Haidu: Top of the Tower

Chapter 26 Guiding Light
On the morning when the fourth game finally started, all the players gathered outside Haidu Central Station.

When Amelia introduced the game rules of the fourth round of "tear down the east wall to make up the west wall", every hair on Milady's body stood on end.

"...During the game, you can use your hands, organs or other methods to seize other players' score cards, but you are not allowed to attack or physically harm others."

Like a restless beast, Milady wished she could hold down every word, smell and examine it carefully.If Amelia paused for a moment in her speech, Milady would doubt whether she meant something; every time Amelia turned her eyes, dark and vague speculations could be turned in her mind.

"Contestants can only move around in the station hall, and cannot enter the platform, the second floor and the third floor."

Where exactly?
Where and what was the trap arranged for her by the committee?
The more anxious Milady is, the more she must grasp all the ghostly details in the environment. The more she grasps, the more she seems to miss, and the more she misses, the more anxious she becomes.

Even though the cool breeze was mild today, she felt that she was being scorched, and her skin was about to dry out and curl up.

"...Finally, please remember that after the score cards are hung up, the players are not allowed to reach for their own cards. For example, when others come to grab the cards, it is a foul for you to hold down the cards first. .”

After Amelia finally finished her explanation, Milady inadvertently turned her head, but happened to meet Siyado's eyes.

He has already qualified, and he didn't wear the same uniform today, he was wearing a gray and black Frock coat, as if he was watching the game as a spectator; at this moment, when the two eyes met, Siyado slowly said to her, A smile full of understanding was revealed.

He lifted his chin behind her, as if signaling her to look back.

Milady turned her head in a daze, her eyes collided with Luo Geng's.

Luo Geng's expression seemed to have bitten Milady's flesh, and he was about to grind her into fine fibers with his white teeth little by little—and at the same time, he was also laughing.The large mechanism more than two meters high behind him seemed to be a silent footnote.

The world that comes and goes and buzzes seems to be blurred and distant, and there are only two hatreds, looking at each other from a distance.One is sharp and vivid, impatient; the other is dark and regretful, and the undercurrent is tumbling.One is about to send Luo Geng to the peak, but the other seems to be pulling Milady into the abyss.

"Milady player," someone suddenly called out from beside him. "Please raise your arm, I'll help you tie the score card."

Milady was startled, and found that it was the staff member holding a stack of white placards in her hand. She hurriedly turned away and broke away from Luo Geng's gaze; looking around, Siyado had disappeared.

The score card is a flat and slender rectangle, only one hand long, tied in the waist clip, as if wearing a piece of jewelry on each side, it dangles as you walk, without affecting your activities.

Milady turned around a few times and asked, "How will others take my—"

Before she finished speaking, she stopped talking abruptly.

"No, I mean... how do I get rid of other people's score cards?" She changed her words, with a cold surprise in her heart.

Unexpectedly, her mentality had been pushed to this point unconsciously; all she was left with was defense and worry, unconsciously imagining the scene of failure repeatedly in her mind.

Once people start preparing for failure, failure is not far away.

If the landslide continues in terror, what face does Milady have to say that she is Itami's daughter?
"It's very simple," the staff explained, unaware of the huge waves in her heart: "Just hold the sign and pull it down hard. The clip will not break. When you buckle it up again, just pinch it like this... ..."

Force is not allowed in the game; but it is difficult to judge "attack" when snatching, struggling, or organ conflicts.Therefore, any impact force exerted on a player with an intensity exceeding 4 will be sensed by the score board and a warning will be issued. Naturally, a staff member will make a referee—a player who is found to be violating the rules will not only have the board confiscated by the committee, but will also be sent to the original board. Accept the "immobility penalty" without hesitation, and you are not allowed to leave the range of the floor tiles under your feet within 30 seconds.

According to Amelia, the impact force of intensity 4 is about a punch of 30-50 pounds; that is to say, when a person deliberately wants to hit someone, it must exceed intensity 4.

The staff who gave the Milady brand are quite talkative.

"It's easy to say, but in fact, when a person is running and dodging at high speed, it is quite difficult to catch the sign that is shaking back and forth... By the way, you have to remember that the sign that you win must be hung on the belt within 5 minutes to be effective. .”

This is also a rule that cannot prevent players from linking up and cooperating with each other.

Trial players usually come in to help the patriarch re-elect, everyone knows this; but in order to show fairness, the committee is still very keen to set some rules that seem to prevent players from passing points to each other.

