Interstellar Survival: Invasion

Chapter 251: Black King Maze

"Careful, everyone!" With a roar from me, all four of us came to an abrupt stop.

A massive hammer-arm dropped down from above like a curtain covering the sky. Our retreat was on the verge of failure. Suddenly, a deafening sound rang out. I saw Big Hill ram the buer chasing after us. The collision was akin to a collision between two islands. The impact was so strong there were even shockwaves spreading in the air.

Clearly, Big Hill was doing its best to help us retreat. The battle between the two giants was even more intense than the battle between the two monsters we saw on Sirius B. The air was suffused with a pressure that felt as though this entire planet was going to break apart.

Taking the opportunity, we continued to retreat. Although the path before us had been ruined by the buer, Old Du was able to leap over the destruction with his suit's leaping function. Following behind Old Du was Zhang Bao'er, who also leaped with his suit's leaping function and safely reached the tunnel.

"Anxashe, go. This is our last chance!" I grabbed Anxashe, who was focused on Big Hill's fight, and dragged him as I leaped over the rubble.

"We're at our final 10 seconds. Canyue, I'll retreat with Bao'er first," reminded Old Du before vanishing into the tunnel with Zhang Bao'er.

The cruel battle between the buers was still undergoing. The buer we had injured with our nuclear warheads had joined the battle again. I could clearly see how anxious Anxashe was.

"Believe in Big Hill!" I roared at Anxashe before pushing him into the tunnel. I jumped into the tunnel immediately after him. At that point, I was one second away before the tunnel closed.

Walking through the tunnel was akin to walking through a mirror. And like my first trip through the tunnel, I felt nothing. After stepping through it, I saw the others waiting anxiously.

"Canyue, you're finally here. You actually waited until the final second before moving," said Dodo, clearly excited to see me.

"I nearly couldn't make it. A bloody battle was going on there. A battle between buers is not something those of a certain civilization will be able to understand," said Zhang Bao'er, taking the chance to brag in front of Temo.

"It was merely some physical combat relying on their physical superiority. Even an enlarged bacteria can fight as well as them," said Temo with disdain.

"It's not pure physical combat like you said. We braved death to employ nuclear warheads against the enemy," argued Zhang Bao'er.

"Fine, fine, you're very impressive. Is everyone here? Is that peasant Jido not coming back?" asked Temo, the question causing quite a bit of awkwardness.

"Cough, cough. I wonder if Domo is out of danger. Dodo, contact the fleet. Try to establish contact with Zhang Xingxing and the others," said Old Du, trying to brush the topic off.

"Roger. I'll contact them immediately," said Dodo as they got working.

Meanwhile, Anxashe was still standing there blankly. He was probably still worried about Big Hill.

"Don't worry about Big Hill. The Creator arranged this for a good reason. I believe Big Hill will be able to escape danger. A buer will never be defeated," I consoled while patting Anxashe's shoulder.

Anxashe's emotions improved somewhat. Although my reasoning couldn't even convince me, at moments like this, anyone would wish to listen to something positive to maintain that tiny speck of hope in one's heart. It was only then that I noticed my surroundings. It was clear we hadn't appeared in a room. Instead, we were seemingly inside some sort of a tube.

"What is this place? Has anyone checked?" I asked.

"This is part of a set of transmission tubes, but we're not sure what is being transmitted here. This set of tubes is like a maze. I tried scouting around earlier. Everywhere I checked looked the same. No exit has been found yet," replied a Wargod soldier.

"Is the person who designed this sick in the mind? Why place the clock time tunnel in a maze? This is too annoying," complained Zhang Bao'er. His nerves had been stretched taut for quite a while, and he was becoming more and more irritable.

"Calm down, Bao'er. This is a small problem. Can a mere maze stop us?" I comforted Zhang Bao'er and then asked Temo, "Temo, do you know the way out?"

"This is also my first time seeing this design. Based on my memories, this wasn't in any of the blueprints I had seen," said Temo, who had a look of astonishment.

'Damn that Bluevoid for not giving us any clues before sending us here,' I complained inwardly.

"Canyue, all signals are blocked here. We still can't contact the fleet," said Dodo, relaying a piece of bad news.

"Looks like we can only update the fleet after we leave this place. Everyone, get moving. Let's try to look for a way out. Dodo, you're in charge of leaving signs behind as we move," I gave a new order.

Following my order, the team started moving, trying to look for the way out of the maze. After roaming the winding tube system for about two hours, we still hadn't found an exit. Dodo had left signs behind us, so we were sure we weren't walking in circles, but our surroundings still looked exactly the same.

"This is so tiring. I won't be able to keep walking for long," complained Zhang Bao'er as he sat down on the floor.

