Card Room

Chapter 6 - Secret Room Record

The Rose Funeral was a plot card, the fruit knife and rose perfume were tool cards and this Tao Yuanming had the prefix of a summoning card...

Would he be able to summon Tao Yuanming?

Xiao Lou immediately brought this card to his eyes and carefully observed it.

The back of the card was silver-white, with the four patterns of hearts, spades, diamonds and clubs. There was a middle-aged man drawn on the front, with the words ‘Tao Yuanming’ written on top. The man had his hair long in the ancient style and was wearing a grey robe. He had a big straw hat behind him, a fishing rod in his hand and a leisurely smile on his face.

The character was vividly drawn but the card description made people speechless.

[Summoning Card: Tao Yuanming]

Rarity: S

Description: The draw card pool is limited and there is a very low probability of drawing this after a perfect instance clearance. P.S Your luck is very good to draw Tao Yuanming. Remember to not wash your hands before the next lucky draw.

Additional Skills 1: Remember Peach Blossom Spring.

Tao Yuanming described a fascinating paradise in Peach Blossom Spring, there the land is fertile and the water abundant. People live and work in peace. They don’t know the world and live a happy and leisurely life.

How to use: Summon Tao Yuanming in any secret room and used the skill ‘Remember Peach Blossom Spring.’ Tao Yuanming will find a separate space of Peach Blossom Spring in 10 seconds. The entrance to the Peach Blossom Spring is very hidden and other people can’t see it. You can instantly move to the entrance and hide in the Peach Blossom Spring.

The Peach Blossom Spring will last for 30 minutes and automatically disappears after this time. Tao Yuanming can find a Peach Blossom Spring every 24 hours. If seen in the process of looking for a Peach Blossom Spring, the skill release will fail.

Note: In level one, you can only enter the Peach Blossom Spring yourself. For each additional level, you can bring one more person into the Peach Blossom Spring.

Additional Skill 2: Unlock when the card grows to level 10.

Xiao Lou saw this complicated skill and stopped for a moment.

What was this mess?

Remember Peach Blossom Spring? He had read Tao Yuanming’s text in school but he couldn’t remember the specific contents.

Xiao Lou carefully read it twice and finally understood the usage of this Tao Yuanming card.

Tao Yuanming’s Peach Blossom Spring space was a hidden space based on the description, because ‘other people can’t see the entrance’. In other words, as long as Tao Yuanming’s skill was released successfully, whether it was an NPC in the secret room or another player, they couldn’t see the entrance. However, Xiao Lou could hide inside the space at any time.

If he didn’t understand incorrectly, Remember Peach Blossom Spring was actually a transfer skill.

At present, he could only transfer one person. Once the level of the card increased, he could transfer partners into the Peach Blossom Spring.

It was worthy of being a S-grade rare card. Instantly hiding in the Peach Blossom Spring was equivalent to the group going missing.

The skill cooldown time might be 24 hours but the Peace Blossom Spring lasted a long time. 30 minutes was enough to avoid a fatal risk at critical times.

Remember Peach Blossom Spring should be used when other people can’t see it. The Peach Blossom Spring was found in advance as a hidden terrain to escape. It was considered to be a safe haven in advance in the dangerous Card World.

As for the second skill, it wasn’t unlocked. It needed to reach level 10 before he could see it.

Xiao Lou understood the use of this card and asked, “How do I improve the level of the card?”

A of Hearts answered, “Every S-grade card is upgraded in different ways. This requires you to slowly explore it. Your luck is really good for you to draw a summoning card. This is the first time Tao Yuanming has been drawn from the rare card pool. At present, there is only one.”

Xiao Lou, “...”

He was an unlucky person in the real world. Presumably, his luck had changed after being dragged into the Card World?

S-grade cards were very strong but they needed to be patiently trained. Improving the card’s level could enhance the skill effects and unlock more skills. It was still unknown how to upgrade the level of the Tao Yuanming card but Xiao Lou wasn’t impatient. At least this card gave him an opportunity to escape in a critical moment.

He looked up and questioned, “How does the summoning card work? Do I call it out and use it directly?”

