The secret chamber of national destiny, the design of the ancestral home, you're building the Z

[The God of War announces the results of the 200th Escape Room Competition: Winner: Japan (Sakura Country). Escape Room Theme: Supernatural. Theme: Well. Name: Sadako. Receives 500 National Fortune Points.]

[The losing side: Great Xia Kingdom. The Maoshan Squad was completely wiped out, resulting in a deduction of 500 national fortune points.]

[The Great Xia Kingdom's national fortune value has reached 0, triggering a revival tournament. According to the rules, the opposing sides in the revival tournament will switch roles based on their final escape room match. In this round, Great Xia will be the escape room designer, and Sakura Kingdom will be the challenger.]

[Attention all citizens of the Great Xia Kingdom: If Great Xia is defeated this time, an apocalyptic catastrophe will descend upon its territory.]

[Now, the Grand Representative of the Great Xia Kingdom will draw the theme and subject of the Great Xia Kingdom's revival competition escape room. After the draw, the Great Xia Kingdom will immediately select an escape room designer and begin designing the escape room.]

……

Blue Star.

The palace of the god of the secret chamber.

The god of the secret chamber, shrouded in a divine halo, floated in mid-air, his simple words proclaiming the fate of a nation.

Below, in the representative area of ​​the Great Xia Kingdom, all members looked ashen-faced.

Zhou Xingbang, the chief representative of Daxia, took a deep breath and walked calmly to the center of the venue.

A box appeared in front of him.

Although Zhou Xingbang tried his best to control himself, his hand still trembled slightly as he put it in.

Because he knew that the fate of the Great Xia Dynasty might depend on his drawing of lots.

At this moment, the designers of the Great Xia Kingdom were almost suffocating, because a good subject and theme might be their only hope for a comeback.

But no one noticed that a young man in the crowd was looking at this scene with a look of astonishment on his face.

He pinched himself hard, tears welling in his eyes from the pain. "God of Escape Rooms? Escape Room Challenge? This... this really isn't a dream!"

I am receiving a flood of memories in my mind and everything I see before my eyes.

Zhang Qilin finally realized that this was not a dream, but that he had traveled through time.

In his previous life, he was the patriarch of the Zhang family. He died in an accident while tomb raiding and unexpectedly transmigrated to this place.

This world is largely the same as his previous life, except that it was descended upon and absolutely controlled by the God of the Secret Chamber a few years ago.

Every week, two randomly selected countries compete in a locked-room challenge. The designers devise the locked room, while the challengers attempt to solve it. The winner increases their nation's fortune, bringing blessings to the entire country; the loser diminishes their nation's fortune, leading to frequent disasters.

Of course, escape rooms cannot be designed arbitrarily.

First, you need to choose a broad theme, such as the supernatural, history, reality, anime, etc.

The escape room design must fit these themes, and secondly, the theme. For example, the escape room theme of the Sakura Country defeating the Dragon Country is a well.

The designer must then create around the theme of a well. There must be a well in the escape room, and the well must be the most crucial part of the escape room.

In addition, escape room games must be logical, have a story, and have clues; they cannot be unsolvable.

The Great Xia Dynasty has also had bad luck. In recent years, it has drawn many supernatural themes, but unfortunately, the Great Xia has always advocated against feudal superstition and there is almost no talk of ghosts and gods, which has put the Great Xia at a disadvantage.

Japan and South Korea, on the other hand, have become world powers by leveraging their culture of ghosts and monsters.

"How could the mighty Great Xia Dynasty, with its five thousand years of civilization as vast as the sea, be driven to such a desperate situation by the treacherous arts of barbarians?" After learning everything, Zhang Qilin was heartbroken.

He looked towards the Sakura Kingdom region, where all the Sakura Kingdom representatives were cheering excitedly, occasionally casting disdainful glances and using vulgar sarcastic remarks.

The representatives of Daxia were furious, but powerless to refute them.

This made Zhang Qilin even angrier.

"Damn it, these darn cherry blossoms! I can accept losing to anyone else, but we absolutely cannot lose to them."

He clenched his fist, feeling he should do something for the Great Xia Dynasty in this world.

All eyes in the room were on Zhou Xingbang. Finally, Zhou Xingbang pulled out a slip of paper.

[The theme chosen for this Great Xia draw is history...]

The voice of the God of the Forbidden Land then rang out.

Upon hearing this voice, the representatives of Great Xia looked even more displeased.

