Chapter 203: I Won’t Use the Rules Even If I Have Them, I’m Just Playing!
Seeing the green gas leaking out, the Violet-Eyed Woman quickly closed the door.
Based on her experience of opening doors, this was toxic gas, and very potent toxic gas at that.
Luckily, she had held her breath while opening the door, otherwise, that single whiff could have knocked her right out.
After closing the door, she walked back.
“What do we do? This room is full of toxic gas. Without things like gas masks, there’s simply no way for us to enter.”
At this moment, the gazes of all the teammates turned towards Rahman.
In times of danger, it was up to a Chosen One like Rahman to figure things out.
Rahman was also thinking quickly. There were three options here: either give up directly and search for the next double-door room; or search for gas masks in the nearby question-mark rooms; or hold their breath and try to enter without breathing.
If they gave up, they might miss something crucial. Once they moved to the next level, they wouldn’t be able to come back up.
The nearby question-mark rooms also posed problems, essentially being a blind box. If they opened one and encountered some powerful, bizarre creature, the danger level would skyrocket immediately.
Therefore, the best option was to hold their breath and enter.
Rahman explained the methods and then had everyone practice holding their breath right then, each person calculating their own limit.
Of course, they wouldn’t all go in together. The best plan was to enter one by one, or in pairs of two.
As long as they found the organ in the glass container, that was enough. There was no need to search this level excessively and increase the difficulty.
Everyone followed his suggestion and began calculating their own breath-holding times.
Once the calculations were done, naturally, the Violet-Eyed Woman entered first.
The average person can hold their breath for about one to two minutes; more skilled individuals can manage five to ten minutes, but those require training.
The Violet-Eyed Woman seemed to have the best breath-holding ability in the group, as she had performed underwater escape magic tricks before, which require breath-holding training.
After checking the double-door room for any other dangers and searching one of the inner rooms without finding the container with the organ, she came out.
She closed the door and began describing the conditions inside, even drawing a simple map on the wall.
This would help the others when they went in to check.
After all, holding one’s breath for too long in a single attempt can harm the body. They couldn’t just rely on her breath-holding skills and expect her to handle this level alone.
Rahman nodded. He took a deep breath, held it, and entered the room.
It was filled with green gas, visibility was low, and even with a flashlight, it was difficult to see distant objects. He had to rely on the map drawn by the Violet-Eyed Woman to feel his way around, while also ensuring he didn’t trip over anything.
There were quite a few rooms inside. There was no need for him to check the rooms the Violet-Eyed Woman had already inspected.
After coming out, he marked an X on the rooms he had checked on the map.
This went on with each person entering in turn. By the time the fourth person went in, the Goatee Captain found the container holding the liver, so the Gold-Rimmed Glasses Man didn’t need to enter.
This was how ordinary Chosen Ones played it—steady and seeking victory. Even if they didn’t find the right room initially, after a few rounds, they could thoroughly explore all the rooms inside.
The speed depended on the Chosen Ones’ luck. Some found it on the second attempt, others only on the second round.
Zhang Yangqing’s approach was much more straightforward and brutal. He simply opened all the nearby question-mark rooms.
If a room contained bizarre creatures, he immediately slaughtered them.
His swift and decisive manner frightened his nearby teammates.
However, this was just the playstyle of a top-tier superhuman. If an ordinary Chosen One opened a room with bizarre creatures, their chances of survival would plummet, and they might even need to hide in a previously discovered purple exclamation mark room.
Given that, it was better to hold their breath and enter.
By the time he opened the fourth room, he had found a set of protective gear against the gas.
There was only one set, so someone had to be chosen to go in. Once wearing the gas mask, there was no need to take turns entering.
In an effort to curry favor with Zhang Yangqing, the Slicked-Back Hair Man volunteered to put on the gas mask and enter.
Seeing him act so obsequiously, the others just gave him a disdainful look but didn’t stop him or compete for the task.
Actually, the Slicked-Back Hair Man had his own reasons for doing this.
In this basement filled with toxic gas, now that he had the gas mask, the others would be too embarrassed to take it from him. He could keep wearing it, reducing his risk of being poisoned.
Killing two birds with one stone—why wouldn’t he do it?
After the team waited for a while, the Slicked-Back Hair Man emerged with a glass jar.
As for this glass jar, he carefully stored it in his backpack.
Such minor tasks naturally didn’t require Zhang Yangqing’s personal attention. Everyone cooperated with him quite well.
