“I survived the illusory realm of the Tremor Source using this very concept,” Feng Bujue continued. “It’s called ‘reverse guidance.’” He smiled. “Perhaps things got a little ‘out of control’ later on, which is why the Heart of Fear said those things.”

“Alright, you don’t need to continue. Just pretend I didn’t ask,” Xiao Ma Ge said, turning his head away.

“I have no interest either…” Honghu also stated. He was also helpless; every time he teamed up with Jue-ge, his SAN value (sanity, a player stat in the Call of Cthulhu tabletop game that represents mental strength or sanity) would plummet…

And so, Jue-ge once again successfully bluffed his way out of the situation… Afterwards, he smoothly changed the subject and led his teammates forward.

This time, the players were no longer searching aimlessly. Because before the Heart of Fear died, it had revealed the way to the Prison of Despair.

In reality… there was a certain pattern to the paths in this crystal labyrinth, and this pattern was hidden in the surrounding crystal pillars.

The Heart of Fear did not tell the players all the rules; it only revealed one of them: When encountering a fork in the road (whether two or more), stand at the center point between any two paths and calculate the distance between the top of the first crystal pillar on your left and the top of the second crystal pillar on your right, as well as the angle between the straight line formed by these two points and the ground. If these two values are within a certain range, it means you are not on the wrong path.

Using this method, even if faced with four, five, or even more forks in the road, it didn't matter; just try them one by one between pairs.

Currently, Feng Bujue, Honghu, and Tianma Xingkong were advancing by following this rule.

At first, they moved quickly and smoothly. But after a period of time, the forks in the road ahead gradually increased, and the crystal pillars became denser and more complex, which slowed them down.

Of course, this was also a normal phenomenon, because the closer they got to the center of the labyrinth, the fewer paths that met the criteria there would be. The labyrinth center was set up with many maze-like, meaningless paths, which were used to confuse outsiders.

In short, this trek took more than four hours…

During this time, Feng Bujue and the others stopped to eat once more and encountered monsters a few times. Battles were naturally unavoidable, and the three of them each paid a certain price, but fortunately, there were no further casualties.

Finally, in the fifth hour…

“I say… this path seems particularly long,” Feng Bujue, who was walking in the lead, spoke.

Along the way, he had been mainly leading the way. Leading the way through the darkness, he indeed had various advantages that others did not.

“I’m starting to doubt whether we’re even on the right path…” Tianma Xingkong replied listlessly.

Clearly, after a long trek, various unannounced scary scenes, and many difficult and tedious battles, Xiao Ma Ge's morale had dropped to freezing point.

“Could it be… that the Heart of Fear deceived us?” Honghu mused. “Maybe it deliberately gave us a set of wrong theories to make us go in circles?”

“We aren’t going in circles,” Feng Bujue replied. He seemed very calm and firm. He immediately asked, “Along the way… have you seen any repeated scenery?”

“In my impression… no,” Honghu replied.

Tianma Xingkong said, “I don’t remember…”

Feng Bujue didn't need them to remember, because he remembered it very clearly himself. “I've constructed a map in my head. If I remember correctly… the route we've taken since killing the Heart of Fear is roughly spiral-shaped.” He raised one hand and circled it in the air, “We are approaching a certain ‘center point’, and… it's already very close.”

Jue-ge's words were always convincing. Even if he couldn't provide any proof, just relying on the sentence “I drew a map in my head,” his teammates were willing to believe him.

Even the “intelligent general” Honghu couldn't deny that Feng Bujue had this kind of personal charm… a kind of temperament that made people feel they could rely on him in adversity.

“Heh… look.” Not long after Jue-ge finished speaking, the beam of his flashlight shone on something, “Things in this world just can't stand being talked about.”

Hearing this, Tianma Xingkong and Honghu both turned their heads to look forward. They saw… the crystal crust on the road surface ahead had been interrupted.

The three of them walked forward another ten meters or so and came to the end of this path. What appeared before them… was a large pit with a radius of dozens of meters, surrounded by towering crystal pillars, with a pitch-black, bottomless abyss in the middle.

“Ah… anyway, my flashlight can’t reach the bottom,” Jue-ge said, raising his arm and punching a nearby crystal pillar.

The next second, he casually picked up a piece of crystal that had been knocked off and threw it into the pit.

Whoosh—

This was the sound of the crystal falling. And then… there was nothing after that…

“Whoa~ A bottomless pit…” Tianma Xingkong supported his hands on his knees and leaned forward to look down.

“Yeah, the Lady of the Earth Surge (i.e., the White-Eared Mouse Spirit from Journey to the West) lives down there,” Jue-ge quipped. “I’m already itching to go down… Oohu~”

“‘Oohu’… what kind of routine is that?” Honghu muttered, twitching the corner of his mouth. “I’m telling you, Atobe is already dead, so we might not even know the references you're making. If you keep acting like this, we’ll just think you’re a lunatic talking to himself.”

“Heh… never mind then,” Feng Bujue shrugged. “Anyway, I’ll be the one to go down first.” As he said this, he took a few steps back, preparing to run.

[Current Mission Completed]

[Main Mission Updated]

At this moment, two consecutive system prompts sounded, slightly interrupting Jue-ge's actions.

The players opened their game menus and checked the quest log, seeing that the entry for [Reach the Prison of Despair] had been checked off.

The new mission that appeared below was: [Find a Way to Open the Prison].

“What’s going on now?” Tianma Xingkong said. “This is clearly a pit, and it doesn’t have a lid… How do you ‘open’ it?”

“Perhaps… the ‘Prison of Despair’ isn’t this pit itself, but is located somewhere below the pit,” Honghu hypothesized.

Feng Bujue said, “Alright, I’ll understand everything once I go down and take a look.”

“That won’t be necessary,” suddenly, an unfamiliar voice sounded.

At the same moment, a hand landed on Feng Bujue's shoulder.

“I’ll help you open it, interdimensional travelers…” the person continued, slowly appearing from the darkness.