Two Pages of a Diary

"What?!"

The Fat Merchant's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. "I'm helping you find things, and I have to pay out of my own pocket?"

Not only the Fat Merchant, but even his own men behind him stared at Luo Jun in disbelief.

Are you out of your mind to haggle like that?

However, Luo Jun shrugged, looking completely matter-of-fact. "Otherwise what?"

"If it weren't for the fact that you're a regular customer, I would have closed the window and left right now!" Even the Fat Merchant's usually amiable face couldn't help but twitch a few times.

"Then tell me, how much would be appropriate?" Luo Jun handed the initiative over to the other party.

Finally, after some back and forth, they settled on a price of 2,500 yuan per piece, but a deposit of 10,000 yuan had to be left, with any overpayment refunded and any underpayment collected.

After paying and leaving the Endless Shop, everyone else looked at Luo Jun with admiration.

"Junior, when I heard you asking the businessman for money, my brain nearly shrunk..." Sun Xiaowei patted her chest and said, "I was afraid you'd mess up the deal..."

"I never expected to manage to get the price down to a quarter..." Ma Qiao exclaimed admiringly, "Is this the power of language? I've learned something new!"

"I advise you not to blindly imitate this. The same set of words can have completely different effects on different people." Luo Jun immediately nipped Ma Qiao's idea in the bud. At this moment, a notification sound rang in his mind.

"Ding, Event Success. Base experience 100 points, Severity Coefficient seven times, final experience gained 700 points."

Just because I cut the price, it's considered a seven-fold Severity Coefficient?

It seems there is indeed crucial information in this missing diary.

Luo Jun opened his dice panel. He had one dice roll left, with no idea how much time had passed outside or when the roll would reset. Looking at his Experience Points, he was still a little over 500 points away from leveling up.

If you want more dice rolls, you either need to use chips, or you need to use your last dice roll to gain more than 500 experience points.

However, achieving this shouldn't be too difficult.

Luo Jun sensed the flow of vital energy within his body and nodded secretly.

After leaving the shop, the group returned to their Origin to rest before beginning the next round of exploration.

The setup remained the same: Luo Jun opened the map, Li Ying recorded the video, and the others followed in formation. They rushed forward until the map timer expired, then began to explore back using the video footage.

Luo Jun was right. This time, they didn't see a single shop along the entire route, but the number of treasure chests and relics was greater than before.

However, Luo Jun was not flustered. He had enough supplies to keep everyone going. The group headed back and began clearing various special locations. When they returned to their Origin, in addition to a large amount of Silver Ingot and copper coins, they also found ten supplies in a treasure chest.

After these few times, they also discovered that the items that came out of the treasure chests were generally worth several thousand coins, with some fluctuation. Most of the time, they would give Silver Ingot and copper coins directly, and occasionally they would give other things, including props and supplies.

After returning to the Origin, they tried to contact Ling Jian, who was exploring alone, so that he could return to the Origin and rejoin the group if needed. They received a reply that he was fine and there was no need to worry, and that they were now far from the Origin, making a return difficult.

"This kid's got some skills," Ma Qiao praised. "His surname is Ling, could he be from the Ling Family?"

"He didn't mention it himself..." Mao Xintong said, "In my experience, the Ling Family family members are very proud of their Lineage, and they will always mention it when introducing themselves during missions."

"As far as I can remember, I've never heard of this person among the younger generation of the Ling Family." Old Yuan also shook his head. He had extensive connections in the cultivation circle and also had some dealings with the Ling Family.

"Since he says he has a way, let's not interfere with his freedom." Luo Jun shrugged. "Let's go. We have a map; hopefully we can find a shop this time!"

The group set off again, choosing a direction no one had ever set foot in before, and began to run wildly.

As they moved forward, everyone stared at the map projected in front of Luo Jun, hoping to see the icon representing the store appear.

However, the map refreshed rapidly, with icons representing monsters, traps, and even treasure chests constantly appearing, but no shop appeared.

As time passed, the group grew increasingly anxious. If they failed to find a shop this time, their survival cycle would be broken, and they would have to rely on luck to find one again.

