The Labyrinth Manual 迷宮手冊
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@ Devcon 2024
Through my years of watching, I've seen many run past like horses, believing the plain is infinite. Only after walking far enough does one realize that the plain is the ultimate form of labyrinth: it uses the travelers themselves to block certain paths. When travelers turn, the plain turns with them. When they stop, the plain stops too. Visibility prevents infinity; visibility becomes the walls of the plain. I am old now, and only when asked to write this labyrinth manual did I begin to understand this, and face the plain as the most concise structure of the universe: a point moving on an empty surface, and the point's position determines the surface's location.
I love my profession. I build labyrinths and read them. In my youth, I witnessed walls in various mazes being built and torn down. As my experience with labyrinths accumulated, I became selective. Gradually, I came to prefer translucent walls, for they reveal countless walls behind them, overlapping on the same plane. Later, I favored completely transparent walls, pondering their necessity: a transparent wall is a non-existent wall. The only difference is that transparent walls still block direction, but on the plain there is neither direction nor speed, thus no difference at all.
There are seven ways to engage with the labyrinth. First, you can move step by step along pre-planned paths, trying to walk further from your current position: unfortunately, you might circle around nearby. If lucky, you'll get farther from the origin. Most choose this way.
Second, you can build more walls. Many do this: they enjoy creating rules and watching their companions bump around within them. They have a talent for establishing correct directions, ruling like kings over small sections of the vast labyrinth.
Third, you can climb over one wall, then another. The only downside is exhaustion. And the risk of injury when landing.
Fourth, you can knock down, destroy, or burn these walls. The problem is, most walls are invisible. The few visible ones might have been built by the second type of people mentioned above.
Fifth, you can keep searching for the beginning and end. These people always believe they're making crucial movements. But as is known, the plain doesn't measure travelers' distance or direction. Paths are sealed within the traveler's body, thus unknown. And at a small enough scale, everyone has barely moved. Running twenty kilometers makes no difference. There's always a larger plain (always a smaller scale).
Sixth, you can stay here, doing nothing. You'll slowly become a seed. "Matter infinitely slowly decomposes into energy in time, like a continuous flickering light." You'll gradually decompose here, and glow.
Seventh, and my recommendation: you can try speaking. The labyrinth's structure is a way of conversation; walking its structure is the labyrinth speaking to you. A long corridor is a long sentence. A brief pause is a moment of silence. But these are one-way communications; you must respond to the labyrinth. Humans learn language from the labyrinth's structure, then reply to it using this maze-language's two-dimensional projection. When you speak, the labyrinth becomes curious. If someone overhears, they might laugh. At this moment, you know you've come to the right place in this labyrinth.