When the last 0 was broadcast, a melodious "beep-" sounded from the microphone. But before they could feel a moment of joy, the ground suddenly gave way beneath their feet.
Jian Jing was agile enough and instinctively dodged to the side. But unluckily, as she was dialing the number, Kang Mu Cheng and Xu Scriptwriter happened to be standing on either side of her.
Xu Scriptwriter was heavy, and when his foot slipped, he unconsciously grabbed onto whatever was nearby, which happened to be Jian Jing's arm.
She was pulled by this great force and naturally could not dodge, following them as they fell.
Her heart leaped to her throat, and in her shock she was unable to speak.
Fortunately the torment ended much faster than she had imagined. Her back hit a coarse object, her body sank down, stopping the fall, and a strong strange smell filled her nose.
"It's a rope net," Kang Mu Cheng climbed up and said, "Jian Jing? Xu Scriptwriter?"
"Ow!" Xu Scriptwriter clutched his chest and moaned loudly, "Scared to death, my heart, ow."
Jian Jing had escaped danger twice before, so she recovered more quickly: "Chairman Kang, I'm fine." She then asked, "My phone is out of battery, can one of you shine some light?"
Kang Mu Cheng took out his phone from his suit pocket, but very unfortunately, it had already been four hours since they were trapped, and before that the phone had been running for most of the day, draining a lot of battery for the flashlight. His phone was also out of power and had automatically shut off.
And Xu Scriptwriter's phone had died hours ago, he didn't know where he had casually placed it, but definitely did not have it on him.
It was a perfectly dark environment.
Faint sobbing could be heard floating by their ears.
In the long silence, Xu Scriptwriter softly said, "Do you guys...hear any sounds?" He swallowed and spoke in a changing tone, "Is it...someone crying?"
Jian Jing froze in place: "Is it a ghost?!"
"Where would a ghost come from," Kang Mu Cheng listened to locate them and slowly moved to Jian Jing's side, pressing her shoulder, "Don't move, be careful of falling, I'll go see if there's a way out."
The room was originally without light, and today there was also a major power outage at the villa, not a ray of light could get in, perfectly illustrating the meaning of the phrase "unable to see your hand in front of your face".
Kang Mu Cheng also did not dare move recklessly, using his hand to feel along the rope net, stretching out his leg to try to reach the edge, deeply afraid that there was open space around them, and carelessly falling off with one wrong step.
And that was indeed the case, after he moved half a meter, his toes were suspended in air. After groping around to survey the situation, he generally figured out what was going on: "It's empty." As he spoke, he slowly adjusted his center of gravity, leaning his upper body forward, and his palms touched a smooth wall, "There's a wall."
Jian Jing, who the system had designated as useless, did not dare move recklessly: "Is this a place like an elevator shaft? We're suspended in midair?"
"Wait a moment," Kang Mu Cheng took off his tie clip and lightly tossed it.
After a few breaths, the sound of an object hitting the ground came from below.
"It's probably seven or eight meters," he estimated, "between the first and second floors of the villa."
The high ceilings of the Sunset Villa were over three meters high, and there was also a basement below, falling down would mean death or severe disability if not death.
Jian Jing sucked in a breath of cold air, sitting on the net without daring to move at all. Kang Mu Cheng was far heavier than her, with just that bit of weight on the side she was on, her whole body slid towards that side. She had no choice but to cling tightly to the rope knots.
"Chairman Kang, come this way a bit," she couldn't help but say, "Don't fall down."
"It's fine," he remained very calm, "I'll check all four sides, maybe there's a way out."
Jian Jing fell silent.
"Oh," Xu Scriptwriter lay prone at the side, massaging his temples, "Did you guys bring any food? My blood sugar is low."
The power had gone out around 5 pm, and it was already 9 pm now. Everyone was tired, thirsty and hungry. Xu Scriptwriter especially so, he had rushed to meet a client at noon, and had only eaten a couple bites of toast before coming over. Now his stomach was growling and he felt dizzy and nauseous, unable to even crawl up.
