"Speaking of which, your name sounds a bit familiar." After crowning Tang Mo with the name " Zhaozhao" to himself, the doll face walked over to the young boy and looked at him with a smile, "Fu Wensheng ... Fu Wensheng ? Fu Wensheng? Which is your surname Fu, which is your name Fu Wensheng or which is your name Sheng?"
The little boy looked at him and said calmly, "Is this important?"
Dollface: "Is it important? It's important, eh, it doesn't seem to be very important. But your name ..., I remember." He clapped his hands exaggeratedly, his eyes narrowing slightly, "The first stowaway in China to break through the ground floor of The black tower, what was his name again? Zhaozhao, do you remember?" The doll face turned to Tang Mo, "The one who dragged everyone into the tower game, what was his name again."
Tang Mo said coldly, "Don't remember."
The doll face asked himself, "Yes, his name is Fu Wenduo. He looks like you. What's your relationship? At your age, are you the son of the stowaway from ...?"
The smile on his face was as repulsive as ever, and he moved in close to the boy, looking like he was teasing him, making fun of him, but there was no real smile in his crooked eyes. He stared cautiously at the boy, his eyes like snakes, dangerous and treacherous.
"I don't know him." The boy replied decisively, "I was dragged into a tower attack game by that same stowaway two months ago, almost died in it, and I hate him with a passion. I'm sure you guys are the same. If I was really related to him, would I have the decency to tell you my name, a name that resembles his, and make you suspect me?"
Fu Wensheng has a few points.
In China, all the players hate Fu Wenduo, the stowaway who dragged everyone down with him. In Atak, Luo Fengcheng hasn't told the other members that "Mr. Fu" is Fu Wenduo because he thinks that if he reveals Fu Wenduo's identity, a clueless Jackass might actually go to Fu Wenduo and get beaten up. He also thought that Jackass might actually go to Fu Wenduo and get beaten up by him.
If Fu Wensheng was really related to Fu Wenduo, would he have told Tang Mo and the others that his name was that? He would have hidden his real name so that Tang Mo and Doll Face would not have a problem with him.
Dollface looked at him for a moment and laughed, "Perhaps you are taking advantage of our reverse mentality. Normal people, even if they had a relationship with that stowaway, wouldn't tell anyone and would try to hide it. Instead, we won't suspect if you say it out loud and clear?"
The little boy's face was serious as he defended himself, "I just want to tell you guys, please believe me. Fu Wensheng is my real name. It does look a bit like someone, but I have nothing to do with him. I am telling you my real name because I want you to believe me. I can't beat you, and if you don't believe me, you will kill me at any time. I want to live, that's all."
Tang Mo looked at the child's mature, stony expression, and his doll face sized him up meaningfully.
Soon, all three seemed to forget the conversation and returned to the original topic.
"This moonflower is the same as the one we had before, and this corridor is exactly the same as the ones on either side of us." Tang Mo looked down at the dark puddle of blood on the floor after placing the glass cover back on the raised platform, "The only thing that could be considered different is this puddle of blood."
The little boy said, "As far as I can surmise, there were once three players in this corridor as well, and their mission was to find the lying moonflower, just like us. An argument must have broken out first over which way to enter the corridor, perhaps between the three of them, none of whom would be the first to go through." There were even incidents of forceful repression and threats of teammates being Little Bai rats.
The boy, Fu Wensheng (not necessarily his real name), tried very hard to join Tang Mo and Doll Face's group and Tang Mo gave him a look. Tang Mo knew that, for the moment, the boy really wanted to convince himself and Baby Face to trust him. Because that was the only way he would have the best chance of surviving.
Tang Mo went on to say, "Assuming that a forceful suppression does occur among their three players, the first player to enter the trap, should be dead."
Boy: "Then the two players thought the other way was the right way, and they went up there and were careless, and I'm afraid they died in that bottomless pit too." After a pause, he looked over at Tang Mo and Doll Face, as if suddenly remembering something, and stared up at the green figure above their heads.
The doll face smiled, "What are you looking at me for, little rawhide?"
Fu Wensheng didn't react for a moment to the fact that this baby face, who had just been suspicious of him, suddenly called himself by such a disgustingly intimate nickname. He froze for a moment, stood up and walked over to Tang Mo and said, "Zhao ... Brother Zhao, it just occurred to me that the graphic above my head is red and the one above yours is green, could it be that the three players in this corridor also have a different colour graphic above their heads than we do? Could it be that the three players in this corridor also have different colours of graphics? For example ..."
"They're purple." Tang Mo said.
The little boy nodded vigorously, "I think it's purple, too. Looks like you guys have been in that bedroom too?"
Tang Mo does not deny it.
The young boy thought, "So, from the beginning, something in this castle was hinting at the kind of people we would meet next ..."
