Chapter 4647: Desperate Escape (26)

The moment the mechanism was broken by Anatoly, the ceiling stopped operating. Everyone escaped a disaster—except for the mechanism's designer, Stark.

"I have to go fix it," Stark said. "It doesn't look like it's broken that badly; a little repair should..."

The others hurriedly pulled him back; even the Joker joined in. Greed pulled him while saying, "Are you crazy? If you rush out now, what will you do if he hits you with a crowbar?!"

Stark waved his hand violently, just about to say he could use the permission to design the instance, but suddenly remembered that this guy's teammate was Lucifer, who could use the permission to design the entire universe. He immediately lost his momentum.

"But we can't just leave it alone, right?" Stark was still somewhat anxious.

"Leaving it alone doesn't seem impossible." Mephisto looked at the situation in several rooms and said, "Now that the secret passages in all rooms are open, just crawl under the steel needles and enter the secret passage to step on the ceiling; wouldn't that clear the level?"

"You make it sound easy." Stark frowned. "The mechanism isn't operating in a normal way; how can you guarantee there won't be problems later? What if they are halfway through climbing and the ceiling suddenly falls, and the steel needles pierce them—what if they complain after leaving the instance? What if, when they step on the ceiling, the crooked mechanism below can't bear the weight and suddenly collapses, resulting in insufficient height, and they can't climb out?"

"In the current situation, except for those who are better at mechanical engineering, no one has noticed that the mechanism has a problem. They can't see it or touch it, and there's no evidence to say it's broken. But if the broken mechanism affects their subsequent actions, or even sends them out of the instance directly, that would prove the mechanism is indeed broken. Wouldn't we be losing face to the multiverse then?"

Mephisto then realized; he really didn't understand mechanical engineering well, so he said, "So this state of being stuck and motionless can't be maintained?"

"Who can guarantee it can be maintained?" Stark said. "Now they are all exhausted, have no further actions, and haven't touched the ceiling, so it's just temporarily maintaining balance. But if someone steps on it, who knows if it can hold up!"

"It should be able to hold up," Greed said. "I know Anatoly; without absolute certainty, he wouldn't act. But what you said also makes sense. In case an accident happens and they get hold of a handle, who knows how much points we'll have to compensate. Especially Loki, Batman, and Harley; these three will definitely open their mouths like lions to slaughter us; we can't let them succeed."

"Agent!" Greed shouted. "Can you go check the machine?"

Not long after, the Agent moved a ladder and came to the center of the room. He waved at the camera and said, "Pull the power switch first."

Scarecrow had already gone to pull the power switch. After a while, confirming there was no danger, the Agent set up the ladder and checked the already crooked mechanism, shaking his head and saying, "I don't understand this thing; let the professionals come."

Not long after, Stark also went. He climbed up to take a look, took the tools from the Agent's hand, and dismantled the outer shell, which revealed the true face of the mechanism inside—just as Anatoly expected, it was actually a very simple lever mechanical structure, belonging to the type where one look tells you it's used to support something. There was indeed a latch above; as long as it was lifted to a certain height, it would automatically lock.

But now, the metal rod on the upper part was bent out of shape, and the lever part was poking into the ceiling. After Stark took a look, he said with some surprise, "Eh, it really held up?"

He climbed higher on the ladder and reached out to pull the end of the lever poking into the ceiling, finding it sturdier than imagined. After all, the bottom was also stuck, almost eliminating the risk of falling off, forming a very stable triangle. The material they used had very high strength, so it was unlikely to snap, and it could bear the weight of several people without problems.

However, Stark was still not at ease; he decided to get two more metal rods to reinforce it, making the best of the situation, even if they passed. So he took another step on the ladder, his head almost touching the ceiling.

"Be careful," the Agent said.

"Heh, when I was building large mechs three stories high, you didn't even know what you were doing." Stark's tone was sharp. "If you don't understand, stand further away, Officer; go write your tickets."

Before he finished speaking, some sand and soil suddenly fell from the gap between the metal rod and the ceiling. Stark subconsciously looked up. With a *zheng* sound, an iron rod pierced straight into the top of his head.

"Ahhhhhhh!!!!"

Stark fell directly from the ladder. Fortunately, they weren't in the instance's voice channel, so the scream wouldn't be heard. But even so, the others heard it in the monitoring room. Harley said with some confusion, "Why do I feel like there's someone below? You stay further away; I'll expand the hole a bit more..."

"Tony, run, quick!" Greed shouted into the intercom.

This fall was not light for Stark; even wearing a mech, he didn't climb up after one hit. The Agent grabbed him and dragged him into the staff passage.

"The ladder! The ladder!!!"

The Agent really didn't have time to take the ladder, so he could only kick the ladder into the corner of the room, hoping Harley's field of vision was limited and she wouldn't see it. But Harley upstairs kept shouting, "There really is someone, right? I even saw a shadow swaying! Is there anyone? Is there anyone?!"

"This is trouble," Greed said, baring his teeth. "I was so busy guarding against Pride and Batman that I forgot about the Joker's girl!"

