Xiao Lou stood in front of the card wall, dazzled by the sheer number of cards. To his surprise, he discovered that each card, aside from markings like "Red Heart 2" and "Spade 3" in the upper left corner, featured an animated image on its cover.
These cards seem like countless condensed spaces. And each card is like a miniature television screen, playing a different story.
The card directly in front of him plays the clearest animation.
Xiao Lou looked closely and saw in Card World, a short girl being chased by several ugly zombies. The girl slipped and fell to the ground, and the zombies quickly surrounded her, tearing off her head and gnawing on it with relish. The girl's terrified eyes seemed to be staring straight at Xiao Lou through the window of the card.
Xiao Lou felt a chill run down his spine and a wave of nausea wash over him. He clenched his fists so tightly that his nails dug deep into his palms. The intense pain told him that this was not a dream; it was another dimension composed of cards that he could not comprehend.
That girl definitely wouldn't survive, but dying with her brain eaten by zombies is just too cruel...
Was she also a human, just like me, who was inexplicably pulled into the Card World?
Xiao Lou closed her eyes, unable to bear watching any longer.
The system coldly asked, "Have you seen the world in the card?"
Xiao Lou took a deep breath and said, "I saw it."
System: "You only have one chance to change your choice, A or B, which one do you choose?"
Xiao Lou answered without hesitation: "I choose B."
System: "Options confirmed."
System: "Congratulations on becoming the 86,587,847th Challenger in Card World. Before entering the new world, you can change your appearance and gender. You have 3 minutes to make initial data adjustments."
A mirror appeared before him, reflecting a handsome young man with gentle features. However, his face was unnaturally pale—anyone would find it difficult to remain calm in such a sudden situation. Xiao Lou was relatively calm; at least he didn't scream when he saw the girl's head being eaten by a zombie.
Looking at herself in the mirror, Xiao Lou calmly said, "I won't adjust my appearance or gender."
Perhaps many people who died unexpectedly were transported to the Card World. He was the 80 millionth Challenger, and he thought that if he didn't adjust, he might meet people he knew before. Although he couldn't understand this Card World, all he could do for now was to abide by the rules of the new world and try his best to survive.
Challenger Xiao Lou, initial data storage successful. The mirror in front of me disappeared, and the system's cold, mechanical voice continued to ring in my ears: "Next, we will read out the basic rules of the new world."
"In Card World, each card is a different little world; you can think of it as a secret room."
"The type of escape room is determined by the suit of the card. Hearts represents puzzle escape rooms, diamonds represent mechanism escape rooms, spade represents survival escape rooms, and plum blossom represents challenge escape rooms."
"The difficulty of the escape rooms ranges from low to high as D, C, B, A, S, and the highest difficulty SS. Only by clearing the SS-level escape room can one return to the human world and gain a true new life."
"Successfully completing the challenge will earn you a reward. Failure will result in being sent to the Nightmare Secret Room for punishment. Players who cannot survive in the Nightmare Secret Room will be completely eliminated by Card World."
"The rules will only be explained once. Now, please choose your cards."
Four cards suddenly appeared in front of Xiao Lou: Red Heart 2, Diamond 2, Spade 2, and Plum Blossom 2.
These four cards, unlike the cards on the card wall with their dynamic storylines, are the most common playing cards in real life, with their suits printed on the front. He has no idea what he will face after turning over the cards.
Each card represents a world; which one should you choose?
Xiao Lou thought about it carefully, then reached out and drew " red heart 2 ".
He loved reading detective novels since childhood, and ever since his roommate dragged him to an escape room game during college, he's been hooked on these thrilling, logically rigorous real-life escape room games. In every city he visits, Xiao Lou makes sure to check out the various escape room venues; he's played hundreds of games and is quite experienced. But in his world, most escape room games focus on puzzles and mechanisms; he's never heard of any "survival" or "challenge" type of escape room.
