Infinite Weird Game

After dealing with Liu Yuhan, Qi Si continued to go down the stairs.

At 9:20, he stopped on time and stared at the rotation of the hands on the clock until the minute hand and the second hand had turned a total of six minutes and forty seconds.

If the time is converted according to the mechanism of the "Hopeless Sea" copy, one hour corresponds to eighty minutes on the clock. He will stop or continue moving forward with a period of one-third of the arc of the minute hand turning one circle.

The two timekeeping methods do not conflict with each other. He just needs to be careful enough and he can stop once according to both sets of rules. It's just a matter of wasting some time.

Qis did not stop, and walked down the stairs at the same pace. The halo on the top of the clock tower was no longer visible, and only the flashlight in his hand was flashing a dazzling light in the darkness.

The staircase surrounding the axis of the bell tower seems endless, as if it leads to the depths of the earth and will penetrate out from the other side of the world.

Qis could hear the sound of the tide and smell the water. After he took out the Scepter of Poseidon from the prop bar, he had an additional layer of secret control over this space, or... cognition.

After "The Frog Hospital", his connection with the Scepter of Poseidon further deepened. With the Scepter of Poseidon, he was no different from a real god, at least in terms of outward appearance.

He can use the power sealed in the scepter at will in an appropriate place - such as the Hopeless Sea - or remotely control and recall the scepter at any time in a specific world.

As he nailed Liu Yuhan to the floor with the Scepter of Poseidon and continued walking toward the bottom of the tower, he seemed to have gained a global perspective at certain moments, able to peek down the stairs and discover that there was no sign of any door for tens of thousands of meters ahead.

This road has no end and no exit. Continuing down will only get you further away from the light and closer to the underground.

Just moving forward headlong is not the way to pass the level, and it seems too late to return along the original route.

A myriad of whispers lingered in my ears, and the phantoms of marine life became more and more solid, as if they were about to break through space and emerge into the world.

The invisible gravity pressed down from all directions, as if walking on the bottom of the sea, bearing the weight of tremendous sea water.

Something seemed to have changed inside the clock tower, and it did not allow players to proceed slowly through trial and error.

But...what went wrong?

The wet touch of sea water sucked his skin, bringing heavy pressure to squeeze his bones. For a moment, Qis had the idea of ​​going back to Liu Yuhan to retrieve the Scepter of Poseidon and see if he could solve the problem.

But soon, the new idea was stuffed back into his mind by the strange game, telling him that he could no longer change the mechanism of the Hopeless Sea after losing the scepter in which the sea god resided.

The pressure on his body was getting greater and greater. Qis took a very light breath, which was actually just the action of inhaling.

After becoming a ghost, his physical fitness has actually become much stronger, and his tolerance threshold for fatigue and pain has been greatly improved, and he doesn't even feel it too obviously in most cases.

But even though he didn't need to breathe at this moment, he still felt a strong sense of suffocation, and his limbs felt as heavy as if they were filled with lead, and he was unwilling to take another step forward.

So he stopped at the narrow flat surface at the corner of the stairs, sat on the bottom step, and thought seriously:
Will the "immortal" ghosts die from the water pressure at the bottom of the sea? And how will they die then?

……

On the chessboard outside the tower, Chang Xu used the team communication function of the team ring to listen carefully to the intermittent information sent by Liu Yuhan from the tower.

From this he learned that Liu Yuhan and Qi Si met again in a level that was suspected to be a slice of the "Hopeless Sea" copy. Qi Si directly nailed the girl in the tower with the scepter of Poseidon, and used the remaining power of Poseidon to restrict all her actions.

"Qis is scared." Liu Yuhan was fixed in place in one position like an insect specimen, unable to move.

There was a slight hiss of pain in her voice, but overall she was unusually calm: "He knows that what you and I want is to kill him, and that the realization of this desire only requires 3,000 points, just like other wishes.

“It is known that team reductions will lead to the gathering of resources, and our team’s total points are 2,500. We only need to clear one more level to get 3,000 points.

"He was afraid that we would collect enough points to find the Sphinx to fulfill our desires, so he didn't even dare to kill me. At the same time, he was willing to give up powerful items to restrict my actions to prevent me from collecting more points."

Liu Yuhan paused and said, "Of course, we have to prepare for the worst. I will not be able to move for the next five hours today, and I will not receive any more points.

"Also, the number of points we have accumulated will arouse Zis's sense of urgency. He will stop at nothing to kill you before we collect three thousand points."

