Volume 16 Tower of Babel Chapter 957: The Legendary Maze
"According to you, these monsters were created by that guy named Zeus, so the core area must be more dangerous, right?" Soap said, "The number and strength of the monsters must be far greater than that of the sparsely populated marginal areas like West District 12. Can we get in?"
"There are many secret passages on the Ark. These passages have a history of hundreds of years. The people who built these passages have long since died, and there is no data left in the archives about these passages." The Joker looked straight ahead, as if he was answering Soap's question or talking to himself.
"Since even the people who built these passages are dead and no records were left, how do you know that these passages exist?" Soap glanced at the Joker in confusion and asked.
He had heard that there were many forgotten secret passages on the Ark, and more than once.
There are many versions of this kind of story circulating among the people, each one more outrageous than the other, and some have even developed into story collections similar to "urban legends".
Among them, the more famous and widely circulated one is a story called "The Vanishing Maze", which roughly says that there is a secret maze inside the structure of the Ark with a total space so large that it is . This maze is composed of countless new or old passages, and with the daily operation of the Ark, the positions and combinations of these passages will continue to change... In other words, this underground maze has always been in an "unstable" state, and its changing rules are also weird and unpredictable, and it is difficult for people to figure it out... Anyone who accidentally enters the maze will eventually die of exhaustion or starvation in it.
This is just the initial version. As the story spread, all kinds of weird and supernatural elements were added to it. At the beginning, it was more science fiction-oriented. For example, there were , like giant rats that were mutated after being polluted by radiation and industrial wastewater, biological weapons that escaped from the laboratory, etc. Later, it simply became a fantasy story, with ghosts bound by resentment, zombies thirsty for flesh and blood... Even Count Dracula from the old era came to make a cameo appearance in the story.
Even though Soap knew in his heart that 99% of the content in this kind of story was fictional, he would still be quite resistant if he were really asked to run into this underground maze.
"The locations and changing patterns of these channels are all archived in the Black Well," said the Joker. "Millions of robots have observed and counted them for hundreds of years, and then used the huge computing power of the core brain to calculate. For us, the entire Ark has no secrets."
"Black Well? What is a Black Well?" Soap asked again, "Also, when you say 'we', do you mean the three of us, or you... and the guy who calls himself 'Zeus'?"
The Joker didn't answer this question, but Soap had already guessed the answer in his heart and continued, "Since Zeus also knows about these secret passages, he can definitely set up defenses in the passages... We would just be walking into a trap if we go in."
"If you think so, you are totally wrong." Noir suddenly interrupted, "The biggest feature of these passages is that they move and change at a high frequency. It is almost impossible to deploy defenses in the passages. Because it only takes a few changes, and the originally airtight defense line will be torn into pieces, with gaps everywhere, unless the enemy can fill up every secret passage... But that is obviously impossible."
"Okay... let's take a step back and say that even if these secret passages are a perfect infiltration route, how can we get in?" Soap stretched out a finger and tapped his forehead a few times. "The Joker also said that those passages are recorded in that 'black well', and to calculate their transformation rules, we need the help of the Ark's core brain... With the three of us, even if we squeeze our brains dry, we can't even match one billionth of the computing power of the core brain, right?"
After hearing what Soap said, Nouval fell silent. Although Soap's statement was very negative, it was indeed the case: since these passages could not be defended by the enemy, it was naturally difficult for them to use them. This was the same for both sides.
Even if the clowns could find the entrance to the passage by chance, it would be difficult for them to reach the core area after entering - West District 11 was located on the edge of the Ark. From here to the core area, even if they took the shortest straight line, they would have to cross half of the Ark.
Soap and Noir couldn't imagine how far they would have to go if they were to walk in a maze.
The farther the distance, the more times the maze will change, and the probability of getting lost will increase exponentially...it is almost impossible to get out of it.
Unless they can get a high-power real-time positioning device to figure out their own position, movement direction and speed, as well as changes in the surrounding channels, then this plan is still feasible... But let's not talk about whether such a device can be obtained. Even if there is, and the power is high enough to penetrate the structure of the Ark and accurately locate people in the maze, then this device will be 100% detected by the enemy.
At that time, people would not even need to send their men into the maze. They would just need to track their positioning signals and wait for them at the exit of the maze.
No matter how Soap thought about it, he felt that this was a dead end.
"If we need to calculate the changing patterns of the secret passage in real time, then only the core brain can do it on the Ark." The Joker said, "But if I let the core brain calculate the changing patterns of the passage within a certain period of time in advance and write it down, then there will be no need for any computing power."
"Is this possible?" Soap was stunned for a moment. "You are not a fortune teller part-time, are you? Did you predict that we would walk through this maze today?"
Soap's words were mostly meant to be sarcastic, but Noir looked at the clown as if he were a monster - even though the abilities the clown had previously demonstrated were enough to deserve the title of "monster".
But this time, Noir was still shocked.
It's easy to say "write it down", but if you think about it carefully, it's such a huge and complicated data! Even if you use a top-of-the-line personal computer to read this data, it will be stuck for a while, not to mention using a human brain to write it down...
"Did you really... remember it?" Noir's voice was a little dry. Although he felt that this was impossible, even a monster couldn't have such a horrible memory, he couldn't hear any joking in the clown's tone.
