fantasy novels Chapter 4204 Object-Representation Puzzles
Chapter 4204 Object-Representation Puzzles
Chapter 4204 Object-Representation Puzzles
The north corridor.
After passing through a brief art gallery, the group from Rabbit Hole arrived at the lifelike gallery.
What is a simulated corridor?
Just like the previous art gallery was full of various artworks, this skeuomorphic gallery is full of skeuomorphic objects made of stacked books.
For example, the "cat" on Ingres' left is made of 208 books of varying thicknesses stacked together to form the shape of a cat.
On the right is a "ship" pieced together from 133 books.
This imitation-book corridor seems to have no end, but every few steps there is an imitation of a book, so it is not an exaggeration to call it an imitation-book corridor.
"Is the book demon here?" the rabbit girl asked curiously.
Angell nodded: "If nothing unexpected happens, it's hidden behind some kind of book-like object."
Following the sound, everyone looked toward the deep, shadowy corridor, their eyes filled with curiosity. What kind of shadowy creature would the book demon be hiding behind?
"You all stay here for now, I'll go and deal with this book demon."
After saying this, Angell prepared to walk forward alone.
At this moment, the rabbit girl spoke up, "How about I go for the first Book Demon challenge?"
Gabriel then raised his tentacles: "Actually, I can go too..."
Gray Porcelain peeked out from behind Gabriel. Originally, it just wanted to check the situation and didn't intend to say anything, but now that the leader and Gabriel had both spoken, it seemed inappropriate for it not to speak up...
Gray Porcelain gritted his teeth: "I..."
However, before Gray Porcelain could speak, Angel said, "Gray Porcelain doesn't need to go. Your combat strength may not be enough to deal with the Book Demon."
Gray Porcelain's eyes lit up, but she still pretended to be disappointed: "I'm so sorry."
Despite saying he was embarrassed, Gray Porcelain was quick and slipped behind Gabriel again, covering himself completely.
Angel didn't mind and continued, "I understand how you feel, but don't try to take the first Book Demon challenge."
"I'll go test the waters first, to see the quality of the book demon and the difficulty of the challenge."
"If we confirm that the difficulty is not high and you can handle it, then we'll take turns going after we encounter the Book Demon again."
Gabriel thought about it and decided that this was a good idea.
Although it is not afraid to challenge the Book Demon, everything about the Book Demon is unknown to it, and whether it can defeat it is an unknown.
As an "outsider" figure recognized within Dream Mirror, Angor is absolutely invincible in challenging the Book Demon. Therefore, it is perfectly reasonable to let Angor first "rank" the Book Demon, and then distribute them as needed later.
After thinking for a moment, the rabbit girl nodded.
However, her reasoning differed from Gabriel's; she mainly wanted to demonstrate that she had "grown up."
In choosing the Golden Cave, she had already been privately "talked to" by Laplace because of her stubbornness and willfulness. She herself also apologized at the Stone Table Conference and seriously reflected on her actions.
If she still stubbornly insists on her own opinion at this point, then all her previous reflection and apology will have been in vain.
Therefore, in order to demonstrate her "growth," the rabbit girl obediently chose to listen to Angel.
Angell: "Then I'll go ahead first. You guys should retreat to the art gallery... just in case."
The usual tests, whether for book spirits or book demons, involve randomly selecting one from the team.
However, according to the information Angel learned from Pilushiu's squad, this test was not "truly random," but rather "randomized based on proximity."
In other words, there are limitations to the number of people they can recruit for tests.
Therefore, when you are about to encounter a Book Spirit or Book Demon, simply send the person in the team who is most confident in passing the test alone, and you will be guaranteed to choose that person.
At that time, Angell was able to persuade Gray Porcelain to choose the north corridor so easily because of this little trick.
From Gray Porcelain's perspective, as long as it doesn't have to face the Book Demon, going this way is actually better.
Furthermore, Gray Porcelain also agreed with Angor's claim of "gathering intelligence on the gods." Regardless of the final choice made, understanding the opponent is more important.
The reason for asking everyone to step back into the art corridor is also to "attract more people".
Since it was their first time here, they didn't know the extent of the Book Demon's ability to attract people. To ensure that the test only targeted them, the others naturally wanted to stay as far away as possible.
