Nick felt like his brain was burning.
Thousands upon thousands of use cases and connections were gathered inside his mind.
So many patterns.
So much shuffling.
For five days, Nick had been running through hundreds of thousands of kilometers of labyrinth.
As an Expert, Nick's mind was very powerful, but even he needed to take notes to remember everything.
He had even come up with a new kind of classification for connections based on equations between connecting points.
The names of the corridors and intersections had long since become irrelevant.
Everything inside Nick's mind was classified into connections.
Eventually, he even stopped moving and just hovered near the corner of one of the hallways.
He had been there for over eight hours by now.
Nick was reviewing all the data he had gathered and was running simulations in his head.
He was trying to find an equation that would make all the connections make sense.
A ridiculous amount of numbers and equations shot through his head.
He just kept calculating without end.
Nick was trying absolutely everything to make this make sense.
Another two days passed.
Nick still wasn't moving.
Then, he suddenly started flying down one of the hallways.
He shot through many different hallways before stopping again for several minutes.
Nick kept doing that for a couple more hours.
The more time passed, the more Nick's brain seemed to burn.
He was retaining more and more information, and he was accessing it all at the same time.
He felt like all of this was pushing his logical thinking to the absolute limit.
Some hours later, Nick shot down one of the hallways again.
Then, he shot through five different intersections before reaching his starting place again.
This time, he didn't pause and shot down the hallway again.
He shot through seven intersections this time before reaching his starting location again.
As Nick saw his starting location, he started to become agitated and excited at the same time.
'No way, right?'
He shot down the hallway again, and this time, he also took two stairs before reaching his starting location.
Nick paused for a couple of minutes.
Then, he finished his equation and used it as he flew down the hallway.
He successfully predicted all the connection points he was flying past.
'This fucker uses three different numerical systems!' Nick thought with excitement and annoyance.
'A base-3 for the stairs. A base-5 for the intersections. A base-53 for the corridors.'
In Nick's mind, an equation with six different variables appeared.
Entrance point.
Exit point.
Vision modifier.
Connection seed.
Conversion seed.
Total seed.
'How the fuck did this asshole come up with such an insane algorithm?!' Nick thought in frustration.
Nick experimented with the equation for a couple of minutes, confirming that it could predict all the connections.
Nick was so relieved when he realized that he no longer needed to dedicate so much brain power to math.
'Alright. The most difficult part is done. Now, I need to break it.'
'Sadly, the way the equation is built makes it a closed system. It is literally impossible for me to find an entrance or exit point. All the variables just lead into each other, no matter what I do.'
'This thing can continue indefinitely.'
'No matter what entrance or exit I choose, I will never leave this system.'
'However…'
Nick thought back to the big room in which all the humans were gathered.
After days of flying around, Nick hadn't found that room again, even though he had traveled for hundreds of thousands of kilometers in a space with 53 possible hallways.
'This means that the central room and the hallways leading to it are outside the loop.'
'I can't reach the room unless the room enters the current total seed of the labyrinth, and that can only happen manually.'
'That means I have to wait for one of the people to leave the room.'
For the next couple of hours, Nick kept flying through the hallways, flying in such a way that he circled through all possible hallways, intersections, and stairwells in as little shuffles as possible.
As soon as one of the hallways got connected to the main room, Nick would notice.
Sure enough, about half a day later, Nick noticed a new hallway with one of the Johns casually strolling through it.
The guy didn't seem very hopeful or urgent.
He looked like he was just casually strolling.
Most likely, he was bored.
Nick took note of all of the connecting points.
'Alright. This is it!'
As soon as the man reached the intersection, Nick shot out of the darkness and transformed into his physical form in front of the man.
For the first time in a week, Nick's ability deactivated.
The man was frightened beyond belief and almost fell on his ass.
"Do not move!" Nick shouted with authority. "I'm from Aegis, and I'm here to save you!"
The man looked like his heart was about to stop. "Ae-aegis? What's that?!" he asked in shock.
Nick became frustrated.
The existence of Aegis had only truly become common knowledge in Crimson City after the battle with Anatomy.
Before then, only strong Extractors and powerful people knew of Aegis' existence.
This guy was a John, who had been inside the labyrinth for years by now.
"I'll explain later," Nick said. "I need you to do one thing for me."
The man was still in shock and just looked at Nick with a dumbfounded expression.
"W-what?" he asked.
After he asked that question, lights appeared above Nick.
Apparently, the Specter had recovered from its shock and was now accepting Nick as part of its hoard, and just like it did with the other humans, it gave Nick some light to protect him from the Nightmare.
The Specter probably had no fucking idea where this guy had suddenly appeared from, but he was here now, and it couldn't change that fact anymore.
If it let Nick escape, he would just destroy the ground and caves around him to find the Specter, and it wouldn't be able to escape.
The Specter was forced to keep Nick inside its labyrinth.
And compared to the people, it knew Aegis.
The Specter knew that things wouldn't be as easy as they had been until now.
However, it had worked on its creation algorithm for decades, and it was impossible to crack it.
As Nick looked at the man, a Specter looked at a three-dimensional cuboid hovering above it.
It focused on one hallway and intersection in the middle of the cuboid, which was the place where Nick and the man were talking.
It was fully focused on Nick specifically.
It knew that Aegis was extremely dangerous, but Nick was in its world.
It was the creator of the rules in this place.
In here, it was God!
"I need you to stay here," Nick said, pointing at the spot between the hallway and the intersection.
"I need you to keep the entrance of the main room in your vision and most of the hallways from the intersection."
The man was confused. "Okay. Anything else?"
"No, that's it," Nick said. "I'll deal with the rest."
The man was quite surprised.
That's it?
"Oh, one more thing," Nick said. "If the lights turn off, don't move. At most, you have to resist the Nightmare for five minutes. If the light turns off, it means that the Specter wants you to move from this spot, which means that I'm making progress. If the light turns off, you know that the Specter is panicking."
"Whatever you do, do not move! Got it?" Nick ordered.
The man was still confused.
"Eh, sure. I won't!" he said before quickly assuming his position.
Nick nodded before turning down one of the hallways.
His eyes exuded a light of confidence.
Numbers shot through his mind, and the equation gave a clear answer.
"Well then. Shall we go?" he muttered.
BANG!
Then, Nick charged down one of the hallways.
From the outside, the Specter was watching as Nick ran diagonally toward one of the corners.
The internal structure of the cuboid rearranged itself.
Nick rapidly shot into a staircase, which, bizarrely, continued going towards the corner.
The Specter became suspicious.
Nick reached the next intersection and ran down another hallway.
When the Specter saw Nick running in a completely different direction, it calmed down.
But then, Nick suddenly stopped and turned around.
He entered the same intersection and then shot into the hallway he had come from.
Yet, the hallway had already shuffled, and a new hallway appeared that led directly to the corner of the cuboid!
At that moment, the Specter realized that Nick knew exactly where he was going.
Countless numbers shot through the Specter's mind, and it came to a terrifying realization.
There was a number overflow!
The John near the big room locked the connecting hallway to the loop!
The system could no longer continue indefinitely!
It was no longer a loop!
The Specter had to get rid of the John connecting the big room to the loop.
So, it turned the lights off