A few words appeared on the screen:
"Go to the Ultimate Detective's Lab to obtain your objective."
And the map had come back, this time showing the way back into the school, to a room on the third floor. There was also a bar on the top part of the screen that showed a few symbols, probably used for navigation of the functions of the Monopad.
One of the symbols was a map, which was the function currently being used. Another one was a clock, which probably was used to mark the time remaining in each round. Another was a wrench, which Tenko thought meant "tools", but wasn't sure. Yet another was an unchecked box, the type used for questions in school, which probably meant something like "objectives", "missions" and similar things. The penultimate one was a chest, which should be the tracker for the Monopoints along with all the other virtual resources of the game. Finally, the last symbol was a letter, which should be some sort of messaging system, to communicate between Monopads.
Tenko took note of all this in only a few moments, and was interrupted before doing anything else by Kirumi talking to her.
"Do you have to go to your lab too?" She showed her Monopad, which had the same message, except with Entomologist in place of Detective.
"Yeah, it's the same thing." Tenko confirmed "I imagine it should be the same for everyone else. And I want to know what is this lab thing about, since they should be part of the rooms that were locked before."
"That seems to be a good idea. I guess we should meet up later?" Kirumi asked.
"Yes. We'll talk about it once we both have our objectives." Tenko said, and the two left the gym, at the same time that a bunch of other students were doing the same thing.
They split up and headed for their own labs, on the way, Tenko saw a few safes that hadn't been there when she had been exploring the school. Those would probably be the safes Monokuma had been talking about.
Also, she took the time to familiarize herself with the functions of the Monopad. The map showed her the full measure of the school, that she hadn't been able to explore completely, and she even saw that there were strange areas like a casino and an underground tunnel. The clock function showed a countdown, which had started with one hundred and sixty eight hours, which were exactly seven days. Weirdly, there was also a second time box, which was grayed out, which should have some other function.
The wrench was indeed "tools", and the variety was remarkable. There was a lantern function, a photograph function, a calculator, a notepad, an encyclopedia, a chronometer, a Monokuma head(probably the judge function) and a few others. It would definitely be useful. The unchecked box had two subsections, one of which showed the team and individual objectives (both currently grayed out), and another one which had the header "current tasks", which was self-explanatory, though currently empty.
The chest was exactly like Tenko expected, mostly, except that besides Monopoints and "resources", there was also a sub-header for "information", which included extra sub-headers for notes, pictures, task history and a button to create new ones. However, the letter symbol was a surprise.
It did indeed have a messaging function, but the most impressive part was the "forum", a sort of intranet that allowed the players to communicate in a forum format. You could post topics, and there were options to only allow certain people to view and/or reply to them. Most mysterious, however, was a function that was called "establish commander – subordinate link", which was grayed out.
There were a lot of things Tenko had made note of in regards to the Monopad, and she could tell that there were a lot of mysteries hidden within it. However, the most important was still to deal with the objectives of the game, so she left that for later and got inside her lab.
She immediately understood why it was called an Ultimate Detective Lab. It seemed like it had been created just for her.
There were books about all sorts of things that would be useful in investigations, from patterns of wear and tear in materials to details about specific injuries and stages of body decomposition, and that was just the beginning. There were also a few tools which most people wouldn't recognize, strange glasses and something that seemed like a combination of a snow globe and a pachinko machine.
But Tenko could recognize them, because her teacher had used things like this as aids in order to train her observation skills. The strange glasses had various effects on her vision, forcing Tenko to focus on different things than she usually did. The strange tool, when shook, had its hoops (the thing it had instead of fake snow) move all around the complicated structure of the thing, and Tenko had used it to train by trying to keep track of every single one of the hoops.
The more she looked at the lab, the more Tenko felt an ominous feeling rising from her heart. It was just too perfect. Even the chair and work table were exactly the type she liked and arranged in exactly the way she would do. This was definitely a clue about the deep mysteries of that academy and the Multiplicity Game. Tenko already had a few ideas about what it could mean, but she forced herself to not get too invested in any possible theory, since there was still far too much that she didn't know.
The Monopad beeped, and Tenko forced herself to focus back on the present. She had been trained to not forget any detail, so she simply put those thoughts to the back of her head. Tenko opened the objective section.
She realized two things simultaneously. The first was the fact that the team objective part was still grayed out, though there were some words on it. However, she couldn't focus on what they said because her attention was stolen by the individual objective part:
"One of the players is hiding their true Talent. Input the name of the player and of their actual Talent."
Tenko took a deep breath and pressed on that part of the screen, being taken to a new window with a keyboard input and two empty boxes where the letters would appear. It was fairly straightforward.
So... That was the deal. Tenko immediately connected that to what Monokuma mentioned about the "wolf". This game wouldn't allow the players to cooperate easily, if those two things were any indication.
