As they entered the room, Alejandro yelled out, “Seong, are you alive?”

No reply came back. They started looking inside the room, which was mostly filled with rubble from the explosion, but the statue remained completely unharmed, with its gem radiating a bright green light. “How is that fine?” Alejandro asked.

Amelie commented, “The material it's made out of is probably really durable.”

“Let's go check the tunnel,” Jin Ae suggested.

Amelie noted, “That tunnel wasn’t here before.”

“The statute's light probably activated it something which might have opened this tunnel,” Jin Ae answered. All of them entered the tunnel. It was a straight pathway; midway, the interior changed from wood to stone.

“We must be out of the mineshaft,” Minjun said. They proceeded to walk, finally emerging from the maze. However, it wasn’t the same place they had been before.

“Seong has to be here,” Ara said.

“Yeah,” Alejandro replied.

Amelie suggested, “Let’s split up and search for him.”

***

An hour ago.

Seong thought, *‘It seems like the explosion has ended.’* He entered the room again.

“Woah, it's brighter than I thought it would be,” Seong remarked, observing the statue's gems. He then noticed a tunnel that didn’t seem like a regular tunnel.

Deciding to explore the tunnel first, Seong mumbled, “Finally, it let me out. It took a millennium to get out of the tunnel, but now I've got to go back. What a headache.” Just then, a person in a black robe ran past.

“Hey, you!” Seong called out, but the person didn’t respond, prompting Seong to give chase. It took him 20 minutes to catch up, only to discover it was a robot.

“Why did they keep these in the maze?” Seong pondered. He checked the black robe pockets to see if it had anything but found nothing. “It seems this was a waste of time. I've got to get back to them; they probably think I'm dead.”

Then he realized he didn’t know which way he came from. ‘Guess I've got to hope I find the way back. Why did I follow that robot? I'm such a dumbass,’* he thought.

Seong began walking around the maze, and after 20 minutes, he thought, *‘Am I walking in a loop? How long has it been?’* When he was about to lose hope of finding the tunnel...

“You dumbass! Why did you leave us do know how stressed we were?” Amelie yelled out.

Seong ran to Amelie, hugged her, and said, “Thank you so much for saving me.”

“Get off me,” Amelie retorted, her face completely red.

Seong realized what he had done, let go of her, and said, “Sorry, I thought—”

“Just forget it,” Amelie cut him off. “Let's go and meet the others.”

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Seong asked, “You know the way back?”

“Yeah, I just walked in one direction; we'll walk back in the same direction,” Amelie said.

Seong nodded and said, “Good.”

"Wait, don't tell me you got lost," Amelie questioned.

Seong replied, "No, I was just wondering if you knew or not."

"Then why did you act so scared?" Amelie inquired.

Seong responded, "We don't talk about that."

"Ok," Amelie said with a smirk on her face.

Then they headed back to the tunnel where Ara, Alejandro, and Jin Ae were sitting.

"You're alive!" Ara exclaimed.

Seong replied, “Yep.”

“How could you leave us there?” Alejandro asked.

Seong replied, "Sorry about that.”

Just then, from behind them, Eun-Jeoung said, “You dumbass! Where did you go? Do you know how stressed you made all of us?” as he hit him on the back.

“I am sorry, okay,” Seong replied.

Minjun, who was also behind, said, “You better not do it again.”

“I won't,” Seong replied.

Seong felt a warm feeling that he had only felt when he was with his family as a kid. He wanted this feeling to stay forever.

“Let's eat and get some sleep; we've been through enough for today,” Jin Ae said.

Amelie started passing the food. “I wonder how Hwan is doing,” Seong said.

“Why do you care? He left us,” Eun-Jeoung said.

***

“It seems the explosion has stopped; maybe I should check it out,” Hwan said.

He started walking down the tunnel, but midway through, the shaft collapsed in on itself. “They probably died if it collapsed. Guess I got to wait it out for the rest of the assignment. I should have taken more food,” Hwan said.

***

“Rise and shine, everyone!” Amelie exclaimed. “We still got to finish this assignment.”

All of them got up. "Where are we supposed to change?" Eun-Jeoung asked.

Ara suggested, “Let's just find a spot and change.”

Eun-Jeoung added with a serious tone, “Yeah, and if any three of you try to peek, I will kill all three of you.”

Seong replied, “What kind of lowlifes do you think we are?”

“That kind of lowlives,” Eun-Jeoung retorted.

Before Seong could argue, Minjun stepped in, “We won't. You can go.”

Eun-Jeoung left with the other girl to change, and then the boys followed suit, changing their clothes and having breakfast.

“Let's go and solve this maze,” Ara said.

Seong issued a warning, “We have to be careful; this maze is not a loop, so don't get lost.”

“Yeah, let's meet back in two hours,” Amelie said

Everyone dispersed to explore the maze. Seong walked the same way as yesterday, hoping to find the robot, as he thought, ‘That robot has to be related to this assignment.’

An hour in, Seong still couldn't find the robot, but he could hear the sound of footsteps. However, he refrained from running, not wanting to risk getting lost again. Frustrated, Seong muttered, “Ah, these footsteps are getting annoying. Why won't it just come in front of me?”

Then, he came up with a plan. Realizing that the robot had a set path, Seong decided to sit and wait, anticipating the robot would return to the spot he encountered it before. Patiently waiting, he expected the robot to show up, but it never did. Realizing he had to meet back with the group, Seong eventually left.

“Seong, why are you late?” Eun-Jeoung asked.

Ignoring her question, Seong inquired, “Have you guys seen a robot?”

“Nope, only a person with a black robe, but they vanished before I could catch it,” Alejandro replied.

‘So it has a much bigger path than I thought. Alejandro went the opposite way of me; either it went the entire map, or there were two of them,’ Seong thought.

“Why?” Alejandro asked.

Seong replied, “I think the person in the black robe, which is a robot, has something to do with the assignment.”

“Maybe it has a key or something on it,” Minjun suggested.

Seong answered, “Nope, I checked. It doesn’t have anything on it.”

“I heard footsteps the entire time, and I was not near Alejandro. That could mean that there are more than one robot,” Jin Ae said.

Seong replied, “That's what I thought too.”

“Maybe we need to get all the robots together,” Amelie suggested.

Jin Ae replied, “Maybe.”

“Anyone else find anything?” Seong asked.

“I found a pressure plate on the floor,” Eun-Jeoung said.

Ara said, “Me too.”

“Pressure plates?” Seong questioned.

Jin Ae asked, “When you stood on it, did it go down?”

“Nope, I think it needs more weight,” Ara said.

Eun-Jeoung suggested, “Maybe we need all of the robots to stand on the pressure plates.”

“Yeah, that could be true because they have more weight,” Amelie said.

Jin Ae then said, “Let’s meet back in four hours. In that time, we should find as many pressure plates as possible, and then we can decide how to get the robots on them.”