Suuankou walked in the designated direction for about 15 minutes and finally exited the “roadless” forest.
“—In theory, you can just memorize the path, right?”
“—Yeah, you don’t have to kill Brother Messenger if you can overcome the Maze Forest by memorizing the set path.”
“—Then why don’t you proceed with Brother Messenger? Anyway, you will die in the floor segment.”
“—That’s true…” The players were still discussing.
However, Suuankou gradually began to concentrate.
That was because he realized that this dungeon instance had already officially started.
Suuankou walked a few steps forward from the main road.
Then, three paths appeared in front of him. It did not look like a forked road that came about because of people threading it. Instead, they were more like a crooked trident-like road drawn by the child.
The road fork diverged into one straight path and two symmetrical U-shaped paths.
A faceless gentleman, holding a cane, was standing before the junction.
He raised his head and looked at Suuankou.
—This gentleman’s drawing style was like the familiar in the Magic Girl Madoka’s [1] world.
Suuankou complained in his heart.
The man had no facial features—that was not to say that his face was as smooth as a duck’s egg.
Rather, it was the opposite.
The faceless gentleman had marks of various colors of crayons painted on his face. It was like a child’s drawing, where they lose patience halfway through and start scribbling randomly, resulting in a messy ‘egg’”
So maybe the man could also be called the “egg-faced gentleman”.
“Sir,” the egg-faced gentleman said, “There is no turning back from here onward.”
Although Suuankou already knew the answer to this dialogue, this dialogue functioned as a trigger that he could not afford to omit.
This was a critical part of the selection process. Every time the dungeon challenger came to this location, the “level” he could choose varied.
Therefore, Suuankou respectfully asked the egg-faced gentleman, “So, where should I go?”
The egg-faced gentleman asked, “Where do you want to go?”
“To be honest, I don’t know either,” Suuankou replied honestly.
He had no idea.
“In that case.” The egg-faced gentleman replied slowly, “It doesn’t matter where you go.”
“Where do these three roads lead?”
“This path,” the egg-faced gentleman raised his left hand, “leads to the ball. And here,” he raised his right hand, “to the candy house. And behind me, that is Mr. Bear’s Home. So go wherever you like, but remember never to turn back.”
Fuck…
Suuankou had a hard time resisting the urge to cuss.
Why is it so difficult this time?
The bullet text suddenly made a fuss:
“—Go to the ball!”
“—No, no, no, it’s time to go to the candy house. You did not bring along the messenger this time, so maybe you can progress further.”
Some players had never watched the live broadcast about this nightmare before. Only now did they recognize the source of this comment:
“—It’s the Cheshire Cat.”
“—Suuankou’s Adventures In the Wonderland [2]? Ew, don’t disgust me.”
—Ah, begging for the bullet text system to enforce real-name registration.
Suuankou glanced at the bullet text blankly, and this idea came to his mind.
This time, it was a hell of a start.
He had been to the ball and the candy house.
Undoubtedly, the ball was no longer his option because some massive stone statues were dancing inside. They kept spinning back and forth in the middle of the dance floor. Suuankou went there four times. Before he even figured out what he should do, the stone statues crushed him to death.
He could only judge that these stone statues seemed to be chasing him. It was just that their behavioral rules were different.
Some stone statues chased Suuankou along the shortest distance; some statues aimed for the position where he would arrive after 10 seconds; some statues targeted the position where he passed through 5 seconds ago; some statues patrolled on a fixed route until they got closer to him.
There seemed to be only one unique solution to this challenge.
However, there was no safe zone once he entered the dance floor.
Although Suuankou could solve it, he was chased by a group of six-meter-high stone statues. His nervous brain was in a mess, and he could not think properly — he lacked a clear idea of what to do next.
What exactly am I looking for?
Is my goal to find the exit?
Or am I required to survive there for a designated time period?
All of these remain unknown.
I should have Sister Jiu Er challenge this.
The kind people are blessed with good luck.
Suuankou thought in his heart.
As for the candy house, it was simply a trap house.
It was also the reason why he wanted to kill the messenger. The messenger would choose the path instead of him.
If Suuankou did not possess the token, then he would not be able to see this “egg-faced gentleman” at all. Only one of the three roads that faced forward would be revealed.
If the candy house were an option, the messenger would choose the candy house.
However, that so-called “candy house” was simply a trap house.
The entrance corridor was installed with an illusion floor. Some floors only revealed a bit of transparency. If the dungeon challenger accidentally stepped on it, he would fall and die.
The first room ahead was the heating room.
The key was hidden under a massive pile of cakes, and the temperature in the room continued to rise. The challenger would be roasted alive if he could not find the key.
Next up was the candy slide. It was a roller coaster-like slide with no handrails. If the challenger did not clean his hands in the previous level, he would be thrown out directly into the massive cauldron of boiling sugar.
The next level was the biscuit room. That was to say, the room with no survival. The ceiling would fall in response to the weight in the room. If there were only one person, it would descend halfway through. However, the ceiling would drop to the floor if there were two people. But, the door to the next level was about three-fifths of the height.
Here the person must give up all the weight on his body before he could barely enter the next level.
After that was a “single-plank bridge” that looked like a variety show. The single-plank bridge was made of a stick-shaped biscuit that shatters when stepped on. Also, hot syrup was gushing out from the cannons on both sides.
Anyway, Suuankou had not passed this level yet.
He did not know what the next level was.
All he knew was that this was a nightmare of a child’s prank.
Adults were generally not that obsessive at playing tricks.
So far, Suuankou had not even seen “the Mill.”
He would die over and over again fanatically at the road fork, which was the second save point of this nightmare.
The only person who had seen the mill was Jiu Er.
That time, Jiu Er died from touching the toy of the miller’s daughter with her hands that had been soiled.
By the way, she died another time after touching a toy with bloody hands.
Indeed, she died twice in the same spot.
However, Suuankou had not forgotten his main mission — checking up on the traps with his life.
So this time, let’s choose a place I have yet to go…
“I’m going forward,” Suuankou replied.
At the next moment, the egg-faced gentleman disappeared. The trails on the left and right sides vanished along as well.
It was as if everything that had happened previously was just an illusion.
