People all around the room started whispering to one another with excitement. Lea’s eyes lit up, a spark of adrenaline was visible inside of them.

“I’ll keep in mind what you said. Let’s go towards the door, I’ll push your wheelchair,” Lea said. The other girls noticed that Lea was departing and began walking with her.

“Do you think you’ll get punished for what you did? We all promised we’ll defend you if something happens, if not for you the man would’ve gotten away.” Jin twisted his head around to look who was talking. It was an Asian girl with big brown eyes and long hair. Her eyes stared above Jin, looking at Lea. She seemed to think about it for a short period and slowly started to talk:

“Well, we’re not the ones at fault. It was that man who spied on the changing rooms. The only thing I did was restrain a criminal, I didn’t kill him.” A few girls had joined in the conversation and all agreed to Lea’s thoughts.

“Who’s he?” A girl asked looking at Jin. Jin wanted to answer but Lea bested him to it. “This is Jin, I met him yesterday when I got lost. He’ll be with us for the ceremony so take care of him. Although I don’t really know him he has helped me a lot.”

Eyes pierced him. All of the girls were looking at him as if he was an animal in a zoo. In hopes of getting the attention away from him he began talking: “We’re arriving at the door. Let’s get ready.” His plan failed miserably. Now other groups started to look where the sound came from and started to stare at the only boy, sitting in a wheelchair, in a group of girls. A long sigh left his lungs as he looked up. He raised an eyebrow, clearly confused. He could detect over a million presences from behind the high, curved roof.

“We’re being watched”, Jin whispered to Lea, “That roof is made from a material that is like glass on one side. There are close to a million people watching this.” Lea didn’t believe him. “No, that can’t be true. This is a protected facility, they wouldn’t allow visitors. Why would they?”

A decent argument, Jin thought. Why would a huge school allow visitors? What would they gain from it? “Money, connections and power. They’re using us for all that.” Lea came closer and whispered in his ear: “Are you sure that there are people watching? Like 100% sure?”

“Yes,” Jin answered, “I’m certain. Of course you don’t have to trust me but let me give you a piece of advice: don’t do anything that might place you in a bad light. This is becoming a political game already, just keep it in mind.” She nodded with a serious expression.

A soft peeping sound came from the speakers to get the students’ attention. “The doors will open soon. I’ll now explain the rules. Once the door opens there will be a hundred different pathways. They are numbered from one to a hundred. The higher the number your group chooses the harder it will be and the better the rewards. Each path will only have a single group, meaning that there won’t be two groups in the same number. All of you will get to choose a number from one to ninety-nine. The average of the numbers chosen by the members of a party will be your final number. The faster you’re done choosing the more chance there is that you’ll get the number you wanted. Pathway one-hundred has already been given to a group as a punishment. If a person fails in their pathway they will receive a wooden weapon of choice, so be careful. If your entire group were to fail you will be punished severely. You don’t have to fear dying as there are staff members ready for if anything happens. We have the best healing equipment of the world so unless you get burned to dust you don’t have to fear anything. Remember that you won’t be able to get a different or better weapon within a month. Even after that time it’ll be extremely hard to get a better one so choose your number wisely. The last thing I want to tell you is that before entering you will get a layer of protection on you. The moment this breaks you’re out. You may now begin to choose a number by typing it on the phones you received while coming here.”

“Huh? What phones?”, a girl next to Jin asked. She was right, they hadn’t received anything. All the students from the other groups pulled up a phone from their pockets as if it was normal. Jin couldn’t see it from the distance but he thought he saw them give in a number.

“What does this have to mean?” Lea asked. “Lea, come a bit closer, I have to tell you something.” The confusion clearly hadn’t faded yet but she came closer. A bit too close actually, her head less than a centimeter away from Jin’s face.

“I have a theory,” Jin whispered, “You know what I told you about the spectators right? You also talked about restraining a man to another girl. What if that man was an important person who came here to watch us. You just have to answer a few things. How did you restrain him? How was he dressed and did you see the instructors act weird on the way here?”

Lea’s expression went blank. “Fuck, this is all my fault isn’t it? I threw a stone at the man’s head which knocked him out, he was dressed in a clean suit and yes the instructor acted a bit stiff. What do we do now? What does it all mean?”

He waited for her to calm down before he whispered to her again. “I have good news and two times bad news. What do you want first?”

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The panic faded as she regained her composure. “Please start with both of the bad things,” she whispered.

Jin scraped his throat softly as he looked into her green eyes. “First, my theory is correct and you angered a VIP of the spectators, probably a billionaire. Second, because of this our group is the one who got punished. We’ll be going to number one-hundred. The good part is that we can’t die here, worst-case scenario we receive bad weapons.”

Lea looked dumbfounded “That’s the good part? We can’t die? Are you serious right now? We are completely fucked and you say something stupid like that? It does not help. Is there any chance we complete the path?”

