Chapter 156
Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo held their flashlights and walked in front of the team, with the other three following closely behind them.
Schrodinger’s steel fortress consisted of a uniform steel corridor. The silver walls condensed into one and no gaps could be seen. On both sides of the corridor, small doors that were difficult to detect would appear from time to time. The doors were integrated into the wall and the door handles were unobtrusive. All five people walked slowly to prevent missing any doors.
When opening the first door, Tang Mo stood at the rear while Fu Wenduo opened it.
‘Sixth, Schrodinger’s room might contain Schrodinger’s inventions. There are successful and failed inventions.’
Tang Mo said, “Be careful.”
Fu Wenduo nodded.
The two people no longer hid the fact that they knew each other.
The two of them had showed a tacit cooperation when attacking the underground person as well as when they tried to capture Schrodinger. The relationship between Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo was clear and the others would certainly know they were teammates. Tang Mo chose to expose his relationship to Fu Wenduo while hiding Li Miaomiao’s identity.
Sure enough, Zhao Xiaofei and Grecia weren’t surprised by the relationship between Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo but they didn’t think about Li Miaomiao.
Fu Wenduo took the initiative to quickly open the door. The room was empty and everyone sighed with relief. The blue footprints disappeared once they entered the room. There was no place where anyone could hide in this room. They immediately walked out and entered the corridor to continue searching other rooms.
Tang Mo soon found that all of Schrodinger’s rooms looked exactly alike.
There was no furniture and no extra layout. There was only a room made of steel. The sides were full of silver steel and there were no windows. They could see everything in the rooms with one glance.
Zhao Xiaofei said, “There is nothing in these rooms. We have found four rooms and Schrodinger’s fortress has 108 rooms in total. I think all the other rooms are like this. We can see if Schrodinger is in the room with one glance. If we really encounter a room that contains Schrodinger’s invention, we just have to close the door and there should be no problems.”
Li Miaomiao nodded. “Then in this game, we just have to find the rooms and Schrodinger?” Li Miaomiao quietly glanced at Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo when she said this. The two of them didn’t react to her. Li Miaomiao made a depressed expression and once again reminded herself of Ruan Wangshu and Lian Yuzheng’s words as she spoke, “There are three opportunities to find Schrodinger. This is the first time. We should become familiar with the terrain and try to find as much rooms as possible.”
Everyone agreed with Li Miaomiao’s suggestion.
After leaving the kitchen, the five people chose to enter the strange slanting corridors. They reached the end of the corridor and found a similar oblique corridor. This time Tang Mo thought for a moment before once again choosing an oblique direction. Every 10 metres, they would find one or three sloping corridors, each other one to three rooms in each corridor.
It was like the five players were walking in a curved serpentine corridor as they kept swinging to the left and right. They finally reached the end of a corridor and encountered a wall. This time, there were three possible paths. One to the left, to the right or another oblique corridor.
Zhao Xiaofei looked strangely at the wall in front of her and then the three corridors next to it. She asked, “Don’t you think this scene is very familiar?”
The memories of players had improved after the earth went online. Each corridor in the steel fortress looked exactly the same. It was difficult to find a different apart from the length and direction of the corridor.
However, the current scene had already been seen by everyone.
Li Miaomiao looked down at the footprints on the ground and determined there were no blue footprints in front of her. “This place is like the kitchen corridor that we started in!”
Yes, the three corridors in front of them plus the fourth corridor the players were standing it were exactly the same as the water refraction corridor in front of the kitchen.
It was a horizontal straight corridor with two sloping corridors coming from the left and right. The four corridors converged into one point and became four-way intersection. The only difference was that there were no doors on the walls of this straight corridor, just four corridors.
Zhao Xiaofei’s eyes suddenly widened. “Wait, in fact, every corridor we walked in is similar to this! The place we just left also had a combination of a straight corridor and two inclined corridors. Every time, we chose to walk the inclined corridor. If I had to draw a map of the route we just took, it will presumably be… like this?”
Zhao Xiaofei took out a red lipstick that no one expected her to carry. She drew a rectangle on the ground and then a curved line from the vertex of the rectangle. This line was like an electrocardiogram that filled the entire rectangle. There were countless ‘water refraction’ corridors in this drawing, exactly the same as the route they just took.
Li Miaomiao realized it once the drawing was finished. Then she had a thought. “No, this line doesn’t start from the apex of the rectangle. There are either two corridors or four corridors at each intersection. I have never seen three corridors.”
If the polyline starts from the apex of the rectangle, it will create a scene where ‘three corridors’ converge.
Zhao Xiaofei was stunned.
Tang Mo’s voice was calm. “Flip this picture over and splice it together.”
Zhao Xiaofei’s eyes widened as she understood Tang Mo’s meaning. She held the lipstick and draw a mirror symmetrical rectangle. Once the rectangles drawing was finished, Tang Mo crouched down and wiped away the straight lines between the two rectangles.
Once Tang Mo finished this, the five people looked down.
