Danganronpa: Algorithmic Alteration Chapter 31: Abandoned Principles (Part 1), a dangan ronpa kibou no gakuen to zetsubou no koukousei fanfic

Chapter 4: Abandoned Principles (Daily Life Part 1)

Come on guys, do you still need a warning for this story? You literally saw what happened to Tatiana, it shouldn't get much worse than that. Or it might… Either way, I'm warning you. Seriously.

Suddenly, Icarus realized he could hardly see his father. He had flown so high his father resembled a small dot below him. At the same time he noticed a feather drift past and float downwards towards the sea. And then another … and then another. Too late Icarus realized his wings were melting. He had flown too close to the Sun. With every desperate swoop of his arms, more feathers fell and soon his arms were almost bare. Down and down and down went Icarus…

? (2040)

The room was dark, only slightly illuminated by the various monitors in the room, as well as the small rays of sunlight that were able to pierce through the rather thick curtains.

Not only was it rather dark, it was also pretty silent, save for the sound of a few fans, given just how much heat all of the computers were producing.

However, that didn't mean someone wasn't in the room. There, in one of the three chairs, sat a man, who was intently staring at one of the monitors.

Today had been like any normal day for Lance Kaye, the Former Ultimate Hacker.

Normally, he would be content with just working away on his computer, slaving away at some of his personal projects.

The issue was what was currently on his screen at the moment.

An email.

Lance prided himself on being rather difficult to contact. Besides his immediate family, and two closest friends, nobody should ever be able to contact him.

He was pretty much living away from any sort of interruptions.

Well, that wasn't entirely true. There was one other way to contact Lance, but he did it more so just to see if anyone could do it.

He had constructed a rather difficult puzzle for others to solve.

It's not like he wasn't well known, he was an Ultimate with a rather large history of online activity, so he was definitely kind of famous. People always wanted to contact him, so he at least wanted to leave the door open.

However…

He didn't expect anyone would have solved it any time soon… He had only posted that puzzle a couple years ago.

And yet, the email he was reading right now was undeniably someone trying to contact him.

"Is this Lance Kaye? I was hoping to ask you for a request…"

The only problem was that the email that they sent this to didn't seem to have a name attached to them.

And there was one thing that Lance didn't want to ever deal with, was the unknown.

Letting out a sigh, he placed his foot against the edge of the table, pushing back, and causing his chair to wheel away, towards another one of his computers.

He had already memorised the email address, so all he had to do was run it through his program.

It only took a few seconds to figure out what he wanted.

This email had been created today, with the sole purpose of contacting him. Which meant that Lance wouldn't be able to tie it to any other accounts, and thus, a name.

"Smart…" He knew better than anyone else that you shouldn't trust your name with a hacker.

Unfortunately for them, he was the best of the best, so there wasn't much they could hide from.

Moving over to another computer, he began running a program, throwing the email in.

All he was curious about was the exact time and location that this email was created.

There was a high chance that the person hide their trails, given how smart they were, but maybe-

They hadn't considered hiding there.

Great, he had an address. The only problem was that multiple people lived there, so he couldn't narrow it down quite yet.

Honestly, this was a lot of work just to know the name of the person who sent him an email.

It took about half an hour of working on finding a name, and hopefully even a picture of the person.

However, he wasn't expecting the identity of the person who contacted him to be so… young? Lance was a bit unsure about all of this, but he always knew to trust his gut on manners such as this, so he quickly moved his chair back over towards the first computer.

When he finally had everything ready, Lance moved over to send his response email, including their name in it.

After only about half a minute, he quickly received a response, as if the person was desperately waiting for his message, it read:

"I should have figured you would be able to find my name pretty easily. I have a request. Are you able to delete information that's online?"

Looking at this email, Lance couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. That was an odd request. Normally, if someone came to him, they had much darker intentions. But just deleting information. Then again, he was dealing with a kid.

"It might take a bit, depending on the information you want me to delete. If you could tell me what you want to do, I can do that for you."

Honestly, something like that was far too simple. Leaning back in his chair, Lance let out a sigh, writing another email.

"By the way, how did you get this email?"

It took a bit longer compared to the last message, but soon, Lance saw a new message appear in his message box.

"I followed the trail you left. The starting point was something I'm really interested in! As for the information… Is it possible to delete information about a person?"

Of course it was the damn puzzle, but that's his own fault.

However, the second part of the email did concern Lance slightly. Why would they want to delete information about someone?

"I could do that, but why, and who?"

"I don't want people finding out I'm associated with them… I'm afraid that someone will come after me. The person I want deleted offline is Akane Fujimoto."

For a moment, Lance paused, trying to think long and hard.

Why was that name familiar?

It couldn't be a coincidence, right?

Quickly, Lance moved over to a completely different computer, opening up some new tabs, before beginning to write the name down.

It didn't take long for some articles to pop up. "Ah, I see…"

The person in question was not a good person. It would be understandable why they would want all ties removed. Hell, the client even looked like the person he was asked to delete.

Which had to mean the two were related.

"Sure thing, it shouldn't take me too long."

Once again, it didn't take very long for a response to come in.

"Thank you so much! This really means a lot to me."

By far the weirdest request Lance had ever received, given he normally has to deal with much shadier people.

For once, this person just wanted to be free from association. Searching around, he couldn't actually find anything wrong with the client as well. Except that they had just become a teenager.

"I'll do it free of charge. You don't have to worry about paying me. You already worked enough to even contact me, so."

Besides, Lance always felt inclined to do some good in the world, even if it was like this.

Without getting an email in response, he got to work pretty quickly.

Running a program, he was able to quickly find most articles that even mentioned Akane. Deleting them would prove to be a slight issue, but he's never let that stop him before.

He did have to stop partways into his task when he received another email.

"Are you sure? I'm good for the money."

Ah, a family that was well off, more than likely. Either that, or they just didn't understand the price he would ask normally.

For now, he didn't want to be distracted, so he turned off the monitor that contained his emails.

Back to work.

The amount of websites he had to cleanse through, the amount of police reports he had to scrub through. If Lance had still kept in touch with Natasha, she would chew him out right about now.

Luckily, ties like that had long since been broken by different philosophies.

…

After about several hours of work, Lance had finally done it. Every piece of evidence he could find pertaining to Akane, and any of her aliases, were removed.

At least removed from the internet themselves.

Moving over, Lance pulled out a USB stick, placing it in his pocket. "I'll delete it off the web, but I'm going to keep a copy for myself."

After all, he didn't want this coming back to bite him in the ass.
Moving his chair back over to his first monitor, he turned the screen back on, which contained three new emails, all in a similar vein.

All asking about where he went.

Letting out a sigh, Lance began to type his response.

"Don't worry, I didn't forget you. I've been busy these past couple of hours removing everything. You won't find a trace of her anywhere that isn't directly on paper. You can check."

This time, it took a few minutes, but they finally responded to him.

"Wait… I actually can't find anything. You really are as good as they say. Are you sure you don't want to be paid?"

"Yes, I'm sure. Please do not contact me further."

After sending that last email, he made sure to block the other person, and delete all traces of this conversation.

Lance could never be too careful. There's a reason why he lived like this.

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the drive he had stored away, staring at it for a few moments.

Then, with a marker, he wrote down the name Akane on it.

While he had never met the person, something still bothered him. Why had he even heard of such a person before?

Letting out a sigh, he let his head slowly turn towards the rotary phone he had on one of his other desks. "I should give her a call."

Sliding his chair over towards the phone, Lance put in a number, before waiting for the person on the other line to pick up.

"Lance?" The voice of a girl called out. "What are you doing calling me at this time? You normally haul yourself up in your office at this time."

Already chewing him out? Yeah, he deserved it. "Hey Caroline, I was just calling to see how things back home are doing." Honestly, he should probably visit more often. "How are things with the twins?"

For a moment, the silence made him feel like Caroline was going to scold him, but a brighter tone called out to him. "Oh, the twins are doing fantastic. Veronica's been busy with her club activity, and I actually got to watch one of the shows she worked at. Her lightwork was phenomenal. As for Nika, she's pretty much top of her class."

This did put a rare smile on Lance's face. He was always happy to hear about how his daughters were doing. "Honestly, I'm not sure who they take after."

"Hmm… A little bit of both, I would presume. Veronica likes technology like yourself, while Nika follows my passion in science."

True, still. Personality wise was a bit different.

"Oh!" Caroline hummed out. "Honestly, it might be a bit too forward for me to say this, but I believe that I could have them recruited to Hope's Peak."

There was a brief pause in the conversation, as Lance remained silent. "What do you mean you believe you can? You're the talent scout. Anything you say goes."

"You know that's not true." He couldn't see Caroline's face, but he could tell she was frowning. "There's some times where my decisions mean nothing. Some people I've declined, and they still get in."

Right… "The steering committee?"

"Exactly." Caroline let out a sigh. "In the end, they can override any choices I make."

"Yeah, but they've never said no when you've decided someone should join." Lance quickly pointed out. "Besides, they'd be stupid to turn down the twins."

"I guess you're right. I'm just panicking for no reason. It will be weird to have to interview them." Caroline let out a laugh.

This got an eyebrow raise from Lance. "You still have to interview them even if it's family?"

"It's basic procedure. Besides, it will be fun to ask them the questions I ask everyone else. It would also be interesting to see how their answers differ."

Lance didn't exactly know what the questions were, especially since when he went to Hope's Peak a decade and a half ago, there were no such questions to be asked. "Speaking of which…" The reason he had actually called her. "I think I found a potential recruit for this year's class."

"Oh?" Now Caroline was always happy to hear something like that. "Well, don't keep me waiting. Why do you want them?"

Tilting his head to the side. "You remember that post I made that had hints that would lead to my email… Well… Someone sent me a response today, asking for a request. Which I did, free of charge."

There was silence on the line, as if Caroline was trying to remember what the puzzle was. "Oh… Right! That! I'm surprised someone took the time to solve that. Not a lot of people are interested in it as much anymore."

"It's what I thought I was safe… But the reason I brought it up was because they were only fourteen." Lance trailed off. "So they're in the right range for Hope's Peak."

After a bit of silence, Caroline spoke up again. "Send me their information, I'll do my own research on them, and then I'll get back to you."

Yeah, Lance could do that. "Yeah, I'll send it to you in a bit. However, I do have one last question."

"What is it?"

"Does the name Akane Fujimoto mean anything to you?" Lance wanted to get to the bottom of this, but he couldn't find much else online. Just some family related manner, but even then, she didn't have much in terms of family. Just a single sibling, with both of their parents being dead.

After a while, Caroline answered. "No… It doesn't really mean anything to me. Why? Are you paranoid?"

Crossing his arms, Lance didn't answer immediately. Something felt a bit off, but he wasn't going to comment on it.

He just knew he had to know that name from somewhere. "No, it's nothing…"

Time to change the subject. "I should be back home in two days, so we should be able to talk more. I might just wait until I meet up in person to hand you the information."

"You are paranoid." Caroline let out a small laugh. "Alright, that's fine with me. The girls would love to see you again, as would I. You take care." She wasn't a stranger to how he spoke. Something like this meant he wanted to end the conversation.

Once Lance heard the click on the other end of the line, he put the phone back, letting out a sigh. "Today was just supposed to be another boring day…" And now he couldn't stop thinking about the information. Holding out the usb stick, he moved back over to his computer.

Might as well further his research…

Motive Room (Previous night)

A deal, huh… Gennosuke couldn't say he was surprised that someone would come to him to make a deal.

But Nova out of all people? He would have expected something like this from Monokawa.

"What kind of deal?" Gennosuke crossed his arms.

He wasn't stupid, he knew there was going to be some sort of catch to something like this.

"I assure you it's a deal that will benefit the both of us." Nova's visor changed to an orange expression of joy.

Letting out a small chuckle, Gennosuke shook his head. "Now how would something benefit the both of us? There's not much you can offer me that I'd want."

"Oh? I'm sure there is." The way Nova said it, made it sound like she was rather confident. "I know you have no wish to escape from this killing game."

Admitely, she had read Gennosuke right there.

This was the first time he actually felt something. So he wasn't about to throw that way. "What of it?"

"But I also know you don't want to die." Nova tilted her head to the side. "You wish to be a witness for this game for as long as possible."

