When we left Hearts 9 and returned to the main city, it was exactly four o'clock in the afternoon. The afternoon sun of Moon City shone into the living room through a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows, casting a warm glow.
The scene suddenly changed, and everyone appeared in the living room at the same time. Seeing the familiar faces of his teammates, Ye Qi couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief and said, "Finally, the Heart Room is over. We don't have to deal with the perverted killer anymore! Next, should we continue playing Diamond Secret Room, or take a break?"
Everyone turned their attention to Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang, awaiting their instructions.
Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang discussed it seriously: "Shall we continue with Diamonds? Diamond Secret Room usually doesn't last very long. It's 4 pm now. If we finish Diamond Secret Room, we can come back to rest. Maybe we can still make it in time for dinner tonight."
Anyway, with Xiao Lou, a problem-solving genius, and Lao Mo, a designer with a strong sense of space, as well as Ye Qi and Liu Qiao, who are also very good at solving problems, the other teammates just need to cooperate with them, and passing the level should not be a problem.
With that in mind, Yu Hanjiang decisively said, "Let's move on to the next level. We need to hurry up and finish the A-grade secret room."
The teammates naturally had no objections to this decision.
Yu Hanjiang walked to the wall of cards and directly drew the [ Diamond 9 ] card. A familiar red light appeared in the center of the card, and then the group was taken to a strange secret room.
What makes it strange is that in previous Diamond Secret Rooms, everyone entered separately. For example, in the last [ Lantern Festival ] room, eight people were divided into four groups, each appearing on a certain path in the Lantern Market maze, and needed to find their way to meet up with their teammates.
But today was different—all eight of them were gathered in the same enclosed room.
This room is square, approximately square meters in size.
The room was extremely dimly lit, with only four kerosene lamps hanging in the four corners. The room was cold, giving it a gloomy feel, as if one had stepped into a mysterious basement.
Upon seeing their teammates, everyone confirmed that they had all arrived.
Xiao Lou immediately said, "Everyone, don't move! Be careful, there might be traps on the ground or in the walls!"
Upon hearing this, the teammates who were about to move quickly stopped and quietly waited for further instructions.
Soon, a clear and lovely little girl's voice rang out in the secret room: "Welcome to Diamond 9 Secret Room - Music Maze. This is a clue-based maze with a music theme. There is only one correct path to exit the entire maze. The time limit is one hour. If you can get out of the maze within the time limit, you will win the challenge. If you are still trapped in the maze when the time is up, you will all have to enter the Nightmare Secret Room to receive punishment."
This is clearly Guardian Upon hearing Diamond A's voice and the word "music theme, " Ye Qi's eyes lit up, and he excitedly exclaimed, "Music maze? I've heard of this kind of theme before when I played escape rooms."
As a veteran escape room player, Xiao Lou is naturally familiar with this type of themed escape room.
Diamond A followed up by saying, "This time, the escape room will have some additional punishment elements. For example, if you enter the wrong password or accidentally enter the punishment room, it will trigger a punishment. I will not disclose the specific punishment methods for the sake of secrecy."
The group looked at each other in bewilderment.
The most terrifying thing is that it's not made public; who knows how the Guardian will torment everyone?
Diamond A's voice echoed in the dim, cold space, sounding somewhat eerie. She smiled and said, "The reward for this escape room is also related to the puzzles you solve. There are punishment escape rooms, and naturally there are reward escape rooms. If you solve the puzzles in the reward escape room, you can obtain rare cards."
She paused for a moment and then said, "The countdown is about to begin. Good luck to you all."
Diamond A's voice disappeared, and a red countdown clock appeared in the floating frame in front of everyone.
The clock shows 1:00:00.
With only one hour left, the countdown began, and everyone immediately perked up, carefully observing the surrounding walls, ceiling, and floor.
Soon, Yu Hanjiang, with his keen observation skills, discovered a hidden compartment under the kerosene lamp in the corner of the wall.
He said with a serious expression, "Since this is a clue-based maze, there should be clues in the hidden compartment over there. Maybe it's a combination lock." He looked at Xiao Lou with a questioning gaze and said, "Shall I go get it and take a look?"
Xiao Lou said, "One hour, no rush. Let me tell you some things to note first."
Xiao Lou glanced at his teammates and advised, "Some of you may not have played this kind of clue-based maze before. The combination locks and mechanisms in this type of maze are not placed in a very conspicuous place like in the Diamond Secret Room we played before, where the questions are just placed next to you and you can get the answer as long as you solve the questions correctly. In clue-based mazes, many combination locks require reasoning and puzzle-solving to find."
