Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 196: Isn’t Tiaotiaole happy at all?

Afterwards, Ovella understood what Alice meant.

Controlling the holy staff, swinging the light beam, constantly generating new grids under your feet, and flying between platforms should have been a very happy thing, but why did it turn out like this?

"Wow!"

Just as she landed on the stone platform and hadn't yet stood firmly, the walls on both sides suddenly opened apart, and two rows of dark and cold steel nozzles protruded from them. The heat evaporated and gathered, and in an instant, several thick pillars of fire were released, like dancing and roaring fire snakes, attacking Olvera, wanting to swallow her into its stomach with its open huge mouth and melt her into ashes.

The scene before her eyes was instantly obscured by the breath of evaporating heat. The stone platform, which was only wide enough for one person to stand on, had no way to escape. Olvera, who had just landed, had to jump on the spot, shooting a beam of light at the ceiling above her head. She held on to the handle of the holy staff - the Key of the Star with both hands, hanging in the air, and narrowly avoided the surging pillars of fire on both sides.

The nearest column of fire almost flowed past the soles of her feet, so that the princess could still feel the scorching heat, as if it was burning her feet through her boots, as hot as if she were soaking in freshly boiling water.

Fortunately, the fire didn't last long, and it stopped erupting after about two seconds. Olvera breathed a sigh of relief, retracted the rope, and landed on the platform. The air was filled with hot air, and even her breathing seemed to become heavier.

"so close."

The princess muttered softly, "Is it breathing fire this time..."

After several similar encounters, Olvera and her companions finally figured out the pattern of illusion traps: Generally speaking, the distance between two platforms is not too close, and at least two jumps are required to reach them. The platform created by the illusion trap will appear in the middle of the two real platforms, which looks like a springboard in the middle for you to jump over more easily, but in fact it is tempting you to take the initiative to step into a dead end.

In order to avoid these mushroom bombs, Olvera had to constantly squat, jump or dodge sideways in the small space, which was extremely embarrassing.

The arrows shot out from all directions and even from the bottom of the abyss. They were very fast and silent, leaving almost no time for people to react. The damage was very high, and one arrow could take away one-third of Ovilla's blood.

There was no way to avoid this kind of trap, one could only judge the direction from which it was coming based on experience, and then release the Starlight Shield on the spot to resist damage. However, it was difficult to grasp the timing, at least after Olvera ate five pieces of [Embers of the Remnant], she was barely able to pass through without getting hurt.

The first part of the abyss was fine. Apart from paying attention to the distance between platforms, you could advance steadily if you were careful. However, from the middle part, there were various traps and mechanisms on the road. The flamethrower was easy to avoid.

Yes, this was not the first time she had encountered this situation.

In addition, there are blasting traps that drop explosive mushrooms from the ceiling above your head. When they hit an enemy, they will explode with a "bang". The damage is not high, but the explosion will generate a backward thrust. If it hits more than three times in a row, it will push the person directly off the platform.

The first time Olvera encountered the illusion trap, she didn't react. She thought she could land safely, but she looked blankly at her body passing through the false platform and falling into the dark abyss below. This was her most thrilling encounter. If Lingge hadn't reminded her in time to shoot the starlight rope towards the bottom of the nearest platform, she would have escaped from the crisis by now. I'm afraid she would have been GAME OVER.

After realizing this, Ovilla no longer dared to walk on those seemingly convenient platforms. She just used ropes and the grids she created to move forward. As expected, she never fell into the same type of trap again.

These are not the most disgusting things. The most disgusting thing is the illusion trap, which will create a false stone platform. It looks no different from an ordinary platform until you step on it and fall into the air, then you will realize that you have been tricked.

There were so many dangerous mechanisms and traps in the abyss alone. Olvera sighed and completely changed her original idea: "It's not fun at all."

"It's still too early." Alice's gloating voice came from his mind: "This corridor has more than just the abyss. You'd better be mentally prepared. I've said it before, jumping music won't bring happiness!"

Olvera muttered, "Then why call it that name?" "Uh."

……

Ten minutes later, the princess jumped from the last platform and landed on the ground with difficulty, finally crossing the abyss and returning to the normal corridor. However, this did not mean the end of the torture, on the contrary, it was just the beginning.

