It’s unclear whether it’s a prison rule or just a coincidence, but the newspaper in Gray Rain’s hand has no date-related information. Seeing how engrossed she is, it seems impossible to pry any more clues from her.
Li Cheng takes two steps back and checks out the two single-person cells in the lower-left and lower-right corners.
The door of the lower-left cell is tightly shut, its food-serving hatch seemingly welded shut and immovable no matter how much one pushes. Knocking and calling elicit no response.
As for the lower-right cell, the disheveled figure curled up inside is equally unresponsive to any outside noise, just murmuring softly to a corner of the wall.
Li Cheng listens intently, faintly making out a coarse, raspy voice that could be male or female, asking in a gentle tone: "Did you behave at school today? Did the teacher praise you?"
Then, the person’s tone changes, becoming harsh, "You don’t realize you were wrong; you just know you’re going to die."
And again, the tone switches, this time to calm and resolute, "Turn the third turbine laser cannon on the left flank five degrees!"
Finally, it returns to a peaceful state, chuckling foolishly.
"What’s with these oddball inmates, are they all mentally unstable?"
Standing outside the cell, Li Cheng looks bewildered and can only sigh before turning towards the vending machine, "Multiple personality disorder is too scary."
"Yeah, we think so too," the voice in his head says in agreement.
Approaching the vending machine, the mechanical device lacks any wires, powered by some unknown method. Behind the glass pane, there is an entire selection of snacks and drinks with prices ranging from 1∑ to 5∑, and further back are items like hair dryers, toothpaste and toothbrushes, bottle openers, rag dolls, shirts, and trousers, priced from 20∑ to 70∑.
"This ∑ sign must be some sort of legal currency of the Cosmic Era. But then again, what kind of merchant would place a vending machine in a prison? Inmates don’t have money, could it be purely for advertising purposes?"
This hypothesis isn’t entirely impossible, just like in the real world where some down jackets, heaters, water heaters, watches sponsor Antarctic expeditions—placing ads in a special location is an advertising tactic in itself.
There are two coin slots on the right side of the vending machine, one for paper currency and another for coins.
Li Cheng isn’t in a rush to insert money, instead he reaches under the vending machine to feel around, but finds no coins accidentally dropped by others. He then reaches into the dispensing slot, hoping to grab a drink that might have fallen through accidentally.
No drink is found, but he does pull out a newspaper.
The entire newspaper contains only one article, titled "Food Poisoning Incident at a City District School", with the content reading: "Yesterday afternoon, a mass food poisoning incident occurred at Colonial City’s First Public School in Proxima Centauri A Zone. Several students and teachers experienced fever and vomiting and were urgently hospitalized. There has been one student death so far. It is believed that the incident may have been caused by expired ant bull canned food procured by the school canteen."
Following that are lengthy, uninsightful social commentary sections.
Yet another newspaper, also devoid of date and publishing house information.
Li Cheng raises an eyebrow, pockets the newspaper, and takes off his White Bone Corridor Guard Arm, from which he retrieves a metal box containing currencies from different eras and nations such as Song dynasty Jiaozi, Ancient Roman silver coins, modern US Dollar, National Gold Certificate, grain and oil coupons, gold ingots and gold coins.
These funds were prepared for script tasks set in various backgrounds; they even include several billion Hell Bank notes.
Unfortunately, all forms of currency, including gold coins, fail the vending machine’s validation. In the end, he even pulls out the Firewood Scripture, tears off a page, folds it to the size of a banknote, and inserts it into the coin slot, only to have it rejected as well.
Li Cheng smacked his lips and pulled out the gun from his Backpack named "Final Redemption," which was a stable superheavy element particle handgun. He twirled the gun and began to explore the hexagonal space.
The gun’s description specified that pulling the trigger would release a powerful stream of particles, but it could only be used once.
In the context of a puzzle game, it’s a hint item with limited uses that can be utilized to brute force a solution.
It could blast open a vending machine to take the items inside or break down the prison door to demand information from Gray Rain. Or you could try shooting at a seemingly indestructible wall to see if you could directly break through and escape. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ NoveI-Fire.ɴet
These thoughts spun around in Li Cheng’s mind for a moment before dissipating on their own—the Narrative Cage was permeated with strangeness. Perhaps beneath Gray Rain’s little girl appearance was actually a Titan female giant, ten meters tall and ten meters wide.
At that point, it was uncertain who would be intimidating whom.
Half an hour later, Li Cheng returned to his starting point. He pushed open the wooden doors at the end of each of the six corridors. None of the doors were locked, and they all shared a similar design—
A pressure-sensitive floor, followed by an alloy sliding door resembling a decompression chamber in a submarine.
Escapees had to stand on the pressure-sensitive floor and close the wooden door from the inside for the alloy sliding door to open and reveal the real space behind the door.
The intention behind this design was obvious: to prevent escapees from second-guessing their choices and opting for other rooms.
"So, there’s only one way left now."
Li Cheng rubbed his palms together and pushed open the wooden door of the Reversal Room. Trusting Gray Rain, who seemed a friendly NPC, wasn’t such a bad idea given the many gaps in the information. If things went south, he could always use the "Final Redemption" gun to break through the wall and return.
"Thump-thump↓ thump-thump↑"
Humming the main theme of the TV series "Prison Break," he stood on the pressure-sensitive floor and patiently waited.
The alloy door slowly slid open to the right, revealing a rectangular room to Li Cheng, slightly smaller than a basketball court.
The room had no beams or columns. Numerous metallic rods with unclear purposes hung from the ceiling. Each rod’s end glowed faintly, serving as light bulbs, and all rods bore the advertisement logos of the Pishuai brand.
These rods were concentrated at the entrance, and the flooring beneath them resembled a chessboard with alternating black and white squares made of marble, each square measuring 1.5m by 1.5m.
From left to right ten squares, from back to front ten squares, making up a square area of one hundred tiles.
At the end of the room where the tiles disappeared, the lighting was exceptionally dim, and one could vaguely see a thick cable hanging there with a red button attached to its end, presumably the control button mentioned in the mission objective.
While Li Cheng was observing, the entire room began to vibrate inexplicably, and he felt his hands, feet, and head getting a bit heavier.
To be precise, gravity had increased. Approximately from 1G to 1.06G.
Not only that, but the metallic rods on the ceiling also lit up, emitting beams of scorching lasers interweaving overhead into an impenetrable net, slowly descending over time.
Without hesitation, Li Cheng pulled out the Bat Hook Claw Gun and shot it towards the faraway tiles.
But those tiles, made of an unknown material, directly deflected the Bat Hook Claw Gun, and this action caused the surrounding gravity to suddenly spike. The laser grid on the ceiling drastically descended a distance until he retracted the hook claw, and only then did the descent return to its normal speed.