"Welcome, all! I'm Menchi, your examiner for the Second Phase." The attractive woman sitting on the couch says to us all as we enter into the gated area.
"And likewise, I'm Buhara." The big man behind her introduced himself.
We all stood silent, waiting for her to speak, giving us a talk about becoming a Hunter or telling us what to do for the Second Phase or something but they didn't do anything. That is until Buhara's stomach started growling.
Menchi turn her head to look back at him. "Sounds to me like you're getting hungry."
"Not just hungry, I'm famished!" I'm sure it was just an over exaggeration on his part as part of introductions for the next phase.
Menchi turned back to address us then, "Well, there you have it. The Second Phase…will be cooking!" she says excitedly but I knew nobody else aside from me would be excited to hear that.
"What do you mean, we're cooking? We came here to take the Hunter Exam." Some random big guy shouted unhappily.
"That's right." Menchi told us. "The Second Phase of the exam will be preparing a meal that'll satisfy our palates."
The conversation went on like this while people complained and Menchi tried to explain what Gourmet Hunters were about. By this point Menchi is upset at her profession being laughed at. When the big guy with the fat mouth asked what the task was, Menchi had Buhara decide.
"Today's required ingredient will be pork. Feel free to use meat from any species of pig inVisca Forest. As you see, you'll use these cooking facilities to prep your pork dishes. To pass the exam, you must create a dish to satisfy our discriminating palates."
After he gave us the task, Menchi continued speaking, "But we won't be evaluating taste alone. So take this seriously. Is that clear? When we've both eaten our fill, this portion of the exam will be over."
The fatty brushed off her warning like it was easy and so Buhara smacked his giant stomach and surprisingly a gong sounded, starting the exam.
Everyone ran off but never strayed too far into the forest for some reason. My group of guys were doing the same except Gon. He and I were headed further in when we turned and gestured for them to follow. "Honestly, guys!" I exclaim, "Wild animals don't just hang out in the open for everyone to see. We literally have to track and hunt for them." They all made various sounds of "oh" while Gon laughed at they're embarrassed faces.
"Yeah! You can always count on Ruby to find the animals. She's good with stuff like that!" Gon praised as he followed behind me. I smiled at him but held up my finger to silence them while I looked for tracks. I should have known the silence wouldn't last long with Tall Idiot in our group though.
"We gotta catch a pig and cook it, huh? Man, this is way easier than the First Phase." He said aloud.
"I just hope it's that simple." Kurapika responds back.
I stop and look at them in annoyance. "No, it's not. Have you ever actually caught a pig?" They shook their heads no. "Then you shouldn't talk before actually experiencing it." I walked off a ways without them to continue tracking in peace so I didn't hear Gon tell them about my childhood.
"Ruby was on her own for a while in Whale Island, she learned how to catch and cook her own food. She learned everything on her own, isn't that amazing!"
"Hmm." Kurapika hummed in wonder as he watched me.
"Why would she have to learn to do all that on her own?" Leorio asked, ever the nosy one.
"Because she didn't have a family of her own." Gon admitted. "She doesn't have parents and no one was able to take her in. So, she was alone and did job for everyone on the Island to earn money and have a place to live. Eventually, I convince Mito to make a room for her to stay in whenever she got lonely. She's my big sister!" With that he stopped talking because I tured around and gestured for him to follow.
When I turned back and heard him walking up behind me with the others not far behind, I angled my feet one in front of the other in a balanced position before gliding down the slope of a hill.
After I got to the bottom I turned and watched the rest of them follow Gon's example and slide on their asses one by one behind each other. I couldn't help laughing as I witness them all crashing into each other.
"What the hell do you think you're doing, Gon?" Killua asked annoyed that Gon didn't move.
"Shh. Ruby found them." Was all he said back.
We were surrounded by tons of giant pigs. Of course, I wasn't used to the size, even living in the anime world because we didn't have any this size on the Island.
"They're all….chewing on bones." Tall Idiot states the obvious.
"Don't tell me… they're carnivores." Kura asks stupefied by the sight before them.
