Chapter 90
Me and my love-brain, troublemaking younger brother.
Yang Xiaodao: “A-choo!!”
The young man rubbed his nose and looked around. He found himself in a narrow passageway, with walls that looked like glowing white metal. The end of the passage was unknown, and above him was a chaotic void of darkness.
“Chu Yan?” Yang Xiaodao sat on the ground, looking left and right like a confused and helpless husky. After a moment, he finally tried calling out, “Chu Yan, are you there? Dad? Bai Sheng? Supervisor Shen?”
“Where are you? Can you hear me?!”
The surroundings were silent; a pin drop could be heard.
Yang Xiaodao thought to himself, it must be that my calling posture is incorrect. Well then, I’ll have to use my ace in the hole. He closed his eyes and steeled himself, using all his strength: “Chu Yan—!”
“The practice book that was bitten last time wasn’t chewed by the big yellow dog downstairs, it was me—!”
“Because you assigned too—much—homework—!!”
As his voice fell, Yang Xiaodao quickly covered his head with his hands.
One second, two seconds, three seconds.
All around was quiet, Chu Yan’s life-threatening Seven Kills Ruler did not instantly appear above his head.
“……”
Yang Xiaodao finally confirmed, and let go of his hands to get up from the ground, despairingly muttering, “Alright, it seems they’re really not here.”
Yang Xiaodao tested walking around the spot for a few circles. All he could see were the twisted and eerie metal walls and the chaotic sky, finally confirming that he was in a maze.
Poor Yang Xiaodao, whose sister was not at home, felt like he had lost his external brain. The more he walked, the more confused he became. After hitting the eighteenth dead end, he was literally exhausted, dizzy, and seeing stars. Staring at the same metal wall, he took a deep breath and made a decision.
Then he raised his hand, and the steel gauntlet burst out with crackling, bright arcs of electricity, reflected in the determined eyes of the young man:
Rely on yourself for everything and miracles will come true through hard work.
My scattered parents and sister, wait for me to save you—
.
Five minutes ago, on the other side of the maze.
“Passage number C025 marked as non-enterable.” Cameron drew a second cross on the wall at the end of a passage with a marker.
At the beginning of the passage, Shen Zhuo also completed the same action, marking this circular path as a dead end according to Trémaux’s algorithm.
Cameron pinched his chin with one hand: “If we think of this maze as a flat map, summarize it into a two-dimensional list, and derive an algorithm, we can find the shortest path out of the maze. But there’s also another risk: if the maze is continuously dynamically generating and adding loops, even using a randomized Kruskal’s algorithm, then…”
“Then we will be trapped here because no maze algorithm can solve a randomly dynamically generated two-dimensional list.” Shen Zhuo walked over, his suit jacket draped over his arm, the back of his white shirt soaked with sweat, and his tie loosened slightly: “But I think it’s unlikely.”
“Based on your understanding of maze abilities?” Cameron raised his eyebrows high.
“Based on my understanding of Su Jiqiao.” Shen Zhuo tiredly stretched his neck.
Cameron: “……”
The two brothers stared at each other. After a while, Cameron finally sighed and compromised:
“I have a question.”
Shen Zhuo flatly repeated for the third time: “Not expanding the immobilization spell to the hostages is to avoid causing greater traumatic stress to over sixty children. This inexplicable ability can easily cause alexithymia risks in children’s psychological mechanisms, but I must admit I did not expect Rong Qi’s accomplices to include children as young as eight or nine years old…”
“Why are you with that non-mainstream guy with dyed white hair?”
Shen Zhuo stopped speaking, and they looked at each other.
“His hair isn’t dyed, it grew out naturally after evolution.” After a while, Shen Zhuo coldly said, “What do you have against his white hair?”
“I’ve always thought, from a long time ago, that with my brother’s admittedly foolish but sufficiently confusing outward appearance, he should find a real scholar, or at least a Nobel Prize winner. What I didn’t expect was that he ended up with a four-limbed evolutionist.” Cameron spoke as if questioning a United Nations hearing about another country’s possession of weapons of mass destruction, politely turning to Shen Zhuo: “May I ask where this unique psychological mechanism of yours stems from, from some childhood traumatic stress?”
“……” Shen Zhuo was expressionless: “He has money.”
Cameron emphasized: “Our family also has money.”
“He can fight.”
“Not more than an atomic bomb.”
“He’s good-looking.”
“He is not good-looking and he studies philosophy.”
Shen Zhuo: “You’re discriminating against disciplines. Philosophy is the pursuit of knowledge in its most general and fundamental form. Philosophy is the mother of all sciences—1905, Albert Einstein.”
