Card Room

Chapter 94 - 4 of Diamonds: Balanced World 2

Xiao Lou came down from the stone. He tried to stand on the ground while both hands pressed on the heavy stone. However, he found that the scale didn’t respond. In other words, it wasn’t advisable for the two of them to press the electronic scale at the same time to make the weight equal.

The two stones seemed to have intelligent sensing. They had to stand on it completely because the scale would work. Standing on one leg, stepping hard or pressing with both hands only had the pointer stay on ‘0.’

Yu Hanjiang looked at Xiao Lou’s movements and speculated, “Is it because some part of our body is still connected to the ground and isn’t floating on the stones, so the stones don’t recognize us?”

Xiao Lou’s eyes lit up. “Floating... I’ll try it with the rings!”

He quickly drew several metal rings with the Compass and placed them on the stones of both sides. However, the scale above the two stones still showed ‘0’.

Xiao Lou was startled. “It isn’t right?”

Yu Hanjiang took out the weapon card he just obtained, Bloodthirsty Golden Shark from his pack. The weight in the description was 4.5 kg. Xiao Lou saw this gun and put away the floating rings, letting Group Leader Yu put on the card. Yu Hanjiang put the gun on the electronic scale and... the scale was still 0.

They looked down at the electronic scale in silence. Xiao Lou thought for a moment before saying, “I’ll try the character summoning cards.”

He summoned Bai Juyi and Di Renjie on the left and right sides and the scale was still 0. Xiao Lou was dumbfounded. “It seems that the electronic scale will only register the weight of us challengers. People called from the card and the object from a card itself isn’t recognized.”

He touched his chin and thought carefully. What if a man and woman entered this room? All cards couldn’t be used and it didn’t react to pressing with the hands and feet. How could they balance the two electronic scales?

Xiao Lou observed the distance between the two electronic scales and his eyes suddenly brightened. “Group Leader Yu, we stand up together.... no, we should lie down. Put your head on one scale and your feet on the other scale!”

Yu Hanjiang heard this and suddenly realized.

The diametre between the two electronic scales was around two metres. The middle distance was around 1.4 metres. Two people lying on both scales at the same time would allow the scales to sense their weight. The weight should be the sum of both people and then averaged. According to the principle of balance, when an object was placed against two scales, the weight of the two scales was balanced.

Xiao Lou first lay with his upper body on the blue electronic scale and his lower body on the red electronic scale. His waist had no support but due to the distance between the two scales, he didn’t have to worry about falling down. It was equivalent to his entire body crossing the two scales.

Meanwhile, Yu Hanjiang lay on the red scale with his feet against the blue scale. The two men lay flat on the rocks and the two electronic scales finally changed.

Yu Hanjiang weighed 75kg and Xiao Lou weighed 65kg. They lay on the scale and their total weight was 140kg. Since the weight of the two people was shared by two electronic scales, the scales were fixed at 70kg!

There was a loud rumbling sound in his ears and Xiao Lou turned to look. Another door had opened in the stone wall in front of them. The two men came down from the stocks and walked side by side.

On the wall of the stone wall, there was a giant chessboard with two boxes filled with black and white pieces below them.

There were already some scattered black and white pieces of the board, leaving a lot of spaces in the middle. They apparently had to put the other pieces on the board in order to release the mechanism.

Yu Hanjiang saw the black and white chessboard and his first reaction was, “Go? Is it to finish the game?”

Xiao Lou shook his head and carefully observed the existing pieces on the chessboard. “This should be a yin and yang map.”

Yu Hanjiang was stunned and looked at it again. The existing black and white lines were connected and the perimeter was exactly a circle. The black firmed a semicircle on the left side and the white formed a semicircle on the right side. The centre of the semicircle contained exactly one different coloured piece, like an ‘eye.’

Xiao Lou walked to the chessboard. He filled the ‘yin’ area with black pieces and the ‘yang’ area with white pieces.

The yin and yang map gave off a soft light and started to rotate quickly. Moments later, there was a loud bang and the wall in front of them opened again.

They walked in and found that a room with two huge stones around two metres in diameter. The corner contained a large number of little boy and little girl wooden models. The model girl was wearing a full-length skirt while the boy was wearing a blue long shirt. They were a bit like an ancient golden couple. Since the model’s height was around one metre, it was impossible to put it on the table.

