A Puzzling Key

"You better come back soon. I might get hungry while watching over your food." Fujimoto slyly smiled.

"Don't try me!" Jarxen yelled as he scaled the cafeteria in less than ten seconds.

As soon as he got out of the cafeteria, Jarxen sprinted through the hallways on the second floor of the Dome. The second floor looked pretty much the same as the first one, except the hallways were built beside the walls, forming a donut shape. You could pretty much see everything happening on the first floor if you peer to the side of the hallways. As for the branches of the hallway, it didn't lead to other blocks in the second floor, it lead to meeting rooms, and other spaces for the employees' accommodations.

Jarxen finally reached the side of the hallway opposite the cafeteria and grabbed two packages from the room over there, labeled B-16. The room looked like an ordinary storage room lined with packages. The packages were supplied daily, that's why Jarxen bit his lip when he saw two packages in the room. "Two days? Did I really miss two days?!" He reprimanded himself.

"What a beginner's mistake!"

He didn't waste any time heading to his block. The procedure of entry was done in a flash as the guard nodded at him and slid the key card on the machinery as per usual.

As soon as Jarxen entered his block, he caught a glimpse of something familiar on Red's hands. He knew it all too well that it was impossible to miss it?

Well, how could he miss something that he had lost once?

Forgetting the packages he was carrying and dropping them midway, Jarxen immediately slammed the door open towards the lodging room and forced himself in. The door was a sliding one but Jarxen accomplished slamming it nonetheless. Fortunately, the glass was especially thick and it didn't transform into shards as it "bounced" off the edge of the wall.

"What's that on your hand!" He exclaimed, rushing towards Red as if to tackle him.

Red looked at him with visible confusion on his face as he held up something in his hand. Jarxen intuitively grabbed it and brought it closer to his eyes for further inspection.

"It's just a few strands of Curl's hair that I formed into a hairball. Honestly, she keeps on complaining about her hair loss." Red nonchalantly answered.

"What?!" Curl whirled her head towards Red, but her gaze landed on Jarxen's first. To Red's relief, she understood the gravity of the situation and matched her expression with Red. "Oh, that! We haven't had a bath in so long my hair's crawling everywhere. And to top it all off, we haven't had anything to eat in two days! TWO DAYS!!! No wonder my hair's like this, They're not getting the proper nutrients to grow properly."

Red put a hand on Curl's mouth and looked at Jarxen. "We haven't eaten anything in two days, let alone drink some water. Is this also part of being a worker? How could we test the humanoids with our maximum potential if we