The memory playback ended here, and Caleb withdrew from the strange close-up perspective.
'Under the banner of justice, arbitrarily representing the will of netizens, but in reality, it was for his own revenge…' Mike's actions were even worse than John's.
Caleb looked at Mike on the roller; his limbs were already shattered, and blood stained the roller. With such severe injuries, even if he were rushed to the emergency room immediately, survival would be unlikely. However, the 'Cold-Blooded Headshot Maniac' device still didn't spare him. After a pause of less than half a minute, the device automatically reactivated. The gears clanked, slowly turning, moving Mike's head into position directly in front of the metal baseball bat.
Then, the bat, which had been accumulating power, suddenly sprang out, delivering a heavy blow.
After the spiked baseball bat completed its final strike, a sealed iron door behind the roller creaked open a crack. Caleb didn't linger; the jaw ripper on his head had less than two minutes left on its countdown. He needed to quickly find another 'Winder' to reset the time.
Entering the dark passage behind the iron door, he walked for dozens of meters before downward steps appeared. After descending for a while and turning a corner, a wooden cabinet indeed appeared by the roadside. A lamp was lit on the cabinet, and beneath the lamp was a small wooden box. He took out the third 'Winder' from the box, inserted it into the remaining slot, and twisted it, resetting the jaw ripper's timer.
'Ten minutes is still too tight.' The 'Single Plank Bridge' in the second stage took a lot of effort even for a 'cheater' like Caleb, so for an average player, the difficulty would certainly be even greater. Caleb estimated that most people would fail in the second stage. 'I wonder what the difficulty of the third stage will be?'
As he was thinking this, he reached the end of the dark path, where a slightly ajar iron door revealed a glimmer of light through its crack. Caleb pushed open the iron door and walked in.
The space behind the iron door was much smaller than the previous two, estimated to be only a few dozen square meters, with simple furnishings and a relatively low ceiling. The surrounding windows were also welded shut, airtight. Besides the iron door he entered through, there was another iron door on the opposite wall, covered with old newspapers, with an 'Exit' symbol drawn on it. But before the player completed the challenge, this iron door should not be able to be opened.
"Wuwu… HELP!" A crying plea for help drew Caleb's attention to the center of the room.
Like the previous two stages, a strangely shaped killing device was installed here. The device consisted of two parts. One part appeared to be an iron bed, on which a thin young man lay, his hands, feet, waist, and neck all bound by iron chains. Under such heavy restraint, the young man found it difficult to even slightly turn his head. A thick iron pillar, as thick as an adult's thigh, hung from the ceiling. The front end of the pillar was shaped like a sharp bullet, directly aimed at the young man's mouth below. The tail end of the pillar was connected to an iron chain hanging from the ceiling, and the other end of the iron chain was connected to a complex set of pulleys, from which a microphone-like object hung.
The other part of the killing device was placed by the head of the iron bed, shaped like a strange box. At the bottom of the box, a corner of an electric motor was faintly visible. The upper part of the box was shaped like a funnel, with five steel wires arranged vertically inside. Each steel wire was tied with a sharp razor blade, staggered to form a blade net. And between the steel wires and the electric motor, there was a conveyor belt rolling from left to right.
A silver tape recorder was placed on the box device. Caleb stepped forward, picked up the tape recorder, and pressed the play button.
"Hello, Allen. Your soul has been immersed in the mire of lies and greed for years, long since becoming filthy and depraved. You are addicted to stealing, and a habitual liar. To cover up the truth, to exonerate yourself, you cunningly diverted the attention of the ignorant, fabricated accusations against the victim without burden, and thereby destroyed an already broken family… You are the root of all evil, an unforgivable scourge!"
The deep voice paused slightly here, with some emotional fluctuation, then continued:
"Now, you have unfortunately fallen into my hands, and I want to offer you salvation through a game. The device you are lying on I call 'The Liar', and the device your companion will need to operate is called 'The Thief'. The thief and the liar can often be the same person, so you two must cooperate to escape death. In the next five minutes, the pillar above your head will continuously probe downwards until it pierces your head. You need to make the loudest sound possible; the microphone suspended above your head will help you delay the pillar's descent after receiving a certain decibel of volume. The key to shutting down this device is in the iron box beneath 'The Thief'. You don't have much time, start the game quickly!"
The deep voice's introduction ended, and the box device called 'The Thief' started first. As the bottom electric motor rumbled, the entire box vibrated continuously. The five steel wires at the funnel opening and the black conveyor belt on the electric motor also began to slide. The razor blades on the steel wires slid left and right unevenly, tightly sealing the upper part of the box. On the black conveyor belt in the middle, several similar-looking keys were slowly transported from beneath the box, but only one was real.
Caleb could only reach into the funnel opening to get a key, and he couldn't guarantee whether the key he got was the correct one. Unless he was incredibly lucky and got it right on the first try, he would have to continuously reach into that terrifying blade net made of razors.
Ah hah ah ah!!!
This combined device, named 'The Thief' and 'The Liar', required two people to solve. Therefore, as Caleb began to try reaching into 'The Thief' device, Allen, lying on 'The Liar' device on the other side, also began to shout at the top of his lungs. The sharp iron hammer suspended above his head, which was originally descending at a faster speed, significantly slowed its descent and retracted slightly after Allen produced a sufficient decibel level.
However, Allen needed to inhale and replenish his breath after shouting, and his throat, strained from overuse, also wanted a rest. So he paused his shouting and caught his breath. But the iron pillar's sensor was incredibly sensitive; as soon as it lost the volume restriction, it immediately accelerated its descent, plummeting with a dangerous momentum straight towards Allen's face. Allen, frightened, quickly screamed and shouted, and the iron pillar began to retract again.
Allen secretly cursed his misfortune; continuously shouting loudly, his throat was rapidly heading towards a state of hoarseness. He wouldn't be able to last much longer; Allen might temporarily lose his voice.