They slowly step inside in full alert, afraid that something will pop put of somewhere, since there have been a lot of weird things happening up until now. But the more they see it, the more it looks like a normal forest, the roof is so high up and the dampness and the soil smell on the air makes it feels like a real forest if it is not because of the wall surrounding it,

“Then.. let's start searching?”, Aaron took a glance at them, and all of them nodded in agreement.

Because they didn't know what the keys looked like and what size or shape it was they could only blindly search around for it, Kayla couldn't help but think, ‘They couldn't be so crooked to put the keys inside the tree trunks right? Or using the same color as the things in here? If that is so, how could we even find that? They wouldn’t be so petty to do that right?’, the more Kayla thinks about it, the more she gets worried and looks nervously at her surroundings, if they really do something like that, then how long do they have to search for it? It might take hours and probably days!

Kayla had been eyeing the entrance for a while now and when she lifted her head to take a look again, she finally saw someone standing there with a smug smile on her face, Claire was there crossing her arms and leaning on the walls, she didn't come in and stay at the dark. Kayla looks at her with a frown on her face and they look at each other eyes to eyes for a moment before Aaron notices her presence,

“What are you doing here?!”, Aaron hissed, Claire didn’t look angry or offended and just gave him a flirting smile, “Don’t be so angry and mean, why don’t we cooperate?”

Aaron couldn't help but show disgust and scowl, “You are losing your people and now you wanted to take advantage of us, do you think we are stupid?”. Their group which originally had six people, now only had three people including her, it seems that they agreed to be divided into two groups, who knows that things would go awry like this, there are two men standing beside her, quite bulky but not looking very smart, so Claire must thought that it is a good idea to find Aaron and try to persuade him to make teams with her. Such presumptuous and undignified action to see. Their gestures look confident, making Kayla suspicious that they have something up their sleeve, or it could be because they thought that Kayla’s group mostly only consisted of women and only Jeremy and Aaron could fight, and the both of them look more like a good student than a fighter, so they thought that they were an easy prey and decided to give it a go.

“What have you found? Can’t you share some information with me? You will at least let me know that much right?”, she asks confidently with a wide smile on her face, Aaron looks at her with his cold eyes while Jeremy scoffs with contempt,

“Do you think we are an easy prey? If you want to have it, get it with your own capability, and we will see who will win!”, without any other thought, the two people behind Claire indeed launched forward and they immediately fought, Kayla was shocked, she knew that they will have to face them at some time, but she didn’t expect that they have to face them so soon and also with this kind of confrontation. Kayla turns to look at Claire who stands there crossing her arms with a sneer on her face, she looks like she is confident enough that her friends would be able to win the fight.

Claire seemed to notice Kayla looking at her direction and she looked mockingly at her, Kayla faces turned dark and planning to confront her, but Diane held her back and she is the one to step out, without saying anything Diane suddenly slapped her hard on the face, Kayla's eyes widen in shocks, she has never thought that Diane would immediately raised her hands to deal with Claire. The boys who are busily fighting also stop on their track when they hear a loud slap and Claire falls on the floor with a loud thud, her face filled with shock and humiliation, she clearly has never been treated like this before. Aaron and Jeremy used this chance to make a deathly attack and hit them back hard enough for both of them to fall to the ground and groan in pain. Claire has gotten her composure back and stood up with rage,

“You!!..”

“What? Can’t I tell you to go off after your ludicrous remarks, am I the one who goes crazy or you?”, Diane coldly stated, Claire's face turned red in embarrassment and anger, but she knew that she couldn’t win in fights between them, seeing that her two friends who look more like her "lackey" has fallen to the ground and in bruised, she knows that she has completely lost and with a great shame with that.

“Do you think that you are that great?! We could also find it on our own!!”, Claire shouted and told her two “friends” to back off.

Kayla turned to look at Aaron and Jeremy and asked how they were doing, they seemed fine and they didn’t seem to get any serious injuries.

“Let’s be careful, they might come back, or even worse, they might cooperate with other people to attack us”, Aaron said, Diane smirked, “Let’s see how far they could go, I am willing to play with them”, Aaron looks at her and smiled, it seems that they have the same line of thought in this aspect.

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“How could she be so confident that they could overstep us!”, Clara huffed in annoyance, and Diane couldn't help but tease her, “Probably because they think we are as weak as you”, Clara turned to look at her looking speechless, she seems to be offended but didn’t have a word to say about that.

