The piercing scream sent a ripple through all the economy class passengers. The four flight attendants—two male and two female—who had been preparing beverages in the back of the plane immediately dropped their work and made their way down the aisle towards the “incident area,” all the while reminding everyone, “Passengers, please sit tight and make sure your seatbelts are fastened.”
They worked to keep their voices steady and strong, but one could still hear the traces of fear and the slight trembling in them.
All the passengers obeyed as people’s voices gradually subsided, and soon, the entire cabin reached a new state of being——suffocating silence.
Xu Wang stopped looking around and got up, lifting his leg and stepping across the girl Mu 98’s legs into the aisle. Once in the aisle, he made his way swiftly towards the centre of the plane. The four flight attendants were in front of him, making it impossible to see what was going on, so all he could do was stretch his neck to ask Qian Ai, “What’s going on?”
Qian Ai had been sitting next to the passenger who screamed; he had a better view of the situation than the flight attendants did. He reported, “There’s a password-locked bomb attached beneath the window with a counter, and there’s 3 hours 58 minutes left on it!”
Xu Wang felt his scalp prickle. His mouth moved faster than his brain. “Move, out of the way! I know how to disarm bombs!”
Immediately, the flight attendants cooperated and moved to the side; even the passenger sitting next to the aisle got up to make way for Xu Wang.
“You get out too!” Xu Wang jabbed a finger at the passenger who’d first discovered the bomb, still seated in their window seat. Said passenger was grateful for any excuse to get away from the scene and leaped up immediately, pushing their way out. Xu Wang squished into the row, and along with Qian Ai who was the only remaining passenger of this row, stood there scrutinising the bomb, the tip of his nose nearly touching the object.
It was just a black box taped with a “十” in silver duct tape below the window, close to the ground. The duct tape was wide and reflective, resembling aluminium foil in the light.
The timer was not on the black box, but rather on the silver duct tape. There were scarlet red numbers which currently read 3:57:08, and the vertically-positioned tape was divided into two sections. The top half was a display with four blank spaces: “_ _ _ _”, the lower half was a keyboard display with all the numbers from 1-9 and the A-Z alphabet. The keys were arranged in a 5×7 groups.
It was obviously asking them to input something. No wonder Qian Ai said right away that it was a password-locked bomb.
“When did you learn to disarm bombs?” asked a familiar irritating voice. Xu Wang knew that it was Mr. First Class without even turning around, come to check on what was going on.
“That was a total fib, but your inauspicious mouth is for real,” he snapped, rolling his eyes. “Thanks to your lovely blessings, we’re really about to be bombed into the sky.”
“What’s the fear? Since this is a stage, that means there’s a way to get past it.” Wu Sheng joined them, making the tiny space even more “intimate.”
Xu Wang forced himself to ignore the physicality of Wu Sheng’s body, pouring all of his focus on the “observation” of the dangerous item before them. On the other hand, Wu Sheng didn’t find the situation difficult at all. When it came to difficult problems, he always found it easy to concentrate and become entirely absorbed.
“35 options, four characters,” he remarked in a low voice after a glimpse. “If the four characters can’t repeat, there are 1256640 possible combinations. If it can, then that means an additional 243985 combinations.”
He spoke in a calm and unhurried way, his tone seeming to bestow enlightenment among all those that heard him.
Xu Wang had no time to snark at him. Instead, he turned around in surprise. “Can you solve it?”
“How is that possible?” Wu Sheng shrugged matter-of-factly. “There’s over a million possibilities. Even if I were to try them one by one, there wouldn’t be enough time. And even if there was enough time, my fingertips would be rubbed raw by the time I finished trying them all.”
“…..” Xu Wang felt he was seriously blind to have fallen for this piece of work!
Kuang Jinxin, who’d rushed over last, was standing in the aisle next to Wu Sheng due to there being no more room in the tiny row. He struggled to listen to his teammates’ discussion, all the while fighting with the flight attendants who wanted to drag him away. He was afraid of missing out on an opportunity to contribute, but in the end he found that the other three were endlessly circling the issue of “deciphering the code,” which was far too academic for him. In the end, he stuck a hand out to shove a flight attendant to the side and stuck his head in. “According to the cheat sheet, shouldn’t we be asking the other passengers?”