It was a bit unnerving that she could read him like that, but Gennosuke wasn't going to say anything else. "Sounds like you have a way to guarantee that."

"While I can't stop someone from outright murdering you, I can, however, grant you certain immunities."

Raising an eyebrow, that certainly caught Gennosuke's interest. "What kind of immunities are we talking about?"

"There's a motive that is coming up that I don't see you having any chance at surviving." Nova let out a small laugh. "Especially with your behaviour in the last trial."

"Get to the point." The longer Gennosuke stayed here, the more of a chance he had of being caught. "What do you want me to do?"

After a bit of silence, Nova finally answered. "All I want from you is to find the identity of someone."

At this point, Gennosuke was done asking questions. If she wanted to drag it out, that was her problem.

After a bit of silence, Nova finally continued. "I'm sure you're well aware about what Michael discovered about one of the vacant rooms."

Now this was something more to Gennosuke's speed. "Right, someone broke into one of the vacant rooms. Even shot out the name." And yet none were missing.

Clapping her hands together, Nova nodded, an orange expression of joy. "Yes, yes! Well, all I'm asking is that you find out the identity of that person."

To anyone else, that would be a rather easy job to accept. It wouldn't take too much to figure that out.

However, to someone like Gennosuke, he was less trusting. "Why do I have to do that? Don't you have cameras?"

Long pause.

"Well…" Nova trailed off, unsure how to handle this conversation. "We do have cameras, however, we aren't actively paying attention to them. We just give them our full focus when we think a murder is about to happen. Nothing had suggested that the cameras needed to be watched. And our footage can not be rewound.

That could be understandable, but there was still one blaring issue with all of this. "The person would have needed to buy a bullet, no? Why not have Monokawa reveal who bought them?"

Another long pause, as Nova tried to find an answer. "Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to remember who bought the bullet."

This caused Gennosuke to frown slightly. Did they have less overreach than he thought so originally? That was an interesting thing to reveal.

Still, something felt off.

"I'll tell you what." Gennosuke pulled out the lollipop out of his mouth. "I accept your deal. Only if you let me add onto it."

"What could you possibly want extra?" Nova didn't seem too happy about that.

Letting out a small chuckle, Gennosuke shook his head. "No need to get so mad about all of this. I'll find the person you want… I just want you to answer a question or two when this is all said and done."

"Just a question?" Nova's expression softened up slightly. "Fine, but for now, you won't get anything except motive immunity while you hunt that person down."

Before Gennosuke could ask anything else, the screen turned off.

"Huh…" Tilting his head to the side, he couldn't help but grin. "This game sure has gotten interesting all of a sudden."

At first, he didn't care about whoever had claimed one of those rooms, but he was going to get to the bottom of this, and quite easily, at that.

Turning away from the screen, he made his way towards the door. It was getting late, and he wanted to catch some sleep.

Benjamin's Room

For the first time in forever… Benjamin woke up alone.

Turning towards his nightstand, where Dolly would normally be…

Nothing.

The events of yesterday played out in his head again. Tatiana had killed Dae-Hyun, and had gotten herself executed.

And, as a parting gift, Benjamin had given her Dolly. A decision he doesn't regret in the slightest.

Slowly getting out of his bed, he moved over towards the bathroom, examining himself in the mirror.

It had been a long time since he had seen his face make more than just a blank expression. He had remained expressionless for the last several years, that even trying to make a smile felt fake.

Had he forgotten how, or were the events of yesterday stopping him doing it?

"Alright, Benjamin…" He told himself, attempting to prepare himself. "From now on, it's just you. No Dolly. No…" He trailed off. "No Tatiana."

That last part hurt way more than he would have thought. Quickly, his expression dropped, looking down at the sink.

He hadn't really spent any time getting closer to the others. At best, it was Gemini and maybe Atlas, but Gemini had accused Tatiana yesterday, and Atlas was… Well… Atlas.

For now, Benjamin couldn't worry about stuff like that.

He just had to listen to what Tatiana told him. People loved Dolly, so they would love him.

Fixing his hair, Benjamin tried to make sure he looked as presentable as possible. He always had a weird fascination with his appearance, even going as far as to make sure Dolly's dress was always in top shape.

After adjusting his hair, he moved on to his clothes, adjusting the suit he wore. Looking in the mirror, he looked great. "Alright…" He trailed off, turning towards the doorway.

Benjamin was finally ready to introduce himself to everyone else…

Cafeteria

For the first time in a long time, Benjamin had started a day without Dolly. Didn't have to make sure her clothes weren't wrinkled or not.

Instead, he only really had to focus on himself.

So when the elevator door opened up, and Benjamin didn't have anyone to hide behind, he could actually look the people in the eyes.

And they looked back at him, given that many people didn't even get the chance to talk to him, given the circumstances.

Slowly, Benjamin offered a wave to them. "Good… Good morning." He tried his best to smile like Tatiana did, but it faltered only moments later.

Letting out a sigh, Gemini shook his head. "You don't have to pretend to put a smile on."

Who would be able to after Dae-Hyun and Tatiana both died yesterday?

It was horrible…

Looking around the room, Benjamin noticed that everyone was already at the cafeteria.

Everyone but one…

Gennosuke…

Which was honestly a relief, given Benjamin didn't want to look at that man.

Now that he had joined up with the group, Gigi felt it was best to talk now. "After every trial, our groups gets further and further divided." Despite it being pretty much a week since the Ian and Laki trial, she still had next to no trust in Michael and Laki.

"But that's no fault of our own." Hae-Won shrugged, not really wanting to take accountability for her previous actions. "We can blame Gennosuke on this one."

That was the core of the issue here…

"He's already proved he's even more of an asshole than Ian was." Hae-Won continued on.

A hard comparison, given that Ian tried to kill half of them. The main difference was that Ian wasn't doing it because he enjoyed it, instead, rather to save someone.

Gennosuke just helped out because he wanted the trial to be harder, and made it very clear he didn't care about anything else going on.

"You know, every day it feels less like I'm a problem." Lorelei placed a hand on their hip.

Sitting next to her, for some reason, was Winter, drinking tea. "Didn't you try and kill me yesterday?"

"I fail to see how, like, that's relevant." Lorelei rolled their eyes. "We're both still alive, and we both made mistakes."

Somehow, they were still getting along despite them almost killing each other.

Wanting to talk about something a little more positive, Melody turned to look at Benjamin. "It's a real peach to spot ya here."

"Huh…" Benjamin wasn't exactly sure what to say about any of this. Normally, he'd move Dolly to the forefront, and let her do all the talking.

But now, it was only him.

Letting out a sigh, Gemini shook his head. "Let's not try and get him to talk if he doesn't want to."

Looking over at him, Benjamin only smiled, but otherwise remained silent.

Things would be alright…

He just had to tell himself that.

Of course…

Given that it was the start of a new daily life, this meant that this didn't go off without some hiccups! Because…

Suddenly…

Otter!

"Wow!" Monokawa floated down. "I expected more tears from you all, but it's like you already got over it."

"We're not." Hae-Won gritted her teeth. "You're the last person I want to see right now."

"Wow, ranked even below Gennosuke…" Monokawa let his arms fall to his side. "Do you know what that does to a man?" Slowly, he floated down, landing on the table.

"I see the mark Tatiana left on you is still there." Gigi was staring at his forehead.

Quickly, Monokawa covered his forehead. "Hey! Don't worry about that." The red light in his eye went out for a second. "She did something weird to me! Must have broken something…" The eye flickered for a second.

On the other hand, Hae-Won didn't really seem to care. "Why are you here this time?"

Right! He had come bearing news. "Well, you know, the usual. A trial happens, and a new area opens up."

Hae-Won was going to say something, but realised it wasn't worth it.

"So what?" Edison tilted his head. "You want us to go explore them now?"

"Duh!" Monokawa let himself rest on the table. "Why else would I tell you?"

"Hmm…" Winter let out a hum, before taking a sip of her tea.

The prospect of exploring a new area didn't exactly excite her. "No thank you." She finally said. "I already found my Ultimate Station. All we'll end up finding is new ways to kill each other."

From the looks of it, everyone else seemed to be in agreement.

There was just no reason to go out exploring.

"Really…" Monokawa deadpanned. "At least some of you have to be excited for your own Ultimate Stations."

Seira was about to respond to that remark, but she held her tongue.

Sure, she wanted to see if hers was out there, but now didn't really feel like the time…

At this point, Monokawa was at a loss of words. They just didn't like exploring as much as they used to.

However, the one who finally spoke up was Gemini. "If new areas are opened up, we should go see what they have to offer."

After all this time, he hadn't given up on finding a way out.

Since he wanted to go, that shifted Seira's thoughts, and she stood up. "Alright, I'd be willing to go."

"Hey! Hey you sellout!" Monokawa pointed at her. "Just because he wants to go-"

He was ignored completely as the conversation resumed with everyone else. "Hypothetically speaking, the new area would be accessed through the Tau Sector, given those are the only two hallway doors left."

"At least it's not a far walk." Hae-Won hummed out, turning her attention towards the doors leading out of the cafeteria.

Monokawa had so much else to say right now, mostly insults. However, he did want them all to explore the new area. So he slowly rose himself towards the ceiling, making it seem like he was never there.

Now that the entire group was ready to go out exploring, they had all approached the cafeteria door, ready to leave.

"Why aren't we leaving?" Lorelei placed a hand on her hip.

Given it was Gemini's idea, it was strange that he had stopped right before leaving. "I was just thinking about how we should split up the groups for exploration this time."

Was that it? "How about we figure that out after we get to know how big the area is." Lorelei scanned their watch, stepping through the door. "I don't feel like waiting forever."

Once she walked through the doors, several other people did too.

From the looks of it, the door that seemed to work was the one directly to the right of the cafeteria.

Zeta Sector

Stepping into this new area, the thirteen participants took a moment to take in the look of this area.

"You know…" Gemini trailed off, taking a deep breath. "Why does this area feel more futuristic?"

To add credit to him, the lower part of the wall had a thin glowing blue line going along the entire wall.

"Oh!" Nova called out, clapping her hands together. "Because this part of the ship is my favourite."

Slowly, everyone collectively turned to look at her.

The first person to speak up was Lorelei. "Why?"

"Because this is where talents more up to my speed are." Nova revealed. "Besides, my office is also here."

That was certainly something new. "You have an office?" Gigi raised an eyebrow.

"Of course!" Nova's expression changed to one of joy. "Where do you think I hang out all the time? You thought it was somewhere hidden away from everyone."

"That would make the most sense…" Seira mumbled out. "So does that mean we can visit you at any time?"

"Exactly!" Nova nodded her head. "My office is open for all. But please don't take this as an invitation to attack me." With that, she was gone, leaving the group a bit lost on what to actually do.

"How should we split up this time…?" May was a bit curious about the specific talents that interested Nova.

They were thirteen, so who knew how to divide them like this.

"The path continues along." Winter spotted another hallway opening. "It's likely we have two sectors like last time."

"Then we should divide ourselves in two groups. One of six, one of seven." Edison was quick to suggest.

Of course, Seira was going to be quick to turn that down. "Wouldn't it be better with four groups of three, with one group being four people?"

"You just want to change what I said…" Now Edison was starting to feel beat up about how much she went against him.

"Personally, I think we should choose our groups again this time." Winter hummed out, thinking for a moment. "There's no reason to leave this up to any sort of luck."

"Tsk, then we already know how this is going to end." Atlas moved over to stand next to Gigi, given that nobody else would pair up with him.

"That's fine…" She didn't have any say in the matter, but she also didn't seem to mind.

Before anyone else could make a group, Hae-Won was the one who spoke up. "Edison and Laki. You two are with me."

"No problem!" The chemist didn't seem to mind.

However, Laki was a bit unsure at first. "Huh… Alright." She didn't really want to be in the same room as Hae-Won.

Which left only a handful of people. "Michael." Melody had to force herself to smile at him, given the pain she was still going under. "Do ya wish to explore with me?"

Well, she saved him the effort, given he was going to ask her as well. "Yeah… That's probably for the best." However, he did notice something.

May was now standing between them. "I'm going with you two…" She let out a small yawn.

"OK…?" Michael wasn't sure what to do with this.

There weren't many choices left, so Winter was forced to pair herself up with Lorelei.