After all, they had started to define their own roles in Zhang Yangqing’s team—they were probably meant to handle these miscellaneous chores.
Combat matters certainly wouldn’t require their intervention.
Although communication within Zhang Yangqing’s team wasn’t extensive, everyone knew their place and duties.
With this organ obtained, the Chosen Ones now had three organs in their possession.
While other Chosen Ones continued forward, Zhang Yangqing began summoning the golden drill to bore through the ground again.
The audience was puzzled. How did he know he could go down now? What if there were still double-door rooms ahead containing organs?
Zhang Yangqing didn’t need to explain here; his every move was observed and analyzed by the expert panel.
The expert panel’s Hu Liuqi explained to everyone:
“Rule 1 mentions that after walking three kilometers, a room with a blue question mark will appear, containing the method to proceed to the next level. So, after walking three kilometers, it’s time to go down. This is some hidden information in the strange-tale world. If you calculate carefully, you’ll know that a special zone appears every kilometer. Zhang Tianshi has already walked two kilometers. The next kilometer is the path to the next level; there’s nothing else there. So, he simply went straight down.
If there were any missing organs, or if he miscalculated, he could always drill back up. Others might not dare, but he certainly did. After all, the rule said not to go up because it was dangerous, not because it was a guaranteed death rule. So, Zhang Tianshi didn’t need to worry.”
After hearing Hu Liuqi’s explanation, the audience in Dragon Country also understood Zhang Yangqing’s approach.
Simply put, Zhang Tianshi was taking the easy way out. If he could save himself from walking one kilometer, he’d rather not walk it.
Even within the strange-tale world, he took laziness to the extreme.
When other Chosen Ones reached the three-kilometer mark, they also found the blue question-mark room. They didn’t dare to be careless, still checking if the room’s markings were correct before entering.
As the light shone, the appearance of the room was revealed—it was a kitchen.
There were some knives in the kitchen; the more handy ones were taken by the mountaineering team and stored in their backpacks for emergencies.
Just as everyone was using flashlights to search the dim room for the hidden well shaft, the Slicked-Back Hair Man made a puzzled sound.
“Huh? Everyone, be careful. Something’s off here. I checked the stove, and it seems someone was here about two or three days ago. There are signs of use.”
The Slicked-Back Hair Man said he was a chef and demonstrated his professionalism here.
Based on his judgment, someone had used this particular stove roughly three to six days ago.
Although only this one stove showed signs of use while everywhere else was covered in dust, he still noticed it.
His analysis made the atmosphere turn eerie.
If this place were full of bizarre creatures, everyone would have gotten used to it by now. But if there were still people here, wouldn’t that be even more terrifying than bizarre creatures?
Could it be the ‘human’ mentioned in the diary who could oppose the angel?
Everyone began discussing, each offering their own theories.
Rahman carefully analyzed the information and then said, “I don’t think it could be that so-called ‘human.’ That human lacks vital organs and couldn’t appear in these places. There’s also a certain probability that it’s in a deactivated state. After all, this is an underground laboratory. Even after being destroyed, people might still come to continue research. That’s also why maggots appeared—because someone must have died on this floor.”
If signs of people having been here were discovered, then the presence of maggots could also be explained.
Moreover, Rahman’s team had also encountered some human remains full of maggots when passing through the limb-curtain.
All of this seemed to prove that there might be people in this mysterious basement.
And if these people had been here, they were likely to appear on the next level.
Thinking of this, everyone couldn’t help but feel nervous.
Because the Violet-Eyed Woman seemed to have found the entrance to the next level—again, a well shaft. This time, however, it was behind a cabinet in the wall. Prying open the secret wall revealed the well shaft.
Although the Violet-Eyed Woman was somewhat afraid, her cooldown was over, making her the most suitable candidate to go down.
If it weren’t for her, this group wouldn’t have gotten far.
It could be said that everyone seemed to rely on her somewhat.
After she went down, there was a brief moment of confusion—why was there light?
After confirming it was safe, the others also descended through the ten-meter-long well shaft one after another.
Just while climbing the well shaft, Rahman felt something was off because the ladder here had clearly been climbed before; it wasn’t as dirty as last time.
The door to the room below was closed. Shining their flashlights, they could see it was a food storage area.
However, all the food was expired, emitting a rotten, foul smell.
As per the usual procedure, regardless of what this place was, they first carefully explored for any dangers.
