Harley pretended to lean against the wall to rest, but she was actually trying to listen for the sound of pounding on the wall, and she heard it as soon as Anatoli knocked. Hearing movement next door, Harley directly tapped out a few words to confirm the other party's thoughts: "Above," "Hand," "Ring," "Attack..."
Discovering that Harley responded and could understand, Anatoli didn't even bother to put on a show and directly began to elaborate on his plan at length. He knocked so quickly, with little pause between long and short knocks, that Harley's head ached from listening. Seriously, is the KGB next door?
Harley's hand speed was much slower, but she only needed to reply with "understood" or something similar. Anatoli's plan was also very thorough, with no major changes needed; they could just act when the time was right.
Meanwhile, inside the lantern, Greed was emphasizing the upcoming plot: "The fourth round is the mole's action plot; is everyone ready?"
Everyone was confident and nodded. They began the third round, but as the paper with patterns was thrown down, many were dumbfounded: Last round I chose to move, why didn't it happen?
Immediately, some players realized someone had changed the votes, but they didn't dare speak up, lest they expose themselves, and could only pretend this was their choice. Fortunately, each team had a smart person who could explain things even if someone voiced their surprise.
Thor looked at the unchanged paper and went "Hmm?" Loki glanced over, his eyes darted as he said: "Looks like our choice was right; staying home was the best decision, wasn't it?"
Thor looked at him incredulously. They had clearly chosen to go out last round, how did it become staying home? Obviously, someone changed the votes, right?
Loki winked at him, and Thor immediately understood. He wasn't sure what he understood, but since Loki didn't seem surprised, he decided not to be surprised either; everything was under control.
The third round, under the agent's operation, still remained a peaceful night. Greed was puzzled: How are these people so united? Was the hint not obvious enough before? It shouldn't be, right?
They had clearly hinted that there should be no tie, yet everyone chose to stay home. Are they all hoping someone else will go out and get eaten? All of them are Sloth, huh?
But by now, it was too late to tamper with things further. After all, the fourth round had already begun to progress the plot. Greed could only sigh, wave a hand, and proceed to the next round.
Having discovered someone changed the votes, everyone felt relieved, so there was no need to change anything in the fourth round. Everyone chose to stay home, and the agent went down as usual to collect votes. But, hearing Greed mention action in the fourth round, and since he hadn't read the script, he wasn't sure what action they intended, so he thought it best to give the players a hint. So as he climbed up, he started knocking again.
"Take action," he knocked out a vague term. It hinted that Greed was going to act, but if any players wanted to act, it could also suggest they take action.
But from a player's perspective, Anatoli understood it as the mole was about to act. In a sense, the process might be wrong, but the result was correct, as the mole was indeed going to act.
During the fourth round's vote to choose the rotation direction, everyone was writing paper notes when suddenly, the lights went out.
Batman shot up from the ground, extended an arm to push Superman into a corner, and shielded him with his arm. Superman was startled, and by the time he reacted, flames flared bright.
The lantern above suddenly blazed, with sounds of arguing and screams, someone cursing, someone shouting. Batman understood in his heart; it seemed the mole had acted.
The mole probably intended to wait until those rich folks were focused on enjoying the players' suffering, then secretly cut the lighting power, push the rich folks out, and then open the players' doors for a reverse escape game.
But for some reason, it was discovered, leading to a confrontation that inadvertently caught fire. Now the entire lantern was aflame, and everyone could see, through the transparent ceiling, what was happening above.
A few silhouettes pushed and shoved, suddenly someone fell, first hitting the ceiling, then onto the floor.
Another silhouette seemed to reach for the control panel, but just as they pressed a switch, they were bumped aside by another person. Loki and Thor on this side heard a faint click.
Loki immediately realized, went over to push, and the door unexpectedly opened.
He hadn't had time to stop, when Thor roared and charged out, heading straight for the masked unlucky person.
Others could only worry inside the room, hoping the mole could quickly reach the control panel to open the doors and let everyone out. But just then, something unexpected happened.
The mechanical arm on the ring hanging suddenly got yanked down inside the room through an opening. The whole ring tilted in that direction.
Because it was pulled so quickly and forcefully, the ring flipped over, and the other side, like a giant hand with immense power, slammed against the lantern's ceiling edge with a bang.
The ceiling, along with the lantern walls, flew off with a "whoosh," leaving only a bare base, a heap of various devices, and a group of bewildered organizers.
When the upper part of the lantern flew off, two more people were dragged down and fell off the base, directly onto the transparent ceiling of the compartment. The remaining two hurriedly ran towards the employee passage, only to find it blocked.
"Damn it, there's a mole!!!" Stark shouted.
Now everyone else could hear their voices, but they were also at a loss for words. Seriously, after all this time, they're just discovering there's an inside job?
