Fantasy Game: Infinite City

"Snapped!"

The sound of a trap being set off rang out in the quiet manor. Next to the set off trap, a figure was crouching stealthily in the shadow of the corner.

“Tread…Tread…”

On the distant stairs, footsteps were heard from the next floor. The sound of metal rubbing against the wooden floor was very creepy in this environment. The footsteps were slowly approaching, and the figure hiding in the corner quickly left the place and went to the upper floor of the building through the stairs on the other side.

This is the fifth floor. There are slightly more rooms here than on other floors. There are many cabinets and other places to hide in the rooms. It seems that the fire that occurred in this building before did not seem to have much impact on this floor, and this floor was not much damaged.

"Pee-chi!"

A head popped out from a room in front, making some tiny puffing sounds, and then waved at the man, motioning him to come over.

When I walked into the room, I saw three people gathered inside, searching the furnishings in the room as quietly as possible. One of them was holding something in his hand, which seemed to be a structural diagram.

"According to the markings on the structural diagram, this room should have an entrance to a ventilation duct, but the structural diagram doesn't say where it leads to. The entrance should be... right here! Behind this cabinet. Come on, help me move the cabinet!"

The four people tried not to make any noise and carefully moved the cabinet away. Sure enough, a dark vent appeared before their eyes. One of them took out a flashlight and found that the interior was very deep and there was no end in sight.

"Let's go in. Maybe what we are looking for is on the other side of this ventilation duct." The man holding the structural diagram said excitedly.

The others looked at each other, somewhat hesitant. After all, no one knew what dangers were in the secret passage, and if they encountered danger in this ventilation duct where they could only crouch and crawl, all four of them would be caught.

"If you're afraid of being caught, you can stay and find other routes. But I have to go in and take a look." After saying this, the man went into the dark ventilation duct.

The other three looked at each other, one of them gritted his teeth and went in. The other two left the room and searched other places.

The old ventilation duct was filled with a stale smell, and the surrounding walls felt a little cool and rusty. They crouched carefully and moved forward, their hearts full of anticipation and nervousness.

"There is light ahead."

After cautiously moving forward for a while in the ventilation duct, the person crawling in front discovered some light coming from not far ahead. When they crawled over to take a look, they found that it was a vent that was welded shut. Through the gap in the vent's fence, the two saw that this was a small room with only a small window and seemingly no door.

One of them took out a flashlight, covered the head of the flashlight with his hand, and then turned on the flashlight, making the light of the flashlight much thinner and less easy to be discovered.

Slowly shining the flashlight down to the room below, they found a rocking chair in the corner of the room. The rocking chair would move from time to time. The two held their breath and could hear some faint breathing sounds. Slowly bringing the flashlight closer to the rocking chair, they found that there was someone on the rocking chair, a thin old man in pajamas, taking a nap on the rocking chair.

"Looks like we found this old guy, let's see if we can open this vent. Then go down and kill him!"

After turning off the flashlight and putting it back in their pocket, the two began to try to remove the grille on the vent, but the vent was welded very tightly and the two could not open it for the time being.

"The restrictions of this instance are too strict. If I could use my original ability, this vent would definitely be opened easily. I really don't know why the Infinite City Guild War suddenly switched to this new competition method this time."

"The players' abilities vary greatly, and the level gap is quite large. This should be for balance considerations. They can only use the abilities provided in the dungeon, and the basic data has also been balanced to the average value."

"I really don't know what the guild was thinking. They asked me to come to this dungeon with new rules for testing. Shouldn't the contestants be allowed to experience the new rules in advance?"

"It seems like you and I are both cannon fodder pushed out by the guild to explore the way. Okay, there's no point in complaining, just continue the mission."

The vent could not be opened for the time being. One of the men reached into his pocket, dipped his finger in something like paint, and drew a triangle symbol in the ventilation duct.

"Okay, this way we and the remaining two teammates can locate here from other places. Let's go, let's continue moving towards the ventilation duct and see where the end leads to."

After leaving their mark, the two men left quickly. In the room below, the thin old man who was dozing on the rocking chair was not woken up at all. He had no idea that just now, two people were peeping at the vent and wanted to kill him.

On the other side, there were two people who did not enter the ventilation duct.

They made new discoveries while searching other rooms. One of them found a secret door behind a bookshelf and pushed it open. A narrow passage appeared before them. The passage smelled of dust and it looked like no one had walked through it for a long time.

The two looked at each other and decided to explore further. They entered the passage carefully, using the flashlight in their hands to illuminate the road ahead. The passage was winding and seemed to lead to a hidden part of the building. Suddenly, they heard a slight noise, as if something was approaching. They stopped and looked around vigilantly.

The sound was getting closer and closer, and then several huge rats rushed out from the darkness and rushed straight towards them. They were much larger than ordinary rats, and the rats that were suddenly startled scared the two of them. Fortunately, they reacted in time and did not accidentally make any noise.

"It's okay, just a few rats. Let's go."

The rats were not targeting them, but their route was blocked by them. After passing them, they quickly disappeared into the shadows. At the end of the winding passage, there was a trapdoor that was pressed down by debris, and a corner of the trapdoor was exposed.

Push aside the clutter and open the floor door. There is a large wooden box underneath. Inside the box is an old-fashioned small safe that uses the common three-layer rotating combination and the keyhole required after entering the combination.

"It seems that what we found before should be the key here. Now we just need to find the password."

One of them took out a key from his pocket. The size of the key was just right for the keyhole. He put the key into the keyhole. With a "click", the lock of the safe was opened.

"I just don't know where the password is. According to the characteristics of this copy using new rules, we can only open it if we find the password."