"Well, yeah. It's common sense." I say facing the pigs while looking at the boys in the corner of my eye. "Pigs are scavengers and they eat anything so this doesn't surprise me too much. Especially since it's for the exam that it makes sense for us to be hunting meat eating pigs."
Because of all out talking, one of the pigs noticed us and charged, making the rest of them see us and following after the first one. I was kind of pissed that we basically lead all the pigs to the other participants, and I said as much. "You idiots! You just couldn't keep your traps shut so we could have had an easier time killing our pigs and getting a head start before any of the other found the area the pigs were grazing!"
"These pigs are insane!" Leorio shouted.
"They're defensively confrontational, Idiot! Don't you know anything?! That's how pigs protect themselves!" I yelled back before breaking off from them and hiding in a tree to make my move.
I watched the pigs chasing after everyone while I pulled out and assembled my staff. I looked around for Gon so I can attack after he made the discovery of the pig's weakness. Once he did, I found my target and jumped out over it's forehead to land a hard swing at it's weak spot.
"Huh, that's it! Their forejeads are their weak spots." Killua says from nearby.
"I see. That makes sense." Kura agrees.
"They developed tough snouts to protect their delicate foreheads." Killua continues.
"Yeah." I confirmed them. "That's the evolution of wildlife." I lean up against my pig while searching for my brother. I was planning on suckering him into dragging my pig to the cooking area along with his.
Once we were all at our own kitchen areas, I watched in silent glee as everyone immediately started roasting their pigs while I cut and gutted mine. When I was finished I looked over at Gon and was happy to see that he remembered to gut his pig as well. But I wasn't happy long as I watched him start roasting his pig as well.
Frowning in disappointment, I resumed to cutting my pig into many pieces while thinking of what recipes I was going to use. I looked around my area to read all the ingredients laid out before me. Knowing I wasn't going to be the first one done, I tried not to rush too much so I could cook and baste everything thoroughly. I laid out as many pots and pans as I needed and got to cooking the meat and sauces in order of importance and how long each thing took to cook.
When I had finally finished, I had made a total of six different dishes. I made variations of pork slices with raspberry-balsamic sauce, spicy tomato pork chops, pork and potato soup, pork marsala, pulled pork with a smoky barbeque sauce and finally, pork and vegetable spring rolls to give them something a little fresh with all the saucy dishes I created. I saved a little of everything I made for Gon to eat since that was my promised payment for him carrying my pig for me. With it all said and done, I had finished before about half of the others were able to surprisingly.
I walked up confidently seeing the annoyance on Menchi's face since everyone was giving her the same exact dish. Hopefully all that would work in my favor since I made anything BUT roasted pork. As I walked up and saw delight flash on her face, the stupid fatty called out that I was cheating. I was about to protest but surprisingly, Killua did it for me.
"No she isn't." he stated looking at him like he was stupid. "The goal was to create dishes to satisfy the judges until they were full. They never specified that we could only cook one dish. And Ruby even made them all at once to present them at one time."
"With that being said, lets tase everything and see if it tastes as good as it all looks!" Menchi exclaimed while Buhara was practically foaming at the mouth. Everyone else not focused on cooking stood by and watched as the judges tasted my food.
Buhara inaled his portion without a second thought, did he even taste any of it? While Menchi took little bites of everything with a serious look about her. "Hmmm, the pork juice didn't mix well with the raspberry sauce, you didn't take out enough grease. There's too much of the tomato taste with this dish and not enough spice, the soup is a little plain, the marsala isn't completely cooked, the barbeque sauce overpowers the flavor of the pork, the only perfect dish is the spring rolls." She pointed out to me with a frown. I slouched thinking that she was going to tell me I failed too before she smiled at me. "But they were still delicious and appetizing! I was starting to lose my appetite with all the roasted dishes but you're selection made me hungry again. Continue to perfect you're cooking and I might take you under my wing as a Gourmet Hunter. Congratulations, you pass!"
