A message from Hikaru:

Hey readers! Sorry about this random interruption, but I just wanted to give you guys a heads up about what’s coming up in this chapter.

WARNING: This chapter contains content that may be highly confusing to some. Please ignore aspects that do not make sense, and do not think too much about Mikage’s strategy. Please take it for its face value, and enjoy the tactical ride.

AKA: Sir Hikaru tried and failed. Much apologies. Please do not blame Mikage, blame Sir Hikaru instead.

AKA #2: Boring content may be coming for this chapter. Please try your best to hold tight, I promise the action and more exciting parts will be coming up. You are free to skim the strategy if you would like, just don’t over think it. PROMISE THAT THE ACTION IS COMING, YES! HOLD ON TIGHT!

Now, back to my hiding place in the corner.

Best regards,

Hikaru Seishin

———————

Time passes by in a flash for most people.

Waking up.

Going to school.

Going home.

Heading to bed.

That was my normal routine.

But on that day, the day I accepted the invitation to the Colosseum, time seemed to drag on endlessly.

I couldn’t focus on anything.

…

Or maybe, I was simply too focused on what was going to happen, that night.

I tried to stay awake.

I tried, but of course, that never happened.

When I opened my eyes, I was standing in the middle of a large, chilly room.

Dimly lit, with spotless marble floors...ceilings and walls too distant to be seen.

And, directly in front of me, sitting in a chair suspended in mid air, was a man dressed in a black tuxedo.

Welcome, Kurose Mikage, to the Colosseum.

Even though he didn’t actually say anything, I could hear his voice echo in my mind.

…

I knew that voice.

My name is “Ame”, the Moderator of the Trials. I will be the one to guide you tonight.

Ame. It was really Ame. There was no doubt about that.

But, what was he doing there in the first place?

Back then, that was something I couldn’t figure out.

I still haven’t gotten closer to the truth since then.

Now, before I send you off to your “task” for tonight, allow me to explain things a little…

He then raised one hand, and-

“GAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!”

I screamed until my throat was sore, for the very first time in my whole life.

All the rules and information a “challenger” should know, were forcefully installed into my memory.

I fell to the ground, hands clutching my head, trying to relieve the pain.

...

Oh. Right.

I remember now.

Back then, was the first time that that thought had crossed my mind.

The first time that I realized I didn’t really know much about Ame.

Because after all...

In my childhood, then, and even now…

I have never once, seen Ame’s face.

———————

“If this were a dungeon in a RPG game, how would you normally find the exit?”

I asked my teammate as we hid behind a wall, observing the split path in front of us.

“Marking the way you came from, and avoiding those routes later.”

“That’s right. That is what people decide to do normally. It won’t work in this case though.”

I gestured to the timer above our heads.

The numbers 00:51:03 were displayed in bright red.

“A Labyrinth like this probably has a lot of paths and dead-ends. We will definitely run out of time before we even explore half of them.”

Yuri nodded, signaling for me to continue on.

“Well, in that case, we can start by stating what we know. Four things.”

“One, that there is no map for this dungeon.”

“Two, we are heavily limited in time.”

“Three, there are 40 monsters on this floor.”

“And four, we will not be able to use the ‘Right-left hand rule’ to find a way out.”

I listed each of the preliminary conditions slowly, so that Yuri and I were both aware of our situation.

She tilted her head slightly at the last fact.

“The ‘Right-left hand rule’?” she questioned, unsure of what I meant.

I nodded, and then gave her a concise explanation.

“It is a rule of maze navigation, simply implying that if you place one hand, either left or right, on a wall of a maze, you will eventually find the exit if you continue down the same wall without removing the hand.”

She thought about that for a moment, before continuing.

“What about sections not connected to the main paths? Wouldn’t you just be following the same wall back to the beginning?”

“And that is exactly why this method won’t work here.”

I paused, signaling to the series of walls in front of us.

“This block right here is called an ‘island’. In terms of maze designing, if such things exist then the map is disjointed, meaning that we may be following the same wall for ages and going nowhere. That is the reason why using the Right-left hand rule may not be wise in our case.”