As is well known, historical escape room scenarios must be adapted from real historical events, and the items that appear in the escape room must also have actually existed in history.

Therefore, the ancient setting greatly limited the complexity of the mechanisms and the use of horror elements, making the design extremely difficult.

[Haha, it's a historical drama, this means the Great Xia Dynasty is truly doomed.]

Although the Great Xia Dynasty boasts a history spanning five thousand years, no other nation has ever triumphed in designing historical-themed escape rooms in recent years. The Great Xia Dynasty is destined to lose this time.

[Alas, God of the Secret Chamber, you are so unfair to our Great Xia!]

Heaven has forsaken my Great Xia!

……

The moment the historical theme was chosen, even before the design process began, the people of Great Xia themselves felt they were doomed to lose, because historical escape room designs had rarely succeeded since the arrival of the God of Escape Rooms.

The designers at Da Xia slumped back in their chairs, looking like zombies.

[The theme for this year's Grand Xia draw is... an old house!]

As if things weren't going to go wrong, the mere mention of the words "old house" made even Zhou Xingbang feel a jolt.

"It's over..."

With a historical theme and an old house as the main subject, wouldn't that limit the escape room to the scope of the old house?

Is an old house just an old house? It needs to be combined with real history. No matter how hard you rack your brains, you can't think of any design ideas for an old house.

"Zhou-san! History? Old house? What a wonderful combination! Even if we invited the top designers of our Great Sakura Empire, they would probably only shake their heads and sigh in the face of this kind of topic. In my opinion, why waste precious time? Why not just admit defeat and let your Great Xia people... prepare for their funerals sooner! Hahaha!" Yamamoto Ichiro, the representative of the Sakura Kingdom, made no attempt to hide the mockery and sarcasm on his face.

Hearing his words, Zhou Xingbang clenched his fists. "Admit defeat? Absolutely not. The people of Great Xia will die standing, even if it means death."

clap clap clap...

"You have guts! Absolutely guts!" Yamamoto Ichiro exaggeratedly gave a thumbs up, then his face turned cold, and he sneered, "Unfortunately, guts can't buy national fortune, let alone stop a world-destroying catastrophe! Zhou Sang, destiny belongs to Sakura. The fate of your Great Xia should be severed by Sakura with my own hands!"

Zhou Xingbang could only clench his fists and reply, "Hmph, the outcome is not yet decided, don't be too happy."

Yamamoto Ichiro shrugged. "Zhou-san, don't worry. No matter how rubbish your design is, my Sakura Kingdom will give it the respect it deserves. We will send out all our elite explorers. Great Xia will surely be destroyed by the hands of my Sakura Kingdom."

【Great Xia Kingdom, please appoint a designer within ten minutes.】 This urgent call from God was like a death knell.

Zhou Xingbang walked heavily back to the designers' table at Daxia, looked at the dejected designers, and sighed.

"Colleagues," Zhou Xingbang's voice was dry and hoarse, yet he tried his best to remain calm, "the fate of our nation hangs in the balance, and the survival of our civilization hinges on this battle. Who... is willing to step forward, to take up the pen for our country, and design the secret chamber of this 'historical mansion'?"

silence.

Dead silence.

No one answered, no one looked up.

Many of them may not be afraid of death, but everyone understands what this design represents. If they lose, they will be eternal sinners who will cause the downfall of the Great Xia Dynasty and be cursed by future generations.

Most importantly, they really couldn't come up with any good designs for the theme of history and old houses.

Zhou Xingbang showed no disappointment, as if he had expected this scene.

"Well, fine, since that's how it is, then let me be the sinner for all time!" He sighed, preparing to go into battle.

"Wait!"

Just then, Zhang Qilin stepped forward. He stood tall and straight, his spine as straight as a javelin, and beneath his black, tousled hair, his eyes were as deep as an ancient, cold well.

His eyes showed not a trace of fear, but rather a hint of excitement.

He ignored all the complicated gazes directed at him and walked step by step to Zhou Xingbang.

"History is the bone, and ancient houses are the form; what's so difficult about that?"

"What are cherry blossoms worth mentioning?"

"I, Zhang Qilin, accept this challenge."

"I will make sure you barbarians know—"

"What is the glorious China? What is...unshakeable!"

These words shocked everyone present.

Given the low morale, Zhang Qilin's first appearance was truly remarkable, worthy of everyone's attention!

……