secret dice.

Chapter 533 The Truth of the Maze

After seeing off Mr. Yuan, Luo Jun looked at the door that had closed again, but did not try to open it again.

After Mr. Yuan successfully left, Luo Jun felt relieved. From now on, he was the only one left in this huge maze and he could finally let go!
After stumbling around in this maze for more than a month and experiencing a lot of messy things, Luo Jun would probably only get a good evaluation at best if he left in such a daze.

Although he has no shortage of treasures now and doesn't care much about mission evaluation, this mission is different. The difficulty and complexity of the endless maze far exceed normal missions. The secret behind this makes Luo Jun very interested.

Besides, after being tossed around for so long and living in fear, Luo Jun felt resentful. He would not be happy unless he got an explanation!
As for the so-called replacement of chaotic matter, Luo Jun was not afraid. Not to mention that the natural replacement speed in the environment was extremely slow, even if he was invaded by powerful chaotic creatures, he could withstand it. He didn't care about the mere replacement of the environment.

And the escape exit... Even if these twenty-four hours have passed, Luo Jun still has three directional teleporters and a locking spell in his bag. As long as he gets an exit indicator, he can leave at any time with his own mobility.

It's time to clean up this damn maze!
The first step is to start with the black shop.

Luo Jun took out the black map and activated it, then began to run at full speed in the maze. Soon, the location of a black store appeared on the map!

Luo Jun walked all the way to the door of the store and knocked on it. Soon, a beautiful head appeared from inside.

It was the ring finger businessman. The woman glanced at Luo Jun and said, "You are still alive. You are so tenacious." Obviously, she had seen many contestants in the past, and few of them could survive to this day.

As soon as the voice fell, the woman suddenly frowned and sniffed: "Why does it smell bad?"

As she spoke, her expression began to distort uncontrollably, the iron gate began to tremble, and rustling sounds came from inside the gate, as if she would erupt into a terrifying monster at any moment.

At this moment, Luo Jun suddenly grabbed the iron door and pulled it open violently. At the same time, the internal energy in his body surged, and he used his mental power of over 100 to release terrifying pressure!

Sure enough, the big hand of the ring finger merchant had begun to mutate, and uneven textures appeared on the dry skin, as if it was about to expand and grow.

But when Luo Jun's pressure came down, all these signs of mutation suddenly disappeared, the distorted face returned to its original smooth and beautiful appearance, and the eyes became much clearer.

"Don't worry, I'm a human." Luo Jun patted his belly: "The stench you smell is here, and it can't get out."

"What?" The ring finger merchant showed a rare look of surprise on his face and looked at Luo Jun carefully.

"Do you believe it?" Luo Jun spread his hands and said, "I want to buy something. Can I go in and talk to you?"

"Just because I said no, you won't come in?" The ring finger merchant snorted coldly and turned to go into the store.

"That's true." Luo Jun laughed and followed him in.

"What do you want to buy?" The ring-finger merchant pointed to the pile of junk behind him and said, "You must have seen my products countless times. I don't need to introduce them to you anymore."

"I don't want these things." Luo Jun waved his hand: "I want to buy some information."

The beautiful woman with the ring finger merchant frowned: "I have given you enough information before, right?"

"That's not enough." Luo Jun shook his head: "I want to know more secrets about this maze."

"I'd like to give you a piece of advice. If you want to pass the customs, it might be better to know less," said the ring finger merchant.

"My companions have already left the maze, and I can clear it anytime." Luo Jun said with a smile: "Even if I can't clear it, I think there's nothing wrong with living here."

"What did you say?" The ring-finger merchant was completely shocked this time: "Someone left this maze?"

Luo Jun nodded. The ring finger merchant looked at him for a long time and finally sighed: "You seem... not to be lying."

"You must be feeling very complicated." Luo Jun shook his head and said, "After all, this is a goal you once failed to achieve."

The ring finger businessman looked at Luo Jun: "You know everything?"