The mountaineering team’s flashlights illuminated every corner. Only after confirming there was no danger did they prepare to open the door and explore outside.
Otherwise, if they encountered danger outside while danger was still hidden inside, wouldn’t that mean certain death?
In such a hazardous environment, everyone preferred to be thorough in their inspection rather than face despair.
The thought that there might be other people on this level put the mountaineering team on high alert.
After opening the door, everyone seemed somewhat stunned.
This place actually had lights?
Although most of the lighting fixtures on the ceiling were broken, the remaining few were enough to illuminate parts of the area.
But the lighting wasn’t very good, flickering on and off from time to time, giving off a somewhat strange vibe.
“What’s going on? Could someone be living here? The lighting equipment seems to be still on.”
The Goatee Captain looked around warily, even more alert than in the bizarre environments before.
This is how people are—after getting used to dangerous environments, a place that doesn’t seem dangerous feels more problematic.
The group checked their surroundings and found that about one-third of the nearby rooms had no markings.
Did that mean one-third of the rooms were safe?
Because those familiar with this place knew that rooms with markings definitely contained something strange.
Hoping to test this, the Violet-Eyed Woman opened a nearby room with no markings and found it only contained some cleaning supplies, nothing dangerous.
Opening several more in a row revealed only cleaning supplies.
However, the mountaineering team was still unwilling to open the marked rooms.
After slowly adapting to this place, the mountaineering team began moving forward again. Only by finding a double-door room could they find clues.
The corridor environment was slightly better than the previous two levels, but not by much. There were still many piles of debris in the corridor.
Except for Zhang Yangqing, almost no one in the mountaineering team disliked the debris piles.
Because debris piles could block attacks from bizarre creatures.
Zhang Yangqing simply found the debris piles obstructive and would slash them open with his sword.
He couldn’t be bothered to squeeze through those narrow passages.
In such a bizarre environment, Zhang Yangqing managed to make it feel like a demolition job.
After all, the previous place had already been demolished by him.
The expert panel in Dragon Country agreed with this point, as Zhang Yangqing had demolished quite a bit outside as well.
It’s unknown whether it was influenced by Zhang Yangqing, but when the Taoist masters from Dragon Tiger Mountain were invited to help, their destructive power was immense. As a result, anyone who dared to invite someone from Dragon Tiger Mountain had to bear the consequences.
But that’s a story for another time. Right now, Zhang Yangqing faced a three-way fork in the road.
Here, they might violate a rule.
[Rule 6: Remember, you can only go downwards here. If you find yourself going upwards, evacuate the area immediately.]
Because on the upper two levels, there was only one path, so they couldn’t possibly take a wrong turn.
Here, with three paths, taking the wrong one might lead to danger and unnecessary trouble.
Other Chosen Ones were carefully determining which path was problematic, but it might be impossible to tell with the naked eye. The strange-tale world had many interferences, such as illusions.
If they only realized they’d taken the wrong path after walking some distance, turning back would be a huge hassle.
So, choosing the correct path here was crucial.
Some Chosen Ones even lay on the ground but couldn’t figure out which path was which.
“If only we had marbles here.”
Many Chosen Ones asked their teammates if they had props like glass balls, but their teammates all shook their heads. Who would carry something like that for no reason?
Here, Chosen Ones had various methods to determine the path.
Some took rollers from nearby hospital beds and placed them on the paths. If the roller rolled back, it meant the path in front was an upward slope.
Zhang Yangqing’s method was simpler. He had his teammates pour water on each path.
By observing the water’s flow, they could determine which path was walkable.
Why was his method simpler? Because he only needed to give the order.
After determining that the left path was the normal one, Zhang Yangqing led the team along the left passage.
The lights in the corridor flickered on and off, making the mountaineering team’s shadows appear and disappear intermittently.
The teammates seemed to feel that these shadows were darker than those on the previous two levels?
It gave them a feeling that the shadows might attack them.
They didn’t know if it was an illusion or not.
Some even began to suspect they had taken the wrong path.
As time passed, the mountaineering team had walked about one kilometer and found that the area ahead seemed to have been cleaned, without the mountainous piles of debris.
Walking a bit further, they saw a passageway leading to a double-door room.
The room had no markings.
But the problem was, there was a bright light in this passageway.
In this bizarre environment, the bright light felt out of place.
Zhang Yangqing didn’t seem too bothered and simply walked in.
Pushing the door open, a scene appeared before them that seemed almost impossible.
