Conquering the Tower Even Regressors Couldn't-Chapter 308: Seventy-Sixth Floor, Maze of Choices (3)

[Escape the maze. Time remaining: 4 hours 39 minutes.]

Fifty-five. That was how many rooms I had passed through in that short span of time. I committed the number to memory as I stepped into the next room.

As my foot landed, the door from two rooms ago slammed shut with a heavy thud.

[Time remaining in this room: 14 seconds.]

I sped up, taking less than three seconds to reach the far end of the room.

During my dash, I briefly scanned the doors on either side for any discernible differences. Finding none, I turned toward the left.

Creak—

The door to the next room creaked open, revealing yet another pair of doors. This time, however, I stopped in my tracks.

This should be enough.

I had already passed through more than enough doors, not merely sprinting mindlessly, but carefully examining each one along the way.

Fifty-five. That number alone was sufficient to gauge the situation. The path ahead remained unseen, and throughout the entire sequence, there hadn’t been a single distinguishing feature among the doors.

Charging forward recklessly like this wouldn’t miraculously reveal an exit.

It was just a hunch, but a firm one.

Two to the fifty-fifth power.

I wasn’t particularly skilled at math, so I couldn’t determine exactly how large that value was. However, it had to be in the tens or even hundreds of billions. Last time I did the math, two to the twentieth was about a million, so the actual figure was likely even greater than I imagined.

Pinpointing the precise number wasn’t necessary, though. The important takeaway was that the probability of finding the exit through blind perseverance alone was significantly low.

Well. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Considering the floor’s name, Maze of Choices, it made sense. If locating the exit were truly that simple, it wouldn’t have been called a maze at all.

Clearly, a depth-first search strategy wasn’t going to yield results. I decided it was time to abandon the idea of reaching the end through a mad dash.

Hmm.

Besides, it would be faster to wait for the timer to expire than to retrace my steps at this point.

Five seconds remaining.

I stood still and calmly waited for the countdown to end. A moment later, I was transported back to the first room.

Doppy, who had been inspecting one of the doors, turned toward me. “Su-Yeok! Did you discover anything?”

His eyes sparkled with hopeful anticipation.

Regretfully, I could only shake my head. “No. What about you and Yoonie? Notice anything unusual?”

“Um, I don’t think so.” Doppy’s expression fell as his lips pursed in disappointment. “I searched really hard, but I don’t think there’s anything different!”

“It’s all right. I examined a lot of them, too, but nothing stood out. I don’t believe the clue lies within the doors themselves.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

I had passed through fifty-five rooms without encountering a single enemy. Since it was the seventy-sixth floor, that alone was enough to suggest how difficult it would be to locate the exit.

If anything, solving quickly would have been even more suspicious.

Arms crossed, I sank into thought. Before I knew it, twenty minutes had already slipped by.

I can’t let impatience get the better of me.

Rushing never helped, regardless of the circumstances. I needed to stay composed and think this through.

Every floor contained some sort of clue or path forward.

Moreover, my investigation hadn’t been a waste of time. I hadn’t made any major progress, but I had at least determined what wouldn’t work. That alone was a valuable piece of the puzzle. All that remained was to build on that foundation and uncover the solution.

It is time to reassess everything from the beginning.

There was no need to charge ahead again just yet. I had already chosen one direction and explored fifty-five rooms. That was far from insignificant.

Surely the tower had hidden a hint somewhere.

Or, I had possibly missed something.

Hmm.

Perhaps it was simply a habit, but standing still while thinking made me feel strangely unsettled.

Resolved to deal with that feeling, I reached into the mimic and pulled out two small wooden stools. It was a good thing I had packed them. I had bought them on an impulse, never expecting to actually use them. This was the first time they had come in handy.

“Doppy, have a seat. Let’s take a moment and think this through.”

“No, I’m going to keep looking over the doors a bit more!”

“All right. I’ll be here.”

I didn’t think further examination would yield anything new, but I didn’t stop him. After what had happened in the waiting room, I didn’t want to discourage him when he was giving it his all.

Besides, there was always a chance he would find something.

Yoonie fluttered after Doppy while I sat down, watching him as he crouched before one of the doors and scrutinized it closely.

Oddly enough, simply having something beneath me to support my weight helped steady my thoughts. My mind began to settle, clarity returning.

At the very least, blindly charging forward is pointless.

Fifty-five rooms, and not once had I noticed a single variation between the doors.

I thought back to the floor’s description.

[Select one of the two doors to proceed.]

If I had gone right instead of left, would anything have been different?

The tower had clearly instructed me to choose between the two. That potentially suggested that the exit changed depending on which door I picked.

I couldn’t be certain, but it seemed like I would have to try the right side, too. For now, since I had decided to regroup, I decided to put that thought aside.

I really did think that I would come across some kind of clue while running.

In a maze with multiple exits, it only made sense that the dead-end or trapped routes would have some kind of marker.

After coming up completely empty, that line of thinking clearly had to be revised, however. The clues weren’t hidden along the incorrect routes.

They wouldn’t mark the seventieth or hundred-fiftieth room just to let you know it was wrong.

