Chapter 306 Way to the Top (13)

Following the instructions given by the werewolf, the players quickly found the loft and climbed up.

There was a different exit in the corridor outside the room, suggesting that there was a way to the middle of the castle. But the players did not try to explore because the hints given by the werewolf were: First, Little Red was very strong and unfriendly; Second, she may return to the castle at any time.

From a game’s point of view, when an NPC tells you clear hints, you shouldn’t go against it. It would help avoid facing huge dangers or even prevent them from triggering a death flag, so the players decided not to linger anymore.

The four climbed the ladder for more than five minutes and after passing through a fixed cloud, they finally saw the end. There was a round black hole and leading to it was the end of the ladder.

It looked like it was “painted” in the sky, just like the holes that you would see in Warner Bro’s cartoons that could be drawn out of thin air.

When they reached the end, they found that the hole’s size was narrow, allowing only normal creatures to pass.

Of course, the werewolf couldn’t get through to the fifth floor. The anterior curvature of his neck, the enlargement of his torso, and his posture when he climbs the ladder prevented him from doing so.

“Um … it’s a dark floor again.” Feng Bujue said as he took the lead, picking up the broom he had to throw away to explore when he climbed to the top of the stairs. Swan, Autumn Wind, and Calm Speaker followed in turn.

“Now we already know that this building … if it can still be called a building, only has seven floors in total.” Swan said: “That is to say … Our progress in the scenario has only been four-sevenths, right? “

“Hard to tell.” Calm Speaker was a very patient and sensible person. He responded: “As the saying goes … It gets tougher towards the end of a journey. The closer you are to the end, the more complacent you’ll be. It’s like the half time of a football game, if the whole team slacks off because it will end soon, the risk of losing the ball increases significantly.”

“Agreed.” Feng Bujue said, “In many horror movies, it was the surviving character’s carelessness in the last few minutes that led to the end of ACE.”

While they were speaking, Feng Bujue took the flashlight out again and turned it on.

Feng Bujue asked for the flashlight back that was previously given to Swan. After reaching the fourth floor, the flashlight was placing on Swan. Thus at this moment Swan took the flashlight in his pocket and turned it on.

The first thing the two did was to sweep their surroundings with their light and then immediately shining the light directly above them.

The ceiling and ground of this floor had returned to the state similar to that of the first floor. The floor was covered with tiles and the ceiling only reached up to four meters high and with their light, they couldn’t see where the walls were. It seemed like this floor was quite an empty space again.

“According to things before, I’ll go around alone …” Feng Bujue was interrupted by a voice in the dark.

“Gentlemen.” A young girl’s childish voice sounded.

This sentence stunned the three players into a cold sweat, their Fear Value increasing by more than half, and although Feng Bujue didn’t feel scared, he knew that it wasn’t good: was Little Red waiting for them?

There was a soft sound and a little firelight suddenly flashed in the darkness. At first, it was only about the size of a grain of rice, but somehow, it rapidly expanded and in a few seconds lit up the entire floor…

A short figure in a brown cloak appeared in everyone’s sight. Her cheeks were flushed, the clothes on her body were worn and thin, and her feet were bare. She was carrying a basket on her left hand, and in her right hand was a burning matchstick.

“It doesn’t seem to be Little Red, but …” Autumn Wind lowered his voice, trying to make his inference.

“Hum… I can tell that…” Feng Bujue continued. In the eyes of Swan and Calm Speaker, they naturally knew who this was.

“Do you want to buy matches?” The little girl asked as she approached the players in just a few steps.

The four players looked at each other, having no idea how to respond.

“Please buy a box of my matches.” She repeated with a pleading tone.

Suddenly, Autumn Wind thought of an idea. He stepped forward and took out the magic shoes in his pocket: “Can I use these shoes in exchange for your box of matches?”

The little girl looked at the silver magic shoes and hesitated: “Really? Sir, these shoes look like its worth a lot of money.” It seems that she was an honest child.

“It doesn’t matter, I think this is a fair deal.” Autumn Wind replied.

“Well, thank you, sir.” The little girl replied.