"I understand. Even if he restricts your movements today, you can still enter a new level tomorrow, and you can accumulate the last 500 points anyway. So, today is his last chance to turn the situation around."

Chang Xu quickly figured out the logic and nodded slightly: "When he comes out of the tower, I will immediately use the teleportation effect of the Broken Blade to kill him."

"The worst case scenario still exists." Liu Yuhan took a deep breath and said, "The maximum time limit for a level is three hours. Three levels means nine hours. I'm worried that he will stay in the tower for the full eight hours and then use the unknown hidden mechanism of the dungeon to deal with us."

Chang Xu was silent. He knew that Liu Yuhan's inference was not alarmist.

In the "Rose Manor" copy, the design uses him and Lin Chen to trigger the mechanism of time travel to break the situation;

In the "Hopeless Sea" instance, he discovered that there was a problem with time when others were unaware, and he forced himself to wait until the end to reveal the mystery;

In the "Red Maple Leaf Boarding School" copy, he was suspected to be manipulating the overall situation behind the scenes, and in the end he directed him and Shuo Meng to run around and achieve TE clearance.

A person like Qis always seems to be able to dissect the confusing appearance of the copy, grasp and utilize the most core tricks buried in it, and give others a fatal blow.

Chang Xu suddenly thought of Fu Jue, who had only met him a few times in the Investigation Bureau. He was also able to dissect the texture of the game copy with ease, and was also so suitable for strange games...

He couldn't help but be wary of such a person.

Inside the tower, after Liu Yuhan delivered the final warning, she unilaterally cut off the communication of the team ring.

The Scepter of Poseidon was like a wedge embedded in her flesh, piercing through her body. The accompanying great force pinned her to the spot, unable to move at all.

Any adjustment of props is extremely difficult. The prop bar is grayed out and skills are unusable. Only the bug-like existence of the team ring can play a role, but it is of no help.

She stared blankly at the orange-yellow halo above her head. The pain had long been numbed by endorphins, leaving only a drowsy feeling of suffocation as if covering her mouth and nose with a wet tissue.

Over the years, she has been running around, traveling back and forth from one dungeon to another, writing guide after guide in the hopes of other players. She was too busy and too tired, and she hasn't had the time to sit down and think about her own affairs for a long time.

It was not until this moment when she was forced to stagnate in motionless time and space, stranded in the quagmire of fate, not knowing whether she could escape alive, that she began to subconsciously chew on her life which did not have many bright colors.

Countless images flashed through her mind, with people, objects and events appearing one after another. She was an ordinary person, born in a poor family that valued education. Like all the people at the bottom of the federation, she hoped to change her destiny through knowledge.

I have encountered many obstacles that I thought I could not overcome at the time, but after gritting my teeth and overcoming them, I could only smile calmly when looking back. I have also met many interesting people and interesting things, but they have all been silently integrated into my memory and I can only recall them when I occasionally flash back to the scene.

At the age of eighteen, she unknowingly entered a strange game, a completely unfamiliar field with no standard answers, and stumbled through the most difficult novice period in the chaos.

Relying on the solid and tenacious spirit cultivated since childhood, he did not take shortcuts or wait for death like other players, but actively matched dungeons and climbed up step by step to his current position.

and then?
"What is your desire?" the Sphinx asked her.

At that time, she gave the same answer as Chang Xu: "My desire is to kill Qi Si."

The Sphinx smiled but said nothing. A voice sounded in her mind, advising her to think carefully about what she really wanted. A quarter of an hour ago, Qis inserted the Scepter of Poseidon into her abdomen.

It was clearly a cruel act, but after standing for a moment, the young man put on a gentle smile like a god deceiving his believers: "Liu Yuhan, to be honest, I am very curious about what your desire is.

"Chang Xu is a stubborn guy who sticks to his own opinion. He probably made a wish to the Sphinx to kill me. So - what about you?
"I don't think our conflict is irreconcilable, and it has reached the point where you are wasting such a precious opportunity to deal with me.

"In fact, many of your demands can be resolved through negotiation. For example, after you leave this instance, I may be able to sign a new contract with you to give you more freedom."

Qi Si spoke slowly and leisurely, as if he was very considerate of the tool who betrayed him, and the suggestions he put forward sounded perfect at first glance.

However, Liu Yuhan knew that this man was a liar who was full of lies. If she had not summarized the information with Chang Xu, she would have been kept in the dark and thought that it was Lin Chen who killed Tang Yu.

You must not follow the thinking of such a dangerous person, otherwise who knows if you will fall into the trap inadvertently...

