Catastrophe Card King

He wasn’t sure if he had guessed correctly, or if he was lucky, but by choosing the path with more skeletons, he had not encountered any “The Guardians of Secrets”.

Leonard Churchill had an eidetic memory, and as he walked through the labyrinth, a two-dimensional model of the labyrinth was gradually forming in his mind.

Even so, he would occasionally pull out his notebook and jot down drawings and notes.

He was unsure whether this labyrinth existed on the physical plane, or spiritually, like a ghost hitting a wall.

He feared that some mysterious factors might interfere with his perception.

Thus, he walked, marking his path along the way.

Physical notes provided a bit of an error tolerance.

Gradually, he also realized that this labyrinth was indeed ludicrously large.

He just walked along this way, picking up materials as he moved. He wandered around the gloomy labyrinth for a long time without finding any sign of an exit.

But, this labyrinth often takes around three to five days to get out of.

He wasn’t in a hurry.

Aside from skeletons, he occasionally came across some rather special things.

But as he walked, Leonard suddenly paused; he spotted a skeleton with an adventurer’s backpack in the corner.

“Another one…”

Seeing this creature, Leonard lightly frowned.

This unusual skeleton was a Treasure Hunter, someone who had been trapped and died in the labyrinth.

Although the Alternate Dimension resets every time someone enters, if the hunter who died in the labyrinth had any valuable things left on them, there was a chance they would be left in the labyrinth.

They were like “Easter Eggs”.

The path that Leonard chose was rarely trodden, and thus, he found more loot.

Previously, he had come across two sets of bones and found some valuable Undead Material.

Now, he had come across the third one.

Leonard walked over and stretched out his hand to grab the backpack. Suddenly, the skeleton’s Bone Claw sprung up and clutched his arm tightly.

This was also a small trap set by grabbing the “Easter Egg”.

Usually this would frighten one, causing fluctuations in their San Value and drawing in monsters from the surroundings.

The first time around, Leonard was somewhat startled, but by the third time, he was completely unfazed.

Watching the skeleton wake up without sparing it a second glance, he stabbed a dagger into the skull.

The skeleton instantly went silent.

The act of attack made several wandering skeletons nearby turn their heads as if they sensed something, glancing over with their dark eye sockets, but their hostility vanished in an instant.

Leonard was getting very proficient at handling such situations.

He pulled out his dagger and opened the parcel next to the corpse.

Inside were some exploration tools like ropes and a Flying Claw — very retro, they looked like they were from decades ago.

There was also a yellowed notebook.

The items seemed rather worthless, which was a bit disappointing.

But casually flipping through the notebook, Leonard’s attention was drawn.

Only then did he realize that this was more valuable than any treasure.

This was an adventurer’s diary.

Reading the content in the diary, Leonard immediately guessed the identity of the person.

This wasn’t an ordinary Treasure Hunter, but an adventurer.

‘My name is “Yuri”, an adventurer who loves to solve puzzles. I hope that whoever finds this notes knows that I was here, and I was almost close to solving this labyrinth.’

‘March 11th: I entered the notorious Grand Cemetery Labyrinth. I discovered that suppressing my fear lessened the probability of attracting the Skeleton Monsters. This was good news for me, as it enabled me to explore deeper into the labyrinth…’

‘March 25th: I reached the depths of the labyrinth, but unfortunately, I realized that I have gotten trapped…’

Leonard took an instant interest upon reading this.

Being able to decipher monster aggro mechanisms simply by himself, this guy was a master of decryption.

But the following entries in the diary were even more surprising to him: “So, this Yuri also triggered a hidden questline?”

It turns out it wasn’t the first time.

In fact, someone had already triggered it before.

“28th: I finally cracked the meaning of a few Taren’s Classics in the mural and triggered a hidden plot. Hahaha… I finally discovered an area that no one has ever been to. Oh, how wonderful, this labyrinth’s design is such. Please allow me not to leave the decoding method in the note. If I were to write down the answer, then no one would appreciate its ingenious design. If you see my note, here is a hint for you: Run.”