Cameron sneered: “Philosophy is dead, Stephen Hawking.”
Shen Zhuo: “……”
From his expression, it was clear that Shen Zhuo had really tasted the sting of a comeback for the first time in his life.
“No matter who I choose, you’ll find fault!” Shen Zhuo retorted impatiently, “You just have brother issues and look down on everyone in this world!”
Cameron laughed mockingly: “Give me five names in this world worth admiring right now. Dead people don’t count.”
The name Einstein got stuck in his throat immediately.
After a moment of silence, Shen Zhuo stood there stiffly, staring at Cameron for a long time without saying a word.
“Admit it, brother, boredom is the truth of this world.” Cameron spread his hands with a mix of arrogance and regret, gracefully saying, “Please face yourself honestly, you are merely suffering from a foolish condition called ‘love brain’ due to some unknown childhood issue, which in psychology is an anxiety attachment pattern caused by narrow consciousness and tunnel vision…”
“You, my dear brother.” Shen Zhuo suddenly smiled slightly in response.
“You are the only two people in this world who are worthy of admiration. You are the only one who deserves to be compared with Bai Sheng.”
Cameron: “……”
Cameron seemed to be hit by a petrifying spell; his expression was like someone stuffing a boiled egg down his throat. After a long moment, he suddenly shivered, goosebumps rising all over his body: “You might as well poison me! Why don’t you just shoot me in the head! If I die in this maze, please don’t bury my ashes in the same plot as that Bai guy. No, launch them into outer space on a rocket; don’t let us be buried on the same planet!”
Shen Zhuo was getting more adept at mentally striking his brother, raising an eyebrow with a victorious expression.
“Oh, brother, you won’t die.” He marked the next fork in the path and casually said, “You will live on this earth with Bai Sheng, in harmony and love, like family, and you will—”
Meanwhile, on the other side, Yang Xiaodao took a deep breath and struck the wall:
Boom!!
The ground shook, debris flew, and the boy’s hundred-ton fist pounded the maze wall.
Back on Shen Zhuo and Cameron’s side:
Boom!!
The ground shook, debris flew, and the metal floor exploded!
——Maze rule number 2: Hell is other people.
The maze material can dynamically repair itself, so forceful destruction is useless, but it will cause a destructive explosion at another random location.
Shen Zhuo: “?”
Cameron: “?”
Luckily, Shen Zhuo was familiar with the vast majority of abilities in this world, like an encyclopedia. He immediately reacted, grabbing Cameron and shouting, “Someone is destroying the maze! Run!”
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!!
A hundred-ton punch was an incredibly terrifying force. The metal fragments exploded like cannonballs, capable of piercing flesh in an instant. However, Yang Xiaodao didn’t understand why the broken metal wall would immediately heal. He concluded that if he punched faster than the wall could repair, it would work, so his arm muscles bulged, the iron fist crackled with electric arcs, and he punched furiously—
Boom boom boom boom boom!!
With screeching friction, Shen Zhuo and Cameron dodged like lightning, sprinting at breakneck speed. It was an extreme burst of speed, their lungs aching with each breath, but the terrifying explosions followed them relentlessly. The ground beneath them, the walls above them, and the passages ahead exploded continuously. In the rolling dust, Cameron leaped and pushed Shen Zhuo aside.
A huge block of metal, weighing several tons, flew past his head. If it had been half a second later, Shen Zhuo’s entire head would have been smashed into a bloody watermelon.
Thud! They rolled on the ground and stumbled to their feet, sprinting toward an approaching dead end. Cameron cursed, “FXXXX—this way!”
They both dove into a fork, with the chain explosions right behind them. The wall in front collapsed with a thunderous noise. The rain of metal fragments almost shredded the brothers, revealing another passage at the end.
It was another dead end!
There was no other choice.
Shen Zhuo staggered to a stop, pulling an A-grade serum from his suit pocket, gasping, “Hide behind me, quickly!”
Cameron: “Careful! You—”
The ground was shaking with a rumble, and smoke and dust rose up in the sky. Shen Zhuo gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, and waved his hand to stab his neck—
At that moment.
The explosions stopped.
“……”
Yang Xiaodao stared at the fully repaired, undamaged metal wall in front of him, frowning in confusion.
“……”
Shen Zhuo’s syringe hovered in mid-air, Cameron still in the motion of reaching out to stop him. They held their breath, their hearts pounding in their throats.
The brief silence felt endlessly long. Finally, Yang Xiaodao stepped back, realizing that punching this wall repeatedly was futile.
So he turned around, took a deep breath, and struck another wall—
Boom!!
