Chapter 75 - 71: Ah Luo: The First? My Ass

Chapter 75: Chapter 71: Ah Luo: The First? My Ass

Zhao Han of course recognized the young man. It was the maze blogger Ah Luo, who had rushed to Li Yuan Farm bright and early. He hadn’t expected him to arrive so quickly.

Then again, the high-speed train from Ming City to You City only took a little over ten minutes.

Ah Luo’s appearance also drew the attention of the other tourists. After all, many of them had seen his videos. He was here today to conquer the Li Yuan Farm’s Bamboo Maze.

One of the tourists couldn’t help but ask, "Ah Luo, you’re an expert at these maze games. Do you have any tips you can teach everyone?"

Ah Luo was already looking to show off, especially since his own cameraman was filming. Now that a tourist had voluntarily given him the chance, he naturally smiled and said, "There are actually many ways to beat this kind of bamboo maze. I’ll teach everyone the simplest method right now!"

"Last night, I watched Li Yuan Farm’s promotional video. The exit to their Bamboo Maze is on the opposite side of this entrance. So, everyone can make good use of a reference point."

"Take the sun, for example. Right now, we’re entering the Bamboo Maze with the sun at our backs. As long as we always choose paths that keep the sun at our backs, we’ll eventually find our way out."

His words made the surrounding tourists inexplicably agree.

"Yeah, that seems like it would work!"

"That’s right, we’d definitely be able to get out that way!"

"Ah Luo is amazing. He just came up with a useful method off the top of his head."

Hearing this, Zhao Han subconsciously asked Zhang Lin, "Boss Zhang, will that method work?"

Zhang Lin shook his head. "It’s useless. Because there won’t always be a path available for him to choose that keeps the sun at his back."

During this time, another batch of tourists had their tickets checked and entered the Bamboo Maze. Ah Luo and the newly arrived tourists also started to line up.

Just then, everyone saw the hanging LCD screens light up.

This piqued the tourists’ curiosity, as they didn’t know what the LCD screens were for.

At that moment, Lin Hong, the staff supervisor for the Bamboo Maze, stepped forward with a microphone and began to explain, "I have a brief announcement. Our Bamboo Maze’s competition mode is now open. Participation is limited to 100 people per day. If anyone wants to join this mode, you can come here to register with your ID card. These LCD screens will then display everyone’s completion times."

"If your completion times are among the fastest, or even the best, they will remain permanently on our Bamboo Maze’s wall of honor. Of course, Li Yuan Farm will also sync the relevant data to our Tiao Yin account."

This announcement sent a wave of excitement through the crowd.

No one had expected Li Yuan Farm to have this kind of feature.

When Ah Luo heard this news, his eyes instantly lit up.

He knew how much traffic Li Yuan Farm was getting right now. If he could clear the maze and leave his record on the Bamboo Maze’s wall of honor, then every single tourist who came would see his name.

Many tourists might even film the record times and upload them online, which would be free publicity for him.

Not to mention Li Yuan Farm’s current online popularity. ’How many people would see it then? This is guaranteed to be a massive amount of traffic.’

"I’m in!" Ah Luo immediately raised his hand upon hearing this.

He wouldn’t just participate; he had to set a record that would leave everyone in awe.

Following Lin Hong’s announcement, more and more tourists raised their hands. Although they didn’t fully understand the details, it sounded very interesting, and they wanted to give it a try.

"Tourists who wish to participate, please come to the left ticket gate to register," Lin Hong announced into the microphone again.

There were two ticket-checking stations at the entrance, each staffed by an attendant. The attendant at the left station had now picked up a special scanning device.

When Ah Luo went to get in line, he saw that a beautiful woman was already standing in front of him. This made him smile and say, "Hey, beautiful. When we go in, just follow my method. I guarantee your time won’t be too bad."

He was, of course, deliberately hitting on her. Since the camera was still rolling, he thought it might be useful for a video edit later.

’A beautiful woman uses my method and gets a great time. Wouldn’t that make for perfect clickbait?’

But the woman just gave him a cold glance. "Don’t embarrass yourself by showing off such a stupid method. If it were me, I could think of at least five ways to counter a strategy like that!"

"???" Ah Luo was so taken aback by her retort that he was at a loss for words.

’Are people these days all this confident?’

’Doesn’t she know who I am?’

Just then, the attendant at the gate said to the woman, "Ma’am, our competition mode requires ID registration to begin tracking your time."

The woman didn’t hesitate, taking out her ID card and handing it to the attendant. The attendant used a device to scan her ID.

The next moment, the people around them saw a list appear on the lit-up LCD screen. A name had appeared on that list:

He Rou!

And behind it, a timer began to count up, second by second.

