Chapter 1098: Chapter 97: My Love (Part 2)

Solo mission task...

Li Ang felt an inexplicable sense of long-lost joy rising within him. He shook his head and logged out of the Game Square, returning to the real world aboard the Longqing Cruise Ship to prepare.

As the afternoon soon came, Li Ang had Chaichai wait outside the cabin while he quietly held a standard Beretta 92F handgun, waiting in the chamber.

The clock on the wall ticked away, accompanied by the second hand reaching twelve, and suddenly, Li Ang’s vision turned pitch black.

————

Pain, cold, numbness.

Darkness all around,

An intense pain instantly engulfed his entire body, and Li Ang felt himself sitting on the ground against the wall. A cold wave surged from the top of his head along his spine to the soles of his feet, his body instinctively wanting to stand, yet his wrists were cuffed, unable to break free.

A sudden burning pain came from the back of his left hand.

Handcuffs...?

Where is this?

Detention center?

Prison?

A serial killer’s secret underground room?

His body acted before his mind, subconsciously calling out to the Divine Mark and Psychic Abilities, yet there was no response at all,

The consciousness called for the player information panel, item bar, and skill bar, all of which turned grey, unable to be used.

Alright, this phenomenon is rather familiar.

[In this task, players are in full character mode, with No Attribute Enhancement, unable to use skills or Skill Scrolls other than Title Skills, and cannot access items or use equipment items.]

[Phase one mission objective: Leave the current room]

[Task time limit: None]

[Task reward: None]

[Failure punishment: None]

"..."

Li Ang exhaled a murky breath, just about to make a couple of remarks, when a sharp pain came from his heart.

Bang... bang!

Bang!

Bang...

His heart was like a roller coaster,

sometimes pounding violently,

sometimes suddenly halting, stuck motionless,

The discomfort flooded his entire body, making him instinctively retch, like running five kilometers and suddenly stopping at the finish line.

Fortunately, the pain came quickly and left just as fast.

His heartbeat immediately returned to normal, Li Ang leaned his body back, his upper body against the wall, scrutinizing the current situation.

Phase one mission objective is to leave the current room, with classic three-no parameters of no time limit, reward, or failure punishment, providing no hints.

"Alright then,"

Li Ang took a deep breath, "First, let’s check my own state."

He flexed his fingers, toes, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, and other organs, all responded, indicating he was a healthy male.

"From the shape felt by my tongue touching my teeth, the body I ’observe’ is my own.

However, in the script task, others observe the ’me’ as still being a certain character in the script task."

Then the question arises, "Who am ’I’?"

Where is this?

Why did ’I’ appear here?

Li Ang moved his wrists, and as the all-over pain faded, he saw the current environment wasn’t absolute darkness,

His current posture was that his hands were cuffed, arms raised and pressing against either ear, the whole person sitting against the wall on the ground.

To the left of where his toes pointed, a narrow beam of light shone into the room from ground level.

That beam was rather bright, not natural sunlight, but artificial light,

meaning it was shining in from outside the room, along the crack beneath the door.

However, due to the angle, this beam couldn’t help Li Ang see other things in the room clearly.

"I’m cuffed in a locked room, there’s artificial light outside. This script task clearly doesn’t look like a harmonious family-loving type."

Li Ang mused with a headache: "Serial killer? A perverted maniac? An international crime syndicate? Human trafficking gang? Or just a wealthy and perverted noble wanting a real-life Saw experience.

No matter the possibility, calling for outside help is the worst choice—outside might be the very culprit causing my current situation."

He must quietly, quickly escape from here.

Li Ang continued to explore, his wrists indeed seemed handcuffed,

but unlike ordinary handcuffs, the ones on his wrists had no connecting chain, just two metal rings,

and between the rings was locked by a padlock.

This padlock was quite heavy and solid, not only locking the cuffs but also encircling a metal pipe that resembled a heating duct.

The pipe was horizontal and straight, hanging in the middle of the wall, with nails on both ends connecting to the wall, making the padlock immobile, which kept Li Ang trapped in place.

