"Okay, I have some things to take care of. I'll leave the keys here for you, and you can open the doors directly when you need them."
"We are concerned that mentally ill patients might suddenly lose control and damage hospital property, so we have built partitioned areas, with doctors holding the keys for each section."
He smiled again, pushed his glasses up his nose, and placed the four keys casually on the front desk before striding out of the room.
From the moment the doctor left, everyone remained silent, listening intently to his footsteps recede down the corridor.
At this point, Long Keyu spoke with a strange expression.
"Is this how a normal doctor would react?"
Since they knew it was an escape room, they were unwilling to let any detail slip by.
Even if some of their speculations were far-fetched.
"But no matter what, he didn't harm us, did he?"
Gu Lin retorted, not seeing any suspicious motives from the doctor.
"But can these four keys really open the doors directly?"
Xiao Jue was playing with the keys, walking up to each door and examining it closely.
"Wait, this box isn't locked."
Sheng Chenjin walked up to the box idly and found no place to insert a lock.
It was either a mechanism or just a decoration.
"What is it? We'll know once we open it."
Shi Xinxin stepped forward and began to cup the box with her hands, trying to pry it open from the seams.
With a slight effort, the box remained motionless.
But this was clearly within her expectations. Her fair fingers traced over the box, slowly probing and rubbing.
She was trying to find a button that could be pressed.
But she found nothing.
She quietly put the box down and stared at it, deep in thought.
"Let me try."
Bai Bin came over, picked up the box gently, and shook it slightly, listening to the sound inside to gauge the quantity of its contents.
He shook the box and found it seemed to be an empty wooden case, with nothing inside.
"This?"
Bai Bin handed the box to Shi Xinxin, gesturing for her to also listen to the sound inside.
"Either it's empty, or it contains something very light. But even a piece of white paper for writing should make a slight sound."
Shi Xinxin couldn't make sense of it no matter how she thought about it.
But finding no other clues, she could only stare at it blankly.
Xiao Jue also noticed something amiss with the door at this moment.
"This lock is fake."
He gave it a light tug and discovered the lock was made of ordinary plastic.
It was merely covered with a layer of copper on the outside, making it feel heavier.
"Then what's the purpose of these keys?"
Everyone's gaze fell on the keys he was weighing, their eyes filled with confusion and a hint of fear.
If they thought about it this way, then the doctor must have had ulterior motives too.
"Pull off the lock and see what's inside."
Shi Xinxin spoke, looking at the door handle, which had faint traces of being covered.
"Come here and look."
Xiao Jue quickly pulled off the four locks. Shi Xinxin walked over and looked at the peculiar marks beneath the door handle.
She gently ran her fingers over it, feeling something hard and uneven blocking it.
She carefully picked at it with her fingernail, and a piece of paint the size of a fingernail flaked off.
"This has been painted over, there's something here!"
Everyone curiously walked over and started picking at the other doors as well.
Their actions looked rather amusing, drawing the attention of the viewers in the livestream, who stared intently at the screen.
"A password lock?"
"As expected, it's not that simple."
Xiao Jue was shocked as he looked at the four perfectly illuminated password locks.
"This is too devious! If you don't look closely, you'll never find it."
Gu Lin complained, but his face showed little resentment, only increased interest in the game's realism.
"Are there any signs of tampering on the keys?"
Ye Xun felt they really needed to learn to think analogously. They picked up the keys and started to scratch at them too.
They peeled off the labels with numbers, revealing some strange symbols underneath.
"Up, down, down, up."
Bai Bin read out the four arrow symbols.
"Right, left, left, right."
Long Keyu held his key, which also had four symbols.
"Pear, strawberry, cooking oil, this is... the Civil Code?"
Yun Rou looked at the four small illustrations and asked Shi Xinxin.
"Pear, berry, oil, law?"
Shi Xinxin asked strangely.
"You don't have 'law'?"
Was it just a simple hint? If so, how were they supposed to find the password?
"Has the clue run out here?"
Bai Bin spoke, but his gaze remained fixed on the whiteboard they had used for answering questions earlier.
"Let's gather all the numbers we filled in earlier, and then..."
Bai Bin thought for a moment but couldn't come up with a clear plan, only a general direction.
"And then combine those numbers with the pictures above."
Gu Lin interjected cleverly, feeling he had found the secret to success.
"Let's try!"
Shi Xinxin brought over the four whiteboards, looking at the four room numbers and matching each key accordingly.
"It works!"
Long Keyu arranged the first set of numbers in fours, selecting four numbers according to the up-down-down-up sequence.
But he wasn't sure if he could try it on the password lock.
What if opening the door meant someone was waiting for them?
"Let's try. These are rooms for the next stage. The doctor's talk about communicating with mental patients is just a gimmick."
Shi Xinxin said casually, and walked with Long Keyu to the first password lock. His hands trembled with excitement as he entered the password.
Click. The password lock opened.
"It really works!"
Long Keyu was overjoyed and wanted to find someone to celebrate with, but realizing Shi Xinxin was standing beside him, his hands felt awkwardly misplaced.
"Yes, we succeeded. Let's find the next set."
Shi Xinxin pursed her lips into a slight smile, feeling a sense of happiness within.
Perhaps because it was the first level, their progress had been so smooth.
"We'll be parting ways now, so everyone must reach the assembly point safely."
"If you can't make it, at least be safe and let's have lunch together."
Shi Xinxin turned and said to them, feeling that great challenges lay ahead.
The group encouraged each other, then split into teams and entered the four rooms.
As they expected, according to the number sequence, each room, while empty of patients, contained assembled organs of various systems.
The dark rooms were filled with these human organs, appearing horrifying and eerie.
And they had no idea what might appear before them at any moment.
"This is so surreal!"
Shi Xinxin and the others entered the room. Xiao Jue looked up at the interior decorations. Things related to the brain were indeed fantastical.
Even the storybooks placed on the table were strange and interesting.