Novel Bin Ch115.2 - The Cycle of Karma, What Goes Around Comes Around (29.2)
Chapter Ch115.2 - The Cycle of Karma, What Goes Around Comes Around (29.2)
translator: baumkuchen editors: glitterypanda, serefina
Gan Tang didn’t waste any words on Meng Qian, turning to face Qiao Yun and Jia Siyuan, who were searching on their side and asking, “Have you guys found anything over there?”
Jia Siyuan raised up the clock she was holding.
Their half of the wall was filled with clocks. Some were broken, while others were working normally. The two of them were currently pulling the clocks down one by one and inspecting them to see if there was any information hidden in their dials or their surfaces.
......But if they kept going with their method that was akin to black bears picking corn, they would have to stay in this room for at least 20 minutes.
Chi Xiaochi turned to look at the remaining clocks still hanging on the wall, observing them one by one. He pointed at one clock in particular. “That one.”
Jia Siyuan really didn’t have any views of her own, but she was at least obedient.
As he asked, she pulled down the clock that was fixed at 3:20. She asked, confused, “Is there anything special about this clock?”
Chi Xiaochi prompted her a little helplessly, “......The monkey.”
...... That clock was the only one that had a cartoon of a monkey picking peaches on its dial.
Jia Siyuan stuck her tongue out in embarrassment. “Sorry. I’m...... I’m not very good at this.”
She held the clock near the glass curtain wall so that Gan Tang could see the numbers on its surface more clearly.
3:20, no mistake.
Meng Qian, seeing all of Jia Siyuan’s clumsy actions, felt like he, as the “leader”, really didn’t have any face, and his subordinates really weren’t helping. He had no choice but to say in a chilly voice, “Looks like this puzzle isn’t very difficult.”
Gan Tang pulled out a hairpin from her hair and carefully stuck it into the broken skin of the drum, preparing to adjust the hidden clock hands inside to 3:20.
The monkey shrieked, its voice sounding like nails being scraped across a chalkboard. “Only—— one chance, only—— one chance.”
Gan Yu suddenly said, “Wait.”
At the same time, Gan Tang stopped.
After the two locked gazes, Gan Tang nodded, then turned to look at Chi Xiaochi.
Perhaps because of all the escape rooms they’d been through together in that half month, Chi Xiaochi already understood the siblings’ thoughts without needing any more words.
He pulled a hundred yuan bill out of his pocket.
Before going in, the clown had them place all their communication devices as well as tools that could violently break things outside, but for some random little things, the clown hadn’t cared.
He handed the money to Gan Tang, who then aimed the monkey’s glowing purple eyes towards the note.
Sure enough, a faint watermark appeared on the note.
......Sure enough, there were traps too.
Gan Tang walked over to the communication port at the east end of the glass curtain wall and said to Jia Siyuan, “Please bring the clock here, and have it face me.”
Jia Siyuan, utterly confused, did as she asked.
And when the dark purple light shone through the communication port onto the dial of the clock across from it, Jia Siyuan sucked in a cold breath with a hiss.
Pointing in different directions from the clock hands, were two wet, bloody clock hands still covered in broken chunks of mottled meat.
The bloody points pointed to exactly 4:44.
This was the true time.
No one knew what would have happened if they’d placed the clock hands at the wrong time.
Of course, no one was willing to personally test it out.
Gan Tang’s hands didn’t shake at all. When she moved the minute hand to precisely 44 minutes, the eight people heard a faint mechanical roar.
“What’s that sound?” Meng Qian happily pushed himself half off the ground, saying, “Is it the door opening?”
“&#k2026;&#k2026;No.”
Xu Jiayi, who’d barely made any comments since entering, said, “It’s the wall that’s moving.”
His tone was very flat, giving it a hint of creepiness.
But what he said was indeed correct.
The glass curtain wall in the middle of the room had split into two on its own, and had begun to slowly move towards the two sides of the room.
Meng Qian’s face twisted. “Retreat! Quickly retreat!!”
The emotion in his voice was enough to move the timid Jia Siyuan. Holding the clock to herself, she scrambled away in mindless panic, almost falling into Xu Jiayi’s arms.
Xu Jiayi caught her. With furrowed brows, he asked, “What are you retreating for?”
He pointed at the glass curtain wall, and said, “Hasn’t it already stopped.”
That huge glass wall had originally been two walls that were tightly pressed against each other like magnets. Now that they had launched the mechanism in the monkey’s body, the two walls had moved around 10cm away from each other, the insides extending to form a passage that could just about fit one person.
On the west side of the curtain wall, opposite to the communication port, had opened a small door. They’d successfully opened up two rooms, and given everyone the opportunity to explore the corridor.