Xiao Lou touched his chin to think for a moment. “Just now, the chessboard was a yin and yang balanced mechanism. The principle of this room should also be yin and yang balance. The left side is full of the boy models and the right side is the girls. It is yin and yang.”

Yu Hanjiang immediately did it, moving a dozen wooden models to the rocks. The yin and yang were balanced and the two huge stones started to descend rapidly. They fell back to the ground and revealed an opening in the room.

Xiao Lou hadn’t expected there to be so many mechanisms in 4 of Diamonds! The two people glanced at each other and quickly stepped through the stone door into the next secret room.

This time, there was a huge array on the wall. There were five small circles connected to a large circle and some messy connections in the middle. The circle in the upper left corner lit up with a red flame after the two entered the house and the word ‘fire’ appeared.

Next to the wall were four round items of different colours. They had the following words written on them: wood, gold, water and earth.

Yu Hanjiang wondered, “A five-line balance?”

Xiao Lou nodded and went to the wall. “The principle of balancing the five elements is that the neighbouring attributes should empower each other while the subduing attributes are separated. Then fire should be ahead of wood since wood lights fires. Fire is behind earth. Fire opposes water so fill out the remaining gold.”

As he spoke, he placed the four items in the vacancy. Wood, fire, earth, gold, water went clockwise to form a huge ring that had a perfect convergence. The entire array started to flow regularly and the five colours lit up at the same time. The balanced five elements mechanism was easily solved by Xiao Lou.

This time, there wasn’t the sound of the wall opened. The two people simultaneously saw prompts pop up.

[Congratulations Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang for perfectly clearing the 4 of Diamonds secret room, Balanced World in 15 minutes and 48 seconds.]

The two people were transferred out of the secret room and back to their personal space.

A of Diamonds was wearing a cute cake dress and sitting on the sofa waiting for them. The little girl saw the two of them and smiled sweetly. “You are still very relaxed when clearing the Diamonds room!”

Xiao Lou smiled. “Balanced World, it is very simple once you know the principle.”

The numerical balance, the strokes balance, the segment length balance, the challengers’ weight balance, the yin and yang balance, the boy and girl pattern and the final five elements pattern. There were a total of seven small mechanisms and all of them had the theme of ‘balance.’

The main difficulty of the secret room was the double electronic scales. If they couldn’t think of two people lying together to spread the weight then they were likely to be stuck there for a long time. They also needed to find that the pattern of the black and white pieces was actually a yin and yang map.

A of Diamonds nodded and spoke seriously. “The pass rate of this is more than 70%. In fact, it is a benefit given to you. After all, most challengers of 4 of Diamonds have a psychological shadow from 4 of Hearts or suffered a mental breakdown from 4 of Spades. If 4 of Diamonds is too difficult then you can continue breaking through.”

Xiao Lou asked, “The Diamonds room still won’t give time to rest?”

The little girl smiled. “Entering this low-level Diamonds room is a type of rest in itself.”

Yu Hanjiang was puzzled. “We cracked the mechanisms fast enough. Why didn’t we refresh the world record?”

He was very confident in Professor Xiao’s problem-solving speed. Apart from the body scale where they were stuck for a while, the other mechanisms were solved very smoothly. Xiao Lou almost immediately thought of the answer after examining the question. Was there anyone faster than them?

A of Diamonds smiled. “You are really greedy. Previously, the two of you refreshed many world records for the Hearts and Diamonds rooms. You can’t break the record every time, right?”

Xiao Lou thought of the possibility. “The 4 of Diamonds record holders, are they two people with exactly the same weight?”

A of Diamonds nodded. “Yes, the current world record is 10 minutes and 15 seconds, which is more than 5 minutes faster than you. Both challengers are 62kg. They are twins and both very smart. This is the balance of humanity.”

Xiao Lou, “...”

Identical twins with the same weight and height, it was really impossible to compare.

The two people directly standing on the electronic scales could unlock the mechanism, unlike him and Group Leader Yu who were there for a long time. They even put Bai Juyi and Di Renjie on the scale as a test...

Xiao Lou smiled helplessly. “Breaking the record doesn’t matter. A perfect clearance can still draw cards, right?”

A of Diamonds flicked her finger. “Yes, please receive your reward.”

A new card appeared in front of Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang.

[Tool Card: Balance]

Rarity: A

Description: A fixed reward for clearing the 4 of Diamonds secret room, Balanced World

Restriction: A team limited card. The team that signed the same contract can only carry one Balance.

