Chapter 2: 1 || Trial Room

Words: 2202

(Unedited)

Li Yan finally was able to sit up from the mattress, though he couldn't tell if that was necessarily a good thing. The light seemed to have been repaired and turned back on because he could now fully see his surroundings. The first obvious thing that he noticed was the bright red door in front of him. Next to the door was a 9-digit keypad, seemingly wanting a 4-digit code. He could see vaguely four dashes in the display above the keypad.

    Luckily, the glass that he felt penetrate his skin seemed to have just been a type of illusion. As he inspected his body, he noticed that not one place on his body seemed harmed. The scar that he has had since childhood and any prior scratches or bruises were also all gone. Unlike how one would think, he felt better than ever. Since he was originally running from store to store, his legs were quite sore. But now he could not feel even the slightest hint of fatigue.

    He found it quite odd, but he decided to just connect it to the mysterious hologram he saw earlier. He would be lying if he said he wasn't a bit panicked, his hands were dripping with sweat and his body was trembling quite a bit, but there really was not anything he could do except observe the situation. Once he tapped on the 'yes' button from that hologram, nothing has shown up since. He wanted to sit there and just not move for the rest of eternity, if there was a blanket on the mattress he would have long since hid under it. Unfortunately, the world seemed to be really against him today because soon another hologram appeared in front of his face.

[You have accepted the role as a 'player' in the infinite escape room (IER). System has fully recorded player information....now assigning player, Li Yan, the temporary beginners system. Livestream has now started.]

After reading the system's message, Li Yan hit the small X in the corner to close the hologram. "Livestream?" He sat there and frowned. Does a livestream start for him or is he being recorded? He looked around for a camera but found none.

[Would Li Yan like to view the chat? Yes/No]

    Seeing that this chat might be his only hint for the situation he is in he agreed. As soon as he had, a pop-up hologram appeared at his side which showed a scrolling chat.

[A newbie? Yay!]

[New person? He's quite handsome too!]

[I always thought these Earthlings were quite unappealing! I take back my words!]

[Hey @personabove you must be looking in the wrong rooms!]

    "Ah." Li Yan realized he was the one being live streamed. His palms started to sweat even more, he was sure that if he looked down the poor mattress would be soggy where his hand was. He saw from the livestream interface that popped up with the chat that around 200 viewers were in his room watching him. As someone who never went out a lot, being watched was a novel experience for him. He really wished he could wipe his hands off on something other than this mattress, he felt that this mattress was no longer as dry as it originally was.

    Originally, he wanted to look around the room, but now he stayed sitting down and staring stupidly at the livestream interface.

[Is the stream frozen? Or is he just like that]

[I think he's just like that!]

    Li Yan read these words and slightly moved his head away from the chat. If he didn't look, they were simply not there. He let out a shaky breath before deciding to get up. He stood up from where he was sitting on the mattress and began to walk around the small room he was in. Other than the mattress and the door, there was a desk, chair, a bookshelf, and a lot of trash. The room was originally very small, so adding the mass amounts of trash on the floor and the furniture made it feel even more cramped. He only had to walk around for less than 2 seconds to reach the red door.

    When he was about to reach and look at the papers on the desk, another hologram popped up in front of him.

[Welcome to the start of the beginner's trial! Pass this trial to be an official player of IER and assigned a personal system. The goal is to escape the room in less than 30 minutes. Failure to pass will result in death.

Now starting: 30:00]

    With the vague information given to him, Li Yan was quite stumped. Though he loved puzzle games, he didn't think he would eventually get the chance to be in one, let alone in a life or death situation. He found it ironic that he went from trying to buy an escape game to being actually in an escape game. Luckily, he found that if he thought of this situation as a game his hands would become less sweaty than before which was a plus. So he began doing what he normally did in escape games and touched everything.

[Ahahahah what is he doing? Making more of a mess? I like him! I hope he survives the trial!]

[Normally the contestants freak out more and are quite scared! He is very brave!]

[Ah! Fellow commenters look at his hands! Very sweaty!]

[Why do I find that kind of cute?! Put on a blank face but secretly nervous!]

[Are we sure this guy isn't a pro? He looks so calm!]

    As the chat became more lively, Li Yan was gaining more papers. He looked through the drawers under the desk and found a few things that could possibly be of aid to him. There was first a photograph of a little girl with an older girl to which behind the photo had the date, June 16th, 1998. He noted this date down in his head and moved on to looking through the things on top of the desk. There was a laptop there which was open to a log-in screen that required a password. Thinking back to the photo, Li Yan inserted the date as 0616, but unfortunately got an incorrect password notice. But luckily with this failure there was a pop-up notification of the password hint which said: "Hint: When Lana was born."

