Chapter 81
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Lou Yan sighed helplessly.
He looked at his mental power, still at 30 points.
Enough.
But the consumption was so fast, which was really beyond his expectations.
“Don’t worry, I won’t let you cut off your arm. It would be a waste to lose a top talent nurtured by the country,” Lou Yan smiled after remembering the location of the ventilation duct. He rubbed his forehead and chuckled softly, unusually relaxed in such a situation. “It’s really strange. The intensity of the second floor almost killed the three of us here. We didn’t even take an hour to reach the second floor, and we were already struggling. Wouldn’t it be even harder for the people who come in later?”
His laughter gradually turned sarcastic. “It’s so strange how the difficulty of the second floor increased so rapidly within such a short time. Are the anomalies only planning to play with the remaining six floors for those who passed the first few levels? Especially…”
Lou Yan looked at Lin You, his voice neither high nor low but clear in this deep and narrow corridor. “Especially you, Lin You. You didn’t lose an arm in your previous life.”
In this life, he didn’t have much interaction with Lin You, just giving him a Mental Recovery Syringe before. So Lou Yan’s butterfly effect couldn’t reach Lin You. Since Lin You chose to participate in this entertainment this time, it proved that the previous Lin You also participated.
In the previous generation, without him and Li Sanxin, Lin You could still survive well. So why was Lin You almost dying this time?
Who increased the difficulty for them?
Facing Lin You’s puzzled expression, Lou Yan had no intention of explaining. When the mirror people were about to grab them, he calmly said, “Time reversal.”
[Spiritual Power: 20/70]
Time quickly rewound to five minutes ago.
At this moment, the mirror people were about a meter away from the mirror.
Lou Yan’s whole body was burning, his skin reflecting red in the mirror, his face flushed, and the corners of his eyes burning red. He glanced at his reflection in the mirror, frowned, closed his eyes, and the heat from his body instantly evaporated into a layer of white mist on the mirror. Lou Yan stopped and exhaled a few breaths of hot air, then turned to look at Li Sanxin and Lin You, who had stopped inexplicably behind him. “I know where the passage is now, follow me.”
Li Sanxin’s expression was surprised for a moment. He knew that Lou Yan had used “Time Reversal” again. What happened in the future? Why did Yanzi use “Time Reversal” again?
He reached out and touched Lou Yan’s arm, realizing that the temperature had exceeded forty degrees.
Without saying more, Lou Yan turned and led the way. Li Sanxin followed closely behind, his eyes filled with worry.
Frequent use of “Time Reversal” would raise Lou Yan’s body temperature very high. This was already the second time within an hour. He was afraid that if Lou Yan used “Time Reversal” again, the temperature would be so high that it would burn him.
Here it comes again.
Watching their movements, Lin You once again felt a sense of guilt for cheating and a bit of satisfaction from taking a shortcut. He rubbed his nose, silent but immediately followed them.
On the way back, Lou Yan noticed that Lin You’s speed was slow, so he once again half-piggy backed him and hurried him to the ventilation duct.
Lin You was muscular, with tendons all over his body. He was a size bigger and weighed thirty to forty pounds more than Lou Yan. He originally thought Lou Yan couldn’t carry him, but he underestimated Lou Yan. Lou Yan’s speed was even faster when he half-piggy backed Lin You.
With previous experience, this time, when the arms of the mirror people just emerged from the mirrors, the three of them found the passage to leave the second floor.
Because the ceiling was too high, Lin You squatted down with his legs apart and patted his thighs, then stacked his hands in front of him, indicating for Lou Yan and Li Sanxin, “Step on me to get up.”
Lou Yan didn’t hesitate to step forward and neatly stepped on Lin You’s thighs, then lifted his foot onto Lin You’s hands. Lin You lifted him up, and when the height was about the same, Lou Yan reached out and rubbed the black ceiling, finding the ventilation duct.
As soon as the ventilation duct was opened, several bats screamed and flew out. After the bats flew away, Lou Yan grabbed the edge of the ventilation duct and effortlessly leaped up, climbing onto the ventilation duct.
Li Sanxin also climbed up in the same way, and after he got up, the two of them pulled Lin You up together.
The passage was pitch black, with no indication of where it led to on either side. It was square and narrow, only allowing people to sit cross-legged.
If you wanted to move around here, you had to crawl on your knees.
The three of them closed the ventilation duct and breathed a sigh of relief. Lou Yan looked around and said, “I didn’t feel any danger here. Let’s rest here for a while.”
With these words, Li Sanxin and Lin You also secretly breathed a sigh of relief. They didn’t have much mental power left.
