amaotonovel Chapter 4674 Desperate Escape (46)
Chapter 4674 Desperate Escape (46)
Chapter 4674 A Desperate Escape (Forty-Six)
“Is that how it is?” Bruce said. “By denying his self-worth, we can help him find another way to achieve self-actualization?”
"He doesn't use his brain when he should, but he thinks a lot when he shouldn't," Schiller said, shaking his head. "Why do you think this was said to that guy?"
“Isn’t that right?” Bruce turned to look at him and asked.
Schiller shook his head and said, "Those so-called denials of his self-worth are just proving that they are not making baseless accusations, but are based on evidence. The real purpose is to tell the design department: I can write a logically clear and highly persuasive negative review. If you don't want to see this in the comments section the next day, you'd better let us pass smoothly."
Bruce was speechless. After a long pause, he said, "So this is a threat?"
“That’s right. The person who designs the mechanism isn’t important. What’s important is the person who can truly decide the course of the level. That person is very good at leaving others with no choice. The same goes for this Mr. Tiger.”
"Tony Stark!" a greedy roar came through the team channel, "Look what you've done! We're going to get a long, nasty review!"
"How can you blame me?! Didn't you all agree to this???" Stark exclaimed angrily.
"But we're all dead now, and you're the only one left in the level. To avoid giving us a bad review, hurry up and put your hand in."
"What? How is that possible? That would hurt like hell!"
"Then hurry up and die!" Greed said coldly. "We've all died once, why can't you?"
"But, but... this kind of death is too gruesome." Stark was clearly a little scared.
“Which of us didn’t die a horrible death?” the scarecrow interjected. “Besides, your trap was designed so poorly, it’s only natural that you died a horrible death.”
“You’d better hurry,” Greed said. “If I see this negative review in the comments section tomorrow, I’ll post the video of their conversation. Then…”
"No, no, no, no, no!!" Stark shouted urgently. It must be said, Anatoly's words were indeed reasonable and well-founded. Stark's understanding of mechanisms was too metaphysical, completely detached from the actual level. If this recording were released, everyone would think the same way, and Stark would utterly lose face across the multiverse.
Stark was a man who cared deeply about his reputation. He would do anything to save face. He gritted his teeth, swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing for a long time, before finally extending his hand shakily.
"Aaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!"
Blood filled the entire courtyard and flowed downwards, staining almost all the blades crimson. But the key had indeed been knocked down, bouncing among the pile of blades, bouncing back against the wall, and finally clattering to the ground.
Bruce reached for the blood-stained key. He wiped the blood off the key and walked toward the door, with Schiller following behind him.
“We’re almost at the final stage,” Bruce said. “What do you think the final stage will be like, Professor?”
"It might be simpler than you think, but it might also be more difficult than you think." This might sound meaningless, but Bruce knew that Schiller meant the form might be simpler, but getting through it wouldn't be so easy.
Upon entering, the two were taken aback. The passageway led not to one room, but to two: a red door and a blue door. The walls behind these doors were transparent, allowing them to see what lay beyond.
The structure behind is also very simple. Each room has a chair. The two chairs face each other. There is a mechanism in the middle of the wall connecting the two rooms. It's not quite a mechanism, but more like a space made up of two transparent walls, with a guillotine-like object above that can be lowered.
Schiller and Bruce each entered through a door. Sitting down in chairs, they were now facing each other. They saw that in the space separated by two transparent walls, there was a drawing of two hands clasped together, and in the very center of the walls, there was a palm and a semi-circular hole.
It looks like two people are supposed to each put one hand in and shake hands, somewhat like arm wrestling. However, considering the guillotine hanging above, it's definitely not as simple as arm wrestling.
Schiller looked up along the mechanism of the guillotine, trying to see what controlled it. Bruce, on the other hand, wanted to know how to slow down the winch from the previous level, so he began to survey the entire room.
However, like the previous levels, this level seems to have no area to explore; the main content revolves around this mechanism. And the thing that slowed down the winch in the previous level appears to be the mechanism controlling the guillotine.
But what's the point? Reaching in and grabbing, then getting slashed, will actually slow down the previous level? So they're sacrificing a hand to benefit the others?
Schiller and Bruce both knew this level wouldn't be easy. So far, the two-player challenges had tested their teamwork and willingness to sacrifice. There was no reason to arrange it like this. It wasn't too difficult, it was too easy.
The two people sit down, stretch out their hands, a guillotine falls down, cuts their hands open, and then everyone else can pass. This logic is far too simplistic. Therefore, there must be some other trap involved.
