Game On👾⚔️⚔️⚔️

Episode Seven: Maze for Hade: Part 1

(Shadow Web 🕸️🃏🃏🃏)

By Fredison Godilyn 🖋️📝

★★★ Ricky POV ★★★

When that Stacey girl started her killing spree, I was lucky enough to flee. One strange thing was that the crying lady had left before anyone noticed.

I kept going toward the east of the maze. There was nothing to tell me for sure that I was heading east, but I just kept moving in the direction I thought was right. It felt like we were in the middle of a vast ocean with no end.

On my way, I encountered various traps, ranging from spikes to arrows. I saw a hive once, but I didn't dare to go near it. In some games, hives can give you honey. Who knows if they will sting?

When I reached a certain place, I settled down. I clicked the button on my chest, and my screen appeared.

“System, can you help me?”

“Yes, Master,” the system replied. “Purchase materials from the market to survive this game.”

“Wait, I need to buy a weapon?” I asked.

“The closer you are to the Gate of Life, the more dangerous the game becomes.”

The system displayed a variety of items. As I scrolled through the screen, I saw a berry and a branch. I had seen the berry somewhere else.

“If it is a merger game, can I merge berries together?” I asked the system.

“Yes, of course,” the system replied.

The berry cost 150 coins, while the branch cost 250 coins. I could also see other items on the list, such as petals, leaves, roots, spikes, vines, and many others. Berries and branches were among the cheapest materials on the odd list. A whole tree topped the list at 800 coins.

The odd list contained items on the market that were not weapons or other tools.

“Wait, why do I have $150 and £20?” I asked my system.

“Your player money is in dollars. Your game money is in pounds,” the female computer voice told me.

“Wait, player money? Game money? I don't get all this!” I complained.

“Your player money is the total sum of money you personally have and can carry freely. Your game money is the money awarded to you whenever you play a game. You can only use your game money in that particular game. You can use your player money anywhere and anyhow.”

“So, can I use them interchangeably?” I asked.

“They are of the same worth.”

“What about the coins? Does 1,000 coins equal a dollar?”

“Yes, you are right,” the system told me.

I could buy 50 branches and 50 berries with my £20. I purchased them with my game money. The items appeared before me. Since I was curious, I wanted to test the merging option of the game.

“Can I merge?” I asked.

“Tap on the game icon and select ‘Merge,’” the computer said.

I went around collecting berries from bushes and branches from trees. To get them, I avoided bees, spikes, traps, and many more dangers. I was able to pluck 128 berries and collect 42 branches from the maze.

“My goodness, I didn't gamble for nothing.”

I tapped the game icon and selected Merge. I saw a timer appear on the screen. I started merging the branches. As I merged them on the screen, some of the branches lying before me disappeared, and new objects appeared in their place.

After the countdown ran down, the merging phase ended. The system started rebooting, and I was stunned when my screen went black. I left the market icon and returned to the merging option, but it was still blank.

“What is wrong?” I asked the computer.

“The system will take five minutes to reload the merging option,” the system said.

“Oops!”

I was able to make six berry sprays and four wooden rods. I sold the odd items left over. I took out a berry spray and a wooden rod.

I kept moving. As I moved, I sprayed some berries on the floor. As I continued forward, I encountered more difficult traps.

Soon, the countdown was over. I merged my remaining items and sold the leftovers. I got a six-star acid gun from the berries and a five-star hardwood mystical shield from the branches. I earned $43 from the items I sold.

As I continued moving, I used my acid gun on the floor to mark places. With it, I could easily identify places I had already visited. Soon, my acid spray began attacking other players.

Some escaped from it. Others disappeared somehow.

I could request one of their items from the system. I ended up killing at least five people in the game.

“How can I win?” I asked my system.

“Reach the Gate of Life before one hour,” the system told me.

I checked my time. Thirty-three minutes had already passed.

“How can we locate it?”

“By buying more weapons,” the system told me.

I moved away from my acid-spray traps. I reached another part of the maze, where I noticed that the maze was shrinking. It seemed to be closing in on me.

I ran nonstop until I reached a point where I could no longer see the edge.

“How will people know that this infinite maze is closing in on us?” I asked myself.

I drew a square on the floor.

“I think the edge I saw was straight. Most mazes are either square or rectangular, though,” I told myself.

I must have been traveling from the other side of the square. My sprays were either on the other side or on the same side as me.

“Where can the Gate of Life be?”

I cleared the words from the ground.

An item list appeared before me. Then, a man of about twenty-seven years old appeared before me.

I didn't notice him at first.

I picked up a sword from the item list. It was a six-star sword, the highest level among them. As the sword appeared before me, I noticed the innocent-looking man staring at me and my newly acquired sword.

“Yours?” I asked.

The man remained quiet. He looked deeply at the sword.

“Have it!”

I threw the sword at him. He caught it and ran away.

“Wait, he didn't say thanks?”

“Do you want to give him the sword?” the system asked me.

Yes / No

“Yeah, I do,” I told the system.

“Successfully gifted to a friend,” the system said.

I knew that since the man had reappeared before me, it meant that my acid-spray trap was nearby.

I drew the square again. I doubled one of the edges to represent the earlier edge. I marked a point to indicate where I was.

“When I first started this game, the traps were harder.”

I tried to identify my initial position using my traps as a compass.

“Wait, the traps get easier until there are no traps at all toward the edge.”

I paused.

“Could the Gate of Life be somewhere around our initial position? Is that why the traps there were harder?”

I looked at the remaining time.

Twenty-four minutes were left.

“There is no time to gamble. I must try it out. I must get there.”

I started running toward my initial position, using my acid-spray traps on the floor as a compass.

“After all, there's nothing like death in the game.”

As I closed in on the destination, the traps became harder. The maze became more complicated. Fireballs were shot around me. Arrows flew toward me. Sharp spears emerged from the ground.

But I had passed through this area before.

I also had my shield to protect me this time.

As I reached the area, there were no traps, just as there had been at the beginning of the game.

I went to the place where we had started the game.

As I moved closer, I saw the name of the game, “Merger Maze; Maze for Hade,” hanging in the air.

Under the name was another title:

“Gate of Life.”

I was shocked.

As I moved forward, a door appeared.

Gate of Life was written beneath it.

I checked my time.

Sixteen minutes were left.

An arcade victory song began playing softly.

I stared at the door.

“My gamble was right.”

I turned around.

“I must try to bring along those two girls who were victims of that evil girl.”

I left the gate and returned to the maze.

“After all, my acid spray is my guide. I can come back anytime.”

As I left, the title beneath the game title changed from:

Gate of Life

to:

Maze for Hade.