civilwarnovels Chapter 4634 Desperate Escape (6)
Chapter 4634 Desperate Escape (6)
Chapter 4634 A Desperate Escape (Part Six)
The drawer opened, and Batman reached in and took out the key. This key was larger than any they had obtained before, and it looked like the key to the outer door.
“Finally done,” Superman said. “Now we should be able to go out, right? I find this thing on your collarbone really uncomfortable to look at…”
"Don't rush, Clark." Batman examined the key, then handed the iron rod he was holding to Superman. "Hold this for me."
Superman stood beside him, obediently holding the iron rod for him, but couldn't resist leaning closer to see what Batman was fiddling with. Batman used his free hand to hold the lower half of the key, while his other hand caressed the upper half.
“There’s a mechanism on the key,” Batman said. “It’s dimly lit here, so you might miss it if you don’t touch it carefully.”
"The mechanism on the key? What's it for?"
Batman didn't reply at first. He carefully touched it, then gave a knowing look and said, "There's a metal piece here. After you turn the metal part down, there's wood inside. The keyhole might be conductive?"
"Electricity? There's electricity here?" Superman looked around in surprise. "But this looks like a medieval dungeon... Okay, I know what you're going to say, the killer is just trying to lull us into a false sense of security."
“You reacted quickly, Clark.” Batman gave him a look of admiration. “I think this is the real killer move. Through the previous setup and foreshadowing, we thought there would only be non-modern technology mechanisms here, but in reality, the keyholes are electrified with high voltage, just to stun us when we use the key to unlock them.”
“That sounds like something you would do,” Superman said. “Do you turn your bedroom doorknob to the right or to the left to discharge electricity?”
“That doesn’t matter to you, Clark. Kryptonians are natural insulators; you won’t get electrocuted.”
“But I’ll be terrified!” Superman said, raising his voice.
"I sometimes make mistakes too. Does that make you happier?"
"Oh, thank you, I feel much better... What's wrong with you? Can't you stop using that trick? It's so dangerous!"
Batman didn't say anything, he just took the key and walked towards the door.
The key went into the lock. Pamela paused for a moment. Harry looked at her, puzzled, and asked, "What's wrong?"
“Look here.” Pamela pointed to the crack in the door. Harley went over to look, but the light was too dim for her to see clearly, so she had to lean closer.
Pamela sighed, then took Harry's hand and made her touch it. Harry touched the edge of the door frame, then looked puzzled: "Are these scratches? Does this mean the door opens inwards?"
Pamela shook her head, then took her hand and made her touch the other side of the doorframe. Harley touched it, her voice rising in surprise, "There's one on this side too?! This door can open from both sides??"
"Oh—" Harley exclaimed, "It's a revolving door!"
"I mean, it's a central revolving door. You know, that kind of... well, damn it, who would use a door like that for no reason?"
“That’s exactly what I’m talking about,” Pamela said. “There are friction marks on both sides of this door, indicating it was opened and closed, which is clearly abnormal. If it really is a central revolving door, as you say, that’s incredibly high-tech. Who in modern times would design a door like this unless they were just wasting electricity?”
Harley stroked her chin and said, "This looks like one of those third-rate tomb raiding movies, an electric mechanism deliberately created to show off the ingenuity of ancient Egyptian mechanisms. After the movie is finished, it can be sent to a haunted house to create meaningless difficulties for the challengers."
“That means we’re not in an ancient dungeon,” Pamela said, “at least not an ordinary ancient dungeon. It’s more likely a magical dungeon. No one would use this kind of door without a near-infinite energy source.”
Pamela pulled the key out. She said, "If this is a magical dungeon, there should be magic crystals or something, or some strange decorative patterns... Oh God, what's this?"
Harley leaned closer. Pamela kept touching the key, then handed it to Harley: "There's something here that can be turned. Inside is... wood?"
Harley's eyes lit up: "The wood might be for insulation. There's electricity in the keyhole. If we hadn't noticed, we might have gotten electrocuted."
"Was this level designed by Batman?" Pamela couldn't help but say. "It's so insidious. Luckily, we didn't open the door."
“It couldn’t be Batman. If it were Batman, the drawer handle would have been electrified.” Harley said, and the two of them laughed together.
Pamela carefully held the wooden part of the key, inserted it into the lock, and gently turned it. A faint light flickered in the lock, and with a click, the door opened.
Just as Harley had predicted, the door was a central revolving door. It rotated clockwise around the vertical center of the door, eventually ending with the door panel lying horizontally in the middle, leaving an opening on each side for people to pass through.
The opening wasn't large; you couldn't pass through it by going straight in, you had to turn sideways. This almost immediately caught Bruce's attention.
“Wait, Professor,” Bruce said, “there must be a reason why this door is designed this way. Given the cunning of the checkpoint designer, there must be a mechanism involved.”
He crouched down in front of the door to examine the ground, but there was nothing there. He then examined the door. The door was thick, about the width of an adult's palm, which made Bruce suspicious.
The door panel wasn't the right thickness; there might be something inside. He looked left and right, then pushed the door with his hand, discovering that it could be pushed and rotated 360 degrees. Bruce suddenly realized.