"Aww, I knew you'd choose me." The hacker almost felt touched.

"You would have paired up with me anyways, had I not said anything." Winter had a slight smile on her face.

Besides, she had to return something.

Which left only one person to have not formed a group.

Benjamin… "Um…" Besides Tatiana, he hadn't really gotten close to anyone since he got here.

He hadn't really had the chance to get closer to anyone.

"Hey." Atlas was the one that eventually called out. "Stop fuckign standing there looking like an idiot, and come with us." Him and Gigi were one of only three groups of two, so it's not like Benjamin had much choice to begin with.

Quickly nodding his head, he moved over to join their group.

"Then that means…" Gemini was quick on the uptake.

Winter stepped forward. "I suppose that means the four of us will be pairing up together." Winter twirled a finger around her hair.

"Perfect!" Edison called out. "Now let's see what information we can gather."

Letting out a humorous chuckle, Hae-Won followed behind him. "Slow down your march, there."

As the trio moved further down the hallway, Edison moved over towards the first door he saw. And they were unlike the other doors! You see, they were bigger doors!

"Oh wow!" Laki called out, passing Hae-Won to stand next to him. "These look pretty big."

"Yes!" Edison nodded his head, swirling around a flask with orange liquid. "Hypothetically speaking, this room must hold something grand." He approached his watch to the scanner.

However, before he got the opportunity…

"Woah there!" Monokawa flew up, stopping him in his tracks. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Opening a door!" Laki said brightly.

"Go back to being depressed, I'm talking to science boy over here." Monokawa crossed his arms.

Edison could only give one single response. "Opening a door!" He said brightly.

Why does Monokawa even bother with these idiots?

Walking up, Hae-Won let out a hum. "Since when is opening a door a crime here. It's not against the rules." Then again, she only really gave them a look through once. Actually memorising the rules? Yeah, that was for someone lame like Gigi.

"Oh! It's not against the rules!" Monokawa raised a paw. "But I just wanted to mention that there's something special about this room. Mainly, how it functions."

"Ooh?" Laki tilted her head to the side. "What's so special about how it functions?"

"Well, for starters…" Monokawa trailed off. "Only certain people can enter this room."

Raising an eyebrow, Hae-Won spoke up. "Is there any reason why that would be the case?"

"Well…" Monokawa began pacing around in the air. "Normally, almost all doors should be accessible by everyone. However, Nova decided that the rooms in this area are too dangerous for anyone."

"Heh… Then I guess you can't enter, Laki." There was no way Hae-Won was about to let someone like her anywhere near a room so dangerous.

"What? Why?" She just didn't get it! This room sounded a bit like fun.

"Do I even have to answer that fucking question." It was hard to tell if Hae-Won was pissed off or not, given that her tone didn't change once. "What's beyond those doors?" She turned to look at Monokawa.

"There are three rooms beyond this point, but you only have access to two of them." He nodded his head along.

That was a bit disappointing. "What? What about the last one?" Laki tilted her head.

Monokawa responded with a shrug. "Honestly, I'm not too sure myself. However, Nova requested that it be open after the next trial."

"Like that's ever going to happen." Hae-Won shook her head. She wasn't sure she could even handle another trial after the last two.

"But…" Edison trailed off, a smile on his face. "Can we enter the other two rooms now? Who exactly has access to the rooms?"

Crossing his arms, Monokawa allowed himself to float down to the scanner. "Yeah, yeah. You can enter now. But I should warn you, that to enter this room, you must register for the job."

"Ah…" That was a bit disappointing for Hae-Won to hear, given she had a job located in Atlas' Ultimate Station. "How many slots are there?"

"Two." Monokawa was quick to reply. "And you all get first dibs!"

"Oo-" Laki had begun to reach out, but she was stopped by Hae-Won, who grabbed her wrist.

"..." After a few seconds, she turned to look at Edison. "I trust you a hell of a lot more than I trust her. Take the job."

"On it!" Edison had no problem scanning his bracelet, giving himself the job.

"Perfect!" Monokawa floated up, to get out of the way. "Scan it again, and the door will open!"

Eagerly, Edison did just that! Only to be flashed by some light. "GAH!" He called out, covering his eyes. "What was that?"

Admittedly, even Hae-Won was caught off guard, which forced her to cover her eyes. "I'm in agreement with him here… Shit…" Now her eyes hurt.

Only Laki, being the crazy bitch she was, was unphased. "Was that a photo?"

"Wow! Yes!" Monokawa was eager to explain. "Every time you scan your bracelet to enter the room, it takes a picture."

"And the purpose of that… is?" Hae-Won frowned a bit. Honestly, it just seemed like a hassle to have to do that.

Slowly, Monokawa let his arms fall to the side. "Have you… Have you not been listening to any explanation I've been giving you?" No matter! He would just need to explain again.

"Because this is a super secure set of rooms, we have to make sure dangerous people aren't getting in. Thus, we not only limited the amount of people who had access to the room, but we also required a picture for security reasons. That way if someone tries to sneak someone in, you'll know."

Interesting… "I get it." Hae-Won closed her eyes, a small smile tugging at her lip. "Is that all?"

"Yeah, pretty much." Monokawa shrugged, before floating away, leaving the trio alone again.

While this whole thing was going on, enough time had passed for the doors to close again.

"Wait… Does that mean…" Edison trailed off, before letting out a sigh. "Everyone smile!"

He scanned the bracelet, blinding everyone again.

Laboratory

Now when they said that there was some dangerous stuff in the next room, this made Edison think of only one thing.

Finally.

HIS Ultimate Station.

The moment he had been waiting for. It's finally-

Wait a second…

This WASN'T his Ultimate Station.

What a rip-off.

However, that didn't stop the bright beam in Edison's eyes as he stepped into this room. "Woah!"

For one, it was by far one of the largest rooms that they had found so far. In fact, the room almost looked like it was two stories high.

There were some wooden steps that led up to another section.

"What's up there?" Edison didn't really want to climb up the stairs.

Looking over at it, Hae-Won let out a hum. "It seems to be another one of the monorail stations." Why was one here of all places?

"Huh?" Edison swirled around a flask with an orange liquid. "But why is it so high up?" It only took him a few seconds to come up with the answer. "Ah! I get it. It's because it needs to get to the upper floor."

"Do you guys want to ride it?" Laki had already made her way over to the stairs.

Shaking her head, Hae-Won turned her attention over towards the rest of the room. "Maybe after, but for now, we should focus on exploring this area." Like taking care of two children.

"Right!" Edison turned to look at what the rest of the room had to offer. Honestly, it all spoke to him! It seemed like all sorts of inventions, but his eyes landed on one of them.

"Oh wow!" He called out, approaching the catapult. "Neat!" Completely useless.

Approaching him, Hae-Won took a look at it. "Why would a catapult be in a room like this?"

"It's actually a trebuchet." It wasn't, but for once, Edison wanted to have fun with this.

"Um…" Laki hummed out, approaching the group. "No it's not."

"Laki!" Edison took a step back. "You weren't supposed to reveal my trick!" Now the joke was ruined.

Running her hand along the catapult, a thought appeared in Hae-Won's head. "Aren't they normally made of wood? This one is completely metal." Well, except for the restraining rope, but.

Edison adjusted his glasses, ready to give a lecture. "Yes, most catapults were made of wood. So it IS odd that this one is made of metal."

Laki tilted her head to the side. "Maybe they were tired of it burning down."

"Would seem like an effective way to stop a catapult." Hae-Won shrugged, before moving on to some other part of the room.

The next object she approached was a little bit away from it. "Fancy ass incinerator we got here."

The incinerator in question had a rather large grate as a door. Opening it up, Hae-Won could feel the heat radiating off from inside. "Be careful around this." She warned the two children she had been tasked with chaperoning.

"Ah!" Edison realised something. "Maybe this was why the catapult was made of metal! It's eerily close to the incinerator."

"..." Hae-Won kept her eyes closed for a few seconds. "It'd be easier to move the catapult further, y'know."

"But where's the fun in that." Laki crossed her arms. "Probably too inconvenient to move!"

"Then why make a catapult in the first place." Hae-Won closed the door. "What else does this incinerator have?"

Moving to the side, Edison found some controls. "Ah! This can control how hot you want the incinerator to burn."

Without much thought, Laki turned the knob to the hottest setting, causing the entire incinerator to glow a hot red, causing the other two to quickly step away.

"Maybe we shouldn't do that shit…" Hae-Won mumbled out, as she saw the fire erupt inside.

Nodding her head along, Laki turned down the heat, returning the incinerator to it's normal colour.

Letting out a relieved sigh, Hae-Won turned her attention towards the rest of the room. A lot of inventions, but once again, she wasn't really one to care about stuff like that. That was Edison's field, so if he wanted to go through anything, she wasn't going to stop him.

Instead, she was going to focus on the only other thing in this room.

The wardrobes. "Hmm…" Hae-Won hummed out, approaching them. They seemed to be made of rather fancy looking wood. Some kind of red.

"Ah yes!" Edison approached them. "Mahogany is a good wood."

"Hmm…? Why's that?" Hae-Won wasn't exactly an expert in anything tree related.

Neither was Edison, but he did like to do a lot of research. "Mahogany isn't a wood that burns well. It's a thick wood, so it takes longer to actually burn. It's definitely great at fire resistance."

"But… It will still eventually burn out, right?" Hae-Won raised an eyebrow.

"... Yes!" Edison couldn't deny that. "But unlike other woods, it would take so long that you could easily have enough time to put it out, without having to worry about the wood being damaged too much."

That was interesting, Hae-Won had to at least admit. Opening the closet, she was hoping to find anything of use…"

Instead…

Nothing.

"Huh?" Hae-Won opened the other ones, hoping for a different result, but everything was the same. "I guess there's just nothing in these."

"That's a bit disappointing." Edison let his arms fall to his side. "Oh well! Hypothetically speaking, we could just place our own stuff in there. I can see myself spending a lot of time here, after all."

"Why won't this open!" The voice of Laki quickly tore their thoughts away from what they were finding.

Looking over at her, she was standing in front of one of the two doors that were further into the room. She kept scanning her bracelet, and it kept not working.

"Maybe only I can open it." Edison walked over towards her. "After all, I took the job for this room."

"Oh!" Laki moved out of the way. "Come on! Open the door!"

With confidence in his movement, Edison scanned his bracelet. "..."

"..."

"Doesn't open for you either, huh?" Hae-Won couldn't help but smirk. "Maybe it's because we aren't meant to access this room yet."

"What? But that's impossible! My Ultimate Station HAS to be through this door!" Edison took a step back, panicking slightly.

Slowly, Hae-Won's eyes moved over to the other door in the laboratory. "Y'know, there's more than just that one, right?"

Seeing that door, Edison quickly pivoted over, moving towards the room. "Then yes, let's try it!" Scanning his watch, the door this time DID open. "Ah! There we go! See, I knew it would work."

Letting out a sigh, Hae-Won let out a humorous laugh. "If you say so…"

What was in that room, you may ask? To that, I say… Wait! Moving on to a different group now.

Ultimate Astrologist Station

As soon as the door opened up, a loud squeaking noise could be heard, which was weird because the room didn't normally squeak.

Instead, that sound came from Seira, who had an expression of joy on her face, seeing just what room she had entered.

"Oh, you've got to be fucking kidding me…" Lorelei, on the other hand, wasn't as happy. "This is what we have to deal with?"

"Let her have her fun." Winter remembered how she felt when she first saw her own station.

Rolling her eyes, Lorelei wasn't as convinced. "Yeah, but I want to see my Ultimate Station soon." As if that was happening any time soon.

The room itself had rather strange flooring. In fact, it was different from the usual metallic floor that occupied most of the station. One could see the stars below them, almost as if seeing right through the station.

"This is so cool." Seira hummed out, walking on the ground.

To note, the walls and ceiling were all like this as well.

"Honestly, this place isn't half bad." Winter took it all in, a small smile on her face. "Not as good as my own station, but still respectable." She stopped walking when she reached an orb in the center of the room. "Hmm?"

Approaching her was Seira. "What's this?"

"Not sure." Winter hummed out, before placing her hands on the orb. As she rotated the orb, slowly, the stars around the room began to shift. "That's really pretty." She hummed out.

