November 21st. Tuesday, 9:16 AM.

"It's too early for this", Malakai yawned, stepping out of the bus.

"Anything before 12 is early for you", Lucas said, following behind him.

"Am I wrong?" Malakai replied, rubbing his eyes.

"Yes, just go to bed earlier", Lucas said, looking around at the surroundings.

"You don't understand man", Malakai yawned again.

All the students arrived at the location where the next challenge would take place. Each class had its own bus to travel on. The journey wasn't long—it was only a 45-minute drive. This challenge was different from the last. In the last challenge, the students were split into five groups, but this time, all 150 students were completing the challenge at the same time.

"That building is huge", Ray said, looking at the wide and tall building in front of him. "What kind of challenge are we going to do?" he rhetorically asked.

"Can my class come over here please!" Ms Green said, waving her arms to indicate where she was. All the homeroom teachers from the different classes also joined them. More help was needed this time as every first year was involved. Also, this time, the challenge was not being live-streamed, so there were no cameramen.

"Is everyone here?" Ms Green asked, looking at her students in front of her. "You're not little kids, so I'm not doing a register".

"But what if one of us got lost on the way here?" Malakai asked.

"Malakai", Ms Green said in a deadbeat tone that showed she wasn't playing along.

"Sorry Miss", he quickly apologised. Malakai and Ms Greens banter was on and off. Most of the time Ms Green would play along and the other times she was sick of his jokes. You could guess what time it was this time.

"Follow me", Ms Green said, walking ahead into the building. All the students followed her into the building.

"I can't wait", Maria said with an excited look on her face.

"Are you not nervous?" Delilah asked. Maria, Tanisha, Sarena and Delilah were already walking together in their group. Benjamin was walking with his friends at the moment but would join them when he needed to.

"I'm more excited than nervous", Maria happily replied, looking energised despite it being early in the morning.

"But you don't know what the challenge is. It could be tough", Tanisha said, not feeling the same excitement Maria was feeling.

"Even so, I want to do well so I keep my spot in the top ten", Maria replied.

Tanisha smiled, "I guess we have to do good now. I don't want you to lose your place", she said.

"I think she's put more pressure on us now", Sarena whispered to Delilah.

"Yep, totally", Delilah whispered back.

Everyone was in the building, packed into this massive white room. The different classes stood behind their teachers and waited for an announcement. All the students were excited to know what the challenge was. The conversations were endless. Despite it being early in the morning, the students were wide awake for this—well, the majority of them.

"Do you lot want a spoiler?" Malakai tiredly said. His friends turned to him. "You're gonna see Mr Miller come out of that door", he said, pointing to a door on the side of the room.

"How'd you know?" William asked.

"They told me he organised this challenge", Malakai replied, yawning again.

"That's a shit spoiler. Give us another one", Lucas said, flicking the back of Malakai's ear.

"Ayo", Malakai felt it. "It's the only one I got. Take it or leave it", he joked.

"You already gave it to us", Ray giggled.

While Malakai laughed and joked with his friends, he was getting watched from all angles. No matter where he was people always watched him.

"Whatever the challenge is, he can't win this time", Ryan said to himself.

"It's time to make everyone know who I am and overtake him", Destiny said to herself.

"Why is he always smiling? It pisses me off", Dillon said to himself.

"I hope my teammates don't slow me down, again", Adam said to himself.

Out of nowhere, a door opened, and a familiar man walked in. Yep, Mr Miller was back, which didn't please many of the students. He stepped onto the platform at the front and walked to the centre. He stood before them and let their teachers quiet them down for him. Once silence came, he started,

"Welcome to challenge three", he introduced with a smile. The students felt a wave of excitement and happiness after hearing that despite who said it. "This is challenge three", Mr Miller continued. "All of you are here to participate today instead of the challenge being spread out through the week".

"No shit Sherlock", Malakai quietly said so only his friends could hear. No laughs broke out, but they all smirked. Anyone could fall victim to Malakai's jokes.

"The challenge this time is a lot different from your last. You're not leaving this building", Mr Miller said, spreading his arms. "I'm sure all of you saw how big this building is from the outside. Well, I can tell you that this building contains many rooms, and those rooms are escape rooms".

Smiles, gasps and shocked faces. Escape rooms. That sounded fun. Something straightforward, not driving to different places and doing random tasks. The majority of students were happy with this announcement. Who doesn't like escape rooms?

"Yes, today's challenge is a single escape room. You and your group will have to try and get out of the room the quickest", Mr Miller said. "I won't tell you anything about the escape room as I don't want to spoil you or give you a head start. You'll have to go in there and figure it out yourselves. However, I will tell you that there are four different ways to escape".

Four ways to escape? Throughout his explanation, some students were whispering and already strategising. It may sound stupid, as they don't know what's inside the room, but they wanted to be organised.

"Before I let you go, let me tell you about the points", Mr Miller said in a tone that clearly showed he knew what he was doing. "The team that escapes first will get 1500 points."