Jin couldn’t help but smile at her. She was as predictable as a person could be. She might be a top trained athlete to get in here but inside she is just your average sixteen-year-old girl. “It depends, there is one way and one way only. Are you prepared to do anything to get to the finish of that pathway?”

Immediately her eyes lit up. “Yes!”, she whispered. Jin sighed at how all of her fear and confusion had been turned into excitement and hope with a single sentence. She was very naive.

“We’ll request to become a new group. This will put all the blame on both of us, making the other girls free from your mistake. After this we’ll slowly clear the pathway my way. You understand? if you agree to the plan this also means you’ll listen to my orders inside of the path okay?” She nodded with hesitation. “Yeah, that will be best, I don’t want the other girls to suffer from what I did. We all sacrificed a lot to come here, it would be extremely selfish of me to expect them to give up their chances for me. Your plan is good but why? Why would you go with me? This has even less to do with you than with the other girls. You’re clearly a victim here.”

Those two piercing green eyes didn’t falter, she was still very close to Jin with a puzzled expression. “It seems fun, now please bring me to the staff group in that corner over there”, Jin said as he pointed towards a dark corner with a group of staff in. Lea told the other girls to stay where they were before she pushed Jin’s wheelchair forward. they could hear some of the girls whisper as they left:

“They’re probably going to ask for our phones. Why were they standing so close to each other for so long before leaving. Do those two know each other? Maybe they are a couple?”

With a smile Jin looked up at Lea. Her cheeks were a bit red as she saw that Jin looked at her. “I bet they’re going to spread rumors about us”, she said. Jin knew that this was going to be the case but that’s also what he hoped for. He had already planned out how things had to go for the next weeks. The moment something didn’t go according to it, Jin would make sure to redirect it.

A low voice echoed silently: “Didn’t your instructor order you to stay with your group? Are you two defying orders?”

The person who was talking came forth from the dark corner. His face was covered in scars and on his suit hung over twenty golden medals. The light from the candles reflected beautifully on them. He had a big and muscular build. It was clear that the man in front of Jin was an experienced military veteran with a high position.

“Perfect,” Jin whispered to Lea. “No sir, we’re here to request something. Are you open to listening to it?”

The big man looked at them without emotions. “I’ll listen but that doesn’t mean I’ll agree to anything.”

Jin gave him a friendly smile as he started with placing his trap: “Sir, I can see that you have a very high position within these walls. Probably head advisor for this ceremony. Those medals tell me you have an amazing career behind you. I think you might be the only person here that can fulfill my request.

You probably already know who I am, the kid in a wheelchair. The girl behind me might also be known to you, the one who almost killed an important spectator.” Jin intentionally left a break after those words. The man showed a faint bit of surprise. He started to demand answers to satisfy his hunger: “How do you know about the spectators? I know you have a background, but even your father shouldn’t have been able to communicate with you in that short period.” Jin shrugged his shoulders with a mischievous smile on his face.

“Sorry sir, but that’s not something I can tell you about. The only thing I’ll say is that this has nothing to do with anyone else than us two. I know that you guys were probably ordered by some higher-ups to take out the girl by giving her an impossible task. That’s why we want to propose you a deal. To make things more interesting.” Lea stood there in silence, her hands tightly gripped around the handles of the wheelchair.

“Fine,” the man said, “I’ll hear you out.” Lea’s hands relaxed a bit. Jin started to explain: “So, I want you to make a new group, just me and Lea, the girl behind me. We’ll be a party of two and go into path number one-hundred. This way you’ll make the spectators happier and more satisfied. In return, you give the other nineteen girls one of those phones and let them go on like a normal team would. It’s a deal that only gives you profit. What do you say? Can you do it?” Those last words had a bit of distrust mixed in them. The man would instinctively want to prove himself because of it.

He acted as if he thought about it for a while, but Jin could see that the decision was already made. “Alright, I think I can make this happen. Just wait here for a few seconds, and I’ll go get those phones.” After saying it, he left for a while but quickly returned with a little bag. “Here you go, there are two extra inside for you two. If anything happens, you’ll get a message on this thing. Now go back; the ceremony is about to start.” Lea thanked him and pushed Jin back. With a happy voice, she released a little scream. “Holy shit, I was so stressed for nothing. You did great, Jin; now we just have to survive.” She tripped over her own feet but managed to not fall. She giggled a bit at herself before she continued walking towards the group.

Once there, Lea handed out all of the phones to the girls. “Me and Jin will have to leave now. Good luck, everyone.” They happily took them and completely ignored the two of them. Lea pushed the wheelchair towards an empty space, waiting for it to start. She didn’t have to wait long; almost immediately, the speakers started talking again. “The ceremony will now begin; we’ll go from high to low. First off, number one-hundred. Lea Rosdniw and Jin Gelida. These two will go down the hardest pathway as a punishment. Please step forward and enter the pathway.”