“Then, what do you suggest we do?” Yuri asked calmly.

I placed one hand on the hilt of my sword.

“I will have to test a few things out first.”

Without warning, I leaped forward, stepping onto the left path.

The monster patrolling that area hissed, throwing itself at me almost immediately after.

I dodged as it bared its fangs at me.

I swung my sword across its chest, watching as its HP decreased.

A normal attack, with Purge of course.

Then, I calmly took a step back, returning to my position beside Yuri.

The snake was mere centimeters away from me.

...

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds…

The monster slithered away, back to its post, as if I was never there in the first place.

“...”

Yuri made no comment, but I could sense her confusion.

I turned my steady gaze toward her.

“It seems like my strategy may work after all. And, to not waste any more time, I’ll try to explain it as simply and quickly as I can.”

Yuri nodded, giving her approval for me to begin.

I took a deep breath and then proceeded with what I had in mind.

“Apart from the four conditions we’ve already mentioned, there are six more that can be established using the test I did moments ago, and through a bit of thinking.”

“First up, condition five: Monsters will not enter the range of another monster.”

There, I lowered my voice slightly.

“Have you ever heard of the term ‘NPC Patrol Range’?”

Yuri shook her head.

“It is the radius within which the NPC monster can move around in. In essence, the target NPC is only allowed to track players within that range.”

“So you are suggesting that each monster in this dungeon can only appear at specific points?”

“Yes. But, most importantly, they cannot cross into the range of another monster.”

I gestured toward the three-headed snake that we had defeated earlier. It was still lying on the floor, waiting to be cleared by the system.

“That was what I learned from the small ‘test’ I’ve done a few minutes ago. The snake that was chasing me did not continue the pursuit, even as I was standing right next to it.”

I paused, letting my words sink in before continuing.

“In other words, think of this Labyrinth as segmented pieces of a puzzle. Each piece of the puzzle is represented by a monster, and each monster leads to the next monster.”

“...And, assuming no piece of the puzzle is missing, the correct way to find the exit is to head toward the routes that the monster will not track you to?”

She understood perfectly.

That saves me from a lot of explaining, so I need to thank her for that.

“That is the gist of the strategy, but there’s more to it.”

She waited for me to go on.

“Condition six: The HP of the monsters will not regenerate after an encounter.”

I gestured toward the snake that was patrolling the path near us.

“Did you see me attack the snake?”

“Yes.”

“Did you see how much HP he had left after the attack?”

“8, 900, if I’m not wrong.”

I nodded.

“What is the set HP regeneration time for players and monsters?”

“A certain amount of HP per second, according to my experiences.”

“Yes, that is correct. And, take a look at the snake. His current HP should still be 8, 900.”

Yuri confirmed my predictions, but I could tell that she was getting uncertain about what I was trying to imply.

But, I had to mention the rest of the conditions first, before I could tie it all in with a final conjecture.

“Condition seven: Monsters appear quickly upon a player’s entrance into their territory. The snake over there appeared in less than five seconds.”

“Condition eight: Monsters do not respawn after they are defeated, a finite number of enemies. That is also simple to conclude, both based on the fact that the snake we’ve defeated earlier is still there and that the number of monsters displayed decreased by one.”

I lifted my head toward the darkness above, where a number was displayed beside the time limit.

Remaining monsters: 39

I wasted no time in giving her the last two conditions.

“Condition nine: It is possible to clear any and all trials. A colosseum rule, if you can recall.”

“And, condition ten: The dungeon is not one that can be cleared quickly and with ease.

“The support for that notion would be the four conditions we listed first: No map, time limit, number of monsters, and the increase in difficulty as a result of the disjointed map. These four conditions were well-executed, so well-done that one can conclude that the creator did not intend for us to find the exit anytime soon.”

I took a moment to let her absorb all the material, before starting on the real strategy.

The conditions I’ve told her about were vital in supporting the theory I had in mind.

“The plan is to avoid fighting as much as we can, while doing what you have mentioned earlier. Take the paths that the monsters will not follow you to. Only attack the monsters once.”

