Chapter 272
The damage from the Knowledge Maze was akin to a soul wound, disregarding all of Ye Bai's resistances and damage reduction effects, directly deducting a percentage of her current health. At that moment, the "Life Tribute" effect from the life branches on her body was rendered useless.
Ye Bai shuddered, staring in shock at the question that had appeared: "Loralin." In her view, this term from the Deep Sea Language was undoubtedly a thief with system translation.
"What’s wrong?" The paper figure noticed Ye Bai's reaction and immediately asked.
"I made the wrong choice."
Ye Bai furrowed her brows, her gaze fixed on the question on the wall.
Could it be that during the Q&A segment, the Knowledge Maze interfered with the system information?
As soon as this thought crossed her mind, Ye Bai quickly dismissed it. The Knowledge Maze, as a legendary magic of the Spirit Clan, pursued truth; it was impossible for the spirits to fabricate knowledge. Moreover, from a game mechanics perspective, this was also true.
The maze could be filled with misdirection and interference, but the Q&A section, as the most fundamental path to survival, could not be completely blocked. Otherwise, the Knowledge Maze would be the most unsolvable legendary magic.
The paper figure looked puzzled. "Could it be that since 'Loralin' belongs to the Deep Sea Language, which is an extraordinary script, the answers must also correspond to the same extraordinary script?"
"That seems to be the only possibility." Ye Bai sighed, blaming herself for not being detail-oriented enough. The health she had just lost felt a bit unjust.
Then, she placed her hand on another answer that seemed reliable: "Nilo."
However, the answer once again ominously flickered.
【Error】
‘-10556’
With this error feedback, half of Ye Bai's health vanished in an instant.
"…"
It was still wrong!
The atmosphere grew tense. Not only were Ye Bai and the paper figure on high alert, but even Ottofis beside them turned serious, staring at the wall.
After a moment, the paper figure spoke up, "If neither of the two answers you chose was wrong, and the question itself isn’t wrong…"
"Then there’s an issue with the rules of this Q&A." Ye Bai interjected.
The Q&A of the Knowledge Maze must adhere to rules; that was a bottom line. If it wasn’t correct, then it was ‘wrong.’
"Two consecutive errors, three correct answers, and one wrong answer…" She leveled up, slowly exhaling. "If the question isn’t wrong and the answers aren’t wrong, then the most likely scenario is that the logic of the answers is flawed; the question and the answers should be reversed."
"This isn’t a multiple-choice question; it’s a single-choice question."
As she spoke, Ye Bai's gaze shifted to the last answer, corresponding to the term "Duofei," which meant "robber" in the Spirit Language.
However, if she chose wrong this time, the consequences would be dire.
With four answers in total, the Knowledge Maze didn’t allow those trapped here to experiment their way through. The first wrong choice had deducted a quarter of Ye Bai's health, the second had doubled that to half, and following this pattern, the third would likely deduct a full hundred percent.
Even though Ye Bai had just leveled up, the rule of percentage-based health deduction remained unchanged; a hundred percent was still a hundred percent, regardless of her level.
Ye Bai was not one to hesitate. After steadying herself, she reached for the only answer she suspected might be wrong.
If this hypothesis turned out to be incorrect, she could only gamble on whether her talent, "Desperate Survival," could withstand the punishment for this mistake.
However, just as her hand was about to touch the stone wall, a donkey's hoof beat her to it.
"Ottofis!"
…
"My lord… cough…"
In front of the Q&A stone wall, a paladin of light groaned, having touched two answers in succession, he felt a tremendous internal damage.
"Kro, you go up…" Kodos said, but as soon as he spoke, another hoarse voice interrupted.
"Continue touching the fourth answer."
The paladin hesitated, looking at Kodos with a pleading expression.
Kodos's face grew grave; he wanted to say something but ultimately remained silent.
So, the paladin took a deep breath and could only obey, reaching for the fourth answer on the wall.
"Thud!"
In the next moment, accompanied by a dull thud, the paladin of light suddenly collapsed to the ground.
"Aiven!"
His comrades rushed forward to check, only to be horrified to find that their companion had completely lost his life force.
Kodos's expression was now as grim as it could be. He glanced at the wooden box behind him, where the hoarse voice continued to mutter without concern:
"Each person has only three chances for errors on each question; all answers are not the correct choice… Should the answer be the wrong one? Given the current state of the spirits, that seems quite possible."
At this point, the hoarse voice called out, "Kodos."
Kodos trembled, his scalp prickling, and could only respond, "Yes!"
"Collect the body, and send another person up to choose the second answer."
Kodos looked at the knights nearby, hesitated for a moment, feeling the primal fear emanating from the wooden box, and finally numbly replied, "Yes…"
…
"Ottofis!"
"Boom!"
As Ye Bai's tense voice rang out, the answer she selected no longer flickered like before; instead, the entire wall began to shake, and in an instant, it collapsed completely.
Behind the crumbling wall was a haze of grayish-white mist.
In the next moment, the fallen bluestone automatically formed a new path within the mist, leading to yet another Q&A wall.
"It really is about choosing the wrong answer."
Ye Bai, still shaken, gave Ottofis a hard ruffle on the head, finally letting out a sigh of relief.
"So this place shouldn’t be called the Knowledge Maze; it should be called the Maze of Errors."
---
**Chapter 187**
As the city wall collapsed, the bricks transformed into a new path leading to the next wall.
Surrounding them was a haze of grayish-white mist, faintly revealing the chaotic silhouettes of the buildings from before.
Ye Bai exhaled, naturally not wasting time exploring the surrounding mist. Instead, she stepped onto the path and approached the wall.
Soon, a new question appeared:
【Which of the following belong to the 'Xulor Teng' subspecies?】
【Thorn Horn】, 【Feilian Teng】, 【Mokela Leaf】, 【Shalun Grass】, 【Bai Xianghua】, 【Rock Flower】
The previous question was about tribal languages, and now it had shifted to an extraordinary plant encyclopedia. The difficulty had increased, the number of answer options had grown, and the questions had become more intricate. If it weren’t for Ye Bai’s heightened mental acuity and her clear memories, she might not have been able to recall such specific categories.
However, for this type of question, even if Ye Bai couldn’t remember, she had a well-read paper figure as her personal hotline.
"The wrong answers should be the second and sixth ones," the paper figure stated.
Ye Bai nodded; the incorrect answers for this question were also multiple-choice.
Under different questions, the penalty mechanism would refresh. If she chose incorrectly on the first attempt for the new question, it would only deduct a quarter of her health.
Ye Bai placed her hand on the answer "Feilian Teng."
The answer flickered slightly, but this time, there was no health deduction or error. At the same time, the wall did not collapse, indicating that her first answer for this multiple-choice question was correct.
In the Knowledge Maze, only errors would trigger immediate penalties; correctness would not.
Similarly, for multiple-choice questions, players were not required to select all correct answers simultaneously.
First, because the wall was large, and the question text and answers were also substantial. If a player wanted to answer all at once without multiple people, they would need to cling to the wall like an octopus to succeed.
Moreover, once this limitation was in place, the timing of answering could be manipulated. As long as all options weren’t selected at precisely the same moment, wouldn’t that count as an error?
This would be utterly unreasonable. The normal methods of the Knowledge Maze were already difficult to break through; if this only path to survival could also be blocked, it wouldn’t be a legendary magic but rather a mythic one.
Table of Contents
