"Ugh..." Loki let out a low, pained groan and turned his head to look at his right shoulder. The clavicle pierced through was making his mind hazy with pain, but he didn't hesitate for a moment and started shouting directly, "Thor! Thor!!!!"
No sound, only his own voice echoing in the dark cell. Loki didn't stop, biting his teeth while assessing the situation in the room, continuing to shout, "Thor!! Thor!!!"
He shouted for a full minute before finally hearing a very faint knocking sound. More precisely, it was a kind of vibration coming from behind him. If it weren't for the iron ring now stuck in his clavicle, with the chain connected to the wall, any little vibration would cause pain; he might not have even felt this almost imperceptible vibration.
"Thor..." Loki lowered his voice, "Are you immobilized? Can't you speak? Why?"
The slight vibration continued, and Loki's mind raced. "If you're in danger too, and it's causing you a lot of effort, then stop moving!"
The knocking vibrations indeed stopped. Loki lowered his eyelids. Thor was now behind this wall, in danger.
Being able to knock meant at least part of his body wasn't controlled and could touch the wall. But knowing Thor's character, if he heard Loki's voice, he'd respond with all his might. Whether it was a hand, foot, shoulder, or head, he'd knock as hard as he could, no matter what, it wouldn't be such a weak sound.
And if the sound was so weak, either he had no strength left, or something was obstructing him. And when Loki said if there was danger, stop knocking, he stopped right away, proving it really was dangerous.
Unable to speak, blocked knocking, instantly stopped actions—Loki almost immediately recalled when they were fighting in the Large Magellanic Cloud years ago when Thor fell into the alien creature's mucus pool. Loki went to rescue him then; Thor couldn't speak or even knock to indicate his position and almost drowned in the mucus pool.
Water, Loki thought. There was water on Thor's side, and he was probably soaking in it, on the verge of suffocating.
Loki had already observed everything he could see from this position. Until he worked to shift his body and leaned down, seeing the lever and the gate under the bed, he almost immediately linked that he could collapse the bed and strike down the lever.
But how to collapse the bed? Loki observed the bed's structure and found only the nearest bed leg needed collapsing. He tried to kick with his leg, but the angle was too awkward to generate power.
So he reached out, quickly finding the bed leg's oddity. After locating the key inside, Loki also started prying at the brick seams.
"Wait for me, Thor, almost there!!"
"Oh! God's butt!" Harley screamed, "Did I have a car accident or something?! Why does my shoulder hurt so much?!"
She turned her head toward her shoulder, eyes wide at the ring on her clavicle, then looked around her environment, "No way, this unlucky?!"
"Little Pa! Little Pa! Pamela!!" Harley shouted at the top of her lungs, but no one responded. "Oh, damn, she must be trapped, even more unlucky than me. What to do?"
Harley tilted her head, saw that bed, and muttered, "This thing must be a problem, right?"
Her body was very flexible, doing the splits was no problem. She then used the leg on the bed side and reached over, just managing to reach the nearest bed leg. She kicked hard, but the bed only shook.
Seeing that wouldn't work, Harley adjusted her posture, enduring the pain, and hung her entire body weight on the fixed clavicle, so both her legs could switch around. Harley directly kicked the side of the bed leg fiercely with both legs.
"Boom!"
The entire bed was knocked askew by her, and just because of that slight angle, she managed to see there was something inside the bed leg through the firelight outside. Harley drew her leg back and struggled to maneuver her body, stretching her arm over to dig around.
Surprised after pulling out the key, Harley remarked, "Found the key, but where's the lock?"
Because the bed was knocked askew, light could penetrate the darkest corner beneath the bed. With a turn of her head, Harley vaguely saw the lever. She realized.
She pulled her leg back, stuffed the key into her shoe heel, and worked to swing the bed back, placing the bed leg in the best spot for leverage, then kicked the bed leg hard with the foot fixed with the key.
"Clang! Clang! Clang!"
"Boom!" The bed leg broke.
"Darkness." A deep voice, "Fixed."
"Wall." "Light." "Bed..."
"Bed leg."
One Hand reached for the bed leg.
"Key... under the bed."
The figure in front of the wall bent down to look under the bed.
"Next door is the water prison."
The hand holding the key took a deep breath, and suddenly slammed it against the wall.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Bricks fell, and grabbing one of the bricks, continued smashing.
"Bang! Bang!"
Murky water gushed out, and a crowbar extended from the hole. After removing the crowbar, hammered it at the bed leg.
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Crack!"
"Click!" The lever was hammered down.
Water surged out in large quantities, and a heavy breath came from the other side of the wall. "42 seconds, Batman, seems a bit slow for you, huh?"
A laugh with a damp breath came from next door, and Batman took a light breath. "I should have delayed a little longer so you could also try the feeling of drowning."