"I don't believe you." Liu Yuhan swallowed and said in a hoarse voice, "You don't dare to kill me because you are afraid that Chang Xu will accumulate 3,000 points."

When Qi Si heard this, he laughed very happily.

He smiled for a while and said with a sincere blessing: "Then I wish you to accumulate 3,000 points as soon as possible and kill this scumbag like me."

But... isn't it a waste to accumulate three thousand points just to kill one person?
Obviously, you can make other wishes, such as saving people, resurrecting certain people...

After regaining consciousness, Liu Yuhan looked blankly at the small patch of sky above her head, her mind in turmoil.

She forced herself to stop thinking about herself and analyze Qis's every move, but the more she thought about it, the more confused she felt.

Is this a plan or just a bluff? What should she do next?
Will the worst happen, that is, Qisi spends eight hours in the tower without giving Chang Xu a chance to take action?

Liu Yuhan lowered her eyes to look at the wound on her abdomen and the long handle of Poseidon's scepter, and gave a small bitter smile.

Now that things have come to this, she can only bet that fate will not favor Qis too much.

……

"Then let's gamble our lives again."

On the other side, under the invisible pressure, Qis sat on the steps, holding his chin with his hands, and suddenly smiled brightly.

He suddenly realized the problem. Weird games are cruel most of the time. Even the safest way to pass a level is bound to have risks hidden in it. How can it provide an option that can satisfy both parties?

Adhering to two sets of timing methods at the same time is too safe, which is undoubtedly what Weird Games does not want to see.

What weird games like is "gambling".

In the "Hopeless Sea" dungeon, Qis, as a newcomer, was gambling by interacting with veteran players.

He bet on the lack of information from the others, bet on not being able to be seen through by pretending to be from another faction, bet on not many players knowing that he was a new player...

In the later stage of the copy, the existence of the puppeteer surfaced, and he even gambled his life in order to seek greater benefits.

He placed all his chances of winning on the evil god's finger bones, betting that he could break free from the puppeteer's control and seize the value that touched the gods behind the scenes - and he won the bet.

As he gained more experience in dungeons and stockpiled more items, he gambled less and less. He was more accustomed to preparing everything and making sure nothing went wrong...

It's quite boring, and I guess the weird game thinks so too.

Therefore, this level gives two possible ways to pass the level without any prior information, which is to let him gamble.

——Choose one of the two timekeeping methods to follow.

The hour hand points to the Roman numeral ten. According to the first set of timing methods, the player has to stop taking action at this time.

Qi Si watched the hour hand turning tirelessly, suddenly chuckled, reached out to hold on to the wall and stood up.

Tremendous pressure acted on him from all directions. He raised his foot with difficulty and took a step forward.

In an instant, the sky and the earth spun, the surrounding darkness quickly collapsed, and when it settled down, there were colors.

Qisi found himself standing on an empty ship, sailing on the blue sea under the yellow sky.

A pitch-black slate stood abruptly in the center of the deck, with three options engraved in silver-white words:

【One action point】

【Five hundred points】

【Two servings of food】

Qi Si knew that he had made the right bet.

A fifteen-minute countdown was displayed in the upper left corner of his sight, and the silver-white text told him:
Please make a choice within fifteen minutes.

The position of the pointer of the Destiny Pocket Watch is the same as before entering the level, and the dream does not occupy real time, which means that the time he spends to pass this level is zero.

The time wasted in the [Rock, Paper, Scissors] level was returned here. I don’t know if it was intentional in the weird game or just a coincidence.

Things are getting a little troublesome.

There are still four and a half hours left until the end of today's beast fighting game. If you leave the tower before it ends, you will inevitably be attacked by Chang Xu with all your might.

The halftime break before selecting rewards and entering the next level can delay the game by half an hour, but there are still four hours left.

The last level, can it take so long?
After the fifteen-minute countdown, Qis pressed his hand towards [Five Hundred Points].

Nian Fu outside the tower immediately received the corresponding prompt, and so did the other players. They all saw a considerate look in each other's eyes.

Lin Ye was amazed: "Qisi has changed his character and stopped wasting time? Wow, it was done in fifteen minutes, this guy is quite strong."

Chang Xu said nothing, but passed the information to Liu Yuhan truthfully.

In the tower, the girl pinned by Poseidon’s scepter smiled palely: “Dreams don’t take up real time, there are still four and a half hours left, a level can’t be delayed that long.

"We won the bet. This time, fate is on our side." (End of this chapter)