By Zephyria “You made a fuss over nothing, why didn’t you tell me to come with you?”
Gillian, wandering through the maze, asked into the air. Next to him, Beatrice, held like a princess by Morbhan, was crossing her legs and filing her nails.
There was no one else in the long, silent passage. Occasionally, stones that had fallen from the stone walls were kicked by Morbhan’s feet and rolled across the floor.
“Leonardo had a weird kid with him.”
“Since when did you care about that?”
Beatrice’s pouting eyes glared at the giant.
“You dragged him away before I could even say anything. And Andrew told me not to stick together from the beginning. Even the Council’s division leaders don’t send two people to the same place at the same time.”
Gillian, with a surprised expression, turned to the side.
“Wow, I’m glad those words got through to you.”
“Andrew is usually easy to talk to.”
“Not him, you.”
The platform heel that came out from under the dress instantly kicked Gillian in the abdomen. Gillian just brushed the dust off his clothes and chuckled. There seemed to be no impact at all.
After a while, the first choice, divided into three branches, appeared in front of the two. The other participants had already passed this place a long time ago, and no one could be heard around. Morbhan, who was firmly supporting Beatrice like a servant, carefully lowered her to the ground.
She straightened her dress, kissed the red mouth of her stuffed animal, and approached the wall. There were piles of stone fragments at her feet, as if the participants had left marks in this way because it was difficult to scratch the wall.
Beatrice kicked the marks with her foot to scatter them and asked Gillian.
“Where do we go now? I bet Miraile I could pass in two hours.”
“What did you bet?”
“Something other than money. You don’t need to know.”
“I need to know, I’m the one who’s going to let you pass.”
“You don’t get a share.”
“That’s harsh.”
Gillian rummaged through the wine bottle tied to his waist and opened the stopper. Morbhan blocked Beatrice and protected her like a bodyguard.
The thick Adam’s apple swallowing the wine rippled and made a gulping sound. Just as a stream of blood-colored liquid trickled from the corner of his mouth, Gillian took his mouth off the bottle, wiped it with the back of his hand, and sighed.
“They said the number of Tokens is 20, right?”
“Yeah.”
“The exit will be out before we break through 20 times.”
He briefly organized the plan and stretched his body by spinning his shoulders.
He clenched his fist like a blunt weapon and struck the stone wall of the maze with all his might.
“Ouch….”
Ero, shaking his reddened fist, let out a groan of pain. He had only tried to gauge how hard the wall was, but even his knuckles throbbed. Of course, there wasn’t even a scratch on the stone wall.
He wrapped his fist in his clothes and groaned, then looked up at Leonardo floating in the air.
“Hyungnim, can you see anything?”
Leonardo, who had reached the top of the stone wall, tapped the empty air with the back of his hand. The sky, which he thought was just open, was blocked by a mysterious barrier. The barrier covered the upper part of the stone wall without any gaps, so it seemed impossible to climb over the maze and walk around or cross the walls at will. Well, if that were possible, the meaning of escaping the maze would disappear.
It seemed that the operators had taken appropriate measures to block any tricks.
‘Then is it possible to break it?’
Just as he was about to gather Magic Power in his fist and try, a wind blew through the entire passage that the two were investigating. Leonardo turned his head towards the direction of the wind. He narrowed his eyes and stared at the other side, then went down to the ground where Ero was and landed lightly.
Ero, nervous, hid behind him and asked.
“Why, why is the wind blowing suddenly?”
“It’s my Magic Power. I instructed the flame to turn left when it hits a wall while going straight. If it meets a place blocked by three walls, it will burn and return.”
Ero’s eyes widened.
“Wow, is that even possible? Then you’ve already gone through all the escape routes, haven’t you? But the road is blocked? What about up there?”
“The top also looks open, but it’s actually blocked by a barrier. The sky we see may not be the real sky. And I haven’t checked this entire maze, I just wanted to see the big picture first, so I ignored the detailed paths.”
Leonardo pointed with his chin to the small passages on the upper or lower part of the wall. This maze occasionally had holes in the middle of the wall that allowed you to move to the next passage, or U-shaped grooves with steps. As a result of Ero going out through the hole at Leonardo’s instruction earlier, the number of Tokens decreased by 1 each time he crossed a wall. In addition, the number of Tokens decreased by 1 even when turning a curve, not just at a fork in the road.
If we infer the commonality from these two examples, the number of Tokens decreases not simply when you encounter a choice, but the moment you cross one section of the maze’s stone wall.
Leonardo, rubbing his lips, asked while fixing his gaze on the wall.
“Hey, are you good at using your head?”
“Yes? I’m amazingly good at using my wits!”
The rolling Gold Eyes showed a look of disbelief at the overly confident statement. But even wits are wits.
