Interstellar Survival: Invasion

When I turned my head, I saw a policeman that was burnt all over standing up from a pile of chests. The turbine of his gun spun rapidly while green smoke leaked out from its muzzle. I could guess that he had used up the final bit of his strength to pull that trigger one last time. After firing, he collapsed weakly onto the ground, unmoving. I snapped my head to the side and saw Old Du collapse while holding the right side of his chest.

"Old Du!" I howled and rushed toward him.

The raygun had left a hole in the right side of his chest. Yellow blood was flowing out of his wound.

"Hang on, you'll be fine. It's your right chest, not your heart. Hang on, I'll stop the bleeding," I said, holding back my tears from flowing.

"The hearts of us Gliesens are on the right side of our chest," said Old Du with a helpless smile.

"It's fine. I checked. The wound is quite far from your heart. You'll be fine. Hang on!" I said as I poured a large pack of body restorative liquid onto his body.

The restorative liquid seeped into Old Du's body, closing his wound and rejoining his veins. A layer of crystal formed at the surface of his wound to prevent more blood loss.

"See, much better. Hang on. I'll help you up," I said as I propped Old Du up with my arms.

He seemed to be resisting his pain and stood up with pure willpower. The two of us walked deeper into the corridor, one step at a time. I had my shield turned on. I could not allow something like that to happen again.

We advanced slowly for about 10 minutes, passing numerous chests and books strewn messily on the ground. Surprisingly, the lighting that the shockwaves had damaged earlier had recovered yet again. However, the lights were flickering, seemingly unstable.

Suddenly, I saw a dark figure running toward us. As a precaution, I raised my laser gun. The figure gradually became clear, allowing me to see that it was Zhang Bao'er.

"Why did you come back?" I asked.

"There is an exit ahead of us. Xingxing had me come support you. Was Old Du injured?" Zhang Bao'er asked.

"I'm fine. Just a minor wound," said Old Du.

Both of us supported Old Du as we continued onward. About 10 minutes later, we arrived before an opening. Zhang Xingxing and the others were waiting for us there. Everyone surrounded us with concern when they saw that Old Du had been injured. Amethyst took out the special medical equipment from Sirius B and bandaged Old Du.

"Canyue, take a look at this exit with us," said Zhang Xingxing when she saw that Old Du's condition had stabilized.

I followed her and Jeferun to the opening and saw a tunnel made of some transparent substance. From the opening, I could see even more crisscrossed tunnels inside coming together to form some sort of four-dimensional structure. I also saw a group of black silhouettes moving in the distance.

"Is that…?" I asked.

"Yes. That's probably Giorno and our students. They entered the tunnel before us," said Jeferun.

"We should enter quickly then. We need to get out of here and take Old Du back to Fearless for treatment," I said.

"I entered earlier and checked three crossings before coming out. Each crossing is connected to six paths from up, down, front, back, left, and right. I can't figure out which is the real path to take," said Zhang Xingxing.

At that time, I also noticed that the space before our opening was linked to several other openings.

"Completely transparent, no signs, and numerous forks. What concept did they use when they built this place?" I muttered to myself.

"Leader, we need to leave as quickly as possible. Old Du is coughing blood again," said Zhang Bao'er.

"Right-hand rule. Why don't we try the right-hand rule?" I asked.

"What right-hand rule?" asked Jeferun.

"By always taking the right turn in a maze, you will find the exit," I replied, making use of my downloaded knowledge.

"In a layered or combined maze, this rule might not work," said Zhang Xingxing.

"I believe there must be some sort of pattern to this maze. We just haven't found it," I said.

"From the makeup of this maze, it looks like a combination of multiple mazes. Also, from its overall form, it resembles a three-dimensional cube. However, I'm not sure," said Zhang Xingxing.

"Three-dimensional cube? Are you referring to a Rubik's cube?" I asked.

"Yes. I suspect so," said Zhang Xingxing.

"That's not possible. The Rubik's cube was invented in 1974 by a Blueling called Ernő Rubik. This maze has probably been here for more than 100,000 years," I said.

"Truth is eternal. It is only a matter of discovery. Perhaps a secret we have just discovered has long been discovered by someone else. The discovery had merely been lost to history," said Zhang Xingxing.

"Great scholar, is your civilization familiar with this structure?" I asked.

"No, I have never seen a structure this complicated in any books," said Jeferun.

"I saw this structure before. It resembles an astral box game from my planet," answered a different voice. I turned and saw that it was Titan.

"Astral box game? What kind of a game is it?" I asked.

