Chapter 36 - Bloody Maple Leaf: End (1/2)
Chapter 36 – b.l.o.o.d.y Maple Leaf: End
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Shortly after Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang cleared the secret room, they were transferred back to their personal s.p.a.ce.
The clearance condition of the 3 of Hearts secret room was to find the person who poisoned Ying Xiaoya and the murderer who pushed her off the building. It didn’t require the players to completely a.n.a.lyze the plot, similar to the 2 of Hearts secret room. The hidden plot would be presented in the plot card.
The personal s.p.a.ce of the two people was still in a merged state. The moment they entered the personal s.p.a.ce, they saw a beautiful woman wearing a long red dress, looking at them with a smile from the sofa. “Long time no see.”
The keeper of Hearts always had a friendly, gentle ‘sister-like’ smile on her face.
Xiao Lou nodded at her. “h.e.l.lo A of Hearts, we meet again.”
A of Hearts spoke with emotion. “3 of Hearts is a level higher than 2 of Hearts yet the two of you perfectly cleared it and refreshed the world record. I was really surprised.”
Xiao Lou asked curiously, “The C-grade secret rooms have no clue collection prompts. How is our score judged in the end?”
A of Hearts explained with a smile, “There are two ways to clear this secret room. The first one is to follow the police. The police will help the players find clues. As long as they use the restricted card (invisibility cloak) and pay attention to the progress of the police when interrogating the suspects, they can usually solve the case on the seventh day.”
Yu Hanjiang frowned slightly. “The police only solved the case on the seventh day. Is this because the key evidence of the shoes was disposed of?”
A of Hearts nodded. “After the storm the next day, the school’s garbage bin is full and the cleaners are ready to get rid of it. This is actually a reminder but many players weren’t aware of it. They didn’t go to the garbage bin and see the garbage bin leave the school, making them miss a key opportunity. Looking for these shoes at the landfill will naturally delay the time.
A of Hearts paused before continuing. “In most cases, the bones in the maple forest will appear on the fifth day. Your clues collection progress was so fast that the plot was triggered early and it appeared on the third day.”
It seemed that the secret room plot would be dynamically adjusted based on the player’s search progress. Yu Hanjiang nodded in understanding. “We found the shoes in advance and increased our clearance score?”
“It isn’t only the shoes. The chocolate, scarf, love letter, Count of Monte Cristo in Xie Xinghe’s bag and the ‘what should I do’ in Ying Xiaoya’s book are the first clues. The laboratory lock, the poison and the signature book are the second clues. The data room information on Si Han and the three missing people are the third clues. The fourth clues are in the office and the last clue is Zhang Qing’s human bone necklace.”
She looked at the two people with appreciation. “You found all the secret room’s clues and found it before the police. Therefore, every clue increased your clearance score.”
Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang looked at each other with realization.
In other words, those who only wanted to live through the instance could act as a salted fish behind the police, relying on the police’s help. As long as they survived seven days without starving to death, they could also catch the murderer. However, those who wanted a perfect clearance must be a step ahead of the police, searching for evidence, finding clues and making guesses,
If it wasn’t for Yu Hanjiang’s unlocking skills, they might not have found the evidence in the office.
Yu Hanjiang asked, “What is the elimination rate of the 3 of Hearts secret room?”
The keeper replied, “60%.”
She shrugged regretfully. “Most of them were discovered by the security guards and thrown from the school. There are some people whose tacit understanding when using the invisibility cloak was too bad, resulting in them missing a lot of key information and making reasoning errors. Some were unreliable and overslept on the next day, so that they didn’t even discover the key role of the secret room was Ying Xiaoya. They ran around like headless flies looking for the protagonist and had their scores deducted.”
Xiao Lou, “…”
The others were understandable but oversleeping in the morning… it was hard to look straight at.
Xiao Lou looked at the keeper. “What are the rewards for this perfect clearance? Can you settle it now?”
“Of course, please check your card pack.”
Xiao Lou opened the card pack and indeed, there were three new cards.
[Equipment Card: Invisibility Cloak]
Rarity: A
Description: 3 of Hearts limited card. It is only after a perfect clearance that this limitation is lifted and it can be used in other secret rooms.
Effect: Enter the invisible state when used and become invisible for 30 minutes. It can only be used once every day, according to the secret room’s time flow rate.
[Tool Card: Universal/ Energy/ Key]
Rarity: B
Description: A fixed reward for clearing the 3 of Hearts secret room.
Effect: It can open any lock in the secret room world, including door locks, drawer locks, safe locks etc. However, it can’t be used in the Diamonds secret room. The key can be used 5 times and is damaged after 5 uses.
The Universal/ Energy/ Key was the reward card for clearing the instance. Yu Hanjiang had unlocking skills and this card was of little use. It could be considered for selling later. The invisibility cloak was from selecting option A after perfectly clearing the instance and it was successfully taken out of the secret room.
Although they didn’t choose B and lost one million coins, Xiao Lou’s mood was much better after seeing these two cards.
The third card was indeed the plot card.
[Plot Card: b.l.o.o.d.y Maple Leaf]
Rarity: S
Description: A reward for perfectly clearing the 3 of Hearts secret room b.l.o.o.d.y Maple Leaf.
Note: This plot card can be opened at any time and anywhere in order to view the complete story of the 3 of Hearts secret room.
Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang glanced at each other.
The 2 of Hearts plot card showed Zhao Sen killing two people and taking away his cousin’s body. Finally, he stood at the entrance and smiled at the camera, making Xiao Lou’s scalp numb. Although the murderer in that case was perverted, Xiao Lou had no contact with the deceased at all. Watching the plot was like watching a TV series… there were no deep feelings.
The 3 of Hearts secret room was different. He had seen Ying Xiaoya in person and stood outside the cla.s.sroom listening to Zhang Qing teach. These people were vivid and were like real people around him. Xiao Lou couldn’t bear to watch Ying Xiaoya fall into that tragic situation.
Still, he quickly took a breath and adjusted his mindset. He wanted to find out Ying Xiaoya’s true cause of death.
Xiao Lou decisively opened the plot card. The card with the maple leaf spun in the air and quickly unfolded into a large screen on the wall. It started to play the complete story of the secret room.
Five years ago, Maple Forest High School.
The school had just been built and several nearby schools were merged. The scale was unprecedented and the leaders of the city personally came to partic.i.p.ate in the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Si Han carried a schoolbag as she walked next to a cla.s.smate. The girl’s eyes were full of excitement and curiosity. She explored the school before going to the maple forest to look at the falling leaves, a shallow smile on her face.
Her companion said, “Si Han, our new school is so beautiful! There are your favourite maple trees!”
Si Han stood between the maple trees, picking up a maple leaf. “Yes, the school environment is good. I heard that the school spend hundreds of millions to repair this school. The desk and chairs in the cla.s.sroom, the instruments in the laboratory and the computers in the network centre are all new.”