Jian Jing felt her pockets, nothing there. She thought for a bit, and took out three recovery candies: "I have a few candies, they're pretty high in calories."
"Oh, a timely helping hand," Xu Scriptwriter groped to take them, peeled off the wrapper and ate them.
The sweet fruity flavor spread through his mouth, and the sugar entering his body greatly reduced his hunger and dizziness for the moment.
He couldn't help but ask: "What brand of candy is this? The flavor's not bad."
Jian Jing also ate one, feeling the system's powerful effects, and vaguely said: "A reader sent them, said they made the candies themselves and wanted me to try some."
"Writers really have it good," Xu Scriptwriter joked, and didn't look further into it.
After eating the candy, Kang Mu Cheng felt his strength recover a bit, and continued to ponder how to get out of this place: "There should be clues, it can't be a dead end, it's just too dark to see anything."
He saw that Xu Scriptwriter was older with clumsy movements, and Jian Jing was a girl, so he took it upon himself to take on exploring, carefully feeling along the edges of the rope net to see if there was a way out.
Perseverance pays off, after a long search he finally felt a gap in the wall, with another long slit leading down at a ninety degree angle.
On closer inspection, it seemed there were some wooden sliding blocks above, heavy and tight, some parts loose and some wedged in very tightly.
"It's a mechanism," he deduced.
Jian Jing furrowed her brows, Kang Mu Cheng's weight kept sinking down, the mechanism was probably not in a good position: "Is it below the rope net?"
"Yes, it's lower down, not easy to get to." Even with Kang Mu Cheng's height, he still couldn't feel the full edges of the mechanism, showing just how low the position was, with the danger of falling off at any time.
Jian Jing was determined to try her luck once more.
"System, draw card," she said in her heart.
Aside from the ordinary cards she had drawn previously, she still had 10 special contribution points she could use to draw a special card, which could perhaps resolve their current predicament.
[Drawing card]
[Draw complete]
[Name: Special Card - Night Vision Goggles (Component)]
[Description: One of the high tech series components, waterproof and fireproof, must be used with main component. Only 10 minutes of free use per day, can continue with courage points, 1 point = 10 minutes]
[Note: Darkness breeds the unknown, the unknown brings fear, possess it, and you can face the darkness]
Jian Jing: "..." She understood, ordinary cards required grinding, special cards needed spending, the nature of gacha systems in this world was all the same.
But even 10 minutes was better than nothing.
She took out the night vision goggles, which landed in her palm as a small silver-white wing. Hooking it onto the frame of her high tech glasses turned the ordinary platinum frame into a pair of glasses with a cute little wing.
At the same time, an operating interface for the night vision goggles appeared on the right lens frame. The wing was the on/off switch, press once to turn on, press again to turn off, with a countdown displayed above.
She hurriedly activated them, swiftly scanning the environment.
With the night vision goggles on, her vision showed a faint green, allowing her to see that they were sitting on not a very large rope net, with a gap of about half a meter from the surrounding walls.
Near Kang Mu Cheng's hand was a not large nor small wooden frame, positioned about two centimeters below the rope net. The wooden frame had wooden strips of varying lengths and sizes, one grid left empty.
A puzzle box.
How sinister, forcing people to lunge forward to reach at such a position, with the danger of falling with the slightest carelessness, yet unable to proceed without doing so.
She turned off the goggles to think for a bit, then said: "Chairman Kang, let me take a look, you come back first."
"You can't reach it," Kang Mu Cheng was still trying to shift the wooden blocks.
"I want to take a look," she insisted.
Unable to dissuade her, Kang Mu Cheng adjusted the plan: "Scriptwriter Xu, please move back a bit. Jian Jing, come slowly, I'll be next to you."
The three of them moved like snails, with the heaviest Xu Scriptwriter weighing down the other end, Kang Mu Cheng shifted to the side to make space for Jian Jing to pass through.