I shriek with glee and thank her. "Thank you very much! I don't know one hundred percent what kind of Hunter I want to be so I will definitely keep your offer in mind." I said with a bow before walking back to my kitchen and cleaning up my area. I guess all my boys had already presented their dishes since they were surrounding Gon in my area, all taking bites of the food.
"This is really good, Ruby! No wonder you were able to pass." Kurapika complimented.
I blushed a deep red while turning to wash the pots and pans. "Thanks. I don't usually try this hard while cooking so it was a bit stressful. Cooking is usually fun for me. I'm just glad it's over." I said to him.
They all stood around and watched everyone else fail while I just cleaned up. After a while it was the end of the exam since Buhara said he was stuffed.
"So, none of you passed to the next phase, except for that redhead over there." She pointed at me, causing everyone to look in my direction. I unabashedly waved happily much to the annoyance of some of the applicants. "Exams over!" she finished, shocking everyone.
People started whispering, upset by the news when wannabe gangster smashed his sink and argued with her. I watched the scene unfold as I waited for the chairman to interrupt and save the exam.
"Well, that said, it seems a bit excessive to fail every single applicant." He says over a loudspeaker before jumping out of the blimp and torpedoed toward the ground.
I excitedly watched the chairman and Menchi talk knowing what was going to happen next and really couldn't wait to jump and float in that canyon. I had always dreamed of doing stuff like that since my uncles in my past life used to take me ziplining, skydiving and things of the like. Doing those thing without a safety net just made it more enticing!
Arriving at the canyon via airship, we all stood around at the mouth of the canyon, looking down below as far as we could see. As the wind picked up and the fat guy fell back in fear of falling in I couldn't help but laugh sarcastically. "What? Too scary, big guy?" I asked rhetorically before turning back and listening to Menchi speak.
I screamed in excitement while everyone else was terrified as Menchi took the first jump as an example for us all. I watched her every move with anticipation.
"I've been waiting for something like this!" Laughs Gon. I agreed and nodded at him before saying, "I'm counting on you to tell me when to let go, Gon."
We smiled at each other before both taking a dive at the same time. Our excitement must have rubbed off on our group because they all jumped in together with us. Just as we grabbed at the webs, we felt it dip as everyone else jumped and grabbed ahold of them as well.
I calmed my nerves as we watched one guy become too impatient and let go, falling to his death, I didn't want to do the same just because I was too excited.
I listened as Gon explained that we needed to wait for the wind updraft. I took calm, even breathes as I waited for Gon to give us the go ahead. When he shouted, I laughed as I let go and plummeted towards the nests. After grabbing an egg, I screamed happily as I continued falling while I waited for the gust of hot air to raise us out of the canyon.
I stood around and watched the eggs boil with Menchi, mentioning that adding a pinch of salt might help with the flavor of the eggs. She hummed in thought before doing as I suggeseted. Once the eggs were finished, they were passed around to everyone and we all took an experimental bite together.
I was enjoying my portion when Gon and Killua walked up to me with puppy eyes. Knowing what they were trying to do, I laughed and split the rest of my egg in half, giving them each one. I stood there and watched them eat the egg happily when I heard someone clear their throat beside me.
Turning to the side I saw Kura standing there not looking at me as he held his egg out to me.
"Are you offering to share?" I asked confused as I took the egg. I took a bite and handed it back to him, waiting expectantly for him to take a bite as well. And when he did, Tall Idiot laughed and said something about indirect kisses making Kura blush and shove the egg into my hand again.
"Whatever." I respond to Leorio's teasing. "It's not like either of us are sick. We're all adults here, just grow up. Besides, I'd rather swap spit with over over anyone else here that's for sure." I say then take a bite, unashamed of my comment as I hand the egg back to the blond. I smile as I thank him and say that I'm full now so he could have the rest. Really, I could've eaten more but I wanted to save Kura from being teased further.
I blushed a little as I watched him take a bite while making eye contact with me. Like he was gauging my reaction to him biting the egg after saying what I did. It did make me a little happy and internally fangirl, but I kept it to myself as I made a satisfied hrmph and walked over to wherever Gon and Killua had wandered off to.