    Li Yan thoughtfully looked at the photo, and then changed his perspective towards the bookshelf. It wasn't a very wide shelf, but it was very thin and tall. With a total of five shelves, the top 2 were filled with books. Almost as if they were glued, the books seemed fully attached to the shelf, so he figured that there must be nothing of importance up there. He browsed the bottom shelves and found a few more photos, but none had any dates on the back nor were they of anything important. After moving some books out of the way, he found a simple box with a 4 digit code.

    He put 0616 again but the box showed no movement. He then switched the numbers to 1606 and the box finally opened. Inside the box was a ragged diary and a photo of a family of four. The family of four included the two girls that he saw in the previous photo along with a man and woman. The man and woman presumably being the two girls' parents. The back of the photo only said "We love you, Mei and Lana."

    He suddenly looked around the room again and realized this seemed to be a room for only one person. This room must belong to Mei or Lana, but he also was unable to go outside of this area making it impossible to tell as of right now whether or not this is in a shared home or not. It could be that one of the girls had moved out and now lived on her own, or it could be a room connecting to the family home, but the latter was unlikely considering the state of the room.

You are reading story I’m Stuck in an Infinite Escape Room at novel35.com

[27:28]

    After glancing at the time displayed on the ceiling, he began to skim through the diary. The diary was simple, and it didn't seem like it was frequently written in after a few months of having it. The entries at first depicted the daily life of Mei which included school and taking care of Lana, but as high school rolled around Mei had met another girl in her class. Mei had quickly developed a crush on the girl, but the world in which Mei lived in was very against same sex couples. Luckily, Mei and the girl both mutually liked each other and began dating, but when Mei had tried to come out to her parents she got kicked out. After Mei had left the house, the diary entries began getting less and less descriptive until she eventually had stopped writing.

    From this, Li Yan could tell that this room was Mei's after she had been kicked out from her home. She had graduated high school, and her grades were excellent so he figured that she must be in university but her financial situation was poor. Probably due to debts or other issues that had occurred after being kicked out.

After understanding this, Li Yan got the general gist of what Mei's life was like. Her regrets probably were that she could no longer see her beloved sister Lana anymore, and the girl who she had a relationship with probably had left her after the incident, maybe due to fear from her own family's reaction. Suddenly remembering the computer code that he needed, he went back in the diary and found the entry he actually needed.

February 15th was Lana's birthday, so he entered the code as 1502 but was denied. He then switched the digits again and was allowed access to the computer. The computer was as expected of a university student, and was mostly filled with notes from class or assignments. After searching for a bit more, he found a folder labeled as "Lana." He opened the folder and found that it was just a collection of pictures and videos.

Since he didn't know what he was looking for, he turned to the side to look at the red door and found that on the keypad had a small button that said "Hint" in the place of where the hashtag would normally be. After looking at it, a new hologram popped up.

[In the escape rooms, the players can use "Hints" but it will deduct points from your total score. This room will not deduct points as it is the beginners trial, and you must use the hint button to get past the room.]

After reading the hologram, he hit the hint button and saw a question which said: "When will Mei go back to meet Lana?"

BEEP BEEP

Startled by the beep, Li Yan quickly turned and looked towards the noise, but in the process his back hit the keypad. When it hit the keypad, a random set of numbers automatically went into the input and made a ding sound. A green light emitted from the input screen, and the words "Correct!" showed up.

Li Yan: "......"

Flabbergasted by what had just happened, he ignored the prior beeping and looked at the red door which now opened. Beyond the door was a complete black void, there was no way to tell if it would be safe to enter.

[.....]

[Did- Did he just accidentally get the code????]

[Hahahahah he was startled by the time warning and got out free!!]

[Why so lucky? Give me some.]

[I refuse to believe this game is not rigged]

[Warning: User1093 please do not spread slander on the platform.]

    Li Yan helplessly looked through the door, wondering how to get out safely. He took one more glance back at the room and decided that he had nowhere else to go and simply leaped through the door.

[So fast?]

[Hahaha usually they sit there for the whole time!]

[So brave!]

    Opening his eyes, Li Yan saw that he was now in a circular building with a tall cylinder in the middle which had many big monitors which were surrounded by a crowd of people. The building had a lot of people in it. From some who looked very calm, to some who looked scared out of their minds. Before he could take in more of what was happening, a blaring sound emitted throughout the building.

"Attention! A new world record has been set for the Trial Room: Mei's Bedroom. Finished in 7 minutes and 45 seconds. Successfully rewriting the old record of 8 minutes and 3 seconds."

    People started gossiping over the record while Li Yan got a pop-up hologram in front of his face.

[Would player, Li Yan, like to reveal his identity for the world record? Yes/No]

    He selected No, and the pop-up disappeared. As he was about to walk forward, a sound echoed in his head.

[Player Li Yan, assigned system 901. Now connecting to the system...please wait for further instructions.]

~~~