Global Survival: I Got the D-Rank Personnel Simulator

But unfortunately, that D-Class personnel did not heed Lin Ye's warning. Instead, he quickly ran in the direction away from the footsteps.

Lin Ye had no choice but to follow, because the footsteps also accelerated.

He didn't believe that the footsteps would spare any living being it passed by and only attack its target, so he had to accelerate along with the others.

"The footsteps change speed based on the speed of those fleeing. So when we encounter it, we can't run around wildly. Otherwise, we'll eventually be caught when our stamina runs out."

Lin Ye offered this reminder. Whether they believed him or not was beyond his control.

"What is that? What happens if you get caught? How do you know?"

The old man followed behind Lin Ye, glancing back frequently, yet seeing nothing.

"I've seen similar monsters before."

At a fork in the path, Lin Ye and the D-Class personnel running ahead separated, entering opposite passageways. The old man hesitated not a single moment, directly following behind Lin Ye.

The footsteps went the other way. This was within Lin Ye's expectations, as the other person was the fastest, and the footsteps simulated his speed. Lin Ye stopped. He had to figure out what was going on here first, otherwise they could walk forever and never get out.

"What do we do now?"

The old man stopped, panting heavily. His physical fitness was somewhat better than Lin Ye's, but he was getting on in years and didn't know running techniques. So if they encountered the footsteps again later, he would be the first caught.

This involved issues of deceleration and changing direction, but with his brainpower, it was hard to outthink Lin Ye.

"Of course, we think of a way to leave here. If we encounter those footsteps again later, don't run around wildly."

Lin Ye instructed. If the other person didn't listen, there was nothing he could do.

"I'll listen to you. But you can't abandon me and run off alone."

The old man didn't want to die in a place like this.

"Fine."

Lin Ye agreed very straightforwardly. If the other person cooperated, he could lead him out of here.

However, before that, Lin Ye needed his cooperation for some experiments.

"I'm going to the corner ahead. Only come over when you hear me call you."

"Huh? You're not planning to ditch me and go alone, are you?"

The old man asked nervously.

"I need to test the rules of this passageway. Otherwise, we'll never be able to leave here."

Lin Ye said calmly.

"...Alright. But you can't sneak away."

The old man stayed in place, watching Lin Ye's figure disappear into the darkness.

The corner was eerily quiet, as if no one was there.

"Hey... are you still there?"

The old man asked nervously.

The answer was the sound of footsteps slowly approaching from behind him.

Lin Ye passed through a stretch of pitch-black turning corner and reached a lighted section of the path. Lin Ye turned back and called for the old man to follow. The old man didn't answer. Lin Ye had no choice but to return to the previous spot, but no one was there anymore.

'In such a short time, he couldn't have left alone... which means I'm no longer in the original section of corridor?'

Lin Ye took a piece of miscellaneous junk from his backpack and threw it on the ground. Then he walked towards that pitch-black turning corner. When he reached the lighted area, Lin Ye left another piece of junk and retreated back. The junk he left earlier was now gone.

'Is the problem with the corner, or with the dark sections?'

Lin Ye tried over a dozen more times in different places. By placing junk, he roughly figured out the situation of the passageway, obtaining the following information:

1. After passing through a dark section, he would move to a discontinuous lighted section.
2. Turning back within a dark section would still move him to a discontinuous lighted section.
3. It was temporarily uncertain whether the above two movement methods led to the same lighted section.
4. After passing through a dark section, entering from the other side of the dark section would move him to another discontinuous lighted section.
5. On either side of a dark section, one could not hear voices from the opposite side, but could hear those footsteps.
6. This movement was unrelated to corners.

'That explains the previous situation. We passed through a circular, discontinuous route, which is why we returned to a place we'd passed before.'

Lin Ye carefully reviewed the previous movement trajectory. The entire passageway was a very complex, discontinuous maze. To find the exit, one had to walk every possible path, because this type of maze had nothing to do with geometry;

a normal route map couldn't be drawn.

'Don't jump to conclusions. Think again if there are any patterns or shortcuts...'

Lin Ye thought carefully for a while longer and discovered that only after passing through and recording many routes would it be possible to find a pattern among them.

'However, this place might also have no pattern at all, just being a complex, discontinuous maze. That would be very troublesome.'

If that were the case, then Lin Ye would have to use the exhaustive method, walking every single route.

Here, every short stretch of path had a pitch-black section, and each pitch-black section offered two directions to choose from... This would generate a vast number of routes.

"Can only hope there's a pattern here."

Lin Ye took a metal table leg from his backpack and used its sharp end to scratch the number '1' on the wall.

'This is Passage Number One. As long as I mark each section of passage with a number, perhaps I can find the pattern of the passages from this discontinuous arrangement.'

Lin Ye began repeatedly moving back and forth within one dark passage. After 42 round trips, he returned to Passage Number 7.

'First loop. Passage 7 excluded.'

Lin Ye switched to another dark passage and began the back-and-forth movement again.

After 62 round trips, he returned to Passage Number 9.

'Second loop. Passage 9 excluded.'

'7, 9... Could the pattern be related to odd numbers? Not clear yet.'

Lin Ye switched to another dark passage and was just about to start the back-and-forth movement when he heard footsteps.

'Troublesome.'

Lin Ye could only turn his back to the footsteps and move at a constant speed in one direction.

The footsteps gradually drew closer. Lin Ye could only increase his speed, matching his pace to the footsteps' initial speed.

But now the problem was, he couldn't carve marks, nor could he turn back.

Because doing so would definitely cause him to slow down. And to avoid being caught by the footsteps, he would have to accelerate to create distance. This would cause the footsteps to accelerate, leading to a vicious cycle. Sooner or later, Lin Ye would be overtaken by the footsteps.

'This can't go on. When I finish this loop, I must turn back and enter another loop. Otherwise, just walking forever is meaningless. But turning back means slowing down, and I might even run into the footsteps...'

'Actually, maybe not necessarily. If I turn back and enter the next loop immediately after exiting a dark section, that might change my speed. But as long as the change isn't too great, I could buy a lot of time.'

'The current problem is how to carve route numbers on the wall. I need numbers to determine if a loop has ended and to exclude the corresponding numbered sections. Relying on memory alone makes it very difficult to distinguish these nearly identical sections...'