After entering the jewelled castle of the Queen of Hearts, Tang Mo's first mission was to "enter the glass flower room". In order to find the glass flower room, he, Doll Face and White Collar Girl went through many rooms and corridors. In one of the bedrooms, Tang Mo saw a vase with three feathers on the dressing table. One was red, one was green and one was purple.
As it is rare for feathers to be dyed in such strange colours, Tang Mo took a few more looks and made a note of them.
And now he looked at the red graphic above the little boy's head, and then at the green graphic above the doll face's head. He says, "It seems that there are clues and hints hidden in many places upon entering this castle." The three different coloured feathers were hinting to the players that there were three teams in the jeweled castle, "We can think more about the clues we saw before, they might be useful to complete the main quest. Did you see any other clues?" Tang Mo looked over at the young boy.
The boy thought for a moment: "I was in a palace and I saw a very strange sculpture fountain. It was a very huge snake, it was very, very big, and that palace was huge, but its sculpture alone took up two-thirds of the space. Because it was so big, its body folded over in the palace just enough for it to bite its own tail. Water spurted out from between its mouth and teeth and flowed out of the palace down a dark passage to who knows where."
Tang Mo frowned, "A giant snake that bites its own tail?"
"Yemengad?" The doll-faced voice rang out and both Tang Mo and the boy looked towards him. He was standing against the wall, and when he saw both of them looking at him, he laughed, "Norse mythology, haven't you heard of it? Loki's second child, a giant serpent that symbolised evil, was called Yemengard. It ended up with Thor, the god of thunder, in the twilight of the gods. Thor the god of thunder you know, the ... hammer come on, my hammer you can't hold Thor the god of thunder. Hahahahaha ..."
Dollface had a strange laughing point, his jokes were not funny at all, and his exaggerated, contrived laughter echoed throughout the jewelled corridor. After laughing for a while, he found Tang Mo and the little boy staring at him expressionlessly, and he shrugged in bemusement, leaning against the wall and humming his own ugly little tune.
Tang Mo has a rough mental picture of what the giant snake fountain looks like. The fountain could not provide any useful clues for the moment, perhaps the fountain was hinting at the guards' means of attack? Or perhaps it hinted at the correct way out of the corridor?
Tang Mo was more convinced that the strange pattern of lines he saw on those fire pits was more likely to be the correct map for getting out of the Jewel Corridor than a giant articulated snake.
After checking the corridors some more to make sure there were no clues, the trio decided to set off and officially leave the area.
There are three corridors on three sides of the triangular room, belonging to the three red, green and purple teams. Tang Mo knows that he has always had bad luck choosing one of the two paths and he could choose the hardest one. If he were to make the choice and decide which corridor everyone would leave through, nine times out of ten something would go wrong. Forget the doll face, he's not given the chance to speak if he can.
Tang Mo looked to the boy, "You pick a path and try it."
The little boy froze, "... me?"
Tang Mo said indifferently, "Three corridors, with a total of three doors behind them. You can choose one at random."
The doll face smiled at the scene.
The little boy mulled it over for a moment and said, "There's no one left on this purple team, and now we happen to be three players, which kind of makes a new team. Let's just leave through this corridor of the purple team."
No objections were raised and the three walked to the end of the corridor in the purple line. Tang Mo turned his head to the doll face, " Mr Bruce, your favourite kick in the door." He said, gesturing with his eyes in the direction of the door handle.
The smile on the doll's face froze for a moment, and then he smiled even wider. He gave Tang Mo a deep look, walked over to the door and kicked this door open.
With a loud bang, the wooden door was kicked open.
The three of them gripped their weapons warily and, finding no danger, Tang Mo stepped out of the door first, followed by Doll Face and the young boy. When they saw what was behind the door, even Doll Face, who was always a dandy, stopped smiling for a moment in disbelief.
Just beyond this radiant and glorious corridor of moonlight is an even more magnificent and majestic world.
The entire world seems to be carved out of precious stones, with blue patois on the ceiling, vibrant red crystal on the walls and orange amber stone on the floor. The sapphires look like an ocean, hovering above the player's head, blue and clear; the red walls and yellow earth are smooth and clean, reflecting the faces of Tang Mo's trio.
The yellow amber floor looks so smooth that it seems to be slippery when you stand on it. However, Tang Mo stepped on the floor twice and the friction was still high enough that it did not affect walking at all.
"It seems the friction here has little to do with the gems themselves. This one is the real gem corridor." Tang Mo said decisively, turning quickly, "The doors aren't actively closing, so it looks like we can try the other two sides of the path."
The three men walked down two more corridors and opened the doors at the end of them.
Like the magnificent world of gems, the doors of these two corridors are followed by long, narrow corridors of gems. Having witnessed this unattainable beauty twice, Tang Mo is no longer shocked and analyses: "When we entered this corridor, we opened the door from a room. But now that room has disappeared and has become a corridor of gems. It seems we have to choose to enter any of these three corridors of gems."
The trio returned to the corridor where they had started, stepped through the wooden gate and walked out.
