Chương 27: Mystery Strikes Again.

The door behind me shut automatically. It slammed so hard that it made a loud echoed noise.

"It must be the wind." Aeris said. But there was no wind blowing, ever since we were here. Eli tried to push open, but it didn't open.

"This door is not budging. What's happening?" Something wasn't right, I had this weird familiar feeling like this was all happening on purpose. Like I had experienced it before. My heart stopped in those seconds. …

"It was not the wind." I said out loud. … Aeris looked confused.

"Then what was it? I had just figured out what was happening —but before we could step out. It was too late. … A flicker. The display appeared. MYSTERY LOG: QUEST: PROVE YOUR MIGHT SIX DIRECTION EXIST WITHIN THE ROOM, ONLY ONE WILL BE SAFE, THE OTHERS WILL CRUSH YOUR BODY. THE ROOM OBEYS NO NATURAL DIRECTION, FLOOR BECOMES WALL, WALL BECOMES CEILING, CEILING BECOMES FLOOR. CHOOSE WISELY. TIME REMAINING: 00: 02: 00 The Mystery Log had activated again.

I froze there for a moment trying to take in everything that had happened. The time did not stop, it started ticking down, just like before and I had no clue how I would get out of this. I remembered the last time when the mystery log had activated, the poison gas had nearly killed me. Then there were those spikes dropping down from above that almost killed me. And the two humongous knights, if I had guessed wrong, I would've been dead. All of that, one mistake and it was over.

And now it has appeared again with this new quest. I swallowed hard as my eyes read the entire thing on the mystery log panel.

"Nova, don't worry about it, okay. I am sure it was just a wind and nothing else, don't think about it too much, we will find a way out."...

"Aeris, this door isn't opening." Eli said.

"What that's ridiculous, just push it open Eli, it's not that hard."

"I tried Aeris, but it's not budging at all, not even an inch, could you lend me a hand with this."

"I swear, if that opens when I push, you're going to get the beating of your life." Aeris walked towards the door, I knew it was no way that the door would open now. Since the mystery log had been activated.

"Just see how it's done." She started pushing, but the door did not open. 01: 50"You're right, this is one stubborn door." Aeris said.

"See, I told you."

"Oh, don't flatter yourself and give me a hand with this will you." I watched carefully when both of them were pushing.

"Come on Eli, you're not pushing it harder."

"I am, Aeris. I am trying my best.

""Arggh… Nova, can you give us a hand here." It wasn't going to open no matter how hard they tried — even with my help, they'd fail. I couldn't help but feel helpless. They were trapped here, their lives were at risk here, all because of me. I clenched my teeth and shouted.

"Just stop, the door won't open." They both stopped and turned towards me.

"What do you mean it won't open?" Aeris said. There was no easy way to explain this to them, I was terrified to tell them about what was happening, all sorts of doubts rushed my mind. What would they say? How would they react? Will they ever forgive me? But I had to tell them, they had to know about this.

"We are trapped here." I paused.

"In about two minutes, something is about to happen, something very bad and I don't have any idea how to stop it." I said.

"What are you talking about?" Eli asked. I was out of words, nothing was coming out of my mouth. Aeris put her palm on my shoulder. Her voice got softer.

"Just tell us Nova, what's going on."

"Hey, it's okay to tell us. We could help." She said calmly. I breathed heavily, She was right, they deserve to know about this. I was not the only one whose life was at risk. And it was not the time to think about what had already happened, we all are trapped here. We were all in this together. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

"Okay — Nova, you are starting to make me worry." I pointed at the panel.

"You see this right here."

"You mean your floating map?" Eli said. I let that pass, because he did not know about the log. From his perspective he was right.

"This one is not the map." I said.

"It's a warning."

"A warning!" Eli said out loud.

"Okay, so what does it say?" Aeris asked. I told both of them about everything that the Mystery Log had described in the panel.

"So, you're saying our body will be crushed, if we fail to find the right direction?" Eli asked.

"Yes, and I am very sorry, you both are in here because of me, I know it's my fault, I shouldn't have let you come with me. But right now I need your help, so please." I bowed my head towards them.

"Help me." I don't expect them to forgive me, their lives were at risk because of me. If I only had figured it out before I would have stopped them. Aeris grabbed my shoulder and lifted it up.

"I told you before, we made this choice to come here, not just you. So you don't have to blame yourself. And as per help goes we will help you, so don't worry. Eli's the best there is at finding a way through anything."

"Thank you." I said. 01: 12 We all scattered in different spots. I started walking around the white room, my eyes scanned everywhere, looking for some clues.

"Okay, so what are we supposed to find, Nova?" Aeris asked.

