At the moment when Anatoli broke the mechanism, the ceiling stopped functioning. Everyone narrowly escaped harm—except for Stark, the designer of the mechanism.
"I need to go fix it," Stark said, "It doesn't seem too badly broken, just a bit of repair should do..."
The others hurriedly held him back, even the Joker lent a hand. Greed, pulling at him, said, "Are you crazy? If you rush out there, what if he gives you a crowbar?!"
Stark suddenly waved his hand, about to say he could use his design copy privileges, but then suddenly remembered, this guy's teammate is Lucifer, who can utilize the authority to design the entire cosmos. He immediately caved in.
"But we can't just leave it alone, right?" Stark still sounded a bit anxious.
"Leaving it alone seems like it might be okay," Mephisto glanced at the state of a few rooms and said, "Now all the secret passages of the rooms have opened. Just crawl under the steel needles and enter the secret passage, step on the ceiling, and won't that solve the problem?"
"You make it sound so easy," Stark said with a frown, "The mechanism isn't operating normally. How can you guarantee there won't be problems later? What if they climb halfway and the ceiling suddenly collapses, and the steel needles pierce them through, what do we do if they complain after leaving the copy? What if while stepping on the ceiling, the skewed mechanism below can't hold the weight and suddenly collapses, and the height isn't enough for them to climb out?"
"In this situation, besides someone who knows mechanical engineering well, no one noticed that the mechanism is broken. They can't see or touch it, and there's no evidence to say there's a problem. But if the broken mechanism affects their subsequent actions, even directly sends them out of the copy, that proves there is indeed a problem. Then won't we be embarrassed in front of the entire Multiverse?"
Mephisto only then realized, as he wasn't very familiar with mechanical engineering, so he said, "So is it possible to maintain this stuck state?"
"Who can guarantee it will definitely hold?" Stark said, "Right now they've all collapsed from fatigue, there's no further action, and no one's touching the ceiling, so it's just temporarily balanced. But if someone steps on it, who knows if it can hold!"
"It should hold," Greed said, "I know Anatoli, he wouldn't act without full confidence. But you're right too, in case there's an accident and they catch us, who knows how much compensation in points we'll have to pay. Especially Loki, Batman, and Harley, those three will definitely take the chance to rip us off, we can't let them succeed."
"Agent!" Greed called out, "Can you take a look at the machine?"
Before long, the agent fetched a ladder and came to the center of the room. He waved at the camera and said, "Cut the power first."
The Scarecrow had already gone to cut the power. After a while, confirming there was no danger, the agent set up the ladder and checked the already skewed mechanism, shaking his head, "I don't understand this thing, let someone professional handle it."
Before long, Stark also went over. He climbed up, took the tools from the agent, and dismantled the casing, revealing the true nature of the mechanism inside—as Anatoli predicted, it was actually a very simple lever mechanical structure, meant to support something. There was indeed a clip above, once raised to a certain height, it would automatically lock.
But now, the metal rod above was bent out of shape, and the lever part was jammed into the ceiling. After taking a look, Stark said in surprise, "Eh, it's actually holding?"
He climbed higher on the ladder, reaching to tug the end of the lever jammed in the ceiling, finding it sturdier than expected. After all, the bottom was stuck too, presenting almost no risk of coming loose, forming a very stable triangle. The materials they used were very strong, unlikely to break, able to bear the weight of several people.
Still, Stark wasn't too assured, he decided to add two more metal rods for reinforcement, better safe than sorry. So he climbed another step on the ladder, his head almost touching the ceiling.
"Be careful," the agent said.
"Hah, when I was building massive mecha three stories high, who knows what you were doing," Stark said with a hint of sarcasm in his voice, "If you don't understand, just stay away, officer, go issue your tickets."
Before he finished speaking, some sand suddenly fell from the gap between the metal rod and the ceiling. Stark instinctively looked up. With a clang, an iron spike plunged straight into the top of his forehead.
"Aaaahhh!!!!"
Stark fell off the ladder directly. Fortunately, they weren't on the voice channel of the copy, so the scream wouldn't be heard. Still, everyone else in the monitoring room heard it. Harley said with some confusion, "I feel like there's someone below? Step back, I'll enlarge the hole..."
"Tony, run, run!" Greed yelled into the intercom.
This fall gave Stark quite a shock, even wearing mecha, he couldn't get up right away. The agent grabbed him, dragging him into the employee passage.
"The ladder! The ladder!!!"
The agent had no time to bring the ladder either, he could only kick it into the corner of the room, hoping Harley's limited vision wouldn't see it. But upstairs, Harley kept shouting, "There is someone, right? I saw a shadow moving! Is there someone? Is there someone?!"
"This is trouble," Greed grimaced, "We were so busy guarding against Arrogant and Batman, we forgot about Harley Quinn!"