This was a neat rectangle with a diamond pattern in the centre of the rectangle. It was like a pattern made by a weaver. The diamond patterns were closely connected one by one and flattened into a row, filling the entire rectangle. The players looked at this photo and immediately understood the map of this steel fortress.
Li Miaomiao cried out with surprise, “If the corridors are really like this, we can easily find out which rooms we have been in and which we haven’t.”
Grecia smiled. “My lady, it isn’t that simple. First of all, we don’t know if this map is correct. Second, the place we started from, do you know where the kitchen is located on the map?”
Li Miaomiao was tongue-tied for a moment.
“We just walked a total of 21 diamonds.” A low male voice was heard.
Grecia was stunned and turned his head to look. Fu Wenduo had his hands in his pockets and was calmly looking at the map on the ground. He raised his eyes and stared coldly at Grecia. Grecia smiled innocently and agreed. “Yes, it was 21 diamonds. Then where are we on this map now?”
Tang Mo pointed to the ground with the small parasol. “Here or here.” He was referring to the intersection of two short corridors in the rectangle.
Grecia looked between Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo, the corners of his mouth slightly raised but he didn’t speak.
Li Miaomiao said, “I don’t know if this map is correct but our priority is to determine the corridor and room distribution on this floor. So… where should we go now?”
A moment later, Tang Mo stated, “Here.”
Tang Mo was referring to the other side of the diamond corridor.
Li Miaomiao looked at each other. “Yes, I also think that we should go through these diamonds again to finish off the other side of the diamond. This will also determine if the map is correct or not.”
The five players once again entered the oblique direction corridor. Everything was as shown on the map as they once again entered a curved polyline corridor. At the intersection of the four sloping corridors, Tang Mo shone his flashlight on the other two corridors and found blue footprints. They had walked the diagonal corridor on the other side.
All of this was evidence that proved Fu Wenduo and Tang Mo’s conjecture.
The map on this floor was a rectangle with neatly arranged diamond corridors in the centre. Everything developed according to the map and both female players were happy. However, Tang Mo frowned slightly. Once he opened a door and found that it was an empty room, his expression became more solemn.
Li Miaomiao also sensed it. “We seem to have found 50 rooms but every room is empty. The black tower said that Schrodinger’s inventions might be in the rooms and there are a total of 108 rooms. We haven’t encountered one yet…” Li Miaomiao wondered, “Does Schrodinger have very few inventions?”
The black tower only said that Schrodinger’s inventions might be in the room. It didn’t say how many there were or that there would definitely be inventions.
The probability didn’t necessarily exist. Before opening the door, no one knew if there would be an invention inside or not. Perhaps 108 rooms might contain an invention or perhaps 108 rooms didn’t contain an invention.
Tang Mo lowered his head and felt that something was wrong.
Schrodinger had a personality that was very different from his appearance. He had a bad nature and hated humans. He wanted to turn all humans into his collection. It was impossible for him to kindly not place his inventions in the rooms. Tang Mo didn’t show this fear because the people opening the doors were him and Fu Wenduo.
Tang Mo looked over at Fu Wenduo and the two people headed to the next room.
Sure enough, there was nothing inside after opening the door.
Zhao Xiaofei muttered, “Is it really that Schrodinger doesn’t have many inventions?”
The five people walked another two corridors. Once they found the 61st room, Fu Wenduo gently pulled the door handle. The steel door opened. Nothing was different. Fu Wenduo vigilantly entered the room and the remaining people followed. Just as the last person walked in, countless black lights emerged from one side of the room. Tang Mo reacted very quickly, moving sideways to escape the room. Grecia also hid quickly. Fu Wenduo was the last person to come out. He and Li Miaomiao were hit by the light and a burning sound came from the place where the light shone on them.
Once the black light touched the skin, it became a black wound as flesh was corroded. Fu Wenduo quickly pulled out a dagger and cut off the flesh touched by the light. Li Li Miaomiao also cut a piece of flesh off her thigh. Zhao Xiaofei was the most serious, with four wounds on her body.
Once she found out that the wound was corroding her flesh, she gritted her teeth and took out a knife to cut off four pieces of flesh.
The door was closed but the terrible scene still haunted their minds.
“Lalalalalala, lalala, lalala~”
Suddenly, pleasant and cheerful singing filled the empty steel corridor. The soft cat was singing a tune without any lyrics. Everyone was stunned. Tang Mo reached out and wiped the sweat on his forehead. Then he looked up and stared coldly at the steel walls where the cat was hidden somewhere.
Once Zhao Xiaofei was no longer bleeding, the group continued to search the next rooms.
Schrodinger kept singing until he saw that no one was paying attention. Then he couldn’t help saying, “Hey, you shameless bad guys. Don’t you have anything to say to the distinguished Schrodinger?”
