A blue sky like a calm, windless sea, with wisps of cloud like pale, drifting waves.

Su Man sat in the car, her hand stretched high out the window, feeling the wind thread through her fingers — carrying with it the faint coolness of early autumn.

Summer was almost over.

She wondered if her companions had made it out of Game 21. Without her dragging them down, they had surely cleared it without a hitch.

Now, after two days and three nights of long-distance travel, she had finally reached the edge of the labyrinth.

She should have arrived much sooner, but with only her right hand to drive, plus detours around blocked roads and numerous stops and starts, time had slipped away.

Still, she’d arrived safely.

Perhaps because she was travelling alone, no game had triggered. In any case, the whole journey had passed without incident.

Su Man narrowed her eyes and gazed at the mist ahead. Estimating there was still over a thousand meters to go, she decided not to drive any further.

She stopped the car, unloaded all the supplies, brought down the bicycle that had been strapped to the roof, then packed food, clothing, water, and a foldable tent onto the bicycle’s rear rack.

The remaining supplies she wrapped layer by layer in black garbage bags and stuffed into a roadside trash bin —

She figured that even if someone passed by, they wouldn’t go rummaging through a garbage bin for supplies.

A small smile tugged at the corner of Su Man’s mouth.

She’d learned this trick from Zhu Shu. Back then, when Zhu Shu had suggested this method for hiding supplies, Li Li had praised her endlessly for it — and Su Man had stewed in jealousy for days.

Looking back now, they’d been teetering on the edge of life and death every single day, yet she’d still found the energy to be jealous. Truly, she’d had a lot of nerve.

Su Man shook her head with a rueful smile, mounted the bicycle, and rode toward the labyrinth…

The mist lay just ahead.

The distance was shrinking.

And the bicycle slowed with every pedal…

For some reason, her confidence had started to fail her.

Staring at the white fog so close now, she couldn’t help but wonder: after she went in, would she make it out?… If she died in there, would she regret this choice she had made?

She would make her family grieve and cause her friends pain. Why had she been so willful as to leave without a word?

…No. No, that wasn’t it.

How could she flinch at the last moment? Hadn’t she already told herself she wouldn’t be a burden to anyone? The labyrinth was right in front of her! She just had to go in, and then come out — and she would be healed!

This wasn’t leaving without a word. She simply refused to go on living under others’ protection!

Su Man rallied herself inwardly and picked up speed.

The mist slowly swallowed her silhouette.

Once inside the fog, Su Man dismounted and pushed the bicycle forward, walking slowly.

The ground beneath her feet gradually turned soft and wet, and the light grew dimmer and dimmer — filling her with unease, and a growing worry that her preparations hadn’t been thorough enough.

…There was no way to be truly thorough about it.

After all, every labyrinth was different. Every labyrinth was unknown. No one could predict what they would encounter inside.

The white fog finally dissipated entirely, and Su Man found herself standing in a bamboo grove.

The bamboo grew so densely that pushing the bicycle through it was impossible. She had no choice but to abandon it, shifting everything strapped to the rack onto her own back.

Honestly, it was quite heavy. Had she not gone through two labyrinths before and built up her physical endurance, she might not have been able to carry it. If she’d brought only the essentials she’d be able to move much more lightly.

But Su Man knew her own limitations.

She knew she wasn’t all that clever, so she could only rely on this “brute-force approach” — carrying as much as possible to ensure she had what she needed, instead of scrambling in a panic when the time came.

She struggled through the dense bamboo grove for a stretch, and that’s when she encountered the first peculiarity.

A gigantic arrow.

Utterly incongruous with the surrounding landscape, an enormous arrow appeared before her, as if pointing the way forward.