Silent Crown

Chapter 223 Consider Carefully…

In the hustle and bustle, people queued excitedly, wondering if that Eastern concertmaster was a fool who wagered his all points on such a rough work. Even if it passed the school’s audit, many problems would be found by the students who tested it out, since it only took those guys a few days to make the thing.

How did he have such courage to wager all his points on it and to claim that no one could pass the game? Or did he get too carried away because of the rewards for the top prize?

People who looked depressed constantly came back from the front and were surrounded by people who excitedly inquired about what kind of work it was.

"Is it really difficult?" someone asked.

"It won’t be too difficult," someone beside interrupted. "If the creator isn’t able to do it himself, then the school will never let him pass the audit."

The experienced student shook his head with a complex expression. "No, actually, it\'s very simple..." He gesticulated for a long time before finally shaking his head in frustration. "Forget about it, you can see for yourself." Finishing his words, the student went away regardless of other people\'s tugging.

After having waited for half an hour, Cullen lost his patience. He went directly to the front using his own privilege as a student council member. Fortunately, the music history department prepared dozens of copies this time, so multiple people could experience it at the same time. Otherwise, the people in line would have to wait until the next morning.

"Hey, I know you!" Charles, who stood in front of the door for taking points, looked at Cullen. He reaching out his hand and smiled. "One-hundred points, please."

"It’s that expensive?" Cullen was dumbfounded. "Are you mad?!"

"It might be a little expensive, but it’s worth it! Think about the reward if you win. It’s one-hundred and seventy-thousand points!" Charles explained exultantly. "Pay one-hundred points and you can get a reward of seventeen-hundred times that! Even a bank robber won’t get so much so fast, okay?"

Cullen hesitated. Under the man’s urging, he paid one-hundred points very reluctantly and entered. "I won’t let you go if I find out that you are cheating," he gritted out between clenched teeth in a low voice.

Charles smiled. "Okay, no problem!"

Soon Cullen was taken to a vacant field in the illusion. Nothing could be seen in the white mist.

Cullen frowned. "Is this group of guys too lazy to even make the surrounding background? And they charge one-hundred points for this shoddy stuff? How f*cking crooked are these men?!" he thought.

Boom! Before he could react, a square brick fell from the sky and crashed before him. He froze, "What is this?"

"This is my graduation work." Charles rubbed his hands. "It’s starting soon. Aren’t you going to prepare?"

Before Charles finished his words, there was another boom. A rectangular brick descended slowly from the sky and landed next to the other brick...Following immediately, another brick in a right angle fell slowly, filling the gap between the square and rectangular brick perfectly Ding! After a crisp sound, the line that was filled with bricks disappeared. The piled bricks fell down and fell back into the bottom row.

"Do you understand now?" Charles smiled and asked. "This game is called ‘Bricks.’ The work will produce intervals randomly, which are represented here through the form of bricks. You need to use notes to control where the bricks fall, and then combine those various intervals cleverly—that is, by putting them in a row and filling the empty spaces. The filled intervals will disappear. The longer you last, the faster it’ll get and the more scores you’ll receive." Before Cullen could react, Charles disappeared in the mist. "There are only nine levels, so enjoy yourself!"

"Wait! That’s all?" Cullen muttered blankly, not having processed anything…

He had been ready to face the difficulty of hell before he came, but this was just too simple. It was as simple as a puzzle. If he passed the game, he would have one-hundred and seventy-thousand points? Where did these psychos get their confidence from?

Soon the bricks began falling slowly again. This time, Cullen carefully controlled the whole process for fear that something strange would happen. But after ten minutes, he realized that it was just so simple!

Without surprise, he passed the first level.

At the beginning of the second level, the speed of the falling bricks seemed to have become a bit faster, but it did not matter. Cullen did not care about this speed at all. But why were there so few rectangular bricks?

"Give me a rectangular brick! I don\'t want strange corners and squares, just a rectangular brick. Rectangular brick, come on, rectangular brick!" he thought.

Soon, a belated rectangle fell from the sky. Cullen breathed a sigh of relief and carefully put it into the corner-most space. Instantly, four dings rang in a row. Four rows had disappeared!