Recalling the scene of the girl being eaten by a zombie, the Spade card's survival room might present a life-or-death crisis; the Plum Blossom card's challenge room sounds difficult just from its name, and venturing in rashly might lead to an even more gruesome death. Relatively speaking, the diamonds ' traps and the hearts ' puzzles sound more approachable, and are also Xiao Lou's forte.
Just to be on the safe side, he chose hearts first.
— Card selection complete.
—— Red Heart 2 Secret Room [ Rose Funeral ] is now open.
Challenger Xiao Lou, data reading complete.
—The time limit for completing the challenge is 30 minutes. If the time limit is exceeded, the challenge will be considered a failure.
After the system notification, a soft, blood-red light suddenly appeared on the card "Red Heart 2". The red light quickly formed a vortex, which directly sucked Xiao Lou into Card World.
Xiao Lou's vision suddenly went black.
When his vision returned, he found himself in a narrow, empty corridor.
The corridor was dimly lit, with a door at the end. The surrounding walls were bare, the most...
The walls were plain white, and the floor was covered with spotless off-white tiles; no useful clues were found.
A transparent floating frame with "30:00 countdown" appeared in front of Xiao Lou. He realized that the countdown had started, so he quickened his pace and walked to the door.
He pushed open the door and went in, his eyes quickly scanning the room—
This is a three-bedroom, two-living-room apartment with an area of approximately 120 square meters.
The furniture is all in warm colors, creating a very cozy atmosphere. The living room features a soft fabric sofa, a thick rug under the coffee table, and a large LCD TV directly opposite it. The dining room is spotless, with a vibrant bouquet of roses on the table.
The doors to the three rooms next door were all open. One was the master bedroom, one was a children's room covered with cartoon wallpaper, and the other was decorated as a study.
The house is well-ventilated from north to south and has a square layout, typical of a family of three.
Upon entering the room, Xiao Lou smelled a strange, foul odor, which seemed to be mixed with the scent of roses.
He followed the scent to the master bedroom.
In the center of the bedroom stood a double bed, which was covered with bright red roses. A woman dressed in a white silk nightgown slept peacefully on the rose petals, her hands gently folded over her abdomen.
However, a large, glaring pool of blood burst open on her chest.
The woman's nightgown was stained crimson with blood, and her once exquisitely made-up face now bore obvious signs of rigor mortis. Her lips were bluish, her skin as pale as paper, and the pungent stench in the air was the very smell emanating from her corpse.
— The Secret Room in Red Heart 2 is actually a murder scene!
Xiao Lou was so overwhelmed by the stench that he almost vomited. He pinched his nose hard and began to carefully look around.
As a long-time player of escape room games, he has played many puzzle-solving escape rooms and seen many terrifying scenes. In addition, his professionalism as a Forensic Doctor has made him immune to corpses. Therefore, when he suddenly saw a female corpse on the bed, he did not panic, but quickly calmed himself down.
— The card suit of Hearts represents "a puzzle room".
Since this locked room is a murder scene, the mystery to be solved is naturally the cause of the victim's death.
Xiao Lou endured the stench of the corpse and stepped forward to begin a thorough examination of the deceased.
The deceased was a young woman in her 30s who died at home wearing pajamas.
There was a large patch of blood on her chest; the fatal wound was a stab wound to the heart, likely made by a sharp knife that pierced the aorta with remarkable speed and precision. Aside from this, there were no other injuries or signs of abuse on her body.
This is the master bedroom, with a separate bathroom.
Xiao Lou began searching for clues in the room.
He went to the bathroom first.
A lot of long hair was lying on the bathroom floor. It was brown and curly, just like the deceased's hair. It must have been left behind when she took a shower before she died and hadn't had time to clean it up. In addition, there were her clothes that she had changed out of in the bathroom. There were some dark red stains on the clothes.
Xiao Lou picked it up and examined it closely. It looked a bit like bloodstains, but it wasn't. It was clearly different from the bloodstains on her pajamas.
