NOVEL SIMPLE
Chapter 186
[60]
[59]
...
Two minutes had already passed, and Li Hanming was still standing under the tree, working hard on the puzzle, judging by his furrowed brows, he hadn't finished yet.
Although there was not much time left, fortunately, none of Qin Wei, Jo Sixiao and Wei Lai had been caught. On the contrary, the men in black were being played around by their cooperation, already exhausted and moving slower.
[3]
[2]
[1]
...
The men in black were dutiful till the last second. As expected, the moment time was up, they retreated on their own initiative, even if the target was right in front of them, they would not struggle at the last moment.
It was like a nationwide exam, the moment the bell rang, all pens must be put down immediately, even one more written word would be considered cheating.
The three girls breathed a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, while wandering aimlessly along the way, they had discussed countermeasures——
When encountering the men in black each time, relying solely on stamina would be difficult to sustain, after all, each encounter had to last five minutes, even more intense than a 1km run test, after a few rounds they would be exhausted to death, even if all tasks were not set to complete in one day.
They couldn’t just brute force it, they had to win with wisdom.
After discussing their strategy, once the men in black appeared, the four of them needed to cooperate, attracting firepower separately, allowing their teammates to have time to rest, taking turns so that no one person gets too tired, while wearing down the enemy’s stamina.
It seemed that the effect was not bad presently.
It all depended on how Li Hanming’s puzzle completion went...
The three girls looked towards the wishing tree in unison.
Li Hanming hugged the box in his arms, a smile on his face as he faced them.
“That’s great...”
Perhaps it was due to it being the first level, the program team did not make things too difficult for them, so far, everything was going smoothly.
[The puzzle is enabled for destruction countdown, five-minute countdown starts]
[299]
[298]
...
The four of them: “????”
Li Hanming shouted loudly:
“The completed picture is a map, everyone come over quickly to take a look!”
Without caring for rest, the three girls got up and walked under the tree.
Indeed, the picture Li Hanming had pieced together was a map.
Only then did they confirm that this newly built studio site was truly massive, the part that they had run through so far only accounted for one fifth of the entire area on the map.
After painstakingly locating the marked location of Jin Tang Bank on the map, they were relieved that their general direction was right, the bank was not far from them either, just that the route ahead had many twists and turns, they had to go through many alleyways before they could arrive.
Simply put, they had to traverse a maze to find the exit.
...
[3]
[2]
[1! Time is up, artists please head to the next task point!]
The moment five minutes was up, the staff immediately took away the puzzle.
Walking ahead, they arrived at the entrance of the maze. Clearly the program team was being friendly, hearing the term “maze” sounded scary, but in actuality it was just a block of traditional residential houses, with intertwining small paths inside, if one memorized the route, they could exit faster, otherwise more time would be spent.
Moreover, the program team did not set a time limit, the four of them also slowed their footsteps while walking, making full use of this period to properly rest and allow their stamina to recover as much as possible.
Since each person had memorized one part of the map, when it came to lead the way, they would take turns. Inevitably, everyone would make some mistakes, taking wrong turns sometimes, but to their surprise, when it was Qin Wei’s turn to lead, she made the least mistakes.
The public always felt that she was not smart, yet they did not expect that even a fool had her own strengths. For instance, in competitive intellectual games like this, her performance was not too bad.
Arriving at the end of an alleyway, there was open space up ahead. The four of them revealed smiles, they had finally exited.
The program team wouldn’t always try to set pitfalls for them right!
While traversing the maze, everyone had gotten some rest. Presently, after walking a short distance along the street ahead, they finally saw their final destination for the day.
“Jin Tang Bank...we’ve arrived at last.” Li Hanming looked up at the four big words above the door and breathed a long sigh of relief.
What laid before them was a Western-style building with brick and stone as its base structure. Its appearance was similar to the Bund architectural cluster in Shanghai, only much smaller in scale compared to the original version.
People who had gone to the studio all knew that the distribution of buildings inside the city was not the same as real cities. There would be clusters of similar styled buildings situated adjacent to each other, all for the convenience of filming dramas and movies on site, rather than accurately reproducing any one city.
Thus without a map, no one would know that the “Public Concession” bordered the Jiangnan Waters, moreover no one knew that beside the Jiangnan Waters was a block of Western buildings.
Perhaps there might be other surprises around!
No one knew, after all this was a newly built studio city, even actors like them have not been here before.
Still, the four of them did not directly enter the bank out of caution, firstly to confirm that there were no men in black around, secondly to familiarize themselves with the surrounding environment, ready to escape at any time.
Only after confirming did they dare to step into the bank.
There was already someone waiting at the entrance. He introduced himself as the Lobby Manager, dressed in a tailored suit, hair oiled and combed to a shine. Seeing them enter, he personally led the way and invited them to follow him inside.
The manager brought them into a warehouse. Rows of lockers were neatly arranged on both sides of the path inside.
It looked rather majestic.
A variety program that was able to achieve such a high level of real scene shooting, it was no wonder that their staff had confidently claimed that their show was very well-funded.
Now it seemed to be true.
“This is our safekeeping area, may I ask which one of you has the key?”
After asking, the manager looked towards Qin Wei following the gazes of the other three.
“Could it be...this?”
Qin Wei took out the letter.
[Password decoded, safe deposit box unlocked]
It appeared that the letter Qin Wei held had triggered a new mission.
After the lobby manager unfolded Xu Doctor’s letter, he shook his head:
“This is not a password, but four groups of numbers with a pattern. You will need to find the pattern, calculate the next number in each group, in order to obtain the password.”
He pulled out the chair in front of the table,
“We will randomly select a teacher to solve the questions. The remaining three people have to participate in games until the password is decoded.”
Random?
Everyone began praying in their hearts, please don’t pick Qin Wei the cultural desert.
The lobby manager took out a cylinder containing four sticks used for drawing lots.
This was very fair.
Theoretically, each person had the same probability of being selected. Moreover, the program team could not possibly rig it.
Qiao Sixiao drew first, followed by Li Hanming. After Wei Lai took one, naturally the last one belonged to Qin Wei.
“Red marked end, Miss Qin please do your best!”
The manager encouraged her, but the other three had already started feeling the despair —
Qin Wei’s mathematic capability was far more desolate than a desert. Getting her to solve the password was no different from making them lose the competition.
“Additionally, the other three guests please listen to the rules I will announce.”
The three of them were worrying when the manager’s words grabbed their attention again,
“Miss Qin only has three minutes to solve the password...”
“Three minutes???”
Everyone exclaimed in unison.
Even if you gave her three years she might not be able to solve it. Where did the program team get their confidence to only give her three minutes?
“Of course it’s not enough.”
The manager took a deep breath.
“This requires all the guests to work together, completing some mini-games to earn more time for Miss Qin.”
Having said this, everyone understood clearly. Competitive variety programs were still mainly about completing various tasks after all.