Cullen let out a long sigh, and felt light and happy inside. He had to admit that this game was quite interesting! Soon, he passed the third level, the fourth...

By now, the bricks were falling at around the same speed as they would in real life. Cullen could barely handle it all. In the midst of the chaos, the bricks had piled up into a tall tower…

Give me a square! A square!

"Give me a square!" Cullen shouted. At last, the square came belatedly. Cullen was overjoyed, but then his facial muscles slacked. It was too late to move the square over; there was a rectangle in its way.

There was a loud bang. The pile of bricks finally reached the top and all the bricks collapsed.

Game over.

Cullen shook his fist angrily. "Dammit! I almost made it. Almost!"

In the illusion, a strange folk music sounded. A dog with arrogant eyes came, singing and dancing. After glancing at Cullen judgingly, it went away, singing and dancing...

In such a cruel ending effect, Charles appeared, rubbing his hands. He smiled and asked, "How was the experience? Want…"

"Again!" Cullen interrupted him resolutely, and transferred five-hundred points. "No need for change. Just deduct it automatically and don’t bother me!"

"Ok, if you pay up, then you’re the boss. Boss, enjoy yourself." Charles waved his hands and floated away like a ghost.

Immediately, a square fell from the sky again. Cullen rubbed his hands and prepared himself. This time, he would succeed!

Twenty minutes later, Cullen swore. The bricks before him had collapsed again because the bricks had piled up too much, before he could get the lifesaving rectangular brick.

He was so close to the eighth level!

"Again!" he gritted his teeth and growled.

Boom!

"Again!" he shouted again.

Bang!

...

"Again!" he growled.

"..."

No bricks fell down this time. Cullen froze for a moment and turned back angrily, only to see Charles’s unscrupulous smile. "Ah, Mr. Secretary Cullen, your points are used up. You want to recharge?"

"How can it be this...fast?" Cullen became dazed before finishing his sentence and carefully thought about it. It was true that he ran out of the points, without even realizing it...Was he going to give up here? He had gained so much experience and was almost there!

"Again!" Gritting his teeth, he transferred one-thousand points. "I don\'t believe it!"

"All right!" Charles clapped. "Are you tired of standing? I also sell small benches here, it only costs ten dollars; there’s also ramen and iced water!"

"I don\'t need anything, go away!"

"Okay, okay..." Charles said sadly.

The bricks fell from the sky again. There were endless sighs in the environment. It was not until noon that Cullen came out of the illusion. The last time, he had reached the ninth level but failed in the last few seconds…

He was so close and had brushed shoulders with one-hundred and seventy-thousand points! D*mn, he was so close! Just a bit more…and he had spent more than half of this thirty-thousand points on this thing.

He gritted his teeth to keep himself from trying again. He finally understood that this thing was a bottomless pit. With that difficulty, no amount of points was enough!

But he did not see Charles’s original work. That was a real bottomless pit...Countless points were put in, the wheel turned two rounds and the points were gone. One could only hear a ring.

"Oh, you’re leaving?" Charles came up with a regretful expression. "A pity, you were so close."

"Shut up! I don\'t want to talk to you!" Thinking of the twenty-thousand points he had lost, Cullen shivered inwardly.

"Ah, what a pity!" Charles sighed. "I was going to tell you that the version had been updated."

"Updated?"

"Yes, a lot of people responded that the final levels are too difficult, so we made a small adjustment." Charles took out a flyer. "You see, with this, the difficulty is lowered a lot!"

Cullen paused. "What\'s this?"

"This is..." Charles smiled meaningfully. "I call it the khorium system.

"There are three new items that can be purchased with points. There’s a small shovel that can help you clear some of the wrong bricks. One is an explosive barrel that can help you clear a row of bricks. The last one called the siege hammer, which can directly clear the entire screen of bricks...Well, you see, since these things are so powerful, it\'s understandable that the charges are expensive, right?

"But," Cullen looked at the price list on the flyer and gulped, "but isn’t it too expensive?"

"It\'s worth it." Charles put his arm around Cullen’s shoulder, and whispered in his ear like a devil, "Consider it carefully. Will you become stronger if you don’t recharge?"