It was a sunny day in Monaco. Flowers bloom, birds sing, and Simon rolls a boulder in hell.

How many times has Ryan seen Monaco from this cape? He spent a whole year trying to figure out the "rules" of the place, and today it's just another attempt.

It took him some time to find an old-fashioned pre-war drone at an abandoned military base near Eastres; A stealth tactical reconnaissance device manufactured by Dassault for the French Air Force. Ryan converted it into a purple quadcopter and equipped it with a bullet.

Shin uses a remote control to control the device, and as he directs the drone to fly to Monaco, he receives a constant video feed. His quadcopter flew over empty streets, broke windows into uninhabited houses. All the buildings look the same from the inside.

The whole city is a prop.

At least Ryan now confirms that the teleportation effect doesn't apply to machines once the drone exceeds the two-hour time limit. Casino about counter-attacking MEC

o

The propaganda is as baseless as the story of the invasion of Andorra.

As the sun sets behind the horizon, Ryan instructs the drone to head to the Monte Carlo Casino. The quadcopter entered the car after blasting the door with a bomb, and there was no clown to stop it.

The real Monte Carlo casino looks like the hell that Ryan has been trapped in for the rest of his life, but it is neither infinite nor abnormal. The rooms were all in their place, and the drone couldn't find anyone inside the walls.

By the time the drone was ready to leave the casino to resupply, the door had already repaired itself. Ryan had the machine blast them again, fly over, and turn around again. As soon as the door disappeared from view, it returned to its original state.

Well, it's time to throw a punch.

Ryan spent three months using a drone to map the casino and its surroundings, all the way down to the sewers. In the end, he had to face the obvious.

He couldn't find any entrance into the pocket space.

"An invite-only place, huh?" Ryan said as he put on his sunglasses. Angry at the situation, he strapped a small nuclear bomb to his drone; Thanks to France's pre-war nuclear arsenal. "You can't say no to me."

Sitting on a bench on the coast of Cap Ferrat, nearly 15 kilometers from Monaco, Ryan used a remote control to direct the drone to Monte Carlo. In order to control his toys from such a distance, he had to remodel a local radio station, but his work paid off.

"After the shrimp," the courier said as he pressed the big red button, "mushrooms!"

When a bright sphere engulfed Monaco, the video transmission stopped working. Everything in Ryan's line of sight was on fire, from the forest to the ruins of a French port on the Mediterranean coast. Huge waves rose around the tipping point and spread for miles. Up to Cape Fira, the ground trembled, and a huge fiery red mushroom rose in the sky.

Ryan watched this cursed microcosm fall in flames, filled with satisfaction...... At least, until the shockwave reached him, and a strong wind flung his sunglasses off his face.

"Andorran independence!" As the mushroom cloud slowly faded away, the messenger shouted in the direction of the micro-country.

A few hours later, in a reinforced protective suit, Ryan strode through the burning ruins of Monaco, risking storms, ashes, and radioactive fallout falling from the sky. Every building collapsed in the explosion and the road was clogged with debris. The courier treated the experience almost as a hike.

"I'll do my best," Ryan muttered to himself as he reached the center of the explosion. There is only one crater left at the Casino de Monte Carlo. No matter what forces allow this place to be rebuilt, it cannot undo such destruction. "No one seems to have ever ......"

A flash of yellow and purple engulfed him, followed by a familiar marble hallway.

Damn it!

On April 1, when he woke up again at Cape Tête de Jane, Ryan let out a scream of frustration.

Even the use of nuclear weapons to destroy the entire place will not eliminate this effect!

He should have expected this to happen. When the real Monte Carlo becomes the anchor of this phenomenon on the earth, the real labyrinth exists in a separate reality. According to Rya

Known, this mysterious controller "Jea."

- St gloomy" lives in his pocket space.

Or more likely, he has turned into a labyrinth.

Ryan sighed and sat on the edge of the cape, thinking about what he had learned from the various experiments.

Under international law, this effect takes effect whenever someone crosses the Monegasque border. This includes airspace, but not territorial waters; Ryan argued that this was related to the old Franco-Monsamès Treaty, as Jean-Ssames's powers could not recognize that the waters belonged "entirely" to Monaco.

If the victim approaches Monte Carlo, or stays within the city limits for more than two hours, they are transported into the maze. If they cross the border and leave, they will be trapped the moment they fall asleep. It doesn't matter if they spend less than a minute in Monaco or spend three days traveling through Europe, they end up falling asleep from exhaustion. Ryan examines two possibilities, much to his dismay.

Once you enter Monaco, it won't let you leave. Forever.

