[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-player-reboot":3,"chapter-player-reboot-player-reboot-chapter-52":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},2272017,4438,"Chapter 52: Ascension (5K)","player-reboot-chapter-52",52,"\u003Cp>The window glass was extremely thick, like the blast-resistant glass on a presidential limousine, capable of withstanding automatic rifle fire. Brute force clearly couldn’t smash through it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Outside the window, the night was deep, city lights glittering; from their positions, Li Cheng’s sealed room was at least in a building forty to fifty stories high.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Didn’t expect this.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had assumed the sealed room would be in some abandoned factory or remote wilderness, “but one thing is certain now: this isn’t Cuba, and the time isn’t noon.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ding-ding-ding.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The red landline on the coffee table rang. Li Cheng walked over, first wringing the moisture from his sleeves, then pulling his hands inside them, picking up the blanket from the sofa through the fabric before picking up the phone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From the drowning trap in the previous sealed room, it was clear these rooms were designed to kill—perhaps using poisoned phones or electrical leaks. Must be cautious.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The call connected successfully, and a mechanical, pleasant AI female voice emerged: “g=t, p=e, r=s, b=o, z=d.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng nodded and spoke into the phone: “KunjinKao, KunjinKao? KunjinKao, KunjinKao!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>KunjinKao is a classic Chinese character garble, essentially the UTF-8 hexadecimal replacement symbol “??” that corrupted when converted to GBK encoding.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng asked this partly to probe the operator on the other end, partly because if there was no operator, he might use encoding language to flirt with the AI girl on the phone, maybe get her WeChat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The phone line fell silent for a moment, then repeated: “g=t, p=e, r=s, b=o, z=d.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tsk. No reaction. Acting aloof, huh.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng rolled his eyes, hung up the phone. When he picked it up again, it was still reciting the same code—clearly, he wasn’t allowed to call out for help.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Boom!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A loud crash came from outside the room. The rear wall suddenly moved, slowly advancing forward as a whole.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tables and chairs toppled. The sofa shifted. The glass desk lamp fell and shattered on the floor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The room is eight meters wide. The wall moves at about two centimeters per second. It’ll fully close in just over six minutes, crushing me into pulp.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“And since only the rear wall is moving—not the side walls—it means I can’t use any hard object to pry open the right window and escape outside.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng calmly assessed the situation. Whether it was from prolonged seawater exposure, loss of body temperature causing his thoughts to drift, or the script’s mission unlocking his naturally lazy nature,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>part of his mind wandered elsewhere, muttering: “Crushed into pulp? Is the room’s designer sending me to the 2D world?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Eh… it seems your understanding of ‘2D’ is riddled with misconceptions ☆～! Well, you’ve already lost even the most basic ‘propriety, righteousness, integrity, and shame’… (laugh) Hey, I’m asking you—does a kimino like this even qualify as ‘2D’? ★? fufufu—after all, you’re already ‘2D-ineligible,’ right? Naa~”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As he recited these overdose-level chuuni-dead lines, he rapidly searched the room.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Beside the fireplace, he found an eight-digit electronic keypad lock. At the edge of the carpet, he found an old photograph.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The photo showed two teenagers, a boy and a girl, dressed in Renaissance European attire and long skirts, gazing deeply at each other on an opera stage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The boy bore a striking resemblance to Owen Hedges, the identity Li Cheng was currently playing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Given the photo’s yellowed condition, the boy was likely not Owen’s son or relative, but Owen himself in his youth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for the girl in the photo, she was probably Owen’s deceased wife, mentioned in the mission briefing?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The two in the photo are performing a play. A play.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He realized something. Avoiding the advancing wall, he turned to the bookshelf beside the fireplace.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The bookshelf was crammed with books: economics, law, politics. The only one related to theater was Shakespeare’s Sonnets.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He took the book off the shelf, opened it—and found no code, only vast, repeated pages of English garble.