Bai Youwei unfolded her hand-drawn map and spread it out for everyone to see.

“We’ve been at this long enough that we now know the rooms stretch twelve wide horizontally. If we number them 1 through 12, the minotaur last stopped in Room 2 and we’re now in Room 12.

Assuming the minotaur doesn’t move while it’s eating, it would have to cross at least eight rooms to catch up to us.”

Bai Youwei tapped the location of the teleport point with her finger.

“Under normal circumstances, that’s a distance it could never close in time. But the maze contains an unknown number of teleport points. If I were the minotaur, I’d position myself not far from each teleport point and anticipate where the players are heading, then use whichever teleport point is best suited.

So to avoid being caught by the minotaur, we need to satisfy at least two conditions.

First: avoid all teleport points.

Second: avoid all dead ends.”

Chen Hui hesitated. “But right now… we’re near a teleport point and not far from a dead end either…”

Bai Youwei thought for a moment and said, “Let’s move one room west, then head north. If this maze is a 12×12 square, we’d only need to advance nine more times before hitting the far edge.”

“You’re sure it’s 12×12?” Du Lai asked.

“I’m only saying it’s possible,” Bai Youwei replied. “Mazes and games alike tend to favor regular shapes, and the most common is a square. We know there are twelve locks and twelve keys, and the rooms also line up twelve wide horizontally. If the vertical count matches, then this maze is very likely a perfect square.”

Leonid asked, “And what does knowing it’s a square actually do for us?”

“Nothing dramatic,” Bai Youwei said, lowering her gaze. “At least when the minotaur closes in, we won’t be backed into a dead end again.”

“But…” Chen Hui hesitated, “to prove that… we’d need to walk into at least one more dead end, wouldn’t we?”

They had already confirmed two corners. To prove the maze was a square, they needed to verify at least one more.

And walking into a dead end corner was exactly where the minotaur liked to trap them.

Bai Youwei thought about it and said calmly, “There’s no avoiding it. Even knowing we can’t get stuck in corners, we still have to comb through every room in the maze to map out each key’s location.”

“Then let’s go,” Shen Mo said simply. “The sooner we’re out, the better.”

Bai Youwei glanced at him. “We head west.”

The group moved one room west. As Du Lai released the chick to scout, he spotted a key inside the western chamber. They moved in, and retrieved the sixth key.

“I’m starting to think this maze really might be 12×12,” Du Lai said.

Ashalina asked, “Why?”

“Because the rate at which we’re finding keys is too high,” Du Lai said with a slight smile. “If the maze had a thousand rooms, or ten thousand, finding keys by chance would be nearly impossible. But if it’s 12×12, then the total is a hundred and forty-four rooms. Subtract the teleport rooms, and the odds of stumbling onto a key are roughly ten percent.”

“Is ten percent high?” Chen Hui couldn’t help but ask.

Du Lai smiled and said, “You know the Dual Color Ball lottery?”

Chen Hui nodded. “Yeah. Why?”

“The lowest prize — Fifth Tier — pays five yuan. The odds of winning it are around six percent.” Du Lai said. “Our odds of finding a key are higher than winning the Dual Color Ball.”

Bai Youwei turned the key over in her hand, thinking. “We need to go back and leave this one in the room just west of the teleport point.”

—