And with everyone finishing off their eggs, we boarded the airship again and that concluded the Second Phase with Forty-two remaining applicants! We stood around in a group as the Chairman introduced himself and told us he's decided to stick around and watch us throughout the remainder of the exam.
His green assistant, Bean? Told us we would be arriving at the next destination at eight am tomorrow and that we were free to eat dinner and go about the ship to rest as we liked.
I waved as Gon and Killua decided to go exploring ad agreed with Leorio once once about resting. I followed after the two as we headed out to wander the ship in search of a place to rest. Opting to stay silent when they wondered aloud about how many phases were in the exam and having the nosy troublemaker answer their questions to use it as an opportunity to cheat them.
I watched in disbelief as the to males took what Tonpa said into consideration when he mentioned staying alert while on board the ship. Just as he was done talking out of his ass I interrupted him. "Ok, great!" I thanked him sarcastically before humoring him so he thought we would fall for his lie. "I'll stay up while you two rest. Then I'll wake one of you up so I can rest." They both agreed as we walked away, Tonpa happily thinking he got away with it.
Leorio complained as usual because I wasn't just happy to sit anywhere and sleep. This was an airship owned by the chairman of the Hunter Exams for crying out loud! I knew there were going to be rooms on board for him and any guests to use. When I found a room we filed inside hoping no one saw us so we could have it to ourselves. There was only one bed so we agreed that no one would get to use it to make it fair for all of us. Sitting down, Leorio immediately went to sleep while Kura was deep in thought.
"You don't actually believe him do you, Kura?" I asked.
"No." he answered. "If the next phase was on the ship, they wouldn't have told us to do as we pleased and kept us all together to start it."
"Oh, thank God! At least one of you is smart." I say before getting comfortable and trying to fall asleep. When my eyes closed I heard him laugh a little, probably at the slight compliment of his intelligence.
I shuffled around for about ten minutes unable to fall asleep, so I stood up. Kura was apparently a light sleeper because he woke up and asked what was wrong.
"I can't sleep. I feel dirty so I'm going to shower in hot water and get dinner. I'll bring some back for you, promise." I told him, walking into the bathroom with my bag unaware of the blush on his face at the thought of a woman being naked in a room not very far from where he sat.
I turned the water on piping hot knowing I wouldn't be getting a bath for about a week so I used this time to enjoy it while I could. I bathed for about 20 minutes before deciding to get out and find food for Kura and I like I had promised.
Drying off, I riffled through my bag to find something to wear that would help me blend into my surroundings on the Island. I knew we had to do the prison maze first but why not prep for the next test as well?
What I finally decided on that would help me the most while also not being to bright were, a dark purple spaghetti strap half tank that stopped above my navel, a black half hoodie to go over the tank, dark green shorts, black stockings to help keep me warm at night if I can't make a fire, and brown combat boots. I didn't really want to go with shorts, but they would be better to move in rather than the fabric of jeans.
Walking out of the bathroom as quietly as I could, I noticed that Kurapika was still awake but trying very hard not to look in my direction. Confused, I let it go, I headed out to exit the room whispering, "I'll be back in a little bit."
Following the opposite path of the hall that we had come from, I found a dining hall through an open room between two banisters. I walked inside and looked around to see a open buffet. I wasn't sure what the boys would like but I found a rolling cart and pilled it with plates of everything to pick from and a few empty plates to use so the boys could just grab at what they wanted, family style.
Quickly I rolled the cart back to our room as carefully as I could, happy to see the delighted look on Kurapika's face when he saw the spread I brought us. He leaned over to wake Leorio before standing up to help me put all the food on a table in the room.
We ate our fill in silence before we settled in and went to sleep with full stomachs. At some point, I must have moved around in my sleep because I ended up leaning on Kurapika's shoulder while sleeping because that is how I found myself when the PA chimed telling us, we were about to arrive at the Third Phase. I sat up from my position and saw that Kura was already awake and smiling politely at me. "I didn't want to wake you up, so I let you rest as much as you needed." He told me as if to answer why he allowed me to sleep on his shoulder. All I could do was nod as we stood up and stretched before heading to the entrance of the ship to get off.