He pushed the door hard, turned it around, and took a few steps back to examine it. The light outside was still dim; he couldn't see the whole picture up close, and he couldn't make out the pattern from a distance.
"Do you think there's something wrong with the pattern on the door?" Schiller stood beside him, observing. "Are the patterns on the front and back different?"
“I can’t be sure.” Bruce ran his hand along the pattern on the door panel, as if trying to figure out by touch what was different about the patterns on the two sides of the door.
“What kind of trap do you think this could be?” Schiller asked.
“The door panel divides the door into two parts, but only one side can be passed through,” Bruce said. “The other side of the door panel may have a mechanism that fires deadly weapons.”
Schiller understood. He walked over, and Bruce made way for him. He reached out and touched the upper middle part of the door panel, then said, "Here, there's a hole here."
He pointed it out to Bruce. Bruce reached out and touched it, finding a gap there. He said, somewhat surprised, "How did you know it was here, Professor?"
"The door panel divides the space into two areas so that people can pass through sideways. If you pass through sideways, you will face the door panel. And if a deadly weapon were to be launched, there are not many positions where a fatal blow can be delivered from the front."
"First, we can rule out the head. Even if facing the door directly, the head might be tilted and avoid the hole. Also, different heights could cause the head to be in different positions. If the hole is designed too high, it probably won't be able to kill with one shot."
"Although the femoral artery in the lower limb is also a fatal point, if a projectile is inserted into it, as long as it is not pulled out temporarily and the rescue is done properly, it may not necessarily be fatal. Moreover, the leg has a relatively large range of motion, and everyone's stride is different, so it is not possible to hit it."
"Only the torso has a large surface area and is unavoidable. Moreover, both the chest and abdomen contain too many vital organs, and being pierced through them will certainly result in death. Therefore, if I were to design it, the holes of the lethal weapon would definitely be placed within the torso. And considering height and range of motion, this small area has the highest hit rate."
Schiller pointed to where the hole was.
“Fantastic, Professor. But by the way, is it really not your design?”
“No, if I designed it, I would have made the hole in the drawer handle. If you put your ear close and listen, the murder weapon would have gone straight from your left ear canal to your right ear canal,” Schiller sneered.
"Hiss..." Bruce grimaced. But then he whispered, "Thank goodness the level designer wasn't as......"
Schiller waved the iron rod in his hand, and Bruce changed the subject: "But then again, being able to put yourself in the shoes of the mastermind is still very useful. I feel like we're making the fastest progress."
Do you think this is a race?
“This is a multiplayer dungeon in duo mode, it can’t just be the two of us, but we haven’t seen anyone else for so long, I guess they’re all doing escape room challenges like us.” Bruce shrugged. “I just don’t know if we’ll meet up in the end, or if we’ll escape independently from beginning to end and then see who’s faster.”
"Which one do you think it will be?" Schiller asked.
“The former,” Bruce thought for a moment and said, “If it’s just a solo escape from beginning to end, there’s no need to put it in a multiplayer instance. I feel like we’ll definitely have interactions with them later on. Hopefully, we won’t run into those scoundrels…”
“There are two people we’re sure to run into,” Schiller said. “Anatole and Lucifer. I advise you not to argue with the former, and I also advise you not to argue with the latter.”
"what?"
"You're unlikely to be able to out-argue Anatoly."
“I can understand that,” Bruce said. “He doesn’t seem like the kind of person who can be persuaded, but what about Lucifer? I get along with him quite well…”
"You'll end up arguing with Anatoli, just as you'll argue with Lucifer. Anatoli is the kind of person who's more useful to you the less useful you are."
“What do you mean?” Bruce asked.
“Lucifer is probably playing this kind of game for the first time. You can’t expect a greenhouse angel raised in Eden to adapt to this kind of desperate escape full of pain and danger. So he probably can’t do much. And the weaker Lucifer is, the stronger Anatoli will be.”
“It sounds like…” Bruce flipped his hand, unsure how to describe it, “…like the complete opposite of you. The weaker you are, the stronger you become.”
“You can think of it this way. My reference point is myself, while Anatoli's reference point is his teammates. If his teammates are in good form and strong, then it might not be noticeable. But once his teammates weaken, then we might be facing…”
Schiller seemed lost in memories. Bruce also went to look through the old compressed files. But before he reached them, Schiller said, "When I was receiving treatment, quite a few people objected, and some thought I should give up. They were all professionals, each with their own considerations. But unfortunately, Anatoly came just when I was having an attack. And then..."
“I can imagine it,” Bruce said. Actually, he didn’t just imagine it; he saw it directly from the compressed file. The scene, if not a debate with a group of Confucian scholars, would at least be a battle of chained boats, the Battle of Red Cliffs, six expeditions to Qishan, and seven captures of Meng Huo…
At that moment, Schiller froze. He stared straight at Bruce and said, "Who gave you these memories?!"
“That’s not important.” Bruce turned to study the pattern on the door. “We need to hurry, mainly to maintain our lead…”