Chapter 12: The Dangerous Elevator
Step one, step two, step three...
Luo Jun took one step at a time, not knowing how long he had been walking, finally returning to solid ground.
He looked up to see the same slow-moving platform, with the rules still posted on the wall.
Back to square one.
But Luo Jun didn't give up. He turned around and kept climbing.
So he continued to make his way up, returning to the starting point time and again, until finally, on his fifth time passing that slow-moving platform, Luo Jun stopped.
The wall was the same, the stickers and rules were unchanged, the only difference was that this time, there was a vending machine in the corner!
"Finally, I'm out!"
Luo Jun walked up to it. This vending machine looked like the typical ones you see at street markets, but the drinks inside were all unfamiliar to him. As for snacks, there was only one kind, the "animal cookies" mentioned in the rules.
The transparent plastic packaging was the size of a matchbox and contained a cookie shaped like an animal. Even through the packaging, he could see that the cookie was made with great detail, but he couldn't identify which animal it was... it looked a bit like a monkey, but it had long bunny ears and a tail like a kangaroo. The design was definitely weird...
That was just the sample on the outside; upon closer inspection, there were other shaped animal cookies stacked behind it, but all of them were equally strange and unfamiliar to Luo Jun...
Whatever it was, according to the rules, he had to buy something first!
Luo Jun patted his pockets and realized he hadn't brought any money.
Also, nowadays, almost everyone uses mobile payments, so it's rare for anyone to carry coins around.
But this didn't stump Luo Jun. He crouched down and lifted one corner of the vending machine, reaching inside. Soon enough, he found two coins at the bottom.
It's not unusual for coins to slip and roll to the bottom of vending machines. Most people don't care about losing a dollar, so as long as you can move the machine, you can often find coins underneath.
Even if he hadn't found any, Luo Jun was ready to pry open the coin box and take the money directly. With his current physical abilities, that wouldn't be too hard.
He inserted a coin, selected an item, and with the machine whirring to life, a bag of small cookies dropped from the exit.
Luo Jun looked at the bag of cookies, thought for a moment, then reached out, took it, and stuffed it into his pocket.
Then he tossed in another coin for another purchase. This time, he didn't look back and turned to continue climbing, letting the sound of the small cookies falling behind him echo in his ears.
What would happen next?
As Luo Jun walked, he could feel his heart pounding.
The staircase was darker than the slow-moving platform, visibility was only a few steps. Even with his enhanced vision, he couldn't pierce through the thick fog of darkness. Clearly, this wasn't just normal dimness; there had to be some supernatural force at play, like the "It" mentioned in the rules.
In that heavy darkness, Luo Jun's confidence in himself and the mystery dice had all but vanished, leaving only cautious fear.
As he walked, his foot suddenly froze in mid-air.
Because he saw, in the darkness ahead, a pair of feet!
No, to be precise, they didn't look like human feet, more like a pair of hooves. But oddly enough, looking up from the hooves, he could see the legs of checkered pajamas, and above that, it was swallowed by darkness.
Was there a creature in pajamas standing on the steps in front of him? And was it climbing up just like him?
Luo Jun counted; the feet were exactly five steps away from him.
He felt relieved and pulled back the foot he had just lifted.
If he encountered a creature moving in the same direction, he needed to maintain at least a five-step distance, as stated in the third rule!
But why were those feet standing still? If the other party kept standing like that, couldn't he move forward?
As Luo Jun puzzled over this, the feet suddenly moved, taking a step up and vanishing into the darkness.
Luo Jun took a step forward, closing the distance, and those mysterious feet appeared again.
The feet moved slowly, pausing for two seconds with each step. Luo Jun followed cautiously, afraid of accidentally crossing the safety distance. This damn darkness allowed him to see nothing but those feet, and he had no idea what kind of monster was ahead...
After following for about a dozen steps, suddenly, those feet quickened, wooshing away into the darkness.
Luo Jun was stunned but didn't speed up; he continued with his careful one-step-at-a-time approach.
After another seven or eight steps, Luo Jun's view suddenly opened up, revealing the familiar hallway of the hotel!
He had finally left the stairwell!
Luo Jun let out a long breath; his guess had been right!
The contradictions in the fourth and seventh rules had puzzled him for a long time, and it wasn't until the monster came down from above that Luo Jun found a breakthrough!