Thus, the majority of doors probably led to traps, while only a few specific ones contained hints that pointed toward the exit. The fifteen-second limit could have been designed to compel me to explore in various directions, slowly uncovering those clues bit by bit.

If that were the case, then I would need to keep pressing forward and investigating more doors.

This will be my current working hypothesis.

Just because I had come up with a theory didn’t mean I should rush ahead without verifying things. I had to make sure I hadn’t overlooked anything.

If there were any differences between the first two doors, I could discover them while testing this idea, anyway.

All right, back to the beginning.

There were two things I was certain about: I had to choose one of the two rooms to proceed, and I had a fifteen-second timer limit per room.

My initial mistake had been how I had interpreted the phrase “proceed.” At this point, I wondered if it meant something entirely different. If taken literally, maybe simply walking straight ahead was the intended solution.

Perhaps the fifteen-second limit was just a trap, designed to make me squander time.

It was a sudden realization, but not an unreasonable one. Ever since acquiring divinity, many of the trials I had encountered had been closely tied to it. I had gained Divine Power, but unlike the other gods, I hadn’t been granted a divine name.

My current title is “Seeker of the Crossroads.”

It was only natural to think that my title would connect to my future divine alias. Perhaps the seventy-sixth floor trial was tied to mine—a trial that told me to keep moving forward, undeterred, even when countless crossroads lay ahead.

Seeker of the Crossroads.

On the fifth floor, where I had earned that title, I had come to the realization that no matter what choice was presented to me, the decision was ultimately mine to make—that, accepting the consequences was also my responsibility.

There is a part of that which aligns with the tower’s message.

The phrase “two doors” could be interpreted as the choices given to me, and “proceed” could be urging me to move on without hesitation or regret, despite the fifteen-second time limit in each room.

If the correct answer really was just to move forward without pause, then sitting here and thinking was just a waste of time.

There are a lot of connections, but in the end, I am just fitting pieces together.

What the tower emphasized as the core of the trial was the time limit and the message that came with it.

Escape the Maze of Choices.

Moving forward blindly and escaping a maze felt like two different things.

Maybe I am just overthinking it, but I usually rely on my instincts. Right now, I am not getting much of a signal.

Perhaps my logic was reaching somewhat. Viewed pessimistically, one had to conquer the tower to become a god. So, obtaining a divine name at this stage was weird.

Still, I couldn’t completely rule it out either.

That will be the second hypothesis I test.

If moving through the paths in search of a distinct marking yielded nothing, then I could try the second possibility of just forging straight ahead. Honestly, by that point, not many potential solutions would remain.

Even if there was a theoretical limit to the number of doors in a row, I would figure it out while putting the second theory to the test.

I lifted my head to check the time.

Thirteen minutes.

That was how long I had spent thinking. It wasn’t that bad, since it was far less than I had anticipated.

There were about four hours and twenty minutes remaining—plenty of time to test both of the possibilities I had in mind.

Let me think for just ten more minutes.

I could have overlooked something, so I dove back into my introspection. Beyond the two methods I had just reviewed, however, nothing new came to mind. This meant I probably didn’t need to dwell on it much longer.

Time was precious.

I had already gone over the tower’s message multiple times. At this point, the only thing left to do was verify what I had come up with so far. While doing that, new ideas could come to me.

In the end, the first thing I need to check is whether any specific door contains a clue. I should spend twenty to thirty minutes pressing forward at random to test the first theory.

If I still didn’t find anything by then, and no new ideas surfaced, then I would switch to the second theory.

Time to get moving.

I gathered my thoughts and was just about to rise from the stool when something flashed through my mind.

Wait a second. Maze of Choices.

Suddenly, the word “maze” began to weigh on me. I had been aware of it all along, but it felt like I needed to give that word more attention now.

The number of rooms increased exponentially by powers of two. Even moving forward a few dozen times caused the total to balloon into unfathomable figures. Tens, hundreds, even thousands of billions of rooms.

Sure, maybe the tower or a specific god had the ability to create such a monstrous space, but physically and logically, it felt off.

Maze...

At that moment, I recalled that every time I advanced through a door, the one from two rooms ago closed with a dull thud. I had been so focused on scanning the doors for signs that I hadn’t considered that detail at all.

To be fair, it wasn’t strange that the previous rooms would close.

At the same time, another memory resurfaced. It felt like I had just grasped a vital clue. My instincts flared, and I felt like I had found the solution.

I have to test it immediately.

I stood up at once, the wooden stool scraping backward with a sharp rattle.

Doppy, who had been examining a door, turned in surprise at the sudden movement. “Su-Yeok! What’s going on?”

I met his eyes with quiet certainty. “Just a second. I think I’ve found the answer.”

Without explaining more, I turned and headed toward the door on the right. The moment I stepped into the room, a notification appeared.

[Time remaining in this room: 14 seconds.]

***

「Invisible message: Challenger Kwon Su-Hyeok has selected the left door in the starting room. The escape method has been configured.」

...

「Invisible message: This room’s timer has expired. Returning Challenger Kwon Su-Hyeok to the starting room. The escape method has been reset.」

...

「Invisible message: Challenger Kwon Su-Hyeok has selected the right door in the starting room. The escape method has been configured.」