The two of them spent a long time examining the area, even tapping the middle spot with a crowbar, but there was clearly no response. It looked like two people had to put their hands on it to trigger some kind of sensor to make the switch drop and obtain something.
“Something’s not right,” Bruce said. “It looks like a test of our self-sacrifice, but it’s far too easy. And before, it was always one person who had to sacrifice themselves. Why does it have to be two this time?”
"The key question is why shake hands in the first place," Schiller said. "At this point, are we really going to resort to this method to prevent someone from running away alone?"
No matter how thoroughly they searched the room, they couldn't find any other mechanisms. It was as if the only way to find them was to try reaching their hands inside.
Generally speaking, players would definitely be hesitant. After all, there seemed to be no other solution. The door to the original passage was also closed, making it impossible to return. The entire passage and room had been thoroughly searched, but there was no indication of any hidden content.
However, this challenge involved two incredibly stubborn individuals. Bruce and Schiller both disagreed with the solution, so they resolutely refused to accept it. And because they were so fixated on their own ideas, neither of them tried to persuade the other, and no one suggested, "Why don't you try putting your hand in there?" They both proceeded with their own reasoning.
"From a level design perspective, even Mr. Tiger wouldn't have designed such a simple level. Besides, he wasn't the only one who designed the level. Although the mechanism design is mediocre, the game strategy in the first few levels was quite interesting. How come there's no strategy at all in this level?"
“Actually, things started to get a bit strange from the previous level,” Schiller analyzed from a more mystical perspective. In previous levels, “they could skip the necessary sacrifices. This proves that the level designers allowed players to be the bad guys.”
"There are no self-proclaimed righteous but control-freak great educators among them. Many games and puzzle designs easily fall into this trap. That is, they presuppose an idea and then insist that players agree with their views. If they don't choose according to their ideas, they can't pass the level, or they will be ridiculed after passing the level. This can be said to be the standard feature of bad games."
"But judging from the previous levels, regardless of whether you are good or evil, whether you are willing to sacrifice yourself or not, you can pass the level successfully. Even if your actions harm others, there is no additional punishment. The entire level has no educational value, and it doesn't even have the quality of guiding people to do good. But this level requires you to sacrifice yourself to save everyone."
"Another point of doubt is that although several mechanisms require a spirit of sacrifice to pass, those sacrifices are more like internal sacrifices, that is, sacrifices for the friend next to you, rather than sacrifices for the whole group. But here it is designed so that you have to contribute to all players."
“Wait a minute.” Bruce suddenly remembered something. “What if the organizer didn’t make it to the previous level, and instead players from other teams had to sacrifice themselves? Wouldn’t that be a way of promoting the idea of ‘reciprocity’ or ‘everyone for me, and I for everyone’?”
"So, if other players made sacrifices to allow us to reach this level, then we should also make sacrifices to allow the other players to pass. Is that right, Professor?"
“You’ve finally started thinking, but unfortunately this is the final level.” Schiller said with some helplessness. “That is indeed one aspect. If the organizer hadn’t mistakenly entered this place, and if we hadn’t persuaded him to contribute one of his arms, then it would have been other players who had to sacrifice themselves. And when other players sacrificed themselves, we might feel guilty, but when we came to this room and found that we had to sacrifice our arms to help others pass the level, we probably wouldn’t hesitate.”
“But there’s a problem,” Bruce said. “How can the organizers assume that the lowest-ranking players are necessarily the kind of good people who would feel guilty?”
“In accordance with the normal procedure, the organizers can control who gets to the bottom,” Schiller pointed out the most crucial point.
Bruce suddenly realized something, because he remembered that the order in which the doors were opened in the next level, the lantern level, was actually controlled by the control panel inside the lantern, and had nothing to do with who won or lost.
If one team is indeed eliminated at that point, they will remain forever. However, the order in which the remaining teams are eliminated is still controlled by the organizers. They can easily find a merciful god to place at the bottom based on the players' performance in this level.
In that case, once the key falls down, the player at the bottom level will arrive at this level, see the current situation, and remember the sacrifices of other players in the previous level. They will probably grit their teeth, steel their resolve, and reach in directly.
But as I said before, this excessive interference and manipulation is completely inconsistent with the previous levels. It's as if the designer suddenly changed...
"The designer changed?" Bruce muttered to himself. "Was this level really designed by the previous organizers?"
“Wait a minute,” he added. “Based on our previous deductions about the plot and our performance in the lantern challenge, besides the agent who knocked on the ladder and the company mole who deliberately tricked the rich man, there should be another mole. What did we say before? A cultist?”
Bruce suddenly realized again, "That's right, this style of flesh sacrifice is probably a trap set by cultists."