Before they could be happy, they realised that they’d only made a small step forward. How they could leave the room was still unknown.
The clues outside were sparse, and had already been pretty much completely investigated. Thus, entering this newly opened glass corridor, was imperative to moving forward.
Meng Qian, feeling like he’d just lost a lot of face, yet not daring to move easily, ordered Jia Siyuan in his place, saying, “You, go inside and take a look.”
Jia Siyuan “ah”-ed, cowering slightly. “I......”
Meng Qian said, impatient, “You’re the thinnest one here. Hurry up and go in.”
This wasn’t actually wrong. Jia Siyuan was really too thin, like a ribbonfish, but this actually made it a lot easier for her. If it was Gan Tang who tried to go in, her boobs might end up getting her stuck in that narrow space.
Jia Siyuan, obedient as ever, walked through that newly opened door into the extremely narrow corridor.
She placed her hands against the walls on both sides, advancing tentatively step by step, her palms leaving a trail of moist handprints on the glass.
Meng Qian called out, “Do you see anything?”
Jia Siyuan shook her head. “No.”
The corridor was utterly empty. It was lit with a brilliant light from above, making it so she could see everything clearly.
There were no special markings, nor any items dropped there.
Taking a few short steps, her heart was in her throat as she walked. She kept looking back, deathly afraid that a little paper person would lunge out at her from somewhere, tearing her to shreds in that claustrophobically narrow place.
She nervously, yet steadily, walked step by step from the west end to the east end.
Just as she got to the communication port, a very light electronic sound rang by her ear.
“Beep——”
Below her feet, a strange, round fluorescent device was automatically triggered.
Just as she stepped on the mechanism, two perfect fluorescent circles appeared parallel to the glass walls which contained the window.
When Jia Siyuan took a step back, the glowing circles disappeared.
It was a thermal sensor that detected human body heat!
She let out a “ya”, then looked back towards Qiao Yun and the rest in pleased shock. “I, I found it!”
Yuan Benshan’s eyes lit up, immediately thinking of the answer. “It’s the little people!”
Even though he really didn’t want to admit it, it turned out that Gan Yu was right.
The little people on the walls, were a kind of hint.
They needed to have one person enter the glass corridor in order to trigger the mechanism. Then the people in both sides of the room that had been divided into two just needed to step into those glowing circles and through the communication ports on the walls, as the mechanism implied, mimicking the hand holding position of the little people on the walls, which should trigger the next mechanism, or even......
Open the next door!
What he could think of, the others naturally could as well.
Time was tight. Qian Yun practically couldn’t wait to step into the glowing circle on the right. She signalled Gan Tang to hurry on over.
Gan Tang, as instructed, stepped in, but who knew that when she did that, an electronic voice prompt would sound, “Weight less than 55kg, weight less than 55kg. Please change person, please change person.”
......Qiao Yun’s face was green, and she really wanted to kill that system.
Gan Tang could only leave, slightly apologetic, swapping with Yuan Benshan, who was closest to the communication port.
Yuan Benshan shifted lightly over to the glowing circle, trying his best to keep his legs apart to distribute his weight more evenly, deathly afraid of breaking the floor panels.
The first time they tried it, they didn’t hold hands, each person standing on in their own circles, waiting to see if there would be any change.
Unfortunately nothing happened.
Jia Siyuan, in the corridor, took the initiative to reach out her hands, placing them in the grasp of the people on both sides.
Like the little people on the walls, the three linked hands.
And right after the three stood still for a moment, they heard the mechanical roar they so wished for.
Jia Siyuan raised her head and looked over.
The corridor had divided the room evenly into left and right. She was at the east end of the corridor, holding hands with her partners.
And at the west end of the corridor, a thin gap was forming in the middle of the corridor, moving towards both sides, like a pair of slowly opening glass lips.
Jia Siyuan was so happy she could cry. “Did it! We did—— eh?”
Her voice abruptly cut off.
And in the next second, her voice became so panicked it cracked. “The corridor...... is the corridor, becoming narrower?”
The corridor, which had originally even been a little spacious for her frame, was, as the glass door on the other end opened, actually gradually closing, pressing against her shoulders!
This ominous development made her face pale. She instinctively spread her legs, ready to run. But the moment her foot left the sensor circle, the door, which had already opened a little bit, started moving inwards once more, closing with a bang!
Things had happened too suddenly. Chi Xiaochi, lying on the ground, was in complete shock, when realisation came to him in a flash, making his heart turn cold.
......A death trap!
......This was a complete and utter death trap!
