Chapter 174: Chapter 162: Escape Chapter 174: Chapter 162: Escape Immediately, Chen Xiao realized something. It seemed that the object inside the ceiling window of the elevator was suspended deeper within.

So, the specially designed groove was not made for the wrist.

But for the elbow…

In that case, the ultimate solution to this elevator puzzle was to have someone in the elevator press their shoulder against the ceiling and stretch their whole arm into the window… to touch something!

Hmm…

It had to be said, Chen Xiao’s train of thought was correct. About 40 to 50 centimeters away from the “hidden window”, indeed there was a button. As long as he pressed this button, the countdown on the phone would stop…

By now, the timer had dwindled down to 2:08, leaving only 2 minutes until the end. Chen Xiao had spent nearly three minutes finding the puzzle, what remained was to solve it.

Thus he quickly jumped down the makeshift steps he had constructed using the elevator’s handrails and side walls and swiftly scanned his surroundings once more.

Afterward…

“Are you kidding me?”

He blurted out, his voice filled with frustration.

…

It was no wonder he complained… There wasn’t much inside this elevator, so let’s sort things out.

Firstly, the only things in the elevator were two handrails and a mirror; nothing else, the whole space fit tightly together, except for the window on the ceiling, there were no other hidden items.

Secondly, the items Chen Xiao had on him: a gun and a vibrating dagger couldn’t cause much damage to the special material of the elevator. This meant that unless he found the answer to the riddle, escaping within a few minutes was impossible. Oh yes, blasting open the ceiling with a shot was feasible, but in such a confined space, chances were he’d also kill himself in the process.

Lastly, apart from leaning against the wall, the two handrails had no other place to fix themselves. Even if he wrapped them with his bulletproof vest or chopped one off to embed the other in the wall as a foothold, it wouldn’t work.

And as you might expect, the method of “using the handrails vertically, lifting Chen Xiao’s height by one more level in a ‘high stepping’ manner” also failed, because there was no way to prevent the vest from slipping down, ultimately only achieving a height similar to the makeshift steps.

Having discounted these ideas, it meant that unless Chen Xiao was some primate aberration wielding a ten-thousand-pound iron rod, capable of performing the feat of standing a rod upright on the ground while perching on its tip with one foot and remaining upright… otherwise, he could only wear his underpants on the outside and fly up.

…

…

Another 10 seconds passed, and during this time, Chen Xiao merely stood there, doing nothing.

He was thinking.

There surely was something he hadn’t yet considered… because as it seemed now, really, unless he could fly, reaching a higher position was just not possible.

Hmm… Are they really asking me to figure out how to fly within a few minutes? Or is this puzzle meant only for those taller than 250cm? This is no joke…

If, he had thought wrong…

Then the answer to the puzzle was not about reaching higher places.

Could it be… actually…

Chen Xiao suddenly paused, seemingly having thought of something.

Immediately, he hopped on the spot…

“Bang!”

Then he blinked.

“Shit… are you tricking me?” he exclaimed inexplicably. After squatting deeply, he gathered his strength and jumped again.

“Dammit!”

Just as he was high in the air and had not yet landed, Chen Xiao began cursing. Then, his feet hit the ground…

In that instant, he immediately rushed toward the wall of the elevator on his side and slammed into it with his shoulder.

Of course, he had no illusion of breaking a hole through the wall. He was conducting an experiment to confirm his guess…

Because of the two bounces he had just made, Chen Xiao realized

…

when he entered this elevator,

no, when he first saw this elevator, he was already deceived.

Because, this elevator wasn’t moving at all. The initial sway was nothing but an illusion making him think it had started descending. Now, the elevator must still be in its original place.

It wasn’t even an elevator at all! It was just a box that looked like one.

Since the Foundation had applied special suspension technology to nearly all its facilities, much like the subway, where even at high speeds, passengers couldn’t feel the movement, this also skewed Chen Xiao’s judgment.

But, sensation aside, if the elevator were truly moving, inertia and speed would surely change. It’s like entering a bathroom; even if your nose doesn’t serve you well, the smell is definitely there.

So with those two different intensity jumps Chen Xiao had made, and the few steps he ran back and forth, he could confirm it.

He had been played, tricked by an extremely simple trick.

“Uh… I was really careless…”

At this moment, with only 1 minute and 40 seconds left, Chen Xiao, after hitting one side of the wall, immediately turned and took a running start towards the opposite wall, muttering under his breath as he did so.

Suddenly, just as he had anticipated, the “elevator” shook slightly…

And Chen Xiao, using this wobbling momentum, leaped up and threw himself against the same wall again.

Yes, he intended to use this method to “knock over the elevator”.

Indeed, the moment he realized the elevator wasn’t moving, the intent behind the puzzle’s design became quite clear; the entire space was tall, narrow, and elongated to facilitate a tipping of its “base.” All that was needed on the object it rested upon was a slight, adjustable slope so that anyone inside only had to crash into the walls a few times to shift its center.

Having said so much, another 10 seconds had passed, and Chen Xiao, after several runs back and forth, finally managed to sway the “elevator” into a tilt.

“Oh~…”

Chen Xiao exclaimed as he slammed into the wall once more.

…

Perhaps because this tilt reached the threshold the supports could bear, this shaking was much more intense than the previous ones.

Seeing this, Chen Xiao quickly applied more force, grabbing the handrails still standing between the walls to lift himself a little higher, then he slammed his shoulder down in the direction of the tilt.

Accompanied by a “squeak…” of friction, the entire space began to tip over, and Chen Xiao, following the inertia, fell along with it.

Following this was a “bang!” the elevator fell at a right angle, but because of its suspension design, Chen Xiao didn’t feel much vibration or weightlessness, and even the noise wasn’t that loud…

Right now was not the time to worry about these details; at this moment, the entire interior of the elevator had flipped over, and the previously inaccessible ceiling was now not far in front of Chen Xiao.

Previously mentioned, the elevator’s narrow side spacing caused that when it fell, there was no room to stand, so Chen Xiao could only crouch down, ass up, scrambling and rolling to the small window.

Under pressure of time, he didn’t say another word but instead reached his hand through, getting stuck at the shoulder with his elbow curving around the bend, reaching to the far inside. Meanwhile, his fingers found a button at the end. His other hand had already grabbed his cellphone.

The next instant, Chen Xiao’s fingertip pressed down on that button.

“Beep.”

Chen Xiao tilted his head to look at the cell phone screen…

The countdown finally stopped.

The time was stuck at 1 minute and 10 seconds, the number below also stopped at 70, and simultaneously, a synthetic voice came through the phone.

“Congratulations, you have passed the selection for the elite strategy game…”

Before the sentence could finish, a “hiss—” from his side as a burst of air released, and the door creaked open.

Seeing this, Chen Xiao turned, continued in his crouched position, and crawled out of the “elevator…”