Player 1

Chapter 28 Level 2(7)
I manipulated the game with ease. While being chased by the ghosts, I pushed the joystick to the right to enter the secret door, then came out from the other side, ate the last few beans, and cleared the screen.I took a deep breath and watched the blue screen flash with white borders.Then the picture splits from it.The last level of the game is here.

On the last wave of the final level, the scoreboard changes popped up on my screen, and it was the worst possible time and worst place to be.I saw Edge become the second person to get the Emerald Key.His score went up by 19000 and kicked me from second to third.

Probably a gift from God, I didn't get distracted, and my attention was still focused on "Pac-Man" in front of me.

I gripped the rocker tightly, not to let my attention escape from it.I'm almost there!I just need to take the next 6760 points to complete the task.

When clearing the left half of the map, my heart kept beating to the rhythm of the music, and then entered the winding maze on the right half, guiding Pac-Man through the low-resolution maze, where there are nine hidden beans.I can't see them with the naked eye, but I remember exactly where they are.Each bean was worth ten, and I quickly ate all nine of them, scoring ninety points, and crashing into the nearest ghost—Clyde—for my first death of the game, in an ominous In the electronic sound effects, the yellow Pac-Man shrinks into nothingness.

Every time Pac-Man dies in the last map, nine beans will be refreshed on the right side of the maze. Only in this way can the highest score in game theory be achieved. All I need to do is to repeat this step and let myself die repeatedly five times.

I tried not to let myself think about Edge, knowing he was holding the emerald key.Presumably deciphering the clues on the key.

Flicking the joystick to the right, I finished the last devour.The eyes are sore and swollen, almost like going blind.A line of numbers pops up on the screen.I did it.A perfect game. 3333360 points.

But nothing happened.I stare at the screen in wait, and after a few moments, it starts playing the opening animation on repeat.I set my sights on the immobile quarter, but now it is slowly rolling in my direction.After grabbing it, it suddenly disappeared in my hand, and a notification appeared on the screen, saying that I had a new item called a 25-cent coin in my inventory.I tried to take it out, but the system rejected my action.It can neither be used nor discarded.

Even if this item has any special effects, I don't know now, because its item description bar is blank.To discover what this thing is for, I'll have to cast some advanced probing magic on it.It would take days and waste a few expensive magic scrolls, and even then these probing spells wouldn't guarantee that I'd find a use for it.

Besides, I don't even have the time to think about the significance of this coin right now. My mind is full of Artemis and Edge finding the emerald key.Breaking the Pac-Man high score here doesn't get me any further.Time is running out.

I stepped onto the surface of the planet and got into Vonnegut's cockpit.At this time, an email from Edge arrived in my mailbox.My pulse quickened a lot when I saw the headline because it said: I'm here to pay off my debts.

I hold my breath and open the email:

Dear Parsifal:
Let's do business, understand?I'm here to pay off my debt to you.

You better hurry up. The "Sixth Man" is now getting closer to his goal.

good luck

Edge
Below his name is a picture attachment.It was the high-definition scan of the manual cover for the text adventure game Zombie, released by Personal Software on the TRS-1980 Third Edition platform in 80.

I played Demon Realm once, which was a long time ago, probably dating back to the first year of the game.But I also played hundreds of other text adventure games that year, including other works in the "Zhou Yu" series, and I can't remember many details of this game.

The cover of the manual is a picture of the game scene. A high-spirited adventurer is wearing armor and holding a blue long sword in his right hand, facing the troll in front of him.In his left hand he held a string of jewels, and more gold and silver treasures were strewn about, interspersed with human skulls.The back of a dark, tusked monster grows larger and larger behind the hero.

These things are the foreground of the cover, while my eyes move to its background: a huge white house with its front door and windows boarded up.

Forgotten place.

I stared at the image for a while, blaming myself for not being able to find such a connection for months.Then I fired up Vonnegut's engine and headed to another planet in Sector Seven—near Ajied.It was an asteroid called Floberts, which was the world of "Evil World".

That's where - as I now know - the Emerald Key is hidden.

0023
Flobalz is the kind of world that few people will enter. There are nearly a hundred of these worlds that no one cares about, and they are collectively called XYZZY[118] constellations. Their source codes have existed since the beginning of "Oasis". Both are based on the classic text adventure game or MUD [119].These worlds are shrines that pay homage to Oasis' most primitive ancestors.