“Step…Step…”

Just as the two were discussing, footsteps were suddenly heard nearby. The sound of metal rubbing against the floor sounded very creepy. Perhaps it was the characteristic of this copy. Both people present felt a strong sense of oppression.

"Put it back first, don't let that guy find it!"

After closing the wooden box and covering the floor door, the two men quickly covered the debris on the floor door again, then quickly returned to the original path and left. Not long after they left, they heard the sound of wooden boards being kicked, followed by the sound of the spring pressure of the trap being in place when they were setting it.

However, the owner of the footsteps did not stay for long and left soon.

"he's gone."

The two of them breathed a sigh of relief and leaned against the wall to rest for a while.

"It was really dangerous just now. Fortunately, we ran fast."

"What on earth is that thing? It feels so scary."

"I don't know, but he must be looking for something too. We have to find the combination, open the safe and get out of here. We have to be more careful. I think his patrol speed seems to have increased."

They decided to return to the previous room to meet up with their teammates and discuss the next plan. When they returned to the room with the ventilation duct, they found that their teammates had not returned to this room to meet up.

"Where did they go?"

"There's a location downstairs. They left a mark there. We should go check it out."

From the perspective of these two players, they could see a triangular mark in the distance, located somewhere downstairs. They rushed over according to the marked location and arrived at a corridor on the fourth floor.

"Is it my illusion? Why does this corridor feel much narrower than the corridor on the fifth floor?"

"There may be a hidden room that is not marked on the structural diagram. The marked location is here. Let's look for hidden secret doors or something..."

“Step…Step…”

The familiar footsteps were heard again, and the two had to leave here temporarily and hide in a room at the end of the corridor.

“Knock knock.. knock knock…”

"What is he doing?"

"I don't know, it seems to be knocking..."

“Bang…Bang!!”

"Ah? What happened? Who..."

Suddenly, there was a loud noise in the corridor outside, as if someone kicked open a thin wall or a secret door, and woke someone up. Judging from the sound, the person who was woken up seemed to be very old, and the voice sounded like a male.

"It's that old man! So he's here. That person found him before us. What should we do?"

"Meet up with the others first, and then make plans. At least we can't get through now. I don't want to run into that guy unless it's absolutely necessary."

"Well, let me see where they are both."

One of them made a gesture similar to Ikkyu, and the outlines of his two companions who had left through the ventilation duct before appeared in front of him. They were a little far away from him, probably around the second floor.

"Let's go, it's on the second floor."

When they arrived at the second floor, the four of them met. The two who had arrived here first through the ventilation duct were using a crowbar they had found from somewhere to pry open the plaster on a wall.

"What are you looking for?"

"We found a study at the end of the ventilation duct. Inside, we found a complete map of the manor's structure, which records all the hidden rooms and secret passages. There is a room behind this wall with its location only marked. I think it should be very important."

One of them took out the newly found structural diagram and handed it to the two people who came later. After carefully looking at the structural diagram, they found that almost all the secret rooms and secret passages were marked with marks, marking the functions of these locations and what was placed in them. Among them was the room where they found the safe before. However, the room behind the wall in front of them only had the location, but no description.

"We found the room where the safe is located, and we also found the key, but we still lack the combination to open it. What we are looking for may be in that safe."

"Also, we found the room where the old man was. He has been woken up by the man who set the trap. That man found the old man before us."

"Then come and help. Maybe the password is hidden in this room behind the wall. After all, killing that old man is just an additional option. If we can find the password, we may be able to leave early."

Four people began to pry open the wall together. After a few minutes of effort, they successfully pried open a secret door. It was called a secret door, but it was actually just a nailed wooden board with a layer of cement on it, making it look almost the same as the surrounding walls.

Entering the secret room at the back, there are some crates with some sundries in them. There are several holes at the bottom of the crates. It seems that rats will visit here before anyone else.

"Most of the stuff had been eaten by rats and turned into garbage and waste. But there was a small iron box left, locked."

"There's no need to look for the key for this thing."

"Click it."

Using the crowbars in their hands, the four men easily pried open the lock on the iron box. When they opened the box, they found a diary and a yellowed title deed inside.

"Morris Family Silver Mine... The signature on the title page of this diary is also Z. Morris. Maybe it was left by the original owner of this place?"

"What's written in the diary?"

Flipping through the diary, the first few pages are just ordinary diaries, recording some trivial matters, all of which are the personal experiences of this man named Z. Morris.

I glanced over those uneventful daily records and turned to the middle of the diary, which recorded that my eldest brother had been seriously injured in a fire and had disappeared inexplicably.

"It says here that the eldest brother, who was originally the most likely to inherit the silver mine and the manor, disappeared after a fire. The old owner of the manor, the missing eldest brother, who is also the father of the owner of the diary, became a little paranoid. He stubbornly believed that the missing child was still in the manor and must wait for him to come back. The other children, including the owner of the diary, gradually left here. After the eldest brother disappeared, they were full of hatred for the ownership of the silver mine and never had any contact with each other. However, they could not find the deed to the silver mine. However, the old owner had already given the deed to his youngest son, the owner of the diary."

"And the youngest son had no interest in the silver mine. He wanted to be an architect. When he grew up, he was really successful. He thought he would come back to see his old father. He was the only one who came back to see the old man. But it seemed that something happened, which caused the youngest son to never come back."

"So what happened? I'm a little curious."

"I don't know. The back of the diary seems to have been torn off. I don't know who did it."

"I think I found a notebook with a lot of numbers written on it. It might be a password or something. Maybe we should try to open the safe."

"Then let's go, there's nothing else we need here..."

“Ka-la-la…”

Just as they walked out of the room, the four people heard the sound of springs when traps were set not far away. The four people immediately lowered their feet, crouched down and left in the opposite direction.