Chapter 39 - Ascension 5K

39: 43.4 Chapter Ascension (5K) 39: 43.4 Chapter Ascension (5K) Li Cheng squeezed sideways into the passage, stepping forward thoughtfully.

The two secret chambers were not just secret chambers.

The coordinates in the first room, and the photos and ciphers in the second one, seemed to be related to this Owen’s life.

With that thought, he arrived at the third room.

This space was smaller, the room completely empty except for a corner where a metal door stood, unsecured by any locks and inscribed with the words .

In the center of the room, there stood a liquid crystal screen and a device.

The device consisted of a transparent glass cylinder and a syringe, together with a tube.

The bottom of the cylinder was welded firmly to the floor, immovable.

The top was sealed and connected to the tube.

On its exterior were milliliter markings, and on the inside were four metallic discs arranged in two sets, top and bottom.

Two sets of electrical cables, lying flat against the floor, extended to the metal door.

Considering the syringe and tube for drawing blood, it seemed like Li Cheng was to draw at least 800 milliliters of his blood, pour it into the cylinder to take advantage of the blood’s conductivity, to connect the metallic disc electrodes, and open the sealed metal door.

And the sealed design at the top of the cylinder prevented Li Cheng from filling it with seawater on his clothes or even simply with urine.

Sizzle.

Just as he felt regret about this, the liquid crystal screen lit up, projecting a scene akin to that from a surveillance camera.

The scene showed a middle-aged man dressed in a shirt and trousers, looking exhausted, with parched lips and showing signs of dehydration, staggering across the blazing desert under the fierce sun, until he reached a phone booth where he inserted coins and dialed “001212*******”.

From the ceiling of the secret chamber, a phone conveniently dropped down, automatically connecting without being picked up.

Through it, came the agonized voice of the man on the screen, “Owen, it’s Mike.

Listen, do not go to London for the meeting, that escape room is a trap.

They deceived me, abandoned me in the desert in Mexico, I can’t get out…”

“Wait, you said you’re in Mexico?”

Li Cheng called out loudly, but the man on the other end of the phone appeared to lapse into dehydration shock, staggering out of the phone booth and collapsing in front of a small cabin’s door.

The door to the cabin was the same kind as the one in the secret chamber.

From this, it seemed that this Mike was the good friend mentioned in the briefing who had persuaded Owen to participate in the escape room.

Having thought it over, Li Cheng picked up the syringe and inserted it into his own arm.

Blood flowed along the tube, slowly filling the glass cylinder to the 800ml mark.

Once the blood completed the electrical circuit, the metal door of the secret chamber opened with a sound, revealing an elevator.

In the corner of the elevator was a black bag, its zipper open, displaying stack upon stack of US dollars.

This money was the reward for passing through the secret chamber, meaning Li Cheng only had to leave the secret chamber to have completed the task.

Without hesitation, he removed the syringe, picked up the sextant, and strode forward.

“Uh…uh…”

The speaker in the room suddenly amplified the sound; Mike’s gasping breaths as he lay in the desert sounded excruciatingly painful.

“Oh?

Amplifying the sound?

You want to elicit my compassion, to stay behind for a friend, and risk blood loss shock by drawing 1600 milliliters of blood, to unlock the metal door on Mike’s side and let him escape as well?”

Li Cheng turned and looked at the surveillance camera, scoffing, “Pointless.

Of the two inside, at most only one can live.”

Not to mention that the player fulfilling the script task did not harbor any real feelings or a sense of responsibility or obligation for the characters they played.

More importantly, it was meaningless.

Mike was already dead.

Li Cheng entered the elevator car, glanced at the indicator light, and saw that the building had as many as 70 floors, with him on the fifty-fifth.

As the elevator doors closed automatically, the light for the 1st floor came on by itself.

The elevator began descending automatically, but Li Cheng looked up directly into the surveillance camera, calmly saying, “Take me to you.

The operators of the game.”

No change occurred, so Li Cheng smashed the sextant into the top of the elevator, bursting open the ventilation cover, and continued, “If you do not come for me, I will come looking for you.”

This time, the elevator finally came to a gradual halt, paused for a moment, and then began ascending.

The floors rapidly climbed, and Li Cheng, standing in the elevator, leisurely straightened his clothes and casually flipped through the stack of US dollars.

Fifty thousand US dollars, almost 360,000 Chinese Yuan—when had he ever seen so much cash?!

That was enough to buy one-twentieth of a house in Yin City!

Ding-dong.

The elevator reached the top floor, the doors opened, and Li Cheng was greeted by a group of security personnel with their guns raised.

“Don’t move!”

“Stay still!”

“Put your hands up!”

The security personnel shouted at Li Cheng, who retorted with glazed eyes, “One person tells me not to move, another tells me to raise my hands, is this how you American gunboys do your ‘fishing’ enforcement?”

“Hey, hey, boys, show some manners.”

A clearly high-ranking white elder came over, waved the armed guards back, and pointed at Li Cheng, “This Mr.

Owen here is the dark horse of tonight’s game!

Be nice to him!”

The position of the elderly suiter was extremely high, leaving the armed guards exchanging puzzled looks, as they lowered their guns.

And beyond the guards, Li Cheng could clearly see the situation at the top of the building.

There, a grand banquet was in progress, with male and female guests donning masks and elegant attire, merrily talking and exchanging toasts.

They had not come to drink or dance, but rather to participate in a special gambling event—in the lavishly decorated hall above, screens were hanging, displaying the surveillance perspectives of various secret chambers and the challengers struggling for survival within them.