"I guessed it, so I came to verify it with you." Luo Jun said with a smile: "The Black Shop, including you finger merchants, and those virtual monsters, were all challengers who came to participate in this mission, right?"

"Your purpose all along seems to be to prevent the challenger from leaving, but in fact, you want to prevent the chaotic creatures from taking the opportunity to escape to the main world, right?"

The ring finger businessman sighed, "Not exactly, but close."

Now that the truth had been revealed, she no longer wanted to be a riddler and told the truth: "We were all challengers in the past, but our goal now is not just to stop you from leaving, but also to stop you from becoming a new Chaos Monster."

"I have never seen what this maze originally looked like, but according to speculation, it was once just an ordinary Grade A mission, not as huge or complicated as it is now."

"Later, it was speculated that the rules here began to be distorted due to the invasion of chaotic creatures. Many challengers were replaced and assimilated under the temptation of those monsters and became new chaotic creatures. The chaotic creatures also hoped to use the challengers' skins to leave the maze and invade the human world."

"But the correction mechanism of the maze mission itself does not allow these monsters to leave, so the rules are constantly added and changed, and the scale of the maze is getting bigger and bigger, more and more complicated, and even restrictions are opened. The exit will only be opened when there are still challengers surviving, and the exit will be moved irregularly. But even so, it is impossible to stop these chaotic creatures. They use all kinds of methods to keep approaching the exit."

"Later, perhaps the Labyrinth realized that it couldn't restrict these creatures with its own power, or perhaps the challenger realized the problem and wanted to protect the main world from being invaded. In short, at some point, a powerful challenger used some special method to sign a contract with the Labyrinth and turned himself into a part of the mission rules. In this way, the first black shop was born."

Luo Jun frowned: "So, these props you sell are apparently helpful to challengers, but in fact, they just use gold ingots to lure challengers to hunt chaos creatures. Many of the effects are deceptive?" "No..." The ring finger merchant shook his head: "The effects of the props are all real, at most some of the descriptions are not very complete."

"For example, the Void Pass?" Luo Jun remembered Chen Xiao's reminder in the diary.

"The effect of the Void Pass is fine." The ring finger merchant shook his head and said, "It means I'm not lying. Within an hour, you can indeed get the Void effect and pass through walls at will. But what is not mentioned in the effect is that this Void state can be turned on and off at any time."

"As long as you turn off the void effect within an hour and don't activate it again before the time limit, then this will be a useful wall-penetrating prop. But if you don't find the exit within an hour and feel unwilling to give up, and still don't turn off the void state after the time limit, then you will never be able to turn it off. Slowly, you will even lose control of your own actions and eventually become a slave to the black shop, unable to leave this maze forever."

"It's cruel enough to treat our compatriots from the main world." Luo Jun shook his head.

"We don't want to either, but this is a maze after all, and we are still subject to the restrictions of the mission rules. Many props and functions cannot be set arbitrarily according to the effects we want." The ring finger merchant shook his head: "What's more, the chaos monsters have been against us and interfering with our power."

As she spoke, she grabbed a portion of food. The strange meat, crawling worms, and smelly mucus made people feel physically uncomfortable at the mere sight of them.

"Our food contains ingredients that inhibit humans from being replaced, especially this kind of meat. If possible, we certainly hope to make this food delicious. But unfortunately, due to the interference of rules and enemies, it can only be presented in this way."

Luo Jun picked up a piece of strange meat and said, "So, this thing, combined with the monster-attracting incense, can attract Chaos Monsters. Is this also a function you designed?"

"No, this is just a coincidence." The ring finger merchant shook his head and said, "The raw materials of our food actually come from the main world, but they are distorted by the rules of chaos. The taste of the main world is extremely attractive to chaos monsters, but the monster-attracting fragrance has further amplified this attraction."

Read more latest popular novels at 6.9*shuba!

"As for what you said about cruelty, I don't think it's accurate either." The ring finger merchant put down the food: "At least the Void Pass can not only be used to capture slaves, but also to save people."

