“Excuse me,” Lin’s calm voice cut through the air, drawing everyone’s attention. Feeling their gazes on him, he wondered briefly what they might be thinking. The conversation he had just witnessed felt baffling—almost beyond comprehension. First, he needed to shift their focus, making them consider the situation not just through their own subjective lens, but in a more objective manner.
“You,” he said, gesturing toward the bald man. The action seemed to catch the man off guard. “You said you’re in the military, right?” Lin asked simply, though the question felt redundant given that everyone had already established this fact.
“Yes?” the bald man replied, his tone uncertain as he furrowed his brow, clearly wondering if there was more to the question. Lin, however, seemed satisfied with the answer and turned his attention to the blue-haired man.
“And you. You want us to escape, right?” he asked—yet another seemingly redundant question that raised both confusion and anticipation about where the conversation was heading. The blue-haired man, however, didn’t share the others’ curiosity and snapped in irritation.
“Yeah. Are you fuckin’ deaf?” he retorted sharply, glaring at Lin with fierce eyes. Given the distance between the three, their voices were slightly raised, allowing everyone around them to follow the exchange.
That’s the problem…
“I see,” Lin muttered in a resigned tone, as though confirming his suspicions. Then, raising his voice slightly, he asked, “Do you think it’s a good idea to share all this information right here?”
His gaze remained fixed on the blue-haired man, who clearly didn’t appreciate the condescending implication in his words.
“What are you trying to say?” the blue-haired man demanded, his glare hardening. Lin, unfazed by the aggressive tone, merely shrugged. His questioning wasn’t meant to antagonize him; rather, it was to provoke introspection. Starting with the bald man was a fairly calculated move since it created a kind of herding effect, making it more likely for the blue-haired man to follow suit and humour his questions.
Fishing for a different reaction, Lin turned back to the bald man, who looked equally puzzled but thankfully not as agitated. Noticing the distinct looks the others were now giving him, he quickly adjusted his tone and spoke again.
“Let’s think about this,” he murmured, glancing up at the ceiling. The others followed his gaze, their confusion deepening as there was nothing notable to see. Before they could voice their questions, Lin continued, his tone strangely calm, almost as if delivering a lecture.
“From what we can see, there aren’t any visible cameras or other surveillance equipment in the cave,” he began, pointing out an obvious fact. He then gestured over his shoulder, pointing at the hologram behind them.
“However, the rules made it clear that someone is definitely watching us. On top of that, we’ve been placed a short distance apart, meaning that whenever one of us speaks, we have to raise our voices. And there’s also the possibility that someone here is a spy for whoever put us here.”
His gaze settled on the blue-haired man, whose expression shifted to unease, as if he was beginning to understand the implications.
Even as Lin’s words sank in, some faces remained confused, glancing at one another for answers. What Lin was driving at wasn’t just about whether or not they were being watched—it was about their actions under the assumption that they were being monitored.
“So, with all that in mind—why did you think it was a good idea to discuss an escape plan right here?” Lin asked, finally connecting his line of questioning to his point.
A wave of realization swept over the group. The previously oblivious as well as those who had already suspected as much now shared a similar despair: one rooted in a lack of knowledge, and the other in their failure to stop the damaging conversation.
If their captors were indeed monitoring them, openly discussing an escape plan was reckless—stupid, even, as Lin would put it.
Not only that, but it seemed everyone was operating under the assumption that their captors already knew everything about them. That assumption had even made the bald man comfortable enough to openly share his occupation as a soldier.
We might have been kidnapped and sold multiple times; there’s no guarantee the people who brought us here know everything about us, Lin thought, noting how the group’s expressions now reflected a deeper level of caution.
Now you look like proper captives.
In a situation where all variables around you are completely unknown, something as insignificant as your name should be treated as a secret you'd take to your grave.
“I think that one’s on me,” a voice interrupted his thoughts. He glanced up to see the feminine-looking man, just a few blocks away, gazing at him with apologetic eyes. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have asked. We should start by figuring out these rules, right?” he added, admitting to his mistake and adapting a moment later.
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The moment they had woken up in the cave, their first priority should have been to figure out the rules, not to wait idly for everyone else to wake up. Why was I the last to wake up? Lin wondered once more, narrowing the list of probabilities from his previous one.
He then nodded at the feminine-looking man, acknowledging him almost as an afterthought.
“That’s right,” he murmured, offering no further comment before turning back to the hologram screen.
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The trial will begin in the next:
31 minutes 55 seconds
Rules:
1. Do not leave your block before the timer runs out; otherwise, this will signal the trial to begin immediately.
2. You have One hour thirty minutes to reach the goal, but there will be a cost for wasting time.
3. Do not follow the rules.
PENALTY FOR FAILURE TO REACH THE GOAL: DEATH.
