange about it.
It's just like... how I felt about Nineteen.
Fang He seemed completely oblivious to her gaze and solemnly emphasized, "Go to the core of this instance."
"Trust me, come with me, there lies the ultimate solution to cracking the black box."
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