“You’re injured?”
As soon as he entered the room, a line of text appeared on the prison cell wall.
“It’s just a cut on my right palm from a mirror shard. I’m about to deal with it.”
Evans turned on the faucet, rinsing the tiny fragments from the wound, then pulled out the pieces stuck in his flesh, and finally wrapped the wound with a strip of bedsheet.
“You’d better disinfect that as soon as possible. In this environment, there might be pathogens that have been informationalized.”
“What’s that? How is it different from normal pathogens?”
“I don’t know either, which is why you should use informationalized disinfectant as quickly as possible.”
“I found an access card. It should help us get out of here. The name on the card is Dr. Caroline. Does that name ring a bell for you?”
“No. So was it Dr. Caroline who attacked you?”
“I’m not sure. The other person was about ten centimeters taller than me. I’m around one meter eighty-five, which means they were close to two meters tall. But in the photo, she looks like a very young woman. Based on body proportions, she should be between one meter fifty and one meter sixty. Of course, she could also be one of those people with very disproportionate body ratios.”
“Or she might have turned into a monster due to informationalization.”
“Whatever, it doesn’t matter. Which way should we go now? Does that document you have contain any relevant information?”
“No, but I think we can head toward the prison cell where I regained consciousness. I was probably about to escape back then.”
“I was thinking the same thing. Let’s head out now, same as before.”
“We might run into danger again. Don’t you need to rest for a bit?”
“My right hand doesn’t hurt as much anymore... You might have been right.”
“Then let’s go. I’m a researcher. This place is some kind of research facility. There’s bound to be an infirmary inside.”
“Alright.”
Evans smashed the mirror in the cell with the rebar, picking out a few suitably shaped shards to keep as spares.
The two left the cell and moved along one side of the corridor. This time, they didn’t check the inside of other cells but headed straight for the metal door at the end of the corridor.
In just ten minutes, they reached the end of the corridor without any issues. Evans took out the access card and swiped it through the gap in the metal door.
The access card vanished from Evans’ hand, and the metal door opened a crack.
Behind the metal door was a clean, tidy corridor with no windows or any other items.
Evans passed through the metal door into the corridor. As he did, a piece of information suddenly came to mind.
It was information about a special ability. It seemed he could use a skill called “Blend into the Environment,” but only once.
‘So this really is some kind of game world? No, I can’t jump to conclusions yet.’
While Evans was thinking, a line of text appeared on the corridor wall.
“When I passed through the door, I recalled a piece of information. I’m a member of an organization, sent here to deal with an anomaly. A combat squad came with me.”
“What organization? Would a researcher need to come to a place this dangerous?”
“I only got that information. I can’t answer your question.”
“When I passed through the door, I also recalled a piece of information. But I’m just a prisoner, and what I remembered has nothing to do with this place.”
“It seems that as we explore this facility, we’ll gradually recover the memories we lost.”
“Then let’s continue, same as before. But there are no prison cells here. If you encounter an enemy, try to keep your distance and let them come to me.”
“Alright.”
The two moved forward, hugging the wall, with two streaks of marks stretching along the corridor wall.
No strange things appeared in the corridor, but they soon encountered a fork. The path split in two directions, both leading to equally clean, empty corridors.
Evans stopped and carved a message on the wall.
“Do you have any information about this place?”
“No, but this is just a research facility. The layout shouldn’t be too complicated. Do you need me to lead the way?”
“No, just follow me. I should be able to find the right path.”
“Alright.”
Evans took the lead, occasionally flexing his injured right hand, because he was almost losing sensation in it, and the numbness was creeping upward.
So he had to speed up, to treat the wound on his right hand before he completely lost feeling.
However, they soon encountered a second fork.
Then a third.
A fourth.
A fifth.
…
When Evans reached the tenth fork, he finally stopped. They were in trouble.
“Something’s off here. No one builds a maze this big inside a research facility.”
The researcher left a message on the wall.
“Maybe the research project here is related to mazes. But a maze shouldn’t connect to prison cells. Surely they wouldn’t have to walk through a maze every time they needed a prisoner? Or does this behavior have some special meaning?”
Evans wasn’t sure if this was the facility’s original layout or some kind of informationalized product.
“I think this might be a conceptual area that’s been informationalized. We need to find the ‘information’ that lets us leave this maze. Only then can we get out of this area.”
“But how do we find a piece of information? Will it be something like that access card?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t think just walking forward will get us out.”
“I agree. This area is too big. Even if there really is an exit, there’s no guarantee we’ll find it.”
“How’s your wound?”
“Bad. I can barely feel my forearm anymore.”
“…So how do we get out of this maze?”
“I’ll determine the maze’s structure by mapping the terrain we’ve covered... basically, I’ll collect information, then use that information to find the exit.”
“So we should be collecting information here now.”
“How do we collect information? It’s not like we can find monsters that drop information.”
“I think what we’re lacking right now is a method for collecting information.”
“You mean we need a way to collect information beyond our five senses?”
“Yeah. Back in the prison cell area, we couldn’t gather information about those monsters. We need a method that can collect all kinds of information.”
“You’re right. But the monsters’ bodies disappear after they die. Unless I can capture one alive, find the organs it uses to collect information, and transplant them into us.”
“But you can’t even see the monsters. How would you find their information-gathering organs? And transplantation comes with a host of other issues.”