Walking among such gems, there is no need for illumination at all. The gems seem to glow, with a fluorescent glow emanating from within them. The light is not dazzling, but when thousands of gems are gathered together, it illuminates the entire corridor as if it were daylight.
Walking down the corridor of gems, Tang Mo felt for the first time that he was playing a game.
The place is so beautiful it's like a fairy tale.
The trio walked for half a minute and came to a fork in the road.
Dollface gave a deliberate "eek" and laughed, "There are 999 forks in the Jewel Corridor, and you met one so soon?"
Tang Mo gave him an impassive look and came to the conclusion that the rules of the game for Dollface also mentioned that there were 999 forks in the Jewel Corridor.
Tang Mo said, "Which way to choose?"
At this moment, there are two diverging paths in front of Tang Mo. The two paths look exactly the same and there is no difference between them. One points to the left and the other to the right.
Tang Mo threw the multiple choice question back at the boy.
This time, faced with a choice, beads of sweat gradually seeped onto the young boy's forehead. He didn't say a word, his eyes moving back and forth between the left and right sides of the road. Finally he looked up at Tang Mo: "Am I going to make the choice this time?"
Tang Mo looked calm: "I've had very bad luck, so if I were to choose, there's an 80% chance that something would go wrong."
Dollface interjected, "If you're unlucky, then follow the opposite direction you've chosen. Wherever you choose, we'll go the other way."
Tang Mo glanced at him, "Even if you choose the opposite direction, it might still go wrong, because this opposite direction also has something to do with my choice." Tang Mo never had any hope for his own unbelievably bad luck. Sometimes he even wondered what he had done in his last life, even if he had a book of supernatural powers that was so bitchy and aimed at cursing himself, he still had such bad luck that he could not complain about it.
He opened his mouth as if to say something else, but muttered, "You can't pick up my stunt anyway," and then shut up again.
The choice is returned to the young boy.
Tang Mo and the doll face both looked at him and the boy was silent for a long time before pointing to his left: "I choose this side."
There were only two options anyway, either left or right. Tang Mo said calmly, "This way, then." With that, he led the little boy in stride into the corridor on the left.
Dollface exclaimed, "Hey, you didn't even ask my opinion, what if I don't want to go left?"
Tang Mo didn't even look back: "Then you can go right."
Dollface: "..."
This very unpleasant fellow followed him anyway. The three walk down the corridor on the left, Tang Mo seems to trust the young boy's choice and enters the corridor on the left without a second thought, but he keeps his hand on the handle of the small parasol.
Rule number three of the game: in every dead end, two guards of the Queen of Hearts patrol it.
If this is a dead end, then they will meet the guards of the Queen of Hearts. Tang Mo only knows two important characters in this tower siege game, the Queen of Hearts and the guards. The former, needless to say, is the big boss of the game, and the latter is not to be underestimated, as it appears in the rules of the game and is used by The black tower to warn players to choose the right fork in the road.
However, I don't know if it was because the young boy was so lucky or if the second choice was more correct, but the trio walked for half a minute and met another fork in the road.
The three men were first relieved to see the fork in the road. It meant that they had not chosen the wrong path earlier, and that the road to the left was not a dead end. But soon the three were nervous again.
Tang Mo looks silently at the young boy.
Little Boy: "..."
This is an important life-threatening choice, and every decision he makes is like a life drain. Fu Wensheng has begun to wonder if he should not have gone along with these two adults, or if he had chosen the wrong path one time, they might have turned on him. But under Tang Mo's direct gaze, he was forced to make a choice.
Little Boy: "... left, I think."
Tang Mo walks with the boy into the corridor on the left and Doll Face follows slowly.
This time, the little boy picked the right one again.
At five forks in a row, the boy, like a goddess of luck, chose the right path each time. Each time the trio entered the fork, they moved forward as fast as they could while watching out for possible sneak attacks. The black tower had said that every human who stayed in the corridor for more than three hours would be almost impossible to get out of it.
It's not a formal rule of the game, and The black tower uses the adjective "allegedly" when talking about it. But Tang Mo doesn't dare take it lightly. The exact figure of three hours had to mean something. It is highly likely that in three hours' time, Tang Mo will never leave this corridor.
When the trio made it through the seven forks and came to the eighth, Tang Mo's eyes widened in surprise, as did the little boy and the doll face.
Only in front of the three were three identical corridors.
Tang Mo was the first to react, he stepped forward and touched the entrance to the three corridors. He turned his head, "There really are three corridors this time. Choose one of the three, now ... which one we choose." He looked to the young boy.
Little Boy: "..."
Rule number two of the game: at every fork in the road, there must be at least one fork in the wrong direction, pointing to a dead end.
Tang Mo didn't understand until now what this rule of the game meant. Who says that a fork in the road has to be two forks and not three or four? As they have encountered today, there are three forks in total, at least one of which is a dead end, leading to two guards. Or maybe two paths are dead ends and only one is the right one.