"If not a tad bit boring…" Lorelei shook her head. "Besides, this obviously isn't a view of the actual stars, so what's the point?"

"It's novelty!" Seira quickly tried to defend her room. "Besides, they're pretty."

Winter shrugged, looking at the stars. "I will give her that, they are lovely to look at." She continued moving the orb around, causing the stars to keep moving.

Walking over towards the orb, Seira put her hand on it to try and give it a try. "We don't really have much of an area that we can stargaze." The only actual spot they had was Navigation, and the repair ship

And… She wasn't exactly sure if she wanted to return to the repair ship quite yet, after the horrifying experience from yesterday.

Still, Lorelei wasn't convinced. "And that's the only utility to a place like this?" Not that she was looking for ways to murder. It's just that besides that, the room felt a bit plain.

Gemini, on the other hand, was perusing through some books. "Ah, just information on zodiac signs."

With that, Seira had quickly moved to be next to him. "Ah, right. Those tell us the horoscope for the day. What's the date?"

Gemini had to think back to the garden, but it didn't take him long. "The first of December."

With that information, Seira moved over to that page, finding the sign for Gemini. "Here it is."

"Jupiter in your sign will protect you wherever you go and whatever you do over the coming week but that is not an invitation to be reckless. You may not pay for any mistakes you make now but you will do later on."

Yes. I actually searched this up.

"I think that just makes me want to be more reckless." Gemini nodded his head along.

Quickly, Seira closed the book. "No! Don't. Listen to the book."

Hearing the commotion, Winter moved over towards the two. "What seems to be having you two lovebirds like this?"

"I- Lo-" Seira had told her about this, but she didn't expect her to be so blatant about it.

Gemini, on the other hand, didn't really seem phased. "Horoscopes. What was your sign again?"

"Pisces." However, it wasn't Winter who answered, but instead Seira. She just remembered the small things like that. Soon, she pulled out the entry for the date today.

"There are clear cosmic signs that success of one sort or another is very close indeed, so don't let up in your mission to make a name for yourself. Put yourself out there and make sure you get noticed by the powers that be."

Winter didn't exactly say anything about that, only closing her eyes.

"See!" Seira smiled sincerely. "Good things!"

"If you say so." Winter wasn't exactly subscribed to the thoughts she had, but she wasn't about to burst her bubble.

"And let's see…" Seira mumbled out. "Lorelei was Aries."

"You better not-" They had begun to say, but it was too late.

The horoscope had been found.

"This won't be a restful week but it will be a lot of fun. You don't need to prove what you are capable of but you will do so anyway, in case there are still a few people who don't know what a mover and shaker you are."

"..." Lorelei raised an eyebrow. "You know, that might have been better yesterday."

Seira was going to choose to ignore her. Closing the book, she kept it close to her. "I'll be taking this book with me." This was the happiest she had been since getting on this station.

"Oh, Seira." Gemini called out, standing in front of a chart.

"What is it?" She moved over to see what it was. "Oh!" While she had drawn a star chart a few days ago, she was staring at an actual star chart. "This must have taken a while." It blew hers out of the water. "This is really neat." This also meant that she didn't have to draw another one, given the ship had moved.

While those two were talking there, Lorelei had moved on to explore the rest of the room. Mostly because they just wouldn't FUCKING LEAVE.

"Hmm…" That's when they noticed something. A light switch.

Now, a light switch wouldn't normally be cause for attention, but it was when there weren't light switches in the other room. Without any hesitation, Lorelei flicked the switch.

In an instant, the lights in the room quickly turned off.

"H-hey!" Seira called out, looking over towards her-

However, the room was filled with a small glow.

For a moment, it took Seira a bit to register just what she was looking at. But then it all became rather apparent.

It's like the entire room had turned transparent, and she was now looking directly outside.

At the stars…

At the moon…

Even looking up, she could see the sun directly above her.

The entire room filled with silence as they all stared around, mesmerized by the view outside.

Until…

"Well! Enough of that!" Lorelei flicked the light switch back on.

"H-hey!" Seira quickly turned to look at her. "Why would you do that?"

Letting out a small yawn, it was clear that Lorelei didn't care about their actions. "If I didn't do that, you'd spend the rest of the day here."

After a long pause of just standing there, Seira responded. "What's wrong with that?"

A place like this brought comfort to an otherwise horrible place.

Letting out a sigh, Gemini took a few steps forward, looking at the ground. "Well finish with our exploration, and then we can come back here tomorrow."

Remaining silent for a bit, Seira finally relented, still holding onto the book. "Alright…"

Besides that, the room itself had nothing else to offer. From the looks of it, it seemed to just be a nice place to hang around.

Sigma Sector

While the first two groups had stayed in the Zeta Sector, the other two groups had quickly found themselves in a completely new sector. One that a certain Amogus will begin to freak out about.

"Are we just doing two new areas at all times?" Gigi hummed out, thinking for a moment.

"Seems like it." Atlas was less than pleased. "Too many, if you fucking ask me."

"Honestly…" Michael mumbled out, placing a hand against his head. "They are becoming too much to track…" Luckily there was still the camera system, but he hasn't tested out if it works with the newer rooms yet.

Despite… Having all the time in the world.

"Well." Gigi trailed off, looking at the hallway. "It seems to split in two, so we should all go down one route."

"Works for me…" May hummed out. Without waiting for the rest of her group, she moved down towards the left side.

Turning towards the others, Melody spoke up. "We'll see you after!"

Michael followed behind without saying anything.

"I guess we'll go right then." Benjamin didn't really have a problem with that. "Come on." Although, he did seem to have some energy in him.

With that, the group split up further, allowing for more exploration.

Ultimate Conspiracy Theorist Station

Stepping into the room, May already felt like she had walked into something she probably shouldn't have. "This room…" It had a strange vibe to it.

The first thing anyone would notice upon stepping into the room, was just how disorganized it was, with papers strewn around everywhere.

"Woah…" Melody took a few steps into the room. "Now what kind of fella would leave a room like this."

"Alan…" May mumbled out under her breath, taking another step forward.

This would have to make it his ultimate station.

"Hmm?" Michael hummed out, having missed the last part. "A room like this might hold something…"

"Yes… I think so." May nodded her head along. Especially considering that Alan was always going off about various things, it might find some use.

The first major thing to notice about this room were the newspaper articles taped to the walls. "Hmm…" The academic hummed out, going over to investigate one of the papers.

It didn't take long for May to read the entire thing before backing away. "Ah, just stuff about bigfoot…" One of the many conspiracy theories out there.

"Are they all like that…?" Michael mumbled out, walking to a random paper. "Ah…" It didn't take him very long to realise he didn't care about the subject on this paper.

Melody spent some time looking around the room, before she finally stumbled upon one of the papers. "Hope's Peak…" She mumbled out, turning towards the others. "Hey! Fellas, take a gander at this."

Soon, the other two approached the paper. "What is it…?" Michael mumbled out.

"Oh…" May hummed out, seeing the name Hope's Peak. "This is about…" However, the first thing she noticed was the date.

2010…

"That was so long ago…" May let out a yawn. It had been over three decades since this article had been written.

"Why would an article like that be here…" Michael mumbled out. He tried to remove the paper, but it seemed stuck there. "Ah…" That was disappointing.

"Can't we just get some scissors?" Melody tried to look around. If they couldn't rip it out, just cut it out.

"No…" May hummed out. "I don't think that would help. It's less that they are taped to the wall… And more so… They are part of the wall."

It didn't take long for Michael to understand what she meant. "Wait… This is the wallpaper?"

"More than likely…" May stepped away from the wall. "At best, we could try and read what some of these say…"

But that would take forever, is the first thought that appeared in Michael's head. "I'm… not much of a reader." He glanced away.

However, the two girls with him were the opposite. "I love reading." Melody beamed, even holding out the book she had printed out. "Just let us read, and ya don't have to worry, mac."

"I…" Michael didn't want to force them to do all the work, but this might be for the better. They'd be able to get through it much quicker than he ever could.

"Hmm…" May hummed out, staring at the ground.

Noticing this, Michael approached her. "What's wrong…?"

What May was staring at… or, more so a lack of… was on the floor. "There's no newspapers here…"

That WAS strange, considering the rest of the room was absolutely covered in them. "Huh…"

Of note, it was right next to the wall.

This got May to take a look at the wall, but she couldn't exactly figure anything out. "Hmm… Maybe this could be information for a different time…"

She wanted to spend time thinking, but she'd rather do that alone, instead of with two other people watching her every move. "There doesn't seem to be anything else here."

"Really…?" Michael mumbled out, rather sadly.

"Huh?" Melody took a step back. "Then there's nothing but dust, here?"

"Seems like it…" May mumbled out.

But she knew that wasn't true.

This was Alan they were talking about. Which meant that this was just a surface level room. And that there HAD to be something hidden underneath the surface.

Turning to face the others, May let out a small yawn. "We should leave now…"

Michael wasn't exactly sure about leaving right now, but there wasn't much else they could even do in this place. The whole place was just a blank room full of newspapers, save for the one blank space…

What an interesting room indeed.

Infirmary

The first place that Gigi's group stepped into was an infirmary.

Basic as that.

"Pfft, like hell we'd need this place." Atlas barked out, stepping further into the room.

"Hey, if someone gets injured, it would be nice to have a place to bring them." Gigi was quick to point out. "I know you don't seem to care about the others, but this room could be really useful."

"Yeah!" Benjamin jumped in to agree, but quickly shrunk away when Atlas turned to look at him.

"Whatever…" He mumbled out, moving over to the hospital beds that lined up the room. Six in total. "We've been mostly fine without anyone getting injured."

"I'm sure Michael would tell a different story." Gigi placed a hand on her hip, pointing her black glove at him.

"Tsk, he's always had it coming." Once again, Atlas wasn't taking accountability.

"Hey…" Benjamin mumbled out. "You shouldn't just go around hurting-"

When Atlas turned to face him, that caused the ventriloquist to stop in his tracks.

"Play nice." Gigi didn't even have to be looking at the two boys to figure out what was happening. "We should take a more investigative look around the room." Not like there was much separating it from an actual infirmary room.

"Tsk, fine." Atlas moved on past the beds.

This left Benjamin alone. Despite wanting to be his naturally bubbly self, he found himself shrinking back down. He didn't really have Dolly to hide behind now, so it was difficult to speak with more intimidating people like Gigi and Atlas.

Maybe he should have pushed to be paired up with a different group…

Moving away, Benjamin moved over to the coat rack that was near the entrance.

On it, he spotted three lab coats. I mean, technically coats, so!

Riffling through the pockets, Benjamin found a grand total of nothing important. "Ah…" Disappointment!

Gigi on the other hand, had moved to the back of the room, shuffling through the drawers in the back. "Hmm…" She found a few interesting things, like syringes, and scalpels. "About what I would expect from here…"

"This room is boring." Atlas was already bored of exploring, given there was NOTHING of interest here.

Closing the drawers after confirming her findings, Gigi looked over at the soccer player. "It's still good to look around."

Looking at him a bit longer, she remembered something. "Atlas, can you sit down on the bed."

"What? Why?" Despite seemingly not wanting to, Gigi normally knew what she was doing, so he had no problem listening at the very least.

Now that Atlas was a bit lower down, the referee could actually examine the top of his head. "You were bashed in the back of the head yesterday, and nobody checked it up after. We were too preoccupied with investigating the body, as well as the trial."

If Atlas had arms, he would have slapped her hand away. Instead, he didn't really have much of a choice but to sit down. "I'm fine. If I wasn't fine, I would have said something."

"As if." Gigi didn't believe that in the slightest. "You don't exactly seem the type to like asking for help."

To that, Atlas had no response, because it was true.

Asking people for any type of help was annoying, as were people asking him if he needed help. At least Gigi didn't even bother to ask, and instead simply helped him out.

"I can see the wound, there's still a bit of dried blood." She frowned slightly.

After a bit, Benjamin spoke up. "Ah, there's a sink here." He found some clothes, and wet them. He didn't want to intrude on the moment, but he also felt the need to help at least.

Taking the cloth, Gigi used it to wipe the top of Atlas' head.

"Knock it off! Will you!" He tried to move her away from him, but none of it seemed to be working, and she was rather persistent.