This effect also applies to animals, which, unlike humans, are immediately transported to the labyrinth's kitchen instead of the relative safety of the marble hallway. In the course of his research, Ryan has killed countless puppies, but he has no regrets at all.

After all, he's a cat lover.

At one point, he even tied the same nuclear bomb to a lamb and let it detonate in his pocket. As the sacrificial animal was teleported into the kitchen, the resulting explosion made Suitestow

survived and blew up a large part of the labyrinth. Rya

Then go into the pocket dimension to observe the results.

The destruction continued for 24 hours until a new room replaced the damaged room.

Since teleportation is always accompanied by flashes of purple and yellow, Rya

It is suspected that the controller is a psychopath associated with these colors. It can explain space-time anomalies and all the strange rules of concept.

This means that only the powerful yellow or purple can permanently destroy the maze. So far, Ryan hasn't found anyone with that ability.

"Do I really need to destroy this place?" Ryan pondered aloud as he observed Monaco from a distance. The very existence of the city is to mock him. "I mean, it's static, it doesn't spread. A fence will keep it under control, at least until I find a way to put an end to it. ”

His perfect run required him to first rescue the people trapped in Monaco.

According to his research, he could stay in Monaco until April 28, after which Martina would die due to problems with the shrimp supply. The lights will go out and the Joker will tear Simon to shreds before he can save her.

Ryan must find an exit within this time, but where? There are no doors in and out of this place, and once trapped inside, no one can communicate with the outside world!

There was no one but Ryan himself

"I'm export," the courier realized.

According to his understanding of his abilities, the Messenger exists in two places at once: some dimension outside of time and space, and Earth. Even in Monaco, this connection remains, despite the forces that dominate the labyrinth that prevent his two selves from merging.

It doesn't completely eliminate astringency, it just pushes back.

Thus, although the pocket dimension can serve as a barrier between the captives and the outer universe, it is not an inviolable boundary. If Ryan can push the basic tenets of his power to the limit, maybe he can overcome it......

An idea occurred to him.

Five years.

Rya

It took five years to master particle physics, find a genius who could help him solve his problems, and search enough labs to gather the equipment he needed. In order to clean up the components of CERN's unfinished hadron collider, he had to travel all the way back and forth to Switzerland.

Now, on the sunny day of April 27, Ryan is standing on the cape, dressed in war clothes.

He decided to dress up in a beautiful dress for this historic day. Purple shirt and blue pants, black gloves and boots, and most importantly, a classic trench coat. He had an MP3 player hanging from his belt, and next to him was a Japanese katana "borrowed" from Swiss raiders.

Because the clowns were dismissive of most guns, he would use them for sushi.

On top of that, the messenger brought two cube devices with a diameter of 40 centimeters. Each of these steel-plated machines has a palm-sized hole on one side, which is the "mouth" of the particle collider, and a small control panel on the other.

Resonators.

These nuclear power plants, through a science that Ryan himself barely understood, should be able to produce a kind of "aggregation" similar to the power of the courier himself. Particles move from cube to cube, forming a path through the dimension.

Maybe one day he can make an interdimensional radio with this technology. That would be fun.

Put one on the Tête de Chie

Cape, and within two hours of activating it, Ryan put another in his travel bag and drove his trusty motorcycle towards Monaco. On his way to Monte Carlo, he ignored anti-Andorran propaganda signs and crossed the official borders of the small country.

Ryan stopped in front of the casino, got out of the car, and confidently walked towards the door.

The square vanished in a flash of yellow and purple.

Ryan can't remember how many times he's been through those moments, but hopefully it's the last. He took a deep breath, bathed in the air-conditioned air that flowed through this terrible prison, and then tried to tear it open.

"Hello, dear guest!" As he walked out of the marble hallway and into the hall, a golden-faced clown immediately welcomed the uninvited guest. "Welcome to Monaco!" The greatest—"

Ryan nonchalantly chopped off its head with his katana, its blood squirting on the carpet. The courier didn't even wait for the head to land on the ground before heading towards the elevator.

Six clowns emerge from behind the marble pillars of the hall, carrying silver plates, refreshments, and appetizers. "Dear guests, we must warn you that violence is prohibited during business hours!" One of them said to Ryan in a flattering tone. "If you insist on being naughty, we're going to sweep you away!"

The courier called the elevator and pressed the button on the fourth floor. "Pick a place," Ryan said to the clowns, the door closing behind him. "You're going to die there."

The monsters grin all the time, but behind the empty smiles, there are knives.

A few minutes later, Ryan arrived in Houston.

