“No need.” Xiaoling rejected Xiaotan's reasoning without a second thought.

“Huh?” Xiaotan was taken aback as well.

“Heh… that’s for sure.” Feng Bujue chuckled. “As a drunkard eager to open the wine cellar to quench his craving, he wouldn't use an overly complex encryption method.”

“That’s right.” Xiaoling continued, “This… analyzing the headmaster’s mindset makes it clear… If he could, he’d want to write the eight-digit password directly on paper; that would be the most convenient.” As she spoke, she pointed to the remote control. “Look, he’s already put the remote and the two items needed for decryption together so simply, which shows he knows… when he’s craving a drink, he won’t have the time to do anything too complicated; his mind will only be focused on opening the wine cellar as quickly as possible.”

“Then why didn’t he just set a simpler password, remember it, or copy the eight-digit password directly onto paper?” Guixiao asked at this moment. “That way, even when he’s muddle-headed and out of his senses, he could open the wine cellar.”

“That’s true… but while making it convenient for himself, he also has to consider security.” Xiaoling replied, “After all, he’s a primary school headmaster. If the fact that he’s hiding alcohol in the headmaster’s office is completely exposed, he’ll definitely lose his job. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have needed to create this ‘secret wine cellar’ and even install an entrance with a remote control.”

“Oh…” Guixiao understood.

And Xiaotan then added, “So… he came up with this ‘convenient and safe’ method—putting all the items needed to open the wine cellar in the drawer and applying some simple encryption to it. This way… even if someone discovers the items in the drawer, they won’t be able to crack the password in a short amount of time.”

“Heh… one should say… under normal circumstances, the person who finds these three items wouldn’t even consider ‘decryption,’ right?” Feng Bujue said with a smile. “We’re using the thinking and perspective of modern people, of players… which is why we think of the uses of these three items immediately. But, what if we look at it from the perspective of the characters in this script?” He paused, then continued, “You have to know, this script takes place in the 1970s, an era… only a little over a decade after the birth of truly meaningful civilian wireless remote controls. It wasn’t until the 1980s that the infrared TV remotes we’re familiar with began to become widespread. So… wireless remotes were obviously still a rare item to people at that time. In a small rural school like this in Japan, how many people could even recognize a remote control? Taking a step back, even if someone knew it was a remote control, so what? That person would still need to know two other things before considering the ‘decryption’ aspect.”

At this point, Brother Jue extended two fingers: “First, they’d have to know that the headmaster has a secret wine cellar, so they could connect that this remote is used to control what; second, they’d also have to know the working principle of this remote and the exact location of the wine cellar entrance… because remotes from that era still used ultrasonic technology, not infrared, and the wine cellar entrance doesn’t have that kind of obvious, exposed infrared receiver. If the user doesn’t know where the entrance is, even if they decipher the password, they won’t be able to open the wine cellar.”

“Right… I was just about to ask.” Hearing this, Xiaotan turned to look at Xiaoling and said, “How did you find the entrance?”

“I found it based on the texture on the floor.” Xiaoling replied.

“The floor…” Xiaotan muttered as he looked down again.

Indeed, the wooden floor used in the headmaster’s office was better than any of the areas they had been to before, not only was it thick and tightly laid, but the wooden planks also had patterns.

“Oh! I get it.” Two seconds later, An Yueqin suddenly realized. “One of the three hints in the women's restroom is used here.”

“Yes.” Xiaoling nodded in response. “The graffiti on the wall in the women's restroom that seemed irregular just happens to match the floor pattern at the wine cellar entrance perfectly; when I was exploring this room earlier, I vaguely felt that the floor pattern here seemed a little familiar. When I heard Team Leader say that he would knock on the walls and floor inch by inch to find the entrance, I realized what the problem was.”

“So… the problem has come full circle again.” Two seconds later, Xiaotan said to Xiaoling again, “What exactly is the eight-digit password that ‘isn’t very complex’?”

“42561047.” The next second, Xiaoling gave the answer.

“Huh?” This time, the other five people… including Feng Bujue, had the same reaction.

“How did you figure it out?” Brother Jue was the first to ask.

“It's easy. 231568 multiplied by 616512 results in a twelve-digit number, which is 142764450816…” Xiaoling replied. “And the eight digits in the middle refer to eight positions in this twelve-digit number. The 6th digit is 4, the 3rd digit is 2, the 8th digit is 5, the 5th digit is 6, the 11th digit is 1, the 9th digit is 0, then the 6th digit again… 4, and finally the 4th digit… 7; apart from the 6th digit, which is repeated once, the numbers in the 7 positions listed are not repeated, which means ‘there are no two different positions pointing to the same digit,’ which also fits the logic of the password.”

When she finished speaking, the entire place was silent…

“Hey, hey, hey, hey…” After about five seconds, Guixiao finally reacted. “Big sister… even leaving aside the big pile of stuff after that…” He paused for half a second, asking with a look of surprise, “You haven’t even turned on the calculator yet. How did you do multiplication between two six-digit numbers?”

“Mental calculation.” Xiaoling replied with two words.

These two words made Guixiao silent again for five seconds. During these five seconds, he observed the other person’s expression and realized that she didn’t seem to be joking. So, five seconds later, he replied with these three words: “You’re ruthless…”

“Oh, by the way…” After Guixiao finished speaking, Xiaoling picked up the calculator again and shook it casually. “This calculator is out of battery. I discovered that it couldn’t be turned on when I checked it just now.” After saying that, she threw the calculator on the table. “At that time, I understood that this wasn’t a ‘tool necessary for decryption’ but a ‘prop that serves as a hint.’ So, what can a calculator without battery hint us? It’s easy to figure out with a little thought—it’s the number of digits. This is a calculator that can display up to twelve digits, and the information it hints at is extremely clear. Considering that ‘the headmaster won’t use overly complex encryption’ as well, doing a mental calculation of the various situations of the numbers on the paper, it’s easy to get the above conclusion.”

