Dangerous Elevator

Dangerous Elevator

One step, two steps, three steps...

Luo Jun climbed one stair at a time. He didn't know how long he had walked before he finally stepped onto level ground again.

He looked up. It was still a landing, with the same rules posted on the wall.

He had returned to the Origin.

But Luo Jun did not give up. He turned around and continued upward.

He kept climbing like that, returning to the Origin again and again. Finally, when he passed that landing for the fifth time, Luo Jun stopped.

The walls were the same, as were the notices and rules. The only difference was that this time, a vending machine stood in the corner!

"Finally, I'm out!"

Luo Jun walked over. It was the kind of vending machine commonly found on streets or in malls, except he had never seen any of the drinks for sale inside. As for snacks, there was only one kind: the "Animal Crackers" mentioned in the rules.

The transparent plastic wrapping was the size of a matchbox, containing an animal-shaped cracker. Even through the packaging, he could see that it had been made with exquisite detail, but he could not identify the animal inside... It looked a little like a monkey, yet it had a rabbit's long ears and a kangaroo's thick tail. Its appearance was truly bizarre...

That was merely the sample at the front. Looking carefully, he saw other animal crackers stacked behind it, but without exception, they were all strange creatures Luo Jun did not recognize...

Whatever it was, he would buy it according to the rules first!

Luo Jun felt around in his pockets. He had not brought any money at all.

That made sense. Mobile payments were practically universal now, and few people carried coins when they went out.

But that did not stump Luo Jun. He lay on the ground, lifted one corner of the vending machine, reached underneath, and quickly felt two coins beneath it.

Coins accidentally dropped after being inserted often rolled beneath vending machines. Many people did not care much about one yuan, so as long as one could move the machine, coins could often be found underneath.

Even if he had found none, Luo Jun was prepared to pry open the cash box and take money directly. With his current physical abilities, that would not have been difficult.

He inserted a coin and selected the product. As the machine whirred, a packet of small crackers soon dropped into the dispensing slot.

Luo Jun looked at the packet, thought for a moment, then reached out, took it, and tucked it into his pocket.

Then he inserted another coin and bought another one. This time, he did not touch it. He turned and continued upward, letting the sound of the small crackers dropping ring out behind him.

What would happen next?

As Luo Jun walked, he could feel his heart pounding.

The staircase was darker than the landing, with visibility limited to only a few steps. Even his enhanced eyesight could not see through that fog-like darkness. Clearly, this was not ordinary dimness. It likely involved some kind of Supernatural Power—perhaps "it," as mentioned in the rules.

Within such darkness, Luo Jun's confidence in his original attributes and the Dice of Heavenly Secrets vanished without a trace, leaving behind only cautious fear.

As he walked, Luo Jun suddenly froze with one foot suspended in midair.

Because he saw a pair of feet emerge from the darkness ahead!

No, more precisely, they were not human feet at all, but more like a pair of hooves. What was strange was that, looking upward from the hooves, he could see the legs of plaid pajama pants. Above that, everything disappeared into darkness.

A monster wearing pajamas was standing on the stair ahead of him? And it was going upward like him?

Luo Jun counted. There were exactly five steps between him and where those feet stood.

Secretly relieved, Luo Jun withdrew the foot he had just raised.

If you encounter a creature traveling in the same direction, please maintain a distance of at least five steps. That was the third rule!

But why were those feet standing still? If the other party remained there forever, did that mean he could not continue forward either?

Just as Luo Jun was mulling it over, those feet moved. They took one step upward and vanished into the darkness.

Luo Jun followed with a step of his own, closing the distance, and the feet appeared again.

Those feet walked very slowly, pausing for two seconds after every step. Luo Jun followed carefully as well, afraid that a moment of carelessness would cause him to exceed the safe distance. In this damned darkness, he could see nothing except those feet. He had no idea what sort of monster was walking ahead...

After following for roughly a dozen steps, those feet suddenly accelerated and vanished into the darkness with a whoosh.

Luo Jun was stunned, but he did not speed up after them. He continued forward cautiously, one step at a time.

After climbing another seven or eight steps, the view before Luo Jun suddenly opened up, revealing the familiar hotel corridor!

He had finally left the corridor!

Luo Jun let out a long breath. His guess had indeed been correct!

The contradictory fourth and seventh rules of the corridor had troubled him for a long time. It was not until the monster came down from above that Luo Jun found the breakthrough!