Text adventure games (often called "interactive fiction" by modern scholars) create virtual worlds.They describe the world around them in words and then ask you what you want to do next: move on or interact with your environment.You need to type in text commands to decide your next move. These commands must be simple and clear, usually only a few words, such as "go south" or "take up the long sword". If they are too complicated, the engine cannot understand them.Through these text commands, you can travel around in the virtual world, collect treasures, defeat monsters, avoid traps, solve puzzles, and complete the game.

The first text adventure game I ever played was called "Giant Hole Adventure". There was no picture, only the rough text system made it impossible for me to get started, but after playing for a while, I was naturally addicted to it.For some reason, these simple sentences always evoke my specific imagination of the scene.

"Magic Domain" is the earliest and most famous text adventure game.According to the Holy Grail Journal, I've only played through the game once, and that was over four years ago.After that, I actually short-circuited my brain and forgot two major details of the game:

1. At the beginning of the game, your character is standing in front of a huge white broken house.

2. There is a trophy holder in the living room of the house.

To pass the level, all the treasures collected must be brought back to the living room and placed on the trophy rack.

Well, now every line of the quatrain makes sense:

The captain hides the emerald key
it is stored in the forgotten place
only after collecting trophies

Only then can we blow the whistle on the other side

Decades ago, GSS bought the copyright and transferred the "Magic Domain" series to Flobalz in 3D.For many elderly people, this is really shocking.Flobalz is the name of a character in "Evilland".So that forgotten place—the house I've been searching for for the past six months—must be there waiting for me.

The navigation computer steers the ship at the speed of light, and in 15 minutes I'll be in Flobalds. The "Sixth Man" may have already arrived.If that were the case, I would have encountered countless ships of theirs in orbit.Through fierce battles, fight your way to land on the planet, and then defeat them to grab the emerald key.That doesn't sound like a good plan.

Fortunately, I already have countermeasures.When slaying the red dragon, I got a precious teleportation ring, which is also one of the most valuable items in my inventory.This ring allows me to teleport to any location in the oasis, but the cooldown time is as long as one month.I see it as a covert means of getting out of a desperate situation, or a teleportation tool in an emergency - like now.

I set a series of automatic parameters for Vonnegut, so that it will be invisible immediately after entering the planet's atmosphere, and it will locate and land on my position.With luck, the "Sixth Man" won't spot Vonnegut.But if anything goes wrong, I'll be stranded in Flobalds, and probably have to face a siege from the enemy.

After setting everything up, I activated the teleportation ring, and while enveloped in its glow, I called out my destination, and Flobalz's map appeared on my screen.Like Middleton, the planet has hundreds of identical Sim Worlds.To be exact, 510 two.This also means that there are 510 two white houses all over the surface of the planet.I should be able to find the Emerald Key in either one.After choosing one of them, white light flashed, and in the blink of an eye, I arrived at my destination.

I opened the Holy Grail Diary, found the strategy of "Evil Realm", and pulled the game map to the upper right corner of my field of vision.

Looking up at the sky, there is no sign of the "Sixth Man", but that doesn't mean they haven't arrived yet.Sorrento and his people may have also been teleported like me.After seeing Edge's score increase, they will definitely use Findoro to search for the slate, so as to locate the planet where Edge is located.I must find the key as soon as possible and leave immediately.

I began to look around, and the surroundings felt oddly familiar.

The text at the beginning of "Magic Domain" is as follows:

west side of house
You are standing on open flat ground on the west side of a white house with a boarded up front door.There is a small mailbox here.

I am standing on an open flat field now, the front door of the white house on the east side is boarded up, and there is a mailbox not far in front of me.The house is surrounded by a forest, and at the end of the field of vision, on top of the forest, are mountains.I glanced to the left, there is a trail going north, which is the same as the description in the game.

I ran to the back of the house, found a half-closed window, pulled it open, and climbed inside.As expected, I landed on the stove.In the middle of the kitchen is a wooden table with a brown sack and a bottle of water on it.The chimney is not far away, and there is a flight of stairs beside it.The hallway on the left leads to the living room.Everything is exactly as described in the game.

But there are also some things in the kitchen that are not mentioned in the game: a stove, a refrigerator, a few wooden chairs, and a row of cabinets.I opened the freezer to find junk food, including pizza, pudding, frozen meat, a few packets of seasoning, and a dozen cans.

And nachos.

In the innermost of all kinds of nachos, I found Captain Kacha.It clearly says on the box: "Free toy whistle included!"

The captain hides the Emerald Key.

I dumped the contents of the box on the floor, and then I saw it—the little whistle.After picking it up and looking carefully, you can see the cartoon image of Captain Kacha printed on one side of this yellow plastic toy, and a puppy on the other side.

