[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-player-reboot":3,"chapter-player-reboot-player-reboot-chapter-48":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Player Reboot",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2272013,4438,"Chapter 48: The Dark Room","player-reboot-chapter-48",48,"\u003Cp>Without any delay, the surroundings instantly shifted; Li Cheng stopped his mental countdown, gaining a clearer understanding of the Killing Field Game’s power.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>【In this mission, players are in full role-play mode: only attribute enhancements are retained; no skills or skill scrolls may be used except for title skills; no items from the inventory may be accessed; no equipment items may be used.】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>【Mission briefing has been sent.】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>【Owen Hedges, this is your name. You were once a respected human rights lawyer with a happy, fulfilling family—until one day a fire consumed them. Your perfect life vanished; you fell into prolonged despair, lost your job, drifted aimlessly, and teetered on bankruptcy. On a friend’s recommendation, you joined a escape room game offering a $50,000 reward. But this game differs from what you imagined.】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When the briefing ended, Li Cheng raised an eyebrow and confirmed that the player panel’s inventory slots had all turned gray, inaccessible.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If this is an escape room, there should be cameras.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In Li Cheng’s vision, his own body remained unchanged—but the reflection in the water showed him as a somewhat Tuifei  middle-aged white man, clearly the “Owen Hedges” mentioned in the briefing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Early in the morning!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>（In that morning hour）\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng removed the blade and began searching.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The sailor’s wax figure was entirely coated in a sturdy high-molecular compound, except for a vertical slit left on its abdomen beneath the clothing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Through the transparent gel layer, the decay marks on the corpse’s surface were clearly visible, along with the stench of rot and the strong smell of rum.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That is, shave his belly with a rusty razor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Irish folk song “Drunken Sailor” tells how a crew punishes a drunken sailor who messed up; the next lyric is “Shave his belly with a rusty razor.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He no longer needed to play the good student, nor the obedient orphan living under others’ roofs—he only needed to be his pure self.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the room’s right side, salty seawater had pooled, grounding a seven-meter-long miniature two-masted sailboat; the model’s hull was welded firmly to the floor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Any normal person would be visibly nauseated, possibly even vomiting.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From speakers high above, faint howling winds and seagull cries echoed, creating an overall tropical island atmosphere.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The most likely exit was a square metal panel embedded in the wall, fitted with a rolling digital combination lock: two digits on the left, three on the right—five digits total.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng placed his hand beside his forehead to shield from the spotlight’s glare and indeed spotted a long, rectangular surveillance camera in the ceiling corner; he waved at it and shouted: “Kids, I’m actually the 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy—I didn’t die! If you let me out, I’ll give you half of the eight hundred tons of gold I buried under the White House!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Conversely, if I waste too much time and energy here, I may lack the strength to break out of the remaining 【Dark Rooms】. Thus, the possibility that brute force is the only solution drops significantly.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The parrot wax figure in the captain’s cabin must have been fitted with some audio device, endlessly repeating the first three lines of “Drunken Sailor” in a loop.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Li Cheng felt little discomfort—not only because he had already endured life-or-death battles, but because in this alien atmosphere, the rules, laws, morals, and social norms that once bound him no longer existed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ah, so that’s how it is.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The corpse’s skin was coated in a sturdy high-molecular compound resembling epoxy resin, allowing it to remain standing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng withdrew his gaze; with the strength and agility he retained, he could, with enough time, smash through the thick wooden door before drowning.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A revolting odor burst forth; the slimy, icy sensation on his fingertips was Exintamageiexinkaimen — Exindaojiale .\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thinking of this, he suddenly realized something.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fine, you win.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ugh. What is this, a pirate-themed amusement park?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As he silently grumbled, a loud “whir” echoed—the rectangular metal panel high above retracted backward, and moments later, a torrent of water gushed out, drenching the ornamental plants.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The only advantage was that the Infection State of the Lord of Insects was likely sealed as well.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>（What do we do with a drunken sailor?）\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Water continued flooding the room; time was limited, so Li Cheng swiftly explored the space, searching for clues.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Splash—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What do we do with a drunken sailor?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wei ?? Cun . Bangwulaojuan ?? Juan ?? Seban ?? Bangyueyijuan ??\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The room was seven meters high; suspended near the ceiling corner was an extremely bright spotlight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ugh—”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What do we do with a drunken sailor?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The most prominent feature was the corpse standing before him: about 1.8 meters tall, a white male in his forties, with a full beard, a rigid smile on his face, wearing a sailor’s cap, sunglasses on his nose, and an old sailor outfit with no pockets, frozen mid-motion as if shaving with a rusty razor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The tempting offer received no response; Li Cheng remained calm, unsurprised, lowering his arm—he merely wanted to test whether someone was on the other end of the camera, whether they’d adjust its position for better focus.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>First, observe the surroundings.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The goal of this mission is to survive until escaping the Dark Room, with a time limit of one hour. But judging by the water flow, the room will be flooded long before then. That means the 【Dark Room】 refers to a larger area than just this room.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>（What do we do with a drunken sailor?）\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“One of the Killing Field Game’s iron laws is that no mission is ever impossible. Even the most dire situation must have one or more paths to survival.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The floor clearly had no drain; as water poured in, the level rose slowly. Li Cheng glanced at the metal panel’s area and recalled the fluid flow formula in his mind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng grinned, leapt off the model boat, waded through waist-deep seawater, and reached the first sailor’s wax figure, plucking the rusty razor from its hand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was an eight-meter-square room, its four walls composed of LCD panels projecting ocean scenes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng sidestepped the incoming water, catching the salty, briny scent of seawater.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Besides this lock, the room had another: the captain’s cabin door on the model sailboat, its keyhole shaped unusually—requiring a star-shaped key.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Through the keyhole, he faintly saw another wax figure dressed as a captain, seated behind the captain’s desk, grinning broadly; the parrot wax figure on its shoulder emitted cheerful singing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The water level continued rising, gradually submerging the artificial beach and creeping up the model boat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the room’s left side, a thick layer of fine sand covered the floor, adorned with plastic tropical ornamental plants.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Simultaneously, his body was restricted—he could not summon the Mantis Arm Bone Blade or any other enhanced organs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A strange, unprecedented sense of ease.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The song is called “Drunken Sailor,” a famous Irish sailor folk tune, featured in both “SpongeBob SquarePants” and “The Truman Show.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>More metal panels retracted high above; torrents of seawater flooded the room, accelerating the water level rise—it quickly submerged Li Cheng’s ankles.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Flow equals cross-sectional area multiplied by flow velocity; the water speed appeared slow, and the metal panel’s area was limited—his time was ample.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Whir! Whir!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Found it.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He yanked his arm out sharply, clutching a star-shaped key in his palm.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1236,"2026-06-19T22:31:22.154Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","a9418723032b9e993715eac6ed0ec72886b549f317456e96273fc1bb36c51d98","player-reboot-chapter-49","player-reboot-chapter-47",612,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fplayer-reboot-cover.jpg"]