novelraw Chapter 67: Ranking of Curious Items: Rank 4968 - Escape Key
Chapter 67: Ranking of Curious Items: Rank 4968 - Escape Key
Escape Key
Quality: Rare Artifact
Ranking: 4968
Introduction: The birth of this item was an accident, but that doesn't affect its power.
Functions:
① Any door opened with this key will lead to the main guest room of the Northern Wilderness Motel. The cumulative daily stay time is 3 hours. When leaving the room, you will return to your position before entering.
② After constructing the [Escape Passage], using the Escape Key allows free travel between the Safe House and shelter.
Taboo: Please pay attention to the time spent in the motel's main guest room. If you exceed the stay time without leaving the room, you will be permanently trapped inside.
Yu Yuan looked at the unremarkable brass key in his hand, surprise flashing in his eyes.
"Is this a Rare Artifact?"Meanwhile, a different leaderboard had appeared on the virtual light screen before him—the Rare Item Leaderboard.
This was the second list to appear on the leaderboard page, similar to the Shelter Leaderboard.
Each row displayed the name and ranking of a Rare Artifact.
These Rare Artifacts covered such a wide variety that Yu Yuan felt somewhat dazzled.
Medical supplies, tools, construction materials, household items, furniture, weapons, vehicles, valuables....
There were things he couldn't even imagine, but nothing he couldn't find.
Any item could potentially become a Rare Artifact, but once it did, it would possess incredible abilities.
Yu Yuan's Escape Key ranked at 4968, among the lowest rankings.
This was because the Rare Item Leaderboard only had 5,000 total entries, which differed from the Shelter Leaderboard.
The leaderboard only displayed the names of the Rare Artifacts, not the owners' names or specific functions.
One could only guess based on the Rare Artifact names.
For example, for a plant named [Breathing Pothos], Yu Yuan guessed this pothos probably had air-related abilities, like purifying air...
Thinking this, Yu Yuan had already reached the shelter entrance. As the stainless steel waterproof door closed, he took out the Escape Key and inserted it into the door's lock.
Click...
The security door opened, but what appeared before Yu Yuan was no longer his shelter, but a relatively spacious, tidy room.
The room was about twenty to thirty square meters. Immediately inside was a double bed with two nightstands, plus a double sofa and coffee table. A 27-inch LCD TV and a wall clock hung on the wall.
The wall clock showed exactly 9 o'clock.
Yu Yuan entered the room. Warm-toned lighting illuminated the space, creating a relatively cozy atmosphere.
White sheer curtains covered the windows, blocking the view outside and impossible to lift aside.
It had a private bathroom complete with toilet, shower, and sink, along with toiletries (towel, soap, shampoo).
At this moment, Yu Yuan felt mentally dazed, as if everything in the wasteland was just his pipe dream.
As if he was still living in the civilized world!
Yu Yuan reached out incredulously to touch the double bed's quilt cover—soft and comfortable. He carefully sat on the bed, then slowly lay down.
His entire body was enveloped by thick white bedding.
His nose could still smell the laundry-fresh scent of cleaned and dried bedding.
"How nostalgic!"
Yu Yuan stared blankly at the slightly yellowed ceiling, lost in thought.
Unconsciously, he had already been in the wasteland for ten days. Although only ten days had passed, he felt like he had left the civilized world long, long ago.
Raising his left hand, he set a 5-minute alarm for himself, then closed his eyes.
He didn't think about anything, didn't do anything, just lay there quietly.
His mind was completely blank, utterly empty.
"Consider this a vacation for myself!" This was his final thought before...
Beep beep beep...
As the alarm sounded, Yu Yuan's eyes snapped open. He took a deep breath, sat up, and messed up the bedding on the bed.
Going to the bathroom, he picked up the toiletries and tossed them into the Magician's Ring, then left the room. As the door closed, he stood once again outside the shelter's security door.
But all the toiletries he had just stored in the ring had disappeared.
Yu Yuan's eyebrows raised slightly.
"Items can't be taken out?" He pondered thoughtfully.
He inserted the Escape Key into the security door again. As the door opened, he re-entered the motel's main guest room, but the bedding he had messed up earlier had returned to its original state.
The entire room was exactly as when he first entered—clean and tidy.
"As soon as I leave the room, everything resets." His gaze turned toward the bathroom. "Then what if I wash up here?"
Although he had just bathed, Yu Yuan didn't mind doing it again.
He immediately entered the bathroom....
And so, after repeated testing by Yu Yuan, he stood once again before the shelter's security door, a smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.
He had deduced the room's hidden rules beyond that one [Taboo]:
To enter the motel's main guest room, you can only use the Escape Key to open a 'locked door' for this effect to activate. The door is a stable two-way passage, so if someone follows you inside before the door closes, they will also enter the motel's main guest room.Moreover, even if you enter the room first and close the door, as long as someone guards outside the door, when you reopen the main guest room door from inside, the people outside will see the main guest room.
Once people leave the room and close the door, everything belonging to the room returns to its original position, and consumed items are replenished. But items not belonging to the room completely disappear. The door size limits what objects can pass through—only objects that can fit through the doorway can enter the room."Now I have the Escape Key, and I have the Vacant Room. Constructing the Safe House can be added to the plan. Once the Safe House is built, then comes constructing the escape passage..."
Yu Yuan quickly formulated his next steps in his mind. The first step in building the Safe House was constructing the Rare Treasure building for the Starry Sky Mirror—the Starry Sky Observatory.
However, building the Starry Sky Observatory required consuming 50,000 survival points and the Vacant Room, and it could eliminate one [Luxury Card] of bronze quality or lower.
Yu Yuan wouldn't pass up this opportunity.
He also needed to figure out how to get the 50,000 survival points, but he still had plenty of time.
Yu Yuan already had a target for supplies—he thought of those three keys found on Enforcer Fries, the bald guy.
"Looks like it's time to visit District 14 and check out Nightingale's situation! Of course..."
His gaze fell on the Mahada backpack at his feet, full of anticipation.
"There's still this loot here. Hope there's good stuff inside!"