Chapter 255 - Unlucky But Lucky

This was his original plan, however, his plan immediately looked to be a fail as he noticed that the water was abnormally hot. 

It was too hot... 

Zhou Xinyi's frown deepened as he noticed that his feet that were submerged in the water felt extremely uncomfortable as if he was standing on boiling water. 

He seemed to have run out of luck as he realized that it would be impossible for him to swim up with the help of the water. Since the water was boiling hot, he would probably die from the heat before he reaches all the way up there. 

Maybe this was the reason why the walls were built so high up...

"I'm... Doomed," Zhou Xinyi sighed as he got closer to the wall and carefully tried to see if he could climb up by any chance but unfortunately enough, the walls were too slippery and smooth, making it impossible for him to get a strong grip. 

He gulped as he anxiously looked around to find the place where the water was coming from. If he could find that then he could always block the waterway off and save himself, however, he noticed that there was no such particular spot for him to find. 

The water was in fact seeping in through the ground that had a lot of small holes in it. To completely block it was simply not possible. 

"Anyone there?" Zhou Xinyi knocked on the wall as he shouted for someone to hear him, but it seemed that he was too far away from the others and nobody could hear him. 

"Damn it..." Zhou Xinyi cursed under his breath as he ruffled his hair before sweeping his bangs back, displaying his forehead that was hardly ever visible. 

Although the water covering his legs was hot, there was cold sweat forming on his forehead as he tried to come up with another plan. 

He looked up at the open ceiling. If he could get up there then he would probably be able to save himself, but climbing all the way up there was not really an easy job. 

"Can't block the water. Can't stay here for too long. Can't climb up. And can't ask for help," Zhou Xinyi muttered to himself as he started considering the options he had on his hands. 

He immediately searched through his backpack to see if there was something in there that could be used by him. 

He truly considered himself lucky at this moment because he had carried that backpack with him till now. Back in the fifth competition arena, he had picked up a lot of useful things, but he had also given the backpack to Liang Feng thinking that the man could make good use of it as he went with Zhihao. Thankfully enough, when Liang Feng returned, he had given the backpack back to Zhou Xinyi and thanked the man for lending it. 

At that time, Zhou Xinyi really didn't expect the man to return the backpack, he had simply given it to the man thinking that it would be more of use to him, but it seemed that in the end, the backpack ended up being more useful to the original owner and Zhou Xinyi felt thankful towards Liang Feng for having returned the backpack to him. 

Inside the backpack were two things that Zhou Xinyi had picked up just because he thought they might help the players if they ever needed to climb down from the roof of the shopping mall, but since they were able to get out through the main door, these two items had not been used. 

One of the items was a heavy sharp knife while the other was a rope that was long enough. 

Zhou Xinyi took in a sharp breath as he held the knife with his mouth and tied one side of the rope around his torso before wearing the backpack once again. 

He took the knife and tied the other side of the rope to the knife tightly before pulling at it a few times to see if the knot was strong enough. 

When he was sure that the knot was strong enough, he looked up at the highest point of the wall and mentally calculated how much distance there was before spinning the knife a few times with the help of the rope tied around it. 

By doing so, he was able to create momentum that he used as he threw the knife up with as much strength as he could. 

The knife crossed the wall and went to the other side but when Zhou Xinyi pulled at the rope, the knife came back down with the rope. 

Zhou Xinyi sighed as he stood aside and watched the knife fall before walking over and picking it up as he started spinning it and tried to get it to go over the wall for the second time. 

He already knew this method wasn't going to be that easy but this was the only thing he could do at this moment. 

The water that was steadily filling up the place had reached the point where his calf was entirely submerged in water. 

It was hot and Zhou Xinyi felt as if his legs were being cooked while he was still alive, however, he didn't seem to let it affect his actions too much as he continued to try and escape. 

He threw the knife for the second time and when he pulled it, the knife once again came down. 

"Damn it," Zhou Xinyi cursed under his breath as he once again dipped his hand in the hot water to pick up the knife that had fallen down. 

He took a deep breath in as he spun the knife for the third time and threw it over with more strength and momentum, hoping that it would do the trick. 

The water rose up all the way to his knees and seemed to be slowly going higher. 

He closed his eyes as he waited for a second before pulling the rope hopefully. 

This time he could feel resistance against his pull which gave him a bit of hope but when he put a little more strength to it, the knife, like all the previous times, came down once again. 

Zhou Xinyi took a deep breath as he opened his backpack again and tried to find the axe that he had picked up from the shopping mall. 

He dipped his hand in the hot water and retrieved the knife before tieing the axe to it as well. 

He tried to mimic the look of an anchor, hoping that it would do the trick. 

For the fourth time, he spun the knife and axe that had become heavier and created a higher momentum. 

This time, he was really sure that he would be successful and so he threw it over for the fourth time before pulling the rope to see if it worked. 

Zhou Xinyi's eyes immediately lit up as he felt the resistance that was stronger this time. It seemed that he was really in luck today as the hand-made anchor did its job. 

The man didn't bother wasting any further time as he started climbing up the wall with the help of the rope that was firm and tight, giving him a good grip. 

Zhou Xinyi had tried rock climbing before this for fun but he had never expected to make use of his lessons from then in such a manner today. 

In just a few minutes. he was finally completely above the water and his legs felt a lot cooler all of a sudden as they got out of the hot water. 

Zhou Xinyi sighed in relief as he continued to climb up all the way to the top of the wall. 

Luckily enough for him, the anchor only gave up when he was close to the top and so when it eventually did come loose, Zhou Xinyi was at least able to cling onto the edge of the wall. 

Zhou Xinyi immediately pushed himself up and climbed up the wall as he took a sharp breath in and looked around. 

His mouth opened ever so slightly in awe as he saw a sight that he would have never expected. 

This was... Really the biggest maze he had ever seen... 

As far as his eyes could see, the maze covered it all. 

The previous parking lot had indeed changed itself and expanded to this point which proved that their speculations were indeed right. 

Someone had actually put them into a virtual game that felt too real. 

The burning sensation in Zhou Xinyi's legs was still there and this proved to show that such a thing was really real-like, but at the same time, it was all fake. 

What bothered him the most was perhaps the fact that he didn't remember wearing any equipment or agreeing to come here. 

Zhou Xinyi pulled the knife and axe back up with the help of the rope that was still tied around it before putting everything back into his backpack as he walked along the top of the walls.