"…" Both groups stared at the door that Theo glanced at earlier as they quickly wondered how Theo came to reach that answer.
Theo scratched the back of his head as he looked down while clenching his teeth as if he realized he had made a mistake.
"Ugh." Theo pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a long sigh. "Ellen, let's go back."
"Yes." Ellen nodded.
"By the way, you're not in an illusion, right?" Theo tilted his head in confusion, remembering her earlier movement as if she was out of this world.
"I'm not."
Theo frowned and raised two fingers. "Are you sure? Who am I? How many fingers do you see?"
"I am fine, Theo. There's nothing wrong with my eyes as well since you raise two fingers." Ellen understood why Theo did such a thing. He simply wanted to give her time to think or probably make her focus on the illusion instead of giving away his plan.
Knowing Theo was tricking their opponents, Ellen decided to play along with his little scheme while chuckling inside. 'This little trickster. He has done it a few times today, tricking everyone this whole time. How many times will he trick me if we're enemies?'
"Is that so?" Theo's face was still quite unsure, but he decided to trust her. He led her back to the team.
"Theo… You…" Alea frowned. Her eyes were filled with worry.
"I'm sorry. I just got a bit too shocked by the answer from that hint and ended up giving away the answer. Let's move to that door, shall we?" Theo smiled and walked in front of the door of the answer, ignoring the two other teams.
They realized that they would be too shameless to get that answer from Theo, so they planned to take another door and headed in his direction as soon as possible.
After all, there were only five doors in this room. One was where they came from, while the other four reflected the four great directions.
The group continued to discuss their plan for the race before a hologram of the same man who became their referee appeared in the middle of the room five minutes before the time limit.
"Ahem." The man let out a little cough to get their attention. After that, he waved his hand and showed them another screen next to him. "First of all, I would like to congratulate everyone here for reaching the last stage."
With that sentence alone, Theo knew that no one would come to this room anymore because they couldn't reach the minimum requirement.
"On this occasion, I would like to explain the rule for the third layer. What you need to do in this one is retrieve the flag that is hidden somewhere around this area. I'm sure that you have understood the hint, so I won't say anything about it.
"Instead, I want to announce that I will be following you around to ensure that no one gets killed. Also, the time limit is two hours. Each team is required to choose one of the doors no matter the direction you're going in later.
"The one who gets the point is the team who holds the flag for five minutes. In other words, as long as you get the flag and protect it for five minutes, you win." He then flicked his fingers and changed it to the camera outside the facility.
Four cubes that had the exact same appearances like the one they took to get inside emerged from the ground. Without anyone saying it, those four undoubtedly reflected the four doors in this room.
All teams understood that elevators were behind these doors. "Those doors will lead you to the outside, so I wish you luck."
The hologram then disappeared, leaving the room in complete silence. However, all students here had serious expressions on their faces because this was the last battle. If they wanted to reach the main stage, they needed to beat the other two teams, especially Theo's team, whose members were not exhausted.
Seeing their focus was on them, Theo closed his eyes for a moment and thought of a quick plan.
On the other hand, Alea smiled and extended her hand with her palm facing down. "Let's go with this, alright?"
"There are only two minutes left." Not following Alea's unnecessary bullsh*t, Theo said in a slightly louder voice, "Okay. I hope everyone is ready to run, right? Phyrill, you're the fastest, I'm sure you know your job…"
"Get the flag as quickly as possible and run away. Got it." Phyrill nodded with a serious expression, preparing himself to protect the flag at all cost.
"Oh, God. Please smite this man." Alea pouted as Theo kept doing this on purpose.
Hengki chuckled before he politely bowed to them with his hands joined together. "Let's have a great competition."
Theo's team remained silent, but surprisingly, Australia Team Leader suddenly nodded and replied. "Let's have a great competition."
"!!!" In that instant, Theo came to a realization that the two decided to work together. Unfortunately for him, this shock stopped him from reacting immediately.
Everything was too late.
When the doors opened simultaneously, Australia and Indonesia Teams entered the elevator that appeared
"Tch!" Theo clicked his tongue and shouted while turning around, looking at the two teams. "Not good! There's no rule stating we couldn't fight before finding the flag. With them going this fast, they're planning to pincer us from two sides!"
"What?!" Alea gasped and panicked for a second, but the doors for their teams had been closed as those two already moved toward the surface. She realized that the fact they figured the problem out and having all members in full stamina instead of four was actually the trigger that forced the two teams to come to an understanding, trying to eliminate them first. "Theo, we are in great trouble. Can we win against both teams?"
"Attacked from one direction, probably. Pincered from two directions, wishful thinking…" Theo shook his head, lowering the team morale. To their surprise, he dropped to the floor, crossed his legs and used his hand to support his cheek, saying nonchalantly, "Since we can't handle both of them together, then we don't need to."