Gamers Are Fierce-Chapter 581 - 579: Insights

"Remember the alchemist’s wife who came back to life and that figure clad in a rubber suit that appeared and disappeared into thin air,"

Li Ang pinched the keychain he had obtained in Room E between his fingers, gave it a flick, and made the keychain with its seven keys jingle.

"These seven keys each correspond to Rooms A through G.

"The back of each is marked with a number:

"0, -72, 72, -24, -48, -2, -0.

"At first, I couldn’t understand the meaning of these numbers, thinking they were digital lock codes or combination lock codes for safes.

"It wasn’t until I entered Room F at 10:05 and got the letter."

He said slowly, "The letter from Room F instructed me to put the sugarcane into the feed chute of Room F, so that the machine in Room A could produce battery fluid, claiming that producing the battery fluid would take at least two hours, and if I hadn’t entered Room F by ten o’clock, I would miss the final chance.

"However, there’s something very illogical about this letter. No matter who left the letter, they predicted with remarkable accuracy the time I would enter each room, even accounting for the time I spent exploring the corridor and being distracted by the rubber-suited figure. But in Room F, despite not wasting any time en route and being only five minutes late, it stated that I had already missed the final opportunity—either to remove the battery from my shoulder and insert it into the slot in the stone wall, taking a gamble with my life, or do nothing and wait to die there."

Li Ang paused, then continued calmly, "That’s very strange. On the floor of Room F, there was a piece of sugarcane. Based on previous deductions, the so-called battery fluid was actually L-glucose, meant to provide me with Energy. So why wouldn’t I just eat the sugarcane, which could give me sugar, and then safely remove the battery from my shoulder and put it in the wall slot? There was absolutely no need to go through the step of starting the machine in Room A.

"Unless the sugarcane hadn’t undergone the process of changing chirality, making it impossible for me to eat it directly and use the sugar within to provide Energy for my body, forcing me to follow the steps mentioned in the letter."

Li Ang lifted his arm and knocked on the half-open stone wall with his knuckle, saying indifferently, "The keystone of the entire Mobius corridor lies in this stone wall. Passing through the wall changes chirality; come out again, and it becomes normal. The sugarcane on the floor of Room F was of the right chirality.

"There were two possibilities to explain this. The sugarcane was hidden inside this rubber suit, which isolates the corridor’s chirality-reversing effect, and was brought in stealthily. Or, there exists some secret passage in this corridor that leads directly into the room from the outside without going through the wall. The rubber suit I’m wearing lacks some components and cannot isolate the chirality-reversing effect, but it’s very tight inside, leaving no space for a piece of sugarcane as long as an arm. Nor does the sugarcane show any signs of wear, sweat odor, or rubber smell."

Li Ang shook his head. "Therefore, only the second possibility remains: that there is a secret passage in the corridor. I searched through all the rooms, and the most likely secret passages are the square metal plates on the ceilings of Rooms D and E. The figure in the same rubber suit first appeared walking out of the stone wall in the corridor. The second time, it appeared at the entrance to Room D. And the third time, it emerged carrying the Deformed Monster through the stone wall.

"Initially, I thought the Deformed Monster existed within Room D, but after considering the secret passage inside leading to the outside world, I came up with a new explanation. The figure in the rubber suit carried the Deformed Monster down from the floor above.

"The numbers on the back of the keys in my hand aren’t a code, but rather each room’s time relative to the outside world.

"Room A’s time aligns with outside time.

"Room B’s time is 72 hours prior to outside time.

"Room C’s time is 72 hours ahead of outside time.

"Room D’s time is 24 hours prior to outside time.

"Room E’s time is 48 hours prior to outside time.

"Room F’s time is 2 hours prior to outside time.

"Room G’s time aligns with outside time.

"With this understanding, all the inconsistencies are explained. I heard you and your father talking in Room C. The time was 9:30 PM on March 7th. Your father decided to go down the well and carry out the final plan. If we roll back 72 hours from then, the corridor’s time should be 9:30 PM on March 4th.

"The corridor time was 9:15 PM on March 4th. The conversation between the couple I heard in Room B actually took place at 9:15 PM on March 1st. At that time, the Alchemist’s wife was comforting her husband, and everything was normal.

"The corridor time was 9:45 PM on March 4th. In Room D, the Alchemist I heard crying was actually crying at 9:45 PM on March 3rd.

"Furthermore, at 9:15 PM on March 3rd, someone led you and your mother away. At 9:40 PM, he took Siri away. Between 9:40 and 9:45 PM, your mother died.

"In Room E, the conversation I heard between the Alchemist and his wife actually happened at 9:55 PM on March 2nd. This corresponds with what the Alchemist wrote on his calendar: on March 2nd, he went to Amestris to receive a medal on his wife’s behalf.

"After sorting through all the times above, the correct external timeline should be:

"On March 1st, the Alchemist gave Alice—that’s you—the third quarterly Turing test. The weather the day before was terrible, ruining his experimental samples.

"On March 2nd, the Alchemist went to Amestris. That night, Siri had a nightmare, dreaming of someone in the cupboard. At 9:55 PM, the couple talked, and the Alchemist gave his wife the medal.

"On March 3rd, at 9:15 PM, someone led you and your mother away. At 9:40 PM, he took Siri away, which subsequently led to your mother’s death. At 9:45 PM, the Alchemist talked to you.

"On March 7th, at 9:30 PM, the Alchemist had tried every method but still couldn’t produce the correct medication, so he prepared to go down the well."

Li Ang raised his index finger and said in a solemn voice, "At this point, his wife and daughter were already dead. So why did he still talk about making the medication? Why did he still talk about saving his wife and daughter? The answer is simple: he wanted to use the corridor’s time-distorting ability to go back to the past and avert the tragedy.

"On that calendar, the entry for March 3rd was ’listen to self-summary three days hence.’ The annotations on the calendar were clearly made before the tragic events of March. At that time, the Alchemist didn’t know his wife and daughter would die.

"At 9:15 PM on March 3rd, someone who looked like the Alchemist appeared and led you and your mother away. Where was the Alchemist himself at this time? He should have been in Room C, listening to the self-summary from three days later.

"The Alchemist had known about the corridor’s abnormal time for quite a while and had been utilizing it. He would stay alone in the corridor’s Room C from time to time. Since the time in Room C is 72 hours ahead of outside time, as long as he developed the routine of being in the ground-level room above Room C on time to state aloud the results and insights from his experiments over the past few days, he could avoid many detours, effectively saving time and striving to develop the medication sooner. Other rooms were also formatted to allow listening to sounds from upstairs, which were most likely designed for this very purpose."