"I don't know either, just keep looking around until you find something." Both of them resumed searching for clues around the room. The room was completely empty, completely blank. Of course it was difficult to find anything. When there is nothing to find. My mind started analysing the quest lines. Six directions, what does it mean by that… I looked around the room and figured it out. The six directions the log was talking about were up, down, front, back, left and right.

There was still confusion, about the part where it said the other will crush the body, And the part that says that room followed no natural direction. What does it mean by that? It had to be something important that reveals about this room. 01: 02 But what? 01: 01 Something had just appeared in the room, exactly when there was one minute left on the timer. My head turned towards it. Both Eli and Aeris looked at that too.

The right side of the wall glowed, there were neon lights on it that had covered the entire wall. I looked around in every direction and found no other wall or the floor and ceiling were emitting this neon glowing light; it was just the right side of the wall that was covered with the neon light.

"What is this light?" Eli asked. I went close and started to inspect it closer. Touched it, knocked on it with my knuckles. But it didn't flicker. I was certain it was not a display.

"I'll try to figure this out, in the meantime you both find something that might help us." Both of them nodded and started searching. First this strange quest by the mystery log, then this light. Is this a clue? Does it have something to do with the room itself? I don't see anything in the mystery log that mentions this light, so why did this light appear all of the sudden? 00: 32"Found anything?" Aeris asked.

"No nothing." I replied"Uhmm… Hey you two." He paused.

"I think there's another path behind this wall." Eli said. Aeris and I quickly rushed to him. He was pointing at the wall but there was nothing. I touched it to check if it was a hidden door or something but it was just a plain white wall.

"Where I don't see anything. Are you sure?" I asked"Yes. I am, there's a path behind this, I am certain." I had no idea what he was seeing, but he was insisting that he found something there. I pressed the wall and started pushing it, nothing happened, Aeris also started pushing that wall but still nothing seemed to happen. 00: 10 Time started running out, only ten seconds were remaining, until something was about to happen. We all started pushing hard at the wall, for it to open. 00: 08 Nothing…

Aeris moved back, she was about to do something.

"What are you doing Aeris?" I asked.

"I am about to knock this damn wall down."

"No, stop." I stood in her way.

"Why?"

"It's a wall, you will hurt yourself, if something is behind it. I am sure it will open after whatever is going to happen." 00: 01 The timer came to an end. 00: 00 I looked around desperately to see what was about to happen. But this was not what I expected to happen at all. My feet were no longer on the floor, they were floating in the air. We all were floating in the air.

"Woah, what's going on? Why are we floating?" Aeris asked. I remembered something in that very moment, it felt familiar somehow. Floating in the air, like it was a part of my astronaut training. It was a simulating room with a zero gravity environment. But why was it here? It made no sense. … A flicker. The display appeared in front of everyone. MYSTERY LOG: QUEST: PROVE YOUR MIGHT GRAVITY ACTIVATION IN: 00: 30 That moment everything started falling into place, I understood what the log meant earlier.

We needed to pick a side, when it said, out of six directions one was safe. It meant that only one of the directions, the gravity won't cause any sort of damage. If we pick the wrong side, gravity would crush our body. There was no way of knowing which one was safe unless there had been a clue. … Then it clicked me, the light. It meant a safe zone. The light was indicating where the floor would be, because this room followed no natural direction.

So if we were to assume that the light source is the floor, the gravity would not affect us. There were only twenty seconds remaining, I had no more time to think about it, it was the time that I had to make a decision.

"We have no time, quick let's hurry to the opposite side, towards the light." We started going towards the light. The time was about to end and we had almost made it. 00: 12 We were at the wall that was emitting the neon lights. But then, as we turned. … Eli stayed back, he was frozen there, unable to move. 00: 10"Eli, what the hell are you doing?" I said. 00: 09"You have to move towards the light." I shouted. 00: 08"I… I… can't" His voice broke as his body trembled with fear. 00: 07"I'll bring him." Aeris said.

00: 06 I grabbed her hand and stopped her from going.

"We can't, there's no time." 00: 05"We can't leave him there, Nova he will die." There was no time left for either of us to go back to the other side and bring him to this side. His body would get crushed on this side if we don't prevent it.

"There's no way we could make it back in time." 00: 03"No, please we have to save him." There was only one option left, which was to catch him in mid- air, but if the gravitational force would have been high it would crush both of us. Everything was now depending on the gravitational force. 00: 02 No time left. My teeth clenched, Eli stayed attached to the opposite side of the wall, shivering and covering his ears. Aeris was frozen, her eyes were focused on Eli. A tear dropped from her eye.

00: 01 It was floating in the zero- gravity. Then it moved, just a few centimeters towards Eli. My heart stopped as I watched that tear of hers move, and my eyes widened. In that split second, I realised… … That I had made a huge mistake. … It was not Eli, who was in danger. …. It was me and Aeris. … We were about… … To get crushed. … 00: 00