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>kbspwrhrwdtgthgrgwormnrxbvp\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>wgwrgtpnmowawpzrnhovwqgtpkbsporpipr\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>wgwrgtpuhsprrgwoopzmnilgtpkbsporgphor\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>wgwrgtpuwrprgaboxbaxhzqprr\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>gtpiwggpoghrgpwqbqprgtobhg\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>hqzgtptbqplgthgopxhwqrbmgbaophft\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Every page was filled with this.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Crackling—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The space kept shrinking. Curtain hooks were crushed off. The seemingly sturdy leather sofa was effortlessly crushed and shredded by the hydraulic force.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng stepped over splinters of wood, thinking fast. The only eight-digit word in the garble was nmowawpz. He entered it into the fireplace’s keypad. Failed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“g=t, p=e, r=s, b=o, z=d”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The phone on the coffee table kept repeating the code until the advancing wall crushed it, snapping the phone line and halting its loop.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Got it. g=t, p=e—that’s the hint to decrypt the garble. The most frequent word in the garble, gtp, is actually t*e. Most likely ‘tie’ or ‘the.’ Since ‘the’ appears far more frequently in English, assume t=h. Then the fourth word in the last line, gthg, becomes ‘that’—so h=a.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rapidly decrypting, the entire garble resolved into: “Love is a sigh raised by the wind; in lovers’ eyes, it purifies the sparks; lovers’ tears are the waves it stirs. It is the wisest madness, the choking bitterness, the honey that cannot be tasted.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The eight-digit code nmowawpz meant “purified.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He entered the code. The fireplace hummed and slowly slid aside, revealing a passage just wide enough for one person.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng squeezed through sideways, stepping forward thoughtfully.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These two sealed rooms weren’t just rooms. The latitude and longitude coordinates in the first, the photo and cipher in the second—both seemed tied to Owen’s life.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thinking this, he arrived at the third room.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This room was smaller. The entire space was empty. In the corner stood a metal door with no lock, bearing the words: “Only one of two can live.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the center of the floor stood a liquid crystal display screen and a device.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The device consisted of a transparent glass cylinder, a syringe, and tubing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The cylinder’s base was welded firmly to the floor, immovable. The top was sealed and connected to the tubing. Its exterior bore milliliter markings; inside, four metal discs were attached—two on top, two on bottom.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Two sets of power cables ran along the floor, extending all the way to the metal door.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Combined with the blood-drawing syringe and tubing, it was clear: Li Cheng had to draw at least 800 milliliters of blood, pour it into the cylinder, and use the blood’s conductivity to bridge the metal discs and unlock the sealed door.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The sealed top also meant he couldn’t fill the cylinder with seawater from his clothes—or his own urine.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zzzt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just as he lamented this, the liquid crystal display screen lit up, projecting a surveillance-style scene.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The screen showed a middle-aged man in shirt and trousers, exhausted, lips dry, showing signs of dehydration. He staggered through a scorching desert under the blazing sun, reached a phone booth, and inserted coins to dial “001212*******.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From the ceiling of the sealed room, a phone descended automatically. Without Li Cheng touching it, it connected. The man’s pained voice came through: “Owen, it’s Mike. Listen—don’t go to London for the meeting. This escape room is a trap. They lied to me, left me stranded in the Mexican desert. I can’t get out.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Wait—you’re in Mexico?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng shouted. But the man on the line, as if slipping into heatstroke-induced shock, stumbled out of the phone booth and collapsed at the doorstep of a small wooden cabin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The cabin’s door was the same as the sealed room’s.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From this, Mike was clearly the friend mentioned in the mission briefing—the one who convinced Owen to join the escape room game.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng considered it, inserted the syringe into his own arm. Blood flowed through the tubing into the glass cylinder, slowly accumulating to 800ml.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The blood bridged the electrodes. The metal door clicked open, revealing an elevator.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the elevator’s corner sat a black bag, its zipper open, revealing stacks of U.S. dollars.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These dollars were the Tongguan  reward—meaning Li Cheng had completed the mission the moment he stepped out of the sealed room.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Without hesitation, he pulled out the syringe, grabbed the sextant, and strode forward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ugh… ugh…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The room’s speakers suddenly amplified—Mike’s labored, gasping breaths, his body sprawled on the desert ground, writhing in agony.