civilwarnovels Chapter 4647 Desperate Escape (9)
Chapter 4647 Desperate Escape (9)
Chapter 4647 A Desperate Escape (19)
“Loki. Even the Asgardians who dislike you the most cannot deny your wisdom. But I know that you are actually an emotional person. Between the two of us, you are the more irrational one. That is why you are not suitable for the battlefield.”
“Every decision made on the front lines is difficult, and there is no room for delay or escape. At this time, you must be a rational, even cold-blooded, commander, treating your own life and the lives of others as chips that can be weighed on the tactical scale. Choosing the optimal solution from an impossible polygon requires not only wisdom, but most importantly, the courage to be the one who survives and faces everything.”
“Yes, you’ve never lacked courage.” Loki looked extremely frustrated. He even disregarded his image and sat down on the ground. “You’re the brave one. And I’m a cowardly runaway.”
“No, Loki. Our relationship isn’t just that of superior and subordinate, or general and commander. We are brothers. People see us as one, but our bond runs much deeper. And if the world leaves us to the end, one of us must die, and the remaining one cannot say it has survived. Because we have lost a part of ourselves forever, and will never be whole again.” Thor sat down as well.
“I once said that I had the courage to bury Asgard and be the last one to survive and face everything. But if you die too, then there are no survivors. I will no longer have the courage to rebuild Asgard. All my strength and love will flow away through the wound from which the part was cut off, and in the end, nothing will be left.”
Thor put his arm around Loki's shoulder. "But I know you can, Loki. Your boundless love won't be so easily exhausted. You can not only heal yourself, but also rebuild all of Asgard. That's why I made this decision."
“If I leave you here and go on my own, even if the later challenges are just a smooth journey to the finish line, I might not be able to finish. I will lose control of myself, and I might not even be able to move. I will exhaust myself.”
"However, if I stay here while you go to the later levels, like before when I threw you into the room and left you alone in the water, you can still solve the puzzles as quickly as possible and rescue me. You will also be able to complete the later levels as quickly as possible."
“That’s your strength. In the countless times I’ve been in danger, and you’ve found me and rescued me, you’ve always done a great job, never failing. So in this situation, I always choose this path. Loki, this isn’t about protection, it’s about trust and entrustment. I’m counting on you.”
Loki bit his lip tightly, his eyebrows drooping low, his green eyes like the tips of leaves hanging down after the rain, his expression indescribable as to whether it was grievance, bitterness, or sadness.
"Alright, be optimistic." Thor stroked his black hair again. "Maybe the plan can be completed. It stopped before you even left the facility."
Loki was speechless. He had no time to speak anymore. The ceiling had fallen so low that they could barely stand upright. If they didn't get to the platform below soon, it would be too late.
The two men knelt on either side of the platform, supporting it with their shoulders. Thor reached out and pulled down the lever below the platform.
With a loud crack, the entire ceiling collapsed onto the platform. Thor and Loki both let out a muffled groan. Thor braced himself against the wall, pushing upwards to feel the weight of the platform.
The entire ceiling was heavy; even a well-trained adult male couldn't support it for long. Two people carrying it together did share some of the burden. However, if Loki wanted to leave, he could only hold on for a maximum of ten minutes.
Thor took a deep breath, composed himself, and said, "You have to go now."
Loki tried to turn to look at him, but the pillar in the middle blocked his view. He clenched his fists, but then he heard Thor growl, "Go, Loki!"
Loki gritted his teeth, but still slowly crawled down towards the opened secret room. The space below was still quite ample, making the climb relatively easy. The gleaming steel needles hanging overhead were terrifying. But Loki quickly reached the secret room.
He could hear Thor groan again as he left. The weight of the ceiling pressed down on him, bending him over. Only a few dozen seconds had passed, and he was already sweating.
Loki rolled over and slowly sat up in the secret room, then straightened up by holding onto the wall. Looking diagonally across the room, he saw an exit above; he could easily climb up by stepping on the ceiling.
Suddenly, Loki froze. In those few seconds, he completely broke down, gripping the wall tightly with his hands. "No... I can't... I won't..."
He sat back down, crying out helplessly, "Thor... I can't..."
The entire ceiling shook violently, and Thor heard Loki's sobbing voice, as if he were about to stand up. "Loki!! Don't cry... Loki..."
Loki trembled. Just now, he realized that the most insidious part of this trap was that he had to step on Thor's shoulders to get through.
The weight of the ceiling was already at its limit, and even someone as strong as Thor was only managing to grit his teeth and persevere. Under such circumstances, the consequences of adding the weight of an adult would be unimaginable.
