“S-Sen? Are you okay?” Kaiyo asked, worried about the contrast in his demeanor.

Sen wasn’t sure what got into him, but he didn’t care; the gaping hole he always felt in his soul seemed to get a little smaller. Wiping his tears of laughter with his fingers, he finally composed himself.

“You seem to be enjoying yourself,” Gyro mused.

“Oh, I am. It's amusing how easy it was to lure you into exposing yourself.”

“Hm? Exposing myself? Please do continue.” Gyro lifted his brow as he stroked his blonde mustache.

“If you insist…” Sen gave a small shrug before continuing. “Remember when I asked where you were from?”

“Yes, I recall.”

“Why did you lie to me?” Sen exposed.

“Hm? Pardon, I don’t seem to understand.”

“Don’t act dumb with me, Gyro…” Sen emphasized his name, hinting at what he meant. “You’re not from Italy. You’re from Greece. I mean, the answer is in your name itself. Gyro is a very popular cuisine in Greece. To solidify my suspicion, I specifically planted my remarks about the Italian and Greek war that occurred a long time ago. I knew you harbored hatred for Italy, and that’s precisely the reason you decided to name that country out of spite. And the display of defense towards Greece, when I criticized it, is proof on its own," he revealed.

"Not to mention, I noticed our Techno watches completely stopped working, almost as if they were planned to do so. That seems highly improbable given the challenges nature, isn't that right?” Sen concluded, staring directly at him with a glint of amusement in his eyes.

Waiting for a response, Baru raised his hand with a nonchalant yawn.

“That’s cool and all, Sen, but could you possibly explain it again as if I were five years old? Asking for a friend,” Baru pleaded. Sen massaged his eyes from his idiocy.

“To make things more simple to understand, we didn’t finish the first challenge to begin with. This was all just a test to prevent us from finishing the challenge. We walked in here without any thought of the danger and took whatever Gyro said at face value. Real Knights wouldn’t have been so foolish as to trust whatever a stranger said to them.” Turning away from Baru, Sen glanced back at the fake barista with a demanding furrow of his brow. “Am I right?

...

After a long moment of silence, Gyro clapped his hands, impressed how Sen had figured it all out, then let into a warm chuckle.

“Well done! I must say I’m quite impressed how you were able to deduce as well as figure out holes in my story so quickly. I’ve never seen someone so efficient and quick-witted before, let alone a child.”

“Stop it, you’re flattering me,” Sen sarcastically responded with a blunt expression.

“However…” Gyro paused, grinning as he continued, “It seems you got one thing wrong.”

“Hm? And what is that?”

Sen was surprised he overlooked something. If not that? Then what? What is missing? Scanning possible errors in his deduction, Sen widened his eyes in realization. Unless…

To late...

“The challenge isn't over yet!” Gyro let out a loud cackle before ripping his suit from his body, revealing his large, muscular physique. Sen sprang back defensively, along with the rest of his team, and eyed him with suspicion.

The bar’s island, where Gyro stood this whole time, suddenly disappeared below the floor. The whole bar is a setup. Sen realized.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

One by one, tables and chairs sunk into the ground by some mechanism and were replaced with new hardwood floors as if they had never been there. Soon, the room was devoid of any furniture.

Above Sen, a large TV screen came out of the ceiling and displayed a timer that counted down.

“14:23 seconds remaining.” A familiar robotic voice revealed.

Sen suddenly grew awfully aware of his predicament.

The challenge still didn’t end. But how are we going to? What else is there to accomplish from this challenge? Sen assumed the whole point of the last obstacle was to be aware of one's surroundings and use critical thinking. But the more the countdown began diminishing, the more Sen began understanding the true nature of the challenge.

Shit, I’m not useful from this point onward. I need to–

Before Sen could finish his own thought, his body became immobile. He couldn't twist his neck or even lift a single one of his fingers. But something told Sen that Gyro stood right behind him. A hot and rancid breath exuded, landing on his neck. Sen longed to shift from his uncomfortable position, but he knew it was futile.