Seeing the long hallway leading to the hotel suite, Ryan almost felt nostalgic. Almost. He walked towards room 44 and knocked on the metal door. "Simon! He shouted, "Simon!" I have a burger and I'm not afraid to use it!"

The door immediately opened, and a shotgun was pointed at Ryan's face. Simon is fully armed and ready to fight, his leather armor still white and stained with the interracial blood of the murdered Joker. "Who the hell are you?"

“‘f

a

ais pa

le sa

g ve

s'," Ryan replied in French. " Le schleu est da

s Le ga

age "

Simon was stunned for a moment, then asked in a skeptical tone, "I 'a pas cou."

u assez vite?”’”

"I'm from Alsace," Ryan replied.

The sheriff laid down his weapon and was taken aback. "How do you know that password, Ritter?"

You told me that the courier almost blurted it out. "I'm a friend of yours from the French Foreign Legion," Ryan lied for simplicity, "I'm here to save you." According to my schedule, everyone should be in their respective rooms right now. ”

"How do you know?" Is this an operation of a commando? I thought the French government had fallen?"

"That's what we made them think." Ryan whispered ominously before walking into the suite. Simon was too confused to protest as the courier moved quickly in front of his tunnel.

Ryan opened the bag, took out the resonator, and placed it in front of the hole that Simon had spent his life digging. Technically, this unit can work anywhere in the pocket space, but the courier thinks this particular location is a good fit.

"Do you have a way to get out?" Simon asked in a tone Ryan had never heard before. The emotion in the old man's voice was something he had given up a long time ago.

Wish.

As Ryan typed on the resonator's control panel and started the device, he prayed not to let it down.

The light rays gather in the holes in the cube and cast a beam of light into the tunnel. The space itself twisted around this stream of energy, twisting Simon's hole into a glittering corridor. The atmosphere was tense, as if an evil force had suddenly noticed these things.

Ryan thinks that's a good sign.

After half a minute of pulsating and twisting, the corridor of light appears to stabilize around the particle stream. Although he could not see anything beyond the threshold, the messenger felt a faint, pleasant wind blowing across his face.

Wind.

"That's ......" Simon took off his helmet, unable to believe how he felt. His eyes widened, and tears of relief welled up from the corners of his eyes. "Fresh air?"

Ryan activates his power, and an opposing force fights back......

However, Monaco turned purple.

The Resonator breaks through the pocket dimension.

"Who are you?" Simon asked, unable to take his eyes off the portal after time recovered. "Who are you?"

Quick, Ryan, think of a smart superhero name!

"I'm Quicksave," Rya

Say it confidently. "Rolling boulders."

, that sounded so much better in his head.

"Dear guests."

A terrifying familiar voice echoed through the loudspeakers on the floor, a promise of deadly revenge.

"We regret to inform you that, due to the current Andorran invasion threatening our borders, Monte Carlo airport will be permanently closed until further notice." This time, his voice sounded completely passive-aggressive, not professional at all. "Please leave the suite and our dear staff will check you out."

Click.

The sound of countless doors opening made Ryan's heart beat faster, and he rushed out of Simon's house.

The doors of all the suites snapped open, and people looked out through the thresholds in confusion. Ryan recognized so many faces, from Martina to Jean, Jeff, and Sally. The illusion of security disappeared from them, and the lights began to go out.

Monaco will not let them flee without a fight.

Ryan found what's left in his bag: a metal mask with two pairs of round glasses, custom-made for the occasion.

"The game is on, Pogo," the courier said as he put on his mask and activated the night vision mode. "Simon, evacuate everyone from the portal. I went to take care of the eliminated comedians downstairs. ”

"Alone? The gunman protested, punching in with his shotgun. "You're crazy, I'll go with you!"

"No, Simon," Ryan said, walking toward the elevator with only his katana in hand. If he didn't know that this place could repair itself, he would have blown it up long ago. "You can't imagine how long I've been rehearsing this one-man show."

As the elevator climbs down the floor towards the final showdown, the courier turns on his MP3 and plays a cheerful song. "Nobody ...... but me," Ryan muttered to himself, and the elevator doors opened. He didn't like the show, but it had a great introduction.

The courier walks into the hall and is confronted by a group of clowns.

Hundreds of people crawled out of the shadows and into the lobby of the casino; They all wore napkins around their necks. Ryan could barely see the huge roulette wheel in the center of the room, and the candlesticks on the ceiling were extinguished.

The staff of the Monte Carlo Hotel had taken all the weapons they could find. silver cutlery; Golf club; sushi knives; There were even a few batons. Their metal masks are smiling all the time, even though their smiles have become very vicious.

The only thing standing between them and Houston was a handsome messenger.

