[TS] Became a Peach Saint – Chapter 195

[Starting the second tutorial]

A message pops up, and the tutorial waiting room is instantly flipped around.

Ding!

───

[Second Tutorial]

Players will proceed to escape from the Beginner’s Maze.

Each player’s starting point is different, and the game ends when one player passes through the exit.

◇Condition 1: The game ends when even one player arrives.

◇Condition 2: Points are awarded based on progress if the time limit is reached.

Players who die will respawn at the starting point.

Remaining Time: 47 hours 59 minutes 50 seconds

───

It’s completely blocked on all sides. It’s literally a maze that could only exist in myths.

Looking at the cave, which seems to have been artificially carved out of solid rock, my mouth just hangs open.

The only saving grace is that there are lighting devices installed, so it’s not dark.

“Wow.”

“Wow!”

“Baekseol, are you amazed too?”

“Yes!”

Baekseol, who was on my shoulder, rubs her soft cheeks against me vigorously.

─Chik, chik.

“Phew─”

In the first chamber, there are multiple entrances carved out.

There are about twenty holes, packed together like an anthill.

“Over there!”

While I’m looking around, unsure of where to go, Baekseol waves her front paw.

“Should we go there?”

“Yes!”

I pat Baekseol’s head and start walking, when a suspicious message pops up.

《The Divine Beings are murmuring》

“What’s this? They were watching this time? Not here?”

《The one who holds the flame apologizes for not being able to speak about the trial》

“Phew─ No need to apologize.”

It’s the Beginner’s Maze, after all. And we’ve been given 48 hours. Just based on this information, it seems like there’s some depth to it.

Gathering the little information I have, I pass through the entrance Baekseol pointed out, and ten more entrances appear.

“Over there!”

“Ah, cute.”

“Great!”

Ariel had mentioned something about a great tower or whatever. I doubt she knew that Baekseol had a high-performance radar built into her.

“Over there!”

Thanks to Baekseol, there’s no time to rest.

“Over there!”

Following Baekseol’s directions, I finally stop for the first time. It’s a chamber blocked on all sides.

Grind, grind!

While I’m looking around, thinking there might be a hidden gimmick, I hear the sound of rocks colliding, and something pops out.

It casts a huge shadow, covering the bright lighting device.

『Adventurer』

“Who’s this?”

The booming voice comes from above. I look up and see a giant golem made of rock looking down at me.

『You must answer three out of five questions to pass through here』

“Does the Sphinx have kids or something?”

『First question』

It’s like a programmed robot, ignoring nonsense and just saying what it needs to.

『Everyone has this, and it can achieve anything. But this thing cannot achieve what it desires. What is it?』

“What kind of nonsense is this?”

『Wrong. The answer is a dream. I will ask the second question』

“No, you don’t have to.”

Tap.

As I stomp the ground, my body rises, and I instantly reach right in front of the golem’s nose.

“I’ll send you to dreamland forever, so go wash your feet and sleep.”

Splat.

〈Super Heavy Hit!〉

Kwaaang─!!

『Tw, tw, tw…two』

The golem’s body, with its head blown off, collapses, and a cloud of dust erupts.

“Ugh, damn.”

“The chocolate stone monkey is laughing hysterically because a crazy woman entered the tower.”

“The macho man cleaning cow dung raises his thumb.”

─Click, click.

“Phew─”

When the lit cigarette was about halfway gone, the dusty haze gradually settled, revealing an entrance behind the golem.

“Baekseol, is that the right place?”

“Yes!”

***

[Remaining Time: 44 hours 07 minutes 41 seconds]

As it’s labeled the Beginner’s Maze, there’s nothing particularly difficult about it.

The issue is probably the note about earning points based on progress at the end.

Just like the first tutorial, that part seems like an artificial condition to create trouble among players.

But thanks to Baekseol, there’s no time for trouble.

Almost four hours have passed since entering the maze, but not a single player has been seen.

