amaotonovel Chapter 4661 Desperate Escape (33)
Chapter 4661 Desperate Escape (33)
Chapter 4661 A Desperate Escape (Thirty-Three)
While the others were still enjoying watching the master and apprentice dredging up old grievances, Stark was already burning with impatience. He yelled at Greed, "Quickly, send someone to stop them!!"
"So, not only did you not seal the edges properly, you also didn't take any reverse safety measures for that disc?" Greed asked him.
“How was I supposed to know they’d do this!” Stark exclaimed. “I’ve designed so many instances, and most people follow the rules. Even if a small minority wanted to cause trouble, they wouldn’t do it like this… like this…”
"I bet you'll be facing Batman and Superman like that," the Joker sneered. "But then again, most of the fighting world is made up of superheroes; there are relatively few lunatics. But if you do run into one, it'll be a real headache. Learn your lesson now?"
"Let's not talk about this, okay? What if he really gets the cage stuck?" Stark was exasperated. He then turned to the Scarecrow, "You came up with the idea for this room; I'm just responsible for implementing it. If it gets messed up, it's your fault..."
"I've already achieved the effect I wanted," the scarecrow said nonchalantly. "They broke things after the level was over, so it has nothing to do with me. If word gets out, you'll be the one who loses face."
However, Scarecrow sized Stark up and down, then said, "Although this is our first time working together, I can tell you're not a good person. Do you think you'll obediently follow the rules and not cause trouble when you get through the levels?"
"That's different. I used my wisdom to crack the mechanisms in mechanical engineering."
“Then they both solved it with their intelligence,” the Scarecrow said. “One discovered how you connected the circuits by observing the circuit delay; the other made a bold assumption that the pulley system wasn’t placed in the upper room, but rather in the lower room. They also had the ability to prove their conjectures. So we can’t impose too many restrictions, otherwise it would be unfair.”
Stark plopped down in his chair in anger. He adjusted his mask, and Greed quickly stopped him: "Don't move. If someone comes, they might recognize you."
“I think anyone who comes here can tell who I am in my current state,” Stark said irritably. “At worst, we can let these lunatics come up and beat me up!”
With a "bang," a large door opened, and two figures walked in. The six people sitting in the back quickly sat up straight and adjusted the loudspeaker equipment in front of them.
"Welcome, friends. We certainly didn't expect you to make it this far. Please come in."
Superman and Batman walked in. It was another spacious, cylindrical hall, only larger and brighter than the room where Libra had been before, with lights so bright they were almost blinding.
In the center of the hall stood a tall pillar, and atop the pillar was a huge, lantern-like object. This lantern was hexagonal with six faces, each face displaying a silhouette that clearly showed someone sitting inside.
Below these six surfaces, on the ground level, are six compartments. All compartments are enclosed except for the top, which contains a mechanism that appears to rotate.
The six silhouettes are wearing masks, and their shapes are gun, tiger, wolf, weasel, chicken, and scorpion, respectively.
Although the tone of voice suggests that real people are speaking, their voices have been processed and have an exaggerated theatrical quality, making it impossible to determine their age and personality from their voices alone. Furthermore, because they are wearing masks, it is impossible to identify who is speaking.
"Oh, my friend, why are you walking so slowly?" the voice came again, clearly directed at Batman.
Batman was indeed walking very slowly, as he was almost completely exhausted. Superman looked very uncomfortable, but he still helped Batman to make his steps more steady.
Batman slowly looked up at the six silhouettes above him. They sat there motionless, and due to the angle and lighting, it was impossible to determine anything from their shapes. But he roughly knew what the story was about.
Escape rooms aren't human experiments, nor are they battle royale games designed to select warriors; they're more like a kind of entertainment. Each group has a bettor, who could be the person sitting above or the one controlling everything. But in any case, they're most likely just there for entertainment.
Strangely, even though Batman was very weak, his silence was like a mountain, making the people sitting above him feel uneasy.
“We think we’ve really pissed him off,” Scarecrow said in the team chat. “He’ll definitely cause us trouble once we get out of here.”
“If the sky falls, the Joker will hold it up,” Stark said. “What are you afraid of?”
The agents, who were forcibly dragged into playing the roles, remained silent, only silently praying that Batman would kill them all.
"That's true." The scarecrow nodded.
"You're celebrating a little too soon," Greed commented.
As expected, Anatoly entered the room. The moment his expression turned cold, Lucifer couldn't help but take a step back. If Batman was a silent mountain, then he was the impending storm.
"Can anyone tell me what's going on here?" he shouted. "What are you bunch of pretentious bastards doing sitting up there?"
