Adam looked around his new surroundings with bewilderment: he was in the same wooden bunker, but now it was illuminated with torches placed on the walls. Also, all the statues had disappeared, except for the one of the large mouse with the wooden box.

In a daze, the young man raised his arms and noticed that his fingers had turned into claws, and his skin was covered in red fur with white spots. Upon closer examination of his body, Adam realized he had transformed into a giant mouse similar to the one depicted in the statue.

The entire bunker seemed a bit larger to Adam now, as the mouse was much smaller than an adult man and only as tall as an 8-year-old child. His two ears were very large, and his sense of smell seemed much better; it was comfortable to experience the world through his nose.

Using his new body felt instinctual to Adam, just like when he had turned into a fish using his magical ability. It was now uncomfortable to walk on two legs, and he preferred to run with his hands on the ground. Additionally, the young hero noticed that he had a tail, which allowed him to turn more swiftly, and he used it to support his two little paws on the ground.

The wooden box Adam had in his hand had straps to secure it to his chest, allowing him to keep it close while running on all fours. The box was not simple; in fact, it was a rather complex magical weapon that his race used for survival. Inside the box, a turret would be generated, which the young man had designed in the past, and it served primarily for defense.

Adam realized why his past self had recommended this statue; not because of the turrets, but because the mind of this mouse was incredibly superior to that of a librarian. As he shook off the daze, he noticed a myriad of issues in solving this book and understood how his past self had managed to devise a plan to send the message to the past.

Most importantly, Adam noticed that something was affecting his brain, preventing him from thinking of using his godfather since he entered the book. He checked his body, but the biography of his godfather was lost and hadn't accompanied his transformation.

The second thing Adam noticed with his new mouse brain was that the book had also affected the brain of the one who should have been his assistant, turning him into another character in the story, leaving only two key characters: the hero and the king. This meant that the ancient wizard was, in fact, the king of the story, and the infinite loop was Adam's weapon to defeat the king.

Thus, the ancient wizard would eventually betray him and die by the hand of the king like the rest of the statues. But even then, Adam wouldn't die, as there would always be another Adam safe in the future, an Adam who could be saved by the present self : the self that would become the past of Adam , and would have to provide him with clues to make the loop more favorable for the young hero until he succeeded in solving the challenge set by the book.

Therefore, before doing anything to get out of the book alive, Adam sought a way to transmit this information to his future self in case he failed.

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This was also one of the most incredible advantages of this race: Adam was one hundred percent certain he would die tonight due to lack of information, yet his only goal was to fulfill the mission of leaving the book alive. It seemed that his current life didn't matter to him because his mouse brain was confident that as long as he gathered information loop by loop, he would eventually come out alive.

Without saying a word, Adam walked towards one of the walls and carved two lines with his claws, then kicked the wall above each line. After all, his past self had transmitted all the information in code for some reason.

His glasses were still on, and Adam noticed that, despite being transformed into a mouse, his footprints were still those of a librarian. The young man curiously admired the footprints on the wall, not knowing if this was a secret of the glasses or if it had to do with being inside a magical book.

Adam carefully examined the room: the problem was that there was only one statue where there should be 6, otherwise his past self wouldn't have a way to carve the message on the wooden shield. So Adam scrutinized the bunker more carefully to find something different.

He immediately realized that this race of mice was somewhat blind, so he couldn't see at a glance that there were several pieces of wooden furniture attached to the bunker's walls. They seemed to be part of the wooden wall in his clumsy vision.

Approaching the walls, Adam noticed three pieces of furniture that he hadn't seen before, one on each wall of the bunker. The fourth wall contained the ladder. The first piece of furniture was a wooden pedestal, the second was a wooden coffin, and the third was a wooden wardrobe.

On all fours and with the box safely strapped to his belly, Adam approached the coffin; it seemed to be the most dangerous, so it was best to check it before proceeding to the others. Carefully, Adam opened the coffin, but there was nothing inside, so he left it and went to the other two pieces of furniture. He didn't understand the purpose of the coffin, but the other two might provide clues about its function.

Arriving at the wooden pedestal, Adam noticed it was empty. He touched it, and a wooden-covered book appeared. In a hurry, he opened it and saw that the inside of the book consisted of two columns, one with sentences and the other with numbers. After reading a bit, Adam found what he was looking for:

> 'Add the 6 statues of the heroes to the bunker / 100 points'

Upon reading the sentence, Adam understood how his past self had managed to switch races; apparently, this book allowed the improvement of the bunker and provided useful things to face the king. His past self had reached these 100 points, so following his advice, Adam should surpass them. Adam then memorized all the improvements; there were only 10, so it was relatively simple to do. Among the improvements, two caught his attention:

'Armor Box Upgrade: Now you can equip metal armor' and 'Utility Box Upgrade: Now you can get one more utility'

At a glance, Adam understood that these were the other two pieces of furniture in the room; it made sense as they were the only bunker upgrades starting with the word 'Upgrade' and didn't add anything new. Apparently, the pedestal with the book was not upgradeable.

Adam walked to the wardrobe. He surmised that this was where the past Adam had managed to find the 10 bluish mushrooms, and those must be the utilities provided by the wardrobe.

Upon opening the wardrobe, Adam saw that there was nothing inside, except for a wooden plank that read:

> '1 point per attempt'