“Extract this card from the card pack and summon Tao Yuanming, asking him to release the skill. He will automatically release the Peach Blossom Spring at your designated position. The fruit knife and rose perfume can be used directly. The card package is very important for everyone. You should organize it clearly or in a critical moment, you won’t know which card to use or won’t be able to find it.”

Xiao Lou opened his card pack and rearranged it.

He put the ‘Plot Card: Rose Funeral’ at the end and put the S-grade summoning card, Tao Yuanming in the first grid. This made it convenient to take out and open the Peach Blossom Spring to escape. The C-grade cards fruit knife and rose perfume were placed in the second and third grids respectively. They were the only cards available at the moment and he would adjust it later.

He had just sorted out the card package when he heard A of Hearts say softly, “After clearing the instance, there will be 15 minutes of rest time. You can now rest, adjust and prepare for the next challenge.”

Xiao Lou nodded, “Okay.”

The moment his voice dropped, a sofa appeared in this personal space. Xiao Lou walked over to the sofa, closing his eyes and meditating.

The first pass gave him a lot of information. He still needed to organize it and the 15 minutes of rest time was just to slow his brain.

The difficulty of a card room was much greater than the escape rooms he had played in reality.

In reality, the secret rooms rarely gave a body and most of the games were multiplayer cooperation games. There were familiar partners around you and everyone could chat, greatly reducing the psychological fear.

If Rose Funeral was a four person secret room and one person each searched a room, the difficulty of clearing the instance would be greatly reduced.

In this Card World, could they team up and cooperate?

Xiao Lou thought for a moment before opening his eyes and asking the keeper, “Is the experience in the secret rooms limited to that secret room? If you are injured in the secret room, will the injury be automatically recovered after leaving it?”

A of Hearts looked at the young man in front of her with amazement. She had seen many people who cried, yelled or were so scared they peed their pants. People like Xiao Lou who could be so calm after the first pass were really rare.

She gazed at the young man in front of her with interest and asked, “How did you figure it out?”

Xiao Lou extended his hands and spoke calmly, “I don’t have any traces on my body or hands. This means that all the data from the secret room was cleared the moment I was sent out of 2 of Hearts. The challenger enters the secret room and the secret room returns the challenger in their original state. It is like a game. The instance will be constantly reset to meet the new challenger. Perhaps these small secret rooms can be understood as countless parallel spaces?”

A of Hearts, “...”

He had just entered the Card World for less than half an hour and could actually analyze so much? A of Hearts was really impressed with the man in front of her and nodded appreciatively. “What else did you guess?”

“There should be teamwork in the later high level secret rooms?”

“Tell me your reasons.”

Xiao Lou explained, “The difficulty of a single room isn’t too big and it won’t reach a point where there is no way to pass. This world isn’t lacking in detectives. You told me that none of the over 80 million challengers have cleared the final room, indicating the difficulty of the later rooms is beyond imagination. It is very likely that a large number of challengers will need to work together to solve the puzzles. However, gathering a group of masters together is a huge problem in itself.”

If all the secret rooms were single-person secret rooms, there should be masters of meticulous thinking among the more than 80 million challengers such as those who work in criminal investigation, forensic science or novel writers. They were rigorous in logical thinking and it was impossible for all of them to fail to pass.

This was unless the later rooms needed a teammate.

A team secret room was the hardest. The clues were too scattered and they could lose as long as one person made a mistake.

Thus, no one could clear the instance smoothly.

Xiao Lou added, “Of course, this is just my inference.”

A of Hearts smiled. “Your guess is correct. The D-grade single-person rooms are novice level to give you time to adapt. From C-grade onwards, the secret rooms are more difficult and does require teammates. Hopefully by then, you won’t be too burdened by your teammates.”

Sure enough, a team was the most uncontrollable. In the event of a pig teammate, even a god couldn’t clear the instance.

Xiao Lou was silent for a moment before asking, “Your so-called clearance is to open all the top-level secret rooms of Hearts, Diamonds, Spades and Clubs? Or can I selectively only clear Hearts?”

This was the crucial problem. If the instance clearance referred to all four types of secret rooms, the difficulty wouldn’t only quadruple. If he could only solve the Hearts secret rooms, the probability that he could reach the end would greatly increase.