Chances were, his team was also paralyzed alongside him… And Gyro was the cause of it.

“I wouldn’t bother,” Gyro laughed at their groans of struggle.

From the corner of his eye, Sen saw the Barista menacingly walk in front of his paralyzed team with a large grin plastered on his face. Gyro flexed his chest muscles in triumph, and they couldn’t do anything to look away.

“What’s the meaning of this? Why can't we move?” Sen demanded a response. Although his body ceased cooperating, his mouth seemed to work just like before.

“Ho ho ho! You’re going to have to find that out with that little brain of yours, Mr. Smart boy.”

Sen didn’t appreciate that sarcastic remark. If the final challenge is to fight the barista all along, how are we supposed to fight back? Is the objective to even fight in the first place? I knew the challenges were going to be hard, but this is blatantly unfair. In a sense, Gyro's actions feel impromptu, like it wasn't supposed to go like this. After his mind swirled around with possible vindications, Sen was finally at a loss.

“Enough jokes, old man! Just tell us what's going on!” Hana growled out, losing her patience. The burning anger in her eyes told Sen she was sick of being left out while not grasping the severity of the situation.

From the beginning, Sen had taken the lead and strategically overcame obstacles for them, yet she barely had the chance to help. Even when they had encountered the bearwolf, Ayame took the initiative and displayed great skill and strength, while Hana was forced into running away like a coward.

I see, she feels useless, Sen realized from her tone.

“Oh? You guys still haven’t figured it out!”

“You bastard…” Hana gritted her teeth while staying completely immobile.

“Oops 13 and a half minutes left, this is gonna be sad,” Gyro teased. “Fine, I’ll let you guys in on a secret, okay?” he stalked closer to them, the ground shuddering with every step he took. His huge body loomed over them, casting a long shadow on the shiny wooden floors.

“See this key?” Reaching out to his neck, he yanked out a necklace he wore, making the string abruptly snap. A small key was attached while Gyro swung it back and forth as if he were teasing a dog with a chunk of raw meat.

“This right here is your only way to escape. If you manage to get this single key from my possession, you win,” Gyro grinned as he declared the challenge. “There's a door at the opposite side of this room, and the moment you unlock it, the challenge finishes. I must say I’m impressed you got this far. If anyone else were in this specific door, they most likely wouldn’t have found out.”

“I-In this specific door? Does that mean this won’t be the same challenge everyone faces when they manage to find a door?” Kaiyo asked.

Sen was surprised she had caught on to Gyro’s words. He would have asked that same question if she hadn’t beaten him to it.

“Precisely, each door that is able to open has completely different obstacles,” he revealed. “I must say, though, the obstacles I chose for my door were arguably the most stylish compared to everyone else’s.”

I see, so each door is different from one another and have Knights in charge to oversee the contestants. Clever. Sen didn’t expect the academy to take that approach. He first assumed every contestant would have the same exact challenge. That way, it would be easier for them to keep track. However, this method ensured the academy could judge how different people reacted to different obstacles while gathering more data on them.

“You’re probably also wondering why all of you are paralyzed, no?”

“Is this some kind of joke to you?” Hana muttered under her breath. “You’re just trying to waste our goddamn time…”

“Well, I guess it is a game when the opponent is weak…” He grinned. “Seriously, all I had to do to paralyze all of you was just to hit a small pressure point. My mere finger and a fraction of my Sense prevented all of you from passing the challenge. Quite sad.”

I’ve heard about it before. Someone needs to accurately hit a pressure point between the neck and head while unlocking the energy from a Sense. Then, it shuts off all feeling in your body as a result. However, one wrong move can cause long-term damage to the nervous system. However, the success rate of performing this move is very low if you are going up against a person you’re evenly matched with. But with the stark contrast in our skills, Gyro was able to immobilize our entire team successfully. But why did he use such an advanced move on a bunch of newbies? If he’s this experienced, he should know better…

So many things didn’t add up to Sen.