“Of course!”
Xiaoya said proudly.
“Our test is very particular.
Those who can perform exceptionally well without knowing anything, and even save their companions, mostly do very well later on.”
At this point, she specifically and seriously instructed Su Yan, “Our values are somewhat similar to yours, Master. You must understand that abandoning companions at will and those with corrupt morals are not accepted by the mainstream public; only a small number of perverse fans would like them.”
Su Yan nodded, “Don’t worry, I believe I’m not that kind of person.”
Xiaoya smiled, “I know! If you were, you wouldn’t have received the treasure chest!”
She was delighted.
Her luck was incredibly good; it was her first time on the job, and she got assigned such a promising talent.
They assigned new recruits randomly, and the quality of the assigned guest was purely a matter of luck.
And once her assigned guest was eliminated, she’d have to wait for the next assignment to get back on the job.
That wait could be very long, equivalent to being unemployed for half a year!
Actually, Xiaoya had told a small lie earlier about a few things.
For example, guests who received the Newbie Gift Pack probably only accounted for 1% of all guests.
And almost more than half of that 1% entered the top 20% of all guests, which was a very astonishing number.
The reason she didn’t tell Su Yan was mainly to prevent her from becoming arrogant.
A senior had told her that some guests who received the Newbie Gift Pack had stumbled precisely because they were conceited and thought they were particularly amazing.
Su Yan saw her in a daze, her thoughts somewhere else entirely, and quickly reminded her, “Put my test video on my personal homepage.”
Xiaoya snapped back to attention, nodded, and with a wave of her little hand, “Done.”
Seeing there was nothing else, Su Yan said, “Then I’ll exit now?”
Xiaoya nodded, “I’ll remind you again when the next show is about to start.”
Just as Su Yan was about to exit the app, Xiaoya called out to her again, “Oh, Master, when you participate in the variety show, the outside time won’t change. In other words, whatever time you enter is the same time you exit.”
That was truly wonderful!
Su Yan couldn’t help but smile.
If that were the case, she wouldn’t have to explain where she was during that time.
It also wouldn’t cause any delays, which was very humane.
After this was said, Su Yan finally exited the app.
She let out a long breath, feeling that she was about to have an extraordinary life experience.
Just then, Feng Di returned.
Seeing Su Yan already sitting on her bed, she asked curiously, “Why are you back so early? Didn’t you go to dinner?”
Su Yan shook her head.
After something like that happened, how could she be in the mood for dinner?
But now that things were basically settled, she felt her stomach beginning to protest.
“I’ll go to the convenience store outside to buy some bread to eat later,” Su Yan said, getting out of bed.
Her bed was on the top bunk, and usually, unless there was a special circumstance, once she got into bed, she wouldn’t come down again.
On her way back from buying bread, Su Yan suddenly realized something.
She couldn’t talk about the variety show, but that didn’t stop her from writing about her test experiences in her own novel!
Isn’t this ready-made horror fiction?
Thinking of this, Su Yan became excited.
She excitedly rushed back to the dorm, grabbed her laptop, and got into bed.
“What’s gotten into her this time?”
He Yuxin asked in surprise, seeing Su Yan enthusiastically hugging her laptop and getting into bed.
Wu Xiaoxiao lifted her head from a complex advanced calculus book, “What else could it be? Her muse of inspiration has graced her again!”
Su Yan thought for a moment and began writing from when they entered the escape room.
However, she changed the reasons and background.
Instead of them just randomly picking an escape room, she changed it to them deliberately choosing one.
“That’s a given!”
Xiaoya said proudly.
“Our test is very sophisticated. Those who can perform exceptionally well without knowing anything, and even save their companions, usually do very well later on.”
At this point, she specifically and seriously told Su Yan, “Our values are somewhat similar to yours, Master. You must understand that abandoning companions at will and being morally corrupt are not accepted by the mainstream public; only a small portion of perverse fans would like that.”
Su Yan nodded.
“Don’t worry, I believe I’m not that kind of person.”
Xiaoya smiled, “I know! If you were, you wouldn’t have gotten the treasure chest!”
She was incredibly pleased.
