Octavian: The first group of players

Walking through the silent corridor, Colin cautiously poked his head around the corner, and after making sure that the next section of the corridor was free of monsters, he glanced back again, turned the corner cautiously, and walked into the next hallway.

The labyrinth-like curved and repetitive corridor, he walked in it for a long time, and he didn't know how many corners he had turned, how many pots of identical roses he had seen, the road ahead, the back road, the similar corridors were not unusual, and even the concentration of the rose flowers in the air was as rich and moderate as a blended perfume.

A wall separated a group of six people, and he, Lorraine, and One-Eyed encountered a large group of deadly ice corpses, and under the pursuit of the ice corpses, they separated at a three-way intersection and finally separated.

But fortunately, there were not many deadly ice corpses following him, He soaked left and right in the corridor, but he threw off one or two, and the remaining one who was chasing after him was also knocked out by him with a stick, yes, just knocked out.

Colin lowered his head and glanced at the iron rod he was holding.

When choosing a weapon before departure, he chose this iron bar, as well as another pistol that he kicked in his arms.

The pistol is courageous, and in his hands, which does not know how to use a gun, it is not as practical as this iron wheel, and he can knock down one or two ice corpses at will, buying time for his escape.

The top priority is to find the silver dagger and get to the deck in time to end the game.

Thinking so, he imitated the gesture of swinging the bat, shook the iron rod again, and nodded in satisfaction.

In the silent corridor, he walked alone, and even the lonely footsteps were swallowed up by the velvet carpet, hidden in the sound of "To Alice" played on the radio.

Colin pushed his eyes and looked up at the hallway, he passed by the tall doors, looked at the doors without keyholes, and knew that they were just decorations like the roses at the end of the hallway, and that he could only wander around the maze like a headless fly until he found a door that could be opened.

I hope to be able to meet other players, so that I won't encounter any terrible unknown creatures when I am in a company, and you must know that it is rare for unknown creatures with a lower level than him as a C+.

He thought so, and his gaze fell on the wallpaper made of numbers.

【1、1、0、1、1、1、1……】

There are seven rows of numbers on this wall, each of which is composed of 1 and 0, but the order of the arrangement is different, and the dense arrangement of the same numbers makes people feel a little dizzy to look at.

Colin stopped, facing the wall, and took a step back, looking at the rows of numbers.

Then he turned his head again and compared the wallpaper on the wall behind him.

He found that the wallpaper patterns on the left and right sides were different, not only the two walls, but also the corridor he had just walked through, the numbers composed of 1 and 0 occupied the entire wall, but they also had different order of arrangement......

Is this another puzzle of the [Minghe System]?

Colin narrowed his eyes slightly, and he suddenly remembered what Icarus had said in [Pandora's Secrets] -

……

[The details are the devil.] 】

[A good trapper is always able to pour more attention into the details.] 】

Only perfectionists can win. 】

……

What if, the existence of these numbers is not accidental?

All the corridors are decorated the same – no keyhole doors, roses at the end, velvet carpets, but the only difference is the numbers on the wallpaper.

Unchanged in change, is this a hint from the system? Maybe these numbers actually hide some important information?

For example...... How to go through the maze to be able to find the exit.

Once this idea is generated in the mind, it is difficult to erase it.

Colin trotted to the end of the wall, stopped at the corner of the corridor, and looked from the first line, the first number—

【11000100000100111010000010001100100011010110110010111110001100001010】

【10111101110111001111110101100111000001000010000000111000100000000110】

【00111110100000100011001000110101101100101111100011000010101011110111】

【01110011111101011001110000010000100000001110001000000001100011111011】

【00000000100010101001001111101011000101001110110111110111001101011000】

【11001101100100010111000000111110100111010011100001111001011011011110】

【01111100001101101001110011101001100001010011010111111110000111011000】

Colin was silent, staring at the dizzying numbers, taking them to heart.

(Could it be a regular sequence of jumps?) ）

(e.g. three zeros for every two 1s?) ）

But after observing for a long time, he denied this conclusion.

(Could it be a sequence of operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division?) ）

(subtract, add, add...... ）

(No, if it is an operation sequence, it cannot be limited to 1 and 0, there will always be numbers higher than 1)

Colin simply sat on the ground, dragging his chin in thought.

(Why aren't there any other numbers?) ）

(There is only 1 and 0, and no other digits are in the base system...... Binary?! ）

He looked up, looked at the long list of numbers, and suddenly had an idea.

(What if these numbers are really just binary numbers and need to be translated?) ）

Colin leaned down slightly, gesturing his fingers across the carpet, trying to convert the numbers in his mind.

(If it's binary, it's octal, and the number should be ...... ）

"2056703503020150605215405541632763265727703......" he muttered, but scratched his head in annoyance, there were no banknotes, no computer, even if he calculated the later values, the previous values were forgotten, and there was no way to do any more numerical crunching, "Forget it, start over." Octadecimal is not commonly used now, but what if it's decimal? ”

Decimal, decimal......

He grabbed his hair, took off his thick lenses, and earnestly remembered how to convert binary to decimal.