"What do you think she's thinking?" Mephisto was somewhat helpless. "The mechanisms have stopped, but she still won't run, insisting on poking around with that iron spike. I think even if that Soviet doesn't break the mechanism, this group won't let the secret chamber off easy."
"Harley is clearly a bit excited," Greed said, "some people like to talk when they're excited, while others have an excessive curiosity. Harley is obviously the latter. Still, it's not easy for her to have the strength to jab that iron spike in."
"Quick, look at her strength data," Scarecrow couldn't stand it anymore. "This obviously shows the disease has lifted her muscle restrictions. There are madmen every year, but this year's especially crowded; why do they all come here to go crazy?"
Greed pulled up the panel for a glance, then raised an eyebrow. Sure enough, as Scarecrow said, Harley's strength data seemed a bit abnormal. Not as exaggerated as Arrogant, but still quite elevated.
The principle is likely similar to Arrogant's. Mental excitation leads to an outbreak lifting muscle restrictions, thus granting abnormal strength, allowing her to stab the iron spike directly into the seam.
You could say, if Stark had been an inch higher at the time, that iron spike would've jabbed right into his forehead. Stark, who ran back in a daze, still seemed shaken, constantly rubbing his forehead.
"You should be amused," Greed said. "Fortunately, that thing wasn't long enough, or you'd be the first designer killed by a contestant."
Greed slightly adjusted Harley's strength data but didn't lower it too much, keeping it higher than before, as a balance adjustment. She went mad through her own ability, so she gets the strength through her ability. Other players who want it can also try going mad. After all, it's something anyone can achieve.
"What now?" Stark asked with a headache.
"Aren't the devices in these rooms connected?" The agent spoke up, "Just go to the other rooms and support the mechanism."
"It's the only option, better than having the ceiling collapse halfway," Greed waved his hand.
So the agent took a bucket and returned to the room with the balance. The room with the balance wasn't just one, but three. In theory, if their blood donation plan succeeded, then it would be three rooms' balances raised together, just enough to support each team's ceiling, a stable structure designed by Stark, stable enough for an elephant disco.
But now the plan wasn't completed. Besides the broken balance, in the other two rooms, the balances weren't raised, so the latch wasn't locked. All rooms relied on that one broken one to hold, and it really might collapse.
So now, the agent took a ladder, climbed above the protective shield, and poured water on the side of the balance with a basin, forcibly compensating for the missing blood, raising the balance so the latch could lock and complete the support structure.
Though only two rooms could be completed correctly, with one corner missing, the broken support was still solid enough. After it was done, it wouldn't collapse immediately.
After pouring the water, the balance indeed rose up and locked, with a very slight vibration when a latch clicked on. However, it was still astutely detected by the remaining teams.
"There really is someone manually adjusting things," Harley squinted while holding the iron spike. "The previous sudden stop was abnormal, someone must've broken the mechanism. Now it seems irreparable—just going with the flow—it counts as our passage. But fearing the broken mechanism can't hold, simply raised the other mechanisms too."
"Looks like our previous speculation was correct," Pamela said. "There must be more than one room with a balance."
"This can infer another thing," Harley's mind turned faster than ever. "That is, the number of participants is more than we imagined. Only this way, would the designer worry about it being unable to bear the weight."
"So how many teams are there? Four teams? Five teams?"
"I think there are at least five teams," Harley said. "The room above is a pentagon, and the one below is a triangle; this way the support structure is stable."
This concept is somewhat abstract, but Pamela could still visualize it. She knew the steel pin room they were currently in is above the balance room; previously, through the balance room, they stopped for a moment in the hallway, which might be an elevator that transported them up. But the door closed as soon as they entered, leaving no way to verify.
However, upon discovering the structure of the steel pin room, it could be confirmed that the balance room was surely below, otherwise the support structure couldn't be completed. Therefore, to separate each team, there are three balance rooms at the three vertices of the triangle. The five teams each have their own steel pin room, forming a pentagon. Pentagon above, triangle below, constituting a complete mechanism structure.
"I must say, the designer of this mechanism is an engineering genius," Harley said. "Though the structure isn't complex, it involves the operation of elevators in three controlling five, needing mechanical structure to convert. Moreover, he didn't use very complex transmission structures, covering up the mechanical structure, indicating the entire structure is very simple. That's the true art of simplicity."
Stark nearly jumped in the monitoring room: "Oh, my God, look at this brilliant lady, how discerning she is! I can even forgive her for nearly stabbing my forehead with a steel pin!"
The Joker and Scarecrow both sighed and turned away, looking as if they couldn't stand him.
"To be honest, I think this psychological trap has a bit of Joker's style," Batman said, finding something to say, "somewhat like the riddles he posed to me before."
"Shut up, all of you shut up!" Joker shouted loudly. "I'll say Batman is the smartest man in the world! Let's hear Batman's insightful wisdom!!!"