Rose Funeral is a story card, while Fruit Knife and Rose Perfume are tool cards. This Tao Yuanming card has a prefix indicating it's a summon card...
Could it be that he'll summon a Tao Yuanming?
Xiao Lou immediately took the card to his eyes and examined it carefully.
The back of the card is silver-white, printed with four patterns: hearts, spade, diamonds, and plum blossom; the front, however, depicts a middle-aged man with the words " Tao Yuanming " written above his head. The man has long hair reminiscent of ancient times, wears a gray long robe, carries a large straw hat on his back, holds a fishing rod in his hand, and wears a leisurely smile on his face.
The characters are drawn with great lifelike detail, but the style of the card descriptions is hard to describe.
Summoning Card: Tao Yuanming
Rarity: S
Description: Limited to the gacha pool. There's an extremely low chance of obtaining this character after a perfect clear. PS: You're really lucky to have gotten Tao Yuanming! Remember not to wash your hands before your next gacha pull.
Additional Skill 1: The Peach Blossom Spring
In " The Peach Blossom Spring," Tao Yuanming describes an idyllic paradise where the land is fertile, water is plentiful, and people live a peaceful and carefree life, detached from worldly affairs.
How to use: Summon Tao Yuanming in any secret room and use the skill " The Peach Blossom Spring ". Tao Yuanming will discover a private space called Peach Blossom Spring within 10 seconds. The entrance to Peach Blossom Spring is very well hidden and cannot be seen by others. You can teleport to the entrance at any time and hide inside Peach Blossom Spring.
The Peach Blossom Spring lasts for 30 minutes and then disappears automatically. Tao Yuanming can only discover one Peach Blossom Spring every 24 hours. If someone sees him discovering a Peach Blossom Spring, the skill will fail to be activated.
Note: At growth level 1, you can only enter Peach Blossom Spring alone. For each additional level, you can bring one more person into Peach Blossom Spring.
Additional Skill 2: Unlocked when card growth reaches level 10.
Xiao Lou was momentarily stunned when he saw this card with its complex description.
What kind of nonsense is this?
The Peach Blossom Spring? I did read Tao Yuanming's text when I was in school, but I can't remember the specific content.
Xiao Lou read it carefully twice and finally understood how to use the Tao Yuanming card.
Tao Yuanming's " Peach Blossom Spring Otherworld" appears to be a hidden space, as "others cannot see the entrance." This means that once Tao Yuanming successfully uses his skill, neither the NPCs in the secret room nor other Challengers can see where the entrance to Peach Blossom Spring is, while Xiao Lou can hide inside at any time.
If I understand correctly, " The Peach Blossom Spring " is actually a teleportation skill.
Currently, only he can teleport, but once the card's growth level increases later, he can teleport all his friends into Peach Blossom Spring.
—As expected of an S-rank rare card, it instantly disappeared into Peach Blossom Spring, essentially a group of them playing hide-and-seek.
Although the skill has a 24-hour cooldown, Peach Blossom Spring also lasts a long time, 30 minutes is enough to avoid fatal risks at critical moments.
The purpose of using the Peach Blossom Spring is to find a Peach Blossom Spring in a hidden location when it is out of sight of others, and use it for escape. It is like preparing a "safe haven" for yourself in the dangerous Card World.
As for the second skill, it is not yet unlocked and can only be seen after the growth level reaches level 10.
Xiao Lou understood how to use the card and asked, " How do I increase the card's growth level?"
Red Heart A said, "Each S-rank card has a different way of increasing its growth, which you need to figure out gradually. You're lucky to have drawn a summon card. Tao Yuanming is the first time it has dropped from the rare card pool, and there's only one of it right now."
Xiao Lou: "..."
Perhaps someone who is very unlucky in the real world has their luck improve after being dragged into Card World?
S-rank cards are indeed very strong, but they require patience to develop. Increasing a card's growth level can enhance its skill effects and unlock more skills. How to level up Tao Yuanming is currently unknown, but Xiao Lou isn't in a hurry; at least this card gave him a chance to escape in a crucial moment.
He looked up and asked, "How do I use the summoning cards? Do I just summon them directly and use them?"
Red Heart A said, " Draw this card from the card holder, summon Tao Yuanming, and ask him to use his first skill. He will automatically release The Peach Blossom Spring at your designated location. You can use utility cards like Fruit Knife and Rose Perfume right away. The card holder is very important to everyone, so you'd better organize it well to avoid being flustered at crucial moments and not knowing which card to use or not being able to find the one you want."