According to the third rule, if two creatures met while moving in opposite directions on the stairs, the one going up had to stop and move aside for the one coming down. But that raised a problem. If the fourth rule was correct, and someone going down encountered the Endless Staircase and chose to walk backward upstairs without looking back, how would he know someone was descending behind him? And how could he move aside accurately?

Fine, even if he could determine it by footsteps and avoid them, what then? The fourth rule said that after backing up thirteen steps, if he had not left the corridor, he had to remain motionless where he was. How long was he supposed to stand there? If he encountered another creature then, could he move aside? Would someone who had backed up and stood still count as going up or going down? If he encountered a creature traveling in the same direction and had to keep five steps away from it, would that not mean he could never pass through this corridor?

Rule Four seemed reasonable, but a single backward step created multiple contradictions with Rule Three, which emphasized direction. Added to the fact that Rule Seven also did not acknowledge Rule Four, it was two rules against one. Luo Jun decided to take a risk and bet that Rule Four was wrong!

Then how was one supposed to break the situation described in Rule Four?

Luo Jun read through the rules several times. The only breakthrough lay in Rule Five!

Normally, there were no vending machines in the corridor, yet it also told you how to respond if you saw one. So when would a vending machine appear?

The most likely explanation was that once one became trapped in the Endless Corridor of Rule Four, a vending machine would appear!

Then Rule Five was the key to breaking Rule Four!

Luckily, Luo Jun's guess had been correct. Successfully returning to the corridor was the best proof!

Luo Jun looked at the room numbers and found that they all began with 2.

This was the second floor?

Clearly, after passing the first landing, he had been heading upward the entire time, yet he had somehow ended up on the second floor?

Then if he had chosen to go down, perhaps he really would have muddleheadedly reached the first basement floor.

A wave of lingering fear washed over Luo Jun.

He did not dare take the stairs for the time being. He followed the corridor to the elevator doors, where the indicator showed the elevator stopped on the First Floor.

He pressed the down button. The number changed, and with a ding, the elevator doors opened.

Luo Jun did not hurry inside. Instead, he first swept his gaze over the elevator interior to see whether any rules were posted.

The elevator walls were polished enough to reflect a person. The buttons by the door showed that the hotel had five floors in total, from the first basement floor to the fourth floor above ground. Other than an inspection certificate, nothing else was posted.

No rules might mean no danger. Or it might mean there was danger, but no way to deal with it.

Luo Jun Took a deep breath, entered the elevator, and activated the Dice of Heavenly Secrets before the doors even closed.

"Go to the First Floor!"

If the dice told him the Event Complexity was too high, he would immediately flee!

If it activated successfully but failed, he would use the Lead-Weighted Dice and try again!

Fortunately, the dice activated successfully this time.

"Event Difficulty: 5 points. Final Points: 96 + 5. Congratulations, you have achieved a Great Success!"

The heart Luo Jun had been holding in his throat finally settled. He decisively pressed one, and the elevator doors closed as it began descending.

An Event Difficulty of 5 meant he could normally reach the First Floor safely, but accidents might still happen. For instance, he might press the wrong floor, or the elevator might malfunction, preventing him from reaching the First Floor smoothly. That was the purpose of those five points of difficulty.

This was Luo Jun's first time encountering a Great Success. A Great Failure would bring more severe consequences, so a Great Success meant he could gain unexpected benefits.

Not only that, after rolling a Great Success, the experience gained would also double.

Still, merely taking an elevator down one floor had a difficulty of only five points. There probably would not be much of a Severity Coefficient, so even doubled, it likely would not grant much experience.

With that thought in mind, the elevator doors opened with a ding. Luo Jun stepped out of the elevator and arrived on the First Floor.

"Basic Experience Points: 5. Severity Coefficient: eight times. Great Success experience doubled. Final Experience: 80 points."

Luo Jun, having stepped out of the elevator, froze. An eightfold Severity Coefficient?!

When failure meant death, the Severity Coefficient was only twelvefold. Ordinary injuries were only three or four times. Eightfold? What would happen if he failed?

This was absolutely no ordinary accident! At his current level, let alone an elevator malfunction, he would not be hurt even if he jumped directly down from the second floor...

Luo Jun turned back and glanced at the elevator doors as they closed. They felt like a Bloody Mouth slowly clamping shut.

Good thing he had used the Dice of Heavenly Secrets. It guaranteed a five-point adjustment. If he had come down directly and encountered that five percent chance of failure, the consequences would have been unimaginable...

Now the Dice of Heavenly Secrets had only one chance left, but fortunately, midnight was approaching, and it would reset then.

Hopefully, he would not encounter any major danger before the reset...

Luo Jun wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and stepped into the Hotel Lobby...