LIGHT NOVEL Chapter 167: "Which organ has the longest muscle in the human body?
"Prop Name": Angel's Wings.
"Prop Level": None.
"Prop Effect": Upon activation, every member of the squad will have angel wings appear on their backs, allowing free flight for ten seconds.
"Prop Restriction": Number of uses (1/1)
"Prop Description": Can only be used on the squad map 'Destiny's Adversary,' cannot be taken out of the map, and will automatically be destroyed upon leaving the map.
Answering correctly, they successfully obtained a prop.
"My guess was right."
The scene unfolding before him confirmed the thoughts in Sword Without End's heart, making him more confident as he spoke with a slightly hasty tone, "The key to this map lies in whether or not we can obtain enough props before the House of God disappears."
"These props are also crucial for us to last the full 24 hours."
"The tougher the questions, the richer the prop rewards."
"Wait a second—"
Tuberculosis Rabbit stood at the starting point with a somewhat strange expression, looking toward the black square directly in front at the start, hesitatingly said, "Maybe we can split up?""
"I might not know the answer to the other questions, but I do know 1+1."
He tentatively stepped onto the black square that was right in front of the starting point.
The next second, a prompt sounded in everyone's ears.
'Ding, you may only choose one fork in the road. Once a player in the squad chooses a path, the others cannot attempt to take any other forks.'
'Player Tuberculosis Rabbit, please leave within three seconds, or you will be immediately deemed to have failed the challenge.'
The moment Tuberculosis Rabbit stepped on it, the black square beneath his foot began to flash wildly.
"..."
Tuberculosis Rabbit withdrew his right foot with some annoyance, looking toward Chen Yi's back, "It won't work, Yi. Map rules don't allow splitting up; we can only take one path."
"But when we first entered the map, I received an additional piece of information."
"There's a white square on this map that, if stepped on, allows you to receive a hidden question and a hidden reward."
The map's rules explicitly prohibit stepping on the white square.
Yet, by virtue of his Title Effect, Tuberculosis Rabbit knew about this hidden information on the map – a rather important piece of information that no player from any team would step on the white square without knowing about it beforehand.
Stepping on it means failure – who would do that for no reason?
Chen Yi didn't speak; he just frowned slightly and looked at the question on the next black square in front of him.
'How many bones does a normal human have?'
'A. 163, B. 206, C. 198, D. 112.'
'Answer correctly to step on this black square and receive a special prop.'
He seemed to remember Tuberculosis Rabbit mentioning it once, but he hadn't listened closely at the time, and he was actually quite unsure about the answer.
"It's 206!""
Standing behind Chen Yi, Tuberculosis Rabbit raised his hand with utmost confidence and said, "Pick B. This is my specialty, isn't it? I might not know the rest, but I'm super familiar with this one."
"When I have nothing to do, I like to take all the bones out of a corpse, mix them up, and then piece them back together into a skeleton."
"It's like puzzles, very stress-relieving."
"...Why would you have a hobby like that?"
Looking sideways at Tuberculosis Rabbit with a somewhat unpleasant expression, Sword Without End asked, "How did you develop such a habit? It's only been a few months since the aftermath arrived; could these few months have changed your personality so much?"
Before the aftermath, the laws were very strict; nobody would allow Tuberculosis Rabbit to play with corpses in his spare time.
"Everyone needs to have their own hobbies to prove they're not just the walking dead," Tuberculosis Rabbit responded.
"But speaking of which, Yi, I remember you never went to school. How did you figure out the answer to that math question earlier?"
'Ding—'
'Player Chen Yi's answer was B. 206 bones, which is correct. The black square may now be stepped on.'
Accompanied by the black square turning blood red as well, a prop wrapped in white light emerged from beneath the ground and floated in front of Chen Yi.
"After coming out of that idiom solitaire amusement park last time, I started cramming all this knowledge, so I would at least know the basics and avoid getting into that kind of predicament again."
Chen Yi replied nonchalantly, then turned his attention to the prop that was floating before him.
He had been self-studying for a long time now, not just math, but including physics, chemistry, language, and more, not for any other reason but the fear of encountering a rule attack similar to idiom solitaire again.
No matter how high your defense is, no matter how much damage you deal, if you can't continue the idiom chain, you die. This kind of rule attack makes anyone nervous.
Such attacks can't be defended against; you can only try to make yourself into a jack-of-all-trades fighter.
These days, whenever he had free time, he was self-studying these things, and now it seemed to come in handy.
'Prop Name': Demon's Resentment.
'Prop Level': None.
'Prop Effect': Once activated, the player who activated this prop can forcibly attract all the demons' hatred around them onto themselves.
'Prop Restrictions': Number of uses (1/1)
'Prop Description': Can only be used within the team map 'Destiny's Adversary', cannot be taken out of the map, automatically destroyed after leaving the map.
He casually stuffed the prop into his pocket and turned his gaze back to the black cube in front of him. Discover more stories at empire
A crossroads appeared.
To the left was a black cube.
To the right was a... colorful cube.
The question on the black cube was:
'Which organ has the longest muscle in the human body?'
'A. Tongue, B. Male genitalia, C. Calf, D. Abdomen.'
'Answer correctly to step on the black cube and obtain a special prop.'
But next to the colorful cube was only a question mark and a simple line of text.
'Stepping on this colorful cube will lead to some unknown events. Whether it's a blessing or a curse is completely unknown, but one thing is for sure, there is nothing inside the colorful cube that will cause certain death.'
"..."
Chen Yi sighed, lifted his hand to rub his temples, and felt a bit weary for a moment. The unpredictability of this map was too strong, and he didn't like this feeling.
Just like this colorful cube.
No one knew what was inside this colorful cube; this intense uncertainty gave him the feeling of gambling.
He had no worries about whether he could clear this map.
With the incredibly high speed of his vehicle, all he needed to do was activate the vehicle to maintain high mobility. There was no way those demons could catch up, and if their moving speed was faster than his sled's.
Then there's no point in talking about holding out for 24 hours. Other teams would all die upon arrival.
No matter how you look at it, it's just a Level D map. It's not supposed to wipe teams repeatedly.
What he wanted was a higher score for the map, and...
Clearing the map wasn't just about surviving for 24 hours; there was also the option of annihilating all the monsters.
...
ps: Regarding the absence of an update yesterday and the lack of notification, I'd like to offer an explanation.
I went to the park yesterday, and my backpack fell into the lake there, with both my laptop and phone getting soaked.
I didn't dare to turn them on for the whole day.
After keeping them in rice for a full day and night, I tried turning them on, and thankfully, they booted up without damage. I was unreachable for a whole day, with no updates or leave notices.
My fault, I apologize.
(I put them in rice because I've heard that rice can absorb water, helping the laptop and phone to boot up normally.)
(Yesterday was my birthday. Since both my phone and laptop were water-damaged and I was out of touch all day, I was concerned that I might've missed any birthday wishes, but as it turned out... after booting up, there were no birthday wishes to respond to.)
(Instead, I found quite a few messages urging an update, asking if I'd become a eunuch, gone inside, or died, as well as other kind messages of concern.)
(Thank you all, I appreciate that you remember me.)
(Will correct typos after posting. As I couldn't make an update yesterday, I took the opportunity to organize the upcoming outline, which will lead to some exciting developments in the storyline...)