The people above were nudging and shoving each other, none of them willing to speak. Logically, playing the villain in this situation would be something these villains would love to do. But sometimes, the good guys get even angrier than the villains, making the villains seem somewhat pathetic. Now, whoever speaks up looks like the schoolboy dragged to the headmaster's office.
People like them don't realize they've done anything wrong. But someone like Anatoly also has the strength and means to make those who don't realize they've done anything wrong realize they have. And that's not just verbal instruction; what if he climbs up there later?
This is not impossible. Because they went from last place to second place thanks to their climbing skills.
Anatoly climbed up the chain that held the cage, hooked his legs onto the chain to form a perfect lock, and sat steadily in the air. Then he used a crowbar to pry open the disc.
Then he went down into the cage. The moment the cage door closed, the power should have been turned on and the water released, but because the disc was detected to be open, the elevator program was activated, so the power was not turned on and the water was not released; it just started to rise.
You might say that you can't pass the level this way, but they actually have quite a bit of skill involved. That iron chain is very difficult to climb because the cage's own weight isn't enough to hold it down; even getting into the cage makes it sway violently, let alone climbing the chain.
But Lucifer's weight advantage became apparent at this point. When he sat in the cage, his weight, equivalent to that of two adults, compensated for the cage's own weight. And because there was no electricity, he could sit inside with the door open without getting an electric shock, and he could completely help hold Anatoli down instead of swaying with the ropes.
Secondly, the ability to stay on a rope for extended periods is a skill typically learned only by special forces. They can even use this technique to hang themselves on cliff faces to rest. Although it requires the use of safety harnesses, Anatoly removed the steel bar, allowing him to use his clothing to secure it as a safety harness, with his legs bearing only a portion of the weight.
Secondly, prying open the disc was also difficult because it had a positive safety valve. But Anatoli happened to be a crowbar expert. He tried several angles and found one that was easier to loosen, and he managed to pry it open little by little.
Although it took some time, it was much faster than solving a puzzle. So they went from last place to second place.
Actually, Loki and Thor should have been the real first ones in. But after they got out of the elevator, Loki stopped Thor, who was about to go in, and said, "We're moving a little too fast. Being the first one in might not be a good thing."
“That’s true.” Thor nodded and said, “In the last trial, the earlier you went in, the worse it was. This trial might be the other way around, but they might also stick to their path to the bitter end. Let’s wait and see.”
Loki estimated the time it would take to solve the puzzle and decided to position his group in the middle, at least second or third, which would be better than first place.
Their timing wasn't perfect, as Harley and Pamela snatched third place. Although they pulled a little trick in the middle, it didn't take long, and they soon pushed open the door and came in.
Harley paused, startled by the sight of the six squares. Ignoring what the group was saying, she whispered in Pamela's ear, "Do you think we could throw the crowbar up there...?"
The people above gasped. To ensure good light transmission, the wall material they used for the lantern was very thin. While it wouldn't break with a single poke, it could probably be broken if a brick was thrown at it with force.
"No way. If we just throw it up there, what if it falls into a cubicle? That would be the end of us!"
"But it looks like we're just choosing which cubicle to be assigned to, right? That should be fine, isn't it?"
"We're not the first ones here. What if we fall into someone else's place?"
"Why don't we just talk to them and ask them to throw it out?"
"This situation clearly prevents communication. Can you hear anyone speaking?"
The two clever little devils had no choice but to give up and said again, "What were the rules again? Say them again, I didn't hear you."
Stark really didn't want to repeat himself to them, and wanted to tell them that if they hadn't heard him, they didn't have to listen. But since the game couldn't be played without all six people, he had no choice but to reluctantly repeat the rules again.
Simply put, entering a cubicle means choosing the identity represented by that person's mask. Harley arrived at the cubicle door and pulled on it. Currently, the identities of Wolf and Weasel have been chosen, while the rooms for Gun, Tiger, Chicken, and Scorpion are empty.
“This is a classic food chain,” Harley said. “Is it going to be another one where the big ones control the small ones?”
“Look at the mechanism up there,” Pamela said. “It looks like it can rotate and throw different things into different rooms. Maybe it’ll be something like guessing each other’s identities or attacking each other?”
"In this kind of game, choosing the biggest or the smallest is not good. If you choose the biggest, you will be countered by the smallest, just like a hunter with a gun will be stung to death by a scorpion. Choosing the smallest is also not good, as you are at the bottom of the food chain and have no prestige. I think we should choose the tiger."
Pamela nodded, and the two of them opened the door to the tiger's room and went inside.
After those two, came Schiller and Bruce. They were unlucky; the exhaustive search took up some time, and then they had to deal with the mechanisms, so they fell behind.