Xiao Lou opened the card holder and rearranged it.
He placed the "Story Card Rose Funeral " at the very back and the S-rank summon card " Tao Yuanming " in the first slot, making it easy to pull out and use Peach Blossom Spring to escape at any time. The C-rank cards " Fruit Knife " and " Rose Perfume " were placed in the second and third slots respectively—these are the only cards he has for now, and he will adjust them later when more are added.
Just as I finished organizing the card holder, I heard Red Heart A say softly, "After clearing the single-player escape room, there will be a fifteen-minute break. You can rest now, adjust yourself, and then prepare for the next challenge."
Xiao Lou nodded: "Okay."
As soon as he finished speaking, a sofa appeared in the Personal Space. Xiao Lou walked over, sat down, and closed his eyes in deep thought.
The first challenge presented him with a lot of information, and he needed to process it all. The fifteen-minute break was just the right amount of time to clear his head.
The difficulty of the card escape room is greater than that of reality.
The real-life escape room games I've played are much larger.
In real-life escape room games, they rarely actually place a corpse there. Moreover, most escape room games are multiplayer cooperative games, so having familiar partners around and chatting with them can greatly reduce the psychological fear.
If Rose Funeral were a four-player escape room where each player searches one room, the difficulty of completing the game would be greatly reduced.
Can you team up to complete levels in Card World?
Xiao Lou lowered his head and thought for a moment, then opened his eyes and asked Guardian, "Is the experience in the secret room limited to the current Secret Room World? If I get injured in the secret room, will the injury automatically heal after leaving the secret room?"
Red Heart A stared in surprise at the young man before her. She had seen many challengers, some with tears streaming down their faces, some shouting and yelling, and some even wetting their pants in fear... Someone like Xiao Lou, who could remain so calm after passing the first challenge, was truly a rare breed.
She looked at the young man in front of her with great interest and asked, "How did you figure that out?"
Xiao Lou stretched out his hands and calmly said, "There's no smell or trace of a corpse on my hands, which means that the moment I was teleported out of the Red Heart 2 Secret Room world, all my data in the room was erased. When subsequent Challengers enter this room, Red Heart 2 Secret Room will return to its original state. It's like a dungeon in a game, constantly resetting to welcome new Challengers. Perhaps, you can think of these small secret rooms as countless parallel spaces?"
Red Heart A: "..."
Having only been in Card World for less than half an hour, he had already analyzed so much. Red Heart A was truly impressed by the man before her. She nodded approvingly and asked, "What else did you deduce?"
Xiao Lou said, "The advanced escape rooms later on should involve teamwork, right?"
Red Heart A: "Tell me your reasons."
Xiao Lou said, "No matter how difficult a single-player escape room is, it can't be so difficult that it's impossible to complete. There's no shortage of master detectives in this world. But you just told me that none of the more than 80 million Challengers have completed it, which means that the difficulty of the later escape rooms is beyond imagination, and it is very likely that a large number of Challengers will need to cooperate to solve the puzzles. And assembling a group of experts is a huge problem in itself."
If all the escape rooms were single-player escape rooms, among the more than 80 million Challengers, there would be some meticulous and skilled individuals, especially those in professions such as criminal investigators, forensic doctors, and mystery novelists, whose logical thinking is very rigorous. It would be impossible for everyone to fail.
Unless the later escape room scenarios require teamwork.
Team escape rooms are the most difficult. The clues are too scattered, and if even one person makes a mistake, the whole thing is lost.
That's why no one can successfully complete the game.
Xiao Lou added, "Of course, this is just my speculation."
Red Heart A smiled slightly: "Your guess is correct. The D-level single-player escape rooms are all beginner levels, giving you time to adapt. The escape rooms after C-level are more difficult and definitely require teamwork. I hope you won't be dragged down by teammates who are too bad."
Indeed, the team is the most unpredictable element. If you encounter a terrible teammate, even a genius can't win.
Xiao Lou paused for a moment, then asked, "When you say 'clearing the level,' do you mean clearing all the highest-level secret rooms of the four flower types: hearts, spade, diamonds, and plum blossom? Or can you selectively only clear the hearts level?"
This is a crucial question. If "completing the game" means clearing all four types of escape rooms, then the difficulty has more than quadrupled. If one can focus solely on the puzzle-solving " heart rooms," their chances of reaching the end will increase significantly.
