Escape From the Library

【Phantom in the painting-06】

Ke Shaobin scratched his head and said, "Since the "Mona Lisa" hanging in the porch on the second floor is the switch of the illusion 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 separated?"

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

Jiang Pingce frowned and said: "Brother Zhuo Feng's vigilance should have discovered that the world they are in is an illusion. Find an exit as soon as possible or find a way to contact us. It doesn't make sense that we still can't get in touch after so long."

Yue Xingwen said: "Wait another 10 minutes."

Everyone stood anxiously at the entrance.

Time passed by, but still 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 by this strange castle without a trace.

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

A coolness suddenly ran down Yue Xingwen's spine: "That's right! In the past, there was a time requirement for any class, how many days to survive or how many days to solve the case. However, this class didn't mention the time at all, only let us crack the picture. mysteries in the

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 said in a low voice: "Is the world where Senior Brother Liu and the others are in an illusion, or is what we are in the illusion 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 up the garden and found three corpses, so we can restore the world to the world." As the A world, if it is inconsistent with the B world, it is not a fantasy, and only by finding the intersection point of the world change can it be possible to meet another group of people."

Xin Yan said indifferently: "I guess, the clues found by the two groups are different, and we can continue to analyze after summarizing."

Ke Shaobin nodded in agreement: "When the mechanism rotates, the world will change. We have to find out the location of the mechanism and the law of the mechanism's change, so that we can meet Senior Brother Liu and the others?"

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

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

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

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

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

Jiang Pingce said decisively: "Xiao Nian, dig another hole at the original location."

Zhang Xiaonian immediately summoned the excavator and dug a big pit where the body was first discovered - he remembered clearly that the place where the body was buried was in the very center of the rose garden.

However, his excavator dug all the way down, the hole was dug to a depth of three meters, and he still didn't touch the bones, and he didn't find any abnormalities.Everyone looked at each other in blank dismay.

Yue Xingwen stood beside the big pit, thoughtful.

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

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

Jiang Pingce said: "I remember the skill description of 'Golden Cicada Escape' was just out of control and the team flashed. At that time we were surrounded by those long-haired women, and you used the Golden Cicada to take everyone to the entrance on the second floor. The world of illusions does not belong to negative control , so 'Escape from the Golden Cicada' 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 original castle."

Yue Xingwen nodded: "Assuming that the original castle 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 illusion world."

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

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

Xin Yan pondered 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 light of the alcohol lamp. In fact, the portrait was really moving. , At that time, everyone has already entered the phantom world?"

Yue Xingwen said: "That's right, when you go up to the second floor, when you first see the hanging painting of "Mona Lisa", it is no longer the original world."

Ke Shaobin scratched his head in confusion, and concluded: "In other words, are there three worlds here?"

Jiang Pingce walked to the side, took a branch and began to draw pictures on the ground, explaining while drawing: "There are not only three. We regard each picture change as a sign of changing the world. Then, in World A, there are four pictures on the first floor. Abstract paintings, bodies found in the garden, this is the scene of the crime."

He wrote down an arrow, followed by a circle "B", and said, "Afterwards, everyone went up to the second floor together. Xingwen found that the corner of his mouth would rise in the entrance painting. This is World B."

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

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

"Senior Brother Liu and the others don't know what they saw after they came out of the D world, but the world they are in must have changed, and they regard it as the G world..." Jiang Pingce's drawing became more and more complicated, like a series of mazes.

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

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

Ke Shaobin smiled bitterly and said, "It's still a comic book, constantly nesting dolls, C world is divided into E and F, and D world is further divided into G and H. Isn't this endless, more terrifying than going through a maze?"

Judging from the current branch map drawn by Jiang Ping, there are already 7 different worlds from A to G. Only world A is the scene of the crime, and the others are all illusions of "moving people in the painting".They continue to walk backwards, and then divide into more worlds. Not only will the two groups of students never meet, but they may go farther and farther, and eventually be trapped in the painting.

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

Zhang Xiaonian whispered: "We came up the stairs, and then Brother Xingwen said that he saw 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?" portal?"

Ke Shaobin's eyes lit up: "Xiao Nian, have you thought of the class "Endless Staircase" in the School of Architecture!"

Zhang Xiaonian nodded: "Yes, in the maze class of "Endless Staircase", you will be transported to another space after passing a flight of stairs. The Penrose circular staircase that cannot be realized in the three-dimensional world can be easily realized in the library. On the surface, The stairs on the first floor and the second floor are connected, but in fact, when we walk through that section of stairs, we have already entered another space dimension.”

Yue Xingwen patted his younger brother on the shoulder appreciatively, and said, "That makes sense! The porch painting on the second floor is not the switch of the illusion 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 go back to the original world, should we follow the original path and go backwards?"

Jiang Pingce said "hmm" and said: "This is a series of mazes composed of illusions in the painting. To find the origin, we must go back the same way and not take a wrong step."

Jiang Pingce was very clear about the path everyone had traveled since entering the castle. He even had a clear path modeling in his mind. Looking at Shangyue Xingwen, he immediately summoned the coordinate system and took everyone to fly back to the second place. Go to the window on the upper floor, then go to the entrance, and enter the door on the right.

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

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

Blood was dripping from the ceiling, and the long hair of the woman walking out of the painting was like tentacles. When she saw them, she started to attack them frantically!Yue Xingwen was wrapped around his neck by hair almost instantly, Jiang Pingce's eyes darkened, he quickly raised his right hand, and a sharp triangular ruler shot out from his palm, cutting off his hair with two swipes!

He took a step forward and held Yue Xingwen's hand tightly, and said in a low voice, "Let's go!"

Everyone followed Jiang Pingce and flew directly to the second floor. The painting at the entrance on the second floor really changed her face. The woman in the painting had blood and tears streaming down her eyes. Jiang Pingce took everyone back to the room on the left and found the familiar face on the wall. The hanging painting is exactly Van Gogh's "Star and Moon Night", which is more consistent with what I saw at the beginning.

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

The upward curve of the woman's mouth was very slight, exactly the same as what Yue Xingwen saw at the beginning.At that time, he thought it was an "illusion", but in fact, this was the clearest reminder from the library 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 had just drawn on the paper. Yue Xingwen took it and wrote a line: "The comic book maze, go back the same way. The stairs are the portal, and the A world converges——Xingwen & Ping Celiu."

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

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

The first floor is the familiar hall, the carpet next to the sofa in the living room has a puddle of blood that Xin Yan found at the beginning.Jiang Pingce asked Xu Feixue: "Are the four abstract paintings the same as the ones I 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 is a big pit I dug, and there are three human bones next to it - we are finally back!"