After confirming that Yu Hanjiang, who "broke the world record for clearing Red Heart 2 " in the announcement, was someone Xiao Lou knew, he immediately asked, " How do I add this Yu Hanjiang as a friend?"
Red Heart A smiled and said, " There is no such thing as 'adding friends' in Card World."
Xiao Lou changed his mind: "Then how about teaming up with him to complete the challenges?"
Red Heart A patiently explained: "To team up with anyone to challenge the secret room, you must purchase a contract book from the secret room guard and establish a contractual relationship with the person you want to team up with. In this way, you will be bound together for future secret rooms. When he opens a new secret room, he will pull you into the Secret Room World. Similarly, when you flip over any card, he will pull him into the Secret Room World where you are."
How much is the contract book?
"Purchasing a contract book requires gold coins, which you can obtain during the level progression. Please try to earn more in the subsequent secret rooms."
Hearing the Guardian's explanation, Xiao Lou helplessly pinched the bridge of his nose—the currency in this world is called "gold coins," and he's currently penniless. Teaming up with others requires buying contract books, which he simply can't afford right now. Besides, D-class secret rooms are all single-player rooms, so there's no way to team up. He'll have to wait until he earns more money.
Xiao Lou had mixed feelings upon learning that Yu Hanjiang had also come to Card World.
He should be happy to meet someone he knows in real life in this bizarre Card World.
However, since he came into this world because of a car accident, Captain Yu's arrival in this world was likely also due to some kind of accident—in the real world, Yu Hanjiang may have already sacrificed himself.
Xiao Lou felt a deep sense of regret when he thought of the young Criminal Police Detachment chief who had solved countless cold cases.
What happened to Captain Yu? No wonder he didn't reply to WeChat messages that day.
Regardless, now that I've been reborn into this world, the only thing I can do is survive.
He thought that with Yu Hanjiang's abilities, he would definitely have no problem surviving to the C-level secret chamber.
Once you reach the C-level secret chamber, you can team up to tackle the levels. Then, he'll find a way to earn some coins, buy a contract book, and team up with Yu Hanjiang to clear the Hearts level. With a professional detective like Yu Hanjiang joining the team, the murderers in Hearts will definitely have nowhere to hide.
Xiao Lou collected his thoughts and calmly said, "Let's continue with the challenges."
As soon as he finished speaking, the " Diamond 2 " playing card he had already drawn lit up with a familiar red light, and his entire body was suddenly sucked into the card room by a strange force—
***
The cramped, dimly lit enclosed space, only four square meters in size, made it feel cramped to walk even a few steps.
The entire room was lit by an open flashlight hanging in the corner of the wall, next to which hung a pendulum clock with the hour hand pointing to 7:00 PM.
As Xiao Lou entered the space, the pendulum clock immediately began to swing regularly and made a clear "tick-tock" sound.
A text prompt quickly popped up in the floating window.
Welcome to Square Block 2 Escape Room [Number Puzzle].
—Find the mechanism, crack the code, and open all the combination locks as quickly as possible.
— d-class secret room friendly reminder: Opening two combination locks is enough to pass the level, but opening all the combination locks is required for a perfect pass.
—The time limit for passing the level is 15 minutes. If you exceed the time limit, you will fail the level. Please pay attention to the clock on the wall for the timer.
The timing mode in Hearts is similar to a "time bomb". The red countdown numbers will keep jumping in the floating box. When you encounter a difficult puzzle, coupled with the countdown, it will put a lot of psychological pressure on you.
The timer mode for the Diamonds level is a pendulum clock. This escape room has a 15-minute time limit. The puzzle ends when the pendulum clock in the room moves from 19:00 to 19:15.
In a quiet and enclosed space, the ticking of a clock seems amplified many times over, severely disrupting one's train of thought.
Xiao Lou closed her eyes, forcibly ignoring the clear chimes in her ears, and calmed herself down.
He picked up the flashlight from the corner and carefully shone it around the room.
Xiao Lou had played many escape room games before. Some escape rooms have step traps on the floor, and if you accidentally step on the wrong square, you might fall into a pit. So when he entered the escape room with the traps, he didn't move his feet randomly. Instead, he stood in the middle of the room, figured out where the traps he needed to solve were, and made sure there were no problems with his feet or the ceiling before he took a step forward and looked at the wall.
The four walls are covered with painted characters. A large hole has been dug at the bottom of each wall, and inside each hole is a wooden box with a combination lock. Each box has four gears; turning the gears to the correct numbers unlocks the lock. Currently, all the combination locks are set to the initial value of 0000.
There are four combination locks; you only need to open two to pass the level. You can choose the puzzles you are good at to crack. D-class Secret Room is indeed quite beginner-friendly.
But Xiao Lou wanted a perfect completion.
Only by achieving a perfect clear can he participate in the lottery and obtain an S-rank card; getting more cards certainly won't hurt.
Xiao Lou looked at the wall directly in front of him.
Under the light of a flashlight, the number Nine Palaces Grid appeared in the very center of the wall.
X/9/2
3/X/7
X/X/6
In mathematical reasoning puzzles, a 3x3 grid is called a "square," and advanced nine-square logic puzzles are called "Sudoku," which is a professional puzzle.
These are frequently tested questions in intellectual competitions.
Sudoku is a 9x9 grid with 81 empty cells. Challengers need to deduce the numbers in the remaining empty cells based on the given numbers, and ensure that each row, each column, and each 3x3 subgrid contains the natural numbers 1-9 without repetition.
