Escape the Library

【Phantom in the picture-06】

Ke Shaobin scratched his head and said, "Since the painting of "Mona Lisa" in the entrance on the second floor is the switch of the hallucination world, it will return to the original world after it becomes normal. We have been waiting here, can we wait for them?"

Yue Xingwen asked, "How long has it been since the two groups were separated?"

Ke Shaobin looked at the time display on the small picture and said, "Half an hour has passed."

Jiang Pingce frowned and said, "With senior brother Zhuo Feng's vigilance, he should have discovered that the world they live in is an illusion, so he should find an exit as soon as possible or find a way to contact us. It makes no sense that we still can't get in touch after so long."

Yue Xingwen said: "Wait another 10 minutes."

The crowd anxiously stood at the entrance.

Time passed by minute by minute, however, no one came out of the next room, and the research group channel did not reply to the message. Liu Zhaoqing and the six people seemed to be swallowed up by this strange castle, without a trace.

10 minutes later, Jiang Pingce suddenly said: "Xingwen, is there no time limit for the course reminder of this course?"

A chill ran across Yue Xingwen's back: "That's right! In the past, there was a time requirement for taking any course, how many days to survive or how many days to solve the case. However, this course did not mention the time at all, only let us crack the painting the mystery."

Ke Shaobin said: "There is no time limit, that is to say, is it possible for us to be stuck here forever?"

Jiang Pingce's face was serious, he was silent for a moment, and then whispered: "Is the world where Brother Liu and the others live in an illusion, or are we in a fantasy in the painting?"

Yue Xingwen thought for a while, and said calmly: "When we entered the castle, there were four abstract paintings on the first floor, and the garden outside the castle was full of black roses. We dug the garden and found three corpses. As World A, World B that is inconsistent there is not considered a fantasy, and only by finding the intersection of world changes can it be possible to merge with another group of people."

Xin Yan said lightly: "I guess the clues found by the two groups are different, so we can continue the analysis after summarizing."

Ke Shaobin nodded in agreement: "The world will change when the agency rotates. We have to find out the location of the agency and the rules of the agency's changes before we can meet Brother Liu and the others?"

Yue Xingwen said, "Well, let's go downstairs and have a look first."

Jiang Pingce opened the window on the second floor and directly used the coordinate system to let the students fly downstairs.

The yard in front of the castle was full of black roses, and the layers of black petals bloomed eerily in the moonlight. To everyone's surprise, the three corpses they dug up actually disappeared.

Zhang Xiaonian stared blankly at the neat rose garden and murmured, "Where is the hole I dug with the excavator?"

Yue Xingwen frowned: "The garden has not been turned over at all."

Jiang Pingce said decisively: "Xiao Nian, dig a new hole in the original position to have a look."

Zhang Xiaonian immediately summoned the excavator and dug a big hole where the body was found at the beginning - he remembered very clearly that the location where the body was buried was in the very center of the rose garden.

However, his excavator digged all the way, and the pit was three meters deep, but he still didn't touch the bones, and he didn't find any abnormality. Everyone looked at each other.

Yue Xingwen stood beside the big pit, thoughtful.

Jiang Pingce walked up to him, put his hand on his shoulder gently, and asked in a low voice, "What do you think?"

Yue Xingwen was silent for a moment before saying, "Have we really come out of the illusion?"

Jiang Pingce said: "I remember that the description of 'Escape the Shell' was just out of control and the team flashed. At that time, we were surrounded by those long-haired women. You used Escape the Shell to take everyone to the entrance on the second floor. The hallucination world does not belong to negative control. , so 'Escape the Shell' does not allow us to escape directly from the world of illusion."

Yue Xingwen nodded: "That's right."

Jiang Pingce continued: "Although the paintings on the second floor have returned to normal, we have not returned to the original world. The complete garden and the disappearing corpses all prove that we are no longer in the old castle that we were in at the beginning."

Yue Xingwen nodded: "Assuming that the ancient castle at the beginning was the real world, we found a pool of blood on the carpet in the living room, and dug up the murderer's buried body at the scene of the crime; At that moment, we have actually entered the world of illusion."

Jiang Pingce said: "Yes, when you saw the mouth of the woman in the painting moving, it was not an illusion, but the person in the painting really moved. The difference between reality and the world of illusion is that the painting in reality is dead. , the painting of the phantom world, but it is alive.”

The others listened to the analysis of the two and were at a loss.

Xin Yan thought for a moment and said, "That is to say, when we came to the second floor, Xingwen said that he saw the corners of the portrait's mouth moving. I thought it was an illusion caused by the beating of the light from the alcohol lamp. In fact, the portrait was really moving. , at that time, everyone has entered the illusion world?"

Yue Xingwen said: "Yes, when you walk up to the second floor and see the "Mona Lisa" hanging painting for the first time, it is no longer the original world."

Ke Shaobin scratched his head in confusion and concluded, "That is to say, are there three worlds here?"

Jiang Pingce walked to the side, took a branch and began to draw on the ground, explaining while drawing, "There are more than three. We take each picture change as a sign of changing the world, then, World A, there are four pictures on the first floor. Abstract paintings, bodies found in gardens, this is the scene of the crime."

He wrote an arrow, followed by a circle "B", and then said, "After everyone went up to the second floor together, Xingwen found that the porch painting would raise the corners of his mouth, this is the B world."

The branch draws two more branches at the back of world B, and writes C and D. Jiang Pingce continued: "We are grouped in world B, we enter the room on the left and are teleported to world C, Senior Brother Liu enters the room on the right and is teleported. to the D world."

