And then it hit me. The bullet I was holding fell from my hand, giving me a clue about the answer. Even though I only had the gist of it, the concept was all I needed to crack the code for the damned question.Basically, the entire idea was simple. The circular bullet didn’t have any sides, just like the mathematical descriptions. But it did have some interior and exterior parts, which I considered as sides. If I had to take that information in hand, the answer was simple. It would be two, since I found two sides from the circular shape.“Two,” I mumbled, and continued muttering the sentence for an umpteenth time. “Two! Hina, the answer is two!” Hina tilted her head on the side, crossed her shoulders, and asked, “Two? Are you stupid?! That’s not even the correct side of the square or a rectangle!”Technically, Hina was wrong. There was a shape that had two sides called digon. I had heard about it, but I never really thought about it. It was just a stock knowledge that I had never tap
“Can’t we just guess the tunnel?” Hina suggested. “We have a twenty percent chance of guessing it right. That will be more than enough for us to take!”Even though the system laid out the challenge’s instructions, there were still some things left unspoken. What the portal didn’t say was about taking a guess for an answer to the riddle and delaying one’s answer for it. If the party of adventurers had randomly guessed a wrong answer, the monster horde would appear. And there would be no other way to choose from but accept death from there. If the answer was delayed, the swarm of monsters would still appear. However, the group of adventurers could still choose an answer despite the delay or absence of an answer from the riddle. Whatever the portal didn’t mention will be accepted as true and plausible to happen.I may not understand the meaning behind riddles, but I could define the instructions given by the portal and find a hole from it. At least, I did something that could help us buy
“There it is, Hina. Stay sharp and alive. You need to hold this off while I concentrate on looking for an answer. I need more time, so please be patient. Maybe Oculus can help me out here and find a perfect equation. Desperate times need desperate measures,” I said, and lowered my head. “I’m sorry for everything I said earlier. I need you, Hina. I can’t do this without you.”Hina, after hearing my sentences, smiled and answered, “Sure thing, brother. I have your back. I trust you. So please trust me.”“I do. I do trust you.”I only had a few occurrences where I saw Hina’s genuine smiles. And this event was one of them. My heart fluttered and skipped a dozen beats knowing that I made my sister smile. I was aware that I had some sort of feelings towards my sister. I didn’t know if these sensations were indecent to society, but that thought didn’t matter for now. As long as Hina had no clue about it, that was fine for me. Maybe after all of these shenanigans, maybe I should confront Hina
All of a sudden, the monsters turned into ashes and the first tunnel illuminated before us. It meant that the road we chose was the correct answer, so Hina and I went straight ahead for the third riddle of the day. Thankfully, there were no insects or creatures that slowed us down. Only our crippling anxiety was the one that held us back.It didn’t take us long enough to reach the other side. As soon as we arrived, ten tunnels greeted us. The place also seemed larger than usual. I could only guess that the portal thought we needed more distance to choose a tunnel and fight against monsters just in case we screwed up. And all of those roads were dyed black as the colour of our hairs. But the only glaring difference between the ones we saw earlier and now was that this place was crawling with holes made by the insects we fought a while back. Luckily, no bugs popped out from those cracks. If they were creatures lurking in the area while we guessed for an answer, the two of us would have
When I answered the riddle thirty seconds ahead of time, the first tunnel lit its way and revealed the correct path, while the rest of the roads became darker. There were no monsters tracking us down or any other hidden mechanism that prevented us from moving onward. Without a second of doubt, I pulled Hina away from the place and marched our way outside the cavern. According to our map, this route would lead us outside the cave for good. Within moments, Hina and I finally touched the grass and we were now outside the forsaken cave. As we turned around, the cave’s entrance closed in and shut it until someone from the other side answered the questions… just like we did. When we turned around, the familiar scent of the forest welcomed us and the chirping trees surrounding our environment. The air remained the same, fresh as if we went on a vacation inside a forest. Even the sun looked like something from our world, where the bright light illuminated the areas and gave everyone hope.
Elena led us deeper inside the survivor’s base to converse about… everything. There were a lot of things Elena still didn’t know about Hina and me, and there was a myriad of information I had to collect about these survivors. Not to mention, we were running with a time limit. If we stayed idled inside this place, the elite adventurers of the Crimson Guild would find their way inside here. And it wouldn’t be a pretty sight for everyone, especially me.Just like what had happened earlier, every survivor we passed by was glaring in our direction. Some were looking at us out of curiosity, while others were hesitant to believe our words. Thankfully, having Elena, who seemed to be the leader of the survivor group, escorting us made it easier for us to breeze through the village. It kept people thinking that we were guests or adventurers sent from the outside, which was always a good thing. However, that wasn’t the case. We weren’t involved in any organisation.Technically, the prime minister
“But I thought we’d already accomplished that earlier?... Well, you know what? Whatever.”“Exactly my thought. But I still don’t trust you. And I still want to know your agenda, your plan, your abilities, and… your overall identity and how you became, or at least the people have framed you, a murderer. I can’t just let you walk inside our base with innocent children and people involved. Right now, they don’t know who they are. But I… I somewhat have heard you before from my father's informant and secretary. It might be possible that you were framed moments before we were trapped here inside Omen. Regardless, you need to talk about everything and tell me what you know and what you can give to my people.”Even though I had a ticking time bomb within me - since the elite members of the Crimson Guild were after my ass - what Elena asked for was reasonable. If I was in her position, I would’ve asked the same questions. And if someone claimed to be adventurers who wished to free the survivo
“Just promise me one thing, Aoi. Please protect my people, unlike the Crimson Guild… who only cares about their image….”I had heard a lot of rumours about the Crimson Guild refusing to help any people inside those portals. But I shrugged it off and told myself that wasn’t the case, considering they were the highest paid guild and the most popular one all over the world. There was no way that the Crimson Guild would choose who they saved. Then again, Elena, the daughter of the prime minister, told me otherwise.I also knew that there was some conflict between the prime minister and the Crimson Guild. It was something involving the shift of power over our country and the involvement of the United Nations. Since I was just an average civilian, I had no idea about it… Not until Vulcan, Akihiko, and Doctor Maruki told me some details they knew. “That’s the first time I’ve heard that, Elena. What exactly happened between the Crimson Guild and you…. Especially to your father?”Elena paused