– Now, where the heck did he get popcorn?
– This is hilarious. He was digging through the sand while the others were nearly murdering each other.
– This is the funniest crap I’ve watched all year.
Zeno let the last kernel crack between his teeth as their eyes bore into him.
38 degrees.
He tilted his head. “You know they wouldn’t leave us here without food, right? Considering we have cameras on us 24/7, it wouldn’t look great on social media.”
The others blinked, and like a switch had flipped, they were on their feet, crowding behind him as he crouched under the blue and green orb in the far corner. A low drawer, nearly invisible unless you were looking for it, slid out from the wall.
Inside were several neatly packed vacuum-sealed containers—water bottles, nutrient cubes, some sticky rice and jerky, and a few unlabeled metal flasks. It was just enough to last them the day.
“Jackpot,” Zeno muttered, tossing a water bottle backward without looking.
Minsu caught it with both hands. “Oh, thank goodness.”
“Wait—” Minjae narrowed his eyes. “Are you just now deciding to be useful?”
Annie shot him a look, standing protectively in front of Zeno.
“Minjae, he found food. You wanna go back to melting in the middle of the room with an empty stomach?”
“I’m just saying,” Minjae grumbled.
Minsu grabbed a pouch and opened it with his teeth. “Can you try something then, Zeno?” he asked between bites. “Instead of just lurking around being mysterious?”
Billy nodded in agreement. They were yet to see him take action inside the room.
Why? The reason was very simple. Zeno didn’t know what to do just yet. To be fair, he may be a genius, but he wasn’t a magician!
Zeno stood and walked over to one of the books in front of the third orb, flipping through its thin, yellowed pages. “This one has 638 pages,” he murmured.
He turned to the keypad, typing in the number slowly.
6 – 3 – 8.
Beep.
The screen buzzed.
39 degrees.
Minjae snapped. “We’ve already tried that.”
– Zeno ruined it.
– It’s his first attempt! Minjae is acting like he’s not the main reason why the room is hot right now.
– Minjae is the reason why the room is hot. But Zeno is the reason why the room is smoking hot, if you know what I mean.
– No, I don’t.
“Nobody move,” Bacon PD said suddenly. “Until someone has something good to suggest. We’re just raising the temperature with every stupid guess.”
Ari dropped to the floor beside Billy, who was wiping the sweat from his neck with the corner of his shirt. His face was flushed pink and eyes dulled with exhaustion.
“I swear I’m gonna faint,” he muttered.
“We all are,” Annie sighed, plopping down next to him. “At least we won’t be hungry.”
She popped one of the nutrient cubes into her mouth and made a face. “Okay. Correction. We will be, just slower.”
“Should we be eating all of this?” Minsu asked warily, scanning the rations. “If we run out…”
“I don’t want to run out,” Ari said. “I want to get out. This room feels way hotter than 39 degrees.”
She might be right about that. There was no fan and no vent, so it was quite hard to breathe.
“Ugh,” Bacon PD sniffed, wrinkling his nose. “Who smells?”
The heat had made them more honest, too. It seemed their filters had officially melted off along with the heat.
Everyone looked around until their eyes landed on Minjae.
“Don’t we lack the gene that gives us body odor?” 1
Bacon PD muttered. “Why do you kids smell still?”
“It’s not only me,” Minjae muttered. “We’re all gross right now.”
It was true. Their sweat had dripped to the ground, and although it wasn’t unpleasant, it wasn’t entirely pleasant either.
“I smell… perfume, though,” Annie muttered.
There was a fragrant scent that stood out among the sweaty mess.
Everyone turned to Zeno, and they leaned in closer.
“Where did you get perfume?” Billy asked, incredulous.
“Move,” Zeno muttered, pushing them off. Annie, curious with red cheeks, leaned in and sniffed his shoulder.
“You smells like… citrus? No—like laundry.”
“No way,” Minsu whispered, eyes wide. “Even he smells good in these conditions?”
– Are they out of their minds right now?
– Theory confirmed. Zeno smells good.
– Let me get a whiff.
– I hope he bottles up his sweat and sells them to me.
– I would gladly steal his bathwater and use it as perfume.
– Oh goodness. Such information has given birth to a whole new type of weirdos.
Eight hours had passed.
Eight hours of guessing and fighting and overheating and nothing to show for it.
Until—
A ringing sound echoed from above, and Lucy’s voice came down.
“You seem to be having a difficult time,” she said. “I’ll help you.”
They all stood.
“But,” she added, “I’m going to halve the value. Then, the same rate of decrease will apply.”
Silence.
Eight hours, and they had gotten nowhere. The total points was 1,600 now.
“800 billion’s still a lot,” Annie said quietly.
Minsu looked around. “I mean… yeah. That’s still insane money.”
“I could have just guessed less and got more,” Minjae muttered under his breath.
Bacon PD exhaled. “Fine. Let her help.”
Zeno sat on the edge of the circular dais, sipping from his bottle, looking unbothered. 800 million won1 was still more than he’d spend in ten lifetimes.
“Here’s the clue,” Lucy started off, and they all leaned in to listen.
“It’s hot. Why is that? You need to cool off.”
The screen didn’t change. The temperature stayed the same.
– That’s it?
– They wasted half of the points.
– Lucy is evil, I’m telling you.
– Lucy is literally the devil.
“What was that supposed to mean?” Ari asked, hands on her hips.
“Oh, she’s toying with us,” Minjae muttered. “We just had to fall for it.”
“Cool off?” Billy echoed. “What does she want us to do, open a window? There are no windows!”
Zeno slowly rose.
He looked at the orbs—there were nine of them, all floating silently in the dim light above. He walked slowly in a wide arc, examining their position, their color, and then their order.
Then he looked at the books again.
His eyes lit up.
An amused little smirk tugged at the corner of his lips.
“What are you doing?” Minjae demanded.
Zeno didn’t answer.
He moved to the center and stopped, gaze fixed upward.
“Orbits,” he said.
Minjae threw his hands up. “What now?”
“It’s the solar system.”
Everyone froze.
Zeno pointed. “That’s Mercury. Venus. Earth. Mars. Jupiter…”
“You’re saying the puzzle is the planets?” Annie asked.
Zeno nodded slowly. “That’s why it’s hot.”
He turned his head and stared directly at the circle he was standing on in the center.
“We’re the sun.”
Koreans actually have this (not all). It’s a mutation of the AABCC11 gene.
580k USD