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Oh? Amplifying the sound? You want me to feel pity, to stay behind, risk hemorrhagic shock, and draw 1600 milliliters of blood to open Mike’s door and let him escape too?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng turned, stared at the surveillance camera, and sneered: “Pointless. Only one of two can live.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not to mention, players executing script missions feel no emotion, duty, or obligation toward the characters they portray.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>More importantly—it’s meaningless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mike is already dead.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng stepped into the elevator, glanced at the indicator lights. The building had seventy floors; he was on the fifty-fifth. As the doors closed automatically, the “1” light lit up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The elevator descended automatically, but Li Cheng looked up, staring straight into the surveillance camera, calmly saying: “Take me to you. The game’s operators.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nothing happened. Li Cheng smashed the sextant against the elevator ceiling, forcibly prying open the ventilation panel, and added: “You won’t come to me. I’ll come to you.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This time, the elevator finally slowed, paused, then began ascending.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Floors climbed higher. Inside the cabin, Li Cheng calmly adjusted his clothes and idly flipped through the stack of dollars.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fifty thousand U.S. dollars—nearly 360,000 RMB. When had he ever seen so much cash?!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That’s enough to buy one-twentieth of a house in Yin City!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ding-dong.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The cabin reached the top floor. The doors opened, revealing a group of armed security personnel pointing guns at him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Don’t move!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Don’t move!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Raise your hands!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The security personnel shouted at Li Cheng, who squinted and muttered: “One guy tells me not to move, another tells me to raise my hands. Are all you American gun guys running sting operations like this?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Hehehe, boys, show some manners.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>An elderly white man, clearly of high status, stepped forward, dismissed the armed guards, and pointed at Li Cheng: “Mr. Owen here is tonight’s ultimate dark horse in the gambling match. Treat him with respect!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The suited elder held immense authority. The armed guards exchanged glances and lowered their guns.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Beyond the security team, Li Cheng finally saw the top floor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A grand banquet was underway. Male and female guests wore masks and formal attire, clinking glasses and chatting merrily.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They weren’t here for drinking or dancing, but to attend a special gambling event—high above the glittering hall, screens displayed live surveillance feeds of sealed rooms, showing contestants struggling to survive.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Some died from spike traps. Some were sliced into chunks by sharp cables. Some inhaled poison, turned blue, and collapsed. Some were burned alive into charred corpses.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Each time a contestant died, their screen turned gray and displayed the words: “Eliminated.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the screens of the remaining survivors, a string of numbers appeared.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Accumulated chips: six million.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nine million.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fifteen million.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Twenty-seven million.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unit: U.S. dollars.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These elites were playing a betting game, wagering on which of the dozens of challengers in the building’s hidden room would die and which would survive.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those who won laughed heartily; those who lost did not wail or cry out, but merely looked regretful.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Millions of dollars and human lives meant nothing more to them than chips.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Hah, just as I thought—rulers letting beasts feed on people.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng shook his head with a wry smile and asked the older man in the suit: “You let me come up here to see this—aren’t you afraid I’ll tell the media after I leave?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Mr. Hedges, you’re a smart man—you understand the rules of the game. Besides, most of the news media you know are owned by people in this banquet. Even if you release the information, no outlet will broadcast it.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It’s like an inside circle’s pastime, held every few years. Only those who join games like this are considered insiders, and only then can they access the circle’s resources.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The man in the suit smiled faintly and said calmly: “I’d like to know why you so readily abandoned Michael Garcia in the third hidden room. As far as I know, he’s been your closest friend since childhood—your best man, your confidant.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Because Michael is already dead.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng said coldly: “Remember the surveillance footage in the room? He said he was in Albuquerque, but we’re in New York—only one hour apart in time zone. It’s impossible for it to be night here and noon there.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The only explanation is that the footage was pre-recorded, deliberately released to mislead me. Michael has been dead for a long time.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The man in the suit was utterly astonished. “Wait—how do you know this is New York? We injected you with anesthetic and brought you from London to New York—you shouldn’t know your location.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It’s simple—the way Michael dialed the phone number.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng said calmly: “When dialing an international call, 001 is the U.S. country code, and 212 is New York’s area code. You repositioned the surveillance camera to prevent me from seeing the phone booth’s dial—but you didn’t realize I could deduce the number from the movement of Michael’s arm.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“And as for your claim that you ‘brought me back to New York’—interesting. So Mr. Hedges was originally from New York, then.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“As for the Cuban coordinates in the first hidden room—let me think—20 degrees north latitude, 75.9 degrees west longitude—that’s the U.S. military base at Guantánamo, isn’t it?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Combined with Hedges’ identity as a human rights lawyer, all the clues connect—he investigated U.S. military prison abuse, was secretly retaliated against, his family burned alive, and he himself fell into despair and lost his job.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You killed his family, then killed his best friend—you wouldn’t let Hedges walk away. You were always going to send him to his death.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“When he dies, it’ll just be another forgotten obituary in the newspaper—like the leader of Occupy Wall Street, or the Boeing plane accident whistleblower from recent months.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Remember, the objective of this mission is to 【remain alive until escaping the dark room】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not to 【escape the dark room and remain alive】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The system subtly hinted at this in the mission objective.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng’s cold, detached tone made the white-haired elder frown unconsciously.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The anesthetic injected into Owen Hedges only induced sleep—it didn’t alter personality or memory.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You—you’re not Owen?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Me? Of course not. I’m the Partner of Justice, the Crime Slayer, the Night Walker, the Protector of the Weak, a Professional Mercenary, the Full-Attendance Star of Red Star Kindergarten, Little Handsome, Kobe’s Hater, Shenyang’s Tiger Brother, a Gaming Master.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the mention of this, Li Cheng suddenly perked up and rattled off a long list of nicknames—but the white elder wasn’t a fan of Da Bing, so he didn’t get the jokes; otherwise, he might have retorted: “Sorry, there isn’t room for this many people.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>【Mission Objective Completed】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>【Player Restrictions Lifted】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>【Script Mission “Escape to Life” Completed. 5 Minutes Until Teleportation】\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the system’s voice echoed in his mind, Li Cheng smiled faintly, rolled his neck, and said: “In 1974, I won the championship in my first Muay Thai fight in Southeast Asia. In 1980, I defeated Japan’s heavy artilleryman, Thunder Dragon. Then, for three consecutive years, I beat every karate master and won the All-Japan Muay Thai Championship. I master ancient Chinese martial arts and am known as the nemesis of Japanese karate—my nickname: Devil Muscle Man.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The elder could no longer bear his growing unease and shouted to the armed guards: “Seize him!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The armed personnel surged forward and grabbed Li Cheng’s arms.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Clang!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Cheng’s arm suddenly sprouted a mantis blade, severing the ten fingers gripping him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Blood sprayed wildly, soaking the expensive Persian rug.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The guards’ screams echoed through the opulent high-rise lobby.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The elites, mid-laughter and clinking glasses, fell silent and turned their heads toward him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Amid their terrified stares, black scales slowly spread across Li Cheng’s cheeks, chest, and back; black horns grew from his forehead. He slashed his blade through the elevator call button, severing the escape route.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He turned his head and smiled faintly at the crowd of elites. “The game begins.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",2686,"2026-06-19T22:31:22.154Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","ef4a14b8538169dc97c8176dbdfdb2e1e9ecf150ff7b47024e96d2a2fcc6d17f","player-reboot-chapter-53","player-reboot-chapter-51",612,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fplayer-reboot-cover.jpg"]