Chapter 424: Alien Land (VIII)
The pointer pointed to 12 o'clock.
There was no need to ask any more questions at this point, because something was happening.
Something is approaching.
Yan Zhen and Liu Xingquan stood back to back, looking around in panic.
At first there was the sound of heavy breathing, then a pungent smell and an uncontrollable sense of fear. The air seemed to be torn open, black dust poured and rose in front of their eyes like uncontrolled sewage, and then an inhuman creature crawled out from the black curtain.
It's approaching.
It's gliding.
The deformed long claws scratched filthy marks on the ground and walls, and the scarlet ghost eyes flickered in the darkness.
Yan Zhen and Liu Xingquan didn’t know what this thing was, but there was no doubt that among the boys’ senses filled with fear, all their rational consciousness was telling them that disaster was coming at this moment.
Unlike the monsters in the maze, this is a bloodthirsty beast beyond their understanding.
As long as it launches an attack in a flash, it can easily tear their flesh and blood, devour their consciousness, and reap their lives.
Liu Xingquan threw out a magic scroll [Ice Arrow].
The special effects of the frost arrow suddenly exploded, and the scroll that was supposed to cause damage to the monster only left a trace of broken ice. The monster was not hurt at all. It just stared at them and waved its long claws to attack them.
Liu Xingquan let out a cry of grief.
It's all over.
They are going to die.
At that moment, a line of text appeared in front of Yan Zhen and Liu Xingquan.
[Offer a holy gem to the good god to save your lives]
【whether】
Without any hesitation, Yan Zhen clicked [Yes].
Then in an instant, fire from the sky descended.
Bright flames rushed out, sweeping over the monster in front of them like a wave. The strange hissing sound was like the monster's wailing, and the ugly body peeled off layer by layer. The black filth quickly evaporated under the white light, leaving only a few ashes flying in the air.
The shadow of disaster vanished in the blazing flames.
Yan Zhen and Liu Xingquan looked around with lingering fear. Only a few remaining flames were left in the room, flickering in the mist. The monster was completely destroyed.
There were thick black marks on the floor and walls of the room, which were scars left by the flames.
Yan Zhen came back to his senses and said, "That monster was killed?"
"Yes. Fortunately, there is an option to sacrifice stones to prolong life." Liu Xingquan breathed a sigh of relief.
"..." Yan Zhen frowned and pulled the little spider out of his pocket, "What was that monster just now?"
The little spider said nothing and was as quiet as a real spider.
"Hey! Hey!!" After shaking it a few times, seeing that the little spider was pretending to be dead so skillfully and obviously didn't want to answer him, he had to stuff the little spider back into his pocket.
Liu Xingquan said with a pale face: "That oppressive feeling is just like the final boss. Will this kind of monster appear at 12 o'clock?"
Yan Zhen glanced at the timer in his field of vision. At this moment, the pointer slightly deviated from 12 and was slowly moving towards 1 o'clock. "The boss comes at 12 o'clock. Is this a mandatory mechanism of this alien game? Liu Xingquan, have you ever played Don't Starve?"
“I don’t have time to play.”
"Tsk, I know you're a top student. It's like this, there's a mechanism in Don't Starve that wild dogs will attack you every few days, and it's the creators' way of making the game more thrilling and playable. Does this alien world game also have this mechanism?" Yan Zhen muttered to himself, and then he shook his head, "No, it's not that simple. The 12 o'clock BOSS, and sacrificing gems to prolong your life... I understand!!"
Liu Xingquan stood quietly aside, waiting for Yan Zhen's next words. He knew that his friend must have grasped something important.
"This is a time penalty mechanism." Yan Zhen said loudly.
"Time penalty?"
"Yes. When we pick up items or stay in the safe room of the maze for a short time, the timer will run relatively slowly, but as soon as we fight a monster, the timer will run very fast."
Liu Xingquan nodded and said, "I have recorded it. When we fight monsters in the monster room, we will enter a turn-based mode. Every time we fight a turn, the pointer will move forward about half a grid. As long as we drag it out for five or six turns, the pointer of the timer will move forward 2 to 3 points."
"Yes, this is a time penalty mechanism . The safe period for exploring the maze is one cycle of the timer. If we use up this cycle, a boss that we players cannot defeat will appear to attack us. The only price to extend our lives is the holy gem."
“…”
"The game is using this mechanism to deliberately consume our holy gems." Yan Zhen bit her lip, "At the same time, the number of holy gems determines the outcome of the player's PK match."
The ultimate goal of the game is to find the entrance to the bottom floor to obtain the antidote to save the Queen's kingdom. There is no doubt that this process requires exploring the maze and consumes time. Under the premise that the timer will be consumed quickly when fighting monsters, it may be that several cycles have been completed before all the explorations are completed, that is, several holy gems have been consumed. On the other hand, exploring the maze may encounter life-and-death threats from other player teams entering the PK game.
Yan Zhen gritted his teeth and said, "This game is really insidious."
Liu Xingquan nodded. After thinking for a moment, he said, "So, maintaining the existing number of holy gems is the key to winning this game."
