Day of Imprisonment

Qiu Kui spent more than ten minutes searching the entire lobby on the first floor.

It could be said that there was no way out of here.

Moreover, not only was there no way out, but there was also no way back. This was completely a large secret room. She even checked the ventilation ducts, but they were blocked tightly. Even a mouse might not be able to squeeze through, let alone a person.

"This is an unsolvable problem."

Qiu Kui returned to the lobby, her expression solemn.

She also used the shadow she controlled to explore, and the result was the same. There was no way to leave.

"However, this is indeed the starting point of a checkpoint scene. Since it is a checkpoint scene, there must be a way to pass it. In addition, Luo Xi also said that he had passed through here before. There is no need for him to lie about this."

Qiu Kui's competitive spirit was aroused at this moment.

She believed that she could do what the other party could do.

"There is also one point: Where are the others?" Qiu Kui didn't think that this time everyone had set up a trap for her alone, so there was only one explanation: each person who entered this scene could only go through the clearance process alone.

It was like being able to separate out many 'instances'.

This led to the impossibility of meeting other people, so to clear the level, one could only rely on one's own abilities.

Qiu Kui thought for a long time and also made some attempts, but they all failed. For example, she tried to open the elevator doors, or to clear the blockages in the stairs and ventilation ducts, but she soon realized that she was just doing useless work.

After realizing that these methods were not the correct answer, Qiu Kui became a little anxious.

Fortunately, she calmed down again.

Immediately afterwards, she decided to broaden her thinking, release her perspective from herself, and look at the problem as an outsider.

Sure enough, she had a new discovery.

"If I treat this place as a building, then my goal is to go from the first floor to the second floor. Then, in addition to the conventional routes such as elevators and stairs, there are actually other ways to go upstairs, such as finding a way from the outside of the building, climbing up along the wall."

Qiu Kui suddenly looked at the glass window.

Outside was a wriggling mass of flesh, some like intestines, and some covered with many villi.

"If the glass can be broken, and at the same time I can overcome my fear of those flesh, maybe I can climb up the outside wall. Moreover, those flesh themselves can become some kind of 'ladder'." Qiu Kui was very excited at this moment.

She felt like she had grasped the key to clearing this checkpoint.

Next was practice.

Because of the previous investigation, Qiu Kui knew that there was a tool room in the lobby on the first floor. Inside, there were many messy tools, including mops and rags for cleaning, as well as some screwdrivers and tool hammers for repairs.

Among them, the tool hammer could break the window.

Qiu Kui easily smashed a piece of glass, but the flesh outside did not invade as a result.

Under close observation, the flesh outside was not very tight. If you looked carefully, you would find many gaps. Some of the gaps were large enough for a person to squeeze through.

After discovering this, Qiu Kui could be sure that this was the key to clearing the level.

'Flesh Ladder'.

The only thing that needed to be overcome was the fear of these flesh.

It seemed that the difficulty of the scene had decreased in an instant.

But this checkpoint scene would definitely not be so simple.

Sure enough, when she reached the 5th floor, Qiu Kui saw a person. The other person was standing straight in the center of the 5th-floor lobby, holding a knife in his hand. Although he was lowering his head, she could still see that he was wearing a mask.

A maniac!

Qiu Kui was too familiar with this kind of thing.

To be precise, these maniacs were not humans, but a kind of monster that looked like a human, with only killing in their minds and no reason.

It was obvious that some unknown force had created this thing during the Day of Confinement.

After entering the 5th floor, the maniac here immediately pounced over.

However, after experiencing hundreds of cycle days, Qiu Kui was no longer the female assistant in the crew.

At this moment, she stood still. Her shadow alone controlled the maniac, and then, in the ten seconds that the other party could not move, she calmly took the knife from the other party's hand and stabbed it into the other party's heart.

It could be said that she won easily.

There was even a rare elegance.

Looking at the maniac lying on the ground and the [Memory] reward she had obtained as a result, Qiu Kui was actually a little dazed.

She thought of the day that changed everything for her. The maniac, who seemed so terrifying to her, would one day be easily slaughtered by her like livestock waiting to be slaughtered.

"I am different from before. I have changed a lot."

Qiu Kui said with emotion.

Clearly, to clear this scenario, simply discovering the path upwards is far from enough. One also needs the ability to single-handedly defeat a killer, and even that isn't the whole story.