[Countdown 28:10]
[ D-Class Secret Room Special Note: Clue Collection Progress 5%]
The moment I picked up the clothes, this line of text suddenly appeared in the floating box in front of me: Clue Collection Progress. This prompt is very important, especially for newcomers to Card World. At least it can confirm whether what I found is related to the case.
It seemed that the clothes were indeed related to the case. Xiao Lou carefully searched the pockets of the clothes but found nothing else. However, the dark red stains on the clothes, which resembled blood, seemed to be reminding him of something.
He put down the clothes and continued searching for other clues.
The bathtub and toilet were clean, and the toiletries on the sink were also normal. There was some used toilet paper in the trash can next to it, which looked very dirty. Without hesitation, Xiao Lou turned the trash can upside down and dumped all the trash inside onto the floor.
He found some scraps of paper.
Xiao Lou quickly shoved aside the filthy tissues and found all the torn pieces of paper. He roughly pieced the scraps together and surprisingly managed to create a photograph—a marriage certificate photo.
[Countdown 27:45, Clue collection progress 15%]
Xiao Lou kept the two clues in mind, turned around and walked out of the bathroom, and began searching the bedroom.
The escape room games he used to play usually had a completion time of more than an hour, with more difficult ones typically taking three to five hours, and some large team escape rooms even taking seven or eight hours to complete.
Half an hour to solve the puzzle is too short.
Fortunately, this escape room wasn't too difficult, after all, it was a D-class secret room, and there was a "clue collection progress" indicator.
As Xiao Lou rummaged through the wardrobe, she quickly analyzed the situation in her mind.
The fact that the marriage certificate photo was torn up and thrown into the toilet trash can indicates that the woman's marriage had broken down. The presence of men's clothes and shoes in her residence suggests that the couple hadn't yet reached the point of divorce. Her death is likely related to her husband, and the search should focus on his belongings.
Xiao Lou quickly searched through all the pockets of the male homeowner's clothes in the closet—finding only a wallet. Inside, there was no cash or bank cards, but a photo of the couple on their marriage certificate.
In the photo, the woman, wearing a pure white wedding dress, nestled happily in the man's arms; the handsome man and beautiful woman looked very well-matched.
[Countdown 24:06, Clue search]
[Concentration 25%]
Searching the wardrobe took a lot of time. After calming down and thinking for a while, Xiao Lou turned around and started looking through the dressing table and bedside table.
He saw an exquisite perfume bottle on the dressing table, opened it, and smelled roses.
I found a greeting card in the dressing table drawer. It read: "Darling, this bottle of Rose Perfume is for you. Happy birthday, and may you always be young and beautiful—your best friend Liu Yun / July 17th." The word "best friend" on the card was crossed out with a big red X.
Birthday, Rose Perfume, crossed-out greeting card, new character Liu Yun —these clues are all crucial. In the floating box in front of Xiao Lou, the clue collection rate jumped directly from 25% to 50%!
[Countdown 22:00, Clue collection progress 50%]
[Half of the clues have been collected, and a suspicious person has appeared. Have you identified the murderer? Yes/No]
[Hint: The shorter the completion time and the more clues collected, the higher the reward.]
Xiao Lou thought for a moment and then selected "No" in the floating box.
He has 22 minutes left, and with not all the clues gathered, there's a high chance he'll make a mistake in identifying the killer.
Several clues found so far point to the husband or best friend as the murderer—the husband cheated on her with her best friend, was discovered by the woman, and in a fit of rage, she tore up their marriage certificate and drew a large red X on a greeting card from her best friend. Perhaps an argument occurred on her birthday, leading to her being murdered by her husband or best friend.
In such a story, most of the clues can be reasonably explained.
but...
Is it really that simple?
Xiao Lou glanced at the ornate rose-covered bed, then quickly turned and left.
This is not the primary crime scene at all.