From the end of the world

Chapter 74 Breakthrough 2
If this space has a "purpose" or a "design concept", the existence of the maze must have its meaning.

I know very well that "purpose" and "design concept" are two different things. Just because people can use stones to smash things doesn't mean that the stones are designed for this purpose. There are no designed stones in nature. However, corridors don't exist in nature either. Corridors are obviously designed by humans.

Of course, in strange events, even if artificially designed things appear, it does not mean that there is really a person who designed them. Because strange things are beyond common sense, it is possible that "naturally produced artificial things" appear without reason. This is also why detective stories prohibit supernatural powers. Once supernatural powers appear, then everything is possible.

I can only put it forward as a direction - since this space has corridors, uses, and consumable props that can involve humans from the outside world (although this is just Zhu Shi's statement), it is not surprising that there is a designer behind the scenes. As for whether the designer is the "weird maker" mentioned by the weirdo, that is another topic.

I will assume that this corridor maze has a meaning. So how can we get a glimpse of its meaning?

It's very simple, just destroy it. When many things exist, it is often difficult to perceive their significance; and when they disappear, people will be surprised to find that they are irreplaceable. Now I will destroy the corridor in front of me.

I raised my right hand again, and a fireball condensed in the palm of my hand. The fireball was only the size of a football at first, and then it expanded rapidly, becoming a giant with a diameter of more than five meters.

Obviously, this corridor couldn't hold such a huge object. The ceiling and floor were burned and melted, exposing the floors above and below. I felt that this large fireball was enough for the time being, so I aimed it at the wall next to it. The huge fireball with a diameter of more than five meters was launched at high speed.

In order to avoid the formation of shock waves that could harm Zhu Shi, the huge fireball was initially shot out at a speed equivalent to that of a car. However, as the distance got farther and farther, the speed of the huge fireball became faster and faster, easily surpassing the speed of sound.

Zhu Shi was shocked by the movement on my side. She looked at me, then at the huge fireball that disappeared in the distance. She seemed to think that I was stimulated by the situation that I couldn't escape from, and she actually gave me a comforting voice: "Don't worry, don't worry, Brother Zhuang. Although conquering the alien space is not my forte, I have already seen some things. I will definitely take you out."

I told you not to worry about me… As soon as I said this, I was attracted by her next words and asked curiously, “What did you see?”

"Although this alien space is not part of reality, it is very close to the real world." She said confidently, "In other words, as long as we destroy it, we will automatically return to the real world."

"Do you have a way to destroy the alien space itself?"

"As long as we find a flaw..."

As she spoke, she focused her attention on the air in front of her, as if she was concentrating on observing the space itself. From time to time, she raised her sword, as if she was measuring where to strike.

Could it be that she has some hidden skill of shattering the void? I couldn't tell what she was planning to do for a moment, so I had to concentrate and sense the huge fireball that I had shot out.

And with just this perception, I immediately noticed the abnormality.

Then I realized that the weirdo's boast that no matter how many centuries passed, one would not be able to get out of the maze and that this space was infinite was probably not an exaggeration.

In the channel formed by the huge fireball's rampage, I could see that the scene hundreds of meters away was showing signs of ambiguity in details.

Originally, I couldn't see the details of such a distant scene with my naked eyes, but now I can see it with my special perception centered on the huge fireball. Even the tiny "fireflies" can allow me to eavesdrop on other people's cell phone calls, and this huge fireball is like my external eyeball, which can exert a perception far beyond my normal form.

I found that the scenes around the huge fireball were normal, but the "resolution" of the distant scenes was significantly reduced, and the more distant scenes even disappeared directly.

The scene that appeared in my perception reminded me of many open world stand-alone games on computers. In order to save computer computing resources, those games will reduce the quality of images far away from the player's character, or not display them. For example, when the character is indoors, the outdoor images will not be loaded, or only part of them will be loaded.

This alien space is certainly not a virtual world, but it follows the same rules. If we walk forward, the corridor far behind us will disappear, and the corridor far in front of us will be created. The total amount of corridors is constant, and we will always be in the center of the maze.

If we walk honestly, we will never reach the end of the corridor. This is a disguised form of "infinity".

Leaving aside the weirdos that merged with the maze space, there should be nearly twenty "centers" in this maze now. Two of them are me and Zhu Shi, and the rest are the huge fireballs and the fireballs that move along the wall, as well as the dozen or so "fireflies" that I released at the beginning.

Why are those flames also considered the "center"? Is it because I can sense the surroundings through the flames, or is it because the flames are part of my spirit? These questions are not important now. What is important is that in this way, the solution to the problem will also emerge.