In the following progress, she encountered terrain mechanisms including but not limited to: the floor flipped left and right due to uneven force, and people who stood on it would fall into an unbalanced state and had to maintain balance to move forward. However, the contradiction is that if you stand on the same floor for too long, the mechanism will be triggered to flip the floor, causing the person standing on it to fall to the area below the floor.

Falling down there won't be a GAME OVER directly, but you will be hit by a whole combo of mushroom bombs + flamethrowers + arrow mechanisms, and then be sent back to the entrance - yes, the entrance to the second-floor corridor, which means you have to jump into the abyss again.

When the princess was unfortunately hit and stood at the starting point with blood on her face, blinking blankly, everyone in the team felt that Alice was so heartless that she designed such a disgusting level.

Everyone blamed Alice, especially a little fairy who spoke the loudest. Although Saint Xia Liya did not say anything, she just sighed sadly and made Medien betray her ally. She stood firmly on the side of Sister Xiao Xia and strongly condemned the evil behavior of a certain game developer.

"W-what!" Alice's defense was instantly broken. She refused to admit that there was a problem with her level design, and kept muttering things like "this is what hardcore games are like", "real masters never complain that the game is too difficult", "if you can't beat it, it's because you're clumsy".

Fortunately, Olvera was not defeated by the temporary setback. She just cheered up after being depressed for a while, and continued to move forward. She jumped over the abyss very skillfully, and rushed over the flipping floor without stopping. The whole process was smooth, which made Alice excited and kept shouting "There is really no problem with my level design."

After that, the princess experienced the following terrain mechanism: As she was walking, the walls on both sides suddenly began to close in the middle, making a rumbling sound, as if they were going to squeeze the people in the middle into a paste. Olvera had to run at full speed, and used the holy staff - the Star Key to create a solid pillar of starlight, which was pressed between the two gradually closing walls, barely slowing down their speed, and finally escaping from the corridor just before the walls closed and shut.

Also, as she was walking, she suddenly heard a horrible loud noise from behind, and the floor under her feet kept shaking and wailing. She thought it was an earthquake, but when she turned around, she found that it was a huge black iron ball rolling towards her at a speed that was completely inconsistent with its heavy size, smashing countless walls and bricks along the way. The princess was so scared that her face turned pale instantly, and she was forced to play a thrilling chase game with the iron ball in the narrow corridor, constantly using the Star Key to leave barriers behind her, trying to stop its progress, but the Starlight Shield was as fragile as glass in front of it, and shattered at the slightest touch.

After running for an unknown amount of time, a towering wall appeared in front of them, blocking the way and leaving only a small door for people to pass through. Olvera ran through the door and finally reached a safe area. The big iron ball that could easily smash the wall and crush the floor was actually blocked by the wall and stopped behind the door.

As they walked, the road ahead was blocked by a maze. The walls that made up the maze were connected by mechanical doors, half of which were open and half were closed. Every time a door was opened or closed, another door somewhere in the maze would be closed or opened. Then Olvera had to repeat the process of opening and closing doors, trying to find a way to leave the maze.

But there are also various traps in the maze: illusion traps that disguise walls and mechanical doors, gravity traps that pull people into a dead end, and even teleportation traps hidden in corners waiting for you to step on them and give you a surprise. They will teleport you to an unexpected place, such as... returning to the starting point.

The tired princess squatted on the spot, hugged her knees, and her eyes were dull. She fell into a state of thinking about life: Who am I? Where am I? What should I do? And why does this dark and long abyss in front of me look so familiar?

This time, when everyone condemned Alice, she remained silent and did not dare to refute.

And, I was actually a little confused.

It’s really strange. What kind of mentality did I have at that time that made me design such a level of revenge against society?
Obviously, as a game player, I also hate this kind of torturous thing!

After thinking about it for half a minute, Alice couldn't get an answer. Finally, she attributed the problem to mysticism: maybe there was something unclean in the fairy hotel that caused her to be possessed by evil spirits.

But the elf Xie Mi scoffed at this conclusion, saying it was impossible. Besides, it didn't snow in December, let alone June, in Rustin City. So the genius player said to Ovira helplessly: Don't cry, I will take responsibility.

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)