Yue Xingwen finally understood why this course was a credit sharing model. The fewer people there were, the easier it was to pass.
Assuming that all 11 of them come to the maze. With the limited width of the space in the stairs, it could squeeze at most 3 to 4 people for a row. If the 11 people split into 3 rows, and the stairs suddenly broke, the team would be scattered and fall into the space of other floors.
The hidden mechanism to connect to different floors must be cut off to trigger. Without the excavator of the Architecture Department or the plate movement skill of the Geography Department, then, the teammates who fell down could not get up. They had to be picked up by the teammates of the Architecture Department.
They were required to leave the building within 1 hour, and all team members must leave to pass the course. Once the student from the Architecture Department was busy looking for lost teammates in the maze, one hour was far from enough.
The fewer people there were, the harder it was to get distracted by broken stairs.
Thinking of this, Yue Xingwen immediately looked at Lin Manluo and said, “Senior sister, is there a time limit of this vine of yours?”
Lin Manluo replied, “Each summon can last for 10 minutes. It’s currently at level 2, and I can summon up to 5 green vines 20 meters long.”
Yue Xingwen thought for a few seconds and said, “Let’s do it like this. Senior sister, you can summon a vine, everyone grabs the vine with their left hands. In case the stairs suddenly break and someone accidentally falls, other students can use the vine to pull that person up.”
Lin Manluo’s eyes lit up and said, “Good idea! This way, everyone is connected and we won’t be easily separated.”
Jiang Pingce also praised him. “It saves a lot of time by not having to turn back to find your teammates who have fallen behind.”
Yue Xingwen replied, “Senior sister, it’s best to let the vines go around everyone’s wrists so that their hands don’t slip and lose their grip.”
Zhuo Feng suggested, “You tie the very front end to my waist, I’m strong and I’ll walk at the front.”
Lin Manluo nodded and raised her right hand. She immediately summoned a green vine about 20 meters long with a thickness of a baby’s arm. The leaves on that vine were green and lush, and under her control, the vine was like a snake with eyes, nimbly wrapping around Zhuo Feng’s waist, then around Jiang Pingce’s wrist, then around Yue Xingwen’s left wrist…
The students stood in line and after the vines were wrapped around everyone’s wrists, they were finally tied around Lin Manluo’s waist.
The 20-meter-long vine was enough to connect all seven of them.
Ke Shaobin adjusted his glasses and commented, “Strung together like this, we look like seven calabash children.”
Everyone: “…”
Yue Xingwen used to work with Ke Shaobin only on the Student Council, but this time they teamed up together and he realized that strange ideas indeed always popped up in Xiao Ke’s head.
Jiang Pingce automatically ignored his joke and said, “Keep going up.”
With the vines tied to them, it would be all of them together if they were to fall, and everyone was much more at ease.
Zhuo Feng burned a ‘4-1’ mark on the steps in front of him. After everyone walked through four consecutive staircases and returned to the place where the staircase had broken earlier, Zhang Xiaonian measured the distance and said, “The distance to the roof is 22.5 meters, we are still on the 4th floor.”
Yue Xingwen looked at Jiang Pingce and said, “The same rules?”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Zhang Xiaonian looked inquiringly at Jiang Pingce and asked, “Senior brother, could it be that from the 4th floor of the space, the hidden mechanism is not between the stairs, but in the middle of the staircase?”
Jiang Pingce nodded. “It’s possible. The suddenly broken staircase is a hint to dig the middle of the staircase.”
Zhang Xiaonian used the excavator to forcefully cut the middle of the stairs, and to everyone’s surprise, half of the staircase flew straight upwards as if it suddenly had a magical skill!
Ke Shaobin said, “Did the step stair turn into an elevator?”
They did not know how many floors they flew. The half stairs stopped in the air, and connected with the other half in front. Zhang Xiaonian hurriedly measured with his laser theodolite and said, “17.5 meters from the roof?”
Jiang Pingce calculated and said, “We’re on the 6th floor of space.”
Ke Shaobin’s laptop had already made a model graphic of the 30-meter-high building divided into twelve floors, with the first 30 meters from the roof, the second was 27.5 meters, the third was 25 meters, and the fourth was 22.5 meters… and so on.