Sitting like this was too tiring for the three of them, so each of them found a spot to lie down. Li Sanxin didn’t care about the dirtiness here and grimaced as he touched the place where he had been scratched by the mirror people, ready to take a nap.
The three of them rested with their eyes closed for more than two hours, until their mental power had recovered halfway before they opened their eyes.
As soon as they opened their eyes, their spirits were much better, and they had the energy to continue exploring the remaining floors. The three of them sat cross-legged together, their stomachs growling.
Well, they were all hungry.
Li Sanxin sighed, covering his stomach, leaning against the wall, and curling up in the narrow corridor. “Ah, if we could have a barbecue and a beer at this time, how comfortable would it be?”
“Don’t talk about it,” Lou Yan said expressionlessly, sitting cross-legged, “Talking about it makes me even hungrier.”
Lin You couldn’t help but smile. “If we can all get out alive, I’ll treat you guys to a barbecue. There’s a barbecue stall next to our office with a really good taste and affordable price. If you order more than two hundred, you can get a twenty percent discount.”
Li Sanxin clicked his tongue. “That boss is really reliable. Alright, let’s make a date for this meal. Comrade Lin You, you’ll treat us.”
Lou Yan said softly, “You two better not make promises you can’t keep.”
After exchanging a few jokes, Lou Yan slowly brought up the suspicions he had been thinking about earlier. “Did you guys notice that the process of passing through was too difficult?”
Li Sanxin and Lin You glanced at each other, then nodded seriously together. Li Sanxin supported his chin and said, “Let’s not talk about the maze on the first floor. We were also among the first group to reach the second floor. But just when we cleared the level, we encountered dangerous situations and even needed you to use ‘Time Reversal’ once… Such difficulty is somewhat abnormal. If the three of us are having such a hard time, how will the others who arrive later cope with it?”
Because Lin You was here, Li Sanxin didn’t mention Lou Yan’s ability to “Time Reversal.”
“I also thought so,” Lou Yan narrowed his eyes. “It’s as if someone deliberately increased the difficulty for us.”
Suddenly, Li Sanxin thought of Fu Xuezhou and sat up abruptly, looking at Lou Yan. “Could it be Fu Xuezhou?”
Lou Yan’s face darkened at the mention of Fu Xuezhou and replied coldly, “I don’t know.”
Fu Xuezhou being selected as a hunter meant that in this game, Fu Xuezhou could cooperate with the anomalies. If it was Fu Xuezhou trying to cause trouble for him, whether through cooperation or coercion, the anomalies would probably be willing to give Fu Xuezhou face and add some difficulty to Lou Yan.
But why would Fu Xuezhou do that?
Lou Yan’s mood soured at the thought of Fu Xuezhou. The torn and tattered clothes from when Fu Xuezhou tore them were still hidden underneath his outerwear, and he hadn’t found a chance to take them off until now.
However, his mood didn’t affect his rationality. “It might not be him. What benefit does he gain from increasing our difficulty? It could also be the anomalies acting as spectators, or even the Anomaly Lord.”
“I think that makes sense. This could very well be the anomalies’ doing,” Lin You agreed with Lou Yan’s words, speaking rationally and objectively. “If it were just normal difficulty, we wouldn’t have experienced such danger and near-death experiences. This is an amusement park, and the anomalies wouldn’t want to see us easily pass through. The more capable people are, the higher the difficulty they’ll face. That’s how it works when we train too.”
Li Sanxin felt that what the two of them said made sense. However, he couldn’t help but stare at Lou Yan as if he were a fool. “What’s the benefit of Fu Xuezhou increasing the difficulty of our clearance? Of course, there are benefits. Aren’t you still here?”
Lou Yan raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“He threatened you before to figure things out within a week, but obviously you won’t do as he wishes. Plus, with paparazzi taking photos of you and Wen Jiu in a compromising position, wouldn’t he be furious?”
Li Sanxin sneered. “I’m a doctor, albeit a veterinarian, but I’ve also studied psychology in college. Fu Xuezhou seems extremely self-centered. He has no emotional basis with you, and he won’t hesitate to assert his possessiveness and declare ownership over you in front of us—this shows his desire to control his ‘property’ and territory, without allowing others to intervene. This time he came as a hunter. Who says his goal can’t be you? Perhaps he wants to increase the difficulty for us and force you to yield. He’s a hunter, we’re prisoners, and when he forces you to ask for his help, his previous deadline will be fulfilled.”