The young boy took a deep breath to calm himself down as he felt the pressure build up. He chose a path first, "Or this one on the left."
Tang Mo looked at him steadily. He could see that the child still had something to say.
As luck would have it, the little boy continued, "I don't know if I've chosen the right path. Suppose there are two paths here that are dead ends and one that is the right path, and if I've chosen the right one, then there is certainly nothing wrong with us continuing on. Just be afraid that ... there is only one path here that is dead and both paths are the right path leading to a new fork in the road. Brother Zhao, do you understand what I mean?"
Tang Mo looked at him quietly for a long time, and then he said, "Since you have chosen this path on the far left, let us take it."
The boy was a little anxious: "Brother Zhao!"
Tang Mo did not answer him and walked into the road on the left.
Doll Face watched with interest. When Tang Mo left, he came up to the anxious child and said in a low voice, "What's your hurry? He's obviously thinking of the problem when he ignores you. If he's not anxious, why are you anxious? Isn't it good to be alive anyway?"
At these words, the young boy's face changed. He looked up at the doll face, who gave him an impish smile. Then he put his hands in his pockets and quickly followed Tang Mo's footsteps.
The little boy followed suit.
Along the way, the boy thought Tang Mo would make some kind of special marker to record the path that everyone had taken. But Tang Mo just kept on walking. He didn't mark anything, and he looked calm, as if he didn't really notice the danger behind the many forks in the road.
The boy looked at Tang Mo's back and hesitated for a long time, but did not say anything.
Soon, though, he didn't have the heart to think about it. As the trio reached the end of this corridor, Doll Face had just taken a step forward when he suddenly stomped his toes to the ground and flew backwards. Tang Mo also reacted in a flash when a sharp spear came straight from in front of him and he sidestepped it, pulling out his small parasol at the same time.
A pitch-black spear slowly emerges from the air, while a humanoid poker guard, holding a spear in both hands, steps out of the air with one foot on the ground. It was a jack card, and the guard in the playing card saw Tang Mo dodge the spear before turning his head to glare at him and thrusting another spear, piercing the air.
Tang Mo quickly recited the incantation and opened his parasol to block the blow. He was sent flying by the blow and stumbled backwards three steps in a row before he could stabilise himself.
On the other side, Dollface took out his dagger and went up against another poker guard.
These playing cards were tall and terribly powerful. They wielded their spears without any stance at all, simply thrusting, jabbing and picking, but because the spears were so hard and sharp, their strength was so great that they also posed a threat to Tang Mo and Doll Face. Seizing an opportunity to miss a spear thrust, Tang Mo's eyes narrowed as he gathered his small parasol and thrust its tip hard into the centre of the playing card.
All that could be heard was a crisp metal clash.
Tang Mo's eyes widened as he stomped on the jeweled wall, spun in the air and shouted, "Look out!"
Dollface also then moved behind the other poker guard in an instant with a speed unreachable to the naked eye. He held his dagger in his left hand and looked at this card with a smirk, "There you go." With those words, he slashed a dagger at the neck of the guard in this card, who knew that his dagger would burst into a dazzling metallic spark when it pierced the poker. The poker did not break a single inch.
The baby face suddenly paled and he jumped away three times to avoid the guard's spear.
He craned his head to lock eyes with Tang Mo.
The two men spoke in unison, "Run!"
With that, Tang Mo and Baby Face turned around at the same time and ran quickly backwards. As they ran, Tang Mo picked up the boy with one hand, threw him onto his back and ran without a backward glance. The guards were fast, and when they realised that Tang Mo had escaped, they rushed after them, but the three had already run completely out of the corridor.
The moment the three men's feet left the corridor, the movements of the two guards came to a sudden halt. They stand in the corridor and mechanically turn their heads, returning to the depths of the corridor. They step on the floor with a rumbling sound that shakes the entire corridor with it.
Seeing that the two guards were no longer in pursuit, Tang Mo breathed a sigh of relief and placed the little boy on the ground. He looked to Doll Face, "These two guards don't have much fighting skill, and their moves and speed are not that fast, but they are too tough. I can't inflict any wounds on their poker anyhow, can you?"
Dollface: "No."
Tang Mo breathes a little: "It turns out that the Queen of Hearts' guards are playing card guards. Maybe she's a poker player herself. We can't beat those two guards now, no matter what. And they were hidden in the air; they would only appear out of nowhere if we reached the end of the corridor. So their attack could be described as a sneak attack and could not be defended against. We were lucky this time that they didn't block our way back when they sneaked in." After a pause, Tang Mo looked to the young boy, "You choose another path."
Little boy: "... And you're letting me choose the path?"
Tang Mo nodded, "Your choice, there are two paths left."
The little boy clenched his fingers as he pointed to the middle path, "This one."
"Good."
Tang Mo The three men entered this middle road again.
