Mr Z had barely finished speaking when a huge timer of no more and no less than fifteen minutes appeared.

Just as Karh was trying to figure out what was happening, he looked up to see cards falling down from the roof in droves all over the hall.

In seconds, the ground was filled with them.

‘One….thirty four….two hundred and ninety five,’ Karh thought, his gaze shifting from side to side as he read the numbers whose cards were face up on the floor.’

Shifting his gaze over to the person standing beside him with the glasses, he watched him bend down to suddenly pick a card and turn it face up only for both of them to be astounded at the same time.

‘Two thousand three hundred and nine’

Instantly the expressions on their faces mirrored each other.

If there was such a number who knew if there were even greater numbers still scattered all over. None of them could see the end of the hall, so the thought that their numbers could be anywhere was even more astounding.

“Ding…ding…ding…BEGIN!”

For a few seconds, Karh simply stood and watched people begin to vigorously search the ground around them, while others began shouting out numbers, their voices echoing through every corner of the hall.

“What's your number?” the man with the glasses beside Karh suddenly asked.

“506. Yours?”

“310…” he replied with a sigh, looking around with an extremely worried expression on his face.

“At this rate only very few people will be able to find their numbers,” but he had barely spoken when one after the other people around them began to shout with obvious joy on their faces,

“Found mine…”

“Thank God. I FOUND MINE TOO,”

“Oh thank Buddha. I was sure I would never find it,”

“It was simply two steps away from me…”

“My was a whole ten steps away,”

“Mine…was even farther than that but thankfully it wasn’t facing down,”

Karh’s gaze instantly shifted to that of the man and without the two of them saying a single word to each other. They instantly bent down and began to vigorously search for their numbers.

The thirteen year old girl standing on his right after his neighbor suddenly whelped in shock right before raising her hand to show a card that clearly belonged to her.

“890”

‘Fuck…’ Karh muttered under his breath with a clearly worried expression on his face, after bending down and slowly going through every card around him without seeing any hope in sight.

Five minutes passed by and Karh had searched in a ten step radius around him but no matter how quickly or how long he searched he seemed to find every number but his own.

Stolen novel; please report.

At first others that had found their number began to call out the numbers around them with hopes of helping out others but they soon stopped when it quickly became clear that no matter how much they cried in a loud tone, their voices no longer carried as far as they hoped it would.

“Any luck?” he suddenly heard the person beside him ask and Karh simply shook his head, with his head bent towards the ground.

His forehead half drenched in sweat, as his gaze kept on switching from the time {10:56} to the ground to the spot he was currently checking.

He was also low key checking for his neighbor’s numbers just in case with hopes that he was also checking for his own.

The others with numbers around them completely ignored them while some people went as far as to proudly look down on the ones still vigorously searching the ground with tears in their eyes.

“It's not here…please…please. Someone help me look for 1098. IT’S NOT HERE! I DON’T WANT TO DIE!!” a woman suddenly broke down crying on the floor, her eyes blurred in tears but Karh had absolutely no time to pay attention to her as he got on his feet, wondering why he hadn't found his own.

Looking around it quickly became clear that barely half of the people around him had found their numbers while the other half were in absolute despair.

Somehow Karh wasn’t exempted. He felt his heart slowly begin to race in his chest even as he made sure to keep track of the time.

{7:45}

Barely seven minutes more, and Karh could clearly see that there was no one that was lucky enough to find their number in the last three minutes. What was the guarantee that he could find his own in seven.

Even the man on his left with the huge temper was huffing and puffing around with his face stuck to the ground, with hopes that he would be able to sniff out his own number.

“HEY! HAS ANYONE…” he began to yell at the top of his voice with a clearly pissed off expression on his face only for him to suddenly shut up the moment a loud voice boomed right above the hall.

{He…He…Five minutes more}

Mr Z’s voice boomed even as his image on the screen chuckled half bent over on his cane with a clearly amused expression on his face as he seemed to look down at them all.

“I could have sworn it was 6:50” The young man with the glasses on Karh’s right swore with a large expression of despair even as Karh’s gaze trailed in the direction his own did.

The hall was wide and long and no matter how far one looked, it seemed to be never-ending so much so that whatever hopes one had of searching through it was instantly squashed with the huge timer hanging above their heads.

Karh too couldn’t help but feel some sort of desperation even as he lowered himself to the ground moving further out as he began to look for his number.

Two minutes went by with only about three minutes left and Karh couldn’t help but think it was a lost cause even as he had his head bent towards the ground.

Looking around, he could see the desperation that filled the air, especially amongst those that were yet to find their numbers.

Some of them laid in the ground with tears streaming down their faces, some began to yell their numbers as loudly as they could with the hopes that others would help them look while others just kept looking around with an empty look in their eyes devoid of all hope.

Even the two people by his side had the same look in their eye so much so that Karh couldn’t help but wonder what kind of expression he had on his face, seconds away from simply getting on his feet and simply giving up.

{Two minutes left}

The noise was astronomical, with people yelling and literally begging for people to help them look. Stealing others' numbers was absolutely out of the question since that wasn’t what was required which meant that resulting to violence was probably the dumbest thing anyone could do.

‘This game seems pretty safe compared to the personality of Mr Z which he had seen so far. Are we really going to die? Is this game really based on luck’

Different questions went through Karh’s mind as he began to space out trying to think of a way out of the dilemma he suddenly found himself in only to continue to be as clueless as he was when he began thinking with no hints in sight.

Barely a couple of seconds were left. Half had already given up all hope while the other half seemed determined to search till death.

Karh was part of the former as he stood there waiting for the clock to countdown to zero.

He wasn’t the kind to stand around waiting for a miracle.

So he sat on the floor instead.