Adam walked along the beach for a few minutes; the island didn't seem very large, so he covered a good portion of the coast in no time. Finally, he discovered 10 bluish mushrooms forming a not too big, but not too small circle, hidden behind some bushes with few leaves.

Adam had no idea how his past self had obtained these mushrooms while inside the book, and more importantly, why his past self had given him the information in a way that only he could recognize the message. But now, those details didn't matter. He quickly ran towards the mushroom circle and started digging; he didn't want to waste a single second.

After a few minutes of digging, Adam found a wooden plank, likely belonging to the trapdoor that led to the key to his survival on this island.

He continued digging to reveal the buried trapdoor. Adam saw a rusty metal ladder leading into absolute darkness. He picked one of the bluish mushrooms and tossed it down the ladder. The mushroom's glow showed that the ladder was in good condition, leading to a wooden bunker underground.

Adam grabbed a few more bluish mushrooms to use as light sources. He didn't know what awaited him in the bunker, and having some illumination from a distance would be helpful. He extended his thumb, which illuminated like a candle, and hurriedly descended the ladder, aided by the glow of the mushrooms and his finger.

Upon reaching the bottom of the ladder, Adam found himself on a wooden floor. The bunker beneath the sand seemed to be quite large, as he couldn't see the walls at the far ends. He took the fluorescent mushrooms from his pockets and tossed them into the darkness to illuminate the bunker's extremes. Fortunately, after illuminating the bunker with the glow of the mushrooms, Adam saw that there was no one inside besides him.

The bunker's floor was covered in white footprints, which he realized were his own. On the beach sand, his past footprints couldn't be registered beyond 19 steps, and his current ones left no imprints at all. However, in this wooden bunker, it seemed that the footprints remained visible.

Inside the bunker were only 6 wooden statues, all facing the entrance where the ladder was. The statues depicted a man with a shield and sword, a woman with a bow, a dwarf with a bag of dust, a gnome riding a robot, a very large mouse with a box full of nuts, and finally, a mannequin with a pair of guns in its hands.

Most of the footprints pointed towards the man with the shield and sword, so Adam approached that statue to inspect it more closely. When he got close enough, he noticed that the man's shield was flickering. Adam carefully examined the shield, illuminating it with his thumb, and saw something carved with a knife on the back of the shield:

> 'Do not choose this one, choose the mouse.'

>

> Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Adam recognized his own handwriting in the message and immediately understood its meaning: each statue would provide him with a possible form to survive in the adventure. His past self had discovered this place and became the option that seemed safest for survival: the man with a shield and sword.

While the current Adam also considered the man with the shield a good choice, it seemed that he could switch the selected statue in the middle of the challenge. His past self had found it better to start with the giant mouse statue. Following the advice, Adam went to the mouse statue. He didn't know how to select it, but as he got closer, he noticed that the mouse's ear was flickering.

Adam put his fingers in the wooden ear of the mouse and felt that someone had inserted a piece of paper inside. Expectantly, Adam took it out and opened it. The message was written in blood and said:

> "The moles fear. The builders don't remember their past. The 00008 protects us."

Adam's hand trembled, and sweat came from his back. He immediately put the message in his mouth and forced himself to swallow it. He understood the message perfectly, and its meaning was terribly frightening. This was a code that only he could decipher, and most importantly, his past self feared that someone else might understand this message, and there were only two people on this island...

"The moles fear", and the fact that the message was placed in the ear, meant that in the last charge to discover emotions used by Adam in the past, the moles warned him to be careful with the magician.

"The builders don't remember their past": This was probably revealed by Adam's power and served as a clue to doubt why the ancient wizard remembered all his past on the path of wizards, while his godfather didn't remember much about his religion and had also died. Furthermore, the ancient wizard seemed to have no problem revealing secrets of the path of the wizard. Clearly, something was wrong, and Adam's past self discovered it before dying.

"The 00008 Protects Us": This meant that the infinity protected the young hero. It could be interpreted as a warning from Adam's past self that this could be an infinite loop, so the true way to solve the puzzle was to use the loop to his advantage.

Adam carefully inspected the entire bunker for more clues. After searching thoroughly, he only found two more hints. The first was a scratch on the wall, which the young man believed symbolized that he managed to revive once.

The second clue was a wooden plank placed on one of the bunker walls. Due to the dust on the wood and the way the message was written, Adam realized that this was part of the bunker and not something added by his past self.

The message written on the plank read as follows:

> "The world told me that defeating the king was impossible, but it's also impossible for the king to kill me in the future. To fight the king and defy the world, I will use these statues that belong to each warrior killed by the king in the past. I will return to their times, but this time, I'll survive and avenge the slain warrior."

*Shgg*...When Adam finished reading the message, the 6 wooden statues began to turn slowly until they faced the young hero. Without hesitation, Adam approached the mouse statue, stretched out his hand, and touched it, waiting to see what would happen. As soon as he touched it, he felt everything spinning and vanished into thin air.