After bidding farewell to everyone, Angell walked alone into the depths of the simulated corridor.
He had only told them that there was a book demon in this corridor, but he hadn't specified where it was. The others assumed he didn't know, but in reality, he had already pinpointed the book demon's location.
A moment later, Angell stopped in front of a "dragon-like creature".
This anthropomorphic dragon was pieced together from nearly four hundred books to create the roaring shape of an abyss dragon. However, since it is just an anthropomorphic dragon, it doesn't look fierce at all; instead, it's quite cute.
According to feedback from God's perspective, there is a hidden space behind this dragon-like creature, where the book demon is located.
The existence of hidden spaces implies the existence of puzzles.
If nothing unexpected happens, the riddle lies in this anthropomorphic dragon.
Angell carefully examined the dragon-like creature and immediately spotted its heart.
The creature is entirely blue, but its heart is missing.
Looking around, Angell quickly spotted several carelessly discarded books nearby, thirteen in total. He figured that by stuffing them in one by one, the puzzle would be solved.
Very simple.
Moreover, those thirteen scattered books were simply tossed out in the corridor, and the challengers could see them just a few steps away; they would be hard to ignore.
If it were a normal team, they would probably first find the book on the ground, then pick it up and observe their surroundings before excitedly discovering the riddle and walking up to the dragon figurine to solve it.
After painstakingly solving the puzzle and entering the room, they discovered it was a book demon.
Just thinking about it makes me feel that this puzzle design is really insidious.
Angor silently mourned for the other teams that had discovered the mystery, while turning around to pick up the books scattered on the ground.
However, Angel did not immediately put the Dragon Heart back in.
Instead, it turned its head to look at another anthropomorphic creature opposite the dragon anthropomorphic creature: the butterfly anthropomorphic creature.
This butterfly-like creature looks ordinary, but in reality... there's a hidden space behind it, in other words, there's a mystery behind it.
What's a bit strange is that when Angell observed the real miniature garden from a god's-eye view, although he discovered this hidden space, he didn't find any creatures in it.
There are no book spirits, nor book demons.
So why would you set up a hidden space here?
In my opinion, any hidden space should be designed with a purpose.
Moreover, this hidden space happens to be directly opposite the Book Demon's hidden space, so he has reason to suspect that this space is very likely related to the Book Demon.
He decided to try and solve the mystery of this butterfly-like creature.
Angell carefully observed the butterfly's mimicry.
Compared to the straightforward riddle of the dragon's anthropomorphism, the riddle of the butterfly's anthropomorphism is much more subtle. Angell looked it over several times but couldn't find anything wrong with it.
After thinking for a moment, Angell decided to... seek help from outside the arena.
……
Art Gallery.
Next to the plaster statue of the one-armed goddess, the people from the rabbit hole gathered.
They were just casually chatting about their respective entrance exams when suddenly, specks of light appeared on the rabbit girl's body.
Under everyone's watchful eyes, the points of light quickly created an illusion.
The illusion is... a butterfly mimicking an object.
As the butterfly-like creature appeared, Angell's voice also came over: "Since you're all idle anyway, come and solve the riddle."
Rabbit Girl: "..."
Gray Porcelain, Gabriel: "???"
The group was not surprised by the illusion before them. Earlier in the hall, Angel had placed illusion nodes on each person, saying it was in case of danger.
More puzzling than the illusion was, "Weren't we going to take the Book Demon's test? Why are we suddenly starting to solve a mystery?"
Angel didn't hide anything and briefly explained the situation regarding the mimicry of butterflies and dragons.
"To participate in the Book Demon's trial, you have to solve a mystery? That's too vicious..."
Despite the complaints, everyone started trying to solve the mystery of the butterfly's anthropomorphic appearance.
It must be said that having more people leads to broader thinking, and they quickly discovered the key point: "It's lines!"
"There are lines on the butterfly wings, but these lines don't match up, so the book is misplaced!"
Angell looked in the direction of the sound and indeed saw mottled lines at the location of the "butterfly wing," but these lines were... cracks on the spine of the book.
Many of the books that make up the butterfly's wings are old, so there are some cracks on the spines left by the passage of time.
