novelraw Chapter 184-1: The Endless Corridor Maze (1)
Chapter 184-1: The Endless Corridor Maze (1)
[You look toward the nameplate at the side and confirm that this is indeed the office of Grand Scholar Maguire. You push the door open and step inside…]
[The office is simply furnished. Many papers and documents are spread across the desk, while a large bookshelf stuffed with books stands against the wall.]
[Searching…]
[You find an old book in the desk drawer.]
[The book is titled 108 Ways to Seek the Stars. You are overjoyed and quickly open it.]
[Most of the pages are badly damaged, the writing nearly illegible. You painstakingly decipher it word by word, finally uncovering partial information about the Star-Chasing Corridor.]
[Because much of the content is missing, you have to guess and infer to roughly piece together the crucial details.]
[The Star-Chasing Corridor is the only passage to the Star Spirit Palace and serves as the trial before entering it.]
[The Star-Chasing Corridor is layered upon itself like a labyrinth. Those who stray inside often lose their sense of direction and become trapped there forever.]
[Only those who worship the Radiant Stars can pass safely through the Star-Chasing Corridor to enter the legendary Star Spirit Palace.][The more devout and resolute the faith, the simpler and more straightforward the corridor becomes. Conversely, the less devout, the more convoluted and twisted it grows, becoming a nightmare for heretics.]
[If one can successfully pass through the Star-Chasing Corridor and reach the Star Spirit Palace, they will receive the blessing left behind by the gods…]
[You have acquired knowledge. Your Knowledge increases by 1,500! Current Knowledge: 2,101/15,200]
Lin Xun froze.
The Star-Chasing Corridor was a test of whether a believer was truly devout.
For a devout believer, the trial was simple. But for him, a Vowbreaker, it was likely the highest possible difficulty.
He wasn’t particularly worried that the Star Spirit Palace was literally some god’s dwelling place.
If a star god truly resided there, when he obtained the Teleportation Scroll, the Servant of Knowledge would have summoned him already.
Lin Xun tried clicking the Teleportation Scroll again.
[Do you wish to use the Teleportation Scroll of the Star-Chasing Corridor to teleport to the Star-Chasing Corridor?]
[You have fulfilled all conditions for teleportation. Do you wish to begin teleportation?]
He hesitated for a moment, then steeled his resolve.
“Let’s do it! I refuse to believe a measly maze can defeat me!”
[Teleporting…]
[…]
[…]
[Teleportation successful!]
[An ordinary wandering soul awakens in a hall filled with stars…]
[You open your eyes and look around…]
[You are in a great hall. The walls, vaulted ceiling, and floor are all covered in painted stars. Countless tiny stars gleam enchantingly, constantly shifting and drifting.]
[You look back and see a pitch-black oval teleportation gate behind you. You try to touch it but are repelled by an invisible force…]
[You understand that you cannot pass back through the gate for now.]
[The starlight illuminates the entire hall and the stone stele standing in the center.]
[You walk closer and read the words engraved on the stele, Only those blessed by the Stars may pass through this place.]
[Behind the stele, a massive glowing book page floats in the air…]
[You have discovered a Soul Page of the Book of Salvation: the Resting Page!]
Lin Xun felt a rush of relief.
Since there was a Resting Page here, he had unlimited chances to experiment.
Passing through the Star-Chasing Corridor was only a matter of time.
[You step forward and touch the Resting Page. The mysterious divine power lingering within makes your heart tremble as your ordinary soul resonates strongly with the page.]
[Beyond the Resting Page, the far end of the hall connects to three long corridors: left, center, and right.]
[You peer ahead. All three corridors, like the hall, are covered in painted, shifting stars, as though you stand amid the cosmos.]
[Which corridor do you want to enter?]
Lin Xun clicked the far-left corridor.
[You step into the left corridor and walk onward…]
[…]
[At the end of the corridor, three more identical corridors branch out again, left, center, and right.]
[Which corridor do you want to enter?]
He smiled faintly. What a cheap trick to try to show off in front of an expert.
Holding his phone in one hand and opening his computer with the other, he said,
“It’s just endless branching paths. As long as I note each choice and try them one by one… any problem that can be solved by grinding isn’t a real problem.”
Lin Xun began his grind with full confidence.
—
Half an hour later, he was starting to question his life choices.
He had already picked over ninety branching paths in succession, yet the choices ahead showed no sign of ending.
[You once again step into the left corridor…]
[You walk onward, and at last, the scene ahead is no longer the same branching corridor you’ve grown sick of…]
Lin Xun’s heart leapt.
He had finally reached the end of the maze. Could it be that he was lucky enough to hit the exit on his very first attempt?
[Your mind feels momentarily dazed…]
[You step into a great hall. The walls, vaulted ceiling, and floor are covered in painted stars, countless little points of light gleaming and drifting enchantingly.]
[A stone stele stands in the hall. Behind it float the Resting Page you are all too familiar with and three branching corridors.]
[Behind you stands the pitch-black teleportation gate you just walked through.]
[Congratulations! After tireless effort, you have finally returned to the start of your journey!]
“…”
“Accursed game, are you messing with me?”
Lin Xun immediately lost all composure and started cursing out loud.
After a long time, he forcibly suppressed his anger and began to think calmly.
He counted up the branching choices he’d taken over the past half hour, exactly ninety-nine of them, not one more, not one less.
He opened the scientific calculator on his computer and entered 3^99.
The result was an utterly terrifying number.
1.71792506910e+47
If he wanted to brute-force the maze by trial and error, in the worst-case scenario he would need to experience… in plain terms, a 17 followed by 46 zeros worth of attempts.
Lin Xun would have to make nearly infinite tries, searching without food, water, or sleep, and even with good luck, he might or might not reach the exit within his lifetime.
“…So they really don’t give a Vowbreaker a shred of a chance?”
He tried stepping into the corridor again…
Half an hour later, he was once more back at the starting hall.
“How is this even playable?”
Lin Xun racked his brains, trying to figure out a way to get through the Star-Chasing Corridor.
Clearly, trial and error wasn’t going to work anymore.