"You could have died, so you're lucky to have gotten away with such a minor injury." Gigi kept going, despite his antics.

"Tsk, as if I would have tied." Atlas narrowed his eyes. "That bitch is weak. If it weren't for the lights, I would have killed him.

For a moment, Gigi stopped, and looked down at him. After looking at him for a few seconds longer, she reached out and gave him a red card. "Never say something like that again." God, he made it difficult to be nice again.

Because Atlas couldn't grab it, the card sort of fluttered onto his lap. "Whatever…" When enough time had passed, he moved his head away. "Alright! Alright! You've gotten the rest of the blood out." He had no way of knowing, but now he was feeling sensitive because of the wound.

Moving away, Gigi tossed the rag into the corner. "There. I did what I wanted to do."

"Is that all this room has to offer?" Benjamin glanced around, not spotting anything new.

"Seems so." That meant Gigi was ready to leave.

Slowly, Atlas stood up from the bed, mumbling something under his breath. "Thank you…"

However, he spoke it rather lowly, so Gigi hadn't even heard it. "Did you say something?"

"I didn't say anything." If she had missed it, then it wasn't Atlas' fault.

With that all done, the trio left the infirmary, hoping to find a new room to explore soon.

Ultimate Chemist Station

Alright, NOW Edison could freak out as much as Seira did. "This is my station! It was made for me!" He pointed into the doorway like that one horror manga.

"Calm down." Hae-Won let out a small chuckle, seeing how he was acting. "It's not going anywhere, y'know."

Besides, if Edison got excited, then it meant Laki was sure to follow- "Woah!" She ran past her, looking at the wonders of the room. "Think of all the things you could make, Edison!"

"Think of all the things I could make!" He swirled around his flask.

This left Hae-Won with a small sense of dread of what the future held. "Try not to blow anything up." How did she end up with babysitting duty? Edison was pretty much the same age as her, so she shouldn't need to watch over him.

However, it was quickly proven that Edison couldn't be trusted in the slightest, when he moved over towards some flasks of liquid, and began shaking it. "What does this one do-"

BOOM!

The entire flask blew up in his face, covering him in black soot.

"Oh! Wow!" Laki called out, seeing the effect it had on him. "Let me try that too!" She grabbed the nearest one and-

BOOM!

Laki was now covered in the same thing as Edison.

"Children…" Hae-Won let out a sad sigh, moving away from that. "How about we focus on figuring out what's in this room, before we blow ourselves up."

"Yeah…" Edison had enough fun already.

To take a better look at the room, it almost looked like a science lab. One you'd find in a school.

"What's in here?" Laki opened up some of the cupboards, trying to see the interesting contents inside. She found several bottles. "Oh!" However, trying to read them, she didn't understand any of them. "Ah…"

Seeing her frustration, Edison moved over. "Ah!" He, on the other hand, knew what they were. "Dangerous stuff."

"Are you going to tell me what kind of dangerous stuff?" Laki tilted her head to the side.

For a moment, Edison almost humoured her. Until he remembered who he was talking about. "It's probably best if I don't…" He adjusted his goggles. "You might do something with them."

Hae-Won let out a small chuckle. At least he was learning. "But seriously, I would like to know what they do." She was already planning on blocking off access to this room, so it didn't really matter.

"Alright!" And just like that, Edison forgot Laki was even in this room. "So, on their own, they aren't really going to do much. They are not safe to consume, still. But together…" He trailed off.

Seeing the tone that he had shifted towards, Hae-Won had a bad feeling about this. "Together… What?"

"They could be made into an acid."

That… Wasn't good in the slightest. "We should probably get rid of those…"

"Yeah, you probably should." Monokawa said, floating between them.

For a moment, Hae-Won looked forward, not bothering to look at the new presence that was with them.

After a few more seconds of needed silence, she spoke up. "Are you just following us?"

"Something like that." Monokawa shrugged. "But watch out. If you try and get rid of them, I'll just have them replaced."

Hearing this, Hae-Won gritted her teeth. "What the hell? Why would you do that?" This also meant that they must have had a rather large supply.

Letting out a small staticy laugh, Monokawa covered his mouth with his paws. "Because why would I want the fun to be ruined?"

He was about to argue a reason why, but Edison quickly realised that arguing with him was a losing battle. "Any other reason why you're here?"

"Oh. Right." Monokawa had to do his job after all. Floating over towards the corner of the room, he pointed out a monitor. "Remember those photos from earlier?"

"How could I forget…" Hae-Won shook her head. "They practically blinded me."

"Well! These are where those photos would appear." Monokawa turned on the monitor.

Taking a look, there were two photos.

Edison eagerly took a look at both pictures, knowing what they would be. The first one showed the four of them, with everyone but Monokawa being shocked about the sudden flashing light.

The second image didn't have Monokawa in it, but this time, the only person who seemed caught off guard was Hae-Won.

In fact, Laki was smiling, like her actual photo was being taken- Wait it was.

"How long do images last?" Hae-Won wanted to learn more about this.

"Eh, about twenty four hours." Monokawa shrugged.

His phrasing got Hae-Won to raise her eyebrow. "About twenty four hours… Or exactly twenty four hours?"

"Alright! Alright! Damn woman, don't have to be so picky on the details." Monokawa crossed his arms with a huff. "Exactly twenty four hours! After that, the system auto deletes them."

"Hmm…" Laki hummed out, swaying her head from side to side. "Can we delete the images ourselves?"

"Nope!" Monokawa let out a laugh. "What's the point of a security system like this, if you could just delete evidence?"

"Um… To make it easier to murder." Laki said without much thought.

For a moment, Monokawa just stared forward, before slowly turning to look at Hae-Won. "This girl has lost it."

"Yeah… I'm well aware." At this point, there was nothing that Laki could say that would shock her.

Turning back towards the monitor, Monokawa continued. "That's all you need to know about this here. Just thought I should explain it." With that, he saw himself out-

"Hold on." Edison realised something. "How did you get into this room?"

"There are many tricks you get to learn when you become a monomascot." Monokawa continued to float away, facing them, as the door opened behind him.

Now that he was gone, Hae-Won felt herself relax again. "Alright, we should probably finish taking a look around here. We've been at this for a while, so we should be heading back soon."

Because while they had already spent a bit of time in this room, they hadn't fully investigated everything.

"What's this?" Laki raised up a container of powder.

Being the expert around here, Edison took the container. "Let me use my chemist specialty to figure this out!" Then he read the label. "Gunpowder."

Hae-Won just kept finding more things she had to be wary about. "Why is that here?"

"Probably on account of the amount of times I've blown myself up." Edison is on the no flight list and probably also a terrorist of some kind. "But don't worry, the powder is harmless unless there's something to ignite it."

That didn't exactly make Hae-Won feel any better. "Yeah, but with the amount of lighters going around, it's still prudent to be careful." Here she was again, sounding like the protective older sister. Not that she minded tha role in the slightest.

"Well, nobody but us is going to be able to access this, right?" Edison put the gunpowder away. "So there's nothing to worry about."

That didn't exactly put Hae-Won's mind at ease, as she thought of all the ways Edison using it could go wrong. "Yeah…" But she wasn't going to voice those thoughts she just had. "Is that everything that we need here?"

Swiftly, Edison moved over to the other side of the room. "The only other things are these." He picked up some vials. "Ah! Some replacements!" He quickly hooked them onto himself. "This are the same chemicals I normally always keep on me."

"What happened to them?" Laki tilted her head.

"Ran out." A nice and simple answer.

Now Edison was back at full power! Now he could chuck explosions again like no tomorrow. Think of all the power- He was going to blow up the ship one day.

Turning towards the door, Hae-Won couldn't see anything else that would be of use. Just regular chemist equipment off in the corner.

This felt like a room that Edison would spend all of his time in, now. "We should probably head out. I think we've done enough exploration as of now."

A bit disappointed to actually be leaving, Edison almost refused outright.

However, in a cruel twist of betrayal, Laki grabbed onto his arm, and dragged him right out of the room, all while he screamed.

Ultimate Academic Prodigy Station

Now, compared to the Ultimate Conspiracy Theorist Station, this one felt much more organised with the information it was trying to convey.

In fact, it became pretty obvious right away just what type of room this was.

"A library…" Michael mumbled out, looking around.

"This is mine…" May mumbled out, letting out a small yawn as she took the room in.

To describe the room, it honestly just felt like a rather large library. Around the entire room, several different shelves of books lined up the place.

The only places that there weren't shelves full of books was an area further into the room, as well as the entrance itself.

"Wow…" Melody hummed out, just seeing all the shelves. "Honestly, that's just the bee's knees." Come on Melody, there's other sayings you could say. "Ya could spend hours here and not even dent it."

"I've probably read all these books before…" May hummed out.

She didn't actually know, but she HAD read a lot of books in her time. So it's entirely possible.

"Hmm…" Michael hummed out, spotting something at the entrance. Slowly, he walked over to it.

The object in question was a kiosk. "What's this doing here?"

"Honestly…" May walked up beside him. "I couldn't begin to tell you…" Despite it being her Ultimate Station, she was at a loss of words as well. That being here could mean ANYTHING.

"Aww! What a swindler!" Melody called out, holding onto one of the books.

Looking over at her, Michael tilted his head. "What makes you say that…?"

Quickly, Melody turned the book around, showing the blank pages. "There's nothing written here! It's a con!"

Slowly, Michael turned to look at May, hoping for her to provide some form of answer.

Instead, all he got was a shrug. "I'm not sure why they would be blank…"

Honestly, May's Ultimate Station was already a mystery in it of itself, and they had just gotten here.

"Then…" Michael moved back over towards the kiosk. "Maybe this has something to do with it…"

May was definitely a smart person, and to be an academic prodigy, she would need knowledge in a variety of different fields…

Tapping on the screen, Michael took a step back as the kiosk turned on. "I guess it works…" At least something in here works.

On screen, some text appeared. "What kind of book are you looking for?"

"Oh…" Michael wasn't exactly sure about that. "Does anyone have a preference?"

Slowly, Melody made her presence known again as she began typing on the screen. The book she wrote was The Great Gatsby. "There!"

After a few seconds, the kiosk responded, and soon, some movement could be seen from the library.

"Oh…" May hummed out, watching her station come to life.

A claw lowered down from the ceiling, before heading further into the station.

Following it, the claw had stopped at a book, waiting a few seconds.

Inside the shelf, a red light came out, almost as if something was being scanned onto it.

Once that process was done, the claw removed the book from the shelf, and brought it to the table next to the kiosk.

"Ah!" Melody hummed out, grabbing the book. It was exactly the book she wanted.

"Huh…" Michael hummed out, slowly realising just how this room worked. "So you just ask for a book, huh…"

Letting out a yawn, May nodded her head along. "Pretty easily… Honestly…"

"Is there a limit…?" Michael moved over towards the kiosk. "I don't really read much…" Given he wasn't allowed many books as he grew up. "Do you know any obscure books…"

"Hmm…" May could try and think of a rather obscure book… But that wasn't what she was focusing on. "Actually… I want to try something else…"

She hadn't had time to do any research on one of the many topics she wanted to, so now was the perfect time.

On the kiosk, she wrote down Sleeping Forest.

"Huh…" Michael was a bit unsure about all of that. "Why would you want to write that…?" Unless it was an obscure book he didn't know about… Which made sense because he didn't know about it.

"You remember the sleeping motive…?" May hummed out.

"Yeah…?" How could Michael forget something like that? He had been at the center of most of it. "What does Sleeping Forest have to do with that?"

Letting a bit of silence take over the room, May eventually provided an answer. "I don't remember the actual name of the flower involved… But I know one of the names it goes by… Sleeping Forest."

It didn' take much for Michael to clue in as to why it was called that. "I guess because it makes you sleep…?"

"Yes…" May finally found the book she was looking for. With a simple click, the claw came to life to fetch the book.

It only took a few extra seconds for the book to be placed on the table next to her. "I'll be taking this." She grabbed onto it, putting it inside her sweater.

"Oh! This is a lovely area." Melody called out from further into the room.

Following her voice, Michael eventually arrived in the area she was. "Oh… Yeah… This is pretty nice."

Compared to all the books in the room, this area had a much cozier feel. There was a desk with a warm lamp on there, which flickered like a candle would.

