Chapter 41 – Financial Crisis 1: Exchange of Information

From an early age, Xiao Lou had the strong ability to recognize people. When he was four years old, he could clearly distinguish his relatives, aunts, uncles and other relatives, never getting them wrong. After graduation, he became a teacher and taught classes of more than 40 people. By the time two weeks passed, he could recognize all his students. Even if he couldn’t name them, Xiao Lou still knew which person had skipped classes.

Previously, they played cards with No. 5 in the Clubs room. At that time, everyone wore a mask and their face couldn’t be seen, but the eyes and hair of of No.5 were very recognizable. Combined with the height and body shape, Xiao Lou recognized him at first glance.

No. 5 said he would go to the Clubs room first. Since he now appeared in 3 of Spades, it seemed that he had cleared 3 of Clubs.

Maybe they could exchange information?

Thinking up to here, Xiao Lou whispered in Yu Hanjiang’s ear, “He should’ve come here after clearing 3 of Clubs. Do you want to ask him for information on 3 of Clubs? In exchange, we can give information on 3 of Diamonds or 3 of Hearts.”

Yu Hanjiang felt this method was feasible and nodded. “Okay, let’s try it.”

The time in the secret room was morning and the two people were standing in the shade on the street corner. No. 5 didn’t notice them as he lined up to withdraw money. His hands were in his pocket and he looked lazy like a cat. He didn’t seem nervous at all.

The people in front of him progressed quickly and the hooded boy had already hurried away after taking the money.

Xiao Lou wondered, “Who is the person wearing the hat? It isn’t his teammate?”

The challengers were standing in front and behind each other, causing Xiao Lou to think they were teammates. However, the hooded boy took the money and walked away. He completely ignored No. 5 and obviously didn’t know this person.

No. 5 calmly walked to the self-service cash machine and withdrew 100,000 gold coins. He put it into his pocket and turned away. As soon as he took a few steps, his shoulders sunk and the man suddenly turned back, facing a pair of dark and deep eyes.”

“Hello, I’m No. 3.” The other person’s voice gave a flat greeting.

“Hello.” The handsome person next to him smiled in a friendly manner. “I am No. 1, do you remember us?”

“…” No. 1 and No. 3, why did it feel like an underground association? The man narrowed his eyes and gazed at the two men in front of him. He searched his memories before suddenly smiling, “I remember. After playing cards in the Clubs room, you signed a contract directly?”

“That’s right.” Xiao Lou nodded. “We meet again, what a coincidence.”

Yu Hanjiang asked bluntly, “You said you were going to 3 of Clubs. Did you come here after 3 of Clubs?”

The man shrugged. “Yes, I went to 3 of Clubs but I also went to 3 of Diamonds. However, my clearance score in Diamonds is only C.”

Yu Hanjiang, “…”

If there wasn’t Xiao Lou then Yu Hanjiang would’ve probably also received a C-grade when going to the Diamonds room. It seemed they were both learning scum.

Then No. 5 went to 3 of Clubs and then 3 of Diamonds. The result was that they met in 3 of Spades. Since the time flow rate of each secret room was calculated independently, Xiao Lou didn’t tangle over the problem of time and suggested, “Are you interested in exchanging information with us?”

The man raised his eyebrows and looked at Xiao Lou. “What information? Do you know how to pass the financial crisis?”

Xiao Lou shook his head. “I don’t know.” He turned and spoke seriously, “Still, we have been to 3 of Hearts and you have been to 3 of Clubs. You tell us the contents of 3 of Clubs and we will tell you the way to clear 3 of Hearts. An equivalent exchange, how about it?”

The man thought about it before nodding. “Deal.”

He had no reason to refuse a mutually beneficial exchange of information.

He turned and pointed to the high-end coffee store down the street. “Let’s go get a cup of coffee and sit to talk.”

Xiao Lou was more realistic. “We are in a world where a financial crisis is going to break out and we need to save a bit of money. Wouldn’t it be better to go to the restaurant over there and eat lunch directly?”

Yu Hanjiang naturally listened to Xiao Lou and repeated, “Go and have lunch.”

The man, “…”

One person couldn’t go against two and he could only follow them to the small restaurant.

Fortunately, this restaurant might be small in size but the environment wasn’t bad. The tables, chairs and tableware were very clean.

There were only a few home-cooked dishes on the menu. Hot and sour shredded potato, simmer-fried eggplant and other vegetarian dishes were 1,500 gold while potato roast beef, sweet and sour pork and other meat dishes were 2,500 gold coins. In addition, rice was 500 gold coins.

This price…a simple way to understand it was to directly remove the ‘gold’ part and remove two zeroes, then convert to RMB. It was around 15 yuan for a vegetarian dish, 25 yuan for a meat dish and 5 yuan for a bowl of rice. This price was still affordable.

Xiao Lou was moved.

He ordered two dishes and a bowl of rice. He took the initiative to pay for the guests and spent 8,500 gold coins.

In this world of cards, Xiao Lou had only one goal: live to the end and leave.

Therefore, he would rather make more friends instead of offending an enemy.

