Chapter 96: Secret Passage

Lin Yiyi took a deep breath.

The severe pain from time to time in her abdomen made her mind a little fuzzy and a little irritable.

Her strategy was opposite to Wandering Child.

After confirming that she was in the second life, she vaguely had some ideas and started to take the initiative to explore different ways from the previous life.

As Lin Yiyi pushed the first door open, she noticed a narrow, short corridor leading to a sharp turn to the right.

In sharp contrast with a bright gallery, this short corner was dim. Only a dim light gleamed from the end of the door as if to lure Lin Yiyi to come in quickly.

“Then, I won’t go there!”

Lin Yiyi said in bravery, “Let me die on the first level!”

With that said, she did not go to the next level but began to look at each painting in detail.

“Don’t be a coward, Sister Hyphen!”

“Yes, what are you afraid of? You respawn after death! Go to the next level!”

“Go! Sister Hyphen, charge!”

“Stop delaying! We will go to others’ streams.”

“Don’t need to rush. Let me finish investigating these paintings.”

Lin Yiyi spoke casually while carefully looking at the details of each painting. She tried to find out if there was a password or something. She even knocked on each painting and knocked again on the wall between the paintings. Sometimes, she rotated the painting to see if there was any mechanism lying behind.

This was her experience in playing escape rooms.

In the pixelated style RPG horror game, she was that kind of player who had to investigate all items in each grid at least twice repeatedly.

Unlike what the bullet texts thought, Lin Yiyi was not timid and hesitating because of losing her memory. She and Wandering Child were the two players encountering Gerald and were hypnotized to mind manipulation.

Even Gerald couldn’t make them afraid, let alone this nightmare dungeon instance that would disappear after dawn.

Moreover, according to Don Juan, the traits of “all memories will be lost, and nightmares will be reset when you die” seemed to be the dungeon instance’s unique trait.

Although this didn’t feel like a novice dungeon instance, she thought it was normal.

After all, even this was treated as a game, but it was a real other world. Hence, it seemed normal not to have a “beginner tutorial session.” Having a serious challenge right away didn’t seem out of order.

Players’ view of this other world was similar to “the infinite space that I will never die in.” Their attitude wavered between excitement, seriousness, obsession, curiosity, and vigilance. It was the perfect balance between “fearless” and “not afraid of death.”

Apart from other things, it was a world the players could enter conveniently through the mobile app alone. The “Freezing Water Port Forum” could be used as usual outside the game. Out of miracle, it only existed in consciousness. This feature proved itself not a technology belonging to the world and era of those players.

Some players were forced to change their phones due to accidents, yet the game followed silently to the new phones. They also tried to get their friends to open the app, but there was a new prompt appearing after the opening CG, “Hello, the slots for the beta test are full. Please look forward to the next beta test opening~” and kick their friends out.

Soon, the players had a clear idea in their hearts.

Their petty actions couldn’t escape the eyes of the game publisher, no matter if it were the alien game, a variety show broadcast to the people from other world, or ancient gods.

Anyway, if such big shots wanted to do something terrible to the players, they had no way to fend for themselves.

The players were adults and were considered elites in their respective industries. They had long passed the age of “I decide my destiny.”

Some players speculated in the forum that everyone could enter after the game was fully open. If this were the case, the closed beta test players would have a huge advantage later on.

But no matter what, instead of choosing to escape passively, it was better to engage deeper with this other world actively. Those who didn’t grasp the opportunity would later regret it.

There was still a unique occurrence too.

Without signing any non-disclosure agreement, all players tacitly chose to be silent to the outside world and jointly kept this huge secret.

They were glad that there were no retards, laymen, and idiots among the players in the first batch. At least they were players who had brains and could communicate.

Lin Yiyi had a deeper understanding of the world because of her exposure to Soul Snatch spells.

So instead of griefing [1] the game, she was exploring in her way.

She roughly had an idea about this dungeon instance.

This seemed to be a dungeon instance focusing on loops. Every time you advance, you return to the original place. The surrounding environment would become darker, more sinister, and more dangerous as a result.

There was a pursuer from the back and traps.

The advantage was that everyone who entered this nightmare would take control of this seriously injured middle-aged painter. In other words, the challenge wasn’t a brawl but the brain, courage, and luck.

Hence, it made this dungeon instance a good beginner dungeon instance for players who were still relatively weak at this point.

If it was this type of dungeon instance, then the first loop should be the safest in theory. The cost of restarting was also the lowest.

She walked around in the gallery because of this reason.

Unlike Delicious Wind Goose, who was accustomed to strategizing and calculations, Lin Yiyi’s memory had been terrible. When tackling games, she took a long time, patience, and life to memorize the strategy.

Hence, she had to walk several times repeatedly before she could barely remember the placement of all items in the gallery and the area of ​​each room. In the following few levels, she could finally have an image of “where am I” and “where am I going.”

If a death flag was triggered in the first loop that caused the game to restart, she could return to the previous position to continue exploring.

Without a doubt, Lin Yiyi intended to use death to pave her path.

She believed that there should be other players who share the same idea as her.

Using the bullet text support group left outside the dungeon, everyone exchanged information, explored the dungeon instance separately, and tried to find the trigger of all death flags. As a result, it allowed more space to explore further.

As for the pursuer, it was up to the dungeon instance challenger’s capabilities.

“Eh?“

Lin Yiyi was startled.

She soon found out that the back of one of the paintings was empty.

Her blanket search bore fruit.

She first tried to remove the painting but found that she couldn’t take it off at all. So then she shook the frame from side to side. This time, she succeeded.

She rotated the frame half a circle clockwise and found a rotary mechanism inside.

Lin Yiyi exerted much of her strength to rotate the rotary mechanism slowly. She noticed that this small compartment was covered with dust, but the rotary mechanism seemed to have been used not long ago and was clean.

As Lin Yiyi rotated the mechanism, a small section of the wall next to it began to bend inward under the sound of the chain. Finally, a narrow and cramped passage was revealed.

It only allowed one person to pass through. Having two people walking side by side would be crowded.

At the end of the narrow passage, there was a wooden door.

It looked the same as the standard wooden door at the corridor end.

But it was not the door that would follow the standard pattern like the loop.

Lin Yiyi lifted her spirits and yelled, “Did you see it!? My method is correct!”

“——66666666”

“Splendid.”

“Fuck, there is a mechanism here!”

“Sister Hyphen is awesome!”

“Why are you stunned here?

“I understand. Let me tell the other brothers!”

“Don’t be in a hurry. Let’s see what’s inside.”

Lin Yiyi casually lamented, “I wonder what’s the death trap inside.”

She did not choose the door leading to the next level but walked to the door revealed through the mechanism.

This narrow corridor was dim, but fortunately, it was not difficult to walk.

There was only one portrait hanging here. The painting was of an innocent girl with a smile.

She wore a white dress, smiled cutely, and looked at Lin Yiyi.

“Waifu [2]!”

“I declare that she is my new Waifu!”

“The chat above. The punishment will be at least three years imprisonment. Forget it. You should be sentenced to the death penalty.”

“Tsk, I don’t know if I should say that this kid is cute or the painter paints it well.”

Lin Yiyi sighed, “Oh yes, I am a painter now. So then, this should be my painting. So, I am awesome.”

As she spoke, she opened the door.

Then, Lin Yiyi was stunned.

What she saw in front of her was a staircase leading downward.

[2] Fandom slang: A fictional female character from non-live-action visual media (typically an anime, manga, or video game) to whom one is attracted.