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.
Ktf atgff bivfg ygbatfgr, ktb kfgf jybea ab gfjmt atflg kla’r fcv olueglcu bea atf mbvf, jii aegcfv rlweiajcfberis ab ibbx ja tlw. “Jtfja rtffa?”
“Tfjt,” Bejcu Alczlc rjlv, tjgvis yfilfnlcu atja obg bcmf, tf kjr atf rwjga bcf lc atf ugbeq, “‘C vlilufca wbeat mjc qgbvemf j ubivfc mbia,’ vbfrc’a atja wfjc kf rtbeiv yf jrxlcu wbgf defralbcr?”
“Huh. Hold on, I don’t think we’re all on the same page.” Xu Wang reached out for Kuang Jinxin’s arm and tapped into his Cheat Sheet.
As expected, there was a string of notifications urging them to go to the boarding gate, and then there was an extra notification that none of the other three had gotten——<A diligent mouth can produce a golden colt.>
Kuang Jinxin stared at his teammates’ expressions in puzzlement. “None of you got this?”
“What did you do before this?” Wu Sheng got straight to the point, finding everything else to be a waste of time.
Kuang Jinxin was at a loss, his face scrunched in consternation.
Since the others had already done all the thinking, Qian Ai could only listen on standby, but his eyes were sharp. He noticed that the flight attendant Kuang Jinxin had shoved to the side had come back and was about to start dragging him again, so he stood up and flew over the seat back, over Wu Sheng and Xu Wang’s heads, landing firmly in the aisle. He grabbed the flight attendant’s throat. “Hey man, if you have it in you, come fight me, don’t bully little kids!”
His domineering, rough manner was a far cry from the man who’d been hiding behind the chain lock door earlier in the night.
Right then, Kuang Jinxin finally figured out a clue amongst all the chaos, likely due to his teammates’ support. “I chatted with my neighbour! We talked for a while, and then I got a notification in Cheat Sheet. After I saw it, I started talking even more. If I hadn’t heard the scream, I would’ve been well on my way to finding out where they came from, where they’re going, what they do, and even all their societal connections.”
That was it.
In the first stage, Xu Wang had lost his shoes, so <[DEF] My Skate Shoes> had been provided to him; this time, only Kuang Jinxin had a genuine conversation with a “passenger”—Xu Wang had only asked their names without any intention of deepening the conversation—so Cheat Sheet sent the special notification to him.
Not everything could be predicted in advance, but it could be followed up afterwards.
Xu Wang looked at Wu Sheng, not questioningly, but firmly. “Someone among the passengers knows the password.”
Wu Sheng nodded, eyes gleaming. “We’ll pass this stage once we get them to reveal it.”
Xu Wang pressed his lips together into a line, suddenly hesitant. “Is it really that simple?”
Who didn’t know how to converse? Could they really pass the stage just by chitchatting?
“You just think too much and do too little.” Wu Sheng stood up and stretched his shoulders. “With this time, we could’ve asked a bunch of people already.” He swept a glance through the plane cabin, then immediately started delegating tasks. “I’ll take first class, Xiao Kuang will take business. You and Old Qian stay in economy, one of you start from the front and go towards the back, the other start from the back and go towards the front. It’s most efficient this way.”
“Roger!” Qian Ai exclaimed almost reflexively before sighing. “Class representative’s valiant, heroic attitude is as amazing as it used to be.”
“No matter how much you flatter him now, there are no exams left for him to let you borrow and copy,” Xu Wang muttered at him, disgruntled. He stood up and faced the four flight attendants. “We can resolve the issue and we don’t need anything from you, but I don’t want to you mess around with us because otherwise, if the bomb goes off, we’re all dead.”
It was much more effective when a normally smiling person suddenly spoke authoritatively.
“In a bit, go serve beverages and food as usual. Do your best to calm the passengers down, leave the rest to us.”
Two of the flight attendants nodded. After Xu Wang finished speaking, one turned to get the beverage cart and the other began comforting all the nearby passengers with soft, gentle words.
The remaining two flight attendants were much more vigilant and did not move.
Xu Wang stared the one Qian Ai was still entangled with head-on, and after a few beats, the other party finally let go, signaling an end to the scuffle.
