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A Backpack, a Gun and a Codex Chapter 93 - Deep into the Abyss (part 21)
The sun is yet to rise from the dune afar. In the early morning sky glowing in a mystically red hue, a hovering motorcycle carrying three people breaks the stillness of the no man's land at the speed of a sprinting cheetah. Everywhere they move, clouds of sand are blown to the back by the powerful wind motors, creating a pattern similar to high-speed canoes riding waves. On the rider seat is no other than Mirai Sasaki, also the person who built this motorcycle, thus the only person who can ride it. Behind her are the two cowards, Yuusha Takahashi and Maric Mileva, each hugging the person in front of them tightly, their legs holding on to the body of the bike with their dear lives. The gusts passing through them are so strong, that without a pair of high-grade motorcycle goggles, their vision would be no better than being blindfolded. Unlike the pathetic riders, Mirai's auxiliary processors automatically filter out winds captured by her visual sensors, and thus she is the one enjo
A Backpack, a Gun and a Codex Chapter 94 - Deep into the Abyss (part 22)
We briefly describe to Mirai how we got the box. She curiously examines the box, and hears my observations about it, before concluding that we have insufficient evidence to crack it and putting the box into my backpack. The interior of the building is sombrely illuminated by occasional light bulbs along the aisles and inside rooms, perpetuating a mystic and threatening aura the deeper we delve into it. The primary map of the building is stored in Mirai's memory and projected onto my spectacles, so Maric is given the tablet to understand what is going on. Based on all of the occurrences, we conclude that with some lavish and unnecessary underlying mechanism, whenever we have obtained all clues from a room, it will no longer be accessible. While I place my hands on my chest, grateful that such a revelation tremendously shrinks the scope of our objective, the path ahead is still swamped with uncertainty. - Are we going to meander randomly forever like this? -
A Backpack, a Gun and a Codex Chapter 95 - Deep into the Abyss (part 23)
In front of her, there stands the Intruder who is caught off-guard in the most miraculous way it could ever imagine. While its wide-open eyes hint that it is in utter surprise that the random building structure permutation mechanism brought its supposed archnemesis right next to it in the first switch, it is quickly replaced with an ecstatic, distorted smile, as it can have a truly glorious battle with its prey, before choking it with its own hands. Mirai, who is also fully aware of its physical prowess, hesitates to act. With the barrel still pointing at the Intruder, she holds her pistol tightly and slowly walks towards the seemingly defenceless Intruder, constantly checking for blind spots and weak points on and around it. - Come on, just drop your guard. Do I look like I am hiding something? - Just by being an Intruder, no less an Intruder whose rank is just below the Commander, already implies that I have to be cautious against you. Do you have any common
A Backpack, a Gun and a Codex Chapter 96 - Deep into the Abyss (part 24)
- Faster, Mr Takahashi! - I'm trying! And drop that honorific. You can call me Yuusha, I am not that conservative! Just as I step the other foot out of the corridor, the side walls slam towards each other, completely blocking a twenty-metre-long pathway and shutting down cameras 7 - 16 and 5 - 7. The roaring collision sound and the squeaking noises of the mechanical components send our bodies trembling. The box is intact, and after catching our breath, we have some time to carefully look at it. Unlike the first box which is encoded, there are no visible locking mechanisms on this one. There are no padlocks or holes to put any key in. If not for the rattling noises when we try to shake the box, none would ever distinguish between this work of art and a plain, decorative cuboid. And apparently, with the equipment available in the portable subspace, no amount of sheer force can break open this box. - Maric, you can lead the way. I think this box can
A Backpack, a Gun and a Codex Chapter 97 - Deep into the Abyss (part 25)
Unable to do anything, we hold onto anything attached to the walls to keep a standing posture. After another five minutes of pure nausea and trembling, the second restructuring is over. It takes us another few seconds to be completely stable on the floor. I open the room's door to see what changes have occurred. The corridor does not seem shorter or longer, but not seeing any scratch marks on the ground implies that the blocks of rooms and corridors have been switched. - Yuusha, I have noted down the location of the trigger Mirai stepped on. Camera 34 - 22. I have some hypotheses to test out, so let's start with finding this trigger first. The building is huge, but it does not take long for us to find a room with access to the camera system. As usual, Maric handles the footage analysis, and I try to obtain more clues from the surroundings. Along the way, I would occasionally meet with corridor blocks with scratches and gunshots, stacked between completely spotless
A Backpack, a Gun and a Codex Chapter 98 - Deep into the Abyss (part 26)
And so, the three of us stand in front of the trigger in front of the camera 34 - 22. - This currently has no basis, but we both trust that there must be a pattern of shuffling whenever somebody steps on this trigger. This may take a while, but it is better than nothing since we are at a dead end. So, if everyone is ready... - Yes, I am. - Same. - Well then, I would step on this. This is redundant, but please hold onto something during the restructuring. Maric places her left foot on the button and slowly leans forward to apply pressure. As we discreetly stare at her leg doing the job, a faint but very defined click finally reverberates throughout the silent corridor after the trigger button is on the same level as the ground. The segregation walls collapse as soon as Maric lifts her foot, making a series of continuous slamming noises like a domino effect. In the small T-shaped, two-by-two metres compartment of camera 34 - 22, we lie fla
A Backpack, a Gun and a Codex Chapter 99 - Deep into the Abyss (part 27)
The centre of the building is a cubical entity consisting of four static blocks and four spaces to fit in another four compartments. Each static block contains sensors that would detect whether the correct compartment out of the staggering six thousand compartments fits into the space, visually represented by the entire compartment shining. Theoretically, if you consider each camera code a two-dimensional vector, you only need two linearly independent vectors to span the entire two-dimensional space. In particular, two triggers should be enough to create every possible permutation, albeit taking some time. However... - Two triggers are not enough. 80 and 125 are factors of 6000, but their lowest common multiple is not 6000. If this pattern continues, we will need a third trigger, particularly one that would group the compartments in groups of a multiple of 3. Mirai immediately spots the last link of the game. The camera permutation is not strictly a two-dimensional s
A Backpack, a Gun and a Codex Chapter 100 - Deep into the Abyss (part 28, final)
- Cannons on your left! Charging until launch! Try to neutralise them! - Roger! Claws underneath, our retaliation rockets are locked on them! - EMP! Where is EMP? - You two! I am swarmed by exploding spider mechs down here. Do something! The last three hours are the most daunting. Protruding from the six surfaces of the cuboidal room are six nodes containing the key to unlocking the box. Maric is unable to fight for a prolonged period, so she is tasked with solving the nodes, while Mirai and I help her fight off the traps to buy her time. Everything in the portable subspace and my backpack is pushed to the limit. I have consumed the tenth photon shotgun ammunition tube to neutralise countless waves of mechs and traps. With the correct settings, each shot is a multitude of photons with various frequencies that jam electronic devices on impact. I manoeuvre around the emerging obstacles to gather the endlessly spawning autonomous bots and d
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