SURVIVAL 13: LEVEL 1 STAGE 3 - MAZE

"Whaaa!”

I was inside a single-person glass elevator and went from the 50th floor down to the ground floor with ten times the speed of an ordinary elevator. After a minute, the elevator stopped. Its sliding door opened automatically. I came out and walked. It is dim, with only torches attached to the wall illuminating my path. When I reached the dead end, I grabbed the wooden door’s handle to open it. They were all there. I looked up, and there was the sun. There’s a vast land. We are currently approximately 150 meters deep in the pit we are at the bottom of it.

***

LOCATION: Open landscape TIME: Morning

We saw something like a mirror shining because of the sunligh and it and became a hologram. Everyone stood and approached where Author is.

"A pleasant greeting to everyone. To make everything direct... Wealth Level: Stage 3 will begin!”

In this vast and quiet land where we stand, there are walls that rise from the ground.

"The categories will be land, air, and water. First, you will be having category 1, the land category. As you can see, there is an extraordinary labyrinth. 18 players, 2 teams, 9 members each team. The game will be the same as the gold team vs. the silver team. “

The walls are approximately 5 meters high. There are moss and overgrown plants.

Gold team – Forzen (14th), Sixzen (16th), Aeizen (18th), Twentieth (20th), Sectwen (22nd), Fifzen (15th), Sevenzen (17th), Ninezen (19th), Thirtwen (23rd)

Silver team – Second (2nd), Fourth (4th), Sixth (6th), Aeith (8th), First (1st), Third (3rd), Fifth (5th), Seventh (7th), Ninth (9th)

"The gold team will enter the left entrance, while the Silver team will enter the right entrance. The goal is simple. It is to find the treasure that hides inside the labyrinth. The first team that finds it wins.”

"How can we find that? Then, what kind of treasure are you referring to?” I asked.

"There will be riddle cards that will help you. Remember, when something extraordinary happens, expect it to happen. The game will start momentarily.”

And Author disappeared for a while. In an instant, I am wearing a simple silver tracksuit and white rubber shoes. The gold team wears a gold tracksuit and white rubber shoes.

Now it is about private schools (gold team) vs. public schools (silver team).

"Looks like everyone's ready," Author is there again.

"Additional information about the game: Get the map after you enter the door. It is to help you find riddles written on a card. There is a total of 5 cards. Decode those codes that will help you find the treasure. There are 2 labyrinths, one for each team. The two labyrinths will merge as one when you reach the last station, which is near the treasure... Two teams, proceed to your assigned entrances.”

We walked closer to the entrance, to the right. Our door is silver, on the other team is gold.

"This game is a matter of life and death... After I count, run as much as you can and find the treasure that hides inside the labyrinth... Wealth Level: Stage 3 will start in 10, 9, 8,”

The door is open. We have positioned ourselves to take off.

"7, 6, 5, 4,”

"We can do this," Seventh encouraged us. He went in front of us and bent over. I hope I have confidence that he has.

"3, 2, 1, go!”

This maze or labyrinth is 3 meters wide. The brick walls are about 5 meters high. I turned around, and the silver door was closing.

"The map!" Fifth shouted and picked up the paper that was folded and lying on the side of the wall.

This map might look like an ordinary thick paper but its image is 3D-like. The view is what angle our eyes see, not the top view. But, there are blind spots where not the entire maze and its surrounding area can be seen.

"Look," Third pointed at the top of the map Fifth was holding while he was sitting.

I bent down to see it well. A text suddenly appeared above it. It's not just that the image on the map looks 3D, it's now like a touchscreen gadget because text pops out automatically.

Go to the left

This is the text that showed. I turned to the front. I didn't see two directions in which we could turn, but the road is straight.

"Let's run, maybe there's a detour there," Sixth indicated which we followed.

We all ran to find what the map is referring to. After a few seconds, we saw two directions, left and right.

"That's it," Aeith gasped. "Let's go!”

We ran again towards the left. The map’s image is changing to where we are now.

"Ah!" I heard Fourth’s voice. I turned and saw her.

Her two feet were submerged in the mud. Everyone stopped running, and we helped her from getting stuck.

"It's not mud anymore, that’s quicksand," Ninth informed us.

"Help me," Fourth sobbed.

Glad that her case wasn’t severe. We took a deep breath and resumed walking.

I haven't seen any mud on our way lately. Everyone stopped when our leader, Third, stopped.

"There's a card," he picked it up.

"That's probably the first one!" Aeith beamed from what we discovered.

"Something's written again," Fifth noticed and read the new writing at the top of the map.

Go to the right

We turn right and run.

"What the!" It’s Seventh. We saw him sitting and frowning while holding his butt.

"Be careful guys, there's moss there. I didn't see it. When I fell, my ass hit the rock... Aw!" he warned us as he pointed at the moss with pebbles and rocks near where we were standing. He slowly stood up and shook the dirt off his tracksuit.

