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墨書 Inktalez
I sat in the middle of the Fork in the Road, facing the path I had come from, calculating the time. If they were to arrive at the next Branch smoothly (which they probably wouldn't), and then return here, it would take about another hour. Here I was, doing nothing but holding a torch, burning through my life. Despite the overwhelming fear that kept creeping in, a voice in my head repeatedly urged me: Don't! It even culminated in a desperate scream. Yet, I gritted my teeth and extinguished the torch.
Food and water could sustain us for about three hours. As for fire, if there were no other combustible materials ahead, these two torches would only last for a limited time; I had to conserve them.
With the extinguishing of the torch, the passage seemed to fall silent all at once. Logically, nothing had changed in the environment, but fire makes noise—a detail I had never noticed before. Now, without the crackling of flames, the ticking of my watch and the beating of my Heart became the loudest sounds I could hear. It was truly a strange experience.
But it was also terrifying. When darkness fully envelops you and there are no sounds except your own presence, all sorts of demons within your mind find an outlet and descend upon you. I knew I had to keep myself occupied. I didn't want to be found by them when they discovered I had gone mad. What could I do in this pitch-black environment? I raised my wrist to check my watch; counting time would have to do—consider it an interesting game. After all, it was the only thing I could see.
The Dial emitted a faint blue light, and the hands moved like two mischievous children ticking away. As I watched the Second Hand complete two full rotations, a thought suddenly struck me: Are we also going in circles? Once that thought emerged, I couldn't help but want to find paper and pen to jot down my ideas and sketch them out. However, that was clearly impossible at the moment; I desperately clung to that thought and tried to visualize a picture in my mind.
My thoughts and mental image went like this: Since all known Branches are Y-shaped with three Branches each, and if I assumed every segment between Branches is of equal length, then if we walked along one side and always took either the left or right path at each three-Branch intersection, would we eventually return to our starting point? Clearly, this was feasible. My mind immediately began sketching this image based on the 120-degree angles between each pair of paths at every three-Branch intersection; under the assumption that the paths were straight, making five turns would lead us back to our Starting Point.
After a moment of excitement over this sudden idea, I asked myself: What good does this do us?
Yes, all efforts must point toward an exit. This idea came out of nowhere; for now, I couldn't think of how it might be useful to us, but I had a vague feeling that it was our way out—at least it would help us somehow. But how could it be put into action?
I enlarged this mental image in my mind, making it more complex until it formed a vast web. Suddenly, a clear line of thought emerged; it felt like I was grasping something important. Just then, I heard a sound—distant and abstract. How could such a sound be abstract? I cursed myself for even thinking that.
But that's how I felt because I couldn't imagine or explain this sound. To me, it sounded like something falling from a great height—something very large yet heavy; it was truly contradictory. However, this sound seemed to cut through the air quickly—perhaps like a bullet slicing through air or a finely crafted arrow shot from a crossbow.
The sound was sharp yet not jarring; in fact, it was somewhat pleasant. It wasn't very close to me but came through distinctly clear. The sound trailed off as if aiming to strike something; even when it did hit something, it should have produced a loud noise. I held my breath in anticipation. I didn't know what this sound-producing object would strike—perhaps me—but strangely enough, I felt neither nervous nor afraid.
I considered myself somewhat thick-skinned in nature. Yet I certainly wasn't fearless enough to welcome death without concern. At that moment, my nerves felt numb; everything I'd experienced in such a short time had frayed my fear response. It was somewhat akin to Cao Mingzhe; he had issues with his sensory nerves while it seemed mine were malfunctioning due to fear.
But things did not develop as I had anticipated; that voice vanished as suddenly as it had appeared. My thoughts were immediately drawn to this event, and in a chaotic whirlwind, I shattered the enormous image that had filled my mind.
The emergence of this voice was too strange and abrupt, and its disappearance was no different. I pondered the various possibilities of its origin—what could have produced this sound? I remained seated, motionless, from the moment the voice emerged until it faded away. I felt no breeze or air disturbance, not even the slightest hint of movement around me.
The time from the voice's appearance to its disappearance was brief, yet there was no gradual rise or fall in its tone, making it impossible for me to deduce its source from any angle. Still, I was unwilling to dismiss it as mere auditory hallucination; surely, such a clear sound could not be a figment of my imagination.
This incident left my mind in disarray, making it difficult to concentrate on any problem at hand. I was entangled in the question of whether this voice was indeed a hallucination. When I finally decided to set aside this turmoil and consider my previous thoughts, I realized that I could no longer visualize that vast image in my mind. It seemed my brain had lost the ability to focus intensely on a single task. Creating a large and complex image in one's mind and clearly identifying the connections between various points requires a high level of concentration. Yet, it felt as if I had instantaneously lost that capability.
I needed to refocus my attention. I had to find clues that would spark some ideas in my mind; this seemed crucial for us to find a way out. That damned voice could go to hell. I silently thought, attempting to sketch out the simple image from my initial idea in my mind.
Reentering the powerful realm of thought—or allowing that realm to become powerful—was an incredibly challenging endeavor. I could only gradually immerse myself in it, step by step.
I began by visualizing an Equilateral Hexagon in my mind, with each corner representing a Fork in the Road. Following one of the diverging paths as one side, six more Equilateral Hexagons emerged outside. At this point, there were even more Branches surrounding the outer hexagons. My brain could not yet depict a more detailed image, but these seven known Equilateral Hexagons vividly presented themselves before me. However, that was not enough.
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