They were still on the 4th floor just now, but they suddenly leapt to the 6th floor.
Yue Xingwen said, “Did we skip the 5th floor?”
Jiang Pingce guessed. “The twelve-story tower, the 1st to the 3rd floor follows one mechanism rule, and another mechanism rule starts from the 4th floor. The stairs here will break and elevate.”
Ke Shaobin suddenly realized and said, “In other words, this is a mechanism maze. THe first three floors of mechanisms are the staircase rotating 180 degrees to connect with the next level of stairs; from the 4th level onwards, the mechanisms become staircases breaking and elevating in a straight line. Maybe it will change again later?”
Jiang Pingce nodded. “En, let’s continue to go up first.”
Everyone took a few steps forward, Zhuo Feng had just marked 6-2, when suddenly, another strange vibration came from beneath their feet. Yue Xingwen immediately warned, “Everyone be careful, hold on to the vines!”
Along with the ‘rumble’ sound, the stairs beneath everyone’s feet instantly split in half!
Having just experienced the fear of a sudden fall, this time, everyone reacted extremely quickly. Almost the moment their feet shook, the students walking behind grabbed the vines and hurriedly rushed forward a few steps. The broken staircase instantly fell to the far side, but the seven of them did not separate, all huddled on the other half of the staircase.
Ke Shaobin adjusted his glasses and said, “I almost fell again.”
Yue Xingwen sighed in relief and smiled, “This maze really reminds me of that <City Collapse> course. The quality of all this construction in the library’s Faculty of Architecture is not up to standard ah.”
Zhang Xiaonian also whispered and cursed, “The jerry-built projects cause the whole city to collapse. There was a corpse hidden in the wall of the construction site, and the stairs would break at every turn… The library’s Faculty of Architecture is here to pit people.”
Yue Xingwen was helpless and said, “Let’s go, watch your step.”
Everyone continued to climb up, and Zhang Xiaonian used the excavator to dig through the middle of the staircase. However, this time the broken staircase did not elevate, but instead suddenly fell weightlessly, and everyone hurried grabbed the handrail.
After the stairs were stable, Zhang Xiaonian measured the distance and said, “We’re back to the 5th floor?”
Jiang Pingce said, “The mechanism in this space is the rise/drop of the stairs. Just now, we triggered the dropping mechanism, let’s keep looking.”
Since Jiang Pingce was leading the team, Yue Xingwen was at ease. Even though the stairs rose and fell at times and the whole 3D maze was dizzying, he believed that Jiang Pingce had a clear picture of the structure in his head.
As long as Jiang Pingce did not panic, Yue Xingwen would not be worried—— just follow Pingce.
Jiang Pingce did build the 3D geometry in his mind. According to Zhang Xiaonian’s height measurement, he could instantly calculate the floor plan he was currently on, and the way to continue going up next.
It also proved that Yue Xingwen’s trust in Jiang Pingce was not wrong.
Even if he accidentally triggered the falling mechanism and fell back to the lower plane, he could still find the fastest path to the higher plane based on his amazing memory.
“Disconnect 5-3 and fall back to the 4th floor.”
“Dig 4-2, and go to the 6th floor again.”
“6-3, up to the 8th floor.”
It was quiet all around, only Jiang Pingce’s light commanding voice remained.
The floor number marked by Zhuo Feng became a symbol of representative mechanism in Jiang Pingce’s mind. With his calm instructions, Zhang Xiaonian quickly used his excavator to trigger the mechanism, and when the broken staircase was connected to the next half of the stairs again, Zhang Xiaonian measured the distance and said excitedly, “There are only 7.5 meters left!”
The whole building was 30 meters high. They were now 7.5 meters from the roof, indicating that they were in a tenth floor space. After walking through the 11th or 12th floor, they could go out.
Jiang Pingce said, “There are still the last three floors, and the mechanism may change again.”
Almost as soon as he said it, the flight of stairs where everyone was on suddenly began to float into the air.
This time , not only floating, elevating, but the stairs were also rotating. Everyone nervously grabbed the handrail of the stairs, their bodies floated in the air, and their heads were going to turn dizzy!
