Gourmet Goose clutched his abdominal wound, moving forward slowly.
The decay of the walls and floor behind him was picking up pace, and the floor had already cracked in front of him, the searing breath heating his back slightly. A strange, unpleasant, noise-like creaking sounded in the air.
Yet, there was not a hint of panic on Gourmet Goose’s face.
Because he was very clear... All players, upon entering a nightmare copy, do not use their own body’s health outside the game. Instead, they borrow all the attributes of the nightmare’s protagonist.
In other words, the injuries sustained, the health points at the same moving speed, are the same for everyone.
Gourmet Goose was extremely confident that he had avoided all possible health-depleting traps. He hadn’t even sped up a few times... His current health points, without a doubt, were in the best possible state one could be in when reaching the fourth floor under normal circumstances.
"I’m telling you, don’t laugh. I’ve got the perfect start here," he said.
Gourmet Goose glanced at the barrage of comments and scoffed, "Believe it or not, when you play it yourselves, by the time you get to this floor, your health will certainly not be more than mine."
"In this copy, the enemies kill us instantly. This means that ’health points’ in this copy actually mean ’distance we can sprint’."
Upon hearing this, Annan, who was watching the live stream from the outside, nodded in agreement.
Gourmet Goose was indeed correct.
In fact, this was something Annan realized the first time he entered the nightmare gallery.
Although Amos was suffering from internal injuries, it seemed he could continuously recover health and stamina in the gallery. If he stayed still or moved slowly, his health would drop very, very slowly...
But when he moved faster, his health would decline; the faster he ran, the quicker his health drained away.
In other words... in this copy, players could only control one key resource.
And that was the "distance they could sprint."
"I’ve classified all the traps and chases I’ve encountered so far in this copy into three categories," Gourmet Goose said as he walked forward calmly and casually chatted with the idiotic online viewers, "The first kind is like now, where one can get by with a jog.
"The second kind is like when chandeliers fall or big hammer guys break through walls and start a fierce chase.
"In this case, you must run at full speed: If you hesitate when the chandelier falls or fail to sprint when the big hammer guy breaks through, you will at least get hurt, and if you’re not careful, you will die.
"The third kind, is like the previous floor with the big hammer guy—an essential mechanic to address.
"It’s not about exploiting the bug, but an essential mechanic. That letter outside the window, he intends you to read it—if I’m not wrong, the appearance time of the big hammer guy should be the time it takes to get the letter, open it, and read it."
"If you don’t read the letter and just run blindly, it will only revert to the second situation. But overall, health points are limited. Once you choose to sprint through the mechanic, it’s equivalent to using a resurrection coin for another awakening... This will prevent them from truly clearing the level. At most they can get through one more floor before entering the next layer of the nightmare," he explained.
Yes, that was it... Gourmet Goose was right.
In his experience of clearing the third floor, it was when the chandelier fell, he hesitated for a moment.
Because he thought that since the copy induced memory loss, the traps in the previous floors wouldn’t be too difficult. A slight acceleration should be enough to get through—
The result was that he was grazed by the chandelier and lost some health points.
Meanwhile, the increase in wounds directly affected his moving speed. But after realizing the difficulty of the copy, Annan didn’t hesitate to run full speed when chased by the big hammer guy on the second floor.
This directly led to him lacking enough health points to sprint through the corridor on the third floor.
——After waking up, Annan first used his thumb to measure the length and width of the corridor on the first floor, then precisely controlled the width of his steps. This was because he didn’t know Amos’ exact arm length and stride... In order to measure the length of the corridors on each floor in advance and ensure that his health points were sufficient to sprint through them, he had recorded the data beforehand.
So, it was in the third floor that Annan chose to take the path without the paintings.
This wasn’t just about following the strategy.
Because at that time, Annan was certain that if there was another chase like before, the remaining health points would definitely not be enough to get to the next floor.
And by sheer coincidence, he had entered "Gallery: Elle Morrison."