Honestly, I was nervous about this test since I might have to fight someone in the prison. Especially if I followed after my boys and did the majority rules path. Stepping onto the top of the building I started thinking of who I would try to go up against if I ended up going with the boys in place of Tonpa.
Picking the girl prisoner in my mind, I hoped to stop Leorio from going against her and losing so much time but also because she was one of the only ones that didn't fight, and I wasn't too keen on holding a giant open flame in my hand with the skinny dude.
After watching the muscle guy start to climb down just to get carried off by some birds I pulled out my staff and started pushing at the tiles below us, feeling for the trap doors. It didn't take long for Gon and Killua to watch what I was doing and join in to see if they could help me find whatever I was looking for. About a minute went by until the boys found the trap door and got the other two's attention. They did their little deduction talk before we all stood around the doors we were going to use.
When we all took a step onto the doors, I was knocked out of the way by something heavy! Shaking my head from a daze, I stood up and glared at Tonpa as he snickered down at me.
"What the hell, dude!" I shouted at him, swinging my staff at his head but he was fast enough to move out of the way.
"Sorry." He says, obviously not meaning it. "It's what I do, I am known as the Rookie crusher because I enjoy slowing down any new applicants that think they can pass the exam in one shot!"
"I don't give a flying fuck what your hobby is! Why'd you have to slam into me like that? Your fat ass could have literally crushed me!"
I smirked when he frowned at the comment about his weight. "Look at it this way." He tried to reason. "This is your first time so you don't know what you're doing. Use this as an opportunity to gain experience for next year. That way you'll have less of a chance of dying! Especially because you're a girl and that makes you easy pickings for any brutish men. Hopefully next year there will be a bunch of weaklings and you and I can team up together to mess with them AND I'll even try to help you pass!"
"Hard pass, fat fuck!" I scream and ran at him, aiming my staff to swipe at him again. But he choose that moment to jump down into the trap door. Before it closed I shouted threats as loud as I could. "I'm gonna fucking kill you, you fat jackass!"
With him gone, I went about taping the ground with my staff again in hopes of finding another trap door. And as luck would have it I was able to find one on the opposite side of the building from where I was originally with the boys.
Bracing myself, I jumped on the tile to avoid slipping and somehow hurting myself.
When I landed, I landed on my feet but did a tuck n' roll in order to not hurt my ankle again because that really would be my kind of luck. Standing up and brushing dirt off my ass I jumped when I heard the warden suddenly speak through the speaker in the room.
"Hello there! My name is Lippo. I'm the prison warden here, and also, your examiner for the Third Phase of the Exam. We've gone to the trouble of preparing multiple routes through the Tower, and the one you've chosen is the path of oversized strategy puzzles."
"Oversized puzzles?" I asked outloud.
"Yes, if you want to pass, you need to look at the objects around you and maneuver them so they can lead you on a path to the next room to the next puzzle. But you better be careful! Each room after this one will have a time limit to the puzzles and if you aren't fast enough there will be a surprise for you as you continue to work out the puzzles. Good Luck!"
"Fuck me." I said to myself as I looked around the room and saw a door with a number coded lock. Next to the door on a table was a flashlight.
Curiously, I picked it up and turned it on but to my surprise, it emitted a purple light instead of the usual white light!
"So it's like a puzzle-based videogame!"
Happy that I got something as easy as this and it being something I'm somewhat familiar with, I shined the blacklight all around the room and found numbers along the walls and in corners of the room, mentally taking note of each one I found.
When I couldn't find more after the fourth number I went over to the number pad and typed the numbers in, in random patterns since I couldn't find any distinct pattern of the numbers in the room. After about the eighth attempt I heard the pad ding and the door unlocked.
"Yes!"
The next room was just as easy. Looking around as I walked in, I saw three pedestals in the middle of the room but each pedestal was a different color being, black, grey and off white. And on each one were completely different items. A statue of a black cat, a piece of what looked like a medallion, and a blue vase. Stepping closer, I noticed further up a random sphere on the ground and on three of the walls where portraits of people sitting next to pedestals colored like the ones in front of me.