Jiang Pingce hurriedly said, “Senior brother, mark it with 10-1.”
The stairs turned around and then connected with another flight of stairs, but only connected for less than 3 seconds before automatically drifting off into the distance again and then connecting with the next flight of stairs, also connecting for 3 seconds, connecting once and leaving.
The stairs that carried them moved back and forth through the air were like a spaceship.
Ke Shaobin’s face was ugly and said, “Dynamic mechanism? Are we going to walk up two flights of stairs as soon as it’s connected?”
Jiang Pingce frowned and thought for a few seconds before making a bold decision, “Xiao Nian and senior brother Zhuo come with me, while the others wait in place.” He looked at Yue Xingwen and asked softly, “Do you believe me?”
Yue Xingwen smiled and slapped his arm, “What nonsense. Go ahead, I’ll wait for your good news.”
Jiang Pingce nodded, taking Zhang Xiaonian and Zhuo Feng with him. The three of them traveled lightly and ran quickly when the stairs were connected to another section. As they ran past, the flight of stairs moved and rotated in the air, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
Ke Shaobin looked somewhat nervously at the stairs floating in the air and constantly moving around, and said, “The space here is chaotic, so if we go wrong, we’ll probably get lost, right?”
Yue Xingwen looked calm and replied, “Rest assured, with Pingce around, we won’t get lost.”
Lin Manluo teased him and said, “You believe in Jiang Pingce that much ah?”
Yue Xingwen said seriously, “Pingce’s calculation ability and spatial thinking are at the top level among university students across the country. If he can’t get out of this maze, then the failure rate of this maze course will become 100%.”
Everyone: “……”
The meaning of this sentence was that if Jiang Pingce could not pass this course then no one could get through this.
Lin Manluo smiled lightly and said, “If he heard you praise him like this, he would be very happy right?”
Yue Xingwen smiled and looked at the three people around him, explaining, “Pingce took Xiao Nian with him to measure the distance and senior brother Zhuo to mark the steps. Three people are more convenient to move around and can save a lot of time. Don’t worry, he will give us directions after finding the exit, and we can just go out according to his instructions.”
Qin Lu’s brain was thoroughly confused, all the stairs around her were moving, some rotating off into the distance, others inexplicably appearing around her, almost like a magic castle made of countless stairs. And the 10-1 staircase that carried them was constantly flying around in the air. People with fear of heights were expected to vomit upon going through this maze.
Time passed minute by minute, and the three of them gradually became a little anxious, only Yue Xingwen always had a relaxed expression—— He really was not good at mazes or spatial reasoning, but he was sure Pingce could find the exit.
SUre enough, it did not take long for Jiang Pingce to send a message on the Research Group’s chat channel: “I found the exit. You go 10-2, 11-4, 12-3, 12-4.”
The stairs carrying them were connected to the mark of 10-2, and Yue Xingwen immediately said, “Go!”
The three followed him quickly, and the stairs under their feet began to rotate and move in the air again. Yue Xingwen stared intently ahead, the stairs connected to the interference items twice midway, both of which were ignored by Yue Xingwen until the moment the stairs connected to what Jiang Pingce called 11-4, before Yue Xingwen led his teammates on a dash to the next flight of stairs!
Within 3 seconds, their action must be quick.
After several successive space transitions, the stairs carrying Yue Xingwen finally connected to 12-4 stairs after a period of flight.
Yue Xingwen saw that Jiang Pingce was waiting for him on the other side of the stairs.
Both of their eyes met in the air, and Jiang Pingce stretched out his hand and said, “Come here.”
The moment the stairs connected, Yue Xingwen immediately reached over, and Jiang Pingce held his hand and gently pulled him, pulling him up the last step. Lin Manluo, Ke Shaobin and Qin Lu also jumped over quickly——
Everyone saw that at the end of the stairs, an arched door appeared.
That was the exit of the maze!
Agree people with a fear of heights would not do well.
Wow short but exciting exam
Lets pingce show off his godly brains too
I would have died of motion sickness in this maze
Thank you very much for the translation 💙💙💙💙💙
Bro fr😭