Chapter 274 Dead End
Chapter 274 Dead End
Walking down the long corridor to the end, Ning Zhe saw a T-shaped intersection in front of him. The left side led to the deeper part of the bell tower, and the right side led to the stables outside the building.
Bai Zhi took out a flashlight and compared it with the map to determine the two people's current location. She whispered, "There is a vertical shaft at the end of the right side of the corridor, which is connected to the drainage pipe that collects rainwater in the castle. Swim out of the reservoir along the pipe, and the stable is outside."
It seems that it hasn't rained in the area where Vanessa Castle is located for a long time, and there should be little water in the reservoir.
"The left side is connected to the castle's heating system, and the pipes are filled with dust."
Bai Zhi pointed at the map in her hand and continued:
"There is a boiler room on the first floor of the castle basement. It works 24 hours a day in winter. The hot air from burning coal heats the entire castle through pipes that extend in all directions. All the guest rooms and banquet halls are connected to this heating system, except for the castle lord's bedroom, so only her room has a fireplace."
"The messages left by other players repeatedly mentioned a secret basement. Their messages repeatedly emphasized that reaching that basement is the only way to escape from the castle." Ning Zhe covered the corpse oil lamp, and in the narrow aisle, only the small flashlight in Bai Zhi's hand emitted a cold white light.
Turning around, he continued, "These messages are scattered throughout the castle. The handwriting is different. They are obviously written by different players. They came to the same conclusion... Why?"
Why were these early players all so certain that reaching that basement was the only way to escape Vanessa's Castle?
Bai Zhi thought for a moment and said, "Because the basement is underground?"
"Yes, because the basement is underground." Ning Zhe nodded.
It is known that in Vanessa Castle, time flows at different speeds in different areas.
The higher the floor you are on, the lower the ambient temperature in the area will be, and the slower the flow of time in the area will become.
It is also known that the speed of time flow on the ground floor is basically the same as that in the real world outside of dreams.
"In other words, the flow of time in the underground area is faster than in the real world?" Bai Zhi's eyes lit up, and she obviously figured something out.
"I'm not sure yet..." Ning Zhe shook his head and didn't jump to conclusions: "Whether this speculation is right or wrong, we'll know after testing it ourselves."
"How to test?" Bai Zhi asked softly.
Ning Zhe rolled up his sleeves, took off a lady's watch from Auror's wrist, and handed it to Bai Zhi: "I will leave now, from the heating pipe at the left end of the corridor, go down to the boiler room on the first underground floor, stay for a while and then come back. You wait here for me and confirm the time when I come back."
The T-junction they are at now is on the first floor of the castle, where the speed of time flows is basically the same as in the real world.
"If the speed of time in the underground area is indeed faster than in reality, you will be able to notice it immediately after you come back." Bai Zhi clenched the watch in her hand with a serious expression on her face: "Then I will wait for you here?"
"Are you scared?"
"... a little bit, a little bit scared." Bai Zhi said a few words against her will, and then said: "So you have to come back early."
"I'll try my best." Ning Zhe said lightly, "I will use my biological clock to roughly estimate the time it will take me to go down. If you don't wait for me to come back within 40 minutes, just leave, because I'm probably dead down there." "...Then will you come back?" Bai Zhi said nervously, "Just like before, come back with a different identity?"
"Yes?" Ning Zhe said after thinking for a while.
Bai Zhi heaved a sigh of relief, her bright smile blooming like a flower. She held Ning Zhe's wrist with both hands and said softly, "Then we have to agree on a secret code. This way, even if you change your appearance again, I can recognize it as you as soon as you say the secret code."
Ning Zhe had no objection: "You decide."
Bai Zhi thought seriously for a few seconds, put her lips close to Ning Zhe's ear and whispered something that only the two of them could hear, then she let go of his hand with relief and watched his back disappear into the darkness of the corridor.
The hands of the watch ticked gently. Bai Zhi sat down against the wall, hugged her knees and waited obediently for him to come back.
Perhaps because it had not been cleaned for a long time, a thick layer of dust accumulated on the narrow and long ground. Every step he took stirred up a mist-like dust in the narrow space. Ning Zhe hung the corpse oil lamp around his waist and continued to move forward.
The further he went, the narrower the secret passage became. At the end, there was only a solid stone wall. Ning Zhe lifted the cover on the lampshade, and the wall in front of him became broken and mottled under the light. Wet stone brick fragments were scattered all over the ground, exposing the heating pipes embedded in the wall.
The pipe is about 50 centimeters in diameter and is made of iron. The surface of the pipe is covered with dark red rust, which is the trace left when the old Vanessa Castle was destroyed by heavy rain and floods.
As the building was damaged in the flood, the heating pipes buried in the wall also showed obvious bends, and the iron rings on the pipes were broken. The pipes that lost their fixation broke directly into two sections at the elbow connection.
Ning Zhe measured the width of his shoulders, took off his cashmere coat, and then tentatively put his legs into the pipe.
The shoulder width of an adult male is generally between 40 and 55 cm, while it should be slightly narrower for a female, which will be just right when taking off a heavy coat.
Ning Zhe pulled his legs out of the pipe, covered the corpse oil lamp with skin and placed it on the ground, thinking about how to protect the corpse oil lamp while climbing down to prevent the oil in the base from spilling out.
But at the moment when the oil lamp was covered, Ning Zhe suddenly caught a line of handwriting out of the corner of his eye.
"That is……?"
Ning Zhe frowned, took out a lighter from his pocket and pressed it with a click. The orange flame danced in the darkness. A line of words that were obviously carved with a sharp object appeared on the wall next to the heating pipe, as if it had been waiting for him here for a long time.
This was not the first time Ning Zhe had found messages from other players in the castle. He had found reminders written in lipstick in the closet and folded notes in the pockets of corpses. But the information he found this time was different from any other time before, because the words carved on the wall were...
It's Chinese characters.
Ning Zhe lowered his head and looked at the covered corpse oil lamp beside him and the flickering flames on the lighter, his pupils contracted slightly.
The wall was not damp under the light of the lighter. There were deep grooves carved into the gray-white stone bricks. It was obvious that the tool used by the person who carved the words on the stone was not very sharp, and it was very difficult to carve. Therefore, the sentence was very short, with only 6 words and 1 period:
[The road below is a dead end.]
(End of this chapter)