amaotonovel Chapter 4631 Desperate Escape (3)
Chapter 4631 Desperate Escape (3)
Chapter 4631 Desperate Escape (Part 3)
Schiller passed the key through the hole. Bruce unlocked the door, but only a small section of the wall was loose; the rest couldn't be broken. So, they were still limited to the two rooms.
Schiller peered through the opening and observed the structure of the opposite room. It was actually quite simple; it was a water prison. The entire room was relatively sealed, with water only released through a sluice gate. On his side, there was a drainage pipe diagonally opposite his room, so the water released flowed away directly.
The entire puzzle-solving process is not actually difficult, but it requires both parties to completely trust each other and have a certain degree of self-sacrifice.
Schiller's normal procedure should be: retrieve the key from behind the only accessible bed leg, use the key to pry open the bricks, then have the other side hand over the crowbar, use the crowbar to break the bed leg, the bed will fall down, the lever will be pulled down, the water will be released, and the person next door will be saved.
Bruce's team starts completely submerged in water; otherwise, he wouldn't be unable to speak, and there's a drain constantly filling the water. They need to at least advance enough to pry open the bricks and drain some of the water. If they're too slow, they'll drown, and once drowning, they can't pass the crowbar, making it difficult to break the bed leg, essentially ending the game.
A well-trained diver can hold their breath for several minutes, but the average adult can only drown for a maximum of two minutes, and they will start choking on water after just close to two minutes.
Under stress, this timeframe can be shortened. Most people will start choking on water within a minute, and once they do, they will completely lose their mobility and will be unable to pass anything to anyone.
That's why solving this puzzle requires a certain degree of self-sacrifice from both sides.
Schiller's collarbone was pierced, and the area around the collarbone has a dense network of nerves and connects to a wide range of muscle groups. Even though the fighting barrier reduces pain, it's still excruciatingly painful. In this situation, it's difficult to think clearly, and the pain can easily cause movement to stall. At this point, one must ignore the pain and continue moving to complete the task.
The situation is even more pronounced for Bruce. Imagine waking up to find yourself completely submerged in water, about to drown, and locked up, unable to surface. If you had a crowbar in your hand, a normal person would try to pick the lock. Whether you smash or pry, it would consume energy, further shortening your breath-holding time, possibly not even lasting 30 seconds.
Even with the fastest possible reasoning and execution, this entire process is unlikely to be completed within 30 seconds; it would inevitably lead to problems. And if problems arise, all subsequent processes cannot be completed.
Therefore, this requires extremely close cooperation between the two sides, and most importantly, complete trust in each other. Solving puzzles while ignoring pain and believing that teammates will come to your rescue, without any communication, is actually very difficult.
No wonder there was a warning before entering this dungeon: "Duo dungeons" require excellent teamwork. It's a life-or-death test right from the start; truly a high-difficulty dungeon.
Thor spat out a mouthful of water, lay on the ground for a while to catch his breath, and said in a hoarse voice, "Are you alright, Loki?"
“Of course I’m fine.” Loki was currently struggling with the iron bars on the wall using a crowbar, but he couldn’t pry them off no matter what he did. Thor brought his face close to the opening.
"What are you doing sitting there?" he asked, somewhat curiously.
Loki couldn't help but roll his eyes: "Do you think I'm the kind of person who enjoys sitting on the sandy ground in this dirty, damp environment and never gets up, Thor?"
"Of course not, you're such a germaphobe, that's why I asked you why you were sitting there!"
"It's because I can't get up!!" Loki roared at him, turning his head away. "If you can't help, turn your face away! You're disturbing my thinking!"
But Thor showed no sign of backing down. He forcefully broke off several more bricks from the surrounding wall, trying to stick his head inside. Loki was horrified: "What are you doing! Go back!"
“I want to see what’s wrong?” Thor said. “Are you locked out? Do you need me to look for the key here?”
"Then hurry up and go find it!" Loki said.
Thor finally pulled his head back. Loki breathed a sigh of relief and continued prying, but after a while he realized it was completely impossible to pry it open. He sat there and sighed.
“I really didn’t find anything.” Thor’s voice sounded a little puzzled. “The only strange thing was that spout, but I couldn’t see what was inside.”
Loki blinked, pushed the crowbar back through the hole in the wall, and said, "Why don't you try poking it with the crowbar?"
Thor took the crowbar and went over.
"Oh, please, I can't do it..." Superman withdrew the crowbar from his hand, leaned against the wall and took a breath. "This thing is at too tricky an angle, I can't reach it at all."
He looked up at the drain on the ceiling, then stood on tiptoe again, using the crowbar to pry it in. But in this position, it was difficult to control the angle of the crowbar properly, and he couldn't reach the thing hanging on the side of the drain.
After trying for a long time, Superman was exhausted. He even doubted his eyes, wondering if he was seeing things because there was nothing on the water outlet.
“This is the only solution, Clark,” Batman said calmly. “Since I have nothing else to do but sit here, you can still try to trust my reasoning.”
“Of course I completely believe your reasoning, Batman. I’m just wondering if ordinary people really have that little arm strength?” Superman said helplessly. “I just lift a crowbar for a minute and my hands start shaking like a chicken pecking at rice, is that right?”
"Why don't you try throwing it up there?" Batman suggested.
“I feel like all I can do is throw it up,” Pamela said. “Even if I jump, I still can’t reach it.”
