Haven Online

Chapter 130: Melting Snow is Smart

Trailing his fingertips lightly along the disgusting wall that was made out of bodies, Xinya ran through the intricate underground labyrinthine, with Wandering Sound and Melting Snow at his side. The trio of boys sped through the maze as fast as their legs could carry them in hopes of finding the center. Once they found it they could save Wei from the madness that overtook her. 

Although their determination is high, locating the center of this maze was a very tasking endeavor. The maze itself seemed endless to Xinya, and the two boys running alongside him. No matter how far they ran, there were always more paths to explore.

Even though this maze was maddening, both literally and figuratively, Xinya wouldn't give up. No matter how hard he had to search, he would find the spring that would cure Wei.

A part of him felt as though it was his fault that this occurred anyway. He had known that there were psychological aspects to Haven Online, but he never thought in a million years that they would encounter this aspect of the game this soon. 

If his memory served him right about everything he watched pertaining to this game in his previous life. The only video he saw where players were attacked with psychological aspects was when he was watching higher-end players that were over level 150+ explore a hidden land covered in mist.

Although he felt as if he should have warned everyone of the possibility, He wouldn't blame himself for this. He might have had knowledge about things like this because of his previous life, but he had no way of knowing that it could happen in a low-level treasure dungeon. Even if it was a gold chain one. 

Shaking his head to clear it, he focused on the task at hand. No one was the blame for this, well maybe the devs for using psychological aspects in the game, but even so once he found the spring this would all be over.  

"How big do you think the maze is?" Wandering Sound asked as he tried to keep pace with Xinya and Melting Snow's fast speed.

Turning his head around to look back at him, Xinya said, "I have no idea, but my guess would be that it is huge."

After running into another dead end, the trio started to backtrack, when they heard a loud rage-filled scream echoed throughout the maze. Xinya recognized that voice, it was Wei. It seemed that the duration of his floral attack potion must have ended, allowing her to be free.

"She's free," stated Melting Snow, looking every which way, as if she would pop out of thin air.

"Yes, she is." Wandering Sound replied, "And she will be coming after us."

Xinya was worried, if Wei really did kill one of them, it would affect her badly once her sanity is restored and she finds out what she did. He couldn't let that happen. "Let's hurry then, the longer we stand around the faster she will catch up to us."

"Your right, let's go." Wandering Sound said.

As the trio backtracked through the maze they could hear Wei angry shouts getting nearer. This really made Xinya wish that maps were allowed in dungeons if they were he knew that it would be so much easier than just running around blindly like they were. 

That alone was probably the reason why they weren't allowed, he had a feeling that the devs got off on making things more difficult for players. While he was longing for the use of his map, Xinya remembered something. 

He knew that when a player opens a map from inside of a dungeon, the map screen will show up as completely blank, except for the green dots that show the positions of each of the party members. Usually, that wouldn't be helpful, but in this case, he could use it to see how close Wei was to them.

Tapping the interface button, he clicked on the map function to open it. The map itself was completely greyed out, the only thing that Xinya could see on it was their positions and Wei's. Who was getting closer to them as he looked.

"We need to move carefully, Roaming Wind is gaining on us, so she could come from anywhere," Xinya told stopping suddenly in place.

Stopping as well, Wandering Sound moved closer to him while asking, "How do you know?"

"I checked the map out of curiosity, to see if it showed me anything. It does the members of our party and where they at." Xinya replied.

At Drifting Cloud's explanation, Wandering Sound had a sudden thought, "Is that how she is finding us so fast." 

"That's the only reason I can think of that makes sense, unless the curse is guiding her towards us somehow," Xinya said.

"Fuck!" Wandering Sound yelled, hitting the nearest wall with his fist. "What should we do?"

"The same thing we have been doing, trying to find the center of this maze," Xinya said.

As Wandering Sound and Xinya talked, they didn't notice how Melting Snow was looking at the wall of bodies with a thoughtful expression. During their trek through the maze, he had noticed something weird with the hands of the corpses.

When they were going the right way the hand would be open, but when they were going the wrong way the hands would be closed. He wasn't sure that his assumption was correct at first, but after running into multiple dead ends, and seeing how the hands changed, he was completely sure that it meant something.

Gasping at the realization of his discovery, Melting Snow ran over to Xinya, "Drifting Cloud I think I found the trick to the maze."

"Really?!" Wandering Sound shouted before Xinya could even speak. "What is it?"

"Yes! It's" Melting Snow said, explaining to the two of them what he saw happening with the hands on the wall. How they were open or close depending on which direction they went in.

Going over to body wall, Xinya saw that the hands were open since they were heading away from the dead end, but to make sure he ran down the wrong way, and sure enough, the hands were closed. 

He couldn't believe how smart Melting Snow was, if it had just been him in this maze, he would have never figured out this. Rushing back to the group, Xinya gave Melting Snow a big hug, before letting go and rubbing his head. "Your incredible Melting Snow, I would have never figured that out myself."

"I told you, I was smart." Melting Snow said a bit bashfully.

While they were celebrating the fact that they now had a way of getting to the center of the maze without any problems, they had a blind eye to the danger they were in. They didn't notice it, but Wei was quickly coming upon them, while they weren't looking. 

"I have finally found you!!" Wei yelled crazily, startling the trio from their celebration. "You won't be able to escape from my clutches again."

Laughing maniacally at the fact that they would be dead soon, Wei lifted her guns and pointed them straight at the three boys. They wouldn't be able to betray her if they were corpses, was the last thing she thought before she began to fire her gun at them wildly.