For example, the initial positions of all contestants are randomly assigned; for the sake of confidentiality, the staff brought everyone into the venue separately to prevent the players from seeing each other's positions.

In theory, as soon as a player leaves the initial position, he may become someone else's prey; but in fact, in this type of game, the players of the major families have long formed a tacit understanding, and there is no conflict with each other.

Will it be different this year?

The result of the third game has clearly explained the meaning of the trial family: they don't like the delusions of the family members below, and they made it clear that they want to keep the current position of patriarch; Way to resist.

Under the will of the trial family, she could feel that the aroused undercurrents and quicksand seemed to be falling back to their original positions, and the footsteps and eyes that crossed the line were retracted one after another... The patriarchs looked ruddy and calm, and when they dispatched the clansmen, , more unambiguous than ever.

Besides that, the three 10-minute sets are also interesting.

Players can decide to quit after 10 minutes of the game, providing people with a chance to leave the game with points.However, it also has a supplementary rule: Those who exit do not have to just shout, they must go to the only "exit point" in Grand Central Station, and hand over the family badge with their name to the staff, and the staff will record their identity. Number of score cards.

It would be fine if there were no enemies; Milady knew very well that it was impossible for her to get to the exit point smoothly.

"Contestant Milady, please follow me." A staff member motioned to her: "I will take you to your initial position."

Milady nodded and followed him into the station.

The Central Station is the largest station building in Haidu. It has three floors and covers a vast area; the game field is the main lobby on the first floor, with an area of ​​nearly a thousand square meters.

According to Amelia, "in order to provide convenience for the players", many triangular kiosks were temporarily added in the main hall, all of which are supply points for supplies such as clean water, maintenance tools, and mechanism parts.In addition, the ticket offices, information desks, taverns and other facilities in the lobby that are temporarily out of service are also kept open-there are many places for people to hide.

As Milady walked, her eyes flicked across the viewing platform.

The central station adopts a well-shaped structure, and the entire hall can be seen from the aisle on the second and third floors, so the aisle has been temporarily converted into a viewing platform. Under the unprecedented enthusiasm of Haidu people, it is already dark. I don't know how many people sat there.

In the crowd, the telescope lens occasionally flashed brightly, and the human-shaped organ stood aside holding the tea tray, and the fan slapped the wind with the smell of powder; A long prelude to a symphony.

If it is said that she is currently in an undercurrent and turbulent sea, then the sight of the audience above her head is the only sampan she can hold on to tightly.

At least in front of the Haidu audience, the trials must be superficially fair; as long as the committee has scruples, she still has a chance.

Milady tightened the straps of her backpack.The fourth round of the game was the only round in the entire trial game where players were allowed to bring their own mechanisms; it was also with the backpack that she felt a little bit that she was not fighting alone——

Eh?
She was startled, and immediately stopped, almost suspecting that she was wrong.The staff member turned around and asked, "What's wrong?"

Only then did Milady look away—no, she was right.

Just like when watching the duel back then, today's Lu Ranzhou was lazily hanging on the fence of the auditorium, as if half of his bones had been taken out by someone.Beside him, Sein Feiya and Dao Mingke, one on the left and one on the right, poked their heads towards her.

Even at such a distance, Milady seems to be able to see the smile on one side of Lu Ranzhou's mouth, and seems to be able to hear his voice talking to the two people around him: "It's not important for her to behave today, the main thing is that you have to admire me This discerning eye..."

They are all there.

"It's nothing," Milady said to the staff with a smile, "let's go."

When she took another step, she could hardly bear the warmth and pain swelling in her chest.

She almost forgot that she once stepped on long winds, broke through waves, and fought against such a vast, harsh and unpredictable world.

Why is she afraid of a few people now?

As long as she can hold a thread-like opportunity, Milady will use all her strength to untie and scatter all the textures that have been woven into Haidu's power system.

No matter how it is done, no matter how many times she fights, Kai will sooner or later hold her breath for her footsteps and make up for Itami's death.

It was as if a thick layer of gauze had been removed from her mind, and fresh and abundant power poured in. Milady regained her composure—even when she saw her initial position, she didn’t feel angry, instead, there was a sound from the auditorium. There was a booing.

Her initial position was in the center of the hall, under the most conspicuous spherical clock post; near the clock post was an open space, just right for her as a human target.

Milady almost wanted to laugh.

So the committee's methods are so direct?

She looked around, and found that the initial positions of the other players were basically invisible; she was the only one standing in the open space, as eye-catching as a fish out of water.

The method was simple, but it did cause her a lot of trouble.