Instead of a normal chair, however, there was a beanbag chair.

"Ah…" May hummed out, following the duo further in. "Just like my actual study area at home."

"Huh?" Melody glanced down at the beanbag chair. "But wouldn't sitting on this make ya more likely to doze off?"

May looked up at her, a bit of confusion on her face. "... Your point?"

"Huh…" Melody wasn't sure anymore. "Never mind…"

Plopping herself down onto the beanbag, May tilted her head back. "See… I can sit down on this without…"

After a few seconds, Melody tilted her head. "Did she…"

"Yeah…" Michael wasn't sure what he expected. Maybe he knew this would happen, but he just didn't think it would be that quick.

Moving over closer, Melody managed to get May back onto her feet.

"Hey… I was sleeping…" She rubbed her eyes.

Smiling brightly at her, Melody shook her head. "We aren't done here."

Right, there were probably still more rooms to explore… "Alright…"

Walking back towards the entrance, Michael stopped dead in his tracks. "Actually… I want to see something." He moved back over to the kiosk, looking around it. "Ah, there is…"

What he wanted to do was see if there was a way to view the history of the books that were grabbed.

"Ah…" It just wasn't in the way he had thought.

Melody approached him, taking a look. "Oh! We can see what words were searched."

Michael couldn't actually see what books were requested, and could only see the keywords used. Which meant while it was easy to figure out what book Melody grabbed, it would be near impossible to see what book May grabbed. "I should keep that in mind…" Not that anything book related should pop up.

It was just good to know anyway.

"Are we going…" May rubbed her eyes.

"Right…" Michael turned the screen off, before walking over to join up with May, Melody following closely behind.

Nova's Office

It was exactly as Nova had said earlier.

She had an office.

"Hello!" Nova was quick to wave as soon as she saw the trio walk into her room.

"Why the fuck is this even here?" Atlas felt the need to ask, stepping further into the room.

The office itself wasn't anything to write home about, it was just like any normal office to be honest.

Except, well…

You know…

The large metal cable going into the ceiling.

"Hmm…" Gigi hummed out, her eyes focused on the wire. "What's that doing there?"

Nova quickly turned to look at it, before offering a smile. "Oh? That? That's what's keeping the suspended room… Well… Suspended."

Right… Gigi remembered seeing something just like that.

Moving on from that, Gemini turned towards the others in the cafeteria. "We also managed to find something interesting about this cafeteria."

"Oh?" Winter hummed out, a curious smile on her face. "Would you mind enlightening us, then?"

Nodding his head, Gemini turned towards Laki. "Hit the butt-"

It didn't take much else convincing for the button to be pressed.

Soon, the shutters of the cafeteria opened up, revealing the thing Gemini had been talking about.

"That room is… suspended…" Michael noticed.

Ian raised an eyebrow, looking up at it. "Honestly, it's pretty cool." He stuffed his hands into his pockets.

Just like Michael had said, suspended in the air by eight metal cables, was a single room, more than likely made of glass.

"Yeah, I know it's pretty cool." Gemini was pretty happy about his find, even if it was technically Laki who did all the work.

Right… And since then, they'd only found two other cables. This would mark the third one they found.

"So…" Benjamin trailed off, looking around. "This is where you always hang around?"

Nova nodded her head along. "Yes! It is. When you don't see me out and about, just assume I'm here."

"What do you do for fun?" Benjamin took a look around the room.

This got a laugh from Nova. "Mostly just paperwork. That's why I have an office, after all. However, when I do feel bored, I have a few things to keep me busy." She motioned overed to the monitor on her desk.

"Oh!" Benjamin moved to the other side of her desk. "And what does this do-" He stopped when he looked at it. "This is just a camera system."

Letting out another laugh, Nova's visor was replaced by her yellow joy expression. "Why would I walk over to the Tau Sector, when I can do it right from the comfort of my own office."

"Does it work differently from the other camera system?" Gigi crossed her arms.

Nodding her head along, Nova turned her monitor to face them. "Yes, I can switch through cameras much quicker, as well as get time stamps for the footage. This is used for station reports, when I must give out a time."

"Pretty fucking accurate, huh…" Atlas mumbled out, seeing that it even went down to the millisecond.

"So, where do the video recordings get kept?" Gigi wanted to see if this could at least be of use.

Tilting her head to the side, a question mark appeared on Nova's visor. "Recordings? We don't actually keep any footage."

"What?" Gigi's tone was dry. "Why wouldn't you keep footage? What happens if you miss the moment the killer strikes."

This got an amused laugh from Nova. "Monokawa has access to these cameras at almost all times. After all, he's the one who makes the station reports."

"Almost?" Benjamin mumbled out. "Are there times when he doesn't have access to them?"

"Well, sometimes his system needs to rest, so he's put offline. When that happens, I'm always here watching the cameras. I don't miss anything."

This was a lot of information to be given for how the camera works, but Gigi was unable to figure out how it was going to help them going forward. "Thank you." She said plainly.

"Oh! Before you leave!" Nova reached under her desk, pulling out a bottle of wine. "Would anyone care for a drink?"

"Why do you keep wine under your desk?" Atlas raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, I have the same question." Gigi placed a hand on her hip. "And more importantly, how often do you drink it?"

Nova's visor quickly turned into a frown. "Why would you make assumptions like that? I only drink for special occasions."

"And… This counts?" Benjamin was a bit unsure about all of this.

Besides, he didn't want to drink any, even if it was legal in his home country.

Gigi shook her head. "Put the wine away."

Feeling slightly saddened, Nova put the wine back under her desk. "Is there anything else you want to ask me? I'm free to answer most questions."

There was only one that Gigi cared about. "When Monokawa is offline, around what time is that?"

"Oh, normally around 5pm-6pm. It needs to happen while I'm still awake." Nova continued her explanation.

That was… odd.

"Never seen the fucker go missing around that time." Atlas noticed that it was odd as well.

"Oh! Well, he doesn't stop working." Nova let out a small laugh, showing an expression of joy on her visor.

That was confusing… "What do you mean by that?" Gigi mumbled out.

"Monokawa works pretty much twenty four hours a day. However, during that hour period, he runs on autopilot." Nova continued her explanation. "He still works, but he retains none of the memories of that time."

That was… good information to know, right? However, a different question appeared in Gigi's mind. "Why tell us any of this?"

"That's a good question!" Nova let out another laugh. "Maybe I'm hoping to see what you make of this information."

The three quickly became at a loss of words. Why would information like that matter? It wouldn't pop in a trial, would it?

Seeing their reactions to the information, Nova tilted her head to the side. "If that's all, feel free to leave at any time."

While Atlas was probably ready to go, Benjamin still wanted to know something. "That door…" He pointed to the door behind Nova. "Where does it lead to?"

"Oh? That?" She looked over at it. "My room. After all, I need some sleep, don't you think?"

"Can we go in?" Now Atlas was curious about that.

Raising up a yellow card, Gigi blew into her whistle and shook her head. "You can't just ask a girl if you can enter her room."

"I don't really see her as human, so it's fine." To Atlas, Nova was a monster.

"Ah…" That didn't sound great to the overseer. "But no, even if you asked politely, I would tell you no. The room is for me and me only. Besides, it has some personal stuff in there, that I'd rather people like you didn't see."

But that just interested Atlas MORE. Not that he was going to fight to see what was inside. "Whatever… Is that everything that's here."

Looking around, Gigi couldn't exactly find anything else of note. "Yes. We should be done here." And if not, she was going to be coming back here anyways, so it wasn't a complete loss.

With her confirmation, the trio quickly left the room, leaving Nova all alone.

Garden (Zeta)

It wouldn't be a new chapter without a new garden. Hey! They needed oxygen desperately.

"Oh." Winter hummed out, stepping into the room, smelling the fresh smell of flowers. "Another one of these."

"At this rate, there's going to be one last one…" Seira mumbled out, stepping inside. However, this one had a rather different vibe from the previous ones. "It smells nicer."

Winter stepped up ahead from everyone else. "I would hope so, the flowers here are much nicer."

"It's not that flower we were told about, right?" Gemini was a bit sceptical.

Winter slowly shook her head. "I recognise every flower in this room, so I doubt it." She moved over to expect some of the flowers.

"Alright, phew." Gemini knew that the flower they should be careful about was on the ship, but they still hadn't encountered it yet.

"How is this garden different from any of the others…" Seira looked around, not really noticing any different. Honestly, it had the same thing the other two had. Sprinklers, hose, faucet.

"Well, normally there's a shed." Winter hummed out, walking over towards the back of the area. "Ah!"

She had found something.

When everyone approached the area she was in, she was standing right in front of a door. Gemini placed a hand on his hip as he examined it. "Another shed?" Well, at least it was more than just flowers. This time, it had a scanner like every other normal.

Winter scanned her watch, watching the door open, but what she was greeted with wasn't a typical shed.

"Huh?" Seira hummed out, looking inside.

Instead of what you'd expect to find, like tools, there was only one thing in here.

Well, saying one thing would be a lie. There were multiple of one thing.

Gas masks.

Reaching over, Gemini went to examine it. "Why would this be in the garden?"

"I… I'm not sure." This filled Seira with a sense of unease.

While the others were trying to figure out why they were here, Winter was counting them out. "Only three." She hummed out, stepping away.

"Look up here." Lorelei pointed out, glancing above the mask, which had a sign.

"Emergency backup masks." Gemini read out. "These are only backups?"

Twirling a strand of hair around her finger, Winter shrugged. "I don't wish to know why we'd need these in an emergency. Or why they are even in the garden in the first place."

After thinking about it for a moment, Gemini came up with a conclusion. "If it's in the garden, it's likely because of the flower Nova told us about. I'm pretty sure that that flower will be in the last garden." At least, he assumed there was only one area left to explore. "It's probably here, as it's the nearest garden to that one."

In the end, though, it was just a theory, and neither of them were able to confirm if it's right.

Without putting much other thought, Gemini grabbed onto one of the masks, putting it right on without a problem. "Ah, you can adjust the size." Because of the mask, it muffled his voice a lot, but his point was heard.

"Alright, take off the creepy mask, we get it." Lorelei felt a bit unnerved by seeing that. "That's all that's in this shed."

"Seems so." Winter had already stepped away from the door. "Besides that, this garden is like any other garden we've happened across." At least this one had better flower selection.

Taking the mask off, Gemini put it back on the rack. "Alright, we'll if you guys are done exploring this room, then I guess so am I."

This place was getting stranger every day, but it was best to not worry about it too much.

Vacant Room (Sigma)

When the trio of M's finally arrived at the end of the hallway, they were only greeted with one thing.

"Another one of these…" Michael mumbled out, approaching the display.

Well, it was kind of nice, given that one of the rooms was currently out of order, given the mystery person.

"I guess if you want a room on the first floor…" May mumbled out, but she didn't really see a reason to have a room this far away from the others. They were already as close as they needed to the cafeteria.

Melody was also pretty much at a loss when it came to this spot. "Are ya sure it's a vacant room?" She saw the nameplate that the other ones had, but she still wanted to be sceptical.

Given that the last time one appeared, Michael was the one who tested it out, he was going to do it again. Scanning his bracelet, he waited.

And waited.

And waited-

Oh, there it is.

"This one… Took longer." Michael noted as the door opened.

"Makes sense." May yawned out. "It's on a completely different floor."

Melody glanced into the room, seeing that it was the same as last time she had entered his room. "Are ya moving here, mac?"

"What? No." Michael didn't even bother entering his own room. He knew what it looked like. "It was just for a test…" He wouldn't feel comfortable moving his room away from everyone else again.

He only did it the first time because he was unsure how everyone even felt about him. Now… He at least had people who cared about him still.

Seeing that there was nothing else, May turned around. "We should head back to the cafeteria…" She hummed out, making her way down the hallway.

Michael had begun to walk back, but he stopped when he noticed that Melody hadn't been following. "Are you coming?"

Almost as if she was lost in thought, she quickly turned to look at him, offering him a smile. "Oh! Yes, I was just lost in my noodle." What?

Looking at her for a few seconds, it took a bit to realise it meant lost in her head. "Alright… Try not to think too much." He knew that the events of yesterday were probably still fresh on her mind.