"Oh, no, don't do this to me. This is still too easy for you, isn't it?"
"It's not that easy," Batman said. "The person who set this up is very professional. My collarbone hurts, and I need to divert some focus to deal with the pain."
"Collarbone? What's wrong with your collarbone?"
"It's been nailed through."
"What??!!!"
Shiller's fingertips trembled slightly, which could be due to pain, or maybe not. Unable to control his strength well because of the pain, to be precise, when he went to rub the bed foot, he almost broke it off.
Fortunately, the dungeon's ability restriction mechanism quickly noticed something was wrong and limited his gradually increasing strength, which allowed him to get the key from the bed foot.
Shiller turned his head to look at the wall behind him. He touched the brick seam with his hand, pinched a bit of soil in front of his eyes, first rolled it between his fingers, then sniffed it lightly under his nose, and confirmed that the room next door should be a water dungeon.
Due to frequent gardening, Shiller could be considered an expert in the state of soil. The slightly damp soil after rain and sunshine can decompose flower fertilizer quickly. He was familiar with this state of soil and could judge that the dampness in the soil between the bricks was not normal, most likely penetrated by moisture.
His own room was still relatively dry, at least with no visible water source, so it must be next door. Has Bruce been submerged in water?
Shiller turned to look at the nail in his collarbone, and then at the iron pike thrust into the wall, twisted his body, held the key in his other hand, and started chiseling at the gap between the pike and the wall.
But it had almost no effect, because the thing was nailed into the brick, and the bricks there were particularly solid. Without loosening, pulling the iron pike out would be as difficult as reaching the sky.
If only there was a crowbar, Shiller thought. But given the conditions, with insufficient tools and no time to find them, if he didn't hurry, Bruce might drown.
Shiller thought about the moment he had just woken up and felt the pain in his collarbone; there was a brief moment of uncontrolled strength, but it wasn't restricted until he used it and it had an effect. So he could try to leverage the pain to enhance his strength, even if only for a moment.
Shiller adjusted his body posture again, took a deep breath, and yanked the chain on his collarbone.
"Ugh..."
His fingertips trembled again, and taking advantage of this moment, he grabbed the key and smashed it into the gap between the pike and the brick.
"Bang!"
The key was driven into the gap like a nail, but this force was quickly restricted. Shiller took a deep breath and began to pry open the gap continuously with the key. Soil debris kept falling down, and soon, the iron pike loosened a bit.
At this point, Shiller pulled out the key, grabbed the head of the pike, and shook it left and right, constantly widening the gap. About a minute later, the front half of the iron pike was free to move.
Shiller grabbed the clasp on the front of the pike with his hand and started pulling it out constantly. After a few pulls, he continued moving left and right. Accompanied by more and more soil debris falling, with a "shing" sound, the entire pike was pulled out.
Shiller exhaled softly and stood up from the ground. He surveyed the room; there weren't many things inside. First, he looked at the wall seam and the ceiling, then knocked on the bed board, finally looked under the bed.
After seeing the lever, Shiller directly moved the bed aside. He pulled the lever with his hand, and water surged out immediately. However, because he didn't break the wall, Bruce's voice on the other side sounded somewhat muffled.
"Professor, are you okay?"
"Not bad." Shiller lowered his head and studied the key.
Bruce's voice came from the other side: "I have a crowbar here, do you need it?"
Shiller paused and then said, "No, I think I might have skipped the level."
Shiller knew that if Bruce had a crowbar, the normal course of the level would suggest figuring out a way to break open the wall, then use the crowbar to break the bed leg, let the bed fall and smash the lever to release the water.
As for why not just use the crowbar to pry the pike directly, it's because, under normal circumstances, with one hand fixed, the other hand wouldn't have enough strength to use a crowbar.
"Can you move?" Shiller asked.
"No, I'm locked up here," Bruce said. "There's a lock that looks like it requires a key..."
Shiller understood. "Now that there's no water, can you smash the wall?"
"I'll try."
Bruce seemed to get up from the ground, evidently with much more space to move than Shiller. If it weren't for the water, he could have smashed the wall himself.
"Bang! Bang!"
After smashing twice, Bruce said, "No, Professor, this wall is too hard..."
Shiller went to check that wall and quickly found the loosened brick. He knocked there, then said, "Smash towards here..."
"Bang!"
Shiller hadn't even had time to dodge when the wall was smashed open. The brick nearly hit his leg; Shiller dodged and then rubbed his forehead. "Are you in a hurry, Bruce?"
He didn't get a chance to say anything more before Bruce's blue eyes appeared at the gap. "Is it smashed open? How's it on your side?"
"It was fine," Shiller said crossly, "but if you had hit harder just now, it wouldn't have been."