─Click, click.

“Phew─”

“Over there!”

Click.

Rumble!

When Baekseol pressed the protruding stone she pointed at, the stone wall slid open, revealing a door.

The problems are so easy that even a child could solve them, but the issue is that there are too many doors, creating too many possibilities.

The 48-hour time limit wasn’t given for no reason. It feels like there’s a lot of malice, urging you to step on others if you want to get ahead.

“Phew─”

Thanks to Baekseol, progress has been smooth, but over four hours have already passed.

The fact that the paths converge into a large cavern with multiple branches suggests that it’s meant for players to fight there.

“The person holding the sand is amazed at the room master’s progress speed.”

Rumble!

As the door opens again, a strange device comes into view.

It’s the largest mechanism seen so far. Inside a translucent sphere resembling a globe, three glowing dots trace complex trajectories.

The lingering light trails create geometric patterns.

“The three-headed demon protests to the tower, saying it’s a problem no one has solved.”

“The macho man cleaning cow dung grabs his head.”

Judging by the reactions of the divine beings, the difficulty level has suddenly spiked.

It seems like they’re throwing in an unsolvable problem to make this the final battleground.

“Ball!”

“That’s not a ball.”

Baekseol twitches her front leg toward the moving sphere.

“Here, look.”

Touching the translucent sphere to show Baekseol, my hand gets sucked in, and a glowing ball comes out with it.

“What?”

“Ball!”

Putting the basketball-sized ball back into the translucent sphere, it returns to its place, leaving a trail of light.

It’s like seeing the universe at a glance.

The glowing ball traces such a complex orbit that I step back to get a macroscopic view, and only then does it become clear.

Inside the translucent sphere, balls are moving around, and the walls of the cavern are marked with colors matching the balls.

“Three-dimensional geometric topology?”

It’s similar to the infamous three-body problem.

As my body improved, so did my memory. Reading has become more enjoyable, and my reading time has increased significantly.

But orbital mechanics isn’t my specialty, and it’s been too long since I studied it, so it’s all a bit hazy.

Just looking at the movement, it’s clear that this isn’t a problem students can solve.

“Hmm…”

“The maiden of the stars cautiously asks if she can solve it.”

“Ada probably can’t solve it, right?”

“The maiden of the stars shows hostility.”

“The chocolate stone monkey laughs so hard it falls over.”

“Geometry is often considered the foundation of mathematics, but if you ask students to solve problems of this level, even Galileo would get mad.”

“Arthur, should I steal Pythagoras’ triangle and smack him on the back of the head?”

“Clearly, it’s a problem of a three-dimensional manifold.”

“Without complex mathematical and celestial mechanics knowledge, it’s hard to solve.”

“Ugh, my head.”

“In this case, there’s no choice but to approach it step by step.”

“As I reach out to the semi-transparent sphere again and touch it, this time a different colored ball gets sucked in.”

“It feels different from the red ball I touched earlier.”

“Just to be sure, I take out all three balls and confirm.”

“The red ball I took out first is much larger than the combined mass of the blue and green balls. And the blue and green balls are about the same size.”

“When I put the balls back, they return to their places as if pulled by gravity.”

“The red ball sticks to the center like the sun, and the blue and green balls orbit around it in elliptical paths. The important thing here is that the red ball hardly moves.”

“The blue and green balls orbit around the red ball, sometimes almost colliding but just grazing past each other.”

“What this shows is that if the red ball is inside the semi-transparent sphere, there is a unique gravitational force.”

“The red ball is a fixed mass point, while the blue and green balls are smaller mass points compared to the red one.”

“Based on what I see, I assume that the red ball’s central force field and the gravitational forces of the blue and green balls create a planar trajectory.”

“Hmm.”

“I take out a notebook and pen from the subspace and jot down what I’ve figured out, drawing a formula.”

“If I set the red ball’s position as rA, and the blue and green balls as rB and rC, I can set up one equation of motion between the two balls.”