"Everyone, stop. We'll take a short rest here," I said. In truth, I was also becoming tired.

"Canyue, this won't do. We're all wasting our energy for no result," said Old Du.

"Deputy commander, I have been observing our surroundings. All the tubes and their layouts are completely identical. When checking the components and parts of the tubes, I am sure that they are all different tubes, so we're not walking in circles. It is clear this is an incredibly big maze," said Anxashe.

"Is it possible that we're all trapped in an illusion?" asked Zhang Bao'er, who had lain down on his back.

"Anxashe said that the individual parts and components of the tubes are different from each other. That won't be the case if this were an illusion," said Old Du.

Zhang Bao'er stubbornly said, "That's the opinion of a planet-level civilization. Maybe among star-level civilizations, every single detail of an illusion can be made identical to reality. Who knows?"

We were speechless, and we all looked at Temo. An awkward expression covered his face.

After a few seconds, Temo said, "Not even star-level civilizations will focus on all the small details when creating an illusion."

"Fine. We can be sure that this is real, not an illusion. And if this is real, there must be an exit somewhere. We will be able to find it," I said, ending the argument.

"But what is the pattern of this maze? Where exactly is the exit?" muttered Dodo to themselves.

Nobody had any new ideas. We started resting. The extended combat earlier had exhausted us, and it did not take Zhang Bao'er long to enter the land of dreams. His snores resounded around us. The others were also resting peacefully, each immersed in their own thoughts. As for Anxashe, he was hitting the floor mindlessly with his bow. Due to the silence around us, the sound of Anxashe's bow hitting the floor was clear. The tempo was similar to the sound of a clock, one tap followed by another. Suddenly, I noticed something odd.

"Dodo, can you hear the sound made by Anxashe?" I asked.

"Yes. The floor is thick. Very thick," replied Dodo, trying to dispel any idea of trying to dig through the floor.

"I know, but listen to the tapping. I think the floor is made of steel," I said.

"The entire planet is made of steel. What's so special about some steel tubes?" said Dodo, still not understanding my meaning.

"If this maze exists independently, how big is it? And how thick can the floor be? All the beast planets are empty inside. Therefore, there will be a limit to the thickness of this maze. If it's made of steel, it's something we can penetrate," I said.

"But from the taps, the floor is clearly not hollow. How deep do we need to dig to get through it?" argued Dodo.

"What if the sounds are actually fake?" Zhang Bao'er suddenly said. He had awakened from his sleep.

"Yeah. How will we know without trying? Rather than walking blindly in this stupid maze, we might as well try punching through the floor," I said. The more I thought about it, the more excited I became.

With the decision made, everyone moved.

"Canyue, I'll give my electric welder a try," said Old Du.

He took out his electric welder and instantly raised the temperature to 10,000 degrees. The high temperature caused the steel floor to melt rapidly, turning into a liquid state.

"Looks like it's working!" Zhang Bao'er said excitedly while crouching beside me.

Old Du continued working with the electric welder. About 10 minutes later, he stopped. Disappointingly, the liquid metal on the floor took only a few seconds to turn into a solid state again. The floor became as solid as before, with the sole difference being that it was no longer glossy.

"This is so infuriating. What material is this? Why can it cool off so fast?" said Zhang Bao'er, standing up in anger. In his fury, he tossed a random item in his hand onto the floor. When I looked, it was the cup he had been drinking from.

When the cup hit the floor, it made an odd noise.

"Dodo, did you hear that?" I cried out in excitement.

"Yes. From that sound, the floor is hollow," said Dodo, who also became excited.

Old Du immediately tapped the floor with his gun. The feedback indicated clearly that there was quite a large empty space beneath us.

"What's going on? It wasn't hollow earlier. Why is it suddenly hollow now?" asked Zhang Bao'er in astonishment.

"No. It has to be hollow down there or the design of this maze won't make sense. However, the maze was designed in a way where the floor and the walls would sound like they weren't hollow when knocked. When we melted the floor earlier, we had ruined its structural integrity, damaging the design," I said.

Hearing my explanation, Zhang Bao'er walked forward and knocked on the floor with his gun. The sound was one of a floor that wasn't hollow. My guess had been proven right.

"I did not expect that those from a planet-level civilization would have such impressive deductive reasoning. What a surprise," praised Temo as he clicked his tongue in wonder.

"Since we have established that the floor is hollow, let's punch through it and escape," said Old Du.

"That's easy to say, but the floor was able to cool off so quickly. We don't have much energy left. I doubt we can punch through it even after using all of our energy supply," said Zhang Bao'er worriedly.

"I have an idea. Sarje, can I borrow your staff for a bit?" asked Old Du.