No. 5’s identity was unknown but his performance in the 2 of Clubs room was excellent. He was definitely a master of playing cards. Xiao Lou showed him enough sincerity. Not only did Xiao Lou pay for the meal, he also took the initiative to say, “Let me introduce myself first. I am Xiao Lou and I was formerly a teacher at a medical school.”

Group Leader Yu’s words were simple. “Yu Hanjiang, policeman.”

“……” The man hesitated before he smiled. “Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang, the ones who refreshed the records for 3 of Hearts and 3 of Diamonds. I’m very fortunate to meet the two of you.”

The world record being refreshed was advertised in large letters and seen by all challengers. Unknowingly, Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang had become famous but they hadn’t yet noticed it.

The man reached out and shook hands with Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang. “Shao Qingge, my profession is a stock trader. Playing card games is my hobby.”

Originally, he had some wariness towards these two people but the other side were great gods who could refresh the records of the secret rooms and his scores in Hearts and Diamonds were often partial to Cs. There was no need to hesitate to cooperate with the great gods.

As long as they had a brain, anybody who encountered masters such as Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang wouldn’t refuse.

Xiao Lou heard Shao Qingge’s name and his expression slightly changed, but he soon restored his calm expression and smiled. “Mr Shao, let’s talk about 3 of Diamonds. What type of mechanisms did you encounter?”

He talked about 3 of Diamonds first because they had been to the secret room. During the process of exchanging information, they could determine if the contents of the secret rooms were consistent or not.

Shao Qingge spoke simply, “The first mechanism was a very simple two character puzzle, the second was fill in the blank to make an idiom and the third was fill in the blank to make poetry. The character missing from the idiom was ‘person’ and the answers were help people to be happy, etc… The word missing from the poetry was ‘moon’ and the answers were ‘who, pining away, on the moonlit rails would learn’, ‘don’t allow an empty goblet to face the moon’, etc.”

Xiao Lou told him, “Our idiom was the ‘positive’ character’ and our poem was ‘flower.’”

Shao Qingge was somewhat surprised. “Then the Diamonds room is the same type of puzzle but the answer will change randomly?”

Xiao Lou also spoke the numerical puzzles in 2 of Diamonds and sure enough, the numbers were different for Yu Hanjiang and Shao Qingge but the types were exactly the same.

Xiao Lou concluded, “The Diamonds room have the same types of questions but the contents will be randomly selected from the question bank. As long as you know the rule to answer it, the questions will be easy no matter how it changes.”

For example, change the last 888 to 869 in 3 of Hearts. No matter how the number was changed, answering it would be very simple.

It seemed that the exchange of information was still necessary.

The two sides instantly reached a consensus.

Xiao Lou opened his mouth. “I will speak about 3 of Hearts first. 3 of Hearts is a campus murder case. On the first day of class, the student who is late, Ying Xiaoya will die. The murderer who killed her is a teacher. The key clue is to find out about the falling case five years ago. The teacher is modelled on the protagonist of Count of Monte Cristo and killed three people, burying their bones in the maple forest. Ying Xiaoya accidentally heard the secret and was killed.”

Xiao Lou paused before continuing, “Our instance clearance method was to find clues to help the police solve the case. However, I think there might be other instance clearance methods in the dynamic secret room. You can try to stop Ying Xiaoya from dying. If you manage to prevent her death, directly dig up the maple forest to find the bones and lead the police to investigate.” He paused again. “If you can’t stop Ying Xiaoya’s death, you should find these clues as soon as possible…”

Xiao Lou told the other person all the clues in order to show sincerity.

Shao Qingge also revealed the information of the Clubs room. The 3 of Clubs secret room is a very simple card game called ‘Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter’. The rules are set by the Keeper of Clubs and the four colours suits represent each season. Play cards according to the suit and whoever finishes their hand first is the winner of this game…”

He told them the game’s detailed rules and the skill to winning.

Xiao Lou suddenly thought about a possibility if the card rooms were similar and the secret rooms represented by the same card were similar. As long as a challenger successfully passed through various secret rooms, the challengers behind them could find someone to obtain intelligence and reduce the difficulty of the instance clearance. Would there be a special intelligence organization in this world, similar to the ‘instance attack strategy group’ in online games?

If this was the case, why had no one managed to leave this world?

There were only two explanations. First, the secret rooms in the late stages were randomly generated, making the information useless. Second, the late-stages death rate was too high and felt people could survive to clear the instance, let alone sell the strategy.

However, at least for now, the strategy for the low-difficulty C-grade rooms was revealed by Shao Qingge. They didn’t have to worry about passing 3 of Clubs and the urgent task was how to pass 3 of Spades.

Xiao Lou asked, “For this financial crisis, do you have any ideas?”

Shao Qingge’s eyes narrowed. “100,000 gold coins is definitely not enough. I plan to make money first.”

Xiao Lou was curious. “How will you make money?”

Shao Qingge smiled mysteriously and lowered his voice. “Looking around, there are no underground money houses.”

Xiao Lou, “……”

This guy, surely he wasn’t planning to gamble again?