“And who knows how long we’ll stay in this amusement park? His previous deadline is almost up, and Fu Xuezhou doesn’t seem like the type to just talk tough without taking action. It’s perfectly reasonable for him to come after you as a hunter to pressure you into agreeing to… whatever he wants.”
Lou Yan fell silent.
Because he actually felt that Li Sanxin’s words made d*mn sense!
Fu Xuezhou coming here as a hunter might have other reasons, perhaps there’s something here that he needs… but Lou Yan is definitely one of Fu Xuezhou’s objectives.
Otherwise, Fu Xuezhou wouldn’t have done those things to him or said those words in the first level.
That b*stard obviously didn’t intend to wait for a week, just like he warned Lou Yan before. This was a lesson to Lou Yan for finding a flirty partner, a punishment.
D*mn punishment.
Lou Yan rubbed his temples and changed the subject. “Our current statements are all just guesses. If the difficulty of the next level is the same as everyone else’s, then it proves we were overthinking. If our difficulty is still different from others, then it means…”
His eyes flashed with a cold light. “It means we need to be even more careful from now on.”
If the anomalies wanted to increase their difficulty to add excitement, that’s fine. But if it was Fu Xuezhou…
Lou Yan couldn’t help but admit that in this amusement park, Fu Xuezhou’s presence was more unsettling than each floor’s anomalies.
In the first floor’s maze, he barely escaped with his clothes torn. What if he encounters such situations again in the future?
The identities of hunter and prisoner naturally destined Lou Yan to be the oppressed one who could only escape.
What should he do?
Something flashed in his mind, and Lou Yan suddenly said softly, “Do you guys think the identities of hunter and prisoner really can’t be reversed?”
The other two were stunned. Li Sanxin asked in surprise, “Can’t they? Didn’t that anomaly in the purple robe who called himself Shadow Reaper say that the identities of hunter and prisoner couldn’t be swapped?”
“But before it said that, there were three words,” Lou Yan said, “It said ‘here.'”
The exact words were: “Here, the identities of hunter and prisoner cannot be swapped.”
Lou Yan smiled inexplicably. “This ‘here,’ do you think it refers to the entire amusement park or just the first floor maze?”
Li Sanxin and Lin You were dumbfounded, and goosebumps rose all over them because of this sentence.
Lou Yan stared at them, and Li Sanxin’s eyes slowly lit up, unable to say anything, and simply gave Lou Yan a thumbs up. “Yanzi, this idea is brilliant!”
Lin You’s eyes were also frighteningly bright. He said directly, “Find an opportunity, let’s try exchanging roles with the hunter.”
If they could exchange roles, he could take down those notorious fugitives.
Lou Yan also felt slightly excited about his speculation. He smirked, “Let’s go, let’s continue to the next level and see if the difficulty there is still as challenging.”
Li Sanxin and Lin You nodded, but then hesitated, “Both sides are paths, which way should we go?”
Indeed, it was a problem. The narrow, pitch-black passage had no visible end on either side. Choosing the wrong path might lead them to their deaths.
Lou Yan closed his eyes, maximizing his senses. He sniffed the air, listening for sounds.
A faint, strange odor emanated from the left, accompanied by a barely perceptible breeze.
The right side was silent, without any movement.
Lou Yan opened his eyes and tilted his chin towards the left, leading the way.
Bent over, the three of them crawled towards the left side of the passage. After an unknown amount of time, they caught whiffs of both delicious food and foul odors.
The two smells mingled together, both fragrant and nauseating. They tried to breathe as little as possible as they crawled forward. After a while, they saw a pile of garbage in the passage.
The garbage was neatly tied up in black plastic bags, emitting the putrid smell of rotting sewage, comparable to the stench of rotten eggs. Above the garbage pile was a slanted passage, illuminated by bright incandescent lights shining down on the garbage heap, emitting the aroma of food.
Not just the aroma of food, but also the sounds of movement, cooking, and noisy chatter… Occasionally, kitchen waste would slide down from the slanted passage into the garbage pile.
It turned out that this passage was a garbage chute.
The only source of light in the narrow, pitch-black passage came from this garbage chute.
Was the kitchen outside the garbage chute?
Lou Yan and the others exchanged glances, cautiously approaching the garbage pile, listening to the sounds coming from outside the garbage chute.
“Hurry up and cook more dishes, it’s almost mealtime.”
“Alright, alright, it’ll be ready soon! Hey, the ingredients today are really fresh and abundant, but there’s a bit too much minced meat. Should we make dumplings?”
“Any dish is fine, but remember to roast the legs, those guys love roasted legs the most.”
“Got it!”
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