As she spoke, she snapped her two huge fingers in a deafening sound.

Then, an illusory figure passed through the wall of the store and came in front of Luo Jun. The figure seemed familiar. Luo Jun took a closer look and shouted in surprise: "Senior Brother Li Ying?"

The phantom nodded. Luo Jun couldn't believe it and said, "No, you have been replaced by the Chaos Creature, right? I killed you myself."

Li Ying glanced at the ring finger merchant next to him, then looked at Luo Jun, and said with difficulty: "They only replaced half of me..."

"He and another challenger were attacked by two Chaos Creatures." The Ring Finger Merchant explained, "He was cut in half and barely survived, while the other one had almost been replaced. At that time, the Black Shop happened to refresh near them, and he used his last bit of strength to crawl over after seeing it. We smelled the smell and launched an attack, killing the replaced companion and dragging him into the shop. The other Chaos Creature escaped with his severed lower body."

"If you encounter a Chaos creature that is exactly like him, it should be a replacement, a new monster growing from his lower body."

"And we can only use the power of the Void Pass to turn his upper body into nothingness, and then treat him, eventually turning him into a Void slave."

"So that's how it is..." Luo Jun sighed, feeling deeply sympathetic towards his senior brother's experience.

"These Void Slaves are also our important combat force." The Ring Finger Merchant said, "There are only five black shops in total, run by five fingers. Although they can move in the maze, their number is too small, and it is difficult for us to fight against the Chaos Monsters alone. So we will organize the march of Void Creatures from time to time. On the one hand, we can kill Chaos Monsters, and on the other hand, we can kill ordinary maze monsters to earn some extra money in exchange for more permissions in the maze."

"So the destination of those Void Armies is the Black Shop, and they will kill any monsters they encounter along the way, and they are especially cruel to Chaos Monsters!" Luo Jun nodded and concluded:
"You, the Black Shop, are alienated humans whose purpose is to prevent the main world from being invaded."

"The maze, the white shop, the common monsters, the various mechanisms, the treasure chests, the relics, the first floor of the rest area, etc., are all the rules of the maze mission itself. The position is a chaotic mission, with difficult problems, but also leaving the possibility for challengers to pass it."

"And those monsters that can replace humans, as well as the second floor of the rest area, and the chaotic matter that permeates the maze, are all the forces of the chaotic monsters. Their goal is to replace humans, leave this maze, and invade the main world?"

"That's right." The ring finger merchant nodded: "Now, you know the secret of this maze. Are you satisfied?"

"It's not enough..." Luo Jun shook his head: "I still want to know how to end this!"

"End?" The ring finger merchant asked in surprise, "What do you mean? As for the clearance mission, you have already done it. You are the first group of challengers to clear the endless maze in all these years. Aren't you satisfied?"

"The end I mentioned is not that simple." Luo Jun said with a smile: "What I want to do is to kill those chaos monsters and restore this maze to normal!"

"What are you talking about in your sleep?" The ring finger merchant was completely unable to remain calm: "So many people, including the maze itself, have been unable to stop the invasion of chaos monsters for so many years, and can only barely maintain the status quo. What makes you think that you can change all this?"

Luo Jun smiled and patted his belly: "I am immune to being replaced by those monsters."

As he spoke, Luo Jun's throat moved, and then he spat out two gold ingots from his mouth.

"It looks like it's been digested." Luo Jun placed the gold ingot in front of the ring finger merchant: "It's a little dirty, don't mind."

Staring at the gold ingot in a daze, the ring finger merchant finally sighed and shook his head, saying: "Okay, since you insist, come with me, I will take you to see someone."

As she spoke, she walked deeper into the store.

"Who are we going to meet?" Luo Jun asked without stopping and followed the businessman closely.

The ring finger merchant came to the inner room and knocked on the wall with her index finger. The wall slowly opened, revealing a portal. She turned around, glanced at Luo Jun, and said slowly:
"Let's go see Thumb."

(End of this chapter)