The heating duct was not active, cold to the touch,

Due to the gap between the pipe and the wall, Li Ang could look up within a limited range.

"Too dark, can’t see a thing.

Hmm... what am I wearing?"

Li Ang gently tapped his foot on the ground, feeling comfortable, with a crisp sound—high-quality leather boots.

Then he lowered his head to bite his collar, licking the fabric.

Now fully immersed in the script task, he was wearing the character’s clothes,

and from the tactile result, it was a suit, and quite high-end.

"The price of a suit depends on its fabric, tailoring, and craftsmanship.

Leaving the latter two aside, this suit’s lining, that is, the fabric inside, used wool, linen, and even... horsehair?

The fineness of the wool yarn was at least one hundred counts, one hundred twenty to one hundred fifty, soft and durable.

This natural material can reset when the suit fabric and lining move.

Moreover, this suit’s lining is not a mass-produced bonded lining—using only a single layer of low-grade fabric as the lining,

At least semi-handmade or even fully handmade.

The price of just this suit could already afford an average person’s entire outfit.

If it were a custom-tailored luxury high-end piece, the price would be even higher.

Ordinary white-collar workers couldn’t afford it."

Li Ang calmly analyzed, not having much personal interest in luxury consumption but had seen some wealthy families while tutoring,

knowing a bit about so-called luxury consumer goods.

If in the real world before becoming a player, walking on the street and seeing a suit worth at least over two thousand,

He’d probably accidentally spill open a thermos cup (99 yuan) of plain water (0 yuan),

on the Xiaomi 10 (128G Grey (3400 yuan +200 screen insurance)),

letting the phone slip from his hand, down along a discounted down jacket (378 yuan) and work pants (69 yuan), falling to the ground.

Finally catching it with safety snow boots (size 43, 200 yuan),

avoiding raising his head at a forty-five-degree angle to the sky, tears flowing against the current like a river of sadness.

"Alright, I’ve learned that the character I’m playing is very wealthy, so what next?"

Li Ang continued to observe the surroundings of the room, gradually sliding down the wall, stretching his arms as far as possible, and using his feet to slowly sweep the floor (the room’s floor was made of smooth wood, without splinters),

to see if he could sweep anything there.

Suddenly, he heard a thump—

as if he had kicked something made of plastic.

Li Ang felt a flicker of joy in his heart and slowly used the back of his leather boots to hook the hard object, pinching it between his feet,

then gently tossing it upward.

Li Ang’s soccer skills were decent; with one toss, the object traced a perfect arc through the darkness and landed right between his hands.

Got it!

Li Ang’s heart relaxed, letting out a breath of air,

and with his handcuffed hands, he traced the surface of the plastic object.

The object was about two finger-widths thick, palm-length, and felt heavy, seemingly made of aluminum alloy.

The front end was a circular glass piece,

and the bottom end had a movable button that could be pressed.

"Is this a... flashlight?"

Li Ang strained his hands and pressed the button at the bottom. Sure enough, the front of the flashlight burst forth with bright light.

Li Ang was well-prepared for this and immediately covered the front with his palm after pressing the button, to prevent the intense beam from blinding his eyes, which had been in the dark for a long time.

"This flashlight is really bright."

Li Ang took a deep breath and slowly let his eyes adjust to the light until he felt he could manage, then released the palm covering the flashlight—the palm was a bit warm.

He illuminated the room with the flashlight,

which was about three meters square, with dark hardwood flooring and a yellow round lamp shade on the ceiling, pale green wallpaper on the walls,

and the door on the side was a regular wooden door with a golden handle; it wasn’t clear if it was locked.

"A regular wooden door?"

Li Ang felt a stir in his heart. If it was a secret underground room of a serial killer, the security measures shouldn’t be this basic.

This wooden door appeared to have poor soundproofing and the lock structure seemed fragile enough that a physically fit adult male might be able to break it open with force.

Li Ang had a few guesses in mind,

This room might be a kind of storage room, with a few open cardboard boxes placed where his feet couldn’t reach; due to the angle, he couldn’t see what was inside,

while the handcuffs prevented him from moving closer and toppling the boxes to examine them.