Since it is necessary to save "computing resources", it means that there is an upper limit to "computing resources".

No wonder this "infinite" space is filled with so many winding corridors. If someone could see such a distant view, it would be immediately exposed, and the purpose of the maze is to conceal this.

If I create an overwhelming number of "centers" at the same time and spread them in all directions, the "computing resources" of this space will be exhausted - at least that's what I speculate, and the results will depend on practice.

At the beginning, I would still worry about whether there would be problems if this space malfunctioned and collapsed, but since Zhu Shi said that as long as this space was destroyed, we could automatically return to the real world, then I believed her.

A fireball condensed in my palm again.

"I have a solution." As I said this, Zhu Shi also shifted his gaze from the air in front of him and said this.

She reacted immediately and was shocked: "Huh? So now is the time for me to show off my skills!"

It's late, I've already started to act.

I now particularly want to practice the "method of passing the level" that I have speculated.

As soon as I finished speaking, I had already slapped the fireball on my chest, ignited my whole body, and entered the fire elemental form. In order to control a sufficient number of "fireflies" at the same time, the fire elemental form is necessary. At the same time, the huge fireball with a diameter of more than five meters in the distance shattered on the spot and turned into thousands of "fireflies", which moved at high speed in all directions under my simultaneous control.

A mere dozen or so "centers" are totally insufficient to reach the carrying capacity limit of the maze space, but what if the number reaches tens of thousands?
Each "firefly" is a "center" in this maze space, and a large number of corridors are generated every moment. As the "fireflies" disperse and move, the ground of the maze space begins to shake wildly, and the scene in front of us quickly becomes unreal and uncertain.

"What did you do!?" The monster's voice sounded again, and he seemed very frightened. "The maze... the maze is collapsing! Impossible... Unless the 'conditions' specified by the monster maker are met, this maze cannot be solved!"

Specified "conditions"? So this maze space has a setting that "you can only leave after completing the specified tasks"?

If this weirdo is the "game maker", then we can only say that he never intended for us to solve the puzzles from the beginning. In this case, it is reasonable for us to use relatively unorthodox methods to solve the puzzles.

The ground shook more and more, and it was almost impossible to stand on it. The corridors on all sides also had a lot of cracks and shatters. Finally, the corridor itself was completely broken. Almost at the same time, my vision fell into darkness.

The darkness lasted only a second, just like when we entered the maze space, and soon returned to normal. I found myself standing on the football field, in front of me was the grass field where I had fired fireballs and created countless craters, and the weird man who looked like a goat-headed demon was standing there at a loss.

I successfully conquered the maze space from the inside, and a feeling of accomplishment and relief filled my heart.

The weirdo's eyes fell on me.

Then, his expression suddenly changed, and he turned and ran away. While running, he also manipulated the nearby shadows to roll towards him. It was obvious that he wanted to enter the shadow world and transfer himself to another place.

Now that I'm here, it will be an impossible task for him to escape.

I first glanced at the manipulated shadow and ignited it with my eyes. Although I didn't quite understand why the shadow could be destroyed by high temperature, under the burning of the flame, the shadow turned into ash like paper.

Then I raised my right hand. Now I was still in the form of a fire element, and my body could be deformed at will. In other words, I could even freely control my arm to lengthen and enlarge it.

In a blink of an eye, my right arm suddenly stretched nearly 20 meters, and my palm became extremely huge, grabbing the monster before it could run far away, just like grabbing a fleeing mouse. Immediately, flames burst out from my palm, instantly vaporizing the part below the monster's head.

The monster's head fell to the ground from the mouth of the giant flaming hand, and in the blink of an eye it returned to its original state. Then it let out an extremely inappropriate scream and ran away from me desperately.

At this moment, a figure wearing a straw raincoat, a bamboo hat and holding a sharp sword emerged from the night and blocked his way.

The eyes, which were filled with a cold blue light, slowly opened in the darkness.

The weirdo didn't seem to see it clearly, and yelled reflexively: "Who!?"

"Luo Shan is impermanent, Zhu Shi."

Zhu Shi said this calmly while facing the monster and slashing with the sword in his hand.

Four sword lights cut off the monster's limbs almost in no particular order, causing it to fall to the ground in a mess.

"It's no use saying it all. I have many clones in other places. This level of injury..." the fallen monster shouted crazily.

Then, he stopped talking as if his throat was stuck.

Unlike any other time before, this time, his body did not recover.

(End of this chapter)