"In six minutes and seventeen seconds, turn right at the intersection ahead. Under the third abandoned manhole cover on the left, channel W11SG967 will be disconnected from channel W11HJ112. We just need to chisel open the wall of the manhole, and we will be able to see the gap between the two disconnected channels. Remember, jump into the channel on the left hand side, it will take us to the next destination. As for the channel on the right hand side, if you jump in, you may never get out."
"Wait, wait, please speak a little slower. I haven't written down everything yet!" Soap said anxiously.
But the clown had already moved, walking quickly towards the intersection ahead.
"Hurry up!" Noir glanced at Soap, who was still standing there in a daze, and urged, "There are less than six minutes left. If we miss this opportunity, I'm afraid we will never have such a good opportunity again!"
"Got it!" Soap gritted his teeth and hurriedly followed, cursing in a low voice, "Damn... what a good opportunity, it's clearly a chance to die! Even if we can pass through the maze, what can we do?"
"If we stay here, we'll die, so we might as well give it a try." Noir said as he ran, "You should have retired from the Field Corps, right? When you were serving, did you ever think about whether it was worth it if you died in battle?"
"We were young at that time and didn't think about this at all... Once we were fooled by our superiors, we were full of enthusiasm and didn't think about the meaning of fighting..." Maozao recalled, "We were just a bunch of stupid guys, holding machine guns and firing while cursing. If we died, we died. If we survived, we were lucky... Those who were seriously injured but didn't die were the most unlucky ones."
"But later I realized that my own life is the most important. If you fight for others, they won't even remember your name." Soap smiled bitterly, "Those fools who died on the battlefield are just a string of numbers in the statistics of war losses in the end."
"Then don't you have anything you want to protect? Don't you have anyone you care about?" Noir asked again.
"Protect? Have you watched too much Japanese anime?" Soap curled his lips, "As for the people I care about... I'm alone, my parents passed away early, I've lost contact with my brothers and sisters, I don't have a wife or children, and I just have a bunch of drinking buddies... Who can I care about? No one cares about me, why should I care about others?"
"You...really... stubborn." Noir sighed. "If that's the case, why did you follow me?"
"Isn't that easy? Because no matter which choice you make, you'll die!" Soap replied, "If there was a way to survive, I would have run away long ago."
The brief conversation between the two soon ended. The clown who was walking in front had stopped. Two meters in front of him was the "abandoned manhole cover".
The words on the surface of this manhole cover have been filled and polished, and the edges have all been welded. From a distance, it has merged with the road surface and cannot be found unless you get close - in those urban legends, manhole covers like this are often one of the entrances to secret mazes.
It seems that the story is not entirely fictional - the saying "art comes from life" still makes sense.
Just when Soap was still thinking about how to pry open the welded manhole cover, two tentacles shot out from under the clown's cloak - Soap and Noir didn't even see what the two tentacles did, the manhole cover had already flown up and fell to the side with a bang.
Soap subconsciously looked at the "blown away" manhole cover. The round alloy cover had been severely deformed, just like a piece of chocolate in the shape of a gold coin that had been kept in a warm trouser pocket for a long time and then squeezed hard by the hand... Soap couldn't help but think, if this force was applied to himself...
Well, then it shouldn't be painful when I die, right? After all, it only takes a moment.
The two tentacles had retracted into the clown's body, and he now looked like a normal human being again, but Noir and Soap both unconsciously kept a distance from him.
Because it is an abandoned manhole, there is no filth or garbage inside. There is only a shallow layer of stagnant water and some moss of unknown species attached to the wall of the manhole.
"Don't grab the escalator, it's completely rusted and rotten. Just jump down." After the clown said this, he took a deep leap. With a sound of splashing water and a "bang", he fell into the horizontal shaft.
Nouval walked closer and pointed inside with a tactical flashlight - the vertical shaft was not very deep, only about three or four meters, but the air quality in the shaft was very bad. The strong smell of rust and moss was not a big deal. The key was that the oxygen content was too low. Nouval had to find a breathing mask and put it on before jumping into the shaft.
Soap was the third one to jump in, but his luck was not so good. His feet stepped on the slippery moss and he lost his balance and fell. Fortunately, Nouval was quick-witted and grabbed the strap on Soap's chest, thus saving him from getting wet.
"This place smells really weird." Soap twisted the valve on the breathing mask and complained, "It's not that it stinks, but it's that kind of turbid air that has been stagnant for hundreds of years, mixed with this pool of stagnant water, it smells indescribably uncomfortable...but this filter box can't filter out this smell."
"Four minutes and thirty seconds left." Noir glanced at his watch and asked the clown, "Break the wall... Which wall do we want to break?"
He deliberately lowered his voice, but a rumbling echo was still heard in the shaft - if there really were any "natives" in the shaft, they would probably be able to hear the noise from hundreds of meters away.
"Don't make any noise." The clown raised a finger and placed it to his lips.
Soap felt all the hair on his body stand up - what does it mean to keep quiet? Are the monsters living in the maze in those legends really real? Is keeping quiet so that they won't find him?
But soon, he found out that he was wrong.
The clown walked to the side of the well, completely ignoring the wet moss growing on it, and put his face against it, listening silently.
Noir looked at it for a few seconds, then imitated the clown, found a place without moss, and put his cheek against it.
He could hear, outside the shaft, a very slight vibration, coming from far away and getting closer...