The trio did not have time to make too much analysis of the guards they had just encountered, as they had a time limit of three hours. In those three hours, they must leave this corridor of gems, or they will never leave and will be made into a statue of the Queen of Hearts.
This time, the middle path was the right one and the trio came to another fork in the road. This time there were only two forks and the boy chose the one on the left and the three walked in.
Tang Mo didn't say a word on the way, his head down on the ground, wondering what he was thinking.
Time passed and the three men had lost count of the number of corridors they had walked down and the number of forks they had encountered. Of these, they have missed thirty-six. As soon as they realised they were going the wrong way, Tang Mo and Doll Face retreated. The boy was so alert that he was unprepared when he first encountered the guards, and since then he has been following Tang Mo and Doll Face, both so as not to be a burden to them and so that he can be the first to turn and run in case of danger.
But they were eventually confronted by two guards who could ambush them. One guard appeared in front of Tang Mo and Doll Face, the other behind the little boy, surrounding the three of them from front to back.
Tang Mo had no choice but to use his "Qi Swallowed Like a Tiger" and a powerful hurricane blew the two playing cards apart. A path appeared in front of the three of them and they rushed out of the trap set by the two clever poker guards.
After escaping, Dollface looked to Tang Mo: "So, props again? Or is ... an alien power this time?"
Tang Mo looks up at him, doll face still with a smirk on his face.
Tang Mo said in a calm tone, "Props."
The doll face gave a meaningful "oh" and looked to the boy, "Choose another path."
When the guards attacked from behind, Tang Mo and Doll Face couldn't have been the first to save him. The boy himself pulled a gun out of nowhere and fended off the poker guards. No one who has made it to the Tower Attack game is an ordinary player. The little boy seemed to have no power, but his gun had just fired a terrifying flaming bullet that hit the poker guard in the same part of his forehead. Although it didn't penetrate the poker, it did cause the poker to take a few steps backwards, buying Tang Mo and Baby Face time.
The little boy calmly made his choice: "The one on the far right."
Tang Mo nodded gently, "OK, then go here ..."
"I'm not going." The baby-faced voice rang out and both Tang Mo and the little boy looked towards him.
The tall, thin young man was seen leaning against the red jeweled wall, that disgusting smile still on his lips as he pointed with his chin to the corridor where the three had just gone the wrong way and said, "Those two guards, you saw them. More powerful than all the guards before them. There is a difference in the strength of the guards, and if we choose the wrong path again next, the strength of the guards we encounter will likely get stronger and stronger. So ... I don't believe him, I'm not going that way."
After a pause, the doll face smiled, "I think I said before, well ... everyone calls me Lucky Bruce ? Zhaozhao, are you coming with me?"
Tang Mo's eyes stared strangely at the doll's face and he just watched so quietly that the doll couldn't keep a smile off his face.
At this point, Tang Mo said, "... Why did you choose this middle one."
"I'd love to." The doll face smiled, "How about a walk?"
Tang Mo withdrew his eyes, "I'll take this one on the right with him."
Dollface spread his hands and did not discourage further.
The three of them split into two groups, with Doll Face walking alone to the entrance of the middle corridor and Tang Mo and the boy walking to the entrance of the right corridor. The boy looks hesitantly at the doll face, who waves at him and immediately withdraws his eyes, deciding to follow Tang Mo.
The doll face said with great regret, "So, it's really just here that we parted?"
Tang Mo looked at him coldly and did not speak.
He sighed, "You're still funny, I hope to see you again." With that, he was about to walk into the middle corridor when Tang Mo suddenly spoke up, "Do you have to go through the middle corridor?"
The doll face was on his feet and he turned his head to look at Tang Mo, his eyes measuring. He smiled, "What, have you decided to come with me again?"
Tang Mo: "The two of us will take the right corridor and you alone will take the middle. If you get it right, forget it. If you choose wrong, and you run into two guards as strong and smart as the ones in the left corridor ... Mr Bruce, your chances of escaping are less than 50-50. Stay with us and have a lookout, even if the right corridor is the wrong one, three people are more likely to escape from the guards and you have a better chance of surviving."
As if he hadn't heard Tang Mo's words, the doll face said unconcernedly, "So goodbye."
Dollface has one foot in the middle corridor. He was humming a little tune and walking lightly with his hands in his pockets. It was at that moment that he heard a footstep behind him. His out-of-tune song paused for a beat and he turned his head to look.
A clean-cut young man and a young boy were seen walking through the entrance to the radiantly ornate jewelled corridor.
Dollface gave a low laugh, " Zhaozhao, you want to come with me again?"
Tang Mo's gaze was fixed on the smiling doll's face for so long that it deliberately stared back at him, as if trying to stare back. Just as the boy felt something strange and wanted to break the silence, Tang Mo smiled. He curled his lips: "Hello again, Mr Bruce. I've been thinking, three is better than two. Even if you make the wrong choice, at least the three of us have a better chance of surviving. So, it's better to go together."