Suddenly, the match in her hand went out and the whole floor returned to darkness.

Autumn Wind couldn’t see anything, but fortunately, his teammates quickly ran over. The flashlight illuminated the area around Autumn Wind, but both the little girl and Autumn Wind’s shoes disappeared.

“Over there.” It was Feng Bujue who quickly found the clue where the little girl was previously. There was a box of matches placed on the floor tile and on that tile was a line of text that seems to be smoking up. It looked like it was written in Latin. The translation given by the system was: [Sincere kindness, asking no return.]

After reading it, Calm Speaker said: “It turns out that the magic shoes are used here, I thought there would be a plot like Cinderella.”

Autumn Wind picked up the match on the ground, “Did that because I saw her bare feet.”

“Lolicon and also an ankle fetish…” Feng Bujue stroked his chin.

“Why is everything badly distorted by you…” Autumn Wind said.

“When the surroundings were all bright, did any of you looked around?” Swan pulling the topic back on track.

Calm Speaker said: “Ah, the whole floor is empty, only over there …” He pointed to the direction: “There is a door.”

“Yeah, that’s what I saw too” Swan replied: “So are we going there directly?”

“Should I do something about the match?” Autumn Wind added and opened the matchbox only to see that there were only four matches in it …

“Ha! Needless to say, let’s each take one.” Feng Bujue glanced at the matchbox and said directly.

The other three did not say anything. They all understood what it meant when the number of items was equal to the number of players.

Since this was the case, they wouldn’t waste a limited amount of resources to observe their surroundings. The four of them walked towards the direction that Calm Speaker pointed at, relying on their flashlights to see, and arrived at the door in a shortly after.

“it’s an elevator …” Calm Speaker said, looking at the metal door.

From its appearance, the door looked exactly like the one in the landing space. There was only one button next to the door signifying it function well.

Ding–

After Swan pressed the button, the elevator doors opened and after the four entered, they found that there was nothing operable inside.

After waiting five to six seconds, the door automatically closed and ascended. They had no idea if it was being controlled remotely or if it just normally functioned that way. In any case, in this fantasy scenario, it wouldn’t be that surprising even if the elevator were to have its own consciousness.

It didn’t take long before they stopped and the door opened automatically. Letting the players enter the sixth floor safely.

“Speaking of… I seem to be wrong about the single and double floors …” Swan said as he stepped out of the elevator.

“Sure, but …” Autumn Wind said: “From the first floor up to here, the difficulty seems to be very low. Except for SCP-233, there weren’t any particularly difficult puzzles and there were no battles at all.”

“Not necessarily.” Feng Bujue shook his head: “We may have encountered several deadly traps already, but they weren’t triggered, making it seem east.” He said: “Aside from the SCP, the previous werewolf was a monster that can lead to GG easily. We also know now that shoes had to be given to the little girl who sold matches. But, what if we made the wrong choices, such as giving the wrong item or not responding to her plea before the flame died… “

“That makes sense …” Calm Speaker said: “In this seemingly safe scenario, there may be hidden triggers that might kill us all. We can’t be careless now…”

While they were talking, they were also observing their surroundings. This floor was similar to the fourth floor, except the environment was a bit different.

The ground on the sixth floor was a muddy swamp and there were only limited spaces for people to settle in. The murals on the four sides were of black forests and heavy mountain shadows, and on the ceiling was a painted night sky. In addition to a few thin long clouds, there were many stars on it.

At the place where the ceiling and the two walls met was a full moon made of paper and its cold light was spilling over the swamp.

The path leading up from this floor was relatively clear.

On the wall directly opposite the elevator was a stone staircase winding upwards. Five to six of the steps at the bottom extended from the wall and was in contact with this three-dimensional space.

At this level, the area where players could walk was limited, there weren’t many options except for stepping on the relatively dry footholds on the stone steps of the opposite wall.

“Pay attention.” Swan, who was at the front, reminded: “We don’t have any props now. If we fall in the middle of the swamp, it will be difficult to pull people out.”

“Hey … did you hear that?” Feng Bujue said suddenly and at the same time raising his head.