Just like other players were struggling to find their ways out, [01] was also in the same shoes.
He wanted to stop, but he couldn't. So, he kept running, panting heavily this time. He stumbled over a stone and almost fell, but his stamina held him back. So, he persisted, running endlessly.
The system had sent him into a Time Loop Labyrinth, where every path seemed to lead back to the same starting point. It had exactly the same setting as that of a maze.
[01] remembered a movie he had watched, where the characters in it struggled, and were deceived each time they tried to escape the maze. They eventually did, through strategic planning. But—how could he, himself, possibly plan when this trial system has placed rules that will defy his existential being?
First, it was mentioned that stopping should never be an option since it will result in death. It's as if the trial was only designed to end the life of its victim. 'But why? I never signed for this.'
Not only did the system warn intensely against stopping, but even though that was the only warning the boy received, time seemed to reset each second.
'A Time Loop?' the boy realized.
It only explains that time inside this domain he found himself in, is bound to reset every few seconds. And this was to his disadvantage, since his speed in running to find a way out mattered less.
As he kept running, it only looked as though he ran in circles, always returning to the same spots he had found himself, no matter how fast he went.
'Hmm, hmm, hmm...' his heartbeat in his chest as he reduced his speed to absorb a bit of strength.
It was at this point that he looked beside him, and found out he was not the only runner inside the Time Loop Labyrinth. There was another runner—unfortunately, a Phantom duplicate of himself.
As he ran, he kept his mind concentrated on this phantom and noticed that it mimicked his past movements, running steps behind him like a shadow. And, even though he reduced his speed, the phantom duplicate seemed to be running at high speed.
He tried as much as he could to make sense of it, but then, his mind was void of any solution. 'They never lied back then in school when they referred to me as a brickhead.' He thought, suddenly remembering life back in his school.
But, he didn't let that worry him. He was no longer the brickhead they used to know. If he was able to survive the first test, then he should—"Oh, right."
He realizes. This phantom was not running with a forward relative motion, it ran in the opposite direction with its back turned to its front.
"Is this an answer? Why didn't I realize opposing pathways in a Time Loop disrupts it. It breaks the cycle, since a Time Loop only accounts for rapid forward movement." 01 said, beaming with a slight smile. "I got to try it out, but how?"
He didn't wish to stop, to begin running backward. That will only mean his death. He couldn't start running backward immediately. Then, an idea rushed into his mind. 'The walls.'
He changed his forward direction to a sideways direction, and jumped onto the wall, striding against it with three steps before pushing himself into mid-air in a backflip.
The landing was normally going to stop his movement, but he planned not to stop exactly. He was going to hop three times, then continue the backward run.
As he landed, his eyes shut, focusing all his trust on his instincts.
Dum, dum, dum...he hopped three times at a point, before hopping backwards. Gaining momentum, he dashed out and began to increase his speed momentarily.
Ding!
[You have passed—connection succeeded!]
Congrats!
And immediately, he was thrown up into the air, out of the enclosure, as it began to wane out below him.
***
A grand city pulsed with life, the streets overflowed with the crowd, who went about their dealing...making the street bustling with activities.
In the corners of the cities, towering buildings stood with neon lights on their tips, flickering against the dusk. The atmosphere carried an air that smelled of rain on pavement, roasted chestnuts like from a street vendor, and a faint metallic tang of an unnatural unknown.
Amidst all, in the middle stood [400], the mage, and the confessor, who now drowned in a sea of minds.
As a confessor, she could listen to the thoughts of people who stood before her. You can't lie to her, she would get the most out of you if she wanted.
But then, even in her absurdity, things weren't right. A steady stream of passing thoughts began to brush against her consciousness as her eyes traveled the crowd.
A woman worrying about dinner for her children. A merchant tallying his sales. A beggar cursing his luck. Ordinary worries, but all got mundane concerns.
Seeing what she had to deal with were mere, less reasonable concerns, she began to think of what to do to get off the illusion entity, and that was when a man passed her by.
The girl immediately got connected to him. The man was thinking about hurrying home to his wife. Yet, the same man's thought whispered something different—the wife had died years ago. 'What does this mean?'
She turned her head around to avoid the man's thought, and her eyes caught a shopkeeper. The shopkeeper haggled with a customer, in his mind, he was sure he was selling a genuine artifact. Yet, another part of his mind warned him that it was a cheap imitation.
'What is all these? Lies. Truths. Twisted together.'
She made to move and staggered, gripping a lamppost by the side to steady herself. The ability she had awakened, was not meant for this level of chaos. Not as a Survivor.
She has predicted minds even before bilocating into the game. But then, it had been guessing. She told what you had in mind, with your facial expressions and body movements.
Now, she had awakened it as an ability. And is faced with contradicting minds, ones that overlapped in impossible ways. Each proposes two versions of reality, equally strong and real.
She moved further, encountering, on different occasions, various contradicting minds.
'What is happening?'
She reached deeper, trying to avoid noise. She thought she was being distracted by it, but the more she tried, the more noisy the city became.
She really has to stop all the fuse in the city. She thought she needed to find a silent mind. A mind that is not like the others.
The more she searched, the more conflicting ideas she got. She decided she was going to try and use hers. Maybe, she will be able to break out of this Illusion if she did.
She clenched her fists, and closed her eyes, shutting everything out. She focused inward, getting off all distractions around, diving into the silence of her thoughts.
And something strange happened. Her thoughts contained inconsistencies like the other minds.
There was a memory, clear as day, that announced that she had arrived in the city at sunrise. The buildings had been the same, the people had bustled just as they did now. And yet, she hadn't arrived at sunset?
'What—?'
She tried to shift her focus from the thought, peeling back to other of her own recollections. But, more inconsistencies emerged.
She remembered speaking to a guard at the city gate, but now that she thought about it, he was not again. She was not sure the uniform told he was. Her mind reminded her of when she bought an apple from a vendor, a man. But, the hand that has given it to her was that of a woman.
She remembered giving a chocolate to a beggar boy, but, the boy still handed over a bowl of chocolates to her. 'No, that's not how and what happened. That's not possible; the boy clearly needed my help with food.'
Her stomach twisted upon the realization that it wasn't about the people around her. It was about herself. Her mind was contradicting, and this was the work of illusion.
'Wait, why didn't I realize earlier?'
She knew she had been caught in one from the moment she arrived, but her inability to realize early enough.
Now, she knew how she was going to break free.
She opened her eyes and steadied herself. Illusion always thrived on confusion and a tangled mess of contradictions. The only way out will be to focus not on it but on reality itself.
She took a deep breath and spoke, her voice barely above a whisper.
"This is not real."
The effect was immediate.
Her environment cracked like glass. The buildings that made up the grand city shuddered and twisted before splintering apart. The inhabitants dissolved into wisps of color, vanishing with their thoughts.
And then, there was silence.
The illusion shattered completely.
She blinked her eyes and noticed she was standing in the middle of a forest. No more towering buildings, no neon lights, no crowd. She was now in the midst of towering trees.
She exhaled sharply.
Ahead, she could see a building, which meant that people lived close to the forest. She began to wish she had completely gotten out of the illusion.
Yes, she had. She should be. She was free.
She exhaled again and began to walk in the direction of the building she sighted.