“I tried many things… I deliberately interrupted the teacher mid-lesson, tore up my exercise book and exam papers, threw a classmate’s schoolbag across the room. I even ran to the school gate and picked a screaming fight with the security guards — just to get them to throw me out, or call my parents, anything — I just wanted to see if I could actually leave the school—”

Chen Hui bit her lip and lowered her head, her voice growing more subdued: “But I couldn’t. I was only taken to the disciplinary office and given a scolding. When the end-of-period bell for the fourth class rang, I was back in the classroom, sitting in my own seat, my deskmate elbowing me and asking how I dared to sleep through the homeroom teacher’s class… Everything reset.”

Bai Youwei listened and pondered. What Chen Hui described sounded like a perfectly sealed storyline — a loop that connected its own head to its own tail, forming a closed circle.

If someone trapped inside wanted out, they had to break the loop — just as Chen Hui had tried to do: tearing up exam papers, arguing with security guards. In short, doing something to prevent the storyline from continuing on its original course.

Bai Youwei asked: “How did you finally get out of the maze?”

Chen Hui closed her eyes and answered: “I climbed to the roof of the school building and jumped.”

A quiet jolt of shock passed through Bai Youwei’s chest.

Before she could ask anything, Du Lai’s voice came from behind her —

“Same for me.”

She turned. Du Lai was leaning in the doorway, his oversized hospital gown hanging slack over his gaunt frame, completely deflated — none of his usual energy or sharpness remained.

“My dreamscape was set on a luxury cruise liner,” Du Lai said. “I was the ship’s magician, performing two shows a day, morning and evening. It was one of the more peaceful stretches of my life — there was a period of nearly three years where I never disembarked. I knew everything aboard that ship inside and out. Probably for that reason, the dreamscape Maze No. 1 built for me was set on that vessel.”

Bai Youwei asked: “Once you were in, how long did it take before you started to suspect you were dreaming?”

“I suspected it from the moment I arrived,” Du Lai said flatly. “Some of the performers on the ship would occasionally use hallucinogens — within legal doses, and legal in that country. At the time I felt groggy and disoriented. A colleague asked if I’d taken too much. But I knew what was in front of me was false — because Miaoxue wasn’t there.”

Bai Youwei looked at him. “Even knowing it was false, ending it yourself still takes courage and resolve. After all, you didn’t know at the time whether dying inside would mean your real self died too.”

Every person has a survival instinct. Who would willingly seek death unless they had absolutely no other way out?

“That’s why I was trapped in there for so many days…” Du Lai gave a self-mocking laugh and continued: “I tried almost every method I could think of — none of them worked. No matter what I did, nothing worked… I even deliberately started a fire, trying to burn the ship. But I was caught. They restrained me and came at me with knives. One blade went straight into my heart — and I still didn’t die. I opened my eyes and I was back in the staff break room, my colleague asking if I’d taken too much and was talking nonsense.”

Bai Youwei was taken aback. “You died in the dream?”

Du Lai nodded. “Several times. People who run that kind of operation don’t have clean hands. There were enforcers on the ship specifically for dealing with employees like me who wouldn’t behave.”

Bai Youwei thought for a moment. “So is it fair to say — only when the player themselves seeks an escape can they get out of the dreamscape? If the player is killed by someone within the dream, it has no effect — the dream simply resets to its starting point.”

“Considering only my experience and Chen Hui’s, that does appear to be correct,” Du Lai told Bai Youwei. “Once you understand that, Maze No. 1 is completely without danger. You just need to go in, tell Fu Miaoxue the situation, then jump from somewhere high — and you’re free of the dream.”

—