They patiently waited for the event to start. It had been 30 minutes, but there still wasn"t any sign of the mysterious voice. By this time, there were already almost 50 students in the room. The atmosphere was getting tense. He recognized some of them while others were a complete mystery to him. "Time is up. Under the desks, you will find instructions. You only have 30 minutes," and the voice was gone again as fast as it came. Linri pulled out a paper from under the desk he was sitting at. On it, there were 20 riddles and some instructions. Solve the riddle to bla bla bla. You have to shout the answer bla bla bla. Anyway, he was finally ready to go.
After taking a look at the rules and the riddles Linri decided to leave, but he was stopped by someone he didn"t recognize. It was a guy in a straw hat, he was wearing a Hawaiian s.h.i.+rt and sandals. His get-up looked like Lufi, except for his hair which was brown. He was also tanned, so there was that. Wait, wasn"t there a Hawaiian race like that? You know, the one Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was part of? He couldn"t remember their name, but he should be one of them, right?
"Friend, where are you going?"
Linri raised his eyebrows.
"To solve the riddle and get my prize."
"Don"t you think everyone here should cooperate and help each other?"
"Are you an idiot? This is a treasure hunt. First one gets the prize and I intend to be that person," Linri pushed the guy away, but he was stopped again.
"Leave the instructions behind."
Oh! So that"s what he was after. There weren"t enough instructions in the cla.s.s, so some people didn"t have one. It would make sense if it was necessary to reach the next round. Linri just shoved the paper onto his chest and got out of the cla.s.sroom. He didn"t need it anyway. He already knew the locations he needed to go to and, if both of them were taken, he could just forcefully take one from another student.
He leisurely made his way to the dormitory. He could see some students running past him, searching everywhere. Poor souls, they probably weren"t even going to see the second round of this event.
Once he went inside the dormitory, Linri started to head towards the teacher"s wing.
The second riddle he solved went like this; The place where no student is allowed to be. Has its own nickname among thee. What am I? The answer was the Teacher"s hallway. In the club, every location post had a picture describing the location. Under the Ground Floor Rooms post, it was noted that, among the students, the place was called the Teacher"s hallway since, you know, the teachers were there and stuff.
"Teacher"s Hallway!" Linri shouted his answer once he made his way there.
*Click*
Suddenly, the ground in front of him split open and Linri could see a big black suitcase inside of it. He kneeled and opened the briefcase to see a big red collar and a red watch. The watch had a timer on it.
00.24.53
Linri first wore the watch on his right hand, next to his silver serpent bracelet and then put on the red collar. With this, his life was in Snow"s hands. By pressing a b.u.t.ton, the collar could inject a poison that would instantly kill you, ensuring that you were going to play the game just like how she intended. It also helped students show their true colors and how far would they would go to save their own lives.
Now that he was officially in the second round, Linri called Hayato. He wasn"t among the people he saw in the abandoned cla.s.sroom, so it seemed like he wasn"t planning on partic.i.p.ating. That was alright, but Linri had an interesting idea. He had a plan that could make sure that he was the last one standing at the end of the event, but what if he sabotaged it?
"h.e.l.lo?"
"Are you interested in helping me with a little favor?"
"Speak."
"Are you in your room? We need to speak face to face."
After giving his confirmation, Linri rushed into Hayato"s room and told him about his favor. Even though it took time to convince him, Linri was able to get him to agree. They then both left for the main building.
00:11:26
Good, they still had time to search for clues. If his second riddle was already solved, Linri could just solve another one. They climbed the stairs and went inside the biology lab on the third floor. This was the first riddle Linri had solved in the original event; I always watch you from behind. Even if I am wounded, I still haven"t died! What am I? The answer was obviously...
"Human Anatomy Mannequin"
It was always at the back of the cla.s.s and looking at towards the students. It was also alive even though his internal organs were exposed to the air... sorta alive. Then again, Linri always thought this was a stretch. That was why he had hesitated the first time and solved a second riddle.
*Click*
Linri heard the familiar click sound again and the ground split open. Phew! Thankfully they hadn"t solved this one yet. Yeah, it might actually be the hardest riddle. I mean, who would think of the answer just from those clues? Even Linri had found it only because he was inspecting each and every picture in the club during the event and, despite that, he wasn"t sure of his answer. Considering the students here didn"t have the ability to look at pictures of the areas as clues, for them it was even harder to solve.
"All yours," Linri said as he shoved the briefcase he just picked up into Hayato"s arms.
He then proceeded to open it. There were a purple collar and a watch with a timer on it just like in Linri"s briefcase.
00:08:41
Hayato inspected both of them carefully before putting them on. He hoped that Linri was right. He had faith in him considering he had never been wrong before, but this time he was betting his life on it. Anyway, if he followed his plan, there shouldn"t be any danger to himself. Even if he did not, Hayato could still hack the collar and stop it from injecting the poison. Well, if they couldn"t win this game, they were going to blow up anyway. It was the reason why he agreed to help in the first place. Thankfully Six was not around, otherwise he wouldn"t hear the end of it.
"Now what?"
"We will go to the dormitory again. Make sure you have everything with you," Linri reminded Hayato, him just nodding as a response.
When they made their way to the dormitory, there were still 4 minutes on the timer. Once it ran out, the screen of the watch went black. Afterwards, the screen lit up again and there was something written on it: go to the Dormitory Entrance.
Then Linri started to hear a familiar sound. The sound of rocks grinding against each other. He hadn"t heard this sound ever since his adventure in the Forest of Rundabar… Ugh, just remembering that made him want to throw up. He had gotten this cursed silver bracelet there. Well, at least it was something beneficial for him. He was sure of it as Lyra said so.
As he was thinking, the ground in front of them split open and stairs that were heading downwards came into light. Linri did not waste any more time and started to go down. The pa.s.sage was lit with bleak white fluorescent lights. When they have descended deep enough, the pa.s.sage in front of them was split into ten different directions, each of them painted with a color similar to their collars. Linri headed for the red one and gave Hayato one last look.
"Don"t forget the plan! I am sure you can do it," and he gave Hayato a thumbs up before leaving completely.
As he walked, he was taking deep breaths. Even though he knew his plan was perfect, he couldn"t help but feel nervous. He saw time and time again how his perfect plans had flaws in them. He didn"t want to go through the same thing again. That was why he asked for help from Hayato: he was his backup. If everything goes to s.h.i.+t again, he hoped that Hayato could solve it... Correction, he was the only one that could solve it.
Soon the road in front of him ended. At the end of the pa.s.sage, there was a giant hole going down. He didn"t hesitate a second before jumping in. The steep hole was actually a slide and it was kinda fun. After a brief moment of sliding, he fell down onto an old mattress.
He was in a closed room. The same bleak lights and a big metal door. There wasn"t anything else in the room aside from the mattress he just fell onto. Linri got up and then leaned on the wall. Now, he was going to wait. He checked his watch to see if there was a new message, but it was still showing the same thing.
*Plomp!*
While Linri was fidgeting with his collar Linri heard a loud noise. He lifted his head to see a man clad in dusty black clothes. He had white hair and an unkempt beard. His only eye was closed.
"Hey, there old man! I heard there were some hot nurses just behind that metal door. Do you think you can open it?" His partner this time was Richard again and, from the looks of it, his fall from grace had already started.