"The Big Rabbit calls, the Second Rabbit watches, the Third Rabbit seeks revenge, the Fourth Rabbit flees, the Fifth Rabbit tumbles, the Sixth Rabbit laughs, the Seventh Rabbit tests, the Eighth Rabbit acts, the Ninth Rabbit carves flesh, the Tenth Rabbit eats, the Eleventh Rabbit locks, the Twelfth Rabbit burns. The Thirteenth Rabbit sits on the ground and cries, Chen Qingguang asks why it cries? The Thirteenth Rabbit says: The rabbits will never return!"
...
Su Ming’an was about to kick Shen Xue flying when suddenly a nursery rhy rang in his ear.
"Click," a bright beam of light shone down.
The bathroom wall transford into a stage, the curtain beca a backdrop, and the heroine "Alice" Shen Xue, wearing a puffy skirt, made a dazzling entrance. A dozen patients appeared behind her, as if they were backup dancers.
Su Ming’an stepped back, but saw them suddenly break into a dance, like an absurd stage play.
"Ti! Ti! The Mad Hatter’s party is about to begin, the party is about to begin!" a patient suddenly shrieked, pulling a pocket watch from his chest, he unraveled the bandages on his hand, twirling and turning as he danced.
Voices echoed around in a rising and falling chorus: "Move! Move! The party is about to begin!"
The patients waved their hospital gowns, spinning as if winged, flowing with vigor. So stomped on the wooden floor, their steps clumsy yet enthusiastic; so stretched their arms, swaying like drunken birds; others knocked on the wall, the wood creaking like a drumbeat. The bed sheets were dragged off, like giant cloaks swelling as they spun around.
From sowhere, several teacups floated over, colorful flowers flying, petals fluttering. They tugged at their hospital clothes, singing and dancing.
——They were all about the Kaidan.
"What kind of madness has possessed these kaidan?" Card Hui Zi said speechlessly.
"Looks like we’ve triggered sothing," Su Ming’an said.
"The Mad Hatter’s party has begun!" The lead dancer "Alice" Shen Xue sang loudly, her pale toes tapping the cold wooden floor as she danced around Su Ming’an.
"Dance! Dance in Wonderland!" The calls ushered in a chorus, the hospital gowns turned into a giant tablecloth at the Mad Hatter’s tea party, the bandages morphed into strange flowers in Cheshire Cat’s garden. It was as if they had drunk a transformative magical potion, their steps dazed, like treading on giant mushroom caps.
"Mr. Caterpillar, tell ..."
"Card Soldier, tell ..."
"Am I the moth extinguished by the fla, or the head that grows for beheading?" the patients sang.
"Ah!" They pointed to the distant firmant:
"They’ve co to take us to dance! To dance the finale before the guillotine!" They pointed to their own mud-filled heads:
"Co! Chop it! Chop off this useless head, let it fly higher!"
"Co! Chop it! Chop off our rose petals, let us grow more lush!"
"What’s going on..." Lü Shu froze on the spot, he had never seen such a crazy scene, everyone seed to have eaten mushrooms. The strangest thing was, this was clearly a bathroom, yet these people acted as if they were singing on a stage, even the gri on the walls seed like stage props.
The kaidan laughed and danced, each one heading out, as if to attend so marvelous banquet.
"Click," once more the lighting focused, the elegantly dressed "Alice" walked at the end, singing a soliloquy in a voice as luxurious as silk:
"The Big Rabbit calls, the Second Rabbit watches, the Third Rabbit seeks revenge, the Fourth Rabbit flees, the Fifth Rabbit tumbles, the Sixth Rabbit laughs, the Seventh Rabbit tests, the Eighth Rabbit acts, the Ninth Rabbit carves flesh, the Tenth Rabbit eats, the Eleventh Rabbit locks, the Twelfth Rabbit burns. The Thirteenth Rabbit sits on the ground and cries, Chen Qingguang asks why it cries? The Thirteenth Rabbit says: The rabbits will never return!"
"My dear..." she looked at Su Ming’an, eyes shimring: "Please tell us, which rabbit are we respectively..."
"Just chop them." Lü Shu raised a knife.
"No, every story has its logic, we can’t disrupt it at will, it seems, the mont we t the heroine ’Alice’, we also beca part of this story." Su Ming’an said calmly: "Only by solving their posed riddles can we calm this madness."
"Who are you really..." Lü Shu gazed at the cat-eared Su Ming’an.
Su Ming’an was about to reveal his identity when Anthony and Qi Mon ca rushing over, trembling as they hid behind Lü Shu.
"The school surroundings are all dark, only here is bright! We all ca over!" Hua De wiped sweat.