Milady took a deep breath, and carefully observed the terrain again before the game started.

Bounded by the spherical clock column, the hall can be divided into two halves: the first half, where twenty supply kiosks stand clustered; empty shell.

The exit point is at the end of the facility area, which is actually a table with a staff member sitting there.

On both sides of the hall, there is a row of arched stone gates leading to the various platforms—although players cannot enter the platforms and upstairs, they are not restricted from staying in the passages; There is an ambush.

At this moment, Amelia was standing opposite to Milady across half the hall. The foggy daylight cast by the high lintel windows on both sides eroded her figure.

"All the players are in their places," Amelia said loudly, "I announce that the fourth game is now beginning."

The humming noise in the auditorium gradually stopped, and for a while, there was a snow-like silence in the hall.

As if no one knew what to do for a while, several seconds passed without anyone doing anything.

Milady's eyes swept the hall round and round, and she could hear the soft slap of boots on the floor when people moved, heard someone speaking in a breathy voice, and could hear the "click" when the mechanism unfolded.

In this kind of free competition and highly maneuverable game, Milady can no longer make a decision before moving; the position at the moment is not ideal, and there is nothing beside her, which makes the mechanism in her backpack useless for a while. Hold your breath and pay attention to the movement around you.

Where are the Tower Trio?
The next moment after this thought surfaced, Milady suddenly realized that she was too stupid.

Where else could the High Tower trio be?
When she realized it, it was too late.A light gray shadow on the left broke through the air in the blink of an eye and swept towards Milady; at the same time, a figure rushed out of the stone arch of the platform on the right, and the sound of footsteps shook the hall.

Before Milady could turn around and run away, the surprise attacks from both sides had already caught up; from the blurry shadow in her peripheral vision, she still recognized Li Wei who was rushing straight towards her.

At that moment, it was as if time slowed down the breathing, and all the sounds were taken out of his mind, leaving only Milady herself and the attacks from the left and right in the world.

She twisted her waist and turned her steps hastily, and Kankan turned out of the package of the light gray shadow - only then did she see clearly that it was a snake-like flexible mechanism.

As soon as the long snake mechanism was shot down, the "snake head" turned over immediately, and its body seemed to be a flexible wire, and continued to bite towards Milady; at the same time, Li Wei's hand also reached towards Milady. Di's waist.

Like a well-trained dancer, Milady turned back again with her right hip, and the score card half-rotated around her waist, and missed Li Wei's fingertips by a tiny margin.

It was too late to take the mechanism in the backpack, so Milady simply grabbed the backpack and swung at the long snake mechanism head-on.

You can't hit people, but she can always hit the organ, right?

With all her strength, Milady knocked the long snake mechanism backwards; her timing and direction were very precise, and the long snake really flung itself towards Li Wei's face.Before Li Wei had time to attack again, seeing a black shadow approaching in front of him, he was startled, and hurriedly stretched out his hand——after he slapped the mechanism in his hand, regret suddenly appeared on his face.

He probably realized that Milady might be punished for violating the rules if the authorities called up.

At this moment, Milady had no time to thank Li Wei for her fighting instinct, and took advantage of the hard-earned time to turn around and run away; but before rushing into the facility area, she twisted her body hastily, and with a sharp Angle, turned back from the oblique stab.

It was as if she was fishing. A golden-red haired figure was caught from the direction of the facility area of ​​the hall, and she quickly rushed towards her.

Like a young leopard being chased by a pack of maned dogs, Milady sprinted past Li Wei's arm and Nawa's mechanism, at such a high speed that she almost turned into a phantom, and plunged into Lin Li In the supply booth, the eyes of the three were temporarily blocked from the booth, and the heart seemed to be on fire.

What about his large organ?

As soon as this thought arose, Milady had an answer.

That large mechanism just stepped out of a supply booth and stopped right in front of her eyes.

Milady leaned back hastily, watching the "arm" of the large mechanism brush past her nose, even though she was always calm, hot sweat broke out on her back.

The "setting" mentioned by Xiyado vaguely refers to this, right?At the beginning of the game, she was intentionally placed within the encirclement of Gaota's family.

This is a typical Chang'an "Hui"-shaped organ. On the skeleton of the "Hui" character, functional organs have been installed layer by layer.The "metal frame" hanging from its shoulders is just suitable for this game that cannot use force: it can be disassembled and reassembled into frames of different shapes, and can be shaped according to the shape of the target's body in just a moment. , Construct a cage that restrains the opponent.

own agency—

Milady glanced at it, and rejected her own thoughts with disappointment: No, this thing is really too big and heavy, and her mechanism can't be used.