Jiang Pingce paused, then continued to draw: "After we came out of the C world, we found that the Mona Lisa in the porch had changed her face, the roof began to drip blood, and the person in the painting attacked us, this is the E world; We escaped from the man in the painting, and when we returned to the second floor, the porch painting returned to normal, but there were no bodies in the rose garden at this time, this is the F world."

"Senior Brother Liu and the others didn't know what they saw after they came out of World D, but the world they were in must have also changed. Think of it as World G..." Jiang Pingce's drawing became more and more complicated, it was like a serial maze.

Looking at the three-dimensional world branch map he drew on the ground, everyone finally realized it.

Lan Yarong said: "That is to say, except for World A at the beginning, we found clues to the corpse and determined that it was the scene of the crime. The world we entered after that was actually an illusion in the painting? It is even possible that we are in one after another. in a painting?"

Ke Shaobin smiled bitterly and said, "It's still a comic strip, constantly nesting dolls, E and F are separated from the C world, and G and H are separated from the D world. Isn't this endless, and it is more terrible than walking through the maze?"

Judging from the current branch map drawn by Jiang Pingce, there have been 7 different worlds from A to G. Only world A is the scene of the crime, and the others are all illusions where "people in the painting can move". They continue to walk backwards and divide more worlds. Not only will the two groups of students never meet, they may go further and further and end up trapped in the painting.

Yue Xingwen thought of this possibility, and immediately made a decision: "We can't go further, we have to go back to the original world." He looked at his teammates, "Everyone remember, when we went up to the second floor, Has anything changed around here?"

Zhang Xiaonian whispered: "We came up the stairs, and then Senior Brother Xingwen said that the corners of the mouths of the people in the painting seemed to move. Could it be that the stairs from the first floor to the second floor are World A and World B? the portal?"

Ke Shaobin's eyes suddenly lit up: "Xiao Nian, did you think of the "Endless Staircase" course of the School of Architecture!"

Zhang Xiaonian nodded: "Yes, back in the "Endless Staircase" labyrinth class, after passing a flight of stairs, it would be teleported to another space. The Penrose circular staircase, which cannot be realized in the three-dimensional world, can be easily realized in the library. On the surface, The stairs on the first and second floors are connected, but in fact, when we walk through that flight of stairs, we have entered another dimension of space.”

Yue Xingwen patted his younger brother on the shoulder with admiration, and said, "It makes sense! The porch painting on the second floor is not the switch of the hallucination world, the stairs from the first floor to the second floor, and every door in the corridor. , is the teleportation point of different worlds!" He looked at Jiang Pingce and said, "If we want to return to the original world, should we follow the original path and walk backwards."

Jiang Pingce said with an "um", "This is a series of labyrinths formed by illusions in the painting. If we want to find the origin, we must go back the same way, and we can't take a wrong step."

Jiang Pingce is very clear about the path everyone has traveled since entering the castle. He even has a clear path modeling in his mind. When looking at Jo Yue Xingwen, he immediately summoned the coordinate system and took everyone back to the second. The building window, then come to the entrance, and enter the door on the right.

The painting in the house is still "The Last Supper". Jiang Pingce took everyone back to the entrance and walked back to the first floor.

In everyone's eyes, the blood everywhere and the long-haired woman floating out of the painting actually appeared again!

Blood was dripping from the ceiling, and the woman who came out of the painting had long hair like tentacles, and when she saw them, she started to attack frantically! Yue Xingwen was wrapped around his neck by his hair almost instantly, Jiang Pingce's eyes sank, his right hand was quickly raised, a sharp triangle shot out from his palm, and he cut off his hair twice!

He took a step forward and grabbed Yue Xingwen's hand tightly, and said in a low voice, "Go!"

Everyone followed Jiang Pingce and flew directly to the second floor. The painting at the entrance on the second floor really changed his face, and the woman in the painting shed blood and tears from the corners of her eyes. Jiang Pingce took everyone back to the room on the left and found a familiar face on the wall. The hanging painting is Van Gogh's "Starry Night", which is the same as what I saw at the beginning.

When he came out of the room again, the painting at the entrance was back to normal, but the woman in the painting seemed to slightly raise the corner of her mouth.

The curvature of the corner of the woman's mouth was very light, exactly the same as what Yue Xingwen had seen at the beginning. At that time, he thought it was an "illusion", but in fact, this was the clearest prompt the library gave them to "enter the illusion in the painting"!

Yue Xingwen took a deep breath and said, "Wait a minute."

Here is the "B World" marked by Jiang Pingce, and it is also the place where they separated from Liu Zhaoqing's group.

Yue Xingwen quickly tore off a piece of paper from the dictionary and handed Jiang Pingce the colored brushes from the studio. Jiang Pingce understood and immediately redrawn the world branch map he just drew on the paper. Yue Xingwen took it and wrote a line: "The comic book labyrinth, go back the same way. The stairs are the portal, and the world of A converges - Xingwen & Pingce stay."

He pasted this piece of paper next to the "Mona Lisa" portrait in the hallway.

The two looked at each other and took everyone back down the stairs to the first floor.

The first floor is a familiar hall. There is a pool of blood on the carpet next to the sofa in the living room. Jiang Pingce asked Xu Feixue, "Are the four abstract paintings the same as what you saw at the beginning?"

Xu Feixue walked over to take a closer look, nodded and said, "Exactly the same."

Zhang Xiaonian walked to the window and looked out, excitedly said: "In the middle of the garden there is a big hole I dug, and there are three human bones next to it - we are finally back!"