Her own luck had surged; it was her first time on the job, and she’d gotten such a promising potential star.
They assigned new recruits randomly, and the quality of the guest they received was entirely up to chance.
And once her assigned guest was eliminated, she’d have to wait for the next assignment to get back on the job.
That could be a very long time, equivalent to being unemployed for half a year!
Actually, Xiaoya had lied a little about a few things earlier.
For instance, guests who received the Newbie Gift Pack probably only made up 1% of all guests.
And almost a majority of that 1% entered the top 20% of all guests, which was a startling number.
The main reason she hadn’t told Su Yan was that she was afraid she’d become arrogant.
A senior had told her that some guests who had received the Newbie Gift Pack had stumbled because they were conceited and thought they were exceptionally good.
Su Yan saw her lost in thought, her mind somewhere else, and quickly reminded her, “Put my test video on my personal homepage.”
Xiaoya snapped out of it, nodded, and with a wave of her small hand, “Done.”
Seeing there was nothing left to do, Su Yan said, “Then I’ll exit now?”
Xiaoya nodded, “I’ll remind you again when the next show is about to start.”
Just as Su Yan was about to exit the app, Xiaoya called out to her again, “Oh, Master, when you participate in the variety show, the outside time won’t change. In other words, whatever time you enter is the same time you exit.”
That was fantastic! Su Yan couldn’t help but smile.
If that were the case, she wouldn’t have to explain where she was during that time.
It also wouldn’t delay anything, which was very humane.
After saying this, Su Yan finally exited the app.
She let out a long sigh, feeling that she was about to have an extraordinary life experience.
Just then, Feng Di returned.
Seeing Su Yan already sitting on her bed, she asked curiously, “Why are you back so early? Didn’t you go to dinner?”
Su Yan shook her head.
After something like that happened, she had no appetite for dinner!
But now that things were basically settled, she felt her stomach starting to protest.
“I’ll go to the supermarket outside and get some bread to eat later,” Su Yan said, getting out of bed.
Her bed was on the top bunk, and usually, unless there was a special situation, once she got into bed, she wouldn’t come down again.
On her way back from buying bread, Su Yan suddenly realized something.
She couldn’t talk about the variety show, but that didn’t stop her from writing about her test experiences in her novel!
Isn’t this ready-made horror fiction?
Thinking of this, Su Yan got excited.
She eagerly rushed back to the dorm, grabbed her laptop, and got into bed.
“What’s gotten into her this time?”
He Yuxin asked in surprise, seeing Su Yan excitedly hugging her laptop and climbing into bed.
Wu Xiaoxiao raised her head from a dense advanced calculus textbook, “What else could it be? Her muse of inspiration has visited her again!”
Su Yan thought for a moment and began writing from when they entered the escape room.
However, she changed the reasons and background.
Instead of them just randomly picking an escape room, she changed it to them deliberately choosing one.
***
And this escape room was known as the most haunted in the city.
People who came out of it often went mad for unknown reasons.
“OK, send.”
After reviewing the entire text, Su Yan nodded with satisfaction and clicked send.
It had been six days since their last escape room visit.
And she, the queen of procrastination, had finally finished this story.
Although the main plot and clues were readily available, many parts required her to expand on them with her imagination, which took a lot of time.
Of course, the main reason was that she procrastinated too much.
She could write a chapter a day, but she insisted on taking two days.
However, Su Yan would never admit this; she firmly believed that she worked slowly to produce quality, all for the sake of excellence.
He Yuxin immediately said upon hearing this, “Hey? Your novel’s updated? I’ll go check it out.”
The four roommates were very close, so Su Yan didn’t mind them reading her work.
Despite He Yuxin being timid, she loved reading horror novels the most.
Don’t ask, the answer is “it’s thrilling.”
A moment later, He Yuxin wiped her face and looked at Su Yan in horror, saying, “Yanyan? This story of yours isn’t inspired by our escape room experience, is it?”
Su Yan nodded.
“Something like that.”
He Yuxin froze for a moment, then quietly told Feng Di, who was below, “I’m not going to the next escape room.”
She sat up.
“What’s going on? Didn’t you excitedly say you wanted to go again that day when we came back? Why are you suddenly not going?”