Angell had seen it before, but he had no idea that the crack was actually a line, and that it could connect with the cracks on the spines of several other books!
With suspicion, Angell slightly rearranged the misplaced books, allowing the cracks in their spines to connect and form a crooked curve.
At the very moment the "curve" appeared, all the books on the butterfly-shaped object began to float and stick to the corridor wall behind them, like modules pieced together to form a door of books.
The moment the door to the book appeared, it instantly transformed from fake to real, and a real door opened in the wall!
The moment you see the door, the mystery is solved, and the puzzle is solved.
only……
"That's way too sneaky!"
If it were just a pattern or lines, I could immediately understand it. But using the signs of age on the book itself as the riddle is a bit sinister.
Moreover, these traces of time, pieced together, are not clear lines, but rather crooked curves, which increases the difficulty and makes it difficult to think in that direction at first glance.
However, if we look back and analyze the situation from the perspective of the outcome, the mystery is still not difficult; it's just that it's extremely well hidden.
If Angell hadn't known for certain that there was a hidden space behind the butterfly's anthropomorphism, he probably would have completely overlooked it.
But thinking back, such a well-hidden puzzle seems to have been designed to prevent the challenger team from discovering it easily. Could this, in turn, suggest that it actually holds a more special meaning?
With this thought in mind, Angell stepped into the hidden space.
Two minutes later, Angel silently withdrew.
What's the point of all this!
There was nothing inside except a table!
Angor even created phantom limbs to frantically bang on the floor and walls, looking for deeper hidden compartments.
No, nothing.
"I get it, this must be a hidden space specifically designed to slow down the challenger team's progress."
Although it still felt a bit strange, he couldn't understand the significance of this hidden space.
Angel shook his head helplessly, temporarily setting aside these meaningless and redundant thoughts, and turned his gaze to the dragon's anthropomorphism.
This time, he didn't need any outside help; he quickly pieced together the "dragon heart" and placed it on the object.
As expected, the moment the Dragon Heart returned to its place, the dragon's anthropomorphic form, like the butterfly's anthropomorphic form, stuck to the wall, forming a door leading to a hidden space.
Angell strode inside.
This space is filled with books, resembling small mountains of books.
At the very center of the mountain of books, a black ball emanating a faint, dark mist floated up and down.
This black mist is none other than the Book Demon!
As soon as Angel entered the hidden space, the book demon spotted him, its huge, round white eyes staring at him.
At the same time, relevant information also appears in the text box.
"The Book Demon has locked onto your team. One member will be randomly selected to enter the trial space."
"You have been targeted by the Book Demon and are about to undergo a trial."
The countdown begins.
Not only did Angell see the message in his text box, but the other members of Rabbit Hole also saw it, although their messages did not contain the message "You have been locked".
All you can see is the countdown.
This also means that Angell's plan succeeded; they were too far from the Book Demon's location to be included in the candidate list.
After the five-second countdown ends.
In the blink of an eye, Angell found himself in a pure white space.
Opposite him was a figure emitting black smoke.
The figure had no face, no visible clothing, and was entirely black. However, judging from its outline, its physical features were exactly the same as Angel's.
"Is this a replica of me, a shadowy version?" Angor raised an eyebrow. "And my abilities have been replicated as well?"
Angel didn't expect the book demon to answer.
The book demon didn't actually answer, but it provided the answer through its own abilities.
"Shadow Angel" raised his hand and summoned a book, the cover of which was written in cursive script: "Mastery of Flames".
The moment the pages were turned, countless crimson flames burst forth from the book like fireworks, spreading across the pure white ceiling into a scorching cloud of fire.
The next second, endless rain of fire fell from the clouds.
Every detail, covering the entire space without any blind spots.
Angell sensed the intensity of the fire rain; it was decent, barely reaching the level of an intermediate apprentice. Judging from the current level of the Dream Crystal Plains challengers, eighty percent of them would perish if they encountered the fire rain.
Unfortunately, Angell is not among those 80%.
He snapped his fingers lightly, and an illusionary dome enveloped him, without a single drop of fire rain falling.
Immediately afterwards, nine phantom limbs of white mist appeared behind him, shooting straight at the "Shadow Angel" opposite him like sharp arrows...