# Chapter 188: A Simple Method of Persuasion
Xu Huo had already finished inspecting the first office by this time. As he walked out, he came face to face with the flower-selling girl and the burly man. Despite their stark contrast in appearance and build, both wore similar expressions. The burly man immediately reached out to shield the flower-selling girl behind him, saying, "If you have a problem, take it up with me!"
Xu Huo looked up at him. "Your Mandarin is pretty good."
The burly man and the flower-selling girl exchanged glances, but Xu Huo had already turned and walked away.
This floor was quite large in area, but the layout was simple. Overall, it formed an irregular "T" shape. The horizontal section was a corridor, and directly facing the corridor were fifteen elevators. The position where he had entered the game was separated by a wall from the restroom, with the entrance located on the open office area side.
Past the office area was a break room and several independent offices. In these two places, aside from some everyday living items and office supplies, there were no personal belongings or research materials whatsoever.
No false walls, no hidden secret rooms, no concealed safes. There weren't even decorative paintings on the walls—this floor had been cleaned out thoroughly.
Xu Huo walked to the window at the end of the corridor and looked up. At the edge of the rooftop, sparse vine leaves were visible peeking out.
He stood there for a few seconds, then turned around to look at the person who had quietly crept up behind him.
Zheng Liang, who had deliberately lightened his footsteps, stopped and stared coldly at him. "Xu Huo, you still have to show off everywhere you go. Let me tell you, those people outside will only hold you back in a crisis."
Xu Huo raised an eyebrow. "Aside from being physically stronger than those people outside, what else do you think makes you superior to them?"
Zheng Liang forcibly suppressed his anger, turned around, and walked away, muttering, "Biting the hand that feeds you!"
Xu Huo stepped toward the open office area.
Gu Yu and the others had already returned. They were now gathered together discussing how to handle the situation next.
Since there were no clues in the office, they had to think of ways to prevent potential dangers.
"It's best to seal off the elevator doors," the glasses-wearing player suggested. "Whether it's mutant plants or mutant animals, there are only two ways in—one is the windows, and the other is the elevators."
"Wei Bin makes sense. The elevators are manageable, but how do we seal the floor-to-ceiling windows?" the skull-print short-sleeve player said. "The windows are too large, and they're one solid pane. There's no place to anchor anything. Even if we move all the desks and chairs here, we can't block them."
"I could use my prop, but it doesn't have much lethality. I'm afraid it won't be able to defend against anything," Zheng Liang added from the side.
"What about the elevator doors?" the mole-featured player asked. "Don't let us guard the front only to get hit from behind."
The other players looked troubled. Although they all had some defensive props, their range was limited.
"What the hell is wrong with this place? Why are there so many elevators?" the bald player said. "Fifteen elevators on one floor!"
"This might be related to the game," Gu Yu said. "This is the fifteenth floor, and there are fifteen elevators. It might have some special meaning."
The other players also looked puzzled. Compared to the number of desks on the fifteenth floor, fifteen elevators seemed oddly excessive.
"Could it be that this building was already invaded by mutant plants, and the researchers here opened additional elevators?" a square-faced player suggested.
Zheng Liang rolled his eyes. "Who would live together with such a vicious mutant plant? Researchers do research, they're not psychopaths."
"You never know," the square-faced player turned to the glasses-wearing player. "Wei Bin, don't you think?"
Wei Bin pushed up his glasses with a sniff and said slowly, "Hard to say. How normal do you expect people to be who can raise something like that?"
"Let's put aside the questions we can't figure out for now and deal with the immediate problem," Gu Yu said. "Let's seal the windows first."
At that moment, the middle-aged man with the backpack who had been nearby said, "We found several rolls of tape. Do you think they'll work?"
Gu Yu looked at the people holding the items. Besides the tape, they had also made makeshift weapons—using tape to fasten pens or utility knives to detached chair legs. The desks and chairs in the office were all assembled, and some parts could be removed and used as clubs.
"What good will tape do?" the mole-featured player waved his hand impatiently. "Can it stop a man-eating flower? Can it stop a mutant animal? It can't even stop a person."
"Tape might be worth a try." Xu Huo checked the tape's toughness. "Even if it can't stop a man-eating flower, it will create obstacles for them. As long as you don't get your head bitten off immediately when attacked, there's still a chance of survival."
The people holding the tape were quite encouraged and immediately asked, "So we'll use the tape to seal the elevators?"
"Don't seal the elevators. Seal the windows." Xu Huo turned back to look at Gu Yu and the others, deciding to make things clear. "There are fifteen elevators in total. The normal passenger capacity for each elevator is thirteen people. Including the players, there are nearly two hundred people here. That probably isn't a coincidence."
"Elevator doors can block man-eating flowers. There's no need for a second line of defense for now."
"You say that so lightly. What if the elevator doors suddenly open?" the mole-featured player retorted. "If someone dies, will you take the blame?"
It was just a matter of probability.
Elevator doors were made of metal, better than any defense. In other words, if something in the elevator shaft could break through metal, then setting up any defense would be useless.
As for whether the elevator doors would open automatically, that was impossible to predict. Moreover, judging by the bloodstains at the elevator entrances, these elevators should be usable.
Assuming danger came through the windows and they couldn't handle it, the elevators would be the only possible escape route.
So whether to seal the elevators or not carried additional risks either way, but Xu Huo leaned toward not sealing them.
However, he used a relatively simple method of persuasion: "With ninety hours on the clock, do you think the game will let you slack off on the fifteenth floor?"
The mole-featured player was choked speechless.
"I also think it's better not to seal them," the middle-aged man with the backpack said. "Fifteen elevators—surely not every single one has mutant plants underneath?"
"And even if they do, the elevators happen to separate those mutant plants. Dealing with one is easier than dealing with fifteen."
Gu Yu and the others thought about it and agreed with the reasoning. They decided not to seal the elevators, only the windows.
"Be careful. Don't drop anything down," she cautioned, then asked her companions for help. "Xiao Ba, Zhang Biao, keep an eye on things."
The young man in the skull-print short-sleeve and the mole-featured player went to help. The remaining people gathered in front of the elevators, trying to figure out some clues.
"No good. There's no movement inside even after knocking," Zheng Liang said dejectedly after a while. "It might be like before—that thing silently sneaks right up to the door."
"Can't smell anything either." Wei Bin pressed his face against the elevator crack and took a deep sniff, then turned back and said, "But that's good news too. At least there's no toxic gas inside."