"This segnt wasn’t there before, it might be brought by [White Sand Paradise]." Anthony looked at the scene: "If we don’t solve this puzzle, the kaidan probably won’t willingly leave."
Suddenly, they noticed that each contestant held a rabbit card numbered from "One" to "Thirteen."
Mizushima Kawa Sora, holding her rabbit card, was very smart and quickly speculated: "It seems we’re supposed to attach the cards to the corresponding kaidan correctly to clear the level."
"The problem is we don’t understand these kaidan well enough to match them one by one," Zhou Sheng scratched his head, looking at his "Number Nine Card": "Which kaidan is the Ninth Rabbit..."
At this mont, under the spotlight, a blue-haired boy holding a utility knife – WARNING-002 walked forward, continuing Shen Xue’s song:
...
"Ladies and gentlen, listen to my song!"
"Twelve rabbits built a nest, united and mighty."
"They picked straw and radish pens, built a warm nest and high walls."
"The Second Rabbit excels at writing songs, with a sharp and rigid pen, one day its edge grew long, reaching outside the nest’s sky. The Second Rabbit said—’Soone is watching us! The readers are watching us! Look carefully and hide quickly!’"
"Twelve rabbits gathered to look outside——only to see eyes in the firmant!"
...
"Click," the light shifted, a blonde youth holding a doll – WARNING-003 stepped forward, continuing in a warm voice:
...
"Those eyes were incredible, they’ve seen the nest more than once!"
"Twelve rabbits were born with them watching, twelve rabbits grew with them listening, they watched the play rise and fall, until the Second Rabbit took a glance!"
"The Second Rabbit t revenge, it was killed by the eyes! Ears no longer hear, mouth no longer speaks, eleven rabbits held flowers, gathered to mourn it!"
...
The singing paused here for a mont, the group listened thoroughly confounded.
"The Second Rabbit excels at writing songs?" Zhou Sheng kept scratching his head, feeling a bit unhinged: "Who knows which kaidan excels at writing songs! Which one corresponds to the Second Rabbit!"
"I ran as soon as I saw a kaidan, I didn’t pay attention to their characteristics at all..." Hua De self-reflected, which shouldn’t be the case for a top-ranking player.
"It’s not your fault, anything with instant death, everyone fears." Anthony’s big hand gave Hua De’s shoulder a comforting pat.
"This is obviously the final puzzle, ant for after we’ve encountered all the kaidan, but why did it trigger early!" Wu Yi crossed his arms, despite his rich experience, he was also at a loss: "Who triggered it? Why did the kaidan suddenly go crazy?"
Su Ming’an remained silent, knowing it was his own action of leafing forward that caused WARNING-001 to awaken early, leading the kaidan to frenzy, triggering the final puzzle...
There’s no other way, with him, a multi-playthrough player here, the difficulty would increase significantly.
"Don’t rush, we can always use brute force in the end," said the soldier, Liu Chongping, calmly.
"You can use brute force in an escape room ga, but if we ss up here, we’ll obviously die!" Xue Jiarui swallowed, feeling an intense chill around him.
"...Huh? Everyone’s gathered here?"
At this mont, the participants from Xiao Su and Xiao Nuo’s side were attracted by the light source and ca over as well.
Su Ming’an hadn’t seen Xiao Su for a long ti.
He thought Xiao Su should be decapitated in the closet, turned into a Xiao Su popsicle, but unexpectedly, Xiao Su was still alive, probably due to the butterfly effect brought by [White Sand Paradise].
Shen Xue frowned, feeling very dissatisfied that her world with Su Ming’an was intruded by a wave of people.
"Let’s analyze the ballad," Qi Zhou said, crossing his arms, "The ballad ntions ’Nest’, and I’ve heard that it’s a Genesis organization led by Sique and Si Hua from the Second Epoch, intending to write a more perfect world with a pen. But here, ’Nest’ should symbolize the whole world. Twelve rabbits refer to a group of Luowasha people who want to create a better world."
"But, I don’t understand what ’Eyes’ refers to... It’s definitely the villain in the ballad, does it refer to the Master of the End of All Things?"
They were confused, but Su Ming’an knew very clearly.
[The twelve rabbits gathered and looked outside, only to see the firmant had eyes!] The eyes refer to the Awakeners. Second Rabbit accidentally discovered the Awakeners and was killed by them.
—This is indeed a ballad one can hear only by deciding to wade into the sea!
If he hadn’t decided to wade into the sea, he wouldn’t have turned the page forward, wouldn’t have triggered WARNING-001’s awakening, wouldn’t have turned [Mingxi campus] into the inverted Dark Side [White Sand Paradise], and wouldn’t have triggered this puzzle.
Li Mingyue lowered her head to look at Su Ming’an, and only raised her head when she saw that he wasn’t afraid.
