Chapter 29

The surrounding army of monsters was a dense black mass. Although the edge could be seen, the idea of breaking through was clearly impractical. Five level 30 players might consider charging out of the encirclement of several hundred monsters, but for their team with an average level of 6.6, such a plan was not even worth considering.

"Brother Feng… they are still getting closer…" Long Ao Ming reminded the thoughtful Feng Jue.

"It's fine, let me think for a bit more." Feng Jue said, "From the looks of it, retreating back into the door is the last option the game provides us. There must be a tough boss inside, and after defeating it, we will complete the game with a standard ending, something like 'Although the players successfully escaped this space, Samudil will forever dominate it.'"

"Alright, but I don't want to die at the last moment. If they really come at us, we should retreat into the door," Long Ao Ming said.

Feng Jue nodded and sat down cross-legged, examining the two keys in his hands. The gradually approaching demon army seemed to exert little pressure on him. He rested his elbows on his knees, lowered his head, and gently tapped his forehead with two fingers. After a few seconds, he slowly raised his head, his fingertips sliding down his nose. His gaze moved upward, until it met the hazy moon in the sky. His eyes suddenly lit up, and an idea flashed through his mind.

"Do you remember what the plot description said when we first entered the script?" Feng Jue asked.

Wang Tan Zhi, looking at the monsters now less than a hundred meters away, whose breathing was becoming increasingly erratic, replied, "It just mentioned that the location is a city, the time is night, and the characters are us survivors, right?"

Feng Jue, recalling and repeating, said, "The second part… 'Until one evening, the sun set and never rose again. The hazy moonlight, appearing and disappearing behind drifting clouds, illuminated this desolate, isolated city.' He recited it word for word."

"So what?" Long Ao Ming asked.

"That sentence isn't telling us the time of the event is at night," Feng Jue said. "It's pointing out the phenomenon of 'looping.' He suddenly asked, "Have you seen any clocks or timing devices so far?"

The other four were very confused at this point, with visible fear approaching. The closer the monsters got, the more vivid and terrifying they became. They couldn't calm down to recall such trivial details. Loneliness almost without thinking replied, "Who remembers! What does this have to do with the current situation?"

Feng Jue said, "The pattern behind this script… the so-called loop, and the darkness… I have figured it out." He continued, "If we consider the virtual world's time as a straight line, with both ends extending infinitely, this line has no beginning or end. The city that Samudil has separated from the rest of the world is like a segment of this line, with a start and an end, about thirty minutes long." He stood up and gestured, "He bent this segment, connecting the ends to form a circle. The city always runs on this circle…" He pointed at the demons, "These creatures, and us, do not belong to this city. We are inside the circle, not on the line segment, so Samudil's power cannot consume us. He can only directly attack things that are on the line segment."

At this point, Loneliness looked shocked, staring at Feng Jue, "Brother! My dear brother! I'm not a science student! Math is three parts talent, seven parts effort, and ninety parts destiny!"

"I'm not talking about geometry; I'm just using shapes to illustrate the concept," Feng Jue explained calmly.

"Brother Feng… no, Brother Jue! You don't need to explain to us, really. Just understand it yourself and tell us what to do now besides retreating into the door!" Long Ao Ming, who had just started calling Feng Jue "Brother," even though he was four years older.

"Actually, restoring the seal doesn't require any special actions," Feng Jue said, holding the two keys up, making no change from his previous action.

"Hey! This is just waiting around!" Wang Tan Zhi shouted, as the monsters were now only a few dozen meters away.

"This is a test of our courage, to see if we dare to stand until the last second," Feng Jue said with a smile, "Heh heh… The system is really focused on creating these last-minute survival scenarios."

"Where's the survival? You're just holding the keys!" Loneliness also shouted.

"When we were at the police station, I said the Fire Key puzzle was too simple. I take that back," Feng Jue's thoughts jumped back, "69185, it's also a clue. When combined with the element of 'time,' we get the answer."