"How do you think she's thinking?" Mephisto said somewhat helplessly. "The mechanism has stopped and she still doesn't run, insisting on poking around with that iron rod. I think even if that Soviet guy hadn't broken the mechanism, these people wouldn't have let the secret room off easily."

"Harley is clearly a bit excited," Greed said. "Some people like to confide when they are excited, and some have excessive curiosity. Harley is clearly the latter. However, it's not easy for her to have the strength to poke the iron rod in."

"You should quickly check her strength data," Scarecrow also couldn't bear it anymore. "This is clearly a muscle restriction release due to a mental episode. Lunatics are everywhere, but this year there are especially many; why are they all running here to go crazy?"

Greed pulled up the panel to take a look, then raised his eyebrows; sure enough, as Scarecrow said, Harley's strength data was also a bit abnormal. It wasn't as exaggerated as Pride's, but it was still a cut above.

The principle should be similar to Pride's. After mental excitement, an episode occurs, leading to the release of muscle restrictions, which is why she gained superhuman strength and was able to poke the iron rod directly down from the seam.

It can be said that if Stark had been an inch higher at the time, that iron rod would have pierced directly into his head. Stark, who ran back in a daze, was clearly still having lingering fears, constantly rubbing his head with his hand.

"You should just be happy," Greed said. "Fortunately, that thing wasn't long enough, otherwise you would have become the first designer to be counter-killed by a contestant."

Greed adjusted Harley's strength data slightly, but didn't lower it too much; it was still higher than before, which could be considered a balance adjustment. People went crazy based on their own abilities, so naturally, they got strength based on their abilities. If other players wanted it, they could try going crazy first. After all, this could be considered something everyone could do.

"What now?" Stark asked with a headache.

"Aren't the devices in these rooms connected?" the Agent spoke up. "Just go to other rooms and support the mechanism."

"That's the only way; it's better than them stepping on the ceiling halfway and it collapsing." Greed waved his hand.

So the Agent carried a bucket and returned to the room where the scale was located. There wasn't just one room with a scale, but three. Logically, if their blood donation plan succeeded, it would be the scales in three rooms lifting up together, just enough to support the ceilings of each team; it was a stable structure designed by Stark, and even an elephant dancing on it wouldn't have any problems.

But now the plan hadn't actually been completed; except for that broken scale, the scales in the other two rooms hadn't been lifted, so the latches hadn't locked. All rooms relied on that one broken one to support them, and it really could be crushed.

So now, the Agent took a ladder, came above the protective cover, and poured water into the side of the scale with the basin, thus forcibly making up for the insufficient blood, lifting the scale up, and letting the latch lock to complete the support structure.

Although only two rooms could be correctly completed, and one corner was still missing, the broken one supported it quite sturdily, so it could barely be used. After finishing, at least it wouldn't collapse immediately.

After pouring the water, the scale was indeed lifted and locked; when one latch clicked into place, it emitted a very slight vibration. However, it was still keenly captured by the few teams that hadn't left.

"Sure enough, someone is manually adjusting it." Harley held the iron pliers and narrowed her eyes. "The situation where it stopped suddenly before was abnormal; it should be that someone broke the mechanism. Now it looks like it can't be fixed, so they can only make the best of the situation and count it as us passing. But they are afraid the broken mechanism can't hold up, so they simply lifted the other mechanisms as well."

"It seems our previous speculation was correct," Pamela said. "There must be more than one room with a scale."

"This can inversely deduce another thing," Harley's brain turned faster than ever. "That is, the number of people participating in the game is more than we imagined. Because only in this way would the level designer worry about being unable to bear the weight."

"So how many teams will there be? Four teams? Five teams?"

"I think there will be at least five teams," Harley said. "The room above is a pentagon, and the room below is a triangle, so the support structure is stable."

This assumption was a bit abstract, but Pamela could still imagine it. It was known that the steel needle room they were currently in was above the scale room; when they passed through the scale room before, they had stayed in the aisle for a while; that might have been an elevator that transported them up. But because the door closed as soon as they entered, there was no way to verify it.

But after discovering the structure of the steel needle room, it could be determined that the scale room must be below, otherwise the support structure couldn't be completed. Then, in order to separate each team, there were three scale rooms, located at the three endpoints of the triangle. Five teams had their own steel needle rooms, forming a pentagon. The pentagon was on top, and the triangle was on the bottom; this was the complete mechanism structure.

"I have to say, the person who designed this mechanism is a master of engineering," Harley said. "Although this structure isn't complicated, it involves the operation of the elevator, and using three to control five also requires the use of mechanical structures to convert. Furthermore, he didn't use a very complicated transmission structure to hide the mechanical structure, which means the entire structure is very simple. This is true skill without artifice."

Stark almost jumped up in the monitoring room: "Oh, God, look at this smart lady; how discerning! I can even forgive her for almost poking through my head with a steel needle!"

The Joker and Scarecrow each sighed and turned their heads away, looking like they couldn't stand him.

"To be honest, I think this psychological trap has quite a bit of the Joker's style," Batman said, making conversation. "It's a bit like those difficult problems he set for me before."

"Shut up, all shut up!" the Joker shouted loudly. "I told you Batman is the smartest person in the world! Let's listen to Batman's pearls of wisdom!!!" ===== CHAPTER 4648 =====