Gourmet Goose’s technique was similar to Annan’s.
However, since players could record, not worrying about losing their memory, they played more boldly...
For instance, Gourmet Goose was gambling.
He bet that since his health points were full, he definitely wouldn’t die halfway because he couldn’t outrun the evil behind him.
——If he couldn’t outrun the demon and hounds behind him, then it was simply impossible for anyone to outrun them.
Unless the demon and hounds had another mechanic to them.
And even if he died to a mechanic, players would see the mechanic’s specifics. So, he wouldn’t be at a loss.
——The special mechanism really arrived.
When Delicious Wind Goose trotted to the middle of the corridor, those marks of decay and ruin had almost spread to the end of the hallway.
The floor under his feet creaked and wobbled, as if at any moment he might step through into the void below.
But he still believed in the hint given in Elle’s letter —— "Do not look back."
This was perhaps a kind of inertial thinking.
The clues he had obtained with great difficulty were the ones he trusted more...
But Delicious Wind Goose really had no other choice.
This was, after all, pioneering.
To die from a mechanism... That was too common.
Everything changed, however, after Delicious Wind Goose crossed the midpoint ——
Delicious Wind Goose stared in befuddlement as the stains on the floor no longer moved forward but began to retreat instead. The decaying floor beneath his feet seemed to reverse in time and start to mend.
Most importantly... The jarring music that previously sounded like it was coming from the abyss and which echoed in his ears suddenly became a melodious violin tune.
He paused, his steps subconsciously halting for a split second.
——But just as he stopped.
Delicious Wind Goose suddenly discovered that time seemed to stand still.
The stains no longer moved forward or backward. The decaying floor ceased spreading and cracking, nor did it continue to mend; the sound of the violin by his ear also vanished abruptly as did the strange whispers and barking behind him.
Perhaps because he had learned music as a child... Annan was the first to react.
In order to prevent the barrage of comments from proposing weird solutions and disrupting his train of thought, Annan immediately sent out a strategy comment:
"——It’s reversed! Before crossing the halfway point of the corridor, the sounds of the violin, people talking, and dogs barking were all reversed!"
"...So that’s how it is."
Delicious Wind Goose stood still, slowly exhaling, "I understand now...
"The puzzle on this floor might be the simplest. But it might also be the hardest."
Old Goose sighed, looking up with some regret, "Damn it, I shouldn’t have run at the start. It seems I’ll have to stop at this floor..."
"——I think I understand now."
"——Is this corridor... symmetrical?"
"——No, it seems we should walk slowly..."
The barrage speculated about the mechanism.
But a few clever people were a beat slow in realizing the solution:
"——Is it that, when you walk forward, time progresses... and when you walk backward, time reverses?"
Delicious Wind Goose praised, "While I’m still not dead, let me explain the mechanics of this floor to you...
"This corridor is symmetrical. From the middle, it is completely identical in both directions. In other words... if I walk to the end and then turn back, it’s as if I’ve returned to the starting point.
"Taking the point I entered as Point A, the midpoint as Point B, and the symmetrical Point A as Point C; walking from A to B, time flows backwards with my steps. And walking from B to C, time flows forward with my steps.
"I surmise that going from C to B is likely also a reversal. From B to A could be forward.
"...This could be a corridor that one cannot leave by conventional means."
Delicious Wind Goose said softly, "Here, the passage of time has nothing to do with the outside world; it synchronizes with my steps——the faster I walk, the faster time goes by.
"In other words... in here, I should not run even a single step."
Saying so, he took two steps backward without turning around.
As expected——a hoarse and jarring noise filled the air, and the stains on the floor extended forward and the floorboards began to crack ahead of him.
Then Delicious Wind Goose took a few steps forward and saw the stains receding and the floor mending, as slow, resonant violin music played in his ears.
His guess had been perfectly confirmed.
So Delicious Wind Goose stood still, lost in thought.