Kayla became silent and looked empty, she couldn’t understand why they had to be fighting each other so fiercely like this, Diane looked at her expression and immediately understood what she was thinking about, “They are not worried about the rewards or the acceptance, because what they worried the most is the punishment that is waiting for them”

Kayla turned to look at her and Diane continued, “People either will work hard for rewards or are afraid that they will get a punishment if they fail the task, and when the punishment is something they didn't know of, the instinct of staying safe drives them to do unreasonable things in order to survive, since the word "punishment" always leads to something bad, and people naturally wanted to avoid bad things”

Kayla lowered her head, it seems that everyone here has taken this test very seriously, and she too, has to do so. Kayla let out a small bitter smile and told them to start searching again so they could get out of there quickly. Kayla crouched down and tried to stab the dirt around with the branch of trees she had, this place was huge, so Kayla started to wonder if they would be able to find it, and after those people came, her mood basically shattered, Aaron seems to have noticed that and said worriedly,

“If we couldn't find it here, we could try our luck at another place”

Kayla didn't say anything and just nodded, she kept on rummaging the ground mindlessly, Diane pulled her to the side and told her to sit down and take a rest, she looked at Kayla with a frown on her face,

“I have never thought that you would be such a soft person”

Kayla looks at her and let out a loud sigh, “I don't, I.. probably just thought that all of this seems ridiculous. You know.. I know that society is harsh, and that people are really competitive about their goals and accomplishments, but maybe because I grew up in an environment that didn't really push me to do so, my parents also didn't really care about my scores, so I just.. find it really strange”

“You are.. being loved so much by your parents”, Diane said with a small sad smile, “They didn't want to put pressure on you, they want you to slowly grow up and find your own passion. Each person leads a different life and so do their goals in life, you just need to look at your goals, you can change but not your heart— Perhaps.. one day, you will find something you like and pursue it as your career. By that time you will know how fierce the competition is on the market, but until then, you have to prepare your heart, at here”

Kayla let out a small chuckle, “That is if we could get in”

“I am sure you would”, Diane said confidently, and Kayla laughs at her words, “Thanks a lot.. honestly, I have never thought that I would get into such a mess just after graduating”, Kayla said chuckling, Diane also nodded in agreement, “Me too, I was the laziest person in my class, the lectures all seems very boring to me, and now we got to handle a bunch of tests that are very silly, much more sillier than the test in class”.

Kayla laughs at her remarks, Jeremy suddenly shouts that he has found something, Kayla’s face lit up and they get up to see it, “What is it?”

“Look, doesn't it feel like someone has dug something from here?”, Jeremy said and it indeed looked like so, the dirt around it was loose, so Aaron and Jeremy decided to dig that place with the branch and they finally got something, a small wooden box, Aaron gently opens it and it reveals a beautifully crafted golden keys, Clara shriek in joys,

“We found it!”

“Sshht! Do you want everyone to know about it?”, Diane hissed, Clara closed her mouth with her hands in reflex and whispered, “Should we search again or go to another place?”

Kayla carefully thought about it, “We don't know how huge this place is, if it is big, they probably would hide one in each room, but if it is not, there are probably a couple of keys in one room”

“I think it would be unlikely for them to keep multiple keys in one room, wouldn't that make it so much easier for us to find them?”, Diane speculated

“How about we search around again?”, Jeremy suggested and they all nodded, after searching for another hour they were basically exhausted, it was already ten o’clock at night, they were sleepy and there were no supplies, they were very thirsty and hungry.

“Don't tell me they are not going to give us any supplies? How are we going to survive!!”, Clara cries out, all of them are covered in dirt and sweat, and their hands also feel numb from all the digging. Kayla purses her lips, “We are being too careless, if we keep on exhausting our energy like this, we won't be able to last long”

“How about we rest first, and we will think about it tomorrow?”, Aaron suggested and all of them agreed, they rested below one of the tree, the roots had become their pillow to lay their head on. Kayla couldn’t fall asleep and decided to lay lazily on the trees, looking at the wooden box that was a little larger than her hands, after rummaging through it for a long time, she found something odd, she saw a small carving hidden at the side of the box near its cap, ‘A number?!’

Kayla didn't understand what number it was, then she remembered that she had also seen a number on that card she found on the floor before and asked Aaron if he had kept it, Clara said that she kept it, since she was the last one who sees it, she took it out, but her face immediately turned to look confused,

“The number has changed”

Kayla took it and gave it a look, it indeed had changed, the number had become lower than the original, “What does this mean?”, Clara asked confused and scared.

“Could it be.. the number of the keys?”, Kayla presumed.

“Possibly”, Aaron replied.

Kayla took a look at the card again and flipped it, the back also had changed, it didn't contain any more rules but a very strange-looking arrow that lengthened for three rows, and at the very bottom, above the beautiful pattern of the card, there was a barely visible word, “Bottle”

“What does that even mean?”, Jeremy said in confusion.

“Could this.. be a clue?”, Clara said doubtfully.

“If it is a clue, then this words might be the clue of what is inside of the room, and these arrows.. are the guide?”, Aaron said.

“If it is true, then we might have to go back to collect more cards again”, Kayla said and they all sighed. Such a long journey for them to go back once again to the starting point.

TO BE CONTINUED…