On its face, you think it’s pointing a giant glowing arrow at room #45. Then when you know the winning path and the canonical “correct exit” for each room, you interpret the line as a willful misdirect. But it’s a misdirect that can’t possibly work on someone who’s actually playing through the book room-by-room in the intended manner!

That’s because you can only encounter this room after having already passed through #45. The doors to #8 and #19 are one-way, while #28 (and its neighbor #32) also can only be accessed on the back end of the Path. So if you’re playing the book properly, this isn’t your first time seeing a door to #45 and it’s nothing to get excited about. You’re trying to get back AWAY from #45. The misdirect has no substance.

I wonder if Manson’s purpose with this line, quite apart from just having a bit of fun, was to misdirect readers who AREN’T playing through the book sequentially but are instead trying to reverse-engineer a solution by working their way backward from #45. Such a reader, perhaps, hasn’t found the upside-down door in #29. He thinks there are no doors leading to #17 except for the one in #45. So he assumes that #17 must be the first step back out from the center, and in turn assumes #23 must be the last step in toward the center. The “seeking for so long” line neatly reinforces this impression and sends the reader down a rabbit hole, only for him to eventually realize that there is no route from #1 to #23!

Again, this could absolutely just be Manson being cheeky, but it’s interesting to think of this as a fakeout specifically meant to counter metagamers, not straightforward players.

I like also the note someone made that it was the 8th window pane broken.

Apparently it is difficult to look over the Guide’s shoulder.

Seven stars over room 45… could this be a reference to the Seven Sisters, or Pleiades? This constellation is found ON THE SHOULDER of the constellation Taurus the bull. Another minotaur hint? (Difficult to look over guide’s shoulder… would certainly be difficult if he is talking about a constellation!)

If this is in fact the case, it might also be another hint that 45 is the wrong door here… if you go through 45 you are going back… if you are looking over your shoulder, you are looking back. (The idiom “looking over your shoulder” means being wary of danger or threats…)