Silently laughing to myself at how easy this was, I walked around and looked at each picture to memorize what objects where on each colored column.
Picking up the medallion piece and putting it in my bag to carry with me I went over to the greyish sphere and was surprised at how heavy it was. Slowly making my way over to the black pedestal, careful not to drop the sphere on my foot, and placed it between my feet on the ground as I picked up the cat statue on the black stand and switched its place with the sphere, fitting it into a half-sphere indention on the top of the pedestal.
Picking up the cat I went over to the off white stand and replaced the cat with the vase before going to the last one and putting the vase on the remaining stand. I heard the telltale click and jumped when the three columns sank into the ground before the door to the next room opened. I wondered what the medallion was for as I walked through.
The next room was huge! And I was not expecting to see a crane and cargo containers laying about shoulder to shoulder with a few empty spaces to move. I looked around and through the cracks between the containers to see if I could see the exit or a hint of what to do but I couldn't see anything! I huffed and turned around intending on going back to the other room and using the black light to see if I missed anything when I noticed a ladder not far from the door I came from. Following the ladder with my line of sight I saw an area that over looked the cargo and a machine that was probably the control panel to the crane.
I climbed up and walked over to the panel taking a look at all the levers and buttons. Just as I noticed a timer set at an hour and a half I heard a staticky noise and the Warden spoke. "That timer is your time limit to finish this puzzle before one of my prisoners comes out to greet you. Good luck figuring out how to open the path before another obstacle makes it even harder for you." Click.
"Greeeeat."
Making sure I don't touch anything that would set off the timer, I looked around the room from my vantage point and saw five or six rows of cargo containers with some of them facing different directions from the rest. "This is literally resident evilesq." I said to myself as I mapped out each move in my head before pushing the start switch for the crane.
Majority Rules POV
The boys sat around and waited after they were told they couldn't move on without a fifth person.
"Where the hell is Ruby?!" Leorio shouted.
"Do you think something happened to her?" Kurapika asked them in concern.
They all looked at each other thinking to themselves that they hoped nothing bad had happened when Gon heard a noise from above and told everyone to be quiet.
They all watched as they saw the slightest twitch of a tile and were shocked to see Tonpa falling through, landing on his back with loud shrieking coming from above before the tile went back in place.
"I'm gonna fucking kill you, you fat jackass!"
"Was that?" Killua asked outloud.
"Yup, that's definitely Nee-chan." Gon confirmed, "It's always a bad idea to make Ruby angry enough to threaten your life."
The older boys sweat dropped and Killua laughed out loud in glee at the thought of the girl threatening men. She was really starting to grow on him just as much as Gon was.
When Tonpa stood up and looked at the boys I the room Gon gave him a warning. "You better watch out when we finish the Third Phase, Tonpa-san. It's really hard to get Nee-chan's forgiveness when she's that mad."
"Hopefully she'll find a way to get inside the prison and make her way to the end before tie runs out." Kurapika says before they all inform Tonpa about what is expected of them for this task.
Ruby's POV
An hour and fifteen minutes went by and Ruby couldn't figure out the pattern for the life of her! The harder she tried the more frustrated she became to the point of hitting the machine whenever a pattern she'd try out failed.
"Uuurgh! This is fucking ridiculous!"
She pushed a restart button and watched intently as the crane automatically put each container she moved back into its original position. She watched as it picked them up one by one and placed them in the opposite order of how she moved them, looking at each path that opened up until the containers where placed down and another was picked up.
While watching this, she gasped as she thought she finally saw the pattern that she was missing but just as she started using the crane again, lifting two of the containers in the correct positions, she heard the timer go off signally that the prisoner was about to come out.
"Damn it!" she shouted as the focused on moving more of them until she had to get away from who ever was coming out of where they were hidden.
Ruby was only able to place one more before a random one somewhere in the room burst open and a plain looking man holding an army knife walked out grinning like a maniac.
