The chaos below was getting worse. Screaming. Blaming. Cursing. Trust — what little existed — had evaporated completely.
Only two walkers were making real progress. Linray. And Dex.
Dex's partner — the timid Tam — wasn't exactly inspiring. But the kid himself was something else. Brave and careful in equal measure, picking his way through dangers on instinct alone. He was only a few dozen steps behind Linray.
*Huh. Not bad, earring boy.*
Behind them, the noise got worse:
"Why can't YOU direct like that?! He hasn't made a single mistake!"
"Just go! Move!"
"Stop bitching — if we fail, we BOTH lose. I'm not leading you wrong on purpose!"
"Next round, I'm teaming with that guy. Should've picked him from the start!"
"If you want to pass this level, shut up and trust me completely!"
Linray tuned it out. Focused on Harlan's voice above the noise and kept moving.
"The traps are getting denser. Stay sharp."
Harlan's calls came faster — directions changing every few steps now. Left, right, stop, three more, duck —
Something bit his cheek.
A blade. Thin, fast, mounted at face height. He felt the sting before he registered what happened. Blood ran down his jaw.
He didn't flinch. Didn't reach up to touch it. Any unnecessary movement in here could put him into something worse.
The cut sealed itself within seconds. Something he'd absorbed from SCP-015. Minor wounds just closed on their own now.
"Linray — are you okay?!" Harlan's voice cracked with worry from above. He'd seen the blood.
"I'm fine. Keep calling."
Linray paused in a small clearing, wiped the blood off his face with the back of his hand, and waited for the next instruction.
---
"The next stretch — you need to crawl. Flat on the ground."
Harlan's voice had gone tense. Controlled, but tense.
"I can't estimate the crawling distance visually. There are red lines across the path — some kind of light. You need to find something to test what they are before you commit."
"And after the crawl section, you'll need to jump at least one meter to clear the next line."
"This is the last hard section. Get past this, and the rest of the route is manageable."
Linray took a breath. His expression shifted.
*Red lines. Cutting lasers. Has to be.*
He turned around, found a blade mechanism on the wall behind him, and drove his elbow into it.
*Crack.*
The blade snapped free and clattered to the ground.
Harlan's eyes went wide. *Did he just rip that off with his bare arm?*
Linray crouched, felt for the broken blade on the ground, and threw it at the nearest red line.
*Bzzzt.*
The blade hit the light and split clean in half. The edges glowed white-hot where the beam had touched.
*Yeah. Those will kill you.*
Harlan's face went pale. "I'm finding you another route! This is insane — this is a murder maze, not a game —"
"No." Linray was already getting down. "I don't want to waste time. I trust your directions."
"Get me through this."
He dropped flat and started crawling into the laser grid before Harlan could argue.
---
Harlan had no choice. Linray had committed. All he could do was watch the beams, watch Linray's body, and call.
"Keep crawling. Don't stop until I say stop!"
He couldn't count steps — not from this angle, not with Linray flat on the ground. He guided by sight alone, watching the gap between Linray's back and the nearest beam shrink and expand with every movement.
"STOP. Stand up — but DON'T stand up straight. You need to curl. The gap between the beam behind you and the beam in front is too short. If you raise your head, you'll hit the one ahead."
Linray tried. Pushed up from the ground, tried to unfold his body while staying compressed — like a car with no clearance trying to get over a speed bump.
"Can't do it." His voice was flat. Not panicked — just stating fact. "I'm not flexible enough. Every position either puts my face into the beam or my back."
Harlan's jaw clenched. He could see it now — the gap between the two beams was maybe a meter and a half. Someone under 150 centimeters could stand up fine. But Linray was 180. The math didn't work.
No time to retreat. No time to reroute. Less than ten minutes on the clock.
Then Linray turned sideways.
He planted one hand against the wall and *launched* himself upward — using the wall as leverage, pressing his body flat against it, feet pushing off the ground in one explosive movement. His torso slid up between the two beams like a card through a slot.
Harlan's jaw dropped. *WHAT?!*
Linray stood in the narrow gap between the lasers. Sideways. Pressed against the wall. Breathing shallow.
"Can I jump forward from here?"
"Yes! One meter height clearance!"
One meter. Easy for a normal person. For Linray —
He jumped. At least two meters of air. His heel clipped the beam behind him — the shoe sizzled, the upper burned clean through, exposing bare skin.
He landed on the other side. Kicked off the ruined shoe, then the other one. Barefoot.
*Whatever. Shoes are replaceable.*
"Straight — ten steps! Turn right — five steps! Sideways against the left wall to clear the last obstacle!"
"Then ten steps to the finish!"
Harlan was shouting now, voice cracking, half excitement half disbelief. Linray's performance had blown past every expectation.
Linray ran. Blind. Barefoot. Bleeding.
One minute later — the finish line.
---
"First team has cleared the course. You may remove your blindfold."
Linray pulled the cloth off. Light flooded back. He blinked, looked around.
Behind him, the maze was still full of people. Stumbling. Screaming. Stuck.
"He passed?!"
"Already?! How?!"
"Hey — where are WE? How much further?!"
"Can you guides MOVE FASTER?!"
Linray wiped the last of the blood off his cheek and said nothing.
*Four more games to go.*