Upon seeing their hope arrive, but then their door to life close once more, Qiao Yun was so anxious that she hadn’t actually let go of Jia Siyuan’s hand.
At that very moment, the drummer monkey shrieked once more, giggling in its distorted, childish voice, “Only—— one chance, only—— one chance.”
Qiao Yun’s face twisted abruptly. She subconsciously tightened her grip on Jia Siyuan’s hand!
Jia Siyuan was unable to break free. When she looked back, her face was already ashy pale. “Xiao Yun! What are you doing!! Let go!!”
Because of the abrupt changes, Yuan Benshan also had yet to release his grip.
Qiao Yun used all her strength to hold Jia Siyuan’s hand in a death grip, and shouted at the top of her lungs at Yuan Benshan, “There’s ‘only one chance’! Don’t you get it!? If she runs, who’s going to still be willing to go in and step on the switch, to help open the door for us?! Are you?”
Yuan Benshan’s throat bobbed violently. No longer hesitating, he firmly kept Jia Siyuan’s hand in place, even dragging her branch-like arm right out through the communication port, turned it over, and forcefully pulled it down!
Jia Siyuan felt a burst of pain in her arm as she was forcefully dragged back to her original position.
The mechanism started up once more.
It was already impossible for anyone to enter the corridor. Meng Qian half-crawled, half-ran like a four legged snake to the crack of the opening door, doing his best to stuff his arms and head into the tiny little opening. Xu Jiayi had been shocked stiff by these sudden changes. After looking back and forth for a bit, he chose to go up to the door with Meng Qian, and try to force it open.
“Not enough! It’s still not enough!”
Meng Qian tried to use brute force to speed up the door opening, but the door wasn’t at all affected, continuing to open only at the speed of the corridor walls closing.
As the group’s door to life opened, so did Jia Siyuan’s door to death.
In the corridor, Jia Siyuan’s body had already been squeezed to the point that her shoulders were starting to distort. She cried out non-stop, desperately kicking her legs, but due to being too frightened and the limited space in the corridor, she couldn’t exert any strength.
She wailed, “Let me go, please!! Please, I’m begging you!!”
Seeing that the situation was developing to the point of no return, Gan Tang lunged over, slamming a fist into Yuan Benshan’s face.
However, at that moment, Yuan Benshan’s adrenaline surged, and he was actually to bear the brunt of the blow.
He spat out the blood in his mouth and continued to drag her arm down with a swollen face and bruised nose.
Gan Tang turned and shouted, “Ge!!”
But Chi Xiaochi was already one step ahead of them, rolling over to the opening door and started to pull the door open from both sides with Meng Qian.
Gan Yu came over and stood behind him and pushed at the door with him.
But none of them were willing to exert too much force through their feet, deathly afraid of breaking the floor panels.
Chi Xiaochi was pushing so hard that his fingertips were white and cold sweat flowed down his forehead, just to try to find a critical point.
Maybe it was still possible, maybe they could still save her!!
Jia Siyuan’s eyes had rolled to the back of her head from the pressure. Her bones started to crunch non-stop from the force, and blood slowly began to drip down from the corners of her mouth.
Gan Tang stared at Chi Xiaochi’s end with gritted teeth the entire time, waiting for his judgement of the situation.
Chi Xiaochi looked back at her and shook his head.
The crack of the opening door was too small! He couldn’t even squeeze in his head!
Seeing that Jia Siyuan was about to die, Gan Tang didn’t do as he wished, raising her leg and kicking hard at the glass.
She should still be able to be saved, she should——
The glass was indeed fragile, breaking with a kick, but as it shattered, the glass wall suddenly sped up, closing shut!
With a scream, bright red meat paste splattered across the walls of the completely closed glass corridor. Two bloody arms fell limply from the hands holding them to the ground.
She’d become a true “person in the gap”.
The complete, sweaty handprints she’d just made were even still left on the inside of the glass.
And Gan Tang also uncontrollably fell to the ground.
At the moment that she’d raised her right leg and shattered the glass with a kick, her right leg had also turned into glass and shattered onto the ground.
......This was the punishment for destruction.
Getting through this room, took them fifteen minutes, one human life, and a member’s leg.
In response to such a shock, everyone lost the ability to speak for a short period of time.
Only the monkey was still beating its little broken drum, happily playing an elegy for the dead Jia Siyuan. “Only—— one chance, only—— one chance.”
sere: so gruesome and creepy omg don’t read at night
baum: I love how insidious the design of the room is~ [deleted the rest of my original comment bc I realised they go into it next chapter and I don’t want to steal this novel’s thunder]
+ a rough layout of the room, for those that are confused: