Chapter 942: Musical Note

Heimu let out a light laugh.

"After we finish dealing with the Letu matter, I'll take you there."

Pa Duo satisfiedly lowered her Tail and coiled it again.

After being quiet for a few seconds, she spoke again, her tone a bit more serious than before, and the Tail's swaying slowed.

"Lady," she said, "that Aha, he caused all this trouble—what's his purpose? Just because he finds it fun?"

Heimu fell silent.

She tapped the tabletop lightly with her finger, looked up, and her gaze fell on an old landscape painting hanging on the lounge wall.

The painting depicted a dusk in a forest of Past World Paradise, the light golden, the leaves forever poised to fall within the frame.

"To Aha, the entire universe is a massive amusement park. Destiny, Star God, civilization, war, love, death—everything, in his eyes, is judged by a single standard: interesting or not."

Heimu's voice dropped a notch, "What is Past World Paradise? A group of Yingjie trapped in data, a sealed Memory, a tragedy that has already ended. To him, it's a perfect stage. What does he want to watch? How the actors react in this chaos—whether they try to break the deadlock, or forcibly stage a new play on the messy stage."

Pa Duo listened quietly, repeatedly smoothing the tuft of Tail hair she held in her hand.

"So, lady," Pa Duo began slowly, "the data we've had Aha scramble—are they actually a test set for you?"

"Pretty much."

Heimu withdrew her gaze from the painting and looked back at Pa Duo, "But I won't follow his Script. If I want fun, I'll clean up this mess. If he wants chaos, I'll restore order."

Pa Duo suddenly smiled.

"Lady!" she dropped her Tail from her hand, flicked her cat ears to the sides, "You say you hate fun‑seekers, yet you're indulging in pleasure yourself— isn't that a kind of fun too?"

Heimu raised an eyebrow.

After a two‑second pause, she said, "You… got infected?"

"Maybe!"

Pa Duo leapt off the chair, brushed away nonexistent dust, swung her Tail in an arc behind her, "Anyway, we'll follow you, but first we have to get out of here."

She pointed at the tightly shut door on the other side of the lounge.

Heimu followed her finger's direction.

That door looked identical to every door in Past World Paradise: dark wooden panels, bronze handles.

But Heimu knew the door wouldn't open.

She had previously tried to turn the handle; it wouldn't budge, and the System Panel displayed a red line: "This area requires puzzle permission; current permission insufficient."

Beneath the red text was a small, scrawled note, "Use your brain—do you only know brute force?"

Heimu stood, walked to the door, and tapped the door panel.

The sound was muffled; the panel was thick, giving no hollow echo.

She brought up the System Panel, aimed it at the lock for scanning; a Holographic Projection of a data structure appeared. The lock's core was a multi‑layered nested logical ring, each layer a Node of a different color, linked by a dense web of lines, resembling a data yarn ball that had been maliciously tangled and then stepped on twice.

There were seven rings.

Pa Duo stuck her head out from beside Heimu's arm, her cat ears nearly poking Heimu's chin.

"This looks so complicated,"

she squinted for a few seconds, "Why so many colors? Red, blue, green, yellow, purple, orange, white— you could open a dye workshop with these."

Heimu poked the outermost red Node with a finger.

The Node lit briefly, then the adjacent blue Node lit, and the line between them changed from red to blue; the whole ring's colors scrambled—what should have been red glowed green, and what should have been blue glowed yellow.

The System Panel emitted a prompt sound, followed by Aha's message: "Error! And because you touched the wrong spot, this ring is scrambled again. Let's start over, dear?"

Heimu silently closed the panel.

"Phew, I hate this."

Heimu said, her tone Calm as if stating an objective fact.

Pa Duo propped herself against the doorframe, tilting her head to look at the data ring.

Her Tail hung behind, swaying slowly, then halted abruptly after a few swings.

Then her ears twitched.

"Lady," Pa Duo said, her voice tentative, "do you think the colors of these lines… resemble the outside lighting?"

Heimu turned her head slightly and glanced at her.

The outside lighting was a dim green, a hue ubiquitous in Past World Paradise.

But the "outside lighting" Pa Duo mentioned referred to the maze corridor leading to this lounge.

When Heimu first came through, she hadn't paid attention to the light's color, merely toggling the corridor's darkness to a visible state.

Yet before that, before she intervened, what color should the light have been?

She reopened the System Panel, magnified the lock's data structure, and noticed a tiny detail previously drowned in chaotic data: each colored Node's core concealed a minuscule number.

The numbers were so tiny they were almost invisible, hidden beneath the spectral fluctuations.

Heimu magnified the red Node, revealing a tiny "1"; the blue Node showed "3"; green "5"; yellow "2"; purple "7"; orange "6"; white "4".

Pa Duo stood on tiptoe, peering at the panel, her cat ears pressed forward almost parallel to the ground as she strained to discern.

"1, 3, 5, 2, 7, 6, 4—this sequence looks familiar."

She gestured in the air, then slapped her forehead, "It's a musical note!"

Heimu stared at the string of numbers for a second, then realized Pa Duo was right; the numbers correspond to the order of notes on a musical staff.

However, the current arrangement is scrambled.

"I get it!"

Pa Duo hopped to the wall beside the door, pointing at the row of wall lamps, "When we came through the corridor, I wondered why those lights were off even though the bulbs were there. Turns out the colors inside the bulbs match those on the door!"

Heimu walked over, unscrewed each wall‑lamp bulb and held them in her palm.

Seven bulbs, each containing a short filament of a different color: red, blue, green, yellow, purple, orange, white.

She followed the numeric sequence hidden in the door lock node, reinstalling the light bulbs of the corresponding colors into the sockets: red, yellow, green, white, purple, orange, blue.

The moment the seventh bulb was inserted, the entire row of wall lights swished on.

It wasn't a ghostly green.

It was a warm yellow!

It was the original light color of Past World Paradise before Aha tampered with it.

The door lock emitted a crisp click.

Heimu reached out and turned the door handle, and the door opened.

Outside the door was a short corridor; at its end was another door, but that door was already open, and from its frame shone a brighter warm yellow light.

Heimu lowered his head to glance at the box of bulbs in his hand, then glanced at Pa Duo.

Pa Duo was wiping sweat that didn't exist from his forehead, his tail sticking straight up, his cat face showing the pride of 'I never expected to actually be helpful.'

"You're smarter than Aha."

Heimu said.

"Of course! I'm Pa Duo!"