As a section of the floor in the center of the hall slowly caved in, everyone held their breath.
Wei Dong, whether reassuring himself or his teammates, said, "It's alright, nothing bad can happen in broad daylight~ If the art critics dare to mess around like this, we'll report them to the 'Art Committee'!"
As the floor caved in, a pure white platform quickly rose from the spot, then disintegrated, instantly transforming into a standard classroom podium.
"Ahem, sorry, I've had a bit of a cold lately." The speaker was a bespectacled teacher-like figure standing in front of the blackboard; the coughing from below had clearly come from him.
Hua Jiqiu's inner monologue: So this is the legendary NPC. I didn't expect it to be so realistic, like a professor just brought in from some academy.
Following Mu Yiran's actions, everyone moved closer to the NPC.
"Hello, teacher!" Ke Xun greeted the NPC loudly first.
The NPC teacher smiled slightly: "Everyone,
please sit down." Everyone turned around and saw that two rows of student desks and chairs had appeared on the ground, so they sat down and waited for the NPC's next move.
"Thirteen people in total, no more, no less." The NPC teacher's sharp gaze lingered on each person's face for a few seconds.
"He doesn't have any ray-like vision or anything, does he?" Li Xiaochun whispered to his "deskmate" Luo Jin, feeling nauseous from nervousness.
"Don't worry, he doesn't have that ability. His job is to assign tasks to us."
"Oh, okay." Although Luo Jin's explanation was a bit convoluted, Li Xiaochun basically understood. He took a few deep breaths, trying to calm himself down. He felt Luo Jin place something in his hand, and looking down, he saw two mints.
"If you feel a tightness in your chest, suck on one; it'll make you feel better."
"Thank you."
The NPC teacher on the podium wrote two words on the blackboard—Harmony.
"Everyone should have seen this painting by now. That's right, we are currently in it. To be more precise, we are currently at the boundary between the painting and the outside world. The real painting hasn't officially entered yet."
Everyone was somewhat surprised; this was the first time they had encountered such an open and honest NPC.
Hua Jiqiu was about to whisper to Qin Ci, who was sitting next to her, if the NPCs were always like this when the NPC said again, "In short, everyone's goal is very simple: find the signature and get out alive! Am I right?"
"Yes..." almost everyone answered.
"Our goal is simple and plain, but this time the questions are more difficult than you can imagine! But I believe that you will not be intimidated by the difficulties in front of you!" The NPC teacher was just like a homeroom teacher for a graduating class of middle or high school, patiently trying to inspire everyone's enthusiasm for the exam from all angles.
Shao Ling, who was sitting in his seat, was about to say something when the NPC seemed to read his mind and said, "Don't worry, the time now is not counted in the exam time, so please don't panic."
Ke Xun looked at his deskmate Mu Yiran: "Is this going to be in the form of an exam...?"
"No whispering in class. The teacher is having a big meeting up here, and you're having your own little meetings down here!" The NPC teacher tapped the desk with chalk, and the room immediately fell silent.
"Everyone, please look at the blackboard!" The NPC teacher turned around and drew a large triangle on the blackboard, which looked like a pyramid.
Wei Dong thought to himself: Here we go again, making everyone work incredibly hard to become the successful person at the top of the pyramid…
The NPC teacher continued drawing lines inside the pyramid with chalk, dividing it into seven levels.
Wei Dong thought: Sure enough, they're starting to categorize everyone into different levels: top students, excellent students, promising students… and the last level is for underachievers…
The NPC teacher turned around and began to explain: "My drawing looks a bit like a tower, so let's just call it a 'tower' for now."
All the students listened attentively, wondering what information the teacher was going to convey.
"This tower has seven levels, and you have a chance to get an autograph on each level." The NPC teacher wrote the two characters "Si Nian" next to each level. "The signature is just these two characters, in Chinese, very easy to recognize."
Perhaps this straightforward format made everyone a little uncomfortable, and some even began to doubt the authenticity of the whole thing.
After all, today's format was too unusual.
The NPC teacher continued writing on the blackboard with chalk, first outlining the triangle at the top of the tower with red chalk: "This red area represents one world. Remember, the top layer only has one world. — I must commend the girl in the first row who wears glasses; she's been taking notes diligently throughout my lecture! Excellent!"
Gu Qingqing stopped writing, looked up at the blackboard, seemingly used to the teacher's praise.
"Next is the second layer. For clarity, I'll use blue chalk," the NPC teacher drew the second layer below the tower's tip with blue chalk, and drew a vertical line down the middle, dividing it in two. "As you can see, the second layer has two worlds."
Not only Gu Qingqing, but Shao Ling, Qin Ci, and others also took out their notebooks and began taking notes; clearly, what the teacher was saying was very important.