Yan Zhen said: "Let's go. In this new cycle, we must do our best to save time."
…
…
In the upper left corner of Yan Zhen and Liu Xingquan's vision, the timer's hands began to rotate slowly again.
This time, Yan Zhen and Liu Xingquan had fully understood the meaning of this timer. Every time the timer completed a circle, they would be forced to lose a holy gem. The timing cycle of each team was different. If too much time was wasted on the monster, it might consume multiple cycles and lose multiple gems. On the contrary, it could avoid the speed of gem consumption. Fortunately, they found the pattern of the maze on the first floor, which was an advantage only with the ability to investigate.
"Safety!"
"This room is safe!"
"There's a monster!"
"Safety!"
"There's a monster!"
Under the guidance of Liu Xingquan, a master of mine sweeping, the two teenagers quickly cleared this level and found the exit.
After leaving this level of the maze, Yan Zhen and Liu Xingquan entered a new level of the maze.
They discovered something new.
It was still a 9 x 9 grid maze, but this level of the maze was obviously different from the ones they had explored.
They walked into a room and saw the treasure chest that was supposed to contain the props was opened, but there was nothing inside.
Liu Xingquan pushed open the door of the room next door and found an obvious collision dent on the wall of the room, which was covered with cracks, which meant that there had been a battle here.
"Someone has been to this floor." Yan Zhen said.
"Well, maybe they just left." Liu Xingquan said, "This is what I wanted to tell you just now. If the number of maze levels has a range, and we are randomly sent to an unexplored maze and encounter a level with other player teams, then of course it is possible that we will enter a maze level that has been explored by other player teams."
"It's pretty good. Although I can't pick up any props, I just need to walk along the open rooms. Anyway, the monsters must have been dealt with by them." Yan Zhen looked around the room, "I wonder which team was exploring here just now."
"Let's walk and see."
Walking into one room after another, Yan Zhen and Liu Xingquan seemed to be more relaxed, completely different from the tense exploration just now. The maze layer that had been cleared by others was extremely simple to explore. The only downside was that there were no props to pick up.
From the state of one can infer the experience of the other team in this level of the maze. This team obtained at least three supplies of food and scrolls from this level. The weapons they used were not disposable consumables like magic scrolls. Every monster room that was blown up left obvious dents.
"I guess this floor might have been explored by Fan Yingjie and the Terminator." Yan Zhen pointed at the cracks in the room and said, "It looks like the rooms where battles took place all suffered huge impacts. None of the magic scrolls we picked up could cause such damage. According to intelligence, Fan Yingjie and the Terminator's team got powerful weapons, which are very consistent with this battle mode."
"It could also be the Nerigabawa team in an unknown situation." Liu Xingquan walked towards another room, "Yan Zhen, come here quickly!!"
"What's wrong?"
"Look at this room!"
Yan Zhen stood up and walked to Liu Xingquan.
Before their eyes, the room looked as if it had been scorched by flames, with black scars on the walls and the floor, and residual dust and embers floating in the air.
This is the scene they have experienced before.
"Fan Yingjie's team also encountered a BOSS with a time penalty." Liu Xingquan said.
"Well, it's obvious that they also consumed a holy gem here." Yan Zhen said.
"Yes." Liu Xingquan said, "If they haven't PKed yet, then there are still 9 holy gems left."
Yan Zhen's eyes suddenly lit up, and he said enthusiastically: "So that's it, so that's it."
"What's wrong?"
"I understand how to play this game!" Yan Zhen turned around. "I guess, next we may enter a maze that other teams have already explored. Since we are competing, the key to the game is to use this method to calculate how many gems the other teams have left."
"But you can't confirm how many gems Fan Yingjie and his team consumed in the PK match."
"That's not hard to guess. Assuming that Team Fan Yingjie meets Team Nie Sha Sha, I think they will try to avoid consuming gems in the first PK match. They will prioritize choosing the same method as Team Bai Lian and us to avoid a fight by sending one of each other out. However, there is a fatal point between the two teams, that is, the two teams are strangers to each other and cannot establish a trusting relationship at all."
"You mean they will break the agreement during the PK and deliberately increase the stakes to win over the other party?"
"Yeah. I guess it will probably end up being 3 vs 3." Yan Zhen said, "Originally there were 10 gems. Assuming the PK match consumes 3 gems and the time penalty consumes 1 gem, then the number of gems in Fan Yingjie's Terminator team will not exceed 6."
Liu Xingquan said: "But in this case, if we meet them, we must consume more than 6 gems to win. The remaining gems will not allow us to win against other teams at all."
Yan Zhen shook his head. He said in an extremely serious but slightly distressed tone: "I have a way to win this game for sure."
Neligabawa stared at the empty room in front of him. The floor and walls were covered with black scars from the flames.
His servant whispered, "Yan Zhen and Liu Xingquan's team, 8. Bai Lianlian and Song Jiarui's team, 8. Fan Yingjie's Terminator team, 6."
"Victory is within my grasp," he declared.