I brought the whistle to my mouth and blew hard.But it didn't make a sound, nothing happened.

Only after collecting trophies can you go to blow the whistle of the other side.

I put away the whistle, opened the sack on the dining table, and inside was a pile of garlic.I put them in my inventory and ran west into the living room.The floor is covered with Jangdong-style carpets, and the furniture is antiques from movies in the 40s.On the west wall was a strangely carved door, and on the east wall leaned against a shelf that was empty save for a battery-operated lantern and a dangling sword.

I took my lantern and sword, opened the secret door I knew was hidden under the floor, and walked up the steps leading to the dark underground.

The further you go down, the brighter the sword appears in the light of the lantern.

I continued to flip through the Holy Grail Diary, remembering how to get through the various mazes and puzzles in the dungeon.Along the way, I collected all nineteen treasures in the game one after another, brought them to the living room in batches, and put them in the trophy rack.In the meantime, I also had to fight trolls, cyclops, and super annoying rogues.As for the epic monster lurking in the dark, ready to eat my flesh at any time, I carefully avoided it.

Except for the unexpected surprise in the kitchen, I didn't find any other differences between this place and the "Demon Realm" game.Therefore, if you want to pass the level in this 3D magic world, you only need to follow the strategy step by step.I didn't stop along the way, and it took only 22 minutes to reach the goal of all collections.

Just after getting the No. 19 treasure—the pocket brass ornament, a prompt flashed on the screen that Vonnegut had arrived and parked on the west side of the house by the automatic driving system.The cloaking equipment is still functioning, and the shields have been activated.If the "Sixth Man" fleet has indeed reached low-Earth orbit, we can only hope that they have not seriously checked the surface.

I ran back to the living room of the White House for the last time, and put the remaining treasures on the trophy holder. Just like the original "Evil World", a map appeared on the trophy holder, showing the location of the end of the game-in a car Near the hidden wheelbarrow.But there's no need to rush to the finish line now, as all the "trophies" are on the shelves.I took out Captain Kacha's whistle, which has three holes at the top, and I pressed my finger on the third hole to blow out the famous 2600 Hz whistle.

The shape of the whistle changed, it became a key.And my score on the scoreboard went up by 18000 points.

Parsifal moved back up to second place, just 1000 points ahead of Edge.

In an instant, the entire Demon Realm was reset.The treasures on the trophy rack also disappeared, and the rest of the house was restored to its original state.

I stared at the keys in the palm of my hand and felt a panic.This is a silver key, not the color that jade should be.I hold it in front of my eyes, and the silver outer layer suddenly peels away like paper, revealing a piece of emerald green inside.

Emerald Key.

Like the brass key, there is also a line of small characters on the emerald key:
Take the test and continue the mission

I read this sentence several times, but couldn't understand what it meant, so I threw it in my backpack.Then I started looking at the silver paper, which was silver on one side and white on the other.The top is spotless.

At this moment, the roar of the spaceship came faintly.There must be a "sixth man" coming, and it sounds menacing.

As I ran out of the house and collected the papers, I saw hundreds of "Sixth Man" warships circling like vultures overhead, and they were landing in different directions, seeming to occupy the entire surface of the planet.

I don't think the "Sixth Man" will use the position blocking method this time, because it requires a total of five hundred and twelve force fields.Moreover, Flobalz is a PVP dual area, and hunters will not be as helpless as they are in Ludes.Soon tens of thousands of fully armed hunters will pour in here. If the "Sixth Man" wants to stop them, it means that an unprecedented war is about to break out.

Just as I was running towards Vonnegut, I saw a group of spaceships rushing straight towards here, hundreds of them in number, obviously staring at me.

Max had already turned on the Vonnegut's engine, so I gave the order to take off as soon as I was aboard. The "Sixth Man" ship tried to keep up with me.By the time Vonnegut took to the sky, the Sixth Man's firepower had already fallen on its shell.Fortunately, this firefly is very fast and has a very strong shield, so before I was shot down, I escaped from the low-earth orbit in time and entered the speed of light.

It's really hanging by a thread.

Vonnegut was a little bit damaged, so instead of going straight back to base, I flew to Joey's dock.This dock is actually an orbital spacecraft repair station in the tenth sector.The owner, Joey, is a maintenance NPC, reliable and fast.I come here every time for repairs and upgrades on the Vonnegut.

While Joey was fixing the ship, I texted Edge to thank him.Whatever he felt he owed me at one time, he has now paid it off.At the same time, I begged him to forgive me for being a selfish bastard.

(End of this chapter)