Ten minutes later.
Theo let out a breath of relief and looked at the blind monster lying on the ground lifelessly.
After figuring out the hint, Theo and the others quickly hunted the monster without any mercy.
Since Alea was the one who killed the monster, she hurriedly placed her hand on the monster's body and made the monster disappear.
Because there was an abnormal substance inside its body that shouldn't belong to this world's system, the body got erased, but two cards and a black card dropped to the ground.
"This is the key." Alea quickly grabbed the black card and tossed it to Theo. "Here you go."
Theo nodded and asked them to clean up while he walked to the giant gate, the only door other than the entrance.
There was no key or mechanism that seemed to be connecting the gate, confusing him a bit. But when he saw the gate opening, he felt something was wrong.
"All of you, assemble here, will you?" Theo called the others, who quickly ran to him. He led them inside and walked through the corridor, finding it connecting to another room.
In this room, there was a black-colored box placed next to the door. On the right side of the room was a similar giant gate, so he thought the facility must have the floor where they kept all those monsters and connected them to this door, allowing them to become their opponent.
Even so, Theo had no intention of wasting his time in this place and quickly put the black card inside the scanner box.
Beep.
After a series of "Beep" sounds, the door finally slid to the left, revealing another path to upstairs.
"Let's go." Since the card didn't come out, Theo shrugged and walked inside the path that kept climbing for several hundred feet.
Alea kept looking around as if she could see what was going on. "Theo…"
"I know. Just keep climbing." Theo nodded. "It's the place where they keep the monsters."
"Their number is quite big… Eh…" Phyrill whistled after hearing a bit of their sound with his ears that were slightly more powerful than normal humans.
"They're probably for other Blocks as well." Ellen replied while saying, "I wonder how much longer we need to climb."
"Who knows." Theo shrugged. After another ten minutes of walking, they finally reached the upper layer, which turned out to be another white room.
"I don't feel like staying inside a white room after this…" Phyrill scratched the back of his head, feeling a bit sick with the same room.
"It's effective to hide things in this room after all." Theo nonchalantly walked to the middle to see the current leaderboard.
1. Indonesia (6 People) – 105 Points
2. Australia (6 people) – 95 Point
3. Thersland (6 People) – 95 Point
Minimum Requirement: 90 Points
"…" Theo was surprised when he saw there was a requirement next.
He then raised his head and looked at the announcement for their team.
"Congratulations for clearing the second layer. For the third layer, you are required to get a flag in the middle of nowhere. That flag is in one of the four major directions.
"Hint: The clue is inside the tower."
"Seriously?" Theo shook his head in disappointment, realizing that the facility was built to eliminate many groups and let only a few top groups compete. "Such a cruel tower."
"Theo?" Alea came to him and asked, "What do you think about this last challenge? I mean you can see that the requirement is 90 points…"
"It's simple. That flag is worth 20 points. And 90 points are enough to eliminate all other competitors. In other words, only the three teams will compete in the third layer." Theo pointed at the leaderboard. "For now, I don't think they will start immediately."
"We can rest first then." Alea smiled and felt a bit tired.
"Yeah. Make sure all of you recover to full stamina. After all, the other two teams have two people too tired to fully recover in the span of two layers. In fact, that's why the second and third layer is done in an instant, unlike the first layer. They don't want those who get sacrificed to recover." Theo smiled, feeling lucky that he carried everyone to the right path back then.
Before anyone opened their mouth, the door in the opposite direction was opened as if asking them to enter.
"Ehm… I think we should go there." Ellen pointed at the door after seeing the next announcement.
"Please enter the waiting room for the next task."
The announcement broke no argument, so Theo agreed with Ellen's suggestion and led the team to the next room since they could rest there.
Alea came in the front like a group leader and guided the group through another corridor that led to another floor.
On the way, Alea asked, "Theo, what do you think about the hint earlier?"
"The clue is in the tower, eh? I don't know." Theo shook his head helplessly. "I am thinking about it now. And I hope all of you can help me with this one."
The rest agreed without hesitation and started thinking about the solution.
As soon as they arrived at the next room, they found twelve people sitting on the floor, resting. Theo's team never entered the main stage even once and their country was relatively weaker compared to the rest, so they had become the center of attention as a dark horse from this block.
Hence, the moment their figures emerged from the corridor, all twelve pairs of eyes hurriedly locked onto them.
Theo's expression turned serious as he recognized all of them. They were none other than Indonesia and Australia Teams, their main competitors in this round.
A black-haired guy rose from the ground and walked toward them with three other members while letting the other two rest. All of them seemed to be wearing silk t-shirts with Indonesia's Flag on their right chest, Garuda Symbol on their left chest and Batik pattern on their sleeves. Their white pants matched the base color of their T-shirt.
The black guy smiled at Alea politely, extended his hand, and said politely in English. "Hello, my name is Hengki Susanto, Indonesia Team's Leader. I am glad to see all of you here and wish to compete to the best of our ability."