"I remember seeing a foolproof method for getting out of mazes before..."
Holding Anna's hand, Sora carefully explored forward while earnestly recalling the method.
"I remember now."
"For most mazes, there's a method similar to cheating. It involves keeping one hand pressed against the wall on one side—it doesn't matter if it's the left or right hand. The important thing is that you cannot switch hands halfway through. As long as you keep walking, you will definitely be able to find the exit eventually."
Although Sora hadn't verified the authenticity of this rule, he figured it shouldn't be wrong. So, he simply reached out his left hand and pressed it against the mirrored wall.
"What is Sora doing?"
Anna tilted her head curiously.
"Using a cheat code for a speedrun."
"Meow?"
"Don't talk, be careful not to bump your head again."
"..."
With his left hand lightly pressing against the wall, Sora began to move forward along the direction of the wall.
A minute passed in the blink of an eye.
Although they hadn't found the exit yet, at least Anna hadn't bumped into any more walls, which was cause for celebration.
"Sora, look!" Anna hurriedly pointed forward, her voice full of pleasant surprise. "There's a treasure chest over there!"
"Let's go take a look."
Holding Anna's hand, Sora walked up to the treasure chest. Next to it was an A4 piece of paper with a conspicuous sentence written on it:
"Dear customers, please complete the fun mini-puzzle first before you can take the treasure card inside."
"I see." Sora understood. "No wonder we haven't seen a single trace of a card along the way."
It was a mirror maze, after all. If the cards were casually placed in corners, they would definitely have been found long ago.
Sora pressed the red button on the treasure chest, and the LCD screen instantly lit up.
"Eh, what is this?" Anna leaned in curiously, resting her chin on Sora's shoulder. The girl's breath was gentle and sweet. "Why does it look like twisting and turning water pipes?"
"It is water pipes." Sora's gaze swept across the screen, taking in all the information. "Clear water is flowing from the faucet on the left, and there's a withered flowerpot on the right. It seems we need to arrange the pipes to guide the water flow to irrigate the flowerpot..."
Sora had played similar mini-games before, so he wasn't unfamiliar with it. Various permutations and combinations rapidly formed in his mind. Just seconds later, his fingers began to manipulate the screen rapidly.
The water flow quickly traveled unimpeded all the way to the far right of the screen, irrigating the withered flowerpot. As the flowers bloomed, the treasure chest opened with a click.
"So amazing." Anna widened her beautiful eyes and gasped softly. "I didn't even see clearly, and Sora actually finished it. Sora really is a genius."
It had to be said, although Anna was a super glutton, she could also provide max-level emotional value to others.
"Having played similar mini-games, it's naturally very simple when you have experience." Sora took the treasure card out of the treasure chest. "Let's go."
"Let's go, let's go." Anna's eyes sparkled brightly. "Snack gift bag, secured!"
The two continued forward, touching the mirrored walls.
Before long, another treasure chest appeared before them.
"You can do it, Sora!" Anna clenched her pink fists, cheering him on from the sidelines. "As long as we open the treasure chest, we can get two snack gift bags!"
Under Anna's expectant gaze, Sora stepped forward to challenge the puzzle chest. The mini-game had a bit of difficulty, but truly not much. Before long, he obtained another treasure card.
A moment later.
The two arrived at a corner. Sora quickly felt that the mirrored wall was somewhat hollow. With a gentle push, the wall quietly opened, revealing the shopping mall outside. It was clearly the exit.
"We can go out now."
Sora exhaled softly. Holding Anna's hand, he walked out of the mirror maze and quickly found the female staff member from before.
"Congratulations to both of you." The female staff member held up the timer, her face full of smiles. "The two of you took a total of nine minutes and forty-five seconds to challenge the maze, which earns you the first prize."
"...Meow?"
The smile on Anna's face quietly froze.
It was actually the first prize?
So that means... her snack gift bag is gone?
The staff member quickly brought over the first prize and smiled:
"This is the voucher for a 'Two Days, One Night Hot Spring Inn' stay. I wish you both a pleasant trip."
"Thank you."
Sora politely expressed his thanks and reached out to take the hot spring vouchers.
Because they obtained two puzzle cards, there were two hot spring inn vouchers in total—exactly one for each of them.
"Umm..."
Anna snapped back to reality. She raised her right hand and looked at the staff member pitifully:
"Can I go buy something and then come back to challenge it again?"
"Eh?"
"I still want the other rewards."
"I'm sorry, repeatedly farming rewards is..."
"Your sign doesn't say repeated challenges aren't allowed, so it definitely should be fine, right?"
"..."
The smile on the staff member's face quietly froze, and she cast a pleading look at Sora.
"Sorry, she prefers the snack gift bag over the hot spring voucher..."
Sora explained the reason in a low voice.
"Please wait a moment, you two."
The female staff member bowed and hurried away. She quietly reported the situation to a manager wearing a suit. Then, before long, the female staff member returned carrying two bags of snack gift bags.
"I am incredibly sorry. There are many customers who want to play in the mirror maze. If you two want to play, please come back tomorrow." The female staff member handed over the snack gift bags, apologizing profusely. "I didn't explain things clearly before, causing a misunderstanding for you both. Please accept these snacks as compensation."
There was no helping it. The young man and woman in front of her were clearly formidable maze experts. To prevent them from exploiting a bug to repeatedly farm rewards, she could only send them away.
"We can really just take these?"
Looking at the snack gift bags, Anna's eyes instantly sparkled, her pretty face full of pleasant surprise.
"Please, absolutely accept them."
The staff member's tone was sincere.
"Then thank you very much." Anna happily took the large gift bags. "We'll come play again tomorrow."
Staff member: "..."
"Sorry for causing you trouble."
Sora took the other snack gift bag and left with Anna.
Watching the two leave, the female staff member quietly breathed a sigh of relief. She hurriedly picked up a marker and added a rule to the bottom of the notice board:
"To ensure fairness, customers may only challenge the mirror maze once per day..."
Meanwhile.
Outside the shopping mall.
"Ehehe~"
Hugging the snack gift bag with both hands, the bright smile on Anna's face completely refused to stop.
"Not only did we get the two-day, one-night hot spring vouchers, but we actually got free snack gift bags too. Today really is my lucky day, isn't it?"
It's your lucky day, but it's an unlucky day for the staff! To prevent you from farming rewards, they even urgently modified the challenge rules!
"We got the snack gift bags, and we bought our things." Sora headed homeward. "Let's hurry up and go home."
"Wait a minute, we still have the hot spring vouchers." Anna looked up, her pretty face full of anticipation. "I haven't been to a hot spring in a long time. I want to go to the hot spring together!"