"It happened so suddenly, we didn't have time to grab her..." Zhang Lifeng, a newcomer, recounted with lingering fear, "After she jumped into the fire, the fire suddenly flared up, engulfing her completely. We couldn't reach in to pull her out... She... she just... burned alive..."
"That really was too sudden," Wei Dong sighed, "Without any warning?"
The three newcomers looked at each other for a while and shook their heads: "She was perfectly normal before, even complaining to us about how bizarre the world in the painting was, it didn't seem like she was being influenced by anything."
The veteran members also looked at each other for a while, and Mu Yiran asked Qin Ci, "Which animated film has a scene of throwing oneself into fire?"
Qin Ci pondered for a long time and finally shook his head: "I really can't remember any animated film like that."
Mu Yiran then looked at Ke Xun. Ke Xun received her boyfriend's gaze and thought that she couldn't disappoint him. It was rare for her boyfriend to be so adorable because he knew nothing about animated films, and as his boyfriend, she had to take on the role and function her boyfriend usually played in the team.
Ignoring the annoyance of the cat tail that had sprouted from his backside, Ke Xun racked his brains, trying to recall all the cartoons he had watched since childhood.
Mu Yiran didn't disturb his thoughts, only taking out his phone to check the time.
It was already past nine o'clock at night, and apart from the deceased Zhao Haicui, all the members had returned to the initial room.
According to the law in the painting that someone would die every night, it was unknown who among these people would die tonight, and in what way.
"Currently, of the six worlds that these six doors lead to, we have identified four," Mu Yiran lowered his voice slightly so as not to disturb Ke Xun's train of thought, "among them, Dr. Qin corresponds to the world of the Fisherman, Ke Xun corresponds to the world of the Tiger Learning Skills, Wei Dong corresponds to the world of Ma Liang and the Magic Brush, and Ge Lei corresponds to the world of Black Cat Detective.
"In addition, Ke Xun also discovered a hidden world, which corresponds to the world of the good cat Mimi for Haowen."
"The remaining two doors, one leads to a world with a sea and a city, and the other leads to the world where Zhao Haicui threw fire.
Our next tasks are twofold: first, to quickly determine which two animated films the worlds behind these doors belong to; and second, to continue exploring the hidden worlds.
We can only complete the first task tomorrow during the day; the focus now is on the second.
Based on Ke Xun's description of discovering the hidden worlds, we can roughly determine that triggering them requires using characters or clues from the animated films. These characters and clues may not seem directly related to the ending, but it's very likely that only after advancing the animated films to their conclusion can the hidden world be triggered through these characters.
Now, let's organize which important characters or clues in the confirmed animated films might be the conditions for triggering the hidden worlds.
Wei Dong has already advanced the world of Ma Liang's Magic Brush to its ending, so let's organize the clues in that world first."
She looked at Wei Dong.
Wei Dong hurriedly said, "Ke'er and I originally thought that drawing a door with the magic brush in my hand would lead to the hidden world, but after I went back to this world and tried it, I couldn't find a way to reach the other world." "
Mu Yiran asked, 'Are there any important characters in the story of Ma Liang and the Magic Brush besides the protagonist and the antagonist?'
Wei Dong thought for a moment, 'Does the old fairy who gave Ma Liang the magic brush count?'
Qin Ci said, 'That old fairy only appeared once from beginning to end. Even after Ma Liang encountered difficulties, he didn't appear again. And you've already pushed the story to the end, so there's probably no way to find that old fairy anymore.'
'This...so pushing the story to the end was a mistake?' Wei Dong said, frustrated.
'Not necessarily,' Qin Ci comforted him, 'Ke Xun also pushed the story to the end before discovering the conditions for triggering the hidden world. Think carefully again, don't miss any possibilities.'
'Then what about the fisherman?' " "Zhu Haowen asked Qin Ci.
"I punished the evil officials and foreigners in the cartoon according to the plot," Qin Ci said. "I searched for a while but didn't find any clues. Of course, at that time I didn't know that Ke Xun had triggered the hidden world using this method. Now that I think about it, the more important character or clue might be the fisherman's basin. In the ending of the cartoon, the fisherman returned to the bottom of the basin. Perhaps I should..."
"No," Wei Dong hurriedly waved his hand, "What if you go back to the bottom of the basin and can't turn back?"
"That might be possible." Zhu Haowen said expressionlessly.
"This is indeed a dilemma." Qin Ci frowned slightly.
"Based on the process of Ke Xun triggering the hidden world," Mu Yiran, who had been silent for a while, suddenly spoke up, "both the cartoons 'Tiger Learns Skills' and 'Good Cat Mimi' have a cat character. And in 'Tiger Learns Skills,' a cat happens to be the condition for triggering the hidden world. So, can we assume that other hidden worlds are also triggered using the same pattern?" Upon hearing this, everyone was suddenly enlightened. Zhu Haowen said, "
So what we need to find might be characters common to every animated film, like the mouse in 'Good Cat Mimi' and One-Ear in 'Black Cat Detective'."
"That's right!" Wei Dong clapped his hands. "Then let me think about what animals are in 'Ma Liang and His Magic Paintbrush'—Ma Liang drew a chicken, a sheep, and a cow, chicken, sheep, and cow! Think quickly, which animated film also has chicken, sheep, and cow?"
