As a player, can you be normal?

Chapter 694 So it's Labyrinth Meal

In the lobby, the teller was surprised to find that the section on "passive resistance" in the adventure manual had disappeared.

"The maze... has changed again!"

A heavily armored soldier approached. He was at least three meters tall, and just standing there, he intimidated anyone who dared to approach. He roughly snatched the booklet from the clerk's hand.

"Damn it."

The guy only glanced at it before clenching his jaw in astonishment.

"Ah... Damn it, notify the commander on the fifth floor that the labyrinth's century-old mechanism is collapsing... for unknown reasons."

The players gathered together, and in the huge hall, they could clearly hear the soldiers' conversation.

From a player's perspective, their first reaction is that the "real main storyline" of this maze has begun.

If this were the "Corridor of the End" or the "Corridor of the Sky," their players would not hesitate to re-explore the maze. Danger is a harbinger of reward for madmen and hot-blooded bastards. Unfortunately, the players of "Endless" are just a bunch of thugs among normal people, and the vast majority of them will not risk their lives.

"Go down."

Milo stood up from his chair.

The girl in black stockings grabbed him.

"Hey, hey, hey... what are you doing?"

"Go down into the depths of the maze; there's a reward there."

Milo has become unlike himself. Of course, after being threatened by Nanami, he had long since become a coward. His strong intellect is one of the foundations of Milo's survival. He saw through the chaos that now was the perfect opportunity to proclaim Olise as the protagonist.

The girl in black stockings hesitated for a moment, then ignored the soldiers' attempts to stop her and broke through the defenses with Milo, preparing to traverse the maze once more.

The girl in black stockings dreams of getting close to the woman wielding the Dragon Slayer Sword. In her heart, Ms. Amanda is like a hero. If she is a hero, how could she sit idly by and wait to die at this moment?

The absence of two people in the hall didn't bother the soldiers.

But some players, gazing at the traces left by the two, wondered... how could they have been so full of vigor when they stepped off the "Immortal Train," and what had led them to this state...?

……

After the Grim Reaper reassembled his body, he ate the taming pills fed to him by Cha Bai and became an official member of their team.

"Now we're partners."

Li Nuo patted Death's head, his fingers gripping its skull tightly.

“If you don’t pledge allegiance to Miss Olsie, we’ll eat you up anytime.”

Olsie greeted Death with a smile and even offered him some kind words of comfort.

“It’s okay, I’m on their menu too.”

Death was a little confused. What was wrong with these guys? They were incredibly strong and incredibly neurotic. Death was a workaholic, so he immediately began explaining the maze.

Death doesn't speak human language; all you can hear are gurgling sounds. There's nothing you can do about it; Death is just an ordinary skeleton.

If Wells hadn't turned into a pot, he could have been their translator.

"It was an oversight."

Xiao Wu pouted and kicked Li Nuo.

"Why didn't you think of the fact that it can't talk?"

Why did you kick me?!

Li Nuo grabbed Xiao Wu's head and threw it into the lava outside the oasis. Xiao Wu ran after it like a dog chasing a frisbee.

"Give me a solution to the problem that you can't speak properly."

Li Nuo pointed at Xiao Wu, who was looking for her head.

"Or I'll throw your head away too."

Ollie couldn't immediately tell whether this way of threatening death was a deliberate collaboration between the two or an improvisation by Li Nuo.

But Death didn't care about that and frantically gestured with his hands.

Li Nuo was surprised to discover: "You can use sign language?"

Death nodded frantically.

Cairo Universe has a very strange culture: sign language is the universal language of the entire universe, but almost no one deliberately learns it, except for some eccentric individuals, such as Li Nuo.

When Xiao Wu regained her head, Li Nuo and Death were communicating earnestly in sign language.

"Your husband is really something..."

"Neuropathy."

Chabaixu continued with eyes.

The sign language for Death is as follows.

……

MD.

I am not some god of death.

I'm just a skeleton from another world, and this damned maze insists I'm the Grim Reaper. What can I do?

……

"stop."

Xiao Wu walked up to Li Nuo.

"It's no fun being a narrator. Can you please not edit it and just tell the story in plain language?"

"But that's what it said."

Li Nuo pointed innocently at Death.

"There's a sign language word for 'damn'? What the hell! Li, don't go too far! Who knows what kind of personal agenda you're trying to include!"