Afterward, Qiu Kui encountered two other types of additional challenges on the 10th and 15th floors, respectively.

One was a gambling game, and the other was a riddle.

The gambling game was a very simple poker game called 'Pulling the Train'.

A deck of cards, shuffled and then divided equally into two piles, with each person holding one pile. They lay down the cards one by one in sequence. If they encounter cards with the same number, they can take all the cards between those two cards. This continues until one person runs out of cards, determining the winner.

Qiu Kui had naturally played this game before.

If cheating is prevented midway, such as secretly changing the order of the next card, then winning or losing depends entirely on luck.

But there's also another possibility: both sides cheat secretly.

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And this time, the game happened to be of this kind.

Qiu Kui was certain that the guy she was gambling against was cheating, specifically by choosing whether to play the first card in the hand in forward order or the first card in reverse order when laying down the cards.

As long as the movements are fast, others wouldn't be able to see it.

However, even cheating requires a prerequisite: at least knowing what the first and last cards in one's hand are, and what cards might be among the next few. Therefore, even cheating requires skill and memory.

Most importantly, this 'Pulling the Train' game cannot be decided quickly. In other words, each side might collect the already laid-out cards more than once. Therefore, memorizing the order of all the cards while placing them into one's hand is a basic requirement.

If one can't do this, it's impossible to win this game.

It can be said that this very simple card game tests acting skills, cheating techniques, and memory. A slight mistake can ruin everything, especially if the opponent intercepts one's anchor cards halfway, which can lead to a complete collapse and a landslide defeat.

Fortunately, Qiu Kui is no longer the newbie she once was. The experience she accumulated over hundreds of cycles allowed her to win this game relatively easily.

And on the 15th floor, the riddle didn't trap her for long either.

There was no one hosting this riddle; there was only a hint board and corresponding equipment.

A row of 12 lights in total.

The hint board read: '12 lights, all in the off state. Each light has a switch. Pressing the switch will turn on the corresponding light if it's off; otherwise, it will turn it off. The requirement is to press exactly 5 different switches each time. What is the minimum number of times needed to turn on all the lights? Please operate practically. If the number of presses is not the minimum, the challenge fails.'

Clearly, this thing can't be tested.

There's only one chance.

If one doesn't consider the condition that the 'number of times is the minimum' required by the question, it's actually very easy to do.

But after considering this, one needs to think deeply.

Although the hint board didn't say what would happen after failing the challenge, it's obvious that once one fails, they'll probably be killed immediately.

Qiu Kui began to think.

She had to hurry because Luo Xi had made it very clear that the time of arrival at the finish line would be ranked.

Of course, the higher the ranking, the better.

But if one only considers time, it will create huge psychological pressure, easily leading to mistakes in the answer due to haste, which would be counterproductive.

So Qiu Kui calmed down and was not disturbed by the time limit, but instead solved the problem very seriously.

About five minutes later, Qiu Kui had an answer.

To be on the safe side, she didn't try it immediately, but re-deduced and calculated it again. After confirming that there were no errors, she began to operate practically.

She numbered the 12 lights from 1 to 12. Because each operation required pressing exactly 5 switches, she first turned on 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5; the second time, she turned on 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10; the third time, she turned off 7, 8, 9, and 10, and turned on 11; the fourth time, she turned on 7, 8, 9, and 10, and turned on 12.

In this way, all 12 lights were turned on, and she only performed 4 operations.

In Qiu Kui's view, this was the minimum number of operations, and there couldn't be fewer than 4 times.

Sure enough, after the lights were turned on, the elevator door behind her opened with a ding.

Qiu Kui walked in.

This was an ordinary elevator, and it was obviously set up. After she entered, the elevator door closed and began to ascend.

Suddenly, she realized something at this time, and her face changed drastically.

"That's not right. This elevator may not be the upward passage; it may also be a trap. After solving the light problem, I presumptuously assumed that this was the reward after answering the question, but there's no evidence. At least I should explore the tenth floor first."

As soon as the thought arose, the elevator suddenly rumbled and shook, and then, like a free fall, it quickly fell downwards.

Qiu Kui only felt her scalp tingle.

She wanted to calm down and think of a solution, but there wasn't enough time.

Amidst confusion, astonishment, and panic, the elevator crashed heavily on the bottom floor. After a loud noise and impact, Qiu Kui fell into darkness.

When she opened her eyes again, it was already the beginning of the next cycle day.