“When I take the balls out and put them back in, they always start from the same position. Assuming this as the initial value and integrating using the Runge-Kutta method, I get an approximate answer.”

“It’s a mess.”

“The motion trajectories of the blue and green balls are very irregular.”

“This is like running in place.”

“But I can see something.”

“Click, click.”

“I take out a spray can from the subspace and shake it, making a loud rattling noise.”

“Baekseol, let’s draw and play.”

“Excited!”

“Fssshhh!”

“Using the red, blue, and green on the wall as reference points, I mark the motion.”

“The person drinking asks, ‘What on earth are you doing?'”

“Solving a problem.”

“Fssshhh!”

“As I spray along my hand, irregular lines are drawn.”

“To anyone looking, it just looks like a child’s messy doodle.”

“Fsssh, fsssh.”

“The time it takes for the blue and green balls to rotate around the red ball and return to the reference point is roughly 10 minutes and 32 seconds.”

“I split this into 1/10, marking it as 63.2 seconds, and display the value obtained from the formula.”

“There are three points where the bumpy lines meet.”

“Now, the pattern within the irregularity becomes visible.”

“Baekseol, do you see the part marked in blue here?”

“Yes!”

“Can you press it hard when I give the signal?”

“Sure!”

“I send Baekseol to the marked spot and pick up the ball again.”

“Ready?”

“Yes!”

“With Baekseol’s confident answer, I put the ball in and start the count.”

“Tick, tick, tick.”

“The second hand of the pocket watch I got from Grandfather Kamar makes a pleasant sound.”

With a thud, it falls over.

The first calculated value is 13.7 seconds.

“Now!”

Click!

Crunch!

As Baekseol presses the wall, that part sinks in a square shape.

“Baekseol, this time it’s green.”

“Fun!”

This time it’s quite high, I wonder if I can do it well.

It’s about my eye level, but for Baekseol, who’s the size of two fists combined, it’s like a skyscraper.

But since she’s a rabbit who can even get coconuts, I think it’ll be okay.

Click, click.

This time too, the second hand passes by pleasantly.

“Now!”

Tap. Click!

Crunch!

As Baekseol jumps up and lightly presses the wall, the wall sinks deeply again with a friction sound.

Next is exactly 2 seconds later.

“Baekseol, come here.”

Baekseol, who pressed the wall and landed on the ground, comes running.

Click!

Crunch!

Finally, pressing the red marking opens the entrance.

Ding!

At the same time, a notification pops up.

[The second tutorial has ended]

[A great achievement! You have solved the labyrinth’s problem that no one else could]

[Solved the labyrinth’s difficult problem in the tutorial!]

[Player Han Ga-eul has earned 20,000P]

[Rewards…]

..

..

..

Messages pour down in a frenzy.

[The one who holds the flame is shocked]

[The Maiden of the Stars looks on with surprised eyes]

[The macho man who cleans cow dung is disappointed in the room master]

[The Maiden of the Stars wants the notebook in Player Han Ga-eul’s hand]

“How about something better than this?”

As I take out a book from the subspace and wave it, the Maiden of the Stars immediately reacts.

[The Maiden of the Stars asks what that is]

“It’s a book that allows you to approach the knowledge of the stars. You need to learn this to take the first step.”

As I take out another book from the subspace that can be considered a pair with the first one, I feel a gaze full of curiosity.

“What I scribbled is just an application. When learning magic, if you give a high-circle magic book to someone who doesn’t even know runes, they won’t be able to learn it, right?”

[The Maiden of the Stars nods her head]

“The basics are the most important. Maiden of the Stars, as a divine being as smart as you, you’ll recognize the true value of the book, right?”

[The Maiden of the Stars nods her head like crazy]

“A book containing the power to read the path of the stars. Truly a book that allows you to approach the truth.”

[The Maiden of the Stars urgently requests a trade]

“Then show me some capital.”