Reading this, Leonard Churchill raised his eyebrows, chuckling inwardly.

He gave a bit of a hint, but didn’t fully spell it out.

Seemed utterly useless.

Your typical person would probably curse and call him a slack halfwit.

But Leonard saw the insight behind these bones that wrote these lines

It was like reading a novel with spoiled suspense; the whole story would lose its charm. Therefore, often even under the threat of censure, authors often write seemingly pointless content in order to seed hidden clues.

This notebook was meant for fellow adventurers and not for those who cannot understand the spirit of adventure.

And if, even with these hints, you can’t reach where Yuri had been, then he would deem that the person who found the notebook doesn’t deserve to see his discoveries.

Of course.

It’s probably because there were no spoilers that made the notebook retained by the will of the space.

This was the “clue” left by the space.

Reading this far, Leonard pondered: “But this ‘Run’…what exactly does it refer to?”

Previously, while walking through the labyrinth, he had already roughly gauged its difficulty.

A purely two-dimensional maze, no matter how complex, would have definitely been solved after all these years.

So, the ultimate solution to the Grand Cemetery Labyrinth must be something special, or something unexpected in its design.

Now, from the notes, that seemed to be the case.

Of course.

Even without these notes, Leonard is confident that given some time, he would definitely find the correct path.

For him, the most important clue in this notebook is the content recording Yuri’s cause of death.

As he kept reading, his expression gradually became more serious.

“April 2nd: I didn’t choose to return because I knew I couldn’t get a perfect pass. But I’m almost there. I found another hidden passage in the maze. I avoided the monsters and came across a stone gate with the crescent symbol C. I guessed that beyond this door lies the final hidden plot within the maze. But the Taren’s Classics engraved on it are too profound, with hidden encrypted information, I tried everything but couldn’t open it. There are too many wandering Skeleton Elites and leaders around here. Even though I tried my best to suppress fear, they still found me…”

“Damn it, those Secret Keepers are too terrifying, they are immortal and never tire. The monsters can sense from a wide range, and they are in large numbers. If you’re not careful, you will run into them. The only weakness of the monsters is probably their slender-like dynamic vision, which is slow to perceive non-moving objects, but this is not enough for me to survive…”

“April 5th: My injuries are getting more and more serious, and the supplies are exhausted. It seems I have no chance to get out. It’s a pity, I’m just one step away…”

“I’ve been to this world, my name is Yuri, adventurer Yuri!”

The note abruptly ended.

Leonard finished reading the entire notebook and finally found the most important intelligence.

That is the key description regarding the Secret Keeper: Dynamic Vision!

This is the right way to approach a puzzle-style alternate dimension.

Necessary clues are given in the dead ends.

“The Secret Keeper really can’t be killed?”

Leonard mulled over the contents of the note.

Previously, when he saw the enlightening part, he thought the monster’s prefix might be an exaggeration, but it turned out to be a factual term.

It should belong to the “space rules”.

Like the walls here, no matter what tier of catastrophe the Secret Keeper was, it wouldn’t die.

That eliminates the possibility of high-tier hunters slaying monsters and pushing ahead.

So, this is a genuine puzzle mode.

Leonard suddenly realized: “No wonder the layout creator planned for something here…”

Who would have thought that an initial alternate dimension could hide dangers that could annihilate the elite legions of the Governor’s Mansion?

This indeed is the perfect murder place.

There wasn’t even a need for a killer, the monsters in the maze could clean up all the people who fell into it.

Moreover, there’s a “C” mark?

Seeing the symbol in the notes, Leonard instantly remembered that he saw the same symbol before, on the wall of the cellar on Tailor Street.

Perhaps there was a connection?

But the most useful piece of intelligence was the desciption of “dynamic vision”.

Knowing this, at least if Leonard encounters the Secret Keeper, he has some coping strategies at hand..