"Monaco ......" Ryan raised his katana and let out his battle cry. Monaco is not a real country!"

The smiling crowd rushed towards him like a screaming chorus.

A whirlwind of blood and rage ensues, and Ryan slices through the creatures like butter. The blade of his sword pierced the internal organs of the five clowns at once, and thick white blood flowed from their wounds like a waterfall of wine.

Two monsters tried to stab him with knives, one with a knife and the other with a fork. He threw one of them at the other, piercing both with a punch, causing them to drop their weapons. When a clown tries to get around him to the elevator, Ryan grabs a knife and throws it behind him. The projectile hit the target in the back of the head, killing him instantly.

"Andorra's army will fail!" A crazy voice came over the megaphone, and a crazy Ryan went around killing the Joker. "Give your life to Monaco!" Glory to Jean-Stesafin! Monte Carlo will always stand!"

"What about my winnings?!" Ryan roared and threw the head of the clown to the floor, the clown's face staining the huge roulette wheel beneath their feet. "What did I win?"

He froze time in quick succession to dodge two knife blows, but when the clock started itching again, he noticed something coming from his left. A white-faced clown throws a silver plate at the courier like a frisbee, powerful enough to turn it into a lethal weapon.

Before Ryan could blink, the bullet struck him in the neck, slicing his neck in half.

Over and over.

The second time, Ryan dodged the plate, grabbed it in mid-air, and threw it back to the sender. This improvised frisbee knocked the monster's skull open.

Ryan blocked a golf ball, then another. His opponent's short fight was good, but the Courier cut off his hand with a wave of his own. He jumps around, dodges blows and swings, counters, kills, spins. His sword and his body are one, and his focus is unmatched.

Three clowns catch him by surprise and throw him to the ground, and the fourth smashes his head with a huge token.

Three clowns fell with a single swing, and the fourth clown's leg was cut clean. His own token crushed him, and Ryan stepped on the corpse.

He killed dozens of people, and then many more. He avenged a lifetime of suffering. The back was smashed against the post, and the shrimp was forcibly poured into the throat. The bottles flew and the plates shattered. His anger could not be quelled.

The bloody floor was slippery, but Ryan grinned and walked on.

Every life he takes is a pleasure greater than sex. Each blow carries a century of pain and the exhilaration, all of which carry the exhilarations of a performance that has been rehearsed for years. The hyena that had pursued him for decades fell like flies in front of his blade, and he could not put into words how amazing it was.

He killed a lot of clowns, but more clowns took his place. An endless tide of death, but he still had to cut them down.

"Tonight, we are honored to have the senior entertainers of the Monte Carlo International Circus Festival!" The voice of the megaphone said in horror as its voice disappeared. "Please applaud...... Acrobat!"

Four shadows jumping in the carnage, clown faces on black tights. Wielding their swords, they rushed into battle. They threw darts at Ryan's face, and Ryan used his sword to block the darts.

Swords collide and a sword pierces him!

He dodged the swing of the sword and killed a ninja!

Time froze and began again. He parried, dodged, struggled, and cursed in anger. They pushed him backwards, against the wall. They shed his blood.

Ryan tried again!

Over and over!

Over and over!

Their blades collided in a storm of steel, but Ryan pushed them back, and the clowns stopped grinning.

With each run, he ran a little faster and a little more deadly. He dodged every sneak attack and fought back with every blow. He took advantage of every opportunity. No one could hurt him, but every blow he struck him in. There is no vain, no vain. He stole the second sword, in order to double the pain.

"Impossible...... No one expected there to be a clown ninja!"

The megaphone screamed angrily, and the messenger laughed.

More mini-bosses appeared, firecrackers and magicians, strongmen and circus conductors. They were all confronted by Ryan, but none of them survived to tell the story.

All his enemies fell, and only one remained. Ryan coveted his round hat, and he wouldn't say no. The Joker is pushed onto the statue of Jean-Stephanie, and he is crushed under the statue!

The slaughter is over, the singing is over. Ryan held his breath as a pile of corpses in front of him and a frightened clown in the back.

"Okay." Ryan looked back at his future victim, covered in white blood. None of this is his own. "Want more?"

The clowns stopped smiling and ran away screaming.

With a happy smile, Ryan lowered his sword and grabbed the round hat of the last victim and placed it on his head, covering the mask. What a souvenir it would be!

The messenger returned to Houston and found it almost empty. Only Simon remained, guarding the portal with a shotgun. "You could have left me some," he said, glancing at the courier's bloodstained clothes. "I was about to go downstairs to help."

"Do you know the point of the last stop, which is that you don't want to survive in front of them?" Ryan asked rhetorically. "Why didn't you leave sooner?"