The teacups and knives and forks flew around them, the patients still surrounded them and danced, as if they weren’t allowed to leave this dance circle unless the puzzle was solved.
With a "click", the light flickered, and the red-skirted girl Zhao Mingming—WARNING-004 imdiately walked out, raising her arms, singing faintly, the temperature growing increasingly colder:
...
"Third Rabbit bowed its head and shed tears, vowing to avenge Second Rabbit! It picked up a hunting rifle and aid at the sky, ’bang’ went the gun!"
"All the rabbits picked up carrot pens, knives and forks, hamrs at their sides, snow-white teeth were weapons, sharp nails were spears!"
"With hearts united against the eyes, hot-blooded, they went to the battlefield!"
"But then Fourth Rabbit raised its wand, with a crack it defected, it walked toward the eyes smiling, it had long forsaken the return voyage!"
"Third Rabbit died with a gunshot, it was killed by the eyes, ten rabbits gathered in circles, burying the rabbit and the gun!"
...
...burying the rabbits and the gun.
Ian rubbed his chin, putting away his high-minded expression, speaking, "The rabbits discovered they couldn’t defeat the eyes, decided to stop resisting, Third Rabbit was made an example of, and they buried the hunting rifle. Hmm... sounds familiar, I feel like I’ve heard similar history... When was it... I rember the Magpie ntioned it to ."
An outspoken voice rang out, "You just rember his eyes being like sunlight, what else can you rember?"
Ian was ashad and angry; Su Ming’an looked over to find a red-haired figure standing in the corner.
Su Ming’an’s heart suddenly stirred.
... It’s her.
She dies in the future, but she’s still alive in the past.
Nightingale, bad Nightingale, good Nightingale.
The eighteenth participant, Shi Ying.
Upon seeing Su Ming’an, Shi Ying looked like she was seeing a stranger, quickly averting her gaze indifferently.
No matter how deep their exchanges or moving their emotions were in the future... nothing had happened at this mont, they were just strangers. She didn’t rember he was Xiao Shanzhu, he hadn’t approached her.
And she would move toward her destined death in the future. Ti, like a river, is unforgiving.
With a "click", the light transitioned again, a golden-haired skeleton erged, once sat in the laboratory, now teetering as it grew out of the darkness, its singing far more lodious than other Kaidan:
...
"Ten Rabbits surrendered, obeying the eyes and the heavens, carrot pens turned to word pens, nails beca clay!"
"In such a grand nest with high walls, there was no room for carrot pens, anything that did not fit the eyes’ intent, the world would beco ’***’!"
"Fifth Rabbit stood up and shouted, ’If the throat is blocked, if the nest is bounded, if the pen tip is blad by thousands, if the world turns into Eight Legged, where are the throat and hunting rifle?’"
"Fifth Rabbit wholeheartedly protects history, tired of historical books being sared, if the world is just a stroke of the pen, where lies True Heart and Ti? It hopped with a plan, tempting the eyes to possess it—roll, roll, roll, Fifth Rabbit tumbled down the stairs, and the eyes on it disappeared!"
...
"Fifth Rabbit rolled down the stairs... that’s WARNING-007!" Anthony and Hua De spoke in unison.
Finally, a match!
The blood-soaked blonde man was a history teacher, died being pushed down the stairs by a security guard, it matches up!
However, from the ballad, it seed like the blonde man’s actions were intentional; he aid to kill the Awakeners and was possessed, purposely tumbling to his death!
The security guard who pushed him down was likely a good rabbit too!
Anthony imdiately took out a wooden plaque, identified it for a mont, and hung it around WARNING-007’s neck. The blonde man smiled slightly, pushing up his glasses, held his chest with one hand, making a bow.
"That’s right!" Anthony let out a deep breath.
The first correct answer instantly motivated everyone, Geng Lan breathed a sigh of relief, Wang Xingkong wiped his sweat.
Su Ming’an’s gaze trembled, feeling that this scene reminded him of playing an escape room with Yuanyuan after the college entrance examination. At that ti, he had so savings and could finally touch things of interest.
While others were wailing, he and she were calm and expressionless, Yuanyuan always solved puzzles quietly, even facing the single-player tasks everyone feared, she went alone.
But she couldn’t solve it and got trapped... in the end, Su Ming’an went to rescue her out.
mories seed to be fogged over, becoming hazy... her appearance solving puzzles, her leading him out, her playing and eating hot pot afterwards, all converged... finally turning into the cold symbol of "Spiritual Dream-Maker."
He wanted to bring her ho.
He was unwilling to leave her in the World Ga, this was one of the reasons he waded into the sea.
With a "click", the lighting changed, and a middle-aged woman playing a ga appeared—WARNING-006 stepped out, singing in a low tone.
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