Everyone was mentally prepared; they wouldn't be surprised if they found a bloody operating room or a stenchy corpse in the basement. But who could have imagined that, while they were investigating, the Diamond-Suit Guardian would suddenly appear and cause chaos, turning the basement into a maze?!
Ye Qi said with a bitter face, "I hate mazes the most. And without Professor Xiao this time, how are we going to get out?!" He didn't want to lose a kidney for no reason.
Qu Wanyue and Long Sen exchanged a glance, both feeling somewhat guilty.
Long Sen said, "I'm not very good at mazes either, and Wanyue... cough, she's terrible with directions in real life. She always needs to use her phone's navigation when she goes out, otherwise she'll get lost."
Qu Wanyue laughed awkwardly: "My sense of direction is indeed quite poor..."
In the Diamond Secret Room, Xiao Lou is the strongest; following him, everyone can win effortlessly. However, right now, Xiao Lou is still investigating Cheng Shaoyu's heart origin at the hospital, Yu Hanjiang is the "underachiever" in the Diamond Secret Room, Qu Wanyue and Long Sen are completely bad at mazes, Ye Qi's problem-solving speed is okay, but he also gets lost in mazes, while Lao Mo...
Everyone turned to look at Lao Mo.
Old Mo is everyone's only hope!
Mo Xuemin felt a chill run down his spine under the gaze of four pairs of eyes. He touched his nose, coughed, and said, "Ahem, I... I'm only good at mazes, my best grade is an A. I'm not good at solving problems either."
Yu Hanjiang thought to himself, "An A in maze rating is better than my C, right? After all, Lao Mo is a designer and very sensitive to space. He shouldn't be afraid of a simple maze; what he's afraid of is encountering all sorts of difficult puzzles and challenges along the way."
Yu Hanjiang took his phone out of his pocket and found that the cell phone signal was blocked, so everyone couldn't communicate in the group. He had no choice but to try contacting Xiao Lou using the " Telepathic Connection " channel: " Is Xiao Lou there?"
Xiao Lou's voice quickly echoed in his mind: "Yes, what's wrong? I noticed you seem very nervous."
Yu Hanjiang explained simply: "We have now entered the basement of Antai Garden. Originally, we were there to investigate the organization's hideout, but as soon as the five of us entered the basement, a notification appeared saying - Welcome to the underground maze."
Xiao Lou was stunned: "A maze?!"
"Yes." Yu Hanjiang said helplessly, "When I checked the basements with the agent this afternoon, the basements of each building were not connected, and there was no maze at all. I guess The Diamond-Suit Guardian temporarily created a maze space, and we have to find the exit of the maze in order to enter the real basement to continue searching for clues."
"I understand. Diamond A must have teleported you all to a small maze instance. Hurry up and explore the area, and watch out for the traps on your feet," Xiao Lou instructed. "If you encounter any cipher puzzles that you can't solve, feel free to contact me. Let's stay in touch."
"Okay." Being able to connect with Xiao Lou relieved Yu Hanjiang. He looked at his teammates behind him and said, "I can contact Xiao Lou. Ask him for help if necessary. Everyone, take out your luminous pearls for lighting."
Everyone took out luminous pearls.
With the faint light of the luminous pearl, a narrow corridor can be seen in front of us, with many doors on both sides, each marked with a room number. To the left are five rooms: 101, 201, 301, 401, and 501; to the right are six rooms: 102, 202, 302, 402, 502, and 602. At the end of the corridor is a T-junction with two paths branching off to the left and right.
This is completely different from the basement door number that Yu Hanjiang saw at the time.
When he arrived at the basement with the agent in the afternoon, the room layout had seven doors on each side, left and right. The door numbers on the left were odd numbers, 101, 201, and up to 701, while the door numbers on the right were even numbers, 102, 202, and up to 702. 1 meant the first floor, 7 meant the seventh floor, and the basement door numbers corresponded to the 14 owners across the seven floors.
It's said that the developer originally designed the space this way to make more money by selling the basements to owners for storage. However, many owners didn't have much clutter and didn't need storage, so they were unwilling to spend money on an extra basement, leaving most of them vacant. This is why all 14 basement units in Unit 1 of Building 13 were rented out together.
But now, there are 5 rooms on the left side of the corridor and 6 on the right...
Rooms 601 and 701 are missing from the left side, and room 702 is missing from the right side. Where did the three missing rooms go? Or are these three missing numbers related to the password?
Yu Hanjiang was puzzled, but couldn't come up with an answer.
