Chapter 4640

"Loki. Even the Asgardians who like you the least cannot deny your wisdom. But I know that you are actually an emotional person. Between the two of us, you are the less rational one. This is why you are not suitable for the battlefield."

"Every decision made on the front line is difficult, and there is no possibility of delay or evasion. At this time, you must be a sufficiently rational, even cold-blooded commander, treating your own life and the lives of others as chips that can be weighed on the tactical scale. Choosing the optimal solution in an impossible polygon requires not just wisdom, but most importantly, the courage to be the one who survives to face everything."

"Yes, you have never lacked courage," Loki looked very frustrated. He even disregarded his image and sat on the ground. "You are the brave one. And I am a cowardly deserter."

"That's not true, Loki. The relationship between us is not just superior and subordinate, nor just general and commander. We are also brothers. People see you and me as one, and we are entangled deeper than this. And if the world leaves us to the end, one of us must die, then the one who remains cannot say they survived either. Because we have lost a part of ourselves forever, and from then on, we are never complete again," Thor also sat down.

"I once said that I have the courage to bury Asgard and be the last one to survive to face everything. But if you die too, then there is no survivor at all. I have no way to summon the courage to rebuild Asgard again. All my strength and love will flow out along the wound of the part that was cut off, and in the end, nothing will be left."

Thor reached out and pulled Loki's shoulder. "But I know you can, Loki. Your abundant love will not be exhausted so easily. You can not only repair yourself but also rebuild the entire Asgard. This is the reason why I made this decision."

"If I leave you here and go on the road alone, then even if the levels behind are just smooth sailing to the finish line, I might not be able to finish them. I will be unable to control myself, and might not even be able to move. I will exhaust myself."

"However, if I stay here and you head to the levels behind, just like before, I threw you into a room and stayed in the water alone, you were still able to solve the puzzle at the fastest speed and save me. You must also be able to complete the levels behind at the fastest speed."

"This is your strength. In the experiences where I fell into crisis countless times and you brought people to find me and save me, you did well every time, never missing. So when facing this situation, I will choose this way every time. Loki, this is not a kind of protection, but a kind of trust and entrustment. I'm counting on you."

Loki bit his lip tightly, his eyebrows drooping low, his green eyes like the tips of leaves hanging after the rain, his expression unclear whether it was aggrieved, sour, or sad.

"Alright, be optimistic," Thor touched his black hair again. "Maybe the plan can be completed. It might stop before you even leave the mechanism."

Loki had nothing to say. He also had no time to speak anymore. At this time, the ceiling had fallen very low, and the two of them could only barely stand straight. If they didn't go under the platform, it would be too late.

The two of them, one on the left and one on the right, knelt half-way under the platform, using their shoulders to hold up the platform. Thor reached out and pulled the lever under the platform.

With a click, the entire ceiling detached rapidly and smashed onto the platform with a bang. Thor and Loki groaned in unison. Thor exerted force from his waist, his body pushed upward, and he felt the weight of the platform.

The entire ceiling was not light; even a normally exercising adult male couldn't hold it for too long. Two people holding it together shared some pressure. However, if Loki wanted to leave, he could only persist for ten minutes at most.

Thor took a deep breath, adjusted his state, and said: "You have to go now."

Loki wanted to turn his head to look at him, but was blocked by the pillar in the middle. He clenched his fists, but heard Thor growl: "Go quickly, Loki!"

Loki bit his teeth hard, but still crawled forward slowly, crawling toward the secret room that had already opened. At this moment, the space below was still relatively ample, and crawling wasn't difficult. The steel needles with cold light hung over his head, making people feel terrified. But Loki still crawled to the secret room very quickly.

He could hear Thor groan again when he left. The weight of the ceiling pressed on him alone, bending his waist. It had only been dozens of seconds, and he had already started to sweat.

Loki turned over, slowly sat up in the secret room, and then stood straight by holding the wall. Looking at the diagonal of the room, there was indeed an exit above; as long as he stepped on the ceiling, he could fully climb up.

But suddenly, Loki froze. In just these few seconds, he completely collapsed, using his hands to hold the wall tightly. "No... I can't... I don't..."

He sat back down and shouted helplessly: "Thor... I can't... I don't..."

The entire ceiling shook violently; Thor heard Loki's crying voice, as if he was about to stand up just like that. "Loki!! Don't cry... Loki..."

Loki was trembling all over. Because just a moment ago, he realized that the most vicious part of this mechanism was that he had to step on Thor's shoulders to clear the level.