"Colin? Why are you here? ”

At this moment, someone suddenly called his name.

Startled, Colin raised his head, and a few paces away, he vaguely saw a figure about as tall as himself, and he hurriedly put on his glasses and found that the person was Ivanov.

It turned out that he was so focused on solving the puzzle of these wallpaper numbers that he didn't notice Ivanov's approach.

"I ......" Colin was about to get up, but he sat on the ground for too long, his foot was numb, and he fell to the ground again. Seeing this, Ivanov stretched out a hand to him, and Colin smiled embarrassedly and was pulled up by him.

"Thank you."

"I thought you guys were in the captain's room." Ivanov looked back and forth, "What, you're alone?" ”

"We just killed in a hallway, and the ice corpses were scattered." Colin sighed, "This labyrinth is alive and has scattered us all, so I guess it's not that easy to bring us together." ”

After a pause for a few seconds, Colin looked at Ivanov.

"What do you say? There is also a 'captain's room' on this ship? ”

Ivanov nodded: "Yes, the captain's room is one of the core control rooms of the entire cruise ship, I thought something would happen over there...... By the way, what are the rules of your game? ”

"Kill the merfolk." Colin paused, and the two of them headed towards the other side of the hallway, "[Judge] Let's divide into two groups, one group to find the silver dagger, the other group to catch the mermaid, and the end of the game is to stick the silver dagger into the merman's heart. ”

“…… So you're the one looking for the dagger? ”

"Yes."

Ivanov smiled: "I think too, you are so weak, how can you catch a mermaid." ”

Colin's face flushed when he heard this.

He really didn't fit to live in this world of the jungle.

"If you're looking for a dagger, you should be in the captain's room." Ivanov looked up at the ceiling and recalled, "I heard that the captain has always been fond of collecting gold and silver utensils, and if the dagger was silver, it should have been in the captain's quarters. ”

Colin listened to Ivanov's words, and suddenly remembered that when he was in the kitchen, the cook complained that Ivanov and the captain did have some relationship, and they were arranged in the back kitchen through the back door.

In this way, Ivanov's information about the captain should be true and credible.

“…… Do you know where the captain's room is? ”

"Yes, I just came from over there." Ivanov nodded, "There was no one in the captain's room, and I slipped away without looking closely, and as soon as I pushed open the door, I saw this corridor, and I wanted to see where these corridors extended, but I didn't expect to see you sitting on the ground." ”

"Where would the captain be if he wasn't in the captain's room?"

Ivanov shook his head: "No, he doesn't know where to go, but it's okay this way, if you want to steal something, it's convenient." ”

"Well, I prefer to say, 'Fetch game items.'" Colin pushed his glasses slightly in embarrassment, "'Stealing' doesn't sound very elegant. ”

"You're such a nerd." Ivanov shrugged and smiled.

As the two spoke, turning a corner, Ivanov led Colin towards the corridor on the right.

“…… Tell me about your 13-round players. Ivanov looked at Colin with interest, "I saw a woman with short silver-white hair wearing a headset earlier, is she also a gamer?" ”

"That's Lorraine." Colin looked at Ivanov in surprise, "Where did you see her?!" ”

"An hour ago, it was also in this corridor, and before I found the captain's room, I saw her looking for directions at the other end of the corridor, and I didn't dare to approach it, so I stole the other way."

Hearing this, Colin sighed in frustration.

It was already an hour ago.

Even if you find that fork in the road now, you won't be able to find Lorraine.

What's more, this maze will change by itself......

Colin turned his head slightly, and saw the wall behind him take a few steps closer, seemingly shortening the length of the corridor as they walked.

“……”

"Now, who else?"

Ivanov's voice diverted Colin's attention.

“…… Think about it. Colin turned his head and looked down the corridor in front of him, walking through the doors of each room, "At the top of the blood list is a girl younger than me, codenamed Caesar." The second place is a black man wearing a gas mask, codenamed "Black Blade". The third place is a blonde white man, hypocritical but difficult to deal with, codenamed [Icarus]. The fourth place is a beautiful sister who looks quite cold......"

The two young people just walked one after the other, chatting with each other.

Unconsciously, it seems that it has been gone for a long time.

Until they turned a corner, went to the right, and came to a thick black wooden door.

Colin turned his head vigilantly to find that the corridor behind him had shortened by itself, and the wall on the other side of the corridor was compressing continuously, but unlike the first time, it was moving more slowly, as if trying to get closer to him while he was not looking.

(What's going on?) ）

While Colin was wondering in his heart, Ivanov walked to the black door, held the doorknob, and looked back at him: "What's wrong?" ”

“…… Why does the corridor behind us keep getting shorter? ”

"You also said, this is a living labyrinth, the walls will move, what's so strange." Ivanov shrugged, "Let's go inside, I can't guarantee when the captain will be back, you want to end the game quickly." ”

“……”

Colin stood there and thought for a moment, only to feel that something was not right, but he couldn't tell.

He watched as Ivanov quietly pushed open the wooden door, and the cat crept into the captain's room, and after stopping for a few seconds, he slipped in.