…………

At this moment, Guixiao didn’t feel like speaking anymore.

A sense of inexplicable frustration continued to grow in his heart, gradually suppressing his fear and making him feel upset.

Before entering this script, Ma Junxiao felt that he was quite a talented person; when his peers were still studying hard in high school to prepare for the college entrance examination, he was already earning a salary that people couldn’t even earn after graduating from university.

However, playing a script with the people from Hell Frontline completely wiped out the sense of superiority that Guixiao had built up after starting work.

He couldn’t help but start to think… to think about a question that all professional players, esports athletes, or rather, all people who “make a living by playing games” have thought about and should think about.

That is—besides playing games, what else can I do? Or rather… what else can I possibly do?

The popularity period of any game is limited. No matter how high the quality of the game, it can’t remain popular forever; eventually, more advanced games that are better suited to the times will replace it. It’s just that some games, even after being born for a dozen or twenty years, are still called “classics,” while others fade from people’s sight after being popular for a year or two and are never heard of again.

The career of any professional player is also limited. No matter how many honors he has achieved or how many fans he has, he will eventually retire. Because people get old, and people get old faster than games… and are more easily replaced.

However, people aren’t games. Games that are no longer popular can be taken off the shelves and shut down, but players who can no longer make money from games can’t just be buried on the spot, right?

Their lives are still very long, and they have to continue…

After entering the gaming industry, Ma Junxiao was naturally influenced by similar things. He discovered that many star players who were once like “legends” in the eyes of players lived very ordinary lives after fading from the public eye for several years… or even lived miserably. Of course, there were also those who lived well, such as those who used the money they earned when they were young to start a business or those who found more stable behind-the-scenes jobs in the gaming industry, but these people accounted for a small proportion.

Guixiao was a sensible kid. After seeing and hearing a lot, he also understood—games can be played for a lifetime, but making a living by playing games for a lifetime is probably very difficult. That’s not a matter of effort or talent, but something that is physically impossible to achieve.

There are many people like him who give up their studies at a young age to enter this industry. Indeed, before the age of thirty, even if they are just blue-collar players, they can have a good income… but what will happen after the age of thirty? What should they do? Most of them have never considered it, or rather… they don’t dare to think about it.

If they can stay in the gaming industry, that would be the best, but staying also requires conditions… capital, technology, ability… they must have at least one. Just knowing how to play games… is useless.

As for changing careers… that’s difficult. Even if some people have completed university before becoming professional players, it’s conceivable how difficult it would be to enter a completely unfamiliar field after more than ten years of a gap and start from the bottom. Of course, these people are still considered lucky… there are many practitioners like Guixiao who haven’t even finished high school, and their situation for changing careers is even more worrying.

After saying so much, it’s still necessary to objectively say that… these kinds of concerns and thoughts are things that people of Guixiao’s age don’t need to consider at all; with his conditions, he can still be at the top of the gaming industry for at least ten years, or even longer.

However, Guixiao’s thoughts on these kinds of things have been going on for more than just a day or two.

It’s not just because he was stimulated by the people from Hell Frontline today that he started thinking about that aspect. Although the stimulation he received today was indeed not small…

In fact, he had thought about many things about the “future” before, and his thoughts about his own “future”… were far more than just these “realistic problems.” There were also many strange ideas, including questions about this world, that would always involuntarily appear in his mind…

The reason is that Ma Junxiao is not an “ordinary person”—he is a candidate.

His will, talent, and potential… are all extraordinary. It’s just that… the “current” him hasn’t realized this yet.

…………

Two minutes later.

The door to the wine cellar had been opened, and the password Xiaoling guessed was undoubtedly correct.

And Feng Bujue was naturally holding the flashlight and taking the lead into the space located under the floor.

“I say…” As Brother Jue stepped down the stairs, he glanced at the structure of the barrier at the entrance and said, “This headmaster of Chongjiu Primary School is probably an engineering major.” As he said this, he had already walked down the not-too-long flight of stairs and entered a very narrow space located below the headmaster’s office. “The entrance mechanism of this wine cellar, as well as the matching remote control, were obviously made by him himself… Maybe he dug the entire wine cellar himself.” He stood at the bottom for a few seconds and suddenly said again, “Wait… is it possible… that the headmaster directly participated in the construction project of this primary school?”

“Hmm…” Ruoyu, who followed Brother Jue down to the wine cellar, quickly responded, “It’s common for small towns like this to entrust the project to companies or related people in their own village.” She pondered, “Assuming that this headmaster is really an engineering major, your guess is indeed possible.”

As they spoke, the two had already stood still in the wine cellar.

This space was quite narrow, like a compressed subway car; in terms of height, Brother Jue couldn’t even stand up straight inside, and in terms of width… the two of them couldn’t even stand side by side. If they wanted to switch positions, they would have to turn sideways. As for the length… looking straight ahead, the wall was just five meters away.

When observing from above, Brother Jue had said that there was no need for six people to come down together, so only he and Ruoyu had come down, and the others were waiting in the headmaster’s office.

“I think this guess is reliable.” Feng Bujue said as he walked forward, “Spaces like this have a ninety percent chance of being reserved in advance when the building was built… If he was one of the project managers, it would be easy for him to find an excuse to make a secret room like this here.”

“Speaking of which… this place is really small. It’s a little difficult for just the two of us to move around.” Ruoyu said at this moment, “Otherwise… should I go up first?”

Just as she asked this question…

A loud “bang” was heard! The wine cellar exit behind them suddenly closed.