Ruri's group found Sakuya at a four?way intersection.He was standing before a mirror, tapping its surface with a stylus. The gss rippled like water, dispying equations."Sakuya!" Ruri called.He didn't turn. "One moment. I'm calibrating.""Calibrating what?""The mirror's response threshold. I've determined that these surfaces are pressure?sensitive. Certain patterns trigger different outputs." He finished tapping. The mirror fshed green, then dispyed a schematic of the maze—highlighting their current location and the positions of the designated mirrors."Fascinating," Sakuya murmured. "The system is more interactive than I anticipated.""We need to find Yuma and Komachi," Tsukasa said. "The exit requires all six of us.""I'm aware. The map shows their approximate location. They're moving toward us." Sakuya turned, his eyes meeting Hikari's. "Your countdown?""02:01," Hikari said softly."We'll prioritize that. The self?destruct protocol likely has a bypass—a fail?safe for system preservation. If we can trigger it before the timer expires, you may survive.""How?""By fulfilling its underlying objective. The protocol isn't meant to kill you arbitrarily. It's a containment measure. If we can prove you're not a threat—or that you're more valuable alive—the system may abort."Hikari nodded, though she looked uncertain.Ruri checked her wrist?tag. "We have time. Let's move."They navigated the maze, the mirrors around them shifting, the reflections sometimes showing their past, sometimes their fears. Ruri kept Hikari close, her grip firm. Tsukasa limped behind them, his jaw set against the pain. Sakuya led the way, his scanner picking up the faint signals that marked the safe paths.For a while, no one spoke. The only sounds were their footsteps, the whisper of shifting gss, and the ever?present hum of ARK's systems.Then Tsukasa broke the silence. "Why should we trust you?" he asked Sakuya.The psychology student didn't turn. "You shouldn't. Trust is an irrational social construct. Cooperation, however, is logical. We share a common goal: survival.""But you're treating this like… like an experiment.""Everything is an experiment. Life is data. We're merely collecting it under controlled conditions."Ruri shook her head. "People aren't data points.""Aren't they?" Sakuya gnced back. "ARK thinks so. And it's winning."Hikari's countdown ticked to 01:45. She stumbled, and Ruri caught her."We're close," Sakuya said. "The control node is ahead."

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