“How will we know which paths they will not take without splitting up and backtracking?”

“The rules of the intersection. At any intersection, we will use these five steps: Split, bait, wait, attack, and exit.”

“First, we will split up, one person on each path. In cases of more than two paths, we will select the paths randomly. Secondly, we will bait the monster that is chasing us on to our paths. Then, we will wait.”

“Following condition five and seven, a new monster will likely appear on at least one of the paths, and the original snake will likely chase after the person on the other path.”

“One person will attack the new monster once, and then the other member will join him or her on that path. We will run without pause until the next intersection, since stamina isn’t a problem here.”

The disregard for the depletion of stamina was the only thing that was truly “game-like” about this scenario. The rest seemed to have come out of a horror film.

“What about the likelihood of having more than one new monster appear? How would we choose which path to take then?”

I nodded. This was what I was about to address next.

“Let's explain the types of paths found at an intersection first. There are four types: New, Back to Beginning, Dead-end, and Exit paths.”

“Assuming the New path isn't also the Exit path, it will eventually turn into a Beginning or Dead-end path.”

“Now, using logic on the Beginning paths…Since there's a finite number of monsters, and assuming condition ten holds true, the creator of this dungeon will most likely not use a new monster to lead us back to the beginning. An unnecessarily waste, I would say.”

“Therefore, the monster there is either the same monster that chased us into the intersection, or the first monster we've already defeated, since it would be the guardian of the entrance path.”

“Now, if it was the same monster, we can just eliminate picking this path from the beginning. On the other hand, if it is the first monster, we can run a simple test.”

“Split up. One person waits on the other path that the monster didn't chase us onto, one person waits on this path. According to condition seven, a new monster should be coming for one of us.”

“And, if a monster appears on one path but not the other, it means the latter is going back straight to the beginning. No respawns, remember? The first monster will not re-appear. So avoid this path.”

I saw Yuri follow along through the written text in the chat box. Indeed, it was hard to keep track of everything through memory.

A complicated answer to a complicated problem. I needed to hurry.

I continued on.

“For dead-ends, we assume condition ten holds true again, and that the creator realizes there's a finite number of monsters he can place.”

“Therefore, we will follow the same mindset as the strategy for Beginning paths, except that this time, only one type of monster could be there: The same monster that was chasing you.”

“Right away, we will eliminate this path.”

“Again, we will employ condition ten, and take in the fact that there’s a finite number of monsters. Therefore, the creator is not going to make a new monster guard a dead-end or a path back to the beginning, and leave a gap open at the exit where placing monsters are more beneficial.”

I paused.

“The last type of path found, the Exit path, will be easy to identify after locating the previous types of paths.”

Yuri looked up from the dialogue.

“The ‘New’ paths. Wouldn’t it be possible for it to be completely separate from the other types mentioned? A true ‘new’ path, that is.”

I met her eyes silently, acknowledging her point.

“It is possible, but unlikely. I mentioned earlier that New paths will eventually lead us back to the beginning or to a dead-end. We can logic that out.”

“First, we have already found support for the notion that the creator does not want us to find the exit quickly. Therefore, it can be safe to assume that he will not be putting more than one exit in this dungeon. In other words, there will be only one path to the exit.”

“Thus, provided that the New path isn't also the Exit path, the New path will always lead us back to the beginning, to a dead-end, or to another ‘new’ path. In that case, the ‘new’ path will always make us return to a point that we have already been to before. Circling around the maze, that is.”

“Here, we can use the strategies I’ve mentioned already to find out whether the New paths become paths back to the beginning or to dead-ends. If the New path leads to another New path, then the attacks we’ve made to each monster along the way will serve as indicators that we’ve been there before. Encountering damaged monsters is a sign to turn back.”

I stopped talking. It seemed like Yuri was about to make a comment about something.

“Have you considered the case of following a new path after a new path, endlessly until the time runs out?”

I nodded.

“That can be a big issue. But, do you remember condition nine?”

Yuri paused for a brief moment to check, before answering.