"The second card," First picked up what he saw was the second card stuck to one of the rocks. Third took it and hid it again in his pocket.

I notice that every time we turn, there is an accident waiting for us. When someone has an accident, we pick up a new card. When we learned the pattern, we immediately read what was written on the map.

Go to the right

We were about to take a step to run again when I heard concrete crumbling and a man shout.

"Help!" I looked around to see who was missing among us. It’s Fifth! Where is he?

Everyone looked back and saw the collapsed part of what we were stepping on. We saw Fifth. This is it, something bad will happen if we rush.

The boys lifted Fifth up. We were surprised when the part where Fifth stood before collapsed. We saw that beneath the ground was a sky. I don’t know if this maze is floating in the sky.

***

Third pulled out of his pocket the 2 cards he had found. This is what’s written on the first card.

1. Death throe - 2 syllables

What are the first 2 letters of the words when pronounced?

The second card shows:

2. Hay - a word of greetings or expression.

Remove the H, you will get the missing letter.

That’s what’s written on the two cards.

"Oh, so that's the spelling of 'throe'. I thought R-O-W, haha!" Seventh had something in his mind, but it turned out to be wordplay.

"'When the H is removed from 'hay', only the letters A and Y will be left. It does not say 'missing letters' but 'missing letter', it means only one letter. Either A or Y is the missing letter?" doubtful answer of Fifth.

Everyone is thinking deeply and sharing opinions that may be the answer to our question.

"We're just wasting our time." I gazed at First because of what he claimed.

"Okay, so far, we haven't solved any riddles." Third opened the map and there was another direction written on the map. "We must proceed now to the left." He stood up and shook the dirt off his clothes. "Let's go.”

After he said that, everyone stood up and ran to find our third turn.

"What's the problem?" I asked.

His eyes narrowed and he grabbed his butt. "There’s something on my ass," He frowned like he was in pain.

"Here," I held out my hand to him.

"It's okay, it'll go away too." He smiled at me, then he started walking and running.

We saw Seventh running.

"Run! They’re bees!" he shouted while running towards us.

It entered my mind that Seventh might have broken or disturbed their hives.

*bbbbzzz*

"Duck!" Third ordered us. We bent down, covering our ears.

After a few seconds, we could no longer hear bees

"Hey! What are you doing there?!" Aeith scolded her classmate, Seventh.

"When my ass ached, I clung to the beehive..." He admitted shyly.

He took something from the pocket of his tracksuit. "Here, the third card.” Seventh handed it to Third.

Third took the third card.

***

We continued walking until we turned left.

"Be alert," the leader warned us, so we all watched every step we took.

Something caught my eye. I called them and pointed out the thing. And that confirmed the 4th card.

"How are we going to get that?" Fifth pondered pointing the card he was referring to.

The wall is also about 5 meters high, and the card is about 2.5 to 3 meters high.

"Who is the tallest of you?" I inquired, so they all looked at me and themselves.

They lined up and we looked at them.

“It’s Ninth,” Sixth confirmed that Ninth is the tallest among us.

Ninth is the tallest, followed by First, Seventh, Fifth, and Third.

The next thing I did was ask First and Ninth "What is the weight of you two?"

"Not fully accurate. Probably uh… 59-60 kilograms," Ninth replied first.

"63" First answered.

First sat up and bent forward. Ninth sat on First’s shoulder. Ninth immediately removed the adhesive card from the wall.

"Come on, we still have to find the 5th card," Third authoritatively commanded us.

"Argh" I saw Ninth holding his right hand.

Seventh and I approached him. "What happened?"

"Stop! Everyone, stop walking." Everyone was stunned because of what he said.

He took a piece of a branch that he had just found and stabbed the something in front of him that we could not see. In an instant, the end of the branch was cut off, turned black, and smoky.

"What is that?" Sixth’s eyebrows furrowed.

"There's an invisible barrier that can burn an object that touches it." I frowned at what Ninth discovered.

He pierced the barrier again, and within two seconds it became visible, silver as steel. It immediately became invisible after two seconds.

"My hand penetrated the barrier, and then I got burned. I think there's a time pattern when this barrier disappears." Ninth reckoned.

"Let's observe and distinguish its time pattern." Third suggested.

Ninth and First were assigned to figure out that time pattern. The others will answer the riddles. Third took the cards out of his pocket and laid them on the floor.

1. Death throe - 2 syllables

What are the first 2 letters of the words when pronounced?

2. Hay - a word of greetings or expression.

Remove the H, you will get the missing letter.

3. Carbon and Oxygen

4. Chromatic color that produces a pleasant harmony to a chromatic painting.

Amond is the world where amond lies.

When you touch it once again, you'll die.