Back on Shen Zhuo and Cameron’s side, the ground-shaking explosions suddenly changed direction, following another passage intersecting with their dead end and moving away rapidly.
The brothers sighed in relief simultaneously, leaning back against the wall and sliding to the ground.
Their heavy breathing filled the air. Shen Zhuo’s shirt was soaked with sweat, and Cameron’s three-piece suit was disheveled, both looking utterly bedraggled.
After a while, his heavy breathing finally subsided. Cameron leaned against the wall, too exhausted to curse anymore: “Which idiot is bombing randomly in this maze?”
At that time, who knew how many high-level evolutionists were hidden in the crowd and got swallowed into the maze. Shen Zhuo shook his head wearily, indicating he didn’t know.
“When I get out and find out which damn fool did this, I’ll pull his dad’s stomach out through his mouth and smear it on his face…” Cameron frowned, “What are you looking at?”
“Nothing.” Shen Zhuo retracted his surprised gaze.
After a pause, he seemed to find it rather amusing and laughed briefly, “Didn’t expect you to swear too.”
Cameron snapped, “When I was exchanging warm greetings about rectal health with the U.S. Secretary of Defense over the phone, you were still carrying a little backpack, drinking your milk during school recess.”
Shen Zhuo: “……”
After a moment of silence, the brothers both burst into laughter, shaking their heads and finding some amusement in their misery. They helped each other stand up.
“The marks we made earlier are probably gone.” Cameron walked out of the dead end, looking back at the mess in the passage, and dusted off his suit, “Let’s start over.”
Shen Zhuo sighed, and they both began to walk forward.
.
—Click!
Bai Sheng cautiously knocked on the wall with two knuckles, and half of the wall cracked in response.
The next moment, not far away, Chu Yan, who had her ear pressed against the wall, heard something and turned back confidently: “It’s here again! Eleven o’clock direction, about two hundred meters away, it’s a linked explosion!”
“Oh, looks like I guessed right.” Bai Sheng stepped back half a step, thoughtfully rubbing his chin with one hand. “The maze itself is indestructible, and any attempt to break it by force triggers random linked explosions. And the more evolutionists enter the maze, as they become more desperate, more of them will try to destroy it recklessly. So…”
“So its real danger lies in its capacity,” Chu Yan interjected. “The higher the capacity, the more frequent and unpredictable the random explosions become, and the more innocent victims there will be!”
“L’enfer c’est les autres (Hell is other people),” Bai Sheng sighed deeply.
Hell is other people. The longer time drags on, the more hellish this maze will become.
“Who says philosophy isn’t the wisdom that encompasses all things?” The philosophy graduate concluded with a sigh.
Bai Sheng waved, signaling his daughter to bring over the eco-friendly bag with change, a water bottle, and napkins for him to carry, and then they walked forward together.
“Can you use the Tyrant to break the maze?” Chu Yan asked while marking the fork in the path.
“The Tyrant can only regress people, not abilities that have already been activated, and it has a 24-hour cooldown… I’d prefer to use it after we find your Supervisor Shen.” Bai Sheng carefully identified various scents in the air and pointed in a direction based on his instincts: “This way.”
The metal walls on both sides of the maze were made of some high-dimensional material, making them almost infinitely tall to prevent S-level evolutionists from breaking through the maze from above with their powerful flying abilities—but this also created a fatal flaw.
The internal environment created by the high-dimensional material was too void, unlike the real world, which would be interfered with by various substances.
In other words, it lacked scent molecules.
In this pure environment, the five senses of a double-S-level person were comparable to precision instruments, and capturing a specific target by scent within a few hundred meters wasn’t a problem.
What they needed to do now was to cover as much ground in the maze as possible. As long as they walked into the range of the route Shen Zhuo had passed, the first problem would be solved.
Chu Yan sighed but said nothing.
“What is it?” Bai Sheng keenly sensed his daughter had something to say.
Sure enough, Chu Yan hesitated but finally couldn’t hold back and said honestly, “I was just thinking… why hasn’t Supervisor Shen ever gone through a submission period with you? If he had, you could quickly find him using pheromones now, right?”
“Exactly! I said the same thing!” Bai Sheng immediately felt he had found a kindred spirit. “I said he should have agreed to go through a submission period with me long ago!”
Chu Yan: “Will you two really be happy if you stick together and roll around all day long?”
Bai Sheng: “Honestly, although I’d like to take it further, just seeing him makes me very happy… You don’t know, but the first time I saw him, I had this vague feeling I had met someone like me. Looking back, could that have been love at first sight…”
Ten minutes later.