"We'll use yellow chalk to draw the third layer. That's right, the third layer has three worlds." The NPC teacher drew the third layer with yellow chalk and divided it into three sections with two vertical lines.
"Following this pattern, the fourth layer of green chalk has four worlds, the fifth layer of magenta chalk has five worlds, the sixth layer of brown chalk has six worlds, and the remaining layer, the bottom layer of white chalk, has seven worlds." The NPC teacher explained while writing on the blackboard, quickly filling it with different colored chalk to make the tower on the board look like a corner of a giant rainbow.
The word "world" mentioned by the NPC teacher once again stirred the memories of the veteran members.
Previously, "world" had been a very important clue in the deduction of the painting, and now the NPC had brought it up directly.
Some people were taking notes, while others were staring intently at the blackboard, trying to remember it, wondering what the rainbow tower had to do with the painting.
"Can anyone quickly calculate how many worlds are in this tower?" the NPC teacher asked.
"28." Zhu Haowen's voice wasn't loud, but everyone heard it.
"That's right! 28!" The NPC teacher seemed a little excited. "Has anyone thought about why there are exactly 28 worlds?!"
Gu Qingqing habitually raised her hand, and only after the teacher gestured for her to answer did she stand up and say, "This painting is made up of 28 fragments of New Year's woodblock prints, so could the 28 worlds here be those 28 fragments?"
"Absolutely correct! Please sit down!" The NPC teacher directly wrote a big "28" next to the Rainbow Tower with bright red chalk—"28 worlds! This is the biggest test you are about to face!"
Wei Dong was dumbfounded: "2, 28 worlds? We have to enter 28 worlds?! Seven days?! At least four worlds a day?!"
The NPC teacher was about to explain when he saw Mu Yiran also raise his hand, so he gestured for him to stand up and speak.
Mu Yiran, as a student, stood up obediently: "Teacher, you just said that each floor of this tower has a signature, which means there are seven identical signatures in total? Do we need to find them all?"
"No, no, let me explain further," the NPC teacher pointed to the seven colored blocks on the blackboard: "The seven signatures are actually the same. The reason they appear on every floor is because we have seven chances to get a signature! So don't be discouraged. If you don't get one, you'll get another, seven times in total!"
Everyone was confused and stopped asking questions, waiting for the teacher to reveal the secret.
The NPC teacher started drawing on the blackboard again, this time drawing an arrow pointing inwards on the white base of the tower: "You must enter from the bottom of the tower, entering seven worlds respectively! Time is equal in each world, 13 hours, not a second less, not a second more! You need to find the fragment of the New Year's picture woodblock in your respective world within 13 hours. When all seven fragments from the seven worlds are collected, the signature will appear!"
Everyone listened attentively, trying to digest the information. Luo Ci raised his hand and asked, "What if I collect all seven fragments on the first floor and get the first signature?"
"There's only one signature. Once you find it, you can leave the painting immediately!" the NPC teacher said excitedly—this teacher seemed particularly prone to excitement.
"Then... what if I don't find the signature on the first day?" Qin Ci didn't dare to be so optimistic. Successfully navigating all seven worlds and getting the signature on the first day was simply too good to be true.
"Good question! I love students who are good at thinking!"
Qin Ci: "..."
The NPC teacher quickly drew an arrow on the second-to-last floor with chalk: "If we fail on the first day, the remaining members will enter this floor on the second day. There are six worlds in total. We need to find six fragments of New Year's picture woodblocks hidden in these worlds to get signatures. There's one thing to note here: time. The time limit for this floor is 12 hours, one hour less than the previous floor. And so on, one hour less for each floor we go up. If we reach the world at the top of the tower, we'll only have 7 hours left."
The amount of information was quite large, and some people were taking notes while others were thinking.
Yue Cen, who was sitting in a wheelchair nearby, also raised his hand and asked: "If we enter the second day and there are fewer than six people, how should we divide into six groups to complete the tasks in the six worlds?"
This question was obviously something most people hadn't thought of, and its sudden questioning startled everyone. Indeed, if the seven worlds on the first level cannot collect all the fragments, they will be forced to enter the second level. Those missing fragments mean failure in that world, and the team members inside are likely to be in grave danger…
"This student's question is very realistic…" the NPC teacher sighed. "Even if such a drastic reduction in numbers doesn't happen in the first two days, as time goes on and everyone's endurance gradually decreases, there's a high possibility that there won't be enough people to form groups… If that happens, everyone can only try to shorten the time spent finding fragments and allow enough time to find the next fragment…"
"You mean, it's very likely that one person will need to attempt two worlds?" Zhu Haowen asked.
Everyone's hearts sank upon hearing Zhu Haowen's words.