"You've been a Cairo resident for so long, don't you know that Cairo aliens use swear words in their sign language?!"

Li Nuoyi got angry and punched Death on the head.

"It's all your fault! Why did you swear like that?!"

Then Olsie saw this scene: Death knelt down and kowtowed to Li Nuo and Xiao Wu, while writing a strange rune on the ground with his finger. She couldn't understand the rune, but it was actually the English word "SORRY".

When Cha Bai realized that Li Nuo and Xiao Wu hadn't beaten up the Grim Reaper because he could speak English, he understood that they had just had a sudden idea to play with the Grim Reaper's dignity.

Two demons.

Fortunately, Marger wasn't there.

The fact that Xiao Wu can be neighbors with these two grandsons is enough to demonstrate her high status.

"We've already wasted so much time. Even TV dramas should have commercial breaks by now. Are you going to tell us or not?"

Cha Bai couldn't wait any longer.

Li Nuo leaned closer to Xiao Wu and whispered in her ear.

"Let me tell you, the prototype of Cha Bai, Unit 2, was designed to be a lively girl, so she has a very impatient personality."

This was truly the first time Xiao Wu had ever heard of this setting.

"Oh~ Oh, oh."

Lightning crackled around Cha Bai's body.

When Ollie saw that Li Nuo and Xiao Wu had calmed down, she understood who was really in charge here.

So... she was finally able to hear Death's account of the things she didn't know about the labyrinth.

This contains Li Nuo's own understanding, but please trust his thinking ability; what this guy expresses is more accurate than the Grim Reaper himself.

Labyrinths actually appeared 9,800 years ago.

The labyrinth at that time was just an underground cave. The planet was uninhabitable on the surface at that time, and most creatures lived underground.

This is why there are mazes all over the world.

Then something happened: a meteorite struck the planet, bringing the Cairo aliens, and the place became a colony. But the Cairo race only brought the possibility of biological evolution. Those little guys spent hundreds of years leaving the seeds of nature on the surface, improving the water and air, and clearing away mutated monsters and toxic gases.

The people beneath the earth emerged from the labyrinth and entered the wider world. Thus, the wheels of history began to turn.

The underground city, or labyrinth, was forgotten until it was rediscovered by a new civilization a few hundred years ago.

An ecosystem still remains within this largest maze.

The first to third layers are fissure areas leading underground.

The fourth and fifth layers are natural environments for evolution, where most of the original inhabitants once lived.

The sixth level is the former capital of that civilization, so you can see the remnants of the streets and towns. Originally, the night sky above was a blue sky, but later the stone that was supposed to be sunlight fell and plunged the area into darkness.

The seventh level is the mining area, where people used to mine, and it is the richest in resources.

The eighth level is the most dangerous tropical rainforest, where goblins who have never left the underground world still reside. Later adventurers left behind a mechanical civilization there, making it a chaotic yet thriving area.

The ninth level has no records; all that is known is that it is a very narrow cave, so narrow that even Death cannot reach it.

The tenth floor was originally a nobleman's tomb, but later became the fortress of that rebellious minister.

Over the past few hundred years, because the Cairo aliens have once again set their sights on this place, the "Cairo Adventure Village" was established here. As Olise also learned in the later story, the curse that appeared in the labyrinth was actually the work of the Cairo aliens.

The so-called curse is actually a game mechanic, just like dungeon games such as "Darkest Dungeon". A game without difficulty is not interesting.

Don't try to empathize with the Cairo aliens' behavior logic; they don't operate logically.

This has led to the current predicament.

The descendants of adventurers left behind here are cursed and cannot leave the labyrinth. Adventurers who descend into the labyrinth must endure an environment far more dangerous than it was thousands of years ago in order to obtain a reward sufficient to feed them. After the ministers of Haloran rebelled, they stationed themselves here, but no one dared to come because of the curse. The tragedy of the eldest prince and the night dragon was also a consequence of the curse.

The core of comedy is not necessarily tragedy, but if the mechanics of a game were based on the real world, a great deal of tragedy would inevitably occur.

For players, this kind of tragedy is exactly what they like.

Because of the existence of "Cairo Adventure Village", the treasures in the labyrinth are all from another world.

The seventh floor we are currently on used to be a mining area, which is the largest area and therefore has the most treasures.

Death drew a map of the seventh floor on the ground and accurately marked the location of the treasure chest.