"Brother Jue… right now…" Long Ao Ming didn't finish.

Feng Jue interrupted, "The minute hand on a clock starts at 6 and moves clockwise to 9, which is 15 minutes; then from 9 to 1, which is 20 minutes; then from 1 to 8, which is 35 minutes; and finally from 8 to 5, which is 45 minutes." He still held the keys, "Without the minute hand reversing, i.e., without time reversing, 69185 takes a total of 115 minutes. And the game time since we entered the script until now is…" He looked at the monsters, which were now just a few meters away, but remained calm, "If my estimation is correct, it is now…"

The flash of the keys interrupted his words, the brilliant light shooting up to the sky, even the heavy air of the night seemed to clear a bit. The two keys spun upward, embedding themselves into the missing pattern above the door. The divine rune array lit up, and the fire and wood magic arrays were restored. The pentagram reappeared, and the door began to slowly close.

The monsters were terrified, emitting heart-wrenching roars, and scattered in a panic, fleeing from the square much faster than they had come.

"What… what happened?" Long Ao Ming had already raised his shield, ready to defend, but was surprised by the sudden turn of events.

Xiao Tan, Loneliness, and Solitude were completely in a state of mental short-circuit. They had been frustrated by the pressure around them and Feng Jue's calmness, but now, they didn't know what to say. It's no wonder; the joy of a miraculous survival often takes a while to fully erupt.

"At the 115th minute, bringing the keys to the door restores the seal, that's all," Feng Jue said, "As for the monsters, it's simple. The system arranges for the encirclement to reach the door at the last moment, to see if we will be forced inside. The slow approach of the monsters is just to create a dramatic effect of a last-minute escape."

"If gathering the two keys and coming to the Demon Gate triggers the monster encirclement," Wang Tan Zhi asked, "What if we come too early or too late?"

"Trying to gather the two keys and return here earlier is probably very difficult. The script's difficulty is set according to the team's strength. We have done quite well, and there are only a few minutes left until the deadline. Don't forget that we first went to the police station and then discovered the task, saving the time for a round trip. If we had to walk that route again, those few minutes would be used up. Later, we did indeed waste some time at the shopping center. If we had found the flashlight and gone down directly without searching for equipment, we might have saved a few minutes. But then, dealing with the illusion monster only took us less than a minute, which made up for it," Feng Jue replied, "In short, even with gains and losses in total time, the system's boundary is fixed. Arriving here with the two keys at 115 minutes will trigger this plot."

As for coming too late… naturally, we would miss the seal restoration time and be forced into the door.

"Then now? Have we completed the game?" Long Ao Ming asked, "Why hasn't the system announced it…"

[Current task completed, main task…] At this moment, the system prompt indeed sounded, but unexpectedly, it didn't finish the sentence.

[You insignificant ants from another world, do you know what you have done?] This sentence directly appeared in the minds of the five, interrupting the system voice. The voice was the same clear whisper heard in the third darkness.

Feng Jue quickly opened the menu to check. Although the system didn't finish its sentence, the "Restore the Seal" task in the task bar was marked as completed, and a new task was added: [Survive Samudil's attack]

"See the new task?" Feng Jue's tone was casual.

"Is that guy tangible?" Wang Tan Zhi asked.

"Based on my speculation, Samudil has no physical form, or rather, according to his setting, his physical form exists in a higher dimension. To appear before us, he must manifest as a form we can understand in our dimension," Feng Jue replied, "Just like 'Swallow Star' appears as a creepy old man in purple, Samudil must create a physical form to deal with us and cause us physical harm."

"Speak in plain terms…" Wang Tan Zhi added.

"Look, like this…" Feng Jue said, pointing to a spot on the square.

At this moment, the clouds had dispersed, and the moonlight spread like frost over the square's stone pavement. The group followed his finger and saw a circular shadow about five meters in diameter on the ground, thick and dark, like a black abyss that could even absorb light.