"I can't... I can't!!!" Loki screamed desperately. "I can't get through! I can't get through! I won't..."
He huddled in the corner of the secret room, as if he were melting away. Soon he too lost the strength to shout, only repeatedly calling Thor's name. "Thor... Thor... Brother..."
The entire ceiling began to shake. Thor's entire body turned red from bloodshot eyes, his intense anger and murderous intent almost undisguised. But he still lowered his voice and said, "Get on, Loki. I can hold on, you have to trust my strength..."
“That’s not how it is, Thor. Even if… even if I could get up there… I still wouldn’t be able to get over it…” Loki said, choking back tears.
Because he had already realized that the key to his wickedness, besides needing to step on Thor's shoulders, was that the room he was in was diagonally opposite the exit. He had to walk across the ceiling to reach the opposite corner of the room.
The ceiling wasn't fixed very securely; it wobbled when he stepped on it. He was already struggling to lift it, and with someone standing on it, the center of gravity kept shifting, making it even harder for the people below to support him.
The difference is like lifting a sandbag versus lifting a living person. The hardest part about lifting a living person is that the person is in motion. Because the movement is constantly changing, the center of gravity is constantly shifting, making it difficult to find the right angle to exert force. You can only follow the movement of the muscle groups used to exert force, making it far more difficult than lifting a sandbag of the same weight.
Normally, Thor could easily carry Loki, even in his human form. But in this situation, Loki's weight could very well be the final straw. Loki absolutely, positively, absolutely cannot accept that this suffering is of his own making. Nothing he says will do.
Loki took several deep breaths. Then, resolutely, he crawled back under the steel needles, returned to Thor's side, and lifted the other side of the platform.
“No…no, you can’t,” Loki muttered. “I’d rather be impaled on steel needles and die here than…I can’t…I can’t…”
Thor was about to say something when Loki shouted fiercely, "I said no!!! If you dare force me out, I'll go tell Odin and Frieza. I'll let them know what you're trying to do!!! Odin will punch you into the walls of Asgard!!!"
“It’s not that light,” Thor could only comment.
"It's alright, not too heavy." Superman breathed a sigh of relief. "Are you alright, Batman?"
“Not bad.” Batman’s voice came from beside him. “If the two of us split the load, we can definitely last a long time, I think about half an hour?”
“No, I think we can last at least an hour,” Superman said. “Talking to you will distract me and make me less tired. That’s how this level should be played.”
“We can certainly do something to distract them,” Batman said. “Analyzing whether the plan will succeed is pointless now, since there’s no evidence to deduce who else is in the instance or how they’ll react. Let’s talk about the instance itself.”
"Escape room? Actually, it's quite creative. I played a prison escape scenario before, but it wasn't as difficult as this. It mainly involved outsmarting other players and seeing who could escape the fastest."
“I’ve never heard you mention that,” Batman said.
"Uh, because I came in second to last in that competition." Superman said somewhat awkwardly. "I did a lot of work for that warden, but he actually tried to molest me, and in the end I had to resort to violence to escape. It's just so true."
"What about the others? How did they escape?"
“Some stole the keys, some tried to persuade others, and some just dug. Oh, of course, the ones who dug the tunnels were slower than me, but they had it much easier. All they did was dig tunnels, except for eating and sleeping. In the end, I was the only one who was both tired and slow.” Superman shook his head and said. “Actually, if it weren’t for you, I really wouldn’t know what to do if I had been assigned to this instance. The difficulty is far beyond my capabilities.”
“If it weren’t a two-player dungeon, the level designers probably wouldn’t have created these kinds of traps,” Batman said. “Moreover, I think this dungeon should have a backstory. Although it’s not a story-driven mode, you should be able to piece together the main storyline by the end.”
"It seems you have some ideas?"
"Yes. The key is the electricity. Don't you find it strange? The decor is supposed to be a medieval dungeon, but there's electricity in the keyhole of the door lock. The torches are also suspicious; they look like they're disguised with heating wires."
"You even noticed these details," Superman exclaimed. "I'm already exhausted just from working on the levels."
“Observation isn’t an extra expense, Clark. It helps us conserve energy. Okay, let’s not talk about that anymore, let’s talk about the plot. I’m guessing this is some kind of human experimentation scenario, trying to select the best group from among us for experiments.”
“That’s certainly possible,” Superman nodded. “It’s possible that some high-tech organization built this dungeon and then kidnapped us to play this dangerous escape game with them.”