"You told me to evacuate everybody," the man replied, "and you're part of everybody." ”

That's great. Ryan activates a code on the resonator's control panel, triggering a self-destruct program to ensure that the Joker doesn't follow them out. "Explode in five minutes," a digital voice came from the device.

"How old?" Simon asked, quickly searching under the bar for his last belongings.

"Nuclear," Ryan replied, grabbing his travel bag. As expected, Simon brought a pile of books as a souvenir, with a familiar book on top. "The myth of Sisyphus?"

"How do you know?" The old sheriff asked suspiciously.

Ryan chuckled softly as they walked into the light. "Intuition."

Goodbye, Monaco.

I won't miss you.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay?"

Sit in an old Renault mSamga

In the driver's seat of the e II, Ryan's answer was no. "I've got to find someone," he said to Martina and Simon standing outside the window, "no offense, but that side quest has been going on long enough." ”

"I'm not familiar with that word," Martina said, Simon shrugging. "We owe you our lives. No matter who you are, you are always welcome. ”

It doesn't matter who you are.

Ryan glanced through the car window at the forty men and women he had just rescued today. The group is in the Tête de Chie

A makeshift camp was set up on the cape to celebrate their freedom around a bonfire. Monaco is still in the distance, like a prison without prisoners.

It's been three days since the jailbreak, and no one has been dragged back into their pocket space, even while they're sleeping. Either a forcible escape broke the pocket dimension's grip on the captives, or they had to cross the pocket dimension's borders again like everyone else. No one is stupid enough to go there.

It seems to him that he has lived with these people for more than a century. He learns all their secrets, helps them through their darkest moments, and sees them reacting to every possible situation.

He knew Simon's real name, the one he abandoned when he joined the French Foreign Legion. He knew what happened to his sons, he knew the terrible past he was trying to forget, and even the books he wanted to read but didn't have time to read.

He knew Martina's hometown, the name she wanted to give her future child, her favorite movie, the movie she hated the most, she had always wanted to be a nurse but never could do it. He knew her deepest fears and greatest victories.

They just learned his name.

He knew himself better than these people, but he was still a stranger to them.

"Maybe we'll keep in touch," Ryan said, though he wasn't quite convinced. "You know how to contact me."

"If you need help, just call." The blonde smiled at him enthusiastically, but with sadness in her eyes. She knew they couldn't see each other again.

Simon watched Martina rejoin the other survivors and spend a little more time with Ryan. "Have we met before?" He asked Ryan. "I know you know me, but I don't remember you."

"Modesty without hypocrisy, I am unforgettable."

"Yes, you're really going to introduce and free me from twelve years of captivity. What's your secret? Everything that has happened so far seems too ...... It's convenient. ”

"I'm immortal," Ryan admitted with a sigh, "but don't tell anyone. ”

Simon looked at the Time Traveler for a moment, then handed him an old book full of dust. "Here it is. Use this. ”

Ryan would have wanted a copy of The Myth of Sisyphus, but it was a different book entirely. Zarathustra said: A book that everyone has and no one else has," the messenger reads the title of the cover. by Friedrich Nietzsche. ”

"There's a concept in it, eternal reincarnation, and I think you'll like it."

Ryan stared at the old man's sagacious and knowing gaze. "Thanks," the courier said, and left the book in the back of the car. "What are you going to do now?"

"Martina and others may move west to greener pastures, but I'm going to stay here. My life was coming to an end, so I thought, somebody's got to take care of this place. Put a fence around this giant death trap and make sure no one slips in. I can tell you that no one can let me go. I have experience with border patrols. ”

Ryan has no doubts about this. "Well, if anyone is wandering where they shouldn't be, call me."

"Of course, it's important," Simon said, then patted the courier on the shoulder. "Don't sprain your back while climbing a mountain."

Ryan looked at Simon's book, then at its former owner, who joined the ranks of Monegasque survivors. The courier looked at the shy smile on their faces and the happy glances they sent to each other. They went through hell and finally escaped. They will rebuild their lives and start over.

It's a perfect ending for everyone.

Everyone but Ryan.

The courier froze the time and let it last for more than ten seconds. The two periods converged, and a purple light engulfed the messenger entirely.

He went through everything in a split second. This cursed century of being trapped in Monaco, and a brief stay afterward. His years of research, all the pain, all the joy, all the sadness. All these beautiful moments, but only Ryan remembers. He took all the memories into his body, and these memories will live on through him.

Time suddenly returned, the past was frozen in stone, and the preservation point was moved to the present.

His perfect run was complete, and Ryan drove into the sunset without looking back.