Chapter 211: First Hurdle

Seeing they needed to wait for the other teams, Theo decided to walk to the black box and examined it.

Unfortunately for him, he couldn't find anything useful other than the lock that seemed to open only when the sensor got activated. The box itself was around twelve inches, so it was a quite big box that could contain so many things.

"So, what are we going to do here? Waiting?" Alea asked while looking around. "Maybe we should look around to see if there's anything hidden in it?"

Theo shrugged and said, "Suit yourself. But there won't be anything else in this room."

"…" Alea gently stroked her cheek, wondering whether Theo would hold back or not when berating her in front of the camera. She shook her head helplessly and said, "We have nothing to do anyway, so a little check won't hurt."

Hearing Alea's desire, the group looked at each other and decided to look around the room while Theo kept playing around with the black box while watching the screen.

His teammates tried to investigate the room from the wall, ceiling, and floor, only to find nothing.

The reason Theo was confident they wouldn't be able to find anything was due to the absolute advantage if you came down first. They might use it for the last team that might win among the others, but they simply wouldn't look down on us that obviously. Hence, there was no reason for them to leave any clues in this room other than the black box.

After a few minutes, all the teams had finally entered their respective rooms, locked inside. The screen gradually changed as a clicking sound echoed inside the room.

Clack.

Theo felt something was moving from the box he held and raised it up, seeing it open and revealing what was hidden inside.

There were six silver bracelets inside the box with a green light emanating from it. The screen then changed as they received a clear instruction.

"Please wear the bracelet on your right wrist. It's a special bracelet that will protect you in the time needed."

Seeing the instruction, Theo grabbed one bracelet and handed the box to the others. He put it on and saw nothing suspicious about it.

"The first mission will give you five points for every single person that crosses the finish line within one hour. So, please escape from this room."

Clack.

"!!!" Theo heard something from behind and turned around, finding the floor tile to raise by a few inches and they seemed to create a small path inside the room, connecting all four corners.

"In order to obtain the key, all members are to run fifty laps circling the rising floor tiles."

"What?!" Alea furrowed her eyebrows and looked at Theo. However, the latter had already walked to the rising floor tiles with a calm expression.

He looked at them with a confused expression. "What're you doing? Let's run. We only have one hour to escape from this room."

Seeing that Theo had a command, the group quickly followed him and started running. They tried to run as fast as possible to make sure they cleared the first hurdle with some time to spare.

It took them ten minutes to finish that run because they felt quite dizzy after going around the room a few times.

As soon as they finished, all the rising tiles suddenly dropped to their original position except for one which was in the opposite direction of the door.

"Hmm?" Theo pointed to that one particular tile.

"That…" Alea walked closer and looked at Theo. "Should I?"

"With your hand first." Theo nodded.

Touching it with her hand would allow her to quickly avoid anything that happened on that tile, so he wanted to be safe.

When Alea pressed the floor, they heard another sound from the opposite direction before seeing that the door opened. Surprised by the sound of the door, Alea released her hand only to find the door shut down again.

…

Meanwhile, in the stadium, Sheira said, "Block A's participants have finally started. They need to face this challenge where they require someone to step on the pressure plate to open the door for their teammates."

The screen showed various groups running and trying to comprehend how the plate worked and wondered if they needed to sacrifice a person to pass the floor.

"I wonder how they will solve this puzzle. Will they sacrifice themselves so their team can advance? Or will they find another way around?" Sheira kept entertaining the people before she found one group that already decided to go. "Wow, look at that. One team has moved on from the first puzzle with all team members!"

All the people gasped as they never expected to find a group that could solve the riddle instantly. And that group came from a relatively small country.

…

Theo smiled when he saw the pressure plate as he walked to it, analyzing their situation. "It's indeed a good riddle. In order to open the gate, we're required to sacrifice someone here."

"Then, I will stay here. The rest of you can go." Alea quickly decided to be the sacrifice to avoid losing any more time. She panted a few times because she had been running at full speed. The others had a similar condition and became pretty tired as they couldn't think for a long period of time.

However, Theo shook his head as if he didn't have any problem with the tiredness.

"What do you want to do, Theo?" asked Ellen while looking at the door nervously.

"Remember the way to get the points?"

"Five points per person." She nodded.

"Exactly. I don't like losing five points for no reason since I don't know how many points we need in this situation, so…" Theo smiled and summoned his clone. "This guy is the solution."

"!!!" All of them opened their eyes wide as they almost forgot that Theo had a clone. They soon realized their fatigue actually prevented them from thinking straight.

"Your fatigue and the short time limit make you rush everything, so keep calm, okay?" Theo smiled while trying to calm the team down. Because of the festive mood and the expectation from the people of their country, his group had become a bit too active in this challenge, so he wanted to use this occasion to calm them down.

Surprisingly, it greatly affected them as Alea and the others gradually turned serious, knowing that they didn't need to be panicked even if there was a time limit.

Clone Theo then stepped on the pressure plate and opened the door for them.

Seeing that their path had opened, Theo smiled. "Let's go, shall we?"