At the same time the Warden's voice came through again. "As a last minute adjustment for my entertainment since you failed to make a path within the time limit, your fight will be broadcasted in every path for all the remaining applicants to see! Good luck against Charles, the psychotic serial killer!" click. And with that, Charles spoke excitedly.
"I'm gonna get you little girl!" he shouted before running toward the ladder.
Ruby watched as he made his way half way up before crawling over the ledge of the platform she was standing on before jumping down and landing on one of the metal containers.
"Not on your life!" she shouted back in determination. "Your plan backfired, Warden! Instead of freaking me out, I just have to make sure I make it out alive since my brother and friends are some of those that are watching!"
After her declaration she took off and hoped from on container to the next putting some distance between her and the killer so she can think of what to do next.
Quickly glancing around as the man jumping back down the ladder and tried to climb up a container, Ruby spotted the open one that he had come out of and ran towards it, jumping down and hiding around the open door praying that he would think she was inside.
Within moments she heard his thundering feet as he ran over the containers before hoping down nearby.
"HAHAHA! I know you're in there little girl! That was a bad move hiding in the dark cuz now you're trapped with nowhere to run!" He called into the opening as he slowly made his way inside.
Silently I counted to three before coming out of hiding and pushing the door closed on the container with all my might then running in between two other containers. And with a running start, zigzagged my way up to the top and as quickly and quietly as possible, made my way back to the container Charles was in just as he burst through it a second time.
Only this time, I didn't given him a chance to look around as I jumped down and landed on him with all my weight, simultaneously hitting him in the head with a blunt aka the blacklight, effectively knocking him down. Without hesitation, I used the light and repeatedly hit him in the head until I knew he was out cold. Uncaring if I had killed him or not.
Making sure Charles made no move to get up, I made my way back to the control panel and looked at the remaining containers to remember where I had left off.
It took me another ten minutes to finish moving them around to complete the correct path and head towards the exit. As I walked, I just so happen to pass the unconscious man and saw the glint of his knife. I debated on whether I should take it when a though passed through my mind and won me over. "He's a criminal, he shouldn't have this any way. Better I take it than he use it to kill someone."
Bending down to pick it up I heard him groan and shuffle around. I froze as I watched for his next move but he never made one. Instead, he previous movement jostled an item in his pocket that looked very similar to the medallion piece in my bag. "It can't be that similar to puzzle games right?" I said quietly to myself.
Carefully I reached into his pocket and pulled out the object, it was exactly what I thought it was, and stood up to book it out of that room as soon as possible before that guy woke up.
The room I enter was the barest room I've ever seen with just a painting and door with what looked like three missing decorative slots. I made my way over and placed the two pieces in my possession into the slots and stood in front of it wondering where the last piece would be.
I honestly didn't think I had missed it in any of the rooms, then again I didn't really check each dead-end in the room with the metal containers since I found a piece in that guys pocket. I really didn't want to go back there on the off chance that he would be awake by now.
I glanced over at the painting and blanched, "You're kidding right? It can't be that obvious." I say, making my way to the painting and lifting it off the wall. Sure enough, behind the painting was a square hole with the last medallion laying inside. "Jesus."
I place the last piece where it beloned and watched as the door lifted up and lead me into a dark room. It was dimly light but not well enough that I could see far enough in front of me to not be careful of my footing.
I was cautious with each step I took but nothing prepared me for the floor giving out and turning into a slide from right from under me. "Holy shiiiiiiiiiit!"
After sliding for what felt like three minutes, I finally skidded to a halt in front of another door that opened just as I stood up. Taking a breath, I calmly made my way through the door to see what puzzle was next when I walked into a room full of people I recognize from the exam.
"Seventh place, Number 405, Ruby! Made it in eleven hours and forty-eight minutes" a voice called out from a speaker.
Everyone glanced up to look at me before going about their business. I walked further into the room and spotted the girl with the mushroom looking hat sitting close to an attractive green-haired solder type guy. Putting on a friendly smile, I made my way over and introduced myself. A plan what if's for the next phase already in my head.