At this moment, Xiao Lou is facing a 3x3 single-house chart.
He can even solve 9x9 Sudoku puzzles, let alone 3x3 Sudoku puzzles; this puzzle is no challenge for him at all.
In this palace, the four empty X's are the password.
The numbers to be filled in the Nine Palaces Grid are 1-9. The numbers that have appeared so far are 9, 2, 3, 7, and 6. According to the most basic rule of "no repetition in a single palace", the missing numbers are 1, 4, 5, and 8.
How should these four numbers be arranged to form a password?
First, look at the known items. The numbers in the third column are complete. 2+7+6=15. We can deduce that the pattern of this Nine Palaces Grid is that the sum of the rows and columns is 15. So, fill the first row with 4, the second row with 5, and the third row with 8 and 1 respectively. This will satisfy the rule that the sum of all rows and columns is 15.
The password is 4581.
Xiao Lou walked up to the box, picked up the combination lock, and changed the initial combination of 0000 to 4581.
With a soft "snap," the box in front of him was opened—and to his surprise, he found a card inside.
[Special Effects Card: Nine Palaces Grid ]
Rarity: C
Description: Can be obtained in the treasure chest after completing the Nine Palaces Grid puzzle in the Diamond 2 secret room.
Note: Throwing the special effect card Nine Palaces Grid to the designated location will immediately create a 3m x 3m Nine Palaces Grid disk, locking all targets within the Nine Palaces Grid area, rendering them unable to move for 9 seconds.
Number of uses: 9/9
Xiao Lou's eyes lit up!
The Heart Room rewards players with a unified reward in the Personal Space after completing the game, while in the Diamond Secret Room, unlocking a puzzle might reward you with a treasure chest. It's like playing a single-player game where you unlock puzzles and navigate mazes, with a chance to get a treasure chest for each area you complete.
Nine Palaces Grid is a special effect card. Although it is only "C-grade" rarity, it has a large-area 3×3 square meter immobilization control. In critical moments, it can freeze the enemy in place for 9 seconds, allowing you to quickly escape!
With this card, combined with Tao Yuanming's The Peach Blossom Spring that I drew earlier, at least escaping shouldn't be a problem.
The special effects card was a pleasant surprise. Xiao Lou perked up and immediately went to the left wall to continue solving the puzzle.
The math problems on this wall are slightly more complex than the Nine Palaces Grid we just saw.
Four lines of instructions were written on the wall—
4894 = 1236
9795 = 1645
7743 = 1412
8376 =?
Xiao Lou quickly provided the answer after reading the question only once.
Many people, upon hearing "number puzzles," instinctively feel that they are not good at math and certainly cannot solve them. However, in reality, number puzzles do not test mathematical calculation ability, but rather logical reasoning ability—the key lies in finding patterns between numbers.
To solve this type of problem, you must observe carefully.
Xiao Lou often plays escape room games, so he has a good grasp of numerical reasoning puzzles.
The trick to playing number reasoning puzzles is to ignore the size of the numbers themselves and look at each number individually. For example, in this puzzle, the clue is 4894=1236. If you look closely, you will easily find that 4+8=12 and 9×4=36. After performing simple addition and multiplication on the numbers in front, they match the numbers 12 and 36.
The same applies to 9795=1645, 9+7=16, 9×5=45.
In other words, adding the first two numbers gives the first two digits of the result. Multiplying the last two numbers gives the last two digits of the result. The three hints all follow the same pattern, proving that the solution approach is correct.
The reasoning for the last 8376 is obvious: 8 + 3 = 11, 7 × 6 = 42, so the answer is 1142.
1142 is the code for the mechanism.
Xiao Lou walked to the treasure chest, quickly turned the combination lock, and changed the numbers on the gear to 1142.
Sure enough, a "snap" was heard, and the box was successfully opened in front of him.
There's still a card in the treasure chest.
[Special Effects Card: Mathematical Equation ]
Rarity: B
Description: Obtained in the Treasure Chest after completing the equation reasoning puzzle in the Diamond 2 Secret Chamber.
Note: This card has a unique effect. You can apply Mathematical Equation to any designated target, causing the target to take exactly the same damage as yourself—simply put, you might as well take someone down with you when you die, it's worth it:)
Uses: 2/2
Xiao Lou: "..."
What's with the smiley face after "not a loss"?
"Drag someone down with you even in death?! Can't this Card World ever get any better?!"
Forcing the other party to suffer equal damage, perhaps it would be useful when you're about to die together with someone? Xiao Lou twitched his lips and put the card into his card holder.
The Mathematical Equation card is classified as Grade B, meaning that there are relatively few Challengers who can solve this problem.
These kinds of logic puzzles are easy once you find the pattern; otherwise, you'll rack your brains and still not be able to solve them. It's really tough on those Challengers who have never played escape room games or been exposed to numerical reasoning; they'd probably be completely baffled by this question.
fine
In the d-class secret room, you can selectively activate certain mechanisms. It's a choice of two out of four, so the probability of finding a question you know how to answer is quite high.
A pop-up message appears: "Two mechanisms have been solved, fulfilling the level completion requirements. Do you wish to leave Square Block 2 Escape Room? Yes/No"
Xiao Lou answered no without hesitation.
He turned and walked to the next wall, shining the flashlight on it, and continued to solve the next puzzle.
His goal is to achieve a perfect victory!
Author's Note: One more chapter to come.
I've fixed a few typos in the first few chapters, but the plot remains unchanged. If you've already read them, you don't need to reread them.