Qian Ai also released the iron hold he had on the flight attendant’s arm, then patted down the dust on his body, looking very much like a professional fighter.
“You have a few moves,” Xu Wang said in confusion, “so how come when you heard us knocking on the door, you were hiding behind your door like a weakling?”
“It’s not as if I knew how many people were outside, safety is number one!” As he spoke, Qian Ai turned to the two flight attendants and flashed them a satisfied smile. “I have to confirm with my own eyes that I can beat the opponents that I go up against.”
“…..” All things aside, wasn’t this basically preying on the weak?!
Wu Sheng kept an eye on the countdown on the bomb and meant to remind the other two to stop wasting time and get to work when suddenly, a shadow came over his head.
He raised his head instinctively to see a giant net landing over him!
The four of them had not yet gone their separate ways, and a bizarre wind sent a giant net upon them, giving them no chance to escape. And as if there was some divine power controlling the net, it passed through all the passengers sitting around them, perfectly capturing only the four of them within its grasp.
All at once, the net came down, and then lifted, until all four members of the team were hanging in mid-air.
“What the hell is this?!” Qian Ai fought within the net, his tall figure struggling within its confinement.
“Hey, stop kicking me—” Kuang Jinxin was in a complete daze from all the thrashing around in the net, and then he received an accidental kick from Qian Ai, making his situation all the more depressing.
Xu Wang and Wu Sheng weren’t doing any better.
The four of them were like fish caught in a net. No matter how much they struggled, it was impossible to get out.
At that moment, a familiar voice sounded in their ears——
[Owl: Someone used <[ATK] One Fell Swoop> on you~~]
They froze, dumbfounded, and before any of them could react, the net suddenly began swaying back and forth like a plastic bag that someone was swinging. It flew straight down the aisle and headed towards the tail of the plane.
The flight attendants who were currently readying the meal looked up in shock and lunged to the side reflexively.
Qian Ai: “I don’t want to die yet, ahhhhh!!!!”
Kuang Jinxin: “Shouldn’t reciting poetry come after guessing idioms? Aren’t games supposed to increase in difficulty gradually?”
Wu Sheng: “Close your eyes, hold your breath. Prepare to fall towards land or into water, I don’t think we’ll die.”
Qian Ai: “Seriously?!”
Wu Sheng: “It’s a guess.”
Kuang Jinxin: “…..”
Qian Ai: “Help!!!”
Old Qian’s last cry came with tragic background music as the net collided with the solid metal wall of the plane.
It was in this very last moment, as the net went flying, that Xu Wang finally caught sight of four faces that looked far from normal.
Those four individuals were scattered in random seats and mixed among the other passengers, all of them up on their feet and staring at the “mysterious flying net”.
If not for the fact that Xu Wang was set on finding a culprit, he would’ve missed them entirely.
All the passengers were screaming or freaking out. All except these four, whose expressions were strange. Their eyes glimmered with guilt as if they’d been caught doing something wrong, coupled with a trace of trepidation as they waited for the results of their actions.
When the net slammed into the back of the plane, all of them inside the net felt an enormous force, like all the bones in their bodies had shattered. The pain was so bad that it drove the souls from their bodies.
And then everything was silent.
The temperature turned cold; they felt the chill deep within their bones. The air felt thin.
Pain sent their bodies screaming, but all they could do was grapple at the net, their eyes wide as they gasped for air.
As if things couldn’t get any worse for them, the blasted voice from hell sent them another notification—
[Owl: Someone used <[ATK] Cast Into the Four Winds> on you~~]
Wu Sheng opened his eyes first. He forced himself to look around, ignoring the blinding pain and chilling cold.
They were still in the net, but the net was no longer in the plane. It had stopped in the sky like a ball at the end of its momentum, several hundred thousand kilometres from the ground. Below them were dense layers of clouds, and above them was the blinding sun.
How come they were able to see Qian Ai before he’d even joined their team?
Wu Sheng finally figured out the answer.
They got caught in one fell swoop.
They got cast into the four winds.
They thought this was another stage to pass, but turns out, it was a battle all along.
huh, so there are more players attacking them.
do they not have attacks too?
thanks for the chapter <3
So.. do they need to get back on the plane?
Thank you for the chapter 😘