And about the objective itself... It would be difficult. Tenko knew that the person who was hiding their talent would have pretty good reasons for doing that, so it would be difficult to be sure of who it was, since the person would do everything to make sure it wasn't discovered.
But she had seven days to think of a way, and there was still a lot she didn't know about the game, so maybe there were some things she could use.
Tenko proceeded to take a look at the team objective thing, and it was very straightforward as well:
"Team Objective will be revealed in 24 hours."
Tenko looked at the time section and saw that there was a new countdown there, this time starting at 24 hours. With this, it seemed like the makers of the game wanted the participants to start by focusing on their individual objectives, which would also make it harder to unite them for the team objective.
Then, the Monopad beeped again and Tenko saw that it was the forum that had some activity. Looking at it, she saw a thread by Kaede Akamatsu, in which she was testing the forum function, and asked the others to comment if they could see it.
Tenko put on her own comment, seeing that this was probably a good idea. Then she went to the private messaging function and sent a text to Kirumi:
"I'm about done here. Should we meet in front of the gym?"
In fact, there was just one more thing that she wanted to do in the lab. Look at the safe that was inside but she had ignored earlier.
It didn't take a genius to realize that putting a safe right in the "initial position" of an Ultimate right at the start of the game was a clear indication that it should be something basic, that would be best to look at early. Tenko even imagined that every one of the Ultimates should have their own safe in their labs.
Tenko walked over to the safe and held the Monopad against the obvious sensor. Soon, words appeared on the screen of the Monopad.
"Safe #5. Type: Puzzle. Reward for Completion: Hint. Time Allowed: Infinite. Punishment for Failure: None. Open?"
And there were buttons with "Yes" and "No". Again, it was pretty straightforward. Tenko pressed "Yes".
With a mechanical sound, the lock of the safe was disabled and it opened.
Tenko reached her hand inside and took out...
"A Rubik's Cube?"
And indeed, that was what it seemed to be. The screen of the Monopad changed to the "Current Tasks", and there was a single item on the list, named "Safe #5".
Then, Tenko received a reply to her previous message, which simply read "Sure."
Tenko pocketed the Rubik's Cube for the time being. She had a few ideas to test, but that would need the help of another student, so she walked to the meeting spot.
-0-
Tenko smiled when she reached the spot and saw Kirumi waiting for her. They greeted each other, and Tenko decided to ask something:
"What did you think of your lab?"
Kirumi crossed her arms and said "It was perfect. That's the only way I can describe it."
Tenko nodded "It was the same way for me too. And I imagine all the others had similar experiences." She shook her head "Except Shuuichi, since I don't think it would be that easy for him to discover what his talent was. But regardless, that is definitely something that I have to make note of."
"You have any theories?"
Tenko shook her head "I still have far too little information to create any sort of reliable theory."
"Hmm..." Kirumi seemed to think about something "Did you get your Individual Objective? Mine is a little strange."
"How so?" Tenko asked.
Kirumi touched the screen of her Monopad a few times and showed Tenko her Individual Objective:
"Find the 'Special Bug' hidden in the Academy."
Tenko was touched by the fact that Kirumi would do such a thing as to confide her Individual Objective with her, even if it didn't seem to be anything particularly sensitive. So, the Detective truly put her mind to work, wanting to help her friend as much as she could.
"I believe..." Tenko started "That this doesn't refer to an actual insect that you would have to scour all around the place to find, but some sort of special object instead. Also, since the game is all about the special tasks from the safes and rooms, I imagine that you will be able to find clues to the location of your objective by completing the tasks."
Then Tenko thought about it, and decided that she should return Kirumi's trust, so she also said:
"I also believe that every one of our Individual Objectives is suited for the person's specific talent. Here, look at mine..." And Tenko showed Kirumi her own objective.
Kirumi read it, and her expression changed, showing that she understood what that meant, in several different manners. She then spoke with a serious voice:
"Do you have any idea who it is?"
Tenko shook her head "No. It's too early yet. But I think that the task rewards should help me with that, same as with you."
"Right..."
Tenko then decided to try and test a few of her ideas. First, she asked Kirumi:
"Was there a safe in your lab? Did you open it?"
"Yes." She said "There was a Sudoku puzzle inside but I haven't done it yet. Do you want to see it?" Kirumi asked.
"Not right now." Tenko shook her head "But I have a few ideas about how those safes work, and I will need your help to test them."
"What do you need me to do?" Kirumi asked promptly.
Tenko took the Rubik's Cube out of her pocket "See if you can scan this."
