The Righteous Player(s)

Chapter 143: Time Reversal Corridor

Delicious Wind Goose clutched the wound in his abdomen and moved forward slowly.

The rate of decay of the walls and floor behind him gradually accelerated. The cracking on the floor approached him, making his back exposed with the scorching heat. Strange and unpleasant creaking noises sounded in the air.

But there were no signs of panic on Delicious Wind Goose’s face.

Because he knew very well… After entering the nightmare dungeon instance, all players were not using the health of their external body. Instead, it borrowed all the attributes of the nightmare protagonist.

In other words, everyone’s injuries, health, and movement speed were the same in this place.

Delicious Wind Goose was convinced that he had avoided all the pitfalls of health depletion in the previous level. He had not even accelerated his pace back then. His current health value was undoubtedly the optimal state when he reached the fourth level under normal circumstances.

“Don’t laugh at me. This is a perfect start for me.”

Delicious Wind Goose glanced at the bullet text and sneered, “Believe it or not, when you’re here yourself, it’s impossible for you to have more health points than me at this level.

“In this dungeon instance, it’s an instant death when the enemy hits us. In other words, the essential meaning of ‘health points’ in this dungeon instance is ‘distance permitted for you to accelerate your pace.’”

Annan, who was watching the live broadcast outside, nodded in agreement.

What Delicious Wind Goose said was right.

In fact, this was a problem that Annan realized when he first entered the nightmare gallery.

Although Amos was injured internally, he seemed to be able to recover his health and physical strength in the gallery continuously. If he stayed still or moved slowly, health would deplete slowly.

But as long as he moved a bit faster, health points would deplete; the faster he runs, the faster the health depletion rate.

In other words, the players could only master one key resource – acceleration distance.

“I divided all traps and chases so far into three categories.”

Delicious Wind Goose walked forward with no hurries while still having enough energy to keep chatting with the silly viewers, “The first category is the level that a simple jog can pass just like now.

“The second category is similar to the situation where the chandelier falls, Brother Sledgehammer breaks through the wall and enters into an intense chase.

“In this case, you must run at full speed. If you hesitate when the chandelier falls or don’t run at full speed after the sledgehammer breaks into the wall, you will at least be injured, or worse, dying immediately if you don’t pay attention.

“The third category is the same situation as that of Brother Sledgehammer at the previous level – a forced mechanism to clear the obstacle.

“That’s not a bug, but a necessary mechanism to be dealt with. Having the letter outside the window requires you to read it. If I guess it right, Brother Sledgehammer’s appearance is the time limit for you to get the letter, open the letter and read it.

“If you don’t read the letter and just run ahead, you will be forced to the second category. But the total health is limited. Once you choose to run at full speed and force yourself through the mechanism, it is equivalent to being stuck. You will be unable to clear the dungeon truly. At best, you will clear one level and enter the next level.”

Annan heard this and nodded.

Yes, that’s it. Delicious Wind Goose is right.

During his dungeon clear experience on the third level, he hesitated a little when the chandelier fell.

He felt that since this dungeon instance would incite amnesia in each respawn, the traps in the first few levels shouldn’t be too difficult. A slight acceleration should allow him to pass the level.

As a result, he was bruised by the chandelier and depleted a little health.

At the same time, the intensified wound directly affected his movement speed. But after Annan realized the difficulty of the dungeon instance, he did not hesitate to use full speed when Brother Sledgehammer chased him on the second level.

This directly led to the fact that his health was not enough for him to rush through the corridor at full speed when he was on the third level.

After Annan regained consciousness, he first measured the first level’s corridor’s length and width with his thumb and then precisely controlled the width of each step. It was because he didn’t know the precise arm length and step length of Amos. The purpose was to measure the length of each corridor later and make sure that his health was enough to accelerate through the corridor. Hence, he recorded the data in advance.

Therefore, Annan chose to take the path with no paintings when he was on the third level.

It wasn’t just because of the strategy Annan had gotten earlier from other sources.

But, Annan was convinced at that time that if the same chase were reencountered, the remaining health would not be enough to rush to the next level.

Somehow, he went into “Gallery: Elle Morris” by accident.