The room was brightly lit, filled with many pieces of equipment, seemingly a laboratory.
Most importantly, there were actually people in the laboratory—three of them.
The people in the laboratory, seeing others enter, also turned around, showing surprised expressions.
Here, Zhang Yangqing couldn’t be bothered to speak. He gave the Goatee Captain a look, who nodded and began communicating with the three people.
The Goatee Captain said they were a mountaineering team that had accidentally wandered here. The three said they were doctors who had been expelled but returned to continue their research.
Their goal was to resurrect the ‘human,’ because the angel was about to break free from the Eternal Clan’s seal, which would bring great disaster to the world.
This seemed to align somewhat with the contents of the diary they had found.
Seizing the opportunity, the various Chosen Ones also observed these three doctors. Apart from their different appearances, they were dressed similarly—all in white coats, wearing masks and gloves.
In this laboratory, there were two containers, each holding different organs.
When they heard the mountaineering team had the other three organs, all three doctors showed delighted expressions.
“Really? That’s great! We thought we didn’t have time to create them. We didn’t expect the previous doctors to have already made them. I’ll take you to the body. Once the organs are installed, the human will be resurrected.”
Just when the mountaineering team thought it was over here, a problem arose.
These three doctors began arguing. Each claimed that the body they created was the true ‘human,’ and the bodies created by the other two weren’t capable of opposing the angel.
After arguing for a long time, the Chosen Ones understood—this level was about making a choice.
The body storage locations mentioned by these three people were all in preservation rooms one kilometer away, in three different places.
In other words, the Chosen Ones had to choose one to believe and follow.
Two of these three people might be fakes, or perhaps their skills were lacking, unable to create a proper ‘human.’
The Chosen Ones even thought two of them might be bizarre creatures in disguise.
But they didn’t seem to have any combat capability. If they were bizarre creatures, they would have attacked to steal the organs by now.
Not only that, but these three doctors all presented their research reports—pages of data—to prove their professionalism and convince the mountaineering team to trust them.
This gave the mountaineering team a headache. How could they understand these research reports?
Not to mention the Chosen Ones, even an original inhabitant like the Goatee Captain couldn’t make sense of them.
However, the Chosen Ones who made it here were relatively intelligent.
There must be clues to follow, because the rules seemed to hint at something.
[Rule 3: They are afraid of doctors, but only the doctors from the sanatorium.]
Perhaps only the real doctors from the sanatorium could create a better human body.
So, they needed to determine who was the doctor from the sanatorium.
There were many methods. Rahman’s method was to randomly pick a doctor and follow him.
Then, halfway, open a door with an exclamation mark. When the monster inside appeared and attacked the doctor and the mountaineering team, that person would be fake.
Because the bizarre creatures were essentially patients here, and they feared real doctors.
This method was dangerous, requiring them to face attacks from bizarre creatures—truly dancing on the edge of a knife.
It was a costly strategy, harming the enemy while also harming themselves.
If they weren’t prepared, or if the bizarre creature encountered after opening the door was too powerful, they might die on the spot.
In this level, Ge Lieke finally erupted, demonstrating the immense advantage of a superhuman.
He directly captured a bizarre creature and brought it over, placing it near each of the three doctors. Whichever doctor the creature feared was the real one.
This was the top-tier ability of a top-tier superhuman.
His approach also won cheers from the audience in Noodle Nation.
The audience in Noodle Nation even felt this was the most perfect answer, with no more outrageous clearance strategy than this.
So, that meant Ge Lieke was the strongest clearer in this level.
Because in previous performances, Ge Lieke had also been outstanding.
The audience in Noodle Nation habitually opened Dragon Country’s big screen to see if their Chosen One was similar to theirs.
If they were similar, they’d see who was faster.
But after opening the big screen, the audience in Noodle Nation was, as usual, dumbfounded, with the thought, “How can someone be this outrageous?” popping into their minds.
After all, Zhang Yangqing had max-level comprehension.
He was actually reading the research reports. After looking at them for a while, he accurately determined that the research data of the other two was problematic and probably couldn’t create a ‘human.’
Moreover, he could point out the errors of those two doctors, making them realize their mistakes.
So, using this method, he precisely determined which doctor’s created body was more correct. Given enough time, he could even create a better body.
The scene before them left the audience stunned. Did you actually understand all this data just by looking at it once?
Even among unconventional clearance strategies, Zhang Yangqing’s method was outrageous among the outrageous.