How would they know that the blackout and fire were part of the plot, but the lantern being knocked over and the employee passage not opening were not!
The plot flow was: halfway through the fourth round, they'd press the button to turn off the lights, igniting the specially coated lantern wall. This type of wall could burn for a long time, both to enhance the atmosphere and provide illumination. Then the Joker, playing the rich man, would be pushed out. Immediately, the mole would press the button to release a group at random, letting them chase the Joker.
Everything was normal up to this point. However, Anatoli and Harley were well-prepared. Harley first hugged Pamela, allowing her to extend half an arm, and directly grabbed onto the descending mechanical arm. The two of them couldn't really pull much, but they could lower the mechanical arm a bit.
At this moment, Anatoli could reach it. He directly tied the mechanical arm with an iron sign and a chain, grabbed the chain himself, and let Lucifer hold onto him. Their combined weight was substantial, and their Strength was greater than the two girls, so when they pulled down forcefully, the disc directly knocked the lid off the lantern.
But because the connection between the lantern and the base wasn't tight, it didn't manage to knock the entire lantern out. The problem with knocking the ceiling and walls is that they could still escape through the employee passage on the floor.
Ironically, the agent was in the passage at that time. Before he had crawled back, upon hearing the commotion above, he used his body to block the door from below, ensuring no one from above could come down.
Anatoli, observing the situation above, initially thought the plan was going to fail or that they couldn't leave everyone behind. Because since the base didn't move, the passage was still usable, at least for two to escape. Unexpectedly, they couldn't enter the passage after all.
Loki, who had escaped, glanced back. Since they were wearing masks, it was easy to see they still had their guns on them. So, the one communicating with them inside the passage wasn't the mole acting above. Of a total of six people, there were at least two moles, possibly even three. This rich man was really meeting a ghost on his nocturnal path.
At this moment, the rich man, pinned underneath Thor, kicked him away and ran towards the door. Yet, when he looked back, he was stunned. Where's the lantern? That big lantern?!
Seeing the two who had fallen, he cursed loudly, turned, and ran. Thor clearly had his eyes fixed on him, shouting, "Don't run!!"
"What do we do now?" Stark shouted somewhat frantically, "If they catch us, we're dead!!!"
"Don't panic." Greed, who was clearly also a bit flustered, waved his hand and said, "There's only one group out now, with this many of us, we can't handle just two of them?"
The conclusion was they really couldn't, and to be exact, they couldn't handle Thor alone. Although they were the designers of the levels, they were playing roles now and couldn't use super abilities. Among these people, apart from the Joker who knew a set of grappling techniques against Batman, who else knew any close combat?
Greed's fights mostly relied on the gray mist, Stark relied on the Symbiotic Battle Armor, the Scarecrow was a Biochemical Mage, and Mephisto hadn't fought in centuries.
Then, look at Thor, a master with millennia of combat experience, adept at close combat. His rich experience could probably stack as high as the World Tree. Who here could be his match?
He fought against five without breaking a sweat. In previous combat encounters, he often fought greatly outnumbered, whether with or without Divine Power. Being surrounded by over a dozen people was normal, and he could still fight being ganged up by over twenty. These five rookies could be handled with one hand.
While these five were busy ganging up on Thor, no one was watching Loki. Although Loki wasn't great at fighting, he was cunning. He first found a way to climb to the top of the section, then carefully walked over the raised edge of the ring and successfully jumped onto the platform where the lantern originally was.
He surveyed the machines on the platform, unsure of their functions, and didn't dare press randomly for fear of activating some torture devices. He could only speculate on the door-opening button. After pressing one, Bruce heard a faint click.
He gently pushed the door, discovering it was open. Bruce said, "Professor, don't go out yet."
Shiller looked at him, and Bruce said, "There's an employee passage inside this supporting pillar, the door is above, I want to see if I can get in."
"Do you want to go directly to the energy room?"
"Exactly, but I won't make a move yet. I just want to scout the employee passage situation, then it'll be easy later."
Shiller nodded. Bruce walked out straight away. By this time, Loki had already jumped down to help his brother fight. Bruce climbed onto the ring and reached the platform; he didn't touch the machines but directly opened the passage door.
The agent had already left by then, so Bruce easily entered the passage and climbed down the ladder.
Stark, who was busy dodging Thor's punches, was mortified and shouted in the team channel: "He's in the employee passage! Someone entered the employee passage!! Stop him!!!"
The scream was more tragic than a mouse invading a home, akin to a cockroach crawling through a straw. Yet, Greed saw this as an opportunity, and with the passage open, he thought, why not run now?
He turned and bolted, but what appeared in Stark's view behind him was Thor's fist the size of a sandbag.
"Bang!"