According to the third rule, if two beings encounter each other in the stairwell, the one going up must stop and give way to the one coming down. But that raised a question: if the fourth rule is correct, how does someone going down know there's someone behind them going up when they encounter an endless staircase and choose not to turn back? How can they avoid each other accurately?
Well, even if they could rely on the sound of footsteps to figure it out, what happens next? The fourth rule states that after backing up thirteen steps, if you haven't left the stairwell, you must stay put. But how long do you have to stand there? If they encounter another being during that time, can they avoid them? What does it count as for someone being still while backing up? Are they considered going up or down? If they meet another being going the same direction, they need to keep a five-step distance, which could mean they'll never get through that stretch of the stairwell!
The fourth rule seems reasonable, but a backwards movement contradicts rule three, which emphasizes direction. Plus, since rule seven doesn't acknowledge rule four, it's two against one. Luo Jun decided to take a risk, betting that the fourth rule was wrong!
So how should he break the situation dictated by rule four?
Luo Jun read over it a few times, and the only breakthrough he found was rule five!
First of all, the stairwell typically doesn't have vending machines, but it tells you how to handle it when you see one. So when would a vending machine appear?
The most likely explanation is that once you fall into the endless staircase of rule four, a vending machine will show up!
So rule five is the key to breaking rule four!
Fortunately, Luo Jun's guess was correct; successfully returning to the hallway was the best proof!
He looked at the room numbers and saw they all started with 2.
Was this the second floor?
Even though he had been going up after passing the first slow step, he ended up on the second floor?
If he had chosen to go down, he might have ended up on the basement floor without realizing it.
Luo Jun felt a chill in his heart.
He didn't dare to take the stairs for now, so he followed the hallway to the elevator door. The display showed the elevator was on the first floor.
He pressed the down button, the number changed, and with a ding, the elevator doors opened.
Luo Jun didn't rush inside; he first scanned the interior for any posted rules.
The interior of the elevator was so shiny it could reflect a person. The buttons indicated the hotel has five levels, from basement one to floor four, with nothing else posted except for the repair certification.
No rules might mean no danger, or it could mean there's danger but no way to respond.
Taking a deep breath, Luo Jun entered the elevator, and before the doors closed, he activated the Heavenly Dice.
"Going to the first floor!"
If the dice told him the event's complexity was too high, he would get out immediately!
If he managed to activate it but still failed, he would use the Lead Dice to try again!
Luckily, this time the dice worked successfully.
"Event difficulty: 5 points, final roll: 96+5. Congratulations, the event succeeded brilliantly!"
Luo Jun felt a weight lift from his heart, confidently pressed the button for the first floor, and the elevator doors closed, beginning its descent.
An event difficulty of 5 points indicates that under normal circumstances, he can reach the first floor smoothly, but some unexpected incidents might occur—like pressing the wrong floor or the elevator malfunctioning—preventing him from reaching the first floor smoothly. This is the meaning behind the five points of difficulty.
This was the first time Luo Jun had encountered such a huge success. A big failure could lead to more serious consequences, so a big success meant unexpected benefits.
Not only that, but the experience gained from a big success would also double.
However, a five-point difficulty just to take the elevator down probably wouldn't have any serious consequences, and doubling wouldn't yield much experience.
Thinking this, the elevator door chimed and opened, and Luo Jun stepped out onto the first floor.
"Base experience value: 5 points, event severity coefficient: 8 times, big success experience doubled, final experience: 80 points."
Luo Jun was stunned as he stepped out of the elevator. An eight-times severity coefficient?!
To put it into perspective, when failure meant death, the severity coefficient was twelve times. Generally, being injured would only be three or four times. But eight times? What kind of failure could he face?
This was definitely not an ordinary accident! At his current level, he wouldn't get hurt from a malfunctioning elevator; he could probably jump straight down from the second floor without any injuries…
Luo Jun glanced back at the closing elevator door, feeling like it was a gaping maw ready to snap shut.
Fortunately, he had used the Heavenly Mechanism Dice, which guaranteed a five-point correction. If he had just come down without it and faced that five percent failure probability, the consequences would be unimaginable…
Now, he only had one last chance with the Heavenly Mechanism Dice, but thankfully, it was almost midnight, and it would reset then.
He hoped he wouldn't encounter anything too dangerous before the reset…
Wiping the cold sweat from his forehead, Luo Jun stepped into the hotel lobby…