"Hey Little Luo, did you offend someone by haggling too hard?" Ma Qiao complained as he pedaled his bicycle. "Now look what happened, they took the money and ran off with it. Not only did I lose ten thousand yuan, but I can't even find the store anymore."

Luo Jun frowned; he had also considered this possibility. But his intuition told him that the Endless Shop wouldn't be so dishonest.

After all, the merchant was quite enthusiastic when it came to bargaining; if he really intended to rip me off and leave, he wouldn't have wasted so much time talking to me.

However, Luo Jun had already made plans in his mind. If a shop hadn't appeared by the time there were fifteen minutes left, he would try to break away from the group and move forward at full speed to increase the search area.

As for how to explain it, we'll talk about that later. After all, in this Endless Maze, if you can't find a shop, survival itself becomes a problem.

As they continued forward, the remaining time on the map dwindled. Luo Jun, leading the charge, swallowed hard, glanced at Li Ying beside him, and made his decision...

Just then, Sun Xiaowei exclaimed from behind, "She's here!"

Luo Jun looked up and saw that a store icon had indeed appeared on the map!

Finally, it's here... Luo Jun breathed a sigh of relief, abandoning the idea of using the backup plan. Then, he keenly noticed that Li Ying beside him also breathed a sigh of relief...

Was he also looking forward to the store opening?

This reaction surprised Luo Jun, but it wasn't convenient to ask him for details right now. The group maintained their speed and continued rushing down until they reached the end of the map.

"Huff... huff... huff..."

Running at speeds exceeding 100 miles per hour for an hour, even with the aid of vehicles, left Ma Qiao and Mao Xintong exhausted. They collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily, their internal energy unstable. Sun Xiaowei, though riding an electric scooter, had the weakest foundation and had to concentrate fully to turn and avoid obstacles, leaving her also quite fatigued. As for Zhuge Zi, she relied on teleportation for most of the journey. While this reduced her physical exertion, it was draining her vital energy. Even with a consumable item that reduced energy consumption, she had taken medicine several times along the way. She was only able to keep going thanks to her own high-quality energy-storing item; otherwise, she wouldn't have made it.

Compared to these people, Luo Jun and Old Yuan seemed much calmer. Their foundations were so solid that they were among the top Cultivators, so running all this way was naturally no problem for them. As for Li Ying, he had been following Luo Jun all this time without relying on any external force, and he was able to maintain his speed and keep up, which meant he was indeed quite capable.

After resting and recovering, the group began their search again. After more than two days of exploration, having searched every possible special location, they arrived at the only shop. They knocked on the window, Fat Merchant appeared, beaming with joy upon seeing Luo Jun: "Oh, young brother, you've finally arrived..."

"I've been looking everywhere for you," Luo Jun sighed. "I thought you were deliberately avoiding me."

"How could that be?" The Fat Merchant rubbed his hands together. "You're a regular customer; I've been waiting for this day for ages!"

"How's the matter I asked you to do going?" Luo Jun got straight to the point.

The Fat Merchant chuckled and pulled out two sheets of paper, "I found two pages for you."

"Ha!" Luo Jun's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he reached out to take it. The crowd behind him couldn't wait to crowd around.

"You still have five thousand left with me. Do you want it returned to you?" the merchant asked.

"No rush, let's finish reading first!" Luo Jun picked up the first page and began to read.

"Ling Yue is dead, and I was seriously injured. Although I managed to escape, my body can't hold on any longer. The food from the Black Shop really can't be eaten, no matter how hungry I am."

"It seems my life is about to end..."

The error-free version can be read at 69 Book Bar! 6=9+shuba is the first site to publish this novel.

"I never imagined I'd still not be able to get out. This maze wasn't as simple as we thought; there were too many hidden things. It's a pity we found out too late."

"When I failed the Tier S Mission last month and fell back to tier A, I joked that I could relax for a while. Little did I expect that I would lose my life on my very first mission."

"But I can't have sacrificed myself in vain. My Hundred Treasure Box should remain in the labyrinth as a keepsake. It contains my diary, recording my experiences in the labyrinth these past few days."