Effect: Throw out the balance and form two 5m diameter silver metal discs in the designated area for 5 minutes. All targets on the disc can’t leave for the time being but others can enter. The discs will only display the weight and once the weight of the two discs is equal, the disc will disappear and the target is free again.

Once the balance is retracted, it can only be used after an hour.

Xiao Lou looked at this card and his heart was happy. “It is a very strong group control card.”

It might be a team limited card and each team could only carry one, but the control effect was very useful.

For example, there were a few people standing together. Throw the Balance card at them and they would be on the same disc. Since the weight of the other disc wasn’t equal to them, they would be trapped in the balance and couldn’t move for five minutes.

Moreover, the card’s skill cooldown time was very short compared to the 24 hour summoning card. It could be used once an hour and when being chased, the other side being trapped for 5 minutes was enough to escape. Of course, since it was a fixed reward for clearing the instance, every team would have a Balance and they would also want to prevent being trapped by the enemy.

Xiao Lou happily put away the card. “Where is the draw?”

The little girl took out the glittering treasure chest and floated them in front of the two men. “This room is very simple so there is only one draw opportunity. You can discuss who will draw it.”

Yu Hanjiang glanced at Xiao Lou. “You do it.”

Xiao Lou wasn’t polite and stepped forward, reaching into the treasure chest.

[Congratulations on drawing the S-grade summoning card, Qin Guan!]

Xiao Lou, “......”

Did he accidentally break through to a nest of historical figures? This hand always drew character cards! Yesterday, he had just drawn Liu Yong and today Qin Guan came to him. This Song Dynasty writer and poet had a very famous poem ‘Immortal on Magpie Bridge’, of which many lines were popular.

[Summoning Card: Qin Guan]

Rarity: S

Description: After a perfect clearance and when there is an S score, there is a low probability of obtaining it from the limited card pool.

Note: Qin Guan has fewer poems and was regarded as a graceful poet of the Song Dynasty. He studied under Su Shi and was respected for his graceful and subdued style of writing.

Additional Skills 1: Tender like water, good times like a dream.

From the Qin Guan poem ‘Immortal on Magpie Bridge’. It describes the story of the weaver girl and the cowherd, talking about the lovers’ sad and happy separation.

Usage Effect: Summon Qin Guan and activate the skill. Let Qin Guan gently look at the other person and use water-like tenderness to let the designated target enter a beautiful dream that lasts3 minutes. The skill cooldown time is one hour.

Additional Skill 2: If the love between the two lasts long, what does it matter if they are separated day and night?

Qin Guan tells the story that if two hearts are the same, why stay together every day? Even if they are thousands of miles apart, they can look at the clouds and stars in the sky and miss the other person, feeling the other person’s presence.

Usage Effect: Specify a target and let the other person enter the ‘hearts are connected state’ No matter how far apart the two people, they can fell what the other person is thinking. After using this skill, they can cross the secret rooms and the main city to make voice calls at any time. As long as they love each other, time and space aren’t a problem.

This connected state lasts 7 hours and can be opened once a day.

Xiao Lou, “...”

He felt really powerless about this card. He looked at Yu Hanjiang and the latter was calm. “The second skill is very useful. Two people are bound and can talk at any time. It is much more convenient than a mobile phone call. The key is that it can also cross secret rooms and the main cities. This is something a mobile phone can’t do.”

Xiao Lou smiled. “Yes, ignoring the constant love and missing each other part of the description, this skill is really good to use.”

He put away the card with Liu Yong.

Liu Yong and Qin Guan, two Song Dynasty people had found him. He had a hunch that next time it might be Su Shi’s turn... he had so many graceful and restrained style poets, what about a bold and unrestrained one? Xiao Lou rubbed his temple and felt that his hand had been saved.

A of Diamonds smiled at him. “You drew a bunch of character cards and character cards are very rare. If you don’t want them then you can sell them for a good price.e”

Xiao Lou shook his head. “Don’t sell them, I will keep them for my own use.”

A of Diamonds shrugged regretfully. “Well, there is no rest in the Diamonds room. Please prepare for the next clearance.”

Yu Hanjiang walked to the card wall and didn’t hesitate to pull out 4 of Spades.

Xiao Lou thought about Chief Shao and Ye Qi. If they smoothly cleared 4 of Clubs and 4 of Diamonds, they should be coming to 4 of Spades. He hoped to meet with them in 4 of Spades to discuss the next plan.