“Uh…”
He Yuxin stuck out her tongue.
“I’m just afraid that what happens in Yanyan’s novel might actually happen. And then I won’t have a great expert leading us like the main characters do.”
She pointed to Feng Di, “If we encounter that situation, am I supposed to rely on you to get me out? Or Xiaoxiao, or Yanyan? Definitely not. Without an expert leading us, the four of us would really die on the same day, month, and year.”
Feng Di’s interest was piqued.
“What kind of situation? The novel Yanyan wrote? I’ll go read it too.”
Once she dove in, she couldn’t pull herself out.
That night, when the lights were out and they were going to bed, Feng Di said with deep emotion, “To be honest, I think if I encountered such a situation, my reaction would be like Xue Qin’s in your novel.”
Su Yan couldn’t help but smile.
At least Feng Di knew herself well.
That Xue Qin was indeed her!
Su Yan had chosen names with intention, Xue sounded like “xue” (snow), and Feng sounded like “feng” (wind), so snow against wind.
And Qin naturally corresponded to Di (flute).
Having found a kindred spirit, He Yuxin and Feng Di spent the next day discussing the plot at length.
In the end, they came to an unexpected conclusion: the four main characters in the novel seemed to correspond exactly to the four of them!
The next evening, the two of them cornered Su Yan at the dorm entrance, not letting her out. Feng Di tapped the ruler in her hand like a small whip, “Student Su Xiaoyan, confess honestly.”
Su Yan was startled by the display, “What’s wrong? My two lords, what did I do?”
Feng Di said, “Let me ask you, are the four main characters in your story based on us?”
Su Yan paused for a moment before she understood what Feng Di meant.
“Yes!” she admitted righteously.
“Since it was the four of us who went to the escape room together, I had to give you some presence, didn’t I?”
Feng Di was so exasperated she laughed, then reached out and pinched Su Yan’s face, “You think you’re so reasonable, huh? Why are the three of us just little useless burdens while you get to soar?”
He Yuxin fanned the flames from the side, “Exactly! If you had said the four of us were all rookies, and then there was one expert to carry us, we’d have accepted it. But you only made yourself shine, huh?”
What could Su Yan say?
She couldn’t very well say that all of this was real, and that she was indeed the one who carried the three of them!
Helplessly, she had to say, “How about this: the next time we play an escape room, I’ll carry one of you and show you.”
After this escape room, Su Yan had some confidence in her own abilities.
She wouldn’t claim to dominate the entire game, but carrying these three little useless newbies was more than enough.
At the end of the month, during class, Su Yan’s phone suddenly began to vibrate.
She secretly opened it and found that the vibration seemed to be from the long-dormant “Childhood Games” app.
To be honest, after half a month, she had almost forgotten about this bizarre experience.
If it weren’t for that pure black app constantly reminding her every time she opened her phone, she would have definitely put these things out of her mind.
However, probably because she still subconsciously refused to believe the truth, despite the black app being eye-catching, Su Yan hadn’t tapped on it since that day.
But now she knew she had to tap it.
Su Yan glanced at the teacher spitting on the podium, bent down, and quietly slipped out of the classroom.
Someone was in the dorm right now, so she couldn’t go back.
She walked to a seldom-used path, then put on her headphones and opened the app.
Xiaoya had been waiting inside for a long time.
Seeing Su Yan enter, she said somewhat helplessly, “Master… long time no see.”
Su Yan also knew that not tapping in for so long was a bit much, so she chuckled awkwardly, “Long time no see, long time no see.”
Xiaoya sighed, but she was already mentally prepared for this situation.
After all, it was perfectly normal for someone to not immediately accept such a variety show suddenly appearing in their ordinary life.
“Let’s not talk about anything else for now. Congratulations, Master! Many people have watched the test video you uploaded earlier, and you’ve gained quite a few fans,” Xiaoya conjured up small firecrackers from nowhere, crackling across the screen.
Su Yan’s goal was to enter the top 50%; the more fans she had, the happier she naturally was, “Did I gain a lot of fans? Show me!”
Xiaoya nodded and, with a flick of her small hand, “Look, this is your current fan count.”