“The Council values the value of fairness. In other words, they wouldn’t design the rules so that the outcome is determined solely by an overwhelming difference in ability. If you were alone in this maze without me, how would you have escaped?”
“Uh….”
Ero tilted his head, pondered seriously, and opened his mouth.
“Honestly, I would have tried to climb up the maze right away. But since that’s not possible… I think I would have followed the other participants at first. I wouldn’t have spared the number of Tokens while suggesting alliances or listening to the reactions of people who turned the curve first and making judgments. But there’s no guarantee I would have passed.”
Certainly. Unless you know how to use magic or have expensive tools, humans have to pass through this maze only with the information given by their five senses, others, and ‘intuition’. However, the probability that all those choices will coincide at once and pass through the maze in the shortest path is extremely low.
There will be several trials and errors, and there will be frequent risks of fighting with other participants and losing Tokens. In other words, in order for an ordinary person to escape the maze within the limited 20 chances, the number of times they turn a curve or pass through a wall will be much less than 20.
‘Maybe this maze isn’t as complicated as I thought.’
“Then where do you think the exit of this maze is? Just guess.”
“The exit? Um… Hyungnim, did you hear what the guide said earlier?”
The guide? Leonardo immediately recalled the memory.
“He said that no matter which place you enter, it’s not advantageous or particularly close to the exit. If that’s true, it means the distance is similar no matter which entrance you enter. Then the place where the exit is likely to be—.”
“The very center of the maze?”
“Yes, that’s what I think.”
Leonardo, nodding with his eyes, ruffled Ero’s hair a little roughly. It was quite an affectionate touch, so Ero, who had reflexively lowered his body in case he was hit, blinked his eyes. Leonardo smiled and said.
“You’re the second most useful piece of luggage I’ve ever met.”
“Uh… Yes? Is that, is that a good thing?”
“Of course it’s good. Let’s go for now, it’s better to check it out ourselves until we reach a dead end. And let’s increase the number of Tokens while we’re at it.”
“Are you going to fight?”
“I don’t avoid it if they pick a fight first.”
Leonardo, lifting his feet slightly, flew along the left wall, and Ero also started chasing after him in a hurry. Whether it was out of consideration, the speed wasn’t much different. Ero raised the corners of his mouth and caught up to Leonardo’s side.
“Hyungnim, who’s the first one besides me?”
“Why do you need to know? By the way, why did you bring that useless gun you used last time again? You can’t shoot people with it anyway.”
“Ah, that’s the thing. I brought some amazing bullets this time, and they say I can use them to control competitors or overcome obstacles as long as they don’t penetrate the body and kill them. I got permission for each bullet while registering auxiliary items earlier!”
Ero boasted non-stop while running, saying that he had collected rare bullets made with magic during the time between Part 1 and Part 2. Some bullets cause a whirlwind when fired, and some have prickly sea squirts scattered all over the floor to stop pursuers.
‘It’s like a toy.’
Leonardo, who was listening, was indifferent, but when he learned that there were also Sleep Pellets that could paralyze a person’s body for 10 seconds or put them to sleep instantly, his gaze changed slightly.
“Is that even possible?”
“Yes! Isn’t it amazing? And I also brought a net bullet that can be used on Mages! Hyungnim, if there’s a troublesome opponent, just tell me! I’ll hit them with this—, Ack!”
Bang—!
As soon as they turned the curve twice to the left, three participants who had been lying in ambush rushed at the two. Leonardo, who had hesitated in the air, immediately retreated and distanced himself, and Ero, who hadn’t expected it at all, pulled the trigger as it was.
As he had explained earlier, a net flew out of the disassembled bullet and covered the three people in front, immobilizing them in an instant. The net had several heavy weights attached to it, suppressing their threatening movements, and the more the targets struggled, the more strongly it tightened their bodies. They could only groan, saying, ‘These guys, they knew in advance.’
Apparently, Magic Stones were embedded at the intersection of the nets. Compared to what Leonardo had experienced before, it was crude, but the memory of that time came to his mind and he frowned. The feeling of the Magic Stone’s energy flowing through his skin and seeping into every joint in his bones was something only those who had experienced it would know. It was more than just disgusting, it was repulsive, and a sense of powerlessness that made it difficult to even lift a finger and a stuffiness as if foreign substances had entered his lungs enveloped his whole body.
Whether he knew Leonardo’s feelings or not, Ero, who had fallen backwards due to the recoil from firing, stared at the sacrifices in front of him with a dumbfounded face.
Then, he looked around at the muzzle of the gun that had fired the bullet as if looking at a miraculous object. Then, his face and voice, turning to Leonardo, became full of pride.
“Hyungnim, did you see that?”