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"This time, there's a definitive winner," Alexander mumbled. Destiny gave Alexander a side-eye to see his reaction, but his facial expression looked the same as ever. Students were also side-eyeing Malakai, which wasn't that surprising. Malakai could lose first place, and the point gap could be closed, which fired up the students more. They wanted to see Malakai fall. His name had been at the top for too long.

"The teams that finish 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th get 1250 points. Teams that finish 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th or 10th get 1000 points. Teams that place 11th to 15th get 750 points. Teams that place 16th to 20th get 500 points. Teams that place 21th to 30th get 250 points. Teams that don't escape the room in the time limit get 0 points", Mr Miller explained.

"What's the time limit?" A student shouted out without hesitation.

"The time limit is six hours", Mr Miller answered.

Six hours? How big is this room? Is it that hard to escape? The students also noticed that every position offered points. Only the teams that didn't finish didn't get points. So that must mean escaping is difficult. Stress came over some students.

"Settle down! Settle down!" Mr Miller said, trying to calm the noise. "Hearing that reaction showed me that all of you thought this would be easy. Let me tell you, a lot of work has been put into this. Points can't be given so easily, and that's the harsh reality of this academy", he said.

"Can you tell us what to expect!" Someone shouted. Cheers of support followed that comment. Panic was evident. Students were having doubts about their abilities.

Mr Miller smiled, "I won't tell you anything about the room. All I will tell you is that you have to find a way to escape it within the time limit", he replied.

"Will there be a clock to show us how much time we got left!?"

"There will be a clock, but it will only tell you the time. It won't tell you how much time you got left", Mr Miller answered. The more the students knew, the more stressed they became, and Mr Miller loved it. "I don't want to waste more of your time. I've told you what the challenge is. Your teachers will guide you to your rooms. Good luck and try your best", Mr Miller's final words before leaving the room.

The noise in the room increased. Everyone was talking now.

"Mally, good luck", David sympathetically said, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm not getting first, but I'm coming in the top ten", Malakai replied.

"There's no way", William said. "You're by yourself".

"Mally, I know you do some cool stuff, but this time, even I think you're doing too much", Ray added.

"Doubt me, I don't mind. But, when I do come in the top ten, I want an apology", Malakai replied, doing his usual smile.

"Do you think he will?" Lucas asked Benjamin.

"I think he's crazy, but if he does do it, I wouldn't be surprised", Benjamin replied.

"Shhhhh!". "Quiet!". The teachers tried their best to quiet the place down and eventually succeeded after many attempts. The place was quiet enough for the teachers to make their announcements.

"Can my class follow me!" Mr Saint ordered his class. Class 1-A followed their teacher out of the room. Next was class 1-C, as they stood next to class 1-A. The classes didn't stand in order, their homeroom teachers stood where they wanted, and their classes followed.

"Shit, I need to go to my team", Benjamin said. He left his friends and went to his team. "Are yall ready?" he asked when approaching them.

"Yeah/Nope/Not really/I don't know", he got four different answers.

"Heh, everything is going to be fine. You've got someone in the top ten here", Benjamin boastfully but jokingly said.

"You're not the only person in the top ten here", Tanisha said, wrapping an arm around Maria. Maria shyly looked away because of the compliment.

"I know", Benjamin smiled.

"If we don't do good, they're both losing their places in the top ten. I feel even more pressure now", Sarena whispered to Delilah.

"Yep, totally", Delilah whispered back.

The class left the room and went up some stairs to a higher floor. They reached a wide corridor with doors on the left-hand side. The doors were heavily spaced out, meaning the rooms were massive.

"Behind these doors are the escape rooms", Ms Green said. "With your team, go and stand behind a door, but don't go inside!" she made the last bit clear.

Different teams walked and chose a door. Malakai and his group of friends continued to walk further down the corridor. The number of students started to dwindle as they chose doors.

"Let's stay here", Tanisha said, standing next to a door. Her team stopped and waited for further instructions.

"Good luck", David, Lucas, Ray and William wished them good luck as they walked past them.

"Thanks", they all replied.

Malakai walked to them and held his fist out for a fist-bump to each of them. "Good luck".

Sarena was hesitant to fist-bump him as this was their first interaction. "Thank you", she timidly replied.

Delilah and Benjamin fist-bumped him and thanked him, but,

"You're not gonna spud me? (fist-bump me)", Malakai asked, holding out his fist.

"No. I don't need your luck", Tanisha replied, leaving him hanging.

"Aryt, whatever you say", he said, pulling his fist away. "Good luck", Malakai smiled, holding out his fist.

Maria smiled and fist-bumped him, "Thanks, you too. You need it more than us", she replied.

"Luck? Naah, maybe a bit", Malakai said, walking away. With that, he went further down the corridor and chose a door next to his friends. Everyone was behind a door and waited for what to do next.

"Hello! Is everyone ready?" A voice came from a speaker in the ceiling. It was Mr Miller again. "If everyone is ready, we can start the challenge", the challenge was about to start. "When you hear the beep you may enter your room".

There was about a two-minute wait. Time felt like it was going in slow motion. The students wanted to go into the room already, but all they could do was wait until,

BEEEEPP!!!

Doors opened, and students went flying in. David and his team rushed into the room and were frozen in place upon seeing what was inside.

"Where do we start?".