“Every time I see him fully focused on his work, I find dedicated men so sexy. You know, I can’t refuse any of Shen Zhuo’s requests. When I see his eyes, my heart just beats in my chest…”
“Got it, got it. Like a girl in love.” Chu Yan nodded understandingly, carefully marking another fork.
Bai Sheng, carrying Chu Yan’s hand-drawn cat-head eco-bag, felt very gratified, thinking that it’s essential to have a little daughter at home. Otherwise, who else could he share his sweet and delicate feelings of romance with?
“I promise to help persuade Supervisor Shen when we find him.” Chu Yan comforted her father as if comforting a friend with a crush, then asked, “Have you noticed any scents?”
Bai Sheng shook his head, about to say something, when his eyes suddenly sharpened, and he extended a hand to block Chu Yan.
A few dozen meters ahead, a corner appeared quietly before them, the metal lines emitting a faint, cold white light.
“……”
The surroundings fell silent. Chu Yan looked at Bai Sheng, who silently mouthed two words:
Someone’s there.
At the corner, Shen Zhuo suddenly grabbed Cameron, raising two fingers in a swift “silence” gesture.
Someone’s there.
“……”
The eerie silence enveloped them. Cameron looked at Shen Zhuo, who was fully alert and reaching for the gun at his lower back—
Everything happened in a fraction of a second.
A figure sprang out instantly, Shen Zhuo drew his gun like lightning and aimed, and the bullet clicked into the chamber.
Cameron was yanked backward with great force, a blade pressed coldly against his throat!
A beast-like hoarse breathing came from behind Cameron. Without looking back, he immediately knew the identity of the assailant. Shen Zhuo’s stern voice rang out, “Don’t move!”
—The gun was aimed at a scar-faced man hiding almost entirely behind Cameron, a sharp knife already cutting into Cameron’s neck.
It was that Burmese Deputy Supervisor, Bo Kun.
He looked nothing like a normal person anymore, his expression fierce and crazed, his mouth gasping continuously, his entire body sweating profusely; his eyeballs almost completely blood-red, blue-black spreading from under his eyelids to his nose, his jaw trembling uncontrollably, making a nervous chattering sound.
Shen Zhuo didn’t need to look to know what was wrong with him.
He was in withdrawal.
In this maze with no drugs, unable to find relief, the Burmese man had gone mad.
“@#￥%&…” Bo Kun stared at Shen Zhuo, and a trickle of blood flowed into Cameron’s collar from the blade.
People in withdrawal can do anything, more uncontrollable than a random bomb, not to mention this guy wasn’t an ordinary addict—he was probably associated with Burmese drug lords.
Many local drug lords received systematic professional military training, and the scary part now was the language barrier.
“Let him go!” Shen Zhuo aimed steadily, repeating in simple Chinese and English: “We don’t have drugs, we don’t have what you want! Let him go!”
Unexpectedly, Bokin suddenly roared, the knife slicing a piece of flesh from Cameron’s neck: “@#￥%&!!”
Shen Zhuo shouted, “Stop!”
The air froze instantly, and the silence was so intense that a pin drop could be heard. Only Cameron’s collar was slowly stained with a large patch of red. After a long moment, the Burmese man squeezed out two words through his hoarse voice:
“Give…me…”
His face was hideously crazed like a madman, staring intently at the spot in Shen Zhuo’s coat pocket—he wanted the HRG serum.
The serum that could allow evolution, enabling escape from the maze and return to reality.
The invisible tension in the air tightened to the extreme, Shen Zhuo’s eyes narrowed coldly as he heard the Burmese man’s wild, beastly growl: “…Give it to me…!”
.
At the same moment, at the far end of the maze.
Bai Sheng’s pupils reflected the empty corner ahead; suddenly, noticing something in the air, his gaze tightened.
But just as he was about to act, Chu Yan was suddenly attacked: “Ah!”
The ground beneath her feet suddenly turned into a swamp, and she was caught off guard, sinking!
Bai Sheng flashed and grabbed Chu Yan’s arm, but the moment he touched it, he realized the swamp was a gravity ability, and no amount of physical strength could counter it. In that split second, he had no choice but to use regional gravity to pull her up from the mire—
A person cannot activate two abilities simultaneously, even a double-S level.
When regional gravity was activated, Bai Sheng could not use any other abilities to protect himself within a thousandth of a second.
Several high-level evolutionists appeared from the front, multiple A-level attacks launched instantly, like a sky full of different colored meteors, hitting Bai Sheng all over in the blink of an eye!
Chu Yan’s pupils dilated suddenly: “—Mr. Bai!”
