B W B W

W B W B

B W B W

W B W B

B W B W

W B W B

B W B W (Ray is here at this moment)

W B W B

B W B W

W B W B

<Start>

…

Ray's mind raced, replaying every step he had taken since the game began. He needed to find a pattern, a logical sequence, to make it to the end.

'I remember my first step, which was on the black one,' he thought, his eyes fixed on the tiles.

Then, instead of moving straight, he took a step to the right, onto another black tile. "That worked too," he muttered to himself.

The next choice was tricky. Two black tiles were on his sides, and a white one was directly in front. A third white tile was too far to reach. "I avoided the sides and stuck to a straight-line path," he told himself, "and chose the white one in front, which paid off."

"But the next pattern ruined everything." It was the tile where he made his first mistake.

The next pattern was two white tiles on the sides and a black one in front. He thought, "I decided to avoid the side tiles and stick to the one in front," and confidently stepped onto the black tile.

"That was the mistake. It means the first pattern—black on black on the sides—is the right one. The black to white in front is also the right one, but the white to black in front isn't the right pattern."

After thinking about his mistakes and the combination of right patterns which he used earlier, he decided to try a few more patterns.

He had two chances left, and he couldn't afford to waste them on just repeating old moves. He needed to think about the patterns he had seen and find a new logic.

'Maybe it's not about the color at all,' he thought. 'Maybe it's about the number of steps. A diagonal step, then a straight one? A two-step side path?'

He considered another idea. The tiles were laid out in a grid. 'What if the safe tiles formed a shape, like a zigzag or a square? He looked at the path, trying to see the invisible lines connecting the safe tiles he had already crossed.'

His frustration mounted, but he forced himself to calm down. There had to be something.

'What if the pattern is in the combination?'

He thought. 'A black tile followed by a white tile was safe, but a white tile followed by a black one was a mistake. So maybe I should only move from black to white, or from black to black.'

He decided on a new hypothesis.

he would only step on tiles that were the same color as the one he was standing on, or a tile of the opposite color in a diagonal. He looked at the next set of tiles, 'Let's try this'.

He was ready to try.

Ray took a deep, looking at the tiles in front in silence. He forced himself to calm down, every beat of his heart was like a loud drum in his ears.

He couldn't afford another mistake.

"This is it," he whispered to himself, and carefully stepped onto the white tile in front of him.

For a long moment, there was nothing but the sound of his own pulse. Then, a pleasant sound echoed in the emptiness.

[SAFE]

A sigh of relief escaped his lips, and a shaky grin spread across his face. "Okay," he muttered.

"It's working." His confidence, which was low after his first mistake was once again grew a little stronger.

He took a few precious seconds to settle his nerves, then looked to his left, where another white tile sat. It felt like a gamble, a gut feeling he had to trust.

He took the step. Again, the same serene chime filled the air.

[SAFE].

Now came the real test. He stood on a white tile, with a black one directly in front of him.

This was the same as the exact spot he had made his first mistake. He still remembers the vibration of the tile cracking under his foot.

"Not this time," he said, his voice hard with resolve. Instead of stepping straight, he took a step to the right, onto a white tile.

The chime was immediate. [SAFE].

Ray let out a relieved laugh. He had found the correct combination. But his triumph was short-lived. He looked up at the digital clock floating in front of him, and the numbers hit him like a punch to the gut.

[50:11]

Ten minutes were gone. Ten minutes, and he was still barely past the beginning. The path ahead stretched into a black and white maze that felt impossibly far.

B W B W

W B W B

B W B W

W B W B

B W B W

W B W B (Ray is here at this moment)

B W B W

W B W B

B W B W [Mistake]

W B W B

B W B W

W B W B

<Start>

…

"We are not even half of the tiles!" Ray muttered, his voice echoing in the silent hall.

He could see [End], a flickering virtual screen in the distance, but the path felt like it stretched on forever, long and winding, yet at the same time not that long.

He took another heavy breath, trying to steady his nerves. He'd found a pattern that worked, a zig-zag combination that felt solid.

He decided to stick with it, believing it would carry him through. With a surge of hope, he stepped onto the left white tile.

He held his breath, waiting for the familiar chime.

But it was a sound he never wanted to hear again. A low, ominous rumble echoed through the space, and the white tile under his foot flashed a dark red, a single crack spreading across its surface.

[MISTAKE]

"Fuck!" he cursed, his voice thick with frustration.

His one more chance was gone. Now he was left with two chances and one mistake. The question pounded in his head.

'what happened to the combination? It was right all along, wasn't it? Or had I missed something?'

"What did I miss?" he muttered, looking down at the broken tile beneath his foot.

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