Getting closer to him, Melody shook her head. "I don't know what you're talking about." However, from the looks of it, she still had that rather positive attitude on her.

Which was good, because Michael wasn't sure what he'd do if she lost her smile, given that it's helped him get over problems before in the past. "Right…"

By this point, May had abandoned the duo; she had better things to do.

"We should probably follow after her." Michael mumbled out, picking up the pace, with Melody following his speed right behind him.

Zeta Sector

"So we probably only have one more room." Lorelei concluded, having taken the lead of the group. After the boring Ultimate Station, and the garden, she was about done with this entire thing.

As they made it near the end of the hallway, they were met with a single door. Not a door to enter a room, but a door that blocked off hallways from each other.

"Is there another area?" Gemini mumbled out, given that that would be the only answer to something like this.

Shrugging Winter moved over towards the door, before scanning her watch. To her surprise, it worked!

However…

"That's strange…" Winter hummed out, twirling her finger around a strand of hair. "The hallway just… ends?" After the door opened, the hallway only went on for about fifteen more feet before it just ended completely.

"Yeah, that doesn't make any sense." Gemini placed his hands against the wall, trying to see if he could feel something. "No, it doesn't feel off… It just feels like a wall."

"Well, we could waste our time exploring this wall, or we can just leave." Lorelei would prefer the latter. Whatever these two idiots wanted to do felt boring.

"But doesn't it feel odd…" Seira mumbled out, looking at them. "Why have a hallway that leads to nowhere?"

"Wouldn't be the first time we couldn't open a pathway." Lorelei was quick to point out. "So there's no reason to worry about it."

Still, Gemini didn't want to let the feeling slip. "There's definitely something off about this wall… I can just… I can just feel it." He just wasn't sure how it mattered in the end.

"Well…" Winter hummed out, taking a few steps back. "There's not much we can do about it now. Maybe we can ask Nova later."

"If she even bothers to answer…" Seira wasn't really confident in that.

"No point wasting time here." Lorelei turned around, ready to leave. "The others are probably already waiting for us in the cafeteria."

Looking at the wall some more, Gemini eventually let out a sigh. "Right… Let's head back."

Still… Something was off about that wall, and he was going to get to the bottom of it… He spared it one last glance. "Maybe that area won't open up until later."

"That could be." Seira tried to reassure him a bit. "Or maybe there's a secret we can solve." Given who he was, she was hoping that would at least get his mood up.

"Yeah… A mystery." A smile appeared on Gemini's face as he nodded his head along.

Monorail Station (Sigma)

What? A SECOND one this chapter? Crazy shit! But yeah, there's a second one.

"Hmm…" Gigi hummed out, looking over at the monorail. This was the third one she knew about, and as of yet, they didn't really serve much purpose.

Atlas, on the other hand, was already sick of these. "Another fuckign one? Who cares about this."

Resting her hand on her hand, Gigi thought for a moment. "Yes, we haven't had much use for this yet. But this is the first time we've had one on this floor."

"Do you think it connects to the second floor?" Benjamin was at the very least curious about this.

"That's what I want to know." Gigi scanned her bracelet, and entered into the monorail. Quickly, she made her way towards the front, scanning her bracelet again.

"What's she doing?" Benjamin hadn't been with her the first time, so he was unaware.

"Tsk… some bullshit about her being the conductor." Atlas sat down on one of the chairs.

Hearing this, Benjamin slowly followed Gigi into the room. "So, what's this room?"

If Gigi hadn't been herself, she might have jumped at the sudden appearance of Benjamin. He was so good at being quiet, that she hadn't even heard him walk in. "I'm not sure… I never actually checked out this room because there wasn't much of a reason for it."

Scanning her watch one last time, she was given access to a menu. "Oh." Was her only reaction.

Looking past her, Benjamin took a look at the map that was given to her. "Oh, you have access to four stations?"

Four? That didn't sound right to her. "Let's see…" Gigi looked around, eventually spotting a station named Laboratory. "Huh…" That must be one of the new areas. "I don't know why they'd introduce two new ones."

"Well…" Benjamin was getting antsy just waiting for something to happen, so instead. He hit the button for the laboratory.

Despite Gigi being the conductor, it didn't seem to matter who pushed the buttons, as the monorail began to move.

"..." Gigi played around with her glove. "Why did you do that?"

Letting out a playful laugh. "I wanted to see if it worked."

"Well, it does." Gigi decided that she might as well mess around with the controls, however.

Because while she could use this map to move, she already knew that anyone could move the train, even if they didn't have access to this map.

"Hmm…" Gigi eventually noticed something. "Right, I can block off certain stations." Holding down on one of the stations, the green icon for it quickly turned red.

"Why would you do that?" Benjamin frowned slightly. "Everyone should be free to use this as they want!"

"Yes, why indeed." However, if the option was there, Gigi knew there had to be a reason.

"Hey, assholes." Atlas called out from behind the door. "We're here."

That snapped Gigi out of her thoughts, turning towards the soccer player. "Right…"

Exiting outside the monorail, the trio didn't think they'd be so high up. "Woah…" Benjamin called out, looking down. "Is the monorail starting to go up?"

That made sense… This must be how it gets to the second floor. "This room has a lot of things in it." Gigi noted, most of which she could fathom.

However, seeing that there was a door that appeared to be the exit, she reasoned that this room had already been explored. "Let's head back."

Once back inside, Gigi made her way over towards the conductor room again, loading up the map. "Hmm…" She had no reason to go to the floor above, but she still wanted to check something out.

She marked the Sigma sector as a banned spot, and then attempted to go towards it.

To her surprise, it worked. "It seems that the conductor can bypass any bans."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Benjamin was a bit unsure, but he at the very least assumed it was.

Once they finally arrived back in the Sigma Sector, Gigi made sure to unban it, so people could access it again. "That is going to be all for us."

"Finally!" Atlas was getting a bit annoyed of having to explore all these locations. To him, they hadn't really found anything worthwhile.

Cafeteria

Given that they had all explored everything they could, the group of thirteen returned to the cafeteria, ready to discuss their findings.

"Does anyone want to go first?" Hae-Won was somewhat eager to reveal her findings, but she wasn't going to steal the spotlight from someone else.

"Me!" Seira had lifted her hand up eagerly, stars in her eyes. "We found my Ultimate Station, and it's everything I could have hoped for!"

"I hope we find my Ultimate Station soon…" Gemini trailed off. "And I wish it has everything I'd ever hoped for as well, that being a way out of here."

Pouting slightly, Seira chose to ignore Gemini. "My station wasn't anything complicated, honestly. But it had everything to do with constellations."

"Boring. Pass." To prove a point, Edison made a motion as if he was skipping a few pages ahead in a book.

Frowning slightly, Seira pointed at him. "You just want to skip me, so you can go ahead and talk about your own Ultimate Station."

The fact she knew that was crazy.

But Edison did make it very obvious. "N-no!"

Turning back towards everyone else at the table, Seira was allowed to continue talking. "My room was rather simple. When we first entered, the entire room was made into a star map."

Winter nodded her head along, hoping to at least provide further explanation. "The star map can be moved around with an orb in the center of the room. This changes where the stars are."

Seira quickly took back control of the conversation. "There were also a variety of books around, including one on horo-"

"Moving on." Lorelei wanted to talk about the actual interesting thing they found. "There's a light-"

"I wasn't done." Seira pouted slightly. "At least let me have my moment."

"-switch, that if you flick." It was clear that Lorelei didn't really care at the moment. "The room becomes see-through, and we can see outside from it."

"Wait, like actually see through the walls?" Gigi repeated.

"That's, like, what I said." Lorelei rolled their eyes. "I'm not sure how it works, or even if the footage was live."

"There's only one way to try out!" Laki seemed rather happy about the idea of launching herself out of the repair ship again.

Quickly, Seira shook her head. "We aren't doing that again." Once was already way too many times."

"Besides that…" Gemini decided to close out. "There wasn't really much else in the room."

"Haha!" Edison let out a laugh. "It's nothing compared to-"

Wanting to stop him from gloating, Winter cut him off. "Next on our list… Like normal, we were greeted with a garden."

"Getting sick of gardens…" Atlas mumbled out.

With a slight smile tugging at her lip, Winter continued. "While technically, this one doesn't offer anything new, it does offer us new flowers."

May was about to ask something, but Gemini was quick to cut her off. "None of the ones discussed previously."

Ignoring them, Winter continued talking about what they found. "However, what is of interest lies at the back of the garden."

"Another shed…?" Michael mumbled out, however, he didn't look directly at her when he said that.

Waiting a few extra seconds, Winter finally spoke up again. "It wasn't your typical shed, as there was only one thing in there. Gas masks."

This seemed to catch the attention of everyone.

Hae-Won gritted her teeth a bit. "What do you mean? Why would we need that?"

"Ah…" May hummed out. "The flowers…"

"That's what I want to believe." Gemini nodded his head. "But there's no way to confirm it right now."

"The fact that they even felt the need to give us those now is concerning." Gigi crossed her arms, looking off to the side. "Continue."

"That was all the garden had to offer, really." Winter let out a hum.

"Then that's everything." Hae-Won was ready to move on.

Before that could happen, Gemini made sure to jump in. "Actually, there was one last thing I wanted to talk about." He placed his hands on his hips. "We found a weird hallway."

"Weird in what way…?" Michael mumbled out.

Thinking for a moment, Gemini continued. "To access this hallway, we had to enter through a door, but then when we went through… The hallway just ended."

"That is odd…" May hummed out. "Did you make sure to check for a hidden button…"

"My hands were all over that wall." Gemini, getting frisky with the wall. You'll make Seira jealous.

"It might not be something we're meant to access yet." Edison suggested with a smile on his face.

Placing his hands on his hips, Gemini let out a sigh. "I thought so too, but there wasn't even a scanner on the wall. Honestly, it's just a mystery to me."

"Mysteries will eventually be solved, so we shouldn't worry about it yet." Gigi glanced the other way. "We should continue with our findings. Who wants to go next?"

"We can go next…" May hummed out, hoping for some of the others to take the lead for her.

Given that she didn't say anything else, Michael let out a sigh. "Right… We found two rooms, and another vacant room."

"Oh, I haven't seen any new ones in a while." Hae-Won hummed out. The last time they were introduced… They weren't exactly used in the best way.

"What rooms did you find?" Seira tilted her head to the side.

Out of the two rooms, one was easier to explain. "We found May's Ultimate Station. It was pretty much just a library…"

"Yeah, that's about what I expected. Anything else about it?" Lorelei was trying to get right to the point.

Melody put her hands on her hips. "It didn't work like a traditional library!"

"Right…" May hummed out, joining back into the conversion. "All the books were blank. The only way to get one that had text, was to search it up on the kiosk… Then it would transform one of the blank books into the one you wanted."

"Woah!" Edison was impressed. "Does any book work?"

Slowly, May nodded her head along. "Books… online articles… Honestly anything. As long as it exists, it should be searchable…"

"That's the only utility of the room?" Atlas narrowed his eyes. Honestly, that sounded useless to him. Even if he could search something up, he wouldn't be able to use the book.

"There's also a study near the back…" Thank you May.

"That wasn't the only room we found…" Michael mumbled out, getting ready to talk about the first one they explored.

"Right! That room was all balled up." Melody didn't really understand the room.

Slowly, May nodded her head, waiting for a moment to speak up. "There wasn't much in the room we found… Only that the wallpaper was all made of newspaper…"

"This included the floor and ceiling." Michael added. "Except for one part on the ground."

Right… That was a thing…

Tilting her head back, May let out a yawn. "There's probably some kind of mystery… given the nature of the room…" Alan was probably pretty careful. He wouldn't have his room be out in the open like that.

"More mysteries…" Gemini glanced off to the side.

"Don't worry about this one…" May hummed out, looking at the ceiling. "I'll solve it…"

"That was everything…" Michael realised their group didn't find as much as the other, but it was probably fine.

"My turn!" Edison called out rather eagerly. "Whatever you found will pale in comparison-"

"Can't you just say you found your Ultimate Station?" Lorelei rolled her eyes.

"H-hey! There's build up to such a thing!" Edison stuttered over his own words, looking away. "Anyways, before we get to that point, we should talk about-"

"He found his Ultimate Station, and we blew up." Laki interjected without a warning.