The quality of what you get from opening a treasure chest depends on how you open it. The best way is to open it upside down, regardless of whether it's logical or not. Just know that its purpose is to deliberately make things difficult for adventurers, because no one will guess that opening the treasure chest upside down is the correct way.

Where is the monster?

Xiao Wu looked at the map on the ground; what she cared about was the experience points.

Starting from this level, killing a monster grants 1000 experience points, as indicated by the system panel.

Death gestured to Li Nuo in sign language.

Li Nuo translated according to his own understanding.

“Not long ago, strange fluctuations appeared on the tenth floor. The guy who was originally on the tenth floor and his legion were killed. Not long after, the entire tenth floor began to surge with evolutionary energy.”

Death pointed to his own head.

There is a single black hair on the skull.

"What Death means is that this black hair of its is a marker of evolution."

Li Nuo, being a bit of a jerk, plucked out the Grim Reaper's only black hair. The Grim Reaper stood there stunned for a long time, completely dumbfounded.

"So, the reason why biological evolution has occurred is not yet clear, but we do know that the monsters here have become extremely powerful. This is because they have become more ferocious during the evolution process. Not long ago, a group of monsters fought each other here. The number of monsters that used to be in the five digits has now decreased to only a few hundred."

"Several hundred..."

Xiao Wu frowned slightly.

"That's only a few million experience points... that should be enough."

"I might as well just destroy this place."

Li Nuo issued a terrorist manifesto.

Death quickly intervened and used sign language.

Li Nuo became more and more excited as he looked at it.

"It said that because the seventh level here is rich in a kind of salt mushroom, and the monsters that grow up eating salt mushrooms have delicious flesh, it is best to protect them... and not let the delicacies... become memories in the dust of history."

Half a minute later.

Butterfly sat beside him, staring with dead fish eyes, and complained, "Damn it, Mr. Li, I'm sleeping. Your existence is a crime... Let me make this clear first, I can only cook ○○ dishes."

Li Nuo, Cha Bai, Xiao Wu, and Death God excitedly packed their belongings and prepared to set off to hunt for delicious food.

"Have you noticed something is missing?"

Cha Bai, being sensitive, grabbed Li Nuo's arm and asked him.

"What's missing?"

Li Nuo glanced around.

Xiao Wu was also curious.

"Less? What?"

Then everyone realized that Nanami had been sitting silently in the corner with her back to them the whole time.

Death gestured, meaning: "The most terrible curse in the seventh layer is a curse that will change the race if one stays too long."

Li Nuo laughed: "Plank up and lift huge breasts? Don't be ridiculous, Nanami!"

Nanami turned around, and a bunch of tentacles were wriggling out of the spout of the pot (Wells) she was wearing on her head.

Wells has undergone another gender reassignment.

This time it turned into tentacles, and it was a female, because there were many gaps on the tentacle suction cups.

To avoid scaring people, Li Nuo had no choice but to put Wells inside the mask.

"I hope next time you can turn into something normal, bro..."

And so, they set off in search of delicious food.

Only Nanami was wiping away tears, unable to understand why she, so powerful, was being bullied. Xiaowu comforted her, giving the example of how she had survived being a human for four thousand years, implying no obstacle was insurmountable. Nanami retorted that she had never been a human puppet, so how could she know what despair was? Ollie covered her ears; she had no interest in these guys' pasts, feeling that knowing would severely impact her values ​​and might require a lifetime to heal her inner wounds.

We encountered a monster right at the nearest treasure chest.

"This guy's name is quite interesting."

The group hid behind a rock, gazing at the five-meter-tall red giant snail.

I am a particularly delicious snail.

The name is simple and crude.

"Miss……"

While the group was observing the snail's ecology, Olsie approached Butterfly from behind.

"Call me 'little sister,' I've only recently come of age."

"Really... Sorry, I thought we were the same age."

"How old are you?"

I'm thirty.

The Elf race develops relatively slowly.

"I will kill you."

Butterfly wasn't joking.

Olshey pursed her lips and immediately changed the subject, asking the question she wanted to ask.

"You're a great cook? Could you teach me how to cook...?"

"Olise".

Li Nuo's ominous voice appeared.

"Go and kill that snail."

Because Olise was too weak, Li Nuo planned to train her, at least to give her the power to slay dragons.

(End of this chapter)