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They’re too vague, he thought, a small frustration bubbling up inside him—an emotion he hadn’t felt in a very long time.
As if noticing his deep concentration, the others turned their attention back to the hologram, racking their brains to make sense of the rules. However, because they had already attempted to do so while Lin was asleep, their frustrations resurfaced quickly.
“The rules don’t make any sense,” the feminine-looking man said, though his words weren’t solely directed at Lin. His tone indicated the desire for a group discussion, and in the next moment, someone else quickly joined in.
“Maybe we should start walking toward the goal? It might be that simple,” a woman suggested from one of the blocks in the front row, positioned slightly ahead of the others as though she had been granted a head start to the goal.
She’s trying to test the third rule.
Lin’s eyes shifted toward her. The woman had long, flowing dark hair combed backward, leaving only the sides of her face framed. Barely noticeable to many of them was a small scar at the tip of one of her ears, as if sliced by a blade. Similar to Lin, she wore office attire, including pants, which set her apart from the typical long skirts most women wore to work.
She might have a valid point, but her reasoning is too poor, Lin concluded. The third rule, which stated not to follow the rules, hinted at the possibility that stepping out of their blocks and walking toward the goal might be the solution. However...
“That’s a bit risky,” the feminine-looking man interjected, as if he had already considered the possibility. “The first rule says the trial will start if anyone steps out, and without knowing exactly what that means, it wouldn’t be worth the gamble,” he explained.
Most of them nodded in agreement. The risk of triggering an unknown consequence immediately after stepping out seemed too high just to test the validity of the rules.
“Yeah, I also think we should wait for the timer to hit zero first,” another woman near the front added, her expression anxious. No one seemed willing to take the risk, not even the blue-haired man from before, who had been ready for a fight earlier but now remained firmly in his assigned block.
There could still be a way.
“How long ago did the timer start?” Lin finally cut in, his calm voice breaking the silence. He glanced at the feminine-looking man, who had mentioned being among the first to wake up. Everyone turned their attention to him, their faces showing a renewed sense of hope directed at Lin.
“It was around 1 hour 12 minutes when I woke up, so it’s been a while,” the man replied, his tone sounding a bit uncertain. A few of them looked amazed, likely having spent far less time awake and already feeling the mental strain. “It might have been designed to align with the time needed for all of us to wake up,” he added, still unsure what Lin was trying to deduce from the question.
All things considered, his theory seemed plausible. Lin, as the last to wake, had emerged just in time for roughly 30 minutes of discussion before the trial began.
“I see,” Lin muttered, looking back at the screen and ignoring the many eyes that had landed on him.
What would be the worst-case scenario? he wondered, studying the rules one last time before a voice interrupted his thoughts.
“Did you figure something out?” the golden-haired student asked from just a block away, watching him with curious eyes.
He’s surprisingly calm, despite clearly being the youngest here.
Meeting the boy’s gaze, Lin felt oddly uncomfortable with the trust reflected in the boy's eyes. He looked away and muttered,
“Not really.”
However, his next action didn’t align with his words. As everyone processed his uncertain response, their expressions shifted to confusion, quickly replaced by fear.
Calmly, one foot in front of the other, Lin stepped out of his block. The color drained from their faces, and their eyes widened.
“W-what did you do!?” someone shouted in a panic, their voice tinged with anger as they glared at Lin, who stood there, unapologetic.
Why? they all seemed to wonder, but before they could voice their questions, the hologram behind them abruptly changed. The previous rules disappeared, replaced by a new set of instructions, which were just as—if not more—confusing than the last ones.
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Time Limit:
29 minutes 34 seconds
REACH THE GOAL!
"A stride for a strike, let the deaf burn except for those with heroes."
Make sure you’re in your block when this mini-timer runs out:
98 seconds.
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“What the hell does that mean?” the blue-haired man broke the silence. Everyone immediately turned to Lin for an answer, but his response fell short of their expectations.
“No idea,” he muttered, his expression neutral, which only deepened their grim faces.
What could that mean? His internal frustration didn’t show, but his mind was already racing through multiple possibilities.
Despite the possible despair Lin had thrown them into, some among the group began to grasp the consequence of his actions. From what they could discern on the hologram, it was hard to completely fault him.
From the previous rules, the timer had been the only variable that remained the same, only changing its title from “The trial will begin in the next:” to “Time Limit:”
It didn’t take long for the more perceptive individuals to realize the implications of this change. The timer, which they had carelessly watched ticking down every minute, wasn’t merely a countdown to the trial—it was the time they had to complete the trial itself.
Now, instead of 1h 30min, they only had 29 minutes to reach the goal and finish the trial.
The worst-case scenario.