“Even so, it should still be quite difficult for the Minotaur to catch up with you, shouldn’t it?”

Bai Youwei felt something didn’t quite add up — were there details in here they hadn’t explained clearly?

“Suppose the Minotaur’s starting position is 20 rooms away from you, and you move 1 room while it also moves 1 room — the distance between you stays at 20 the entire time. Even if you happened to walk into a dead end midway and needed to turn around, those 20 steps would be more than enough to escape safely, wouldn’t they?

And yet from what you’re describing, it sounds like you encounter the Minotaur quite easily. Why is that?”

All three men were briefly dumbfounded.

Expressions of utter bewilderment and confusion crossed their faces.

“Some rooms… are very strange.” The man called Dylan hesitantly began. “Sometimes we were clearly ahead of the Minotaur, but after opening a few stone chambers, somehow… we ended up behind it…”

In that case, if they continued opening doors forward while the Minotaur reversed direction and opened doors backward, the two would meet head-on.

“So you’re saying that some rooms have spatial jumps?” Bai Youwei asked them. “Is there any visible difference between those rooms and ordinary ones?”

“No… we don’t know…” All three men shook their heads in confusion, and they didn’t look like they were lying.

Bai Youwei asked further: “Do the jump locations share any common features? For instance, are those rooms typically situated near corners — that is, dead-end positions?”

They shook their heads blankly again.

But this was understandable. If they had fully figured out the layout of the rooms, they wouldn’t have been trapped here in the first place.

A’Shalina asked Bai Youwei: “What do we do next?”

Bai Youwei furrowed her brow and thought for a moment, then said: “Let’s rest. Randomly entering rooms right now has no point — it will only bring the Minotaur toward us. Let’s first try to sort through what we know.”

Everyone listened, set down their packs, spread out their moisture-proof mats, and each found a place to sit and rest.

Since they had only entered the maze a short while ago, they simply took out some water to drink. Meanwhile, the three men over there were very eager to please — retrieving bread and water from the leather pouch in abundance, and respectfully delivering it to each person.

The feeling was like being exiled to Mars for three months and then suddenly encountering living people again — they were putting every ounce of energy into winning favor and closeness.

Bai Youwei didn’t particularly want the bread and water, but she accepted a little anyway.

She tore off a small piece of bread, didn’t eat it, just held it under her nose and smelled it — a fine, rich wheat fragrance.

Chen Hui sidled up to her and quietly asked: “Wei-jie, these few people… are they really not NPCs?”

“NPCs don’t hold items.” Bai Youwei answered.

Chen Hui pressed her lips together and glanced in the direction of the three men. She muttered: “But I still feel like something’s off about them…”

“Mm, they are quite off.” Bai Youwei also glanced over.

Mark, Dylan, and Slade had already delivered bread and water to everyone and were now curled up in a corner, the three of them pressed tightly together for warmth.

“What’s off about them?” Chen Hui asked softly.

“Don’t you think they’re too thin?” Bai Youwei withdrew her gaze with an expressionless face and said lightly. “They’ve been eating bread every day, and there’s no other activity space — even if they hadn’t gained weight, they shouldn’t be this thin. The way they look right now is almost like…”

Bai Youwei paused, then said: “Almost like people who haven’t had a proper meal in months.”

Chen Hui, hearing this, felt a chill run through her. She wasn’t a heartless person, but being in the same room as these three gave her an inexplicably uncomfortable feeling.

“Could it be… because they’ve been in a suppressive environment for so long, they just… couldn’t eat, and lost weight?” Chen Hui tried to find a rational explanation.

“Maybe I’m overthinking it.” Bai Youwei said lightly. “There’s also the fact that when we first met, they immediately offered to hand over the magic pouch — it gave me the sense that they don’t particularly care about food… They’re that thin, yet they’re not concerned about food. Why?”

—