Letting out a small laugh at Edison's expense, Hae-Won continued. "The two rooms we found sort of mesh together. Besides, the more important things are with the first room, so I'd rather talk about that one last."

"Right! Right!" Laki cheered. "We found gunpowder!"

Everyone seemingly had the same idea the moment she said that. "Are we doing anything to stop that from being used?" Gigi was the first to say.

"Fuck man…" Atlas mumbled out. "Her around gunpowder?"

"A recipe for disaster…" Michael mumbled out.

Getting annoyed by this, Hae-Won let out a cough. "I'm well aware of the dangers that the combination of the two poses. Don't worry, I'm taking measures about it. For now, let's focus on what else was in the room."

"Yes! My turn!" Edison adjusted his goggles. "I found a wide assortment of chemicals. Some I have on me right now."

Everyone collectively took a step away from him.

"Haha… Don't worry! Only half of them are dangerous."

They took another step away.

Not bothered in the slightest, Edison continued. "Some of them are pretty dangerous. Together-"

Hae-Won quickly covered his mouth. "They're dangerous. That's all that matters." She wasn't about to let them know what they could make with them.

Edison was a bit annoyed that he wasn't allowed to speak of his brilliance, but she probably had a good reason to stop him. Before he could continue, however, Laki took over.

"We found gunpowder!"

Like toddlers. Still, Hae-Won should have expected something like this to happen, so she wasn't too annoyed. "Yeah, Edison said he found a container of gunpowder."

"It's alright to explain this one. Not many people would know how to use it-"

Lorelei rolled their eyes. "It's gunpowder, not rocket science. I think most of us could figure something out with it."

Well, Edison didn't have a counter to that. "Fine! But still." Yeah, he had nothing else to say.

"Oh! Oh!" Laki raised her hand. "We should tell them about the camera system!"

"There's a camera system?" Gemini mumbled.

"Calling it a camera system is being too generous." Hae-Won crossed her arms. "There's only one camera. It's located right at the entrance of the laboratory. To access it, you need to be assigned the job." To prove a point, she nudged Edison a bit.

The chemist opened up his watch, showing that he had the job of scientist. "See! I registered myself."

"If you don't have the scientist job, you can't enter the room." Hae-Won continued her explanation. "And, whenever the watch is scanned, it takes a photo. We were actually able to see those photos in Edison's Ultimate Station."

"Yeah!" Laki nodded her head along. "We got two photos taken. It seems to take a pretty wide shot."

"You get to see the entire hallway, actually." Hae-Won noted, as soon as she recalled it. "No chance to hide out of frame either. If someone scans their watch, they will be seen by the camera."

Seems pretty simple.

"Also, you can't delete any photos." Laki mentioned, disappointed by this part. "But they delete themselves after a full day."

"This seems like a really good system then." Seira was reassured that at least not everyone could access the room.

Gigi, on the other hand, had a few choice words about this security system.

However, before that, she had different questions. "So, you said laboratory. Is that different from Edison's station?"

"Yes, it is." Hae-Won closed both of her eyes. "The laboratory had its own things in there."

"They felt more like a random assortment of inventions." Edison mentioned. "We saw a catapult in there."

"What use does a catapult have?" Gemini raised an eyebrow.

Oh! Edison is so glad he asked. "Back in ancient times, catapul-"

Quickly realising his mistake, Gemini had to stop him. "I meant in context of this game."

"Oh! Don't know." Thanks Edison.

"Next up, we found an incinerator." Hae-Won continued on. "Nothing too interesting, but you can change the temperature."

"Yeah, you can burn ev-" Laki had started, but the tattoo artist had covered her mouth. "There were some wardrobes, but they were empty."

Seems they were running out of things to say, but Laki had one more thing left. "Oh right, we found one of those monorails."

Finally, an invitation for Gigi. "Yes, about those…" She trailed off. "Do you remember the security system you mention? It's completely broken by the fact that anyone who hops into the monorail can access it."

Upon hearing this, Hae-Won's expression twisted into a frown. "Then what was the point of Monokawa explaining all of that to us?"

"Don't worry. There's one thing I can do to prevent it. I can block off access to that station." Gigi showed off her watch. "It would make it so only I can access that part of the station."

"Are you sure it works like that?" Hae-Won raised an eyebrow. She didn't know much about the conductor job, but mostly because it hadn't been brought up in a long time.

"I was able to manually block off the stations, so I don't see why it wouldn't work." Sure, Gigi didn't actually test it out, but she could do it tomorrow. It's not like anyone would act now anyways.

Letting out a sigh, Hae-Won turned to look at everyone else. "From the sounds of it, three people will have access to the room." Already more than she wanted, but she should just be glad it wasn't more than that."

Lastly, only one group remained.

Before Gigi could even say anything, Atlas was the first person to speak up. "We ain't found shit." Thank you.

Letting out a sigh, she shook her head. "That's not exactly true. We found out three things of interest."

Not wanting to just fade away to the background, Benjamin decided to take over the first room. "We found an infirmary." Which would have been useful a few days ago, but whatever.

Hearing that, Hae-Won nodded her head along. "That could be good for us. We might be able to save someone now."

May nodded her head along. "Yeah…" Not that it would have helped any of the three victims so far.

"It was loaded with what you would expect to find in someplace like that." Gigi took over for Benjamin now. "Some beds, lab coats. We also found syringes and scalpels."

More dangerous stuff.

"Besides that…" The ventriloquist trailed off. "It was just your typical infirmary.

"Next up." Gigi spoke up again. "We found Nova's office."

"That girl really had an office?" Lorelei was just shocked to find out it was real.

"We had a conversation with Nova." Atlas mumbled out. "Not that she told us anything too interesting."

For a moment, Gigi wanted to relay all the information she had been told by Nova, but also wanted to keep some cards close to her chest. "She just mentioned she had her own camera system."

"And Atlas tried to get into her room." Benjamin added nonchalantly.

This got a gasp from Winter. "Atlas! Trying to make moves on the overseer?"

"What the fuck. Why does everyone take it the wrong way?" He was already sick of this shit.

What other information could Benjamin even give? "Oh, she's also an alcoholic."

The room collectively decided to ignore that part.

"So…" Hae-Won trailed off. "That's everything that we found?"

"New rooms, but no new answers…" Gemini let out a sigh. In fact, they had all just been given more questions.

"Hmm…" May let out a hum, trying to think of something. "I'll probably take a look at some of the rooms tomorrow…" She'd do it today, but honestly, she was starting to get tired again.

Seeing that that seemed to be the general idea, Gemini nodded his head. "Then yeah, we should probably call it a day now."

After all, looking around made them tired. And some people were extra tired, like Edison, who blew himself up.

"I think I'm content for today." The chemist smiled at everyone else. "I'll see you all tomorrow."

And then they all got on the same fucking elevator together, ruining the point of even saying goodbye.

Vacant Rooms

Given it had already gotten so late, everyone concluded it would be best to head to bed now. Soon, the Monokawa announcement would play out anyways.

"Do we have any plans for tomorrow?" Hae-Won turned to the rest of the group.

"The only plan I have is that I want to try and get to the bottom of that hallway I spoke about." Gemini was a simple man. He sees a mystery, he needs to solve it.

"I also have plans!" Edison seemed rather proud of himself. "I want to explore my station more. I want to see what I can make while there."

Mostly simple things.

"I'll have to give it some thought." Gigi glanced off to the side.

Now that she knew where to find Nova, it would be much easier to have a talk with her in private.

"I know what I'll be doing tomorrow." Hae-Won had a confident smile on her face. She lied earlier, given that she didn't want anyone else to try and claim the room.

Her first order of business was pretty much just to guard the door to the laboratory until her timer finished. Then only her, Edison, and Gigi would be able to enter the rooms.

Suddenly, an announcement played out, for all to hear.

"It is now nighttime, which means you should all probably head to bed now! Once again, a murder just happened, so I don't expect you guys to get crazy JUST yet, but you never know."

Seems it was time to pack up for the night.

But before that, Edison made a realisation. "Hey, I haven't seen Gennosuke at all today."

"Probably for the best…" Hae-Won mumbled out. "He's smart enough to know not to show his face to us."

"I doubt that will last." Gigi placed a hand on her hip. "We were busy exploring today, but he's bound to want to know what the new rooms have to offer."

True, which only meant they'd have to deal with him eventually. Hae-Won shrugged. "Well, when he does eventually show up, we'll make sure to put him in his place."

A bit extreme, but Gigi didn't exactly disagree. Gennosuke had proven without a shred of doubt that he was an awful person. Even someone like Ian at least had a redeeming quality or two.

Gennosuke had nothing.

Letting out a yawn was May. "I'm getting tired… We should continue this conversation tomorrow…"

There was a brief silence, before agreement was heard amongst the remaining participants.

It was getting late, so it was probably best to get some sleep.

As everyone went into their room, this left Michael and Melody alone outside.

The former wanted to go to bed, but he felt like something was off. "Melody…" He hummed out.

"Hmm? What's up, mac?" Her expression brightened up rather quickly.

"How are… How are you doing? You know… After yesterday." Michael wasn't exactly sure how to handle this.

Having a normal conversation like this could still prove difficult.

For a moment, Melody didn't respond, almost as if she was thinking of the best thing to say. After a few more seconds, she let out a small laugh. "Still the same old me." To prove a point, she began tapping her foot on the ground in rhythm.

Seeing her still being able to dance, that seemed to reassure Michael a bit. "Alright… If you start to feel down, I'm always here. Just like… you were there for me."

Letting out a small giggle, Melody shook her head. "Still sounds like ya need me, mac. I'll be alright."

Nodding his head along, Michael turned to enter his room, letting the door close behind him.

Once Melody was sure that he wouldn't come out, the smile she had on her face slowly began to falter, until it was replaced by a frown.

Of course she wasn't alright… But she wasn't about to bring the mood down for everyone else, so she had no choice but to act like everything was fine.

She was going to continue to be the light in every room she walked into…

Slowly, Melody moved over towards her door, unlocking it, and stepping in.

And with that, we finally start chapter four of this fic. Holy shit, I didn't think I'd make it this far. Part of me was worried that I would give up someplace in chapter two or three. But we finally made it this far!

And with a long opener, as expected. But we did get to learn a lot of interesting information from this. That first scene I've been waiting to write since the start of the fic! You have no idea! And now it's finally here. Amazing. I can't believe I've come this far with this story. We're actually inching closer and closer to the end of the fic.

I'm hoping to get part two and three out before the end of February. My goal is to have the body drop happen near the middle of April. And to have the entire chapter done by the end of May.

Honestly, that's been my goal for most of these, finishing chapters in May, August, and December. Let's see if I can keep this schedule going :D

I do have another SYOC I'm writing, which might eat up my time, but it's mostly just a side project anyway, so my focus won't completely be on it, which is good!

Shoutout to Gold, who finished his chapter three of Twisted Tragedy only a few days ago. I was trying to beat him, but there's not much I can do to win a race against a man who doesn't have anything else to do. It was doomed from the start, honestly.

With that, I have nothing else to say. Hope you guys enjoyed the start of the chapter, and I can't wait to see one of you messaging me in my DM's for absolutely no reason.

Participants Remaining: 14

Edison Thompton - The Ultimate Chemist [SilverMark16]

Seira Natsume - The Ultimate Astrologist [WolfieRed23]

Winter Hibiscus - The Ultimate Love Guru [Grandma Sue]

Giustina "Gigi" Giulio - The Ultimate Referee [Nekoja]

Gemini Strela - The Ultimate Escapist [secretnobody]

Benjamin Mason - The Ultimate Ventriloquist [NSPunny]

Lorelei Kaiser - The Ultimate Hacker [CandleFire45]

Michael Astrophel - The Ultimate Cult Leader [Omakin]

Melody Eleanor Hopkins - The Ultimate Tap Dancer [Prince PokePersona]

Lakshmi "Laki" Krishna - The Ultimate Lucky Student [Sempi]

May Summers - The Ultimate Academic Prodigy [KadachiNova]

Atlas Constande - The Ultimate Soccer Player [ComplicatedYetSimple]

Gennosuke Yagami - The Ultimate Psychic [theotakureader101]

Kim Hae-Won - The Ultimate Tattoo Artist [Weekaro]