The next moment, A of Hearts poured cold water on his head. “We don’t encourage serious challengers to do this. The final instance clearance naturally refers to all of the K of Hearts, K of Diamonds, K of Spades and K of Clubs. Only the challengers who have cleared the four K rooms are eligible to get the admission ticket to the final sun and moon god SS-grade level.”

It seemed that the idea of only clearing the Hearts room wasn’t possible. However, since he could form a team in the later stages, he could find some teammates who were skilled and make up for his own shortcomings.

A team can be a pit and sometimes encountering a pig teammate could bring the entire team down.

However, sometimes the power of a team was the most powerful.

Everyone was collecting firewood and igniting the flames high. His teammate might think of things that he couldn’t. Brainstorming was very helpful in clearing a room, which was why secret room games in reality were multiplayer cooperation games.

Thinking up to here, Xiao Lou asked, “How can I find my teammates?”

A of Hearts explained patiently, “There is a limit to the number of people in a team. You can find a teammate to enter with in advance. If you can’t find it, you will randomly match with other players at the same time. In this world, the type of teammates you encounter is also your luck.”

Xiao Lou nodded. “Thank you, I understand.”

15 minutes passed quickly.

A of Heart gave a reminder. “The rest time is over. Please go to the card wall and select the next room.”

Xiao Lou stood up and went to the huge card wall again.

On the card wall, 2 of Hearts was cleared and the next level was 3 of Hearts. For Diamonds, Spades and Clubs, he could still choose the second level. The higher the level, the higher the difficulty. Xiao Lou would naturally start from the second level. In order to consider it later, he must be familiar with the characteristics of the four types of secret rooms. This meant taking a look at diamonds, spades and clubs.

Xiao Lou decided to go to 2 of Diamonds first.

Diamonds was a mechanism type room and there should be certain risks. For example, stepping on the wrong mechanism meant being shot into a hedgehog or inputting the wrong password would result in being dropped into a pit, etc. Still, based on his experience with 2 of Hearts, the novice level shouldn’t be too scary. 2 of Hearts had a ‘clues collection’ prompt and the mechanisms of 2 of Diamonds shouldn’t be too difficult.

Compared to the Spades’ survival room and the Clubs’ challenge room, it was wiser to select Diamonds to try and get more rewards.

Xiao Lou reached out and pulled out the 2 of Diamonds card.

At this time, the transparent floating box above his head suddenly filled with large blood-red letters.

[Congratulations to the challenger Yu Hanjiang for perfectly clearing the 2 of Hearts secret room, Rose Funeral, in 13 minutes and 15 seconds, refreshing the world record of the 2 of Hearts secret room!]

Xiao Lou, “...”

Yu Hanjiang?!

The police group leader that he knew?

The surname of Yu wasn’t very common, not to mention this name was written exactly the same.

Moreover, Yu Hanjiang was a policeman. As the group leader of the Major Crimes Unit of the Jiangzhou police, this man had cracked countless unsolved cases since taking office and became a legend among the police. Xiao Lou still remembered that he met Yu Hanjiang because of a murder. A girl in his school was pushed down by her roommate and the murderer was caught within two days.

In terms of solving a case, Xiao Lou could only be regarded as an amateur player while Yu Hanjiang was a professional player.

Xiao Lou’s puzzle-solving process in the Rose Funeral secret room was smooth yet it took 18 minutes. Meanwhile, Yu Hanjiang perfectly cleared it in 13 minutes. However, Yu Hanjiang was a group leader of the police unit and had seen too many murders. His ability to search for evidence on the sport and his ability to analyze the case were extremely strong. In addition, the fingerprint of the deceased couldn’t unlock the mobile phone and Yu Hanjiang should’ve thought of this instantly. In the past, he might’ve encountered a situation where the deceased left a mobile phone that couldn’t be unlocked.

Based on this comprehensive inference, Xiao Lou was almost certain that the YU Hanjiang who refreshed the world record of the 2 of Hearts secret room was the group leader of the police that he knew!

It was just, how did Group Leader Yu come to the Card World?