37: 42 chapters Self-defense
37: 42 chapters Self-defense
Li Cheng took advantage of the water flow to cleanse the key, waded through chest-high seawater to return to the ship model, and inserted it into the front door lock.
The key was firmly stuck in the keyhole, but the door opened.
Inside, the light was dim, and the body of the “Captain” was also covered with epoxy resin, maintaining a rigid smile.
Behind him stood a tall wooden cabinet, with all its drawers sealed shut, unopenable.
In the middle was installed a broken marine clock, the hands no longer moving, displaying London time as 17:06.
In front of the Captain, on the wooden table, there was a finely crafted metal instrument, and beneath it on the table, in fresh blood, there was a line of text.
[Climb onto the bow, grasp the helm, noon has arrived, set sail!]
The Slaughter Field Game’s script tasks came with a translation feature, projecting the meaning of the text directly into the player’s mind to overcome communication issues.
This was also a kind of balance strategy—the killing field would not issue death-bound tasks, the generated tasks difficulty was definitely within the players’ capability range.
Without the thoughtful translation patch, a situation would arise where players with low intelligence who understood nothing would face lower difficulty single-player tasks than those generated for high-intelligence players, clearly unfair.
The killing field demanded a group of well-rounded enforcers (possibly without virtue and beauty) rather than a bunch of muscleheads.
Li Cheng picked up the metal instrument; it consisted of a 144° arc scale, index arm, moving mirror, fixed mirror, telescope, and micrometer wheel, known as a sextant—a handheld angle-measuring device, essential for measuring latitude on ships during the era of great navigation.
The sextant’s index arm and micrometer wheel were reset to zero, and the telescope was just for show, lacking any magnifying function.
Li Cheng suddenly realized something.
A sextant without a functioning telescope, the written line about noon’s arrival, the broken marine clock. Nᴇw novel chapters are publɪshed on NoveIＦire.net
He carried the sextant, striding out of the cabin, and he went to the helm at the bow of the ship.
As a member of the astronomical society, Li Cheng knew how to determine a photograph’s location from the constellations and time it was taken and knew how to use a sextant.
He adjusted the sextant’s index arm, moved the mirrors, and aimed the telescope at a searchlight high on the ceiling.
Since naturally, no sunlight could be seen indoors, that searchlight represented the “sun”.
The latitude of the place measured equals the celestial zenith distance (90 degrees minus its altitude) plus the declination of the celestial body.
He calculated it, north latitude 20 degrees.
As for longitude, it was provided by the marine clock.
The marine clock indicated five o’clock in the London afternoon.
Since the sextant observation of latitude assumed it was noon, and as the Captain’s table noted that noon had arrived, the local time could roughly be considered twelve o’clock.
The marine clock displayed London time as five o’clock in the afternoon, differing by 15 degrees in longitude for every hour, thus the current longitude was west 75.9 degrees.
The marine clock was already broken, the hands no longer moving, probably to serve puzzle solving—if the clock had been functioning, any delays by the player would result in inaccurate measurements.
Thus, both latitude and longitude were obtained, north latitude 20 degrees, west longitude 75.9 degrees.
Li Cheng jumped off the sailboat, swam through two and a half meters deep seawater to the room exit, rotated the combination lock, entering the numbers 20-759.
The lock opened immediately, the metal panel automatically rose, revealing a narrow corridor just wide enough for one person to pass through.
The corridor sloped upwards, so although the indoor seawater flooded in, no violent whirlpool occurred.
Li Cheng swam into the corridor, climbed out from the downward closing metal panel, and entered the next room.
“Phew, finally made it out.”
Drenched, he pushed back his hair, still clutching the rather hefty sextant.
In principle, the design of escape rooms followed the principle of “if not necessary, not adding entities”, setting few clues and usable props to prevent confusion from too many options for the players.
It also prevented some players with unique ideas, using clues not within the design scope, from breaking through by force.
For example, the star-shaped key Li Cheng used to open the Captain’s room got stuck in the lock right after the door was opened, signifying its role was complete and it didn’t need to be carried around anymore.
Or like a metal magnetic rod, intended to let players use its magnetic properties to retrieve a key placed in a long container unreachable by hand.
Instead, there was a player with explosive force who took the rod, knocked out the guard at the final gate with it, and successfully broke through.
Although that was not wrong, for the sake of fairness, such situations needed to be avoided…
Back to the matter at hand, Li Cheng carried the sextant for a simple reason—it was quite heavy and had sharp corners, useful for self-defense if needed.
Recently, he had been exploring various fighting techniques online, gathering a vast array of knowledge from martial arts, sanda, Muay Thai, jujutsu, and swordplay, including Master Chen Hegao’s unrestricted fighting techniques.
When necessary, he could employ everyday items like steel rulers, scissors, or metal flutes for self-defense.
After all, he had now stepped into the extraordinary realm, using his body to fight could easily end up killing an ordinary person by accident…
“Back to the topic, north latitude 20 degrees, west longitude 75.9 degrees, this location should be…
What’s the story with the location measured in the previous room…”
Li Cheng murmured softly, scrutinizing the room in front of him.
The second room was even smaller than the previous one.
The interior was cozy, with beige curtains, brown carpet, a genuine leather sofa, a bookcase filled with various books, a fireplace burning wood, and a red telephone on the coffee table.
It looked no different from an ordinary middle-class living room.
The only anomaly was the window.
The window frame was sealed, and through the window, one could see the outside lights flickering, a bustling cityscape.
Was this escape room set up in a skyscraper?