"Give me your hand," he said.
Jian Jing flailed wildly in the air, finally touching his palm, hurriedly grabbing on. The warmth and gravity from the other party brought reassurance. She braced herself, slowly crawling to the edge on her stomach, toes hooked into the rope knots, reaching out a hand to feel around.
After a while, she announced the answer: "It's a puzzle box."
"Tsk," Xu Scriptwriter asked, "How do we do this?"
"Let me try," Jian Jing turned on the night vision goggles again, quickly recorded the image, then turned them off, internally visualizing the steps a few times, confirming there were no mistakes before turning them on again to start sliding the pieces around.
However, the puzzle box was about half a person's height, and the position was difficult. After trying for a while her arms were sore and she had to stop to rest.
"Jian Jing, let me do it," Kang Mu Cheng did not know she had a cheat device, and was genuinely worried about her taking such risks. He wanted to pull her back to the safe area.
Jian Jing simply shook his hand off, using both arms alternately: "I can handle it." But when he spoke, the images in her mind blurred and she had to turn on the goggles again to take another look: "Stop talking."
Kang Mu Cheng: "..."
With rustling sounds, Jian Jing had practically her whole body suspended as she crawled along, fingers stretched taut, finally adjusting the wooden blocks of the puzzle box into the appropriate positions.
The hidden lever was also exposed.
"I'm done, there's a lever here," exhausted from manhandling the puzzle, Jian Jing would not act strong at a time to let go. Gasping for breath, she crawled back into the net to play dead, "Chairman Kang, I'll leave the rest to you."
Only then did Kang Mu Cheng relax, moving close to pull the lever. But he couldn't even press it all the way down, and had to step on it with his feet in the end.
Luckily the mechanism was still working well, after stepping down fully the wooden frame shifted, revealing an entrance.
Weak light shone down, the familiar markings of a safety exit.
Using this bit of light, Kang Mu Cheng visually measured the distance, conservatively estimating he could barely step across: "You two go to the back, I'll go down first to take a look."
"Will it work?" With the help of her night vision goggles, Jian Jing could clearly see the gap between the rope net and passage, deeply doubtful.
"No problem," Kang Mu Cheng was very steady, "slowly putting down both legs. Stepping firmly with the front foot first before following with the other, while keeping a firm grip on the rope knots to avoid falling."
Three minutes later, he successfully entered the passage.
"Jian Jing, you come over first," he directed, "lie on the net and give me your hands."
Jian Jing clumsily did as told, feeling as if she had become a beached fish. This feeling grew stronger after being dragged into the passage by Kang Mu Cheng, her legs flailing but unable to exert any strength. She accidentally stepped into the mesh holes, ankle getting stuck.
"Jump," Kang Mu Cheng barked sharply.
Jian Jing gritted her teeth and jumped down, but her leap was too low and she couldn't make it into the passageway. Her body hung suspended at the entrance, legs dangling with nothing to push off of.
Her heart nearly jumped out of her chest.
Fortunately, Kang Mu Cheng was much stronger than her. He forcibly pulled her in.
"Phew-" Jian Jing sat in the low passageway and let out a long breath. "Tomorrow I'm joining the gym."
Perhaps it was because her tone was too angry, but even in such dire circumstances, Kang Mu Cheng couldn't help softly laughing.
"Mr. Kang?" she said, displeased.
"Scoot further in. I'll pull Xu Scriptwriter in," Kang Mu Cheng seemed to have done nothing wrong as he crawled back out to direct Xu Scriptwriter, "Legs first, plant them firmly."
Xu Scriptwriter was drenched in sweat, moving at half speed. It took him forever for his feet to touch the ground.
Kang Mu Cheng had Jian Jing grab Xu Scriptwriter's legs while he reached out to grab Xu's belt, forcibly dragging the man into the passageway.
By now, they had been trapped for nearly five hours.