The weight of the ceiling itself had reached the limit of lifting; even someone as strong as Thor was just gritting his teeth and persisting. In this situation, adding the weight of another adult, the consequences could be imagined.

"I can't... I can't!!!" Loki shouted heartbreakingly. "I can't get over! I can't get over! I don't..."

He curled up in the corner of the secret room, as if he was about to melt there. Soon he had no strength to shout, just constantly calling Thor's name. "Thor... Thor... Brother..."

The entire ceiling began to shake. Thor turned red from congestion, and the intense anger and murderous intent in his eyes could hardly be concealed. But he still softened his voice and said: "Come up quickly, Loki. I can persist; you have to trust my strength..."

"It's not like that, Thor. Even if... even if I can get up... I can't get over..." Loki sobbed.

Because he had long seen that the vicious part, besides needing to step on Thor's shoulders, was the key that the room he was in and the exit were diagonal. He had to walk on the ceiling to the diagonal of the room.

This ceiling wasn't fixed that securely; it would shake when he stepped on it. It was already hard to lift, and with a person stepping on it, the center of gravity kept changing, and the person below couldn't hold it even more.

The difference is like lifting a sandbag and lifting a living person. The hardest part of lifting a living person is that people move. Because the movements keep changing and the center of gravity keeps changing, it's hard to find a good angle to exert force. You can only follow the muscle groups he uses to change the force, so it's far harder than lifting a sandbag of the same weight.

Usually, Thor lifting Loki had no difficulty; even if he became an ordinary person, it wasn't very hard. But in the current situation, Loki's weight was very likely to be the last straw that broke the camel's back. Loki absolutely, absolutely, absolutely couldn't accept that this suffering was brought about by himself. Nothing would work.

Loki took several heavy breaths there. Then he resolutely crawled back under the steel needles and returned to Thor's side, lifting the other side of the platform.

"No... no, don't even think about it," Loki muttered. "I'd rather be pierced by steel needles and die here than... I can't do it... I can't do it..."

Thor wanted to say something else, but Loki shouted sternly: "I said no!!! If you dare to force me, after I go out, I will go to Odin and Frigga to complain. I will let them know what you are forcing me to do!!! Odin will hammer you into the wall of Asgard with one punch!!!"

"Not that light," Thor had to evaluate.

"It's okay, not too heavy," Superman let out a long breath. "Are you okay? Batman?"

"It's okay," Batman's voice came from his side. "If we share it, we can indeed persist for a long time; I think about half an hour?"

"No, I think we can persist for at least an hour," Superman said. "With you talking to me, distracting me, it won't be that tiring. This level should be played like this."

"We can indeed do some things to distract ourselves," Batman said. "Analyzing whether the plan will succeed or not doesn't make much sense anymore; after all, there is no evidence to deduce who else is in the dungeon, nor do we know how they will react. Let's talk about the dungeon itself."

"Escape room? Actually, it's quite creative; I played a dungeon to escape from prison before, but it wasn't this difficult, mainly competing with other players, seeing who escapes faster."

"I've never heard you say that," Batman said.

"Uh, because I was second to last in that round," Superman said somewhat awkwardly. "I helped that warden do a lot of work, but he actually wanted to molest me, and in the end, I had to use violent means to run out. I can only say it was very realistic."

"What about the others? How did the others run out?"

"Some stole keys, some relied on persuasion, and some dug hard. Oh, of course, the one who dug the tunnel was slower than me, but it was more worry-free than me; except for eating and sleeping, he just dug the tunnel. In the end, only I was tired and slow," Superman shook his head and said. "Actually, if it weren't for you, if I had been assigned to this dungeon myself, I really wouldn't know what to do. This difficulty is far beyond my ability."

"If it weren't a two-player dungeon, the level designer probably wouldn't have created this kind of mechanism," Batman said. "And, I think, this dungeon should still have a background story, although it's not a strong plot mode, but walking to the end should also be able to piece together the main plot."

"It seems you have some ideas?"

"Yes. The key lies in electricity. Don't you think it's strange? The decoration style is clearly a medieval dungeon, but there is electricity in the keyhole of the door lock. The torches are also not quite right; they look like they are camouflaged with electric heating wires."

"You can even notice these details," Superman sighed. "I was already exhausted just by being busy with the content of the level."

"Observation is not an extra consumption, Clark. This helps us save strength. Alright, let's not talk about this; let's talk about the plot. I suspect this might be another human experiment script, wanting to select the most excellent group from us to do experiments."

"It's indeed possible," Superman nodded and said. "It might be some high-tech organization that built this dungeon and then kidnapped us to accompany them in playing this kind of dangerous escape game."