His increasingly technical words began to lose some of them, and they just nodded, trying to follow along despite the details slipping past their comprehension.
He’s quick on the uptake, Lin thought as he watched Isadore with a small smile, following his train of thought.
Since the path from the middle of the [Snowy Region] directly to them was the longest, and the other path, perpendicular to the border of the [Swamp Region] from the center of the [Snowy Region], was the shortest, the path he had drawn represented a middle ground.
Not only did it allow the beast to reach the [Swamp Region] in the most optimal time, but it also meant that once the beast entered the [Swamp Region] within eight minutes, it would need only three minutes and 30 seconds to reach their location—a nightmare scenario, as they needed five minutes to forcefully teleport it to another region.
What Isadore was proposing took it a step further: finding a "sweet spot" by adjusting the path further to the left.
This would increase the distance the beast would need to cover to reach them after entering the [Swamp Region], while at the same time decreasing the distance needed to reach the [Swamp Region] from the center of the [Snowy Region].
Isadore’s path:
- Time to reach the [Swamp Region] from the center of the [Snowy Region]: 7 minutes 18 seconds
- Time to reach their location after arriving at the [Swamp Region]: 5 minutes 18 seconds
Lin’s path:
- Time to reach the [Swamp Region] from the center of the [Snowy Region]: 7 minutes 54 seconds
- Time to reach their location after arriving at the [Swamp Region]: 3 minutes 30 seconds
It would be scary if the beast figured that out, Lin mused, wondering if instinct alone could propel the creature to levels even beyond pure intelligence.
“I see,” Ren muttered, finally grasping the situation and realizing how small his oversight had been. “The biggest flaw in my plan was assuming the Minotaur wasn’t that smart,” he admitted, though the group didn’t seem as disappointed by his realization.
“Mmh,” Nolan nodded. “We should have skipped one region in each jump. That way, the Minotaur would still be forcefully teleported even if it tried to jump to adjacent regions, making reaching us its only viable option,” he explained, briefly summing up the situation.
“Should we just give up and start over?” he asked, seeing that everyone seemed to be entertaining the same idea.
With this new knowledge, they would no doubt be able to beat the trial next time, but to their surprise, Lin cut in.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
“No,” he said, a spark of dread flashing across their faces as they imagined what he had in mind.
“Everyone, use [Veil] right now,” he continued in a firm tone, as if he was already timing it. There was only a minute left for the [Majority Rule] to trigger, so his order sparked confusion among them. Nonetheless, everyone complied.
Will it work? Lin thought to himself as he fiddled with his status window before casting [Veil] himself. The silence was deafening as everyone waited, growing more curious by the second. After a minute passed, Lin broke the silence.
“Jump to the Rocky Region,” he said, and everyone immediately complied without question, with 60% of them moving from the [Swamp Region] to the region opposite it—the [Rocky Region].
This meant they skipped the [Forest Region], a solution to Ren’s earlier misstep. However, the main problem now was the possibility that the Minotaur had already entered the [Swamp Region] when the teleportation occurred, which would negate the majority rule and position it in a spot where it could reach them in less than five minutes.
1 minute.
2 minutes.
...
5 minutes.
Nothing happened.
“Go back to the Swamp Region. You can use your Soulex now,” Lin muttered as everyone looked at him in surprise, trying to figure out what had happened.
“What’s happening? Did you do something?” Nolan broke the silence, trying to discern if the threat had truly been dealt with. Lin simply pointed at the screen in front of him, prompting them to open up a map and use Echo to scan the surroundings.
“Eh? There’s a Soulex signal in the Snowy Region?” someone muttered, and everyone seemed worried, thinking the Minotaur had somehow gotten to the [Snowy Region]. But as if catching on, Roben let out a mutter.
“Wait a second, isn’t that the tennis ball you threw earlier?” he asked, surprise etched on his face, recalling how Lin had thrown a tennis ball somewhere in the area to ‘monitor’ the surroundings. Since he had used [Veil] on it, none of them could see it until now.
“It is,” Lin nodded, confirming his thoughts.
“I see,” Roben said, a smile appearing on his face as he continued in amazement, “So that's why you poured so much Soulex into it. From this distance, it almost looks like another person’s Soulex,” he concluded.
The others seemed to catch on as they glanced at Roben for an explanation.
“Lin did quite a number on the beast, so I’m sure it immediately sensed the spike and maybe changed directions,” Roben said, and all of them turned to look at Lin in astonishment. On their way back from the fight, he had dropped a tennis ball filled with an immense amount of Soulex. Just now, when everyone cast [Veil] on themselves, Lin immediately revealed it, simultaneously casting Echo throughout the entire region via the tennis ball before cutting it off and casting [Veil] onto himself.
The way Echo searched for Soulex made it such that an individual close by and using [Veil] could quickly alternate between Echo Sight and [Veil] without triggering Echo.
The idea behind the move was to stretch his Soulex wide, so the beast, even if it didn’t sense it instinctively, might catch sight of the strings as they searched through the area. If it recognized the Soulex as Lin’s, it would inevitably change directions, choosing to respond to the provocation since he would appear much ‘closer.’
“So you already had a contingency plan,” Ren muttered, a mix of surprise and appreciation on his face as he smiled.
“Thanks,” he added, but Lin didn’t answer. Another voice cut in.
“Bullshit. He should’ve said something earlier if he really wanted to help,” Sera retorted, sitting in one of the regions with two people guarding her sides, ready to hold her back if she tried anything rash.
“It’s not over yet, so you should stay alert,” Lin suddenly said, cutting through the improving atmosphere. Everyone went silent.
“Mmh. I can’t think of anything else it can try…” Ren said, his face twisted in frustration as he considered multiple possibilities. And yet, “Is that even possible at this point?” he asked, glancing at Lin, who simply smiled in return, offering no answer.
The only viable strategies at this point are high-risk, low-return.
Now then.
How will the beast respond?
Lin wondered, a hint of disappointment flickering in his expression that his first contingency plan had already worked against it. But with how quickly the beast was learning, he still held a sliver of hope in its ability to cause havoc.
We’ll wait and see.