"These experiences should serve as a warning to future generations. To ensure the diary is obtained, I cleared all the Noble Phantasms, leaving only this diary. Then I wrote on my clothes, 'Please use my relics to summon Noble Phantasms; the key to breaking the deadlock lies within.' This way, future generations won't waste my relics exchanging them for resources or anything like that..."

"I hope my diary will be helpful to future generations. If someone can escape this labyrinth by relying on my diary, I can die in peace..."

After reading the diary, everyone couldn't help but sigh.

Clearly, this is the last page of Zhuge Gan's diary, and also his final thoughts on his deathbed.

"Senior Zhuge said he wrote something on his clothes, Xiao Zi, did you see it?" Mao Xintong asked.

Zhuge Zi shook her head. "When I saw my grandfather's remains, his clothes were basically rotten and the writing was illegible. I only recognized them by the style of the Hundred Treasure Box."

"Little Gan's painstaking efforts almost succumbed to time," sighed Old Yuan. "If it hadn't been for his granddaughter finding it by chance, this keepsake would probably have been wasted on supplies or something similar."

"But this last page doesn't have any substantial content," Ma Qiao complained.

"There's still some crucial information," Luo Jun shook his head. "First of all, we can't eat anything from the Black Shop. Although it doesn't say what the consequences will be, we absolutely must avoid it in the future."

"Then, the path we previously guessed—that we could leave by collecting the ultimate items from the Black and White Shops —is probably not going to work."

Hearing this, Sun Xiaowei asked, puzzled, "Why?"

"Because Grandpa mentioned that he found out too late..." Zhuge Zi explained, "In the earlier pages of his diary, Grandpa saw the catalog of the Black and White Shops a long time ago and figured out how to leave the maze. But this last page says it's not that simple, which means the method he guessed before probably won't work..."

"How could this be?!" Ma Qiao and Sun Xiaowei exclaimed in disappointment.

"But at least, the Senior believed his diary could help future generations leave," Mao Xintong encouraged. "Even if the previous path didn't work, he must have discovered other methods. Let's look at another page."

Luo Jun nodded and picked up another page to read.

"Finally, I found a store today."

"We exchanged for ten portions of food. We haven't eaten for almost two days, and it's not a good feeling to be holding a pile of silver coins while starving."

"We have a total of over 30,000 yuan, which is still a long way from exchanging for the final Exit Indicator. But we can't keep wandering around like headless flies. After discussing it, we spent 5,000 yuan to exchange for a Personal Map. If we still can't find the store, we can use the Personal Map to search for it. It should improve our efficiency a lot."

"Shortly after leaving the shop, we encountered another Chaos Monster."

"Damn it, it's this kind of troublesome thing again. Physical attacks are almost ineffective against these monsters, and they have very high resistance to all kinds of things. Even Chen Jin's flames are hard to kill. We wanted to go around them, but the commotion that A Liang made was noticed by that guy, and he actually followed us. These monsters don't have a fixed form. This one transformed into a leopard and was very fast. We couldn't shake it off. In the end, we had to use illusion magic to trick it away and escape the entanglement."

This page is clearly one of the earlier pages in the lost diary. The diary mentions A Liang and Chen Jin. Combined with what was mentioned before, that Ling Yue was the Last One to die before Zhuge Gan, it can be seen that all four of them are still alive.

"Another page with no substance..." Ma Qiao grumbled. "Does this look like it's a follow-up to the next page in the diary?"

"No!" Luo Jun shook his head. "There must have been another page before this one, and the content was very strange."

"What's strange about it?" the others asked, puzzled.

"Why go around it?" Luo Jun frowned. "Chaos Monster clearly drop Gold Ingot, and Senior Zhuge has killed them before. Normally, we should be eager to encounter monsters, exchange them for gold ingots, and then use them to buy supplies at the Black Shop. Why would we choose to go around them?"

After he said that, everyone realized, "That's right, are they injured? Unable to fight?"

"The diary clearly states why they didn't want to fight this monster. If there was a reason for their injury, they would definitely have mentioned it," Zhuge Zi said, shaking her head. "They avoided the monster and didn't even mention the Gold Ingot. There must be another reason."

Luo Jun nodded in agreement and analyzed, "If I'm not mistaken, something must have happened before this that made them no longer need Gold Ingot..."

(End of this chapter)