Chapter 3681: The Maze
Chapter 3681: The Maze
Alex looked at the compass as he arrived at the location that was most certainly a giant maze. Large rocky walls rose up from the ground in an unnatural fashion, creating dozens of openings that quickly twisted and turned.
The star point that pointed toward the maze showed a bright red color as well.
He noticed a number on the maze’s wall at the same time Ronron pointed toward it. It was a little over 8000 at the moment.
"Are there 8000 people inside the maze already?" Alex couldn’t help but ask in surprise. If there were, then that was a massive number of people that had gone in. Unless the objectives of the maze were separate like they had been with the tower, there would be no point in going in at all.
"I can’t find Liz or senior Battlesage," Helen said. "They must’ve both gone in."
"I think so," Alex said. "Should we head in as well?"
"I don’t know," Helen said with a frown. "There are so many people in there already. With over 8000— huh? Did that number go down?"
"It did," Ronron said, having noticed it just then as well. "It’s much closer to 8000 now. It went down by over 50 all of a sudden."
"Did 50 people leave?" Helen asked.
Alex could hardly see anyone leave at all. Not only from the opening on this side, but from anywhere else either. The number simply went down all on its own.
Ronron’s star began flashing suddenly, and a moment later, it went dull.
"I’m registered," she said, looking up at the two. "I have to enter no matter what."
Alex thought for a moment and nodded. "I don’t think we have a choice now. We’ll enter too."
Helen accepted that as well and waited. Alex’s star registered a minute later, and half a minute after that, Helen’s star registered as well. Once both of their stars were registered, they walked toward the maze.
Even before they entered, the number had already entered the 7800s. Whatever that number was meant to represent, it certainly couldn’t have been the number of participants.
As soon as they walked into the maze, Alex and the others found their spiritual senses suddenly suppressed to a point where they could barely use them at a short distance. Ronron could barely use hers around 5 meters away from her, and Helen could push hers a bit further to 6.
Alex could push his all the way up to 20, but even so, he was heavily restricted. 20 meters of distance didn’t even allow him to see if someone or something was around the corner in most instances.
"What an ugly looking maze," Helen said as she dragged her palm across the wall. Clumps of dirt fell behind where she touched, as though the entire thing had been raised from the ground and left as it was.
Alex could even see tiny roots sticking out of the walls in some instances. It was likely that the maze itself was created randomly by someone. What was really important was the formation that made it work, and that could have likely worked with anything together.
Alex and the other two walked around for a while, taking turns left and right as they searched for something. They hadn’t any idea what they were looking for either, so they just walked.
"Are we going toward the center or the other side?" Helen asked with a curious look, but Alex couldn’t answer at all. He didn’t have an answer. He could only shrug and make the best decision he could with all he knew.
"We will head toward the other side, but with the intention of going through the center. That way, we will hopefully accomplish whatever it is they want us to do," he said.
They met many people along the way that either went in the same direction as them or the opposite. No one helped each other, and simply went their own way.
It was about 5 minutes later that Alex’s group arrived at a dead end. They had arrived at a few dead ends already, so it wasn’t a surprise when they found one. All they had to do was retrace their steps to the last fork in the road where they could still make a decision and take the other route there.
That was what they had been doing after all.
This time, however, the dead end held a metal star on it, simply lying on the ground as though someone had carelessly forgotten about it in that place.
Ronron reached out and took the star, looking through it. "It’s really a star," she said once she confirmed its validity. She scratched her head slightly. "Are we just here to find stars?" she asked.
Alex shrugged. "Probably," he said, looking around to see if there were any others. Once he didn’t find any, he gestured for them to walk back. "Maybe we’ll find more if we find more dead ends."
Ronron very much liked that idea, so with an energetic cadence to her gait, she strode through the path, headed toward the next dead end.
The next dead end held nothing, and neither did the one after that. In the next one, however, they found another star.
"Another one!" Ronron said excitedly. She took it immediately, turning around. "I finally have 6 now. One less than grandma."
Helen had 7 now, so she nodded.
Alex already had 11 in total, and he believed that would be enough to stay inside the Red Heaven Realm later on when the year passed and people began searching for stars with the alternative method.
"Shall we continue?" he asked.
The group left again, searching for more stars. They headed toward various dead ends, but they hadn’t yet realized that dead ends weren’t the only locations where the stars could be found.
They realized the truth when they randomly found a star in the middle of the path just as they turned around the corner.
At the same time, someone else on the opposite end noticed the star too.
And they very much wanted it for themselves.