Chen Mang settled back into his chair, eyes narrowing as he refined the crude sketch of the maze that had just taken shape in his mind.
After about half an hour, he held the sheet up to examine it with some satisfaction.
“Mm.”
Not bad.
With this level of difficulty, no one should be able to get from the start to the finish in less than five or six minutes.
Just then—
A knock on the door.
"Come in."
Lao Zhu entered, leading a young man who looked to be in his mid-twenties.
“Boss Mang, this slave says he was a game designer before the apocalypse—and a maze enthusiast. He’s very good at creating complex mazes.”“Oh?”
Chen Mang gave the young man a slow once-over before handing him the maze he had just drawn.
“Try this. Can you solve it in under a minute?”
“I… I’ll try.”
The young man took the pen and paper nervously, immediately bending over the table to trace the paths.
Chen Mang, on the other hand, was in no rush.
He leisurely lit a cigarette, leaned back in his chair, and exhaled a long plume of smoke.
“Don’t feel pressured,” he said casually. “I’m just testing your skills. In a bit—”
“Done.”
Before he could finish, the young man straightened, pushing the paper back across the table. The correct path was already marked out in a single, clean line.
"..."
Chen Mang looked down at the solved maze on the paper, then at the cigarette he had just lit.
His gaze lifted to the young man, expression unreadable.
Silence stretched for a long moment.
Inside, though, he felt an almost comical sense of defeat.
He had spent half an hour painstakingly drawing this maze, convinced it was airtight.
And this kid had solved it in the time it took him to light a cigarette?
Are you kidding me?
Keeping his face impassive, he finally spoke.
“How would you rate the difficulty of this maze?”
"Ahem."
The moment Chen Mang finished speaking, Lao Zhu, who was standing nearby, casually coughed into his fist.
Cough, cough, cough
“What the hell are you coughing for?!"
Chen Mang shot Lao Zhu an irritated look. "I want an honest opinion, not some ass-kissing bullshit. Don't give me your damn hints when I don't need them."
"And next time you feel the need to hint, can you try something less cliché?"
"You think I'm deaf?!"
Lao Zhu's eyes darted around awkwardly, unable to meet Boss Mang's gaze.
"Alright," Chen Mang said, turning back to the young man. "Tell me how you did it. I designed plenty of complex forks in that maze."
"Um..."
The young man took a deep breath, mustering his courage. "It's a relatively simple topological structure. A rectangular maze like this might look winding and complicated, but its essence is just a straight line."
"The start and finish are just the two ends of that line."
"The forks are just branches off the main path."
"So..."
The young man pulled a sharp stone from his pocket. He carefully traced the maze's paths, carving them out until he could lift the entire structure from the paper.
Then, holding the paper maze by its two ends, he gave it a gentle pull.
The once-complex labyrinth instantly straightened into a single line, with all the forks branching off it like limbs from a tree trunk.
"You just have to stretch the maze out, and you'll find the correct path."
"You didn't do that just now," Chen Mang said.
"I have good spatial awareness. I ran a quick simulation in my head. This is just to make it easier to understand."
"..."
Chen Mang was silent for a long time, his face unreadable. Finally, he spoke. "As a slave, you're carrying a sharp stone like this?"
"Huh?"
The young man froze, his face draining of all color. He realized that in his focus, he had revealed too much. His voice trembled. "I... I don't want to be robbed anymore."
"There's a slave who takes one unit of my iron ore every day and turns it in as his own. He's Tier 1, so I don't dare say anything."
"I don't want to be robbed anymore. The amount of ore I mine determines how quickly I get promoted. I want to reach Tier 2 as fast as possible."
"So I kept this. If he tries to rob me again, I'll take him down with me."
Chen Mang's brow furrowed. He turned to Lao Zhu.
Lao Zhu, standing nearby, was cursing inwardly. Can't you talk to me about this crap in private? What are you trying to pull, going straight to the boss? You little bastard!
Did you pull that out by accident, or was it on purpose?
You look so young, but you're already scheming!
Though he was fuming, his face showed only unease and alarm. He quickly bowed.
"Boss Mang, this is my oversight. I'll deal with it immediately."
"Mm."
Chen Mang nodded casually. "Just give him a beating. No need to waste a slave. Oh, and in that drawer, you'll find the work rules I've drafted. Announce them before the morning shift tomorrow. From now on, we follow proper procedures."
After dealing with the small interruption, he leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, trying to stretch the maze into a straight line in his mind. A minute later, he opened his eyes, tossed a cigarette to the young man, and said, "I need you to design a maze complex enough to trap a robot."
"The robot has superhuman intelligence and the stamina of an adult male. If you were to design it, what would you do?"
"A static maze or a dynamic one?"
"Static."
The young man respectfully caught the cigarette. With no way to light it, he simply held it in his hand and thought for a few seconds.
"Normally, you'd use random algorithm software to generate irregular paths for maximum complexity, but we don't have that here."
"But we can approach it in six steps."
"First, divide the maze into different sections. Let's say ten sections, each a separate maze. The correct path would have to pass through each one in sequence."
"Second, each junction should have at least three possible directions, with dead ends making up 60 to 70 percent of the paths. Ideally, you want seven layers of nested false routes."
"Third, if it's a 3D structure, you need at least three levels of vertical connections."
"Fourth, use audio-visual deception—mirrors, speakers, light and shadow effects, misleading guide lights. About 15 percent of the maze should incorporate mirrored sections."
"Fifth, make the ten sections 40 percent repetitive in design. High repetition rates confuse memory as subjects test routes, making them doubt whether they've been down a path before. It creates what's commonly known as a 'ghost wall' effect."
"Sixth, create progressively scaled path ratios to produce distance illusions."
"With all that, the backtracking rate should exceed 30 percent of total steps, and the number of mandatory checkpoints will be..."
"That's enough."
Chen Mang cut him off. He stood up, personally lit the young man's cigarette, and clapped him on the shoulder. "You're a real talent. Very professional."
"Lao Zhu, from now on, this kid gets Tier 1 slave treatment on the Stellar."
"And find the slave who's been robbing him."
"Let this kid deal with him."
"What's your name?"
"I..."
He took the cigarette with a trembling hand. "B-Boss Mang, my name is Li Shiji."
"Good name."
Chen Mang let out a long breath. "The refrigerated cars on the train each have a hundred square meters of space. I want you to use a hundred of them to create a maze complex enough that the robot can't solve it in half an hour."
"Tell me what you need."
"You can have more cars if necessary, up to about 130. Go think it over tonight and report back to me first thing in the morning. We'll discuss the details then."
"If you do this well..."
"There will be a substantial reward."
"Thank you, Boss Mang! Thank you!"
A flash of excitement lit up Li Shiji's eyes as he bowed repeatedly in thanks.