Tang Mo and Fu Wenduo took the lead as they opened the doors to the room. They checked that there was nothing present and turned away. Grecia followed after them gracefully with his short cane. Zhao Xiaofei’s expression was ugly due to the piece of flesh that had been cut off one side of her chest. It wasn’t just the pain of her body. She felt extremely annoyed. However, her four teammates weren’t talking so she couldn’t speak.
Zhao Xiaofei hated a cat for the first time. She couldn’t wait to tear Schrodinger into four pieces, just like her own flesh that she had cut off. However, she was influenced by Tang Mo and the others and didn’t speak.
Anger and complaints were meaningless and would only make Schrodinger more pleased with himself.
“You… you stupid, bad humans!”
The small cat complained about how these humans weren’t qualified at all. He was incredibly angry that none of them had died from invention No. 315. Tang Mo suddenly stopped walking and Schrodinger was surprised when he saw this scene. “Hey, do you want to scold the honorable Schrodinger? Are you so angry you want to yell at me?”
The answer was Tang Mo raising his flashlight to light up the road in front of him.
Tang Mo said, “There is a staircase here.”
The group came over at once.
Li Miaomiao asked, “Is this a staircase leading to another floor? The black tower said there are two floors in the steel fortress. Can we go to the other floor using this staircase?”
Zhao Xiaofei agreed. “It must be this. Then are we going to take the stairs or are we keep going to look for rooms on this floor?”
Schrodinger, “…”
The anger in the soft voice couldn’t be hidden. “Do you have nothing to say to this honorable Schrodinger?!”
Tang Mo suggested, “Let’s keep looking on this floor first.”
“Okay.”
The completely ignored Schrodinger, “…”
These were the worst humans he had ever met!
The black cat’s complaints stopped. Tang Mo seemed to have completely ignored Schrodinger’s existence but in fact, he was wondering how Schrodinger could observe all their actions.
The black cat might be in a room, observing their every move.
Thanks to the lesson from the black light room, everyone was more cautious when entering a room. However, many times it was hard to prevent. There were no abnormalities until all five people entered the room. Sometimes, only Fu Wenduo and Tang Mo had to enter a room before something happened. Still, there was never an incident before someone walked inside. Things would only happen when they entered the room.
On this floor, they found a total of 86 rooms.
As they reached the end of the diamond corridor, Tang Mo suddenly stopped and raised his flashlight. Li Miaomiao followed the direction of Tang Mo’s finger and was startled. “Eh? There’s another staircase here?”
A dark staircase appeared in front of them.
The staircase was at the end of the corridor. The five people decided to take the stairs after checking the next room. The five people followed this revolving staircase and came to another floor. They had just stood still when they saw a small door.
Tang Mo went to the door and held the doorknob.
Then a laughing male voice was heard. “You can’t always make a lady tired.”
Tang Mo turned to look at the blond man.
The tall blond man took off his hat and smiled at Tang Mo. Grecia stepped forward and said, “You did something so hard on the last floor. Let this gentleman do it this time.”
Tang Mo didn’t let go of the doorknob.
Grecia looked at him in surprise.
“No need, Mr. Grecia.”
Grecia looked wronged when he saw the alert Tang Mo and walked back with his short cane. Tang Mo held the small parasol and opened the door. The inside was empty but Tang Mo didn’t let down his guard. He went into the room alone, ready to observe what was inside. The moment he walked in, a familiar sound was heard. Tang Mo reacted very quickly. He pulled the door with one hand and moved backwards, wanting to close the door.
However, time seemed still as a blue light lit up the room and corridor. The light wrapped around the players, including Fu Wenduo’s quarter standing outside the door. Once Tang Mo opened his eyes again, he turned his head and saw that all five players had entered the room.
Tang Mo pulled out the small parasol and prepared to attack. He observed all the items in the room and then his eyes widened as he saw what was in front of him. Tang Mo looked at the item with disbelief, his eyes gently shaking.
It was a huge blue clock!
The blue light shone around every number and hand on this clock. The sound that Tang Mo heard was the movement of the second hand. Every number on this clock was familiar to Tang Mo because he once stood on it and played a life and death match with another player.
The other players also saw this clock. Zhao Xiaofei turned to run out of the room but she found her feet stuck to the ground, unable to move. The terrifying pressure was like a hill pushing down on the shoulders of the five players. The weaker Zhao Xiaofei and Li Miaomiao were breathless and overwhelmed.
On the truth clock, the second hand was still moving. Then all three pointers converged on the same point, the number ‘12.’
Bang!
A loud bell rang suddenly.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
It rang 12 times before a steady and powerful female voice filled the room. “Welcome to the world of the truth clock. I am the great truth clock that accurately tells the time for the great Lord Schrodinger. Schrodinger’s time is the year 3156, the 134th day, 0:00:00. The black tower intruders Fu Wenduo, Tang Mo, Zhao Xiaofei, Li Miaomiao and Grecia Sykes have been loaded into the world of the truth clock.”
“Respect all truths.”
“Follow all truths.”
“Become the truth or defeat the truth.”
“Five black tower intruders, what is your choice?”