A chuckle escaped the doll face through his nose as he didn't say a word and continued to hum his own out of tune ditty as he walked on.
For once, the middle corridor is right.
After half a minute's walk, the trio came to a fork in the road. This time there were four forks in the road and the boy looked at Tang Mo with difficulty. Instead of looking at him, Tang Mo looked at the doll face: "I didn't think you'd be right this time, Mr Bruce."
Dollface: "I told you I've always been lucky."
Tang Mo: "How about this time, let you decide where to go again?"
The boy sighed with relief at these words. Instead, the baby face narrowed his eyes and looked at Tang Mo: "You said you'd let me decide?"
"If you don't want to, just let the kids keep picking the path." Tang Mo said casually, "You're both quite lucky, compared to me. Whichever one of you chooses the path, it's not a problem. Fu ..." After a pause, Tang Mo said, "Which path do you choose, little one?"
I didn't think I'd end up having to choose the path myself. Little boy: "Right. ..."
The baby face laughed, "I'll take the right side too."
Tang Mo: "It's a coincidence that you've chosen the same one, so let's go for the right side."
Walking down the corridor to the right, Tang Mo and the young boy walk together, Dollface walking alone to one side. As if he was used to being on guard by his teammates, he walked on calmly, only glancing at Tang Mo from time to time. He had a vague feeling that something was wrong and he watched Tang Mo carefully, scanning him from head to toe before withdrawing his gaze.
Nothing out of the ordinary really, at most ... just a slightly nicer attitude towards him?
But soon enough, the doll face was ignored by Tang Mo again. Tang Mo basically just asks the boy which way to go and doesn't care about him at all. It was only when there were many diversions that he might "condescend" to take Dollface's advice. Every time Tang Mo asked him which way he wanted to go, the smile on his face would widen, as if he had seen something interesting.
The three of them then walked for more than two hours in this way.
When they came to a fork in the road with seven forks, all three stopped in their tracks and were silent without speaking.
"Actually, we all knew from the first time we came across the three-way fork in the road that there was no way this game would just let us go on casually." Tang Mo suddenly spoke up and both Doll Face and the young boy looked over at him. He looked at the seven identical corridors with a calm gaze, "There are 999 forks in the Jewel Corridor in a total time limit of three hours. On average it takes us 30 seconds to go from one fork to another, so three hours is 10,800 seconds. We don't waste a second, we can walk up to 360 junctions."
Little Boy: "Yes, this is something I knew from the beginning, but more important is the issue of multiple forks in the road."
A little over two hours ago, the boy tried to remind Tang Mo of this when he said, "The rules of The black tower say that at every fork in the road, there must be at least one dead end. You know that rule, don't you? If it's a fork in the road, it's either one or two, so even if we're wrong, if we go back and start again, it's definitely the right way. But in case it's a fork in the road with multiple forks, assuming it's a three-way intersection, where neither road will encounter guards and only one road has guards at the end, then we could easily choose the wrong one. Because if we follow one path, we might be right at first, but we'll probably end up stumbling upon a situation where all the forks are dead ends." He looked up, " The black tower doesn't say that one of the forks in the road must be the right one."
Tang Mo looked at the calm and sensible young boy and said, "Yes. Maybe once we will come to a fork in the road, and all forks are dead ends. Because we've been going the wrong way since a long time ago. At some multiple choice fork in the road, we choose a path that seems right but is actually wrong. By taking this path, we will sooner or later run into a dead end. It is like a maze. A short-lived clear path does not mean that it is the path to the end. It is quite possible that after a long time we realise that it leads to a dead end."
Dollface held up his hand, "So, is there any point in talking about this now?"
Tang Mo gave him a look: "Of course it works. First of all, in terms of time, there is no way we can walk through 999 junctions. Secondly, the chance of us taking the wrong junction is infinitely close to 1. Moreover, as long as we take the wrong path, we will encounter the guards. If the guards were able to get progressively stronger, we would have been killed by them sooner or later. In this case, I simply can't see how to get out of this corridor. No one should be able to walk out at all."
Dollface dropped the ball, "But someone walked out oh didn't those two crows say that a little girl walked out of the magical gem corridor."
During the first side quest, Tang Mo, Doll Face and White Collar Girl heard two crows talking. They said that a little girl had left the Queen of Hearts' Jewel Corridor and that she was the only one who had left it.
Tang Mo said faintly, "Yes, I know, so there must be a way out of this corridor."
The doll's face tightened its smile.
The boy also realised something and he looked to Tang Mo: "You found the right route?"
Tang Mo looked down at him: "Do you remember the sculptural fountain. It wasn't Yemengard, or any other mythological figure. It was the Articulated Serpent, and it was ... infinity."
The doll-faced smile lurched as he seemed to understand something.
The little boy also slowly opened his eyes wide and after a long time he exclaimed, "Infinity, the Möbius ring, only one surface forever?!"