Everyone fell into thought, searching their memories, when Ke Xun suddenly clapped his hands: "'Fire Boy' meow! I remember now, in the animated film 'Fire Boy,' the protagonist transforms into a giant fireball. Is the animated film corresponding to Zhao Haicui this one meow?"
He had been thinking about the question that Mu Yiran hadn't been able to answer earlier.
Qin Ci exclaimed "Oh" with realization: "Very likely. It's amazing that you still remember such an old animated film; I hardly even remember it."
Ke Xun tugged at his cat ears: "The reason I still remember this cartoon is because it was practically one of my childhood nightmares, meow! The way the main character turned into a fireball was so weird, meow." " So
it seems that Zhao Haicui's world corresponds to Fire Child." Qin Ci looked at Ke Xun, then at Mu Yiran.
Mu Yiran also looked at Ke Xun: "What is the main character of Fire Child?"
"What is it? ...Meow, of course it's a person." Ke Xun tilted his head curiously, his cat tail swishing back and forth.
Mu Yiran's fingers, which had been in his pocket, twitched slightly, but his face remained calm and composed: "And Zhao Haicui is wearing a rabbit headdress. If, according to your example, wearing a cat headdress turns you into a cat, then Zhao Haicui should be a rabbit."
"Hmm, that makes sense, meow!" Ke Xun's eyes widened, and he tilted his head, thinking for a moment. "That's right, I'm sure the main character of Fire Child is a human cat. This animated film seems to tell a story about an ethnic minority."
Mu Yiran turned to the three newcomers and asked, "When Zhao Haicui was with you, did she show any changes in her posture or speech?"
The three looked at each other for a while, then shook their heads. Zhang Lifeng said with a somewhat unpleasant expression, "We were all panicked at the time, and we had all gotten separated at first. We only found each other later. After we met, we were only anxious to find our way back. The weather was cold, and we were panicked and scared after getting lost. We only calmed down a little when we entered the cave with the fire. But because there was a strange old man in the cave, we were all a little scared and didn't have time to observe anything else carefully..."
Wei Miao, who was wearing a dragon horn headdress, suddenly spoke hesitantly, "I don't know if it was my imagination, but the moment Sister Hai Cui jumped into the fire, I seemed to see her shadow cast on the cave wall by the firelight, like a... rabbit..."
"Moreover," Qin Ci interjected, "the protagonist of the Fire Child story didn't jump into the fire, but swallowed the fire seed and turned into a fireball."
"Meow, so Zhao Hai Cui's world isn't Fire Child, meow." Ke Xun's tail swished wildly.
"What is the fire seed in Fire Child?" Mu Yiran asked Ke Xun again.
"Is it... called Fire Seed or Fire Pearl again, meow? I don't know what that is, meow meow." Ke Xun wagged his tail.
That last "meow meow" was incredibly cute. Mu Yiran took his hand out of his pocket, gently pinched the tip of Ke Xun's tail between two fingers.
Ke Xun stared at him with wide, wet eyes.
Mu Yiran didn't look at him anymore, his fingertips almost imperceptibly playing with the chubby, warm, and fluffy tail. On the surface, he still maintained his cold, aloof, and elegant boss demeanor, his gaze falling on Qin Ci: "What style is the animated film 'Fire Child'?"
Qin Ci thought for a moment: "It seems to be a paper-cut style animation."
"What about Hailibu?" Mu Yiran continued to ask calmly.
"Hailibu is the most common kind of animation," Qin Ci said.
Mu Yiran's calm gaze swept across everyone's faces before he spoke in a deep voice: "Now I can roughly confirm one thing: Ma Liang and the Magic Paintbrush is a puppet animation, Yu Tong and Huo Tong are paper-cut animations, and Tiger Learning Skills, Good Cat Mimi, Black Cat Detective, and Hailibu are the most common animation styles.
"Wei Dong corresponds to Ma Liang and the Magic Paintbrush. Before entering his corresponding world, his body underwent a transformation, gradually becoming a puppet in the style of Ma Liang and the Magic Paintbrush.
"Ke Xun, Hao Wen, Zhao Haicui, and I correspond to common style animation worlds. Therefore, unlike Wei Dong, we didn't transform into the animation style, but directly into the character settings within the animation. If the character is an animal, we gradually become an animal; if the character is human, we inherit the character's fate.
"So, can we infer from this that Qi Qiang and Huang Pi's puppet-like transformation is because the world they correspond to is also a puppet-style animation?"
"And is Luo Wei's paper-like transformation because the world he corresponds to is also a paper-cut style animation? For example... *Fire Child*?"
Everyone was shocked and pondering at Mu Yiran's deduction. Ke Xun, however, meowed, his tail wriggling in Mu Yiran's hand: "That's right! It's Fire Child Meow! Wasn't the prop Luo Wei got a red round stone meow? Maybe this is the so-called Fire Pearl Meow from the animation!"
"Guys..." Wei Dong's trembling voice suddenly rang out, "It'll be eleven o'clock in five minutes..."
Eleven o'clock. This time, will death descend upon the initial room and randomly select someone, or will they... once again enter the cruel process of voting for the dead?