"It's an ancient puzzle survival game. The astral box is a cube-shaped item with numerous tunnels in it. We can place a rock through an opening and rotate the cube according to the star chart on the cube's surface. One beats the game by ensuring that the rock comes out from the other end. I once dismantled a cube to study it. The structure is very similar to what we're looking at," said Titan.

"Titan's words make sense. If the Bright palace is really beneath the college, this maze might be something built by the Brightlings. That is why Scholar Jeferun has never seen it before," said Zhang Xingxing.

"Titan, do you have the solution for the maze?" I asked.

"Yes, I have it memorized," said Titan.

"Give it a try, then. Old Du's injury is heavy. We can't delay," I said.

"Isn't it too risky for us to decide so easily?" asked Jeferun.

"We don't have any better options. We can only take the risk," I said.

Everyone sank into silence. Without an alternative, Zhang Xingxing decided to act on our current plan. With Titan in the lead, we entered the maze. The interior of the maze was extremely beautiful. It was constructed from a completely transparent substance that was completely invisible. We left a black line at the opening as a sign. Walking in the transparent maze felt like floating in the air.

The maze was also extremely sturdy. The walls felt ice-cold and gave off a similar sensation to the touch of metal. Under us, we could only see a boundless white.

We soon arrived at the first crossing.

"Up, left, down, right, down, front, up, back. Travel according to that order," said Titan.

We followed him and started traveling through the maze. Every now and then, we would encounter a crossing where there would be a new set of directions we needed to follow. I felt respect from the very bottom of my heart toward the inventor of something so complicated.

We moved according to Titan's directions and gradually went higher in the maze. We could see Giorno's party at the lower part of the maze. They had traveled in the opposite direction from us. Furthermore, their group seemed to have separated.

"Is there a way to save my students?" Jeferun asked.

"We need to prioritize sending Old Du out for treatment. We don't have the time to waste on dealing with the Brotherhood," Zhang Bao'er said.

Zhang Xingxing gave it some thought before taking out a recording device and had Titan record the directions in it. She then handed the device to Jeferun.

He nodded in gratitude before pulling one of the two students with us and said to Zhang Xingxing, "Barak is my best student. I'll have him go with you. Perhaps he will be of help."

We respected his heroic gesture to save his students. After Jeferun bid his farewell to Barak, he walked away with the other student. Through the transparent walls, we could see Jeferun go down the maze with the student. Meanwhile, we continued our journey according to Titan's directions. Farther and farther up we climbed.

As we climbed, we felt the temperature begin to drop. Eventually, we were forced to turn on our shields to protect the group. Our arrival in the maze had caused the flow of air. That coupled with the low temperature had resulted in the transparent walls turning hazy. We could no longer see Giorno, Jeferun, and the others. The temperature continued dropping until it was negative 10 degrees.

"This place is so cold. How will they get out later?" Zhang Bao'er asked.

"Negative 10 degrees is Eternal's normal winter temperature. All life forms from Eternal can withstand this temperature," said Barak.

Suddenly, the group stopped. I looked ahead and saw that Titan had stopped before a fork.

"This should be the exit. The tunnels here are bigger than the ones we had come from," said Titan.

I saw two larger tunnels before us. The tunnels continued straight ahead, reaching so far that the end couldn't be seen.

"Let's go, then. What are you waiting for?" Zhang Bao'er asked.

Titan turned and said, "The solution no longer matches."

"What? Is the solution wrong?" asked Zhang Xingxing.

"No. But according to the solution, this tunnel should go up, not left and right," said Titan.

Everyone was stunned. We were supposed to be at the exit, but a simple selection of left or right had stumped us.

"On Blue, we always stick to the right when walking. Let's stick to the right," said Zhang Bao'er.

Domo rolled his eyes and said, "On Eternal, we walk on the left lane. Since these tunnels are on Eternal, let's pick left."

'These two are still bickering even now. Truly a pair of clowns,' I sighed inwardly.

"There are only left and right tunnels here, so that in itself might have a special significance. Amethyst, can you recall if there is any saying related to left and right in your culture?" Zhang Xingxing asked.

"I don't recall anything like that," said Amethyst.

We seemed to be at an impasse.

"How about this? Canyue and I will each scout one tunnel while you guys wait here," Zhang Bao'er suggested.

"If that's the only choice, we can only do so," I added.

"I have an idea. Let's think about it, everyone," a voice came beside me.

I turned my head and saw that the speaker was Old Du, who was being nursed by the prince. He seemed to have regained more of his awareness.