But the next moment, Red Heart A poured cold water on him: "We do not encourage Challengers who are too unbalanced. The final victory means that you must pass all four Kings, Spade King, Diamond King and Plum Blossom King. Only Challengers who pass all four Kings in the secret room are qualified to get the ticket to the final Sun and Moon God SS level."
It seems that soloing the Hearts stage is not a viable option. However, since he can team up later on, he can easily team up with teammates who are skilled in the Peach and Plum Blossom stages, learning from their strengths and compensating for his own weaknesses.
Teaming up can sometimes be a disaster; encountering a bad teammate can ruin the entire team.
But sometimes, the power of a team is the strongest.
Many hands make light work; what he might not have thought of, his teammates might. Brainstorming is very helpful in solving escape room puzzles, which is why real-world escape room games are typically multiplayer cooperative games.
Thinking about this, Xiao Lou asked, "How do I find teammates?"
Red Heart A patiently explained, "The team escape room has a limited number of participants. You can find teammates in advance to enter together. If you can't find enough, you will be randomly matched with other people to complete the challenge. In this world, the kind of teammates you encounter is also a matter of luck."
Xiao Lou nodded: "Thank you, I understand."
Fifteen minutes passed quickly.
Red Heart A announces: "Break time is over. Please go to the card wall and choose the next room."
Xiao Lou stood up decisively and went back to the huge card wall.
On the card wall, Red Heart 2 has been cleared, and the next level in the Hearts column is Heart 3. The Diamonds, Plum Blossom, and Spade Secret Rooms still offer the second level. The higher you go, the more difficult it becomes, so Xiao Lou naturally starts with the second level. For future considerations, he needs to familiarize himself with the characteristics of the four types of secret rooms, so he'll also check out the Diamonds, Spade, and Plum Blossom levels.
Xiao Lou decided to go to Square Block 2 Escape Room first.
Diamonds is a puzzle-based escape room, so there are bound to be some risks, such as stepping on the wrong mechanism and getting shot into a pincushion, or entering the wrong password and falling into a pit. However, based on my experience playing Red Heart 2, the beginner levels shouldn't be too scary. Red Heart 2 has a "clue collection progress" indicator, so the puzzles in Diamonds 2 shouldn't be too difficult either.
Compared to Spade's survival room and Plum Blossom's challenge room, it's wisest to choose Diamonds first to try it out and get more rewards.
Xiao Lou reached out and drew the card " diamond 2 ".
Just then, a large, blood-red character suddenly appeared above the transparent floating frame—
Congratulations to Challenger [ Yu Hanjiang ] for a perfect completion of Red Heart 2 Secret Room [ Rose Funeral ] in 13 minutes and 15 seconds, setting a new world record for Red Heart 2 Secret Room!
Xiao Lou: "..."
Yu Hanjiang?!
Is it Captain Yu from the Criminal Police Officer squad that he knows?
The surname Yu is already quite rare, let alone having the same given name.
Furthermore, Yu Hanjiang happens to be a Criminal Police Officer, serving as the head of Jiangzhou City. The head of the Major Crimes Unit of the Criminal Police Officers Brigade, this man has solved countless cold cases since taking office, becoming a legend in the police force. Xiao Lou still remembers that he first met Yu Hanjiang because of a murder case. A girl at his school was pushed off a building by her roommate, and Captain Yu caught the real culprit within two days.
When it comes to solving cases, Xiao Lou is just an amateur, while Yu Hanjiang is a professional.
In the Rose Funeral escape room, Xiao Lou solved the puzzle relatively smoothly, taking 18 minutes. Yu Hanjiang, however, managed a perfect solution in 13 minutes. This is partly due to his experience as the head of the Criminal Police Department, having handled countless homicides and possessing exceptional skills in crime scene investigation and case analysis. Additionally, the fact that the victim's fingerprints couldn't unlock the phone was likely something Yu Hanjiang immediately considered; he may have encountered similar situations in the past where victims left behind phones that couldn't be unlocked.
Based on the above deductions, Xiao Lou is almost certain that Yu Hanjiang, who broke the world record for clearing the Red Heart 2 Secret Room, is the Criminal Police Detachment chief he knows!
But how did Captain Yu end up in Card World too?!
Author's Note: Welcome Captain Yu.
A criminal police officer and a forensic doctor team up – the killers in Secret Room World will tremble in fear!
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