"The walls of the room also seem to lack soundproofing measures.

If I remove my boots and kick them out, let them hit the wall, bounce back, and hit the boxes to kick them towards me, I might be able to bring the boxes over..."

Li Ang imagined this for a moment, then immediately dismissed this unrealistic idea.

Not to mention whether he could perform such a high-difficulty move like a professional soccer player,

but if the shoe was kicked out and made a noise, it might alert a potential killer outside?

Also, there were several boxes, and he only had one pair of shoes.

"This route won’t work, so what about other factors?"

This scenario task was a complete portrayal, limiting the player’s abilities, meaning it was decryption-based,

testing observation and logical reasoning skills.

Under the light,

Li Ang scanned the entire room, and besides wild ideas like kicking the shoes away, smashing the ceiling lamp, and using the fragments to cut his handcuffs,

it seemed that still only the handcuffs had the most potential as the next step of the puzzle.

"Hmm... Let me see what’s up with these handcuffs."

Li Ang took a deep breath, squinted, and carefully observed the handcuffs in the light.

Generally speaking, the common handcuff shapes worldwide come in two types: chain cuffs and hinged cuffs.

The former is an early design, the cuffs are linked by two to three metal rings, and because the rings are interlinked, the restrained person can still move freely within a certain range,

and could even use the handcuffs to wrap around others’ necks and tighten, strangling them to death.

To avoid such situations, hinged cuffs are now more widely used,

with fewer rings linked, shortening the distance between cuff rings so that free movement is impossible, nor can the wrists rotate back and forth.

The handcuffs on Li Ang’s hands were clearly modified from common hinged cuffs,

with the protruding metal ring components of the cuffs sawed off,

and a bronze-colored padlock was used to bind the two cuff rings together.

Besides the handcuffs, the padlock was also fastened to a metal pipe resembling a heating pipe.

"Hmm... Let’s think about this.

The information on these handcuffs.

Firstly, the owner could access handcuffs used in modern society, but chose not to use them directly; instead, using cuff rings + padlock to restrain me.

If the person had current handcuffs, they could bind me directly to the heating pipe without having to go to this extra effort—the short distance between the cuff rings in hinged cuffs isn’t less uncomfortable than with the padlock."

Li Ang thought for a while without figuring out the reason, so he proceeded to the next step.

He slowly retrieved his feet, pressing his back against the wall, and stood up slowly,

then used his back to press against the wall, pulling his wrists forward.

"Aah—"

He pulled his wrists forward heavily, but the handcuffs didn’t budge, nor did the seemingly fragile heating pipe sway even slightly.

"Alright, brute force won’t work."

Li Ang gritted his teeth and shook his sore wrists, "Huh? What’s this..."

As he forcefully pulled the handcuffs, the position of the padlock shifted.

Originally, the padlock was clamped firmly between the hands and the pipe, placed horizontally and parallel to the floor.

A struggle caused the handcuff links to loosen just a bit, which made the padlock fall.

With the padlock fallen, at Li Ang’s angle, he could see on top of the padlock,

there were three small metal rings,

and each metal ring had a key-like metal object hanging from it.

Keys hanging on the lock?

Li Ang’s heart jolted, his mind focused, he licked his cracked lips and shone the flashlight on the padlock.

Even with the strong light of the flashlight, his own eyes were also illuminated,

but he succeeded in glimpsing the structure of the padlock.

It turned out that the three metal rings on the padlock really contained three keys,

but the issue was that among the three keys, one was intact,

while the other two were incomplete,

one only had the upper part, while the other had only the lower part.

The lower-part incomplete key was connected to the metal ring through a round hole.

"Damn it! This is too much! Starting off with a pitch-black environment and intense pain, limiting player skills,

now presenting the first puzzle as a composite decrypting of three keys and one lock.

Killing Field System, if you want to kill me, just say so."

Li Ang internally cursed and complained, yet his brain grew increasingly excited. The harder the puzzle, the more valuable it is to conquer.