Delicious Wind Goose’s technique was somewhat similar to that of Annan.

But because players could record videos and not worry about losing their memories, they tackled the dungeon more boldly.

For example, Delicious Wind Goose was betting.

He bet that since his health was full, it was impossible for him to die halfway just because he couldn’t outrun the obstacle.

—If he couldn’t even outrun the demons and hounds behind him, it would be impossible for anyone to run away.

Unless these demons and hounds included other mechanisms.

Even if he died in this mechanism, players could still see the contents of the mechanism. Then he was not at a loss.

Sure enough, the special mechanism had arrived.

When Delicious Wind Goose trot down the corridor to the center, the traces of decay and ruin had almost spread to the end of the corridor.

The floor under his feet creaked and swayed. It seemed that at any time, Old Goose might step on empty air and fall.

But he still believed in the tips given in Elle’s letter — don’t look back.

This might also be regarded as a kind of cognitive inertia.

One would be more convinced by the clues he had obtained through strenuous efforts.

But Delicious Wind Goose had no other option.

After all, he was adventuring the unexplored part of the game.

It was expected to die under any special mechanism.

But everything suddenly changed after Delicious Wind Goose ran across the center line-

Delicious Wind Goose stared blankly at the stain on the floor, no longer moving forward but starting to move backward. The rotten floor under his feet also began to recover as if he was stepping back in time.

The most important thing was the original unpleasant music in his ears, like music coming from the abyss, suddenly turned into a melodious violin sound.

Delicious Wind Goose froze for a moment and subconsciously stopped.

—But just after he stopped.

Delicious Wind Goose suddenly realized that time seemed to have stalled.

The stain no longer moved forward, nor did it move backward. The rotten floor no longer spread and cracked, nor did it begin to recover. The violin in his ears suddenly disappeared, and the weird whispers and dog barking behind him suddenly subsided.

Probably because Annan learned music when he was a child, he was the one who reacted immediately.

To prevent bullet text from interfering Delicious Wind Goose with the weird answers, Annan did not hesitate to send out his strategy in the bullet text:

“—It’s a reverse! Before halfway through the corridor, the sound of the violin, people’s conversation, and dog barking are all reversed!”

“I see.”

Delicious Wind Goose stood motionless and slowly breathed a sigh of relief, “I think I also understand now…

“The puzzle at this level may be the simplest. But it may also be the most difficult.”

Old Goose sighed and raised his head with regret, “Damn it, I shouldn’t run at first. Unfortunately, it seems that I will be stuck at this level too.”

“—I seem to get it too.”

“—This corridor is symmetrical?”

“—Wait, it seems better to walk slowly.”

Bullet text was guessing the mechanism behind this dungeon obstacle.

But some smart people realized the answer a little bit slower.

“—Is it that time will move forward if you go forward, but time will go backward if you go backward?”

“Probably.”

Delicious Wind Goose praised, “While I am not dead, I will quickly tell you about the mechanism of this level.

“This corridor is a mirror image. It starts in the middle and is completely symmetrical on both sides. In other words, if I go to the end and then look back, which means I am back to the beginning.

“Take the point where I entered the dungeon as Point A, the midpoint as Point B, and Point C as the symmetrical and opposite of Point A. Then, from Point A to Point B, time will flow backward with my pace. To go from Point B to Point C, time will flow forward along with my pace again.

“I speculate that going from C to B should also be a reverse. However, going from B to A, the time should be progressing forward.

“This may be a corridor that can’t go out at all by conventional means.”

Delicious Wind Goose whispered, “Here, the speed of time has nothing to do with the outside time. It is in sync with my walking pace. The faster I walk, the faster time passes.

“In other words, I shouldn’t have to run a step at this place.”

As Wind Goose spoke, he took two steps back without looking back.

Sure enough, there was a noise in the air, the stains under the feet were also extending forward, and the floor cracking forward.

Delicious Wind Goose took a few steps forward. He found that the stains were receding, the floor began to recover, and a slow and melodic violin sounded in his ears.

What happened ideally confirmed his guess.

So Delicious Wind Goose stood there, lost in thought.