The underground labyrinth, which didn't match reality, confirmed Yu Hanjiang's hypothesis— the underground labyrinth created by The Diamond-Suit Guardian was a separate instance, not connected to the basement of Antai Garden. Only by escaping this labyrinth could they return to the real basement to continue investigating clues. The five of them were collectively teleported to this labyrinth instance; if they couldn't find their way out, they might actually lose a kidney.
The countdown had reached 29:30. Yu Hanjiang took a deep breath and called out to everyone, "Let's go."
The five people walked along, observing carefully.
On both sides of the corridor, each door is equipped with a combination lock. When illuminated by the luminous pearl, the number panel from 0 to 9 flashes a soft blue light, displaying a four-digit password. At this moment, the password field shows the initial password 0000.
Ye Qi asked in confusion, "What could a four-digit password be?"
Long Sen speculated, "Could it be an important date?"
For example, November 17th, the day Wang Wei and Xu Fangfang broke up?
Qu Wanyue rejected his line of thinking: "It shouldn't be. First of all, this community is not where Wang Wei and Xu Fangfang lived. Secondly, there are so many people who died in this locked-room mystery, such as Cheng Shaoyu and Liu Renyuan, and the dates are different. It's unlikely that the date was used as the password."
Old Mo scratched his graying hair in confusion and said, "The key isn't the password, but which door do we open out of all these rooms? We can't just open every single one..."
Ye Qi agreed: "That's right! If we make a mistake, we might end up with a room full of scalpels."
Everyone: "..."
Ye Qi always thinks about scary things, so no one wants to talk to him.
Yu Hanjiang said calmly, "Don't rush, let me ask Xiao Lou."
—Anyway, if you encounter a problem you can't figure out, asking Xiao Lou is always the right thing to do, since Xiao Lou's mind works faster.
After hearing Yu Hanjiang's description, Xiao Lou asked, "Is there only a door, a corridor, and a house number? Are there no other clues?"
"Yes, all 11 doors look exactly the same, so we don't need to open them all."
"There might be more clues later, so you guys keep exploring." Xiao Lou couldn't think of which door to open either, so he advised, "By the way, we don't know how big this maze is or whether it's dangerous, so you'd better not get separated and stick together as a group of five."
"Understood." Yu Hanjiang was also worried that if they split up, it would be even more troublesome if they couldn't find their teammates. He took out a [ Four-Way Arrow ] card, stuck an upward arrow symbol on the spot, and then led everyone to continue forward.
The five of them walked along the narrow passage to the end of the corridor. There was a path on each side of the T-junction. Yu Hanjiang put the left arrow on the wall and said, "Let's go left first."
The teammates nodded in understanding and quickly followed Yu Hanjiang.
After walking a few steps, they discovered that the layout of this corridor was exactly the same as the previous one: five rooms on the left and six rooms on the right, with the room numbers also being 101-501 on the left and 202-602 on the right. They could only see the room doors, and all of them had combination locks.
Ye Qi was stunned: "Exactly the same as before? Is it a copy-pasted model?!"
Yu Hanjiang calmly said, "Let's keep going and figure out the general layout of the maze first."
They walked a little further and came to another T-junction. Yu Hanjiang and Ye Qi put up a left-hand arrow and led everyone to continue to the left. The layout of the corridor was the same, and there was another T-junction ahead...
After passing three T-junctions in succession, Yu Hanjiang saw the forward arrow.
That was the mark he made at the starting point when he set off.
Qu Wanyue felt a chill run down her spine: "Have we gone around in circles and ended up back where we started?"
Ye Qi shuddered, feeling goosebumps on his back, and whispered, "Could this be the legendary 'ghost wall'?"
The term "ghost wall" refers to a situation where a "ghost" creates an illusion, trapping someone in a passage from which they cannot escape. For example, if you're climbing from the second floor, no matter how many floors you climb, you'll always be on the second floor. This scenario frequently appears in horror movies, and given the eerie and dark environment of the underground maze, Ye Qi's words sent chills down the spines of his teammates.
Long Sen gave Ye Qi a reproachful look: "Why do you always associate things with horror?"
Ye Qi chuckled and scratched his head; "I'm good at considering the worst possible consequences."
Yu Hanjiang's gaze swept across the corridor, but there were no "ghostly figures" or anything like that. He calmly said, "This isn't a haunted room, so there shouldn't be any ghostly illusions. Let's try going to the right."
Everyone walked to the T-junction they had just been at, and this time they all turned right. After walking through three intersections, they ended up back where they started.
All the corridors are laid out the same way—each corridor has 11 doors, all with combination locks.