Kirumi pressed her Monopad to the Cube, and soon a beep sounded "Safe #5. Type: Puzzle. Reward for Completion: 50 Monopoints. Time Allowed: Infinite. Punishment for Failure: None. Accept?" She raised her eyes to look at Tenko "It's pretty similar to mine, except it's number five instead of twelve, and the reward is Monopoints instead of a hint."
"My reward for it is a hint." Tenko said "Which means the rewards for the same safes can be different depending on the student." She nodded "Next, I have to finish this thing, but could you please keep your Monopad pressed against it?"
Kirumi did so, and Tenko quickly solved the Rubik's Cube. It was only a question of knowing how the entire thing would react to each change. As soon as she finished, Tenko's Monopad beeped. Also, the Cube moved by itself and returned to an "unsolved" configuration.
Looking at it, Tenko saw a message "Safe #5 complete. You have gained Hint #5,"
Tenko quickly went to her "resources" tab and saw that the list now had an item called "Hint #5". She checked it:
"The Challenge Doors are the true essence of the Multiplicity Game."
Tenko took note of that, and showed it to Kirumi. Then she started speaking "It seems like they have a way to tell who exactly is responsible for completing a challenge. Now, I have to ask something: Do you know how to solve a Rubik's Cube?"
Kirumi shook her head "No."
Tenko passed the Cube to her "Then I'll walk you through it."
She did so, and it didn't take a long time before Kirumi managed to complete the task. And then, it was her Monopad that beeped, and after looking at it (the Cube had already done the same thing as before), Kirumi said that she had gotten the fifty Monopoints.
"Understood." Tenko said "You have to complete the work yourself, but you can have help. That is an important clue."
"Really?" Kirumi asked.
"Indeed. And there are still some other things to check. Could you bring me to your lab?"
Kirumi agreed, and the two went there.
-0-
The lab was exactly what Tenko expected, both from the Ultimate Entomologist and from Kirumi Toujou. It was elegantly organized, with books of reference in a clear order and bug specimens put in a way that could even be called decorative, along with the various tools for catching bugs.
"What do you want me to do?" Kirumi asked, seeing that Tenko wasn't taking the initiative to do something.
"First, you should solve your own puzzle." Tenko said
"Right." She nodded "Do you want to scan it?"
"Not at the moment." Tenko shook her head "There's something I wanted to test."
Kirumi didn't understand what you meant, but took upon herself to solve her puzzle. Tenko saw that the Sudoku puzzle was a small board which you could touch to change the numbers on. It was definitely something that could be easily "reset", which was another thing to keep in mind.
It didn't really take long, since that particular Sudoku wasn't exactly one of the hard ones. Kirumi looked at her Monopad and then showed the hint she got to Tenko:
"Different places have different types of challenges."
The detective nodded. That was a small hint, but it certainly was useful. But there was another reason why she got Kirumi to do the puzzle.
"Now, could you put the puzzle back into the safe and close it?" She asked.
Kirumi blinked, but did as she was asked. Then her Monopad beeped.
"It's asking if I want to lock it." She said, after looking at the screen.
"Say yes." Tenko said, thoughtful. It really seemed like her thoughts had been right.
Kirumi did as asked, and Tenko walked over and pressed her Monopad to the safe. There was a beep.
"This safe is locked. Do you wish to send a request to the owner?" Was the message.
Tenko pressed yes, and Kirumi's Monopad beeped. She looked at it, and froze. She showed the message to Tenko, wordlessly.
"Tenko Chabashira wants to open Safe #12. Do you want to set a price?"
Kirumi looked at her and asked "Was that what you expected?"
Tenko nodded "Yes. By completing a puzzle and putting the item back into the safe, you become the owner. That is the true meaning of the safes. I imagine that there is also..."
She was interrupted by a beep from the Monopad. She looked and saw a new topic on the forum. It was Kokichi Ouma, selling Safe #8 for 25 Monopoints.
Kirumi was also looking at her own Monopad, then she asked Tenko:
"Is this really possible?"
"Yes. And it's just like I imagined. The puzzles that we have done aren't things that are difficult." Tenko said "Using the tools of the Monopad, like the encyclopedia, any one of us could do any of them. The true meaning of the safes isn't that the people who can do it have an advantage, it's that people who have done it gain 'ownership'." Tenko sighed "This isn't worth much for most of them. But if you have access to something another person desperately needs..." Tenko trailed off.
"And if you can set your own prices..." Kirumi understood.
"Exactly. That means you have a lot of power." She closed her eyes "At least, in the case of the safes of this type, but I imagine there should be similar schemes involving the other types of safes. That is one of the layers of the Multiplicity Game."
There were a few instants of silence, and then Kirumi asked:
"What do you think we should do next?"
Tenko smiled. It seemed like she had already found an ally "Looking at other types of safes could be good, but my hint is something I really want to check out.
"So how about we go take a look at one of those 'Challenge Doors'?"