Chapter 39: Solving the Escape Room (1/2)
*Disclaimer: This chapter has strong themes that may trigger you when you read it. Please read with caution.*
A deafening sound fell from the heavens, making everyone’s heart palpitate from surprise.
However, the other three people have already experienced playing in a haunted house before and knew outright that the terrifying sound was a common characteristic of any haunted house, so they quickly went back to the way they were. Contrary to what Xu Xiaojing had expected, upon hearing this ear-splitting noise, her face immediately turned deathly pale, while her body started trembling like there was no tomorrow.
“What the reviews say were right. This haunted house’s music is too loud, so much so that it could make anyone deaf.” Wang Ziwen mumbled while pulling Xu Xiaojing to the side to look for the mechanism.
Wang Ziwen was continuously making banging sounds all over the place as Bai Yan and Su Yize also started looking around the escape room. Since they bought the tickets, the countdown has started moving. They needed to walk out of this haunted house in half an hour, so the two’s actions were nothing short of swift.
“One and a half minutes have already passed in the countdown. We wasted a minute and a half when we were walking here, we need to pick up the pace.”
The escape room’s layout was clear from one glance. The room’s colors were painted monochromatically. There were no windows nor were there any doors. Only a table was placed in front of the two opposite walls, and a white metal cabinet was in front of the other wall, blocking it.
Bai Yan and Su Yize walked to the table, and on top of it was a model of a head, completely dripping with blood.
While the two were making some progress, on the other side of the room, matters with Wang Ziwen were also going smoothly. In a minute, she already found the mechanism hidden away in the wall.
“I found where we can input the secret codes.”
Wang Ziwen wittingly knocked on a small bump of the wall to make it open, exposing a secret panel underneath the grey wall. The players needed to enter a 4-digit code with the numbers ranging from 0 to 9.
“Have you guys found the secret code yet?” Wang Ziwen asked Bai Yan and company.
“We found a 4 and a 3.” Bai yan said, “The remaining ones must be inside the cabinet.”
Su Yize had long been standing by the cabinet, so he pulled the large white handles open. Inside was a long yet thin broom, and at the bottom of the cabinet was a note with the number 0 on it.
Seeing this scene unfold, Wang Ziwen was disappointed, “It hasn’t been two minutes yet, but we already found three numbers of the secret code. Granted that there are four of us playing, our pace is far too fast. No wonder the online reviews were bad.”
After playing like this, Wang Ziwen’s expectations for this escape room already went downhill. She only hoped that the next escape room was better.
Due to her experience of playing numerous escape rooms and haunted houses, right now, she could even guess where the hidden door was.
Wang Ziwen was about to tell Bai Yan and company to open the cabinet when Xu Xiaojing’s sharp shriek penetrated her ears, making her scared for the very first time she entered the escape room.
“Xiaojing, what’s the matter?”
Wang Ziwen promptly came to her side. When Bai Yan and Su Yize heard the scream, they followed closely behind and immediately looked around Xu Xiaojing’s surroundings.
They saw Xu Xiaojing standing in front of another protrusion on the wall, her body completely stiff from shock. Wang Ziwen promptly kicked the small bump, and the grey wooden board that was the same color as the wall was dislodged. What entered their eyes was a large iron cage with a fake corpse placed in it. Once someone has kicked away the board, the corpse will consequently give out a low growl to intimidate the person who triggered the machine.
Xu Xiaojing was frightened by this just a moment ago.
Faced with the two guys’ hard-to-describe looks, Wang Ziwen felt a bit of embarrassment. She didn’t expect that her best friend would have so little courage. If she had known about this earlier, she would have avidly refused the boss’s suggestion and played together with only her best friend. This way, at least she could have saved some face.
She looked at her restless friend and comforted her without another option, “Xiaojing, don’t be scared. This is just a machine. If you trigger it, the machine will move.”
“I… I know, but I’m still a little surprised. The sound it let out was intimidating.” Due to the music inside the escape room being far too loud, Xu Xiaojing had to yell out these words.
Xu Xiaojing’s current state wasn’t good, but she wasn’t on the verge of crying. Seeing that her friend was still standing firm, Wang Ziwen opened her phone and once again kicked open the wooden panel. She then discovered that there was a hidden note inside the cage, but since the piece of paper was placed deep inside the cage, they couldn’t reach it.
“The two handsome brothers over there, could one of you help me get that broom to sweep the note to the outside? My friend is a bit timid. Someone has to hold the board as well.”
“I’ll do it.”
Su Yize held the moving panels while Bai Yan took out the broom and swept the note out.
With the help of the broom, he was able to drag the note out. The number 5 was written on it, and with this, they have finally gathered the four secret codes to finish the escape room.
Just like what Wang Ziwen had anticipated, there was another hidden door behind the cabinet.
She then inputted the four numbers, and at last, the code they used, 4503, finally opened the door. Not counting the delay from going to the escape room, they only needed three and a half minutes to complete it. The group entered the new escape room, and as soon as they did, something triggered a mechanism, and they were shut inside the room.