Ye Qi was somewhat exasperated: "Who knows where the exit is! Is Diamond A deliberately messing with us?"
Just then, a "snap" sound came from the end of the corridor, followed by the lights turning on.
The glaring incandescent light startled everyone. Yu Hanjiang discovered that where there had just been a wall, a passage had suddenly opened up. Everyone stared at the passage with pale faces. What was even more chilling was that they could hear the "clattering" of footsteps coming from the other side of the passage.
Has this turned from a suspense film into a horror film?!
Yu Hanjiang didn't believe in ghosts, and frowned as he said, "Let's go take a look."
With him taking the lead, everyone felt uneasy, but they still mustered up the courage to follow.
The original "T-junction" has now become a "crossroads," with an extra straight passage. To everyone's dismay, this extra passage is still the same layout as before, with another "T-junction" ahead. No matter which way they go, they will always end up back at the starting point.
After returning to the starting point, the lights at the intersection turned on again, and another passage opened up in the wall.
The teammates' expressions grew increasingly grim, and Yu Hanjiang led the group to continue exploring the area.
He discovered that each time they returned to the starting point, an additional path would appear, and the maze grew larger and larger as they explored it...
With 10 minutes already gone and everyone still going in circles in the underground maze, Yu Hanjiang couldn't help but feel anxious. He whispered to himself, "This maze is a bit eerie. Every time the lights come on, an extra path appears, but no matter which way we go, we always end up back where we started. Everyone's getting a little dizzy."
Xiao Lou gently comforted him, "Don't worry, take Lao Mo through it again."
"Yes, he's marked all the intersections. He has a strong sense of spatial awareness; he should be able to draw a floor plan of the maze."
"Okay." Yu Hanjiang turned to his teammates and said, "Everyone stay where you are. Lao Mo and I will go through it again."
The four teammates breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this—although Professor Xiao wasn't there, they still had Lao Mo. Lao Mo had a design background and dealt with 3D modeling every day, so drawing the maze shouldn't be difficult for him.
However, Old Mo is now 66 years old and quite old. He was out of breath after walking around with everyone. Ye Qi offered his teleportation card to Yu Hanjiang: " Captain Yu, use this. You can all walk together."
With a teleportation card, efficiency can be increased several times over.
Ye Qi's teleportation card allows him to teleport 50 meters at a time. The corridor is exactly 50 meters long. Yu Hanjiang teleports Lao Mo to the corner, marks the spot, and then teleports again from a different direction...
Old Mo didn't have paper and pen, but luckily he had his phone. He opened a notepad app, created a blank document, and started drawing on it with his finger as he walked. After doing this many times, the two of them had explored all the locations in the maze. The lights went out, the eerie footsteps disappeared, and there seemed to be no place they had missed in the entire maze.
Old Mo then held the phone up to Yu Hanjiang: "I've finished drawing, Captain Yu, take a look."
The densely packed maze diagram on the white paper made Yu Hanjiang gasp.
This is the biggest maze they've ever encountered!
Fortunately, Lao Mo has a good sense of direction and didn't get dizzy, otherwise everyone might have been stuck in the maze for hours and still not figured out the layout.
Old Mo took a deep breath and quickly explained to Yu Hanjiang, "The maze we're in is a 'loop maze,' which is a large maze made up of countless small 'loop'-shaped units. So, as long as you walk in one direction, you'll return to where you were not long ago. We've searched all the passages and haven't found the exit, so there's only one explanation—the exit is in one of the rooms!"
Yu Hanjiang glanced at the maze plan drawn by Lao Mo again and told Xiao Lou about it using Telepathic Connection.
Xiao Lou grabbed paper and pen and quickly drew a sketch in his notebook based on Yu Hanjiang's description.
Back, back, back, back
Back, back, back, back
Back, back, back, back
Back, back, back, back
Back, back, back, back
Back, back, back, back
Upon seeing the final graphic, his teammates were stunned, and Xiao Lou felt a chill run down his spine.
Ye Qi couldn't help but say, "So many '回' (return) paths combined together? No wonder we're all dizzy! I'm dizzy just looking at them."
Qu Wanyue, being pregnant, was prone to nausea. Following the others through the maze had made her feel dizzy and like she was about to vomit. Thankfully, she had rested for a while while Captain Yu and Lao Mo were exploring the maze again, and she felt much better now. Qu Wanyue carefully examined the maze's floor plan and said, "If the exit is really in a room, how are we going to pinpoint it among so many rooms?"
This is a question everyone wants to ask.
Countless rooms, a dizzying maze of passageways—which room is the real exit?
******