“I survived the illusions of the Source of Tremors with this very concept,” Feng Bujue continued. “It’s called ‘reverse guidance’.” He smiled. “Perhaps things got a little ‘out of hand’ later on, which is why the Heart of Fear said what it did.”

“Alright, never mind. Just pretend I didn’t ask,” Brother Ma said, turning his head away.

“I’ve lost interest too…” Honghu added, equally helpless. Every time he teamed up with Jue-ge, his Sanity (a player stat in the Cthulhu Mythos tabletop game, representing mental strength or sanity) plummeted…

And so, Jue-ge once again successfully glossed over the matter… He then smoothly changed the subject, leading his teammates onward.

This time, the players were no longer searching aimlessly. Before its demise, the Heart of Fear had revealed the way to the Cage of Despair.

In truth… there was a certain pattern to the paths in this crystal maze, and this pattern was hidden within the surrounding crystal pillars.

The Heart of Fear hadn’t told the players all the rules, only one of them: When encountering a fork in the road (whether two or more paths), stand at the midpoint between any two paths, and calculate the distance between the top of the first crystal pillar on your left and the second on your right, as well as the angle formed by the straight line between these two points and the ground. If these two values are within a certain range, it means you haven’t gone wrong.

Using this method, even facing four, five, or even more forks in the road was no problem, as long as you tested each pair individually.

Currently, Feng Bujue, Honghu, and Tianma Xingkong were advancing according to this rule.

Initially, they moved quickly and smoothly. But after a while, the forks ahead gradually increased, and the crystal pillars became increasingly dense and complex, causing their speed to slow down.

Of course, this was normal, because the closer they got to the center of the maze, the fewer paths would meet the criteria. The center of the maze was set up with many maze-like, meaningless paths, designed to confuse outsiders.

In short, this trek took more than four hours…

During this time, Feng Bujue and the others stopped to eat once more, and encountered several monsters. Battles were inevitable, and the three of them each paid a certain price, but fortunately, there were no further casualties.

Finally, in the fifth hour…

“I say… this path seems particularly long,” Feng Bujue, who was walking in the lead, spoke up.

He had been leading the way for most of the journey, taking the lead in the darkness, as he possessed various advantages that others did not.

“I’m starting to doubt whether we’re even on the right track…” Tianma Xingkong replied listlessly.

Clearly, after a long trek, various unannounced jump scares, and several difficult and tedious battles, Brother Ma's morale had dropped to freezing point.

“Could it be… that the Heart of Fear deceived us?” Honghu pondered. “Perhaps it deliberately gave us a wrong theory to make us go around in circles?”

“We haven’t been going around in circles,” Feng Bujue replied, appearing calm and resolute. He immediately asked, “Along the way… have you seen any repeating scenery?”

“I don’t recall…” Honghu replied.

Tianma Xingkong said, “I have no impression…”

Feng Bujue didn’t need them to have an impression, because he remembered it very clearly. “I’ve constructed a map in my head. If I remember correctly… the route we’ve taken after killing the Heart of Fear is roughly spiral-shaped.” He raised a hand, making circles in the air. “We’re approaching a certain ‘center point’, and… we’re already very close.”

Jue-ge's words were always convincing. Even though he couldn’t provide any evidence, relying solely on the sentence, “I’ve drawn a map in my head,” his teammates were willing to believe him.

Even the “strategist” Honghu couldn’t deny that Feng Bujue possessed this kind of personal charm… a kind of aura that made people feel they could rely on him in adversity.

“Heh… look.” Before Jue-ge had even finished speaking, the beam of his flashlight illuminated something. “Things in this world just can’t stand being mentioned.”

Hearing this, Tianma Xingkong and Honghu both turned their heads to look ahead. They saw… that the crystal crust on the ground ahead had ended.

The three walked another ten meters or so, and came to the end of the path. What appeared before them… was a large pit with a radius of tens of meters, surrounded by towering crystal pillars, the middle of which was pitch black and bottomless.

“Ah… well, my flashlight can’t reach the bottom anyway.” As he spoke, Jue-ge raised his arm and punched one of the crystal pillars beside him.

The next second, he casually picked up a piece of crystal shard that had been knocked off and threw it into the pit.

Whoosh—

This was the sound of the crystal falling. And then… there was nothing else…

“Whoa~ A bottomless pit…” Tianma Xingkong placed his hands on his knees, leaning forward to peer down.

“Yeah, the Earth Surge Madam (referring to the White-Eared Mouse spirit in Journey to the West) lives down there,” Jue-ge quipped. “I’m already getting antsy… Oho~”

“‘Oho’ is what kind of patter…” Honghu muttered, his mouth twitching. “I’m telling you, Atobe’s already dead, so we may not know all the memes you’re playing with. If you keep acting like this, we’ll just think you’re being crazy by yourself.”

“Heh… never mind then.” Feng Bujue shrugged. “In any case, I’ll go down there first.” Saying that, he took a few steps back, preparing to take a running start.

[Current Mission Complete]

[Main Mission Updated]

At this moment, two consecutive system prompts rang out, slightly interrupting Jue-ge's actions.

The players each opened the game menu, checked the mission bar, and saw that [Arrive at the Cage of Despair] had been checked off.

The new mission that appeared below was: [Find a way to open the Cage]

“What’s going on now?” Tianma Xingkong said. “This is clearly a pit, and there’s no lid… how do you ‘open’ it?”

“Perhaps… the ‘Cage of Despair’ isn’t this pit itself, but is located somewhere below this pit,” Honghu hypothesized.

Feng Bujue then said, “Alright, I’ll understand everything once I go down there.”

“That won’t be necessary.” Suddenly, an unfamiliar voice sounded.

At the same instant, a hand rested on Feng Bujue's shoulder.

“I’ll help you open it, interdimensional travelers…” the person then added, slowly emerging from the darkness.