Tang Mo: "Yes. You saw the sculptural fountain in the previous side quest, and I saw some very strange curves. I always thought that the curves looked familiar, but I couldn't figure out what was familiar about them, what they had in common. It wasn't until just now that it slowly dawned on me that your giant snake sculpture, meaning the infinity symbol, meaning the head and tail are connected, meaning a Möbius ring."
In the nineteenth century, the mathematician Moebius discovered that flipping a strip of paper 180° and then gluing it end to end gave him a magical ring band. This looped strip had only one curved surface, and by using a pen to make a line on the looped strip, the line would return to the original point in any case, forming a closed loop.
This is the Möbius ring.
"Most of the lines on the fire bowl are a closed figure, and there are even some infinity symbols hidden straight away in some of the twisted curves. I just didn't notice any of these." Tang Mo said.
Perhaps the three purple team players saw other hints, but unfortunately they didn't survive to share the clues with Tang Mo. So it was only now that Tang Mo realised that the first two seemingly simple side quests of The black tower had been giving the players hints on how to get out of the Jewel Corridor.
The Jewel Corridor is a Möbius ring.
Even if you take all 999 forks in the road, even if you walk through every junction, you will never get out. Because it is connected at the beginning and the end.
Understanding this, the young boy added, "But what if we know, how on earth are we going to get out?"
Tang Mo looked at him and caught a glimpse of the doll face looking at him with interest as well. He said calmly, "Have you ever seen Alice in Wonderland?"
It's a very famous children's book, remade in several films and TV shows, and of course the little boy has seen it. He nodded his head.
Tang Mo says: "There is also a Queen of Hearts, and there is also a little girl who is called Alice. In that novel, the Queen of Hearts says something to Alice that later gave rise to a very famous theory of knowledge."
The young boy was in his early teens and had never heard of any intellectual theories relating to Alice in Wonderland.
Dollface suddenly spoke, " Queen of Hearts theory."
Tang Mo looked at him: "Well, the Queen of Hearts theory. Queen of Hearts says to Alice that in her kingdom, if you run hard enough you don't necessarily move forward, you just stop where you are. Alice said that in her world, if you run in one direction for a while, you will definitely move forward. Yet Queen of Hearts told her that in Wonderland you could only move forward if you ran twice as fast as you could."
Queen of Hearts theorises that hard work does not necessarily lead to progress, but that it is only when effort reaches a certain level of radical innovation that the status quo can be changed.
"Running at a certain speed can only stay where you are, you can't leave ..." the young boy pondered for a moment as he figured it out and realized, "What would be considered double the speed?"
What constitutes a radical innovation, a radical change?
Tang Mo picks up the small parasol, the tip of which he points towards the brightly coloured ruby wall.
He smiled faintly, "Smash the wall."
Boom!
A minute later, with a deafening sound, a hole the size of a fist was smashed through the ruby wall. Immediately afterwards, Tang Mo, Doll Face and the boy increased their speed and hollowed out the hole bigger and bigger, finally allowing one person to pass through.
The three men crawled out of the hole in turn, not caring at this point whether their crawling position was a bit doggy style or not, the three stood up immediately after leaving the hole and looked around.
The little boy exclaimed, "How come it's still here?!"
Yes, this was the same corridor they had left at the beginning, the one that belonged to the purple team.
The three walked up and found a black pool of blood on the ground. Little Boy: "This really is the same corridor we left in the first place, so do we count as having left the jewel or not ..." The voice stopped abruptly and the little boy looked back and to his dismay, he noticed that the hole they had just drilled out of had disappeared!
Not just the hole, but the jewelled corridor they had just drilled through had turned into a black wall. The three men went to check and found that indeed the hole was gone, as was the jewelled corridor. They turned their heads again to look ahead.
Behind the high platform where the moonflower had been placed, the wall that had once risen high had disappeared, replaced by a tall, lofty door. The door was silently locked, as if waiting for someone to push it open.
The little boy understood: "... That's Queen of Hearts' bedroom."
Tang Mo laughs, "Well, that's Queen of Hearts' bedroom."
They walked out.
Queen of Hearts' Jewel Castle is a place where space is misplaced. The Jewel Corridor is a trap from start to finish, the 999 forks in the road make no sense and neither do the guards guarding the end of the dead end. To leave the Jewel Corridor, it is not a matter of choosing the right path or defeating the guards, but of breaking this Möbius ring, realising the Queen of Hearts theory and making a radical change.
Tang Mo The three smashed through the walls of the jeweled corridor and now they have managed to walk out.
As soon as the wall was smashed, Tang Mo returned a moon flower to the little boy. Because of the fourth rule of the game: only the person with the moon flower can get out of the jeweled corridor.
Tang Mo wasn't sure if the little boy could get out of the hole he had just made without the moon flower, so just in case, he gave it back.