"Ma’am, your time has started. You can go ahead," the attendant said hurriedly to He Rou, before turning to Ah Luo behind her. "Sir, please wait a moment. In competition mode, we have a five-minute interval between each participant to prevent others from following and piggybacking on their time!"

Hearing this, Ah Luo frowned. "Doesn’t that mean the person who goes in first gets to finish first? How will the 200,000 yuan prize be calculated?"

The attendant quickly explained, "The 200,000 yuan prize is for the fastest overall time. We’ll adjust for the five-minute stagger between participants. Of course, if no one can clear the maze, then there’s no need to worry about this issue."

Ah Luo had no more questions after hearing that. Besides, he felt he was overthinking it. The only person ahead of him was that woman, He Rou. ’How could she possibly clear the maze?’

’The first one to clear it will definitely be me.’

Zhao Han was even more surprised as he looked at the name and the ticking clock on the LCD screen. "Boss Zhang, this competition mode is very interesting!"

He never would have thought Boss Zhang would actually pull something like this off. Plus, seeing it displayed like this made everything much more intuitive.

Once the five minutes were up, Ah Luo immediately registered, had his ID scanned, and hurried into the Bamboo Maze.

Ah Luo’s information appeared on the first LCD screen as well.

After entering the maze, the first method Ah Luo used was the one with the sun as a reference point. What he didn’t know was that someone had already watched his old videos, tried that exact trick, and realized they’d been had.

So, after passing through a few forks in the path, Ah Luo himself was dumbfounded to find that the method of keeping the sun at his back was no longer an option.

However, having played maze games for so long, he was at least better than the average person. He immediately changed his strategy and pressed on.

As time went on, more and more tourists arrived at the Bamboo Maze. The number of people having their tickets checked and entering grew, and naturally, the number of people waiting grew even larger. Quite a few were also participating in the competition mode.

More and more names appeared on the LCD screens, followed by their constantly ticking timers.

But so far, the screens didn’t show anyone having cleared the maze, nor were there any announcements from the Bamboo Maze about a tourist claiming the prize.

Half an hour passed. Several hundred people had already gathered in front of the Bamboo Maze as tourists continued to arrive in droves.

Seeing that the screens still showed no results, Zhao Han finally breathed a sigh of relief. "It’s been so long, and that Ah Luo hasn’t even reached the first rest area. Looks like he’s not much better than I was. Could he have gotten lost in there?"

Zhang Lin smiled. "Director Zhao, have you forgotten what I said? Don’t just focus on Ah Luo. He’s just good at self-promotion and is a little more famous within his small circle. If this breaks out of that circle and more people participate, you might find that many are better than him."

Almost as soon as Zhang Lin finished speaking, a change appeared on the screen. An achievement marker appeared next to the tourist named He Rou: (First Stage Completed!)

This scene made the tourists gasp in shock:

"There are stages?"

"I was just wondering where everyone was. I can’t believe only one person has reached the first stage!"

"I wonder how many stages the Bamboo Maze has in total."

They seemed to be discovering that the Bamboo Maze was getting more and more interesting.

Zhang Lin was also very surprised. He hadn’t expected someone to reach the first rest area so quickly, and judging by the name, it was a girl.

At that moment, after checking in with the attendant at the rest area’s checkpoint, He Rou looked around in surprise. She hadn’t encountered a single tourist on her way here, and she remembered that quite a few had entered before her.

In other words, all those people had taken wrong turns and were trapped on incorrect paths.

She then noticed an LCD screen in the rest lounge and saw the list of names and data. Right now, it only showed that she had completed the first stage, with a time of 38 minutes.

This made her smile, and she immediately headed toward the second stage of the maze.

「Time passed, and in the blink of an eye, another 15 minutes had gone by.」

Ah Luo traversed another path. It was clear he was covered in sweat and was even getting agitated and flustered.

He had originally thought the Li Yuan Farm Bamboo Maze would be simple, but after entering, he realized it was completely different from what he’d imagined. Although he kept moving, drawing on his past experience with maze games, he truly had no idea where he was.

Finally, he saw a different kind of entrance. There was a woven bamboo archway entwined with vines and green plants, and the path leading to it was lined with flowers.

The sight of such a unique fork in the road brought a look of joy to his face. ’Could this be the exit?’

’But that can’t be right. A 1,000-mu Bamboo Maze... there’s no way I’d reach the end this fast.’

However, he was certain this was a special area.

He immediately walked through the entrance and was surprised to see an area with beautiful scenery. Inside, there was not only a large hall made of bamboo for resting but also a handsomely built courtyard.

To think there was a place like this inside the Bamboo Maze—it was a pleasant surprise.

He subconsciously looked around. Besides two staff members, there seemed to be no other tourists.

’Does that mean I’m the first one here?’

A huge smile spread across his face again.

’As long as I’m the first, that’s all that matters.’

’That’s me, all right!’