Seeing that the frame organ was caged towards her again, Milady did not evade, instead she leaned forward and hugged its other "arm", stepped on the hip bone of the "Hui"-shaped organ, and climbed a few steps. On its shoulders, Milady jumped down from the back of the mechanism amidst the loud applause from the audience.

The frame organ that had been trying to catch her, hit the "Hui" organ itself in the face with a "dang".

"Good job!" came a chorus from the audience—it seemed to belong to Domink.

She turned over and chased the three people in the high tower behind Milady, but was stopped by the "Hui" character mechanism; when Luo Geng operated the mechanism to get out of the way, Milady had already hid in a supply booth, pressing Breathing violently with his chest trembling, he didn't dare to make a sound.

"Don't go after her for the time being," Luo Geng's command echoed in the air in a deep voice, "We don't know where she is hiding yet, so don't give her a chance to grab the score card instead."

As expected of Luo Geng, she was really careful; her plan was to lie in ambush and wait for the opportunity to snatch the score cards.

Milady looked around.

The design and construction of the supply booth is very special: it is two large triangular plates connected by a beam, and the supplies are placed on a table under the beam.

I don't know if there is anything that can be used with my own organization?

Before Luo Geng and the others came in, Milady hurried to the table.She recognized several mechanism parts, and an old acquaintance—the hollow muff used to melt the railing during the duel with Domink.

Milady didn't hesitate at all; as soon as she stuffed the hollow muff into her backpack, she suddenly felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up one by one.

This neighborhood... seems too quiet, right?

Since Luo Geng finished that sentence, the three people in Gaota seemed to have disappeared, and even the auditorium fell into silence again, as if the entire station hall was holding its breath—as if they were all waiting for something to happen. something happens.

At the moment when the sense of crisis erupted, Milady didn't even have time to turn her head. She pressed her hands on the table and rolled over, and all kinds of parts fell to the ground on the other side with her clatter.As soon as she raised her head, she saw the light gray long snake mechanism floating leisurely in the air at the place where she was standing just now.

The other end of the long snake mechanism was wrapped around Nawa's arm; Nawa stood not far from the triangular pavilion, her pair of sharp eyes were wide open.

She probably didn't expect that she approached slowly step by step, and let out the mechanism quietly, but was escaped by Milady at the last moment; and Milady never expected that less than half a minute later, Nawa had already touched her back - it was as if she had known her position a long time ago and came straight over!
Nawa was not the only one who came straight up.

From the paths divided by the triangular pavilions, Luo Geng and Li Wei rushed out from different directions, just in time with Nava, who was watching eagerly behind them, forming an encirclement trend, blocking Milady in the middle .

"She can't run away," someone in the audience exclaimed.

She ran with all her strength, but she never seemed to have escaped from the encirclement of Gaota's house; the opponent's attacks came round after round, forcing her to have no other choice but to escape.

Did Luo Geng just say "I don't know where she is" just for himself?

At that moment, Milady burst out with quick wits; she pressed her hands on the table and jumped, flipped onto the tabletop, jumped up again before several people rushed up, jumped high into the air, and stretched out her arms to hug the knot on her head. bone beam.

Hanging in the air, she kicked and kicked a few times vigorously, and even kicked the long snake mechanism, and finally climbed up, like a big bird, half squatting and half crouching on the bone beam that was only one palm wide, Carefully maintain balance.

"You can really escape." Luo Geng had rushed to her feet at this time, raised his head and gritted his teeth and said with a smile: "But you will always come down."

Milady could not answer at this moment.

There was only one voice echoing in her mind at the moment—the exclamation from the audience just now, "She can't run away."

That's right, since there is no canopy, even if the contestants enter the supply booth, they can still see clearly from the auditorium upstairs... It is not surprising that someone would shout that.

Milady slowly raised her head.

In the viewing seats on the second and third floors, countless faces and gazes were gathering on her, and some people leaned out from behind the railing and stretched their necks to stare at her.

Milady trembled slightly all over.

How did she come up with this?

It is certainly not safe for the committee to just put her in the Gaota family's encirclement; the setting Siyado mentioned is not that simple.

The location of Grand Central Station itself is the "setting".Because in the station hall, all facilities, including taverns and ticket counters, are open upwards.

As the only person in the audience who would really have conflicts with other contestants, Milady attracts the eyes of a large number of spectators overhead at every moment; and the spectators do not realize at all that their gazes have become for Luo The best light to guide the way.

(End of this chapter)