“Condition nine: It is possible to clear any and all trials. A rule of the Colosseum.”

“Yes. Therefore, although the creator may not want us to find the exit in time, it must be possible to find the exit in time. Wrong paths we take will not continue on forever, the rules dictate that we will be able to find the exit, with some sort of a strategy of course.”

She nodded in approval. I was free to finish the last bits of my plan.

“The last case is where the New path is the exit path. But, if that is true, there wouldn't be another exit path in that intersection. Remember, the one exit notion.”

“Meaning, no new paths can be exit paths, since we already listed exit paths as fourth type of the paths found at an intersection. New paths that are also exit paths are just exit paths in general.”

“And, before I conclude, I will make an exception for the creator. Cast doubts on condition ten for a second here. What if he did not employ the mindset I have described, and decided to waste new monsters on path leading back to the beginning or to a dead-end? Something that will put this whole plan in danger?”

“Well, we can use this strategy: Pick any path. Attack the monster once and run."

“If we hit a dead-end, just backtrack.”

“If the monster stops chasing us suddenly, wait a few seconds for the new monster to appear. If nothing appears, it means we are going back to the beginning again. Remember the defeated monster at the start. Turn back.”

“Now, we can expand this to include another extreme scenario, the case of the creator using the new monster to patrol yet another path to a dead-end or path to the beginning. A good use of resources in this case.”

“Then, all we need to do is mark the creature with an attack, turn back and take another path. If it truly did patrol another region, we will eventually meet it again, and at that point we will take the other path available. That will be the path leading to the exit.”

I paused a bit.

This was too much talking and explaining for my liking.

“But,” I went on, “this is an extreme situation, and based on a lot of things we've established here, I really don't think it is going to happen.”

“If it does though, there will be time to turn back and choose again. Condition nine holds true.”

Yuri waited for me to finish my long explanation.

I did not continue.

So, she made her own final conclusions.

“To pick out the golden rules of the strategy, we will just need to follow the five steps mentioned at an intersection, correct?”

“Correct. And the rest, I will take care of.”

Yuri thought about everything for a moment, and then gave me a nod.

“Are you alright with attempting this plan?” I said, noticing the tinge of hesitation reflected within her eyes.

“…”

Uncertainty.

No surprise here of course.

“Because we are a team, I will leave the decision to you.”

There, I extended a hand toward her.

“Are you willing to take the risk with me, or are you willing to leave it all to luck?”

Confusion.

Reluctance.

Hope.

And determination.

I could see all those emotions flash by in her eyes.

My plan was definitely not one that guaranteed success.

But…

It was the only plan that offered a chance for success.

I knew that.

She knew that.

We both knew that.

So…

She took my hand.

And then…

Floor Four- end.

———————

BONUS: A day with Correspondent S

Well, I'm seriously just a noob when it comes to tactics and such, so the main reason for the lateness of the chapter was because of the amount of (flawed) thinking I had to do.

And, of course, the amount of time I spent arguing with my correspondent about the strategies:

Me: So what is so flawed about Mikage's strategy? I think it makes enough sense for me to believe it, what else can you do in this situation?

Correspondent S: That man can basically do circles around the maze, yolo, and get out in less than five minutes. What was all that strategy bs for?

Me: The girl, you think she'll be alright with whatever a random stranger says without some support for his thoughts?

S: Yeah, it only makes sense because we are dealing with a FREAKING GOD HACKER here.

Me: Eh...correction. Mikage is a Moderator. A mod. Not a hacker. Please.

S: Same freaking thing.

Well, then we went around in circles and modified some things, but you know, the setting was pretty bad from the start. Let's just say they are less screwed with his strategy, but screwed anyway. Had Mikage not been a "God hacker" that is. -coughs-

S: By the way, my vocabulary only consists of: Mod, Ame, Grill, and BS.

Me: What does a grill have to do with this story?

S: The grill, you know. Honey-eyes grill.

Me: ...She has a name you know. And it's "girl".

S: Yeah, "Grill".

And of course, there went my days of arguing with my troll of an advisor.

Fun times.

Floor Four Bonus- End