Today, each of the three men is holding a moonflower.
Tang Mo said, "Come on, go to her bedroom."
The little boy nodded and followed Tang Mo's lead.
Dollface's voice rang out behind the two, "So now just put the moon flower in the vase and the jeweled corridor will be closed forever?" He said as he walked up to keep up with the two, "Ah, so this game isn't going to be over soon? How pointless is this, I want to play a little longer. Why don't we go back to the Jewel Corridor and play for a while? It's not three hours anyway."
Tang Mo gave him a cold sweeping look, "You can come over here without drilling holes with us just now if you want to keep playing."
The doll face spreads his hands and still has that grin on his face.
As the three walked towards Queen of Hearts' bedroom, the young boy said, "Be careful, maybe there's a trap in that bedroom, or maybe Queen of Hearts ..."
Whoosh!
A sharp dagger flew past Tang Mo's eyes, almost grazing his eyelashes, and clanged against the wall. Tang Mo reacted quickly and dodged backwards, but another silver dagger brushed past his eyes. The attack was so sudden that the boy didn't even have the time to cry out, and Tang Mo barely managed to avoid it twice before he fell backwards.
The doll face gave a laugh as his fingers deftly flipped a silver butterfly knife. The sharp edge of the blade grazed his fingers each time, attacking Tang Mo's eyes repeatedly as he slumped backwards, finally propping himself up on one hand.
Taking the opportunity, Doll Face reached out and grabbed the moonflower in Tang Mo's other hand.
It all came together so quickly that the boy only got a glimpse of it before the doll face's right hand was already gripping the root of Tang Mo's moon flower. At that very moment, however, Tang Mo was ready for it, and with one palm on the ground, he regained his footing, while his other hand had a firm grip on the doll face's wrist, preventing him from grabbing the flower.
The doll-faced young man's smile disappeared and he looked up at Tang Mo in dismay.
Tang Mo flipped his palm and a huge match appeared in his palm. He aimed the red tip of the big match at the right arm of the doll face and slammed it hard, and at the same moment a hot flame burned up from Tang Mo's palm.
The flames, which reached 1,535°C, ignited the match and the doll face's right arm.
Tang Mo waved a giant match and made a perfect arc in the air, the flame dissipated as the head of the match caught fire and rubbed against the ground, only the head of the match was blackened. On the other side, Doll Face took three steps backwards, looked up at Tang Mo and shouted "You", when suddenly, there was nothing under his feet.
The doll face reacted quickly by reaching out and grabbing Tang Mo's trouser leg.
A dark bottomless hole appeared unexpectedly in the middle of the corridor, exactly like the one Tang Mo had encountered before, even in the same location. Three hours earlier, the white-collar woman had fallen into the same bottomless pit, and three hours earlier, the doll face had pulled Tang Mo's trouser leg and been sucked downwards by this same suction from the pit.
But the doll face is so much stronger than the white collar girl. He was tugging at Tang Mo's trouser leg with one hand, his other arm ablaze with fire. As if he didn't feel any pain, he tugged at Tang Mo's pant leg and came up without Tang Mo's help.
At this point, Tang Mo hammers the giant match down hard on the ground. He looks at the baby-faced youth who is about to climb up and smiles, "Thanks to you, I know what this match really does. Only a hot flame of over 1,500°C can ignite this match, and what is lit by this match will never go out until it is all burnt up."
The doll face tugged at Tang Mo's trouser leg and he lifted his head, staring at Tang Mo with a deadly stare.
Tang Mo: "Now cut off your arm and you can still live. Otherwise ... Bai Ruoyao, you will be burned alive by it."
Bai Ruoyao's eyes widened at this moment, and he stared at Tang Mo with rapt attention. The fire crackles and burns as he looks at Tang Mo, as if he is trying to hold this man in his mind. Then the next moment, he suddenly smiled. Without hesitation, he releases his grip on Tang Mo's trouser leg and flings his silver butterfly knife, cutting off his right arm, which is on fire.
The doll face fell down the bottomless pit. His voice, mixed with laughter, came out of the bottomless pit and echoed down the corridor, "Surnamed Zhao, I'm looking forward to our next meeting. You must, must not run into me again ..."
At the same time, a clear child's voice rang out in the corridor.
"Dingdong! Player Bai Ruoyao from China Zone 7 and player Fu Wensheng from China Zone 6 have successfully cleared the first level of The black tower (normal mode) and completed the main quest 'The Desperate Survival Game in the Jewel Corridor', surviving for three hours and passing a total of 112 forks. Player Bai Ruoyao has received 0 moon flowers and 0 rewards. Player Fu Wensheng has received 1 Moon Flower and has earned one reward."
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The author has something to say.
She Huiyao: huh.
Tangtang: huh, burn you.
Little Fu: Heh, I played a part.
Mr. Fu: Heh, I really had a part in this chapter, I played the sauce, and none of the readers found out where I was yet.