After saying that, she took the crowbar in her hand, looked up and aimed at the side of the water outlet, and threw it up suddenly.
However, she applied the crowbar incorrectly. Before it could even penetrate the drain outlet, it tilted to the side and couldn't be thrown into the small opening at all.
“No, no, no, Pamela,” Harley cried. “Do you know this is an acrobatic move? It’s called a vertical throw. To throw it straight, you need to hold the crowbar vertically against your chest, grab the lower middle part, press it down first, and then use a clever technique to throw it up. That’s how you make sure it goes straight up and down…”
"Where did you learn this?" Pamela asked.
“Have you forgotten that Harley Quinn from other universes performed acrobatics? I learned a trick from them,” Harley said. “That’s what you call having multiple skills. See, it’s coming in handy now!”
“I’ll give it a try.” Pamela did as she was told, holding the crowbar vertically to her chest and tossing it upwards with a whoosh. It hit its mark precisely, and with a clang, the crowbar and another object fell to the ground together.
“Oh, another key,” Pamela said. “This one looks bigger. Is it for opening my door?”
She picked up the key, went to the door, and tried it; it opened. However, the hallway between the two rooms was closed off, and there was another door to open. But now Pamela could go to Harley's room; her door wasn't locked at all.
Pamela pushed the door open and came in. Harley looked at her like she had seen a savior and pointed to the iron bar next to her, saying, "Quick, quick, pry this thing off, it hurts so much."
Pamela was shocked to see the nail embedded in her collarbone, then noticed the broken bedpost. She went over, cupped Halle's face in her hands, kissed her cheek, and said, "My God, how did you do that? That must have hurt so much!"
"Don't even mention it, luckily I'm flexible." Harley demonstrated her move, "I just broke the bed leg like this, although I don't think that's the normal way to do it, but whatever, physical fitness is part of physical fitness."
Pamela vigorously rubbed her head, then picked up a crowbar and began to pry open the iron rod. It would be much easier to pry it open with someone else doing it. Pamela hooked the end of the iron rod with the crowbar and moved it up and down repeatedly. Soon, with a click, the iron rod fell off.
Harley, holding the iron bar in one hand, got up from the ground, stretched her limbs, looked around, and said, "We need to find where the last key is."
Eric, leaning against the wall, watched Charles pick up the fallen iron crowbar from the ground. Charles looked rather grim. Eric forced a smile and said, "If only you still had the ability, right?"
Before Charles could say anything, Eric interrupted him: "You know this means nothing to me."
Charles turned away, shoved the iron rods into Eric's arms, and went to look for clues. Eric caught up with him. Charles suddenly turned, pushed Eric aside, and stared at him with his blue eyes, saying, "You know what? I also had a hard time in the water. Besides not being able to breathe, the water was also very cold—that's the difference between you and me. You can't dismiss all of this as 'no big deal,' especially not in front of me. You're right, if I still had my abilities, I would broadcast every single moment you cried out in pain!"
"God!" Superman yelled, staring at the iron rod. "Batman! Aren't you in pain?!"
Then he looked like he was about to die of guilt. "My God, how could I say you were too slow? I really didn't know you..."
“It hurts a little, but it’s bearable,” Batman said. “Alright, Clark. Instead of spending half an hour discussing how I feel, let’s solve the puzzle quickly. Maybe we can find medical supplies in the next level and get this thing off me completely. What do you think?”
"Oh, right, you're right. We can't let this thing stay on you for too long, or it will cause an infection. Where's the key?"
Bruce knocked on the door, pretending to knock, then poked his head in. "May I come in, Professor?"
Schiller was still carefully examining the bed frame when he heard this and turned around in utter confusion: "You've decided to knock now???"
“Professor, I knocked every time I entered your office,” Bruce said helplessly. “You were just under too much pressure and didn’t hear me. I’ve told you many times.”
"So where does my stress come from?"
“This is not the time to discuss this.” Bruce also wanted to step forward to inspect the bed frame, but when he turned his head, he saw the nails and chains on Schiller’s collarbone.
He stared at it in shock for a while, then turned to look at the hole in the wall, and then at Schiller.
"Professor, don't tell me you knocked this thing off the wall..."
Bruce was somewhat incoherent, and in the end he could only use gestures to say, "...pulled out?!"
“That’s why I said we skipped a level.” Schiller waved the iron bar in his hand. “Normally, you should be here to pry it open with a crowbar.”
"Yes, that's exactly what I asked: how did you pull it out without a crowbar?!"
“My abilities are not completely limited,” Schiller said.
Bruce didn't react at first, but then he thought of Schiller's special talent, and his entire face scrunched up.
“You can’t do this,” Bruce said, frowning.
“I’ve heard enough of that ‘skipping the plot is skipping life’ thing lately,” Schiller said, looking at Bruce. “You’re not going to say it too, are you?”
"I'm saying you can't exploit pain..."
“Reconsider your wording, Bruce.” Schiller raised the iron bar in his hand, which was about the length of an adult’s forearm and had a pointed tip, making it look more like a weapon than a murder weapon.
“Uh…” Bruce immediately changed his tone, stretched out his hands and said, “I’m just suggesting you don’t use this self-harming method to skip levels. We can complete the level through the normal process, right?”
Schiller put away the iron rod: "Then I'm afraid you'll have to play Batman again. Now, we need to find the key."