Ye Qi looked at Xiao Lou seriously and asked, "Is this considered a collaboration between Hearts and Diamonds? Solving puzzles while searching for combination locks, and then deduce the correct password based on clues in the escape room? Opening the escape room, moving on to the next escape room, and then looking for new clues."
Xiao Lou nodded: "That's right. So next, everyone needs to keep their eyes peeled and carefully search for clues in the secret room. Observe any suspicious places carefully. After finding them, don't touch them rashly. Some clues may be connected to mechanisms, such as water sprays, poison, or traps."
Be careful at home.
Upon hearing this, everyone nodded in understanding.
Nobody would do something like carelessly touching random mechanisms and ruining their teammates' lives.
Yu Hanjiang said, "Everyone, take out your luminous pearls for lighting. I want to see what's in this hidden compartment."
The kerosene lamp in the sealed room was too dim, half-dead, as if the kerosene was about to burn out. The floor and walls were black, making it difficult to see what was on the surrounding walls.
Upon hearing Yu Hanjiang's instruction, everyone immediately took out luminous pearls.
Each person received a luminous pearl, which illuminated the entire secret room.
Then, to everyone's surprise, there were a lot of bloody handprints on the wall!
The dense, bloody handprints covered almost the entire wall, a truly horrifying sight.
Qu Wanyue was startled by the bloody handprints and wanted to back away, but remembering Xiao Lou's instructions, she immediately stopped to avoid accidentally stepping into a trap.
Seeing her pale face, Long Sen gently squeezed her hand and said, "Although it's a mystery maze, there shouldn't be any murderers or anything like that, so don't worry too much."
Qu Wanyue said, "What if they've dumped us at some crime scene? There are so many bloody handprints. Who left these handprints, is they dead or alive?"
The next moment, Yu Hanjiang calmly said, "This is indeed a mystery maze. I found a box."
He opened the hidden compartment under the kerosene lamp and took out a box. It was an old sandalwood box with a vintage feel, decorated with exquisite European-style carvings, and a golden lock hanging on it, but unfortunately, the lock had faded due to its age.
It's a seven-digit password.
Yu Hanjiang held the box up to Xiao Lou and asked, "What could the password be?"
Xiao Lou thought for a moment and then assigned tasks to his teammates: " Teacher Qu and Long Sen, you two carefully check your feet to make sure the floor tiles are movable; Xiao Ye and Liu Qiao, you two check the four walls to see if there are any other hidden compartments. CEO Shao, you come with me to check the ceiling, and Captain Yu, go check the other kerosene lamps."
The hidden compartment that Yu Hanjiang discovered was relatively easy to find.
The brick under the kerosene lamp was slightly dented, forming a clear difference from the surrounding wall. After Yu Hanjiang took the brick out, he found a hole dug in the wall, where this locked box was placed.
Apart from that, no obvious clues have been found in the locked room so far.
The teammates quickly began to work according to Xiao Lou's instructions. Ye Qi checked the front left and the rear right respectively. After checking around, they came to the conclusion: "The walls are all flat, we've knocked down all the bricks, there are no other hidden compartments."
Long Sen and Qu Wanyue, who were in charge of inspecting the floor, quickly chimed in, "The floor is not movable."
Xiao Lou frowned slightly, picked up the luminous pearl, and looked closely at the ceiling.
There were no clues on the ceiling either.
Xiao Lou stroked his chin thoughtfully: "That's strange. They only gave us a locked box, and there's nothing else on the ceiling, walls, or floor. How are we supposed to crack the password?"
Yu Hanjiang said, "There's a good chance we missed something. Everyone, please check carefully again."
The group checked their assigned areas again, and after three minutes, they came to the same conclusion: "No other clues."
Xiao Lou looked closely at the bloody handprints on the wall.
These bloody handprints are extremely chaotic and cannot form any numerical pattern. The arrangement of the bloody handprints is completely random, and there are quite a few of them, roughly several hundred.
Xiao Lou thought for a moment and said, "A seven-digit password, and there are no clues in the room, so the clue must be in what Diamond A just told us—that this is a music-themed maze."
Ye Qi's eyes lit up, and he said, "The password is a musical note. The only notes that can be used are Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, and Si, which are the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. That's exactly seven numbers!"
Xiao Lou nodded: "But how exactly should these seven numbers be arranged?"
The numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, when randomly arranged, will result in countless possible answers.
If music were playing in the secret room, Ye Qi could usually tell the exact sequence of notes by listening to the melody. But now, the secret room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, and you could even hear the tense breathing of his teammates.
What other clues are hidden in Diamond A's words?
Or, what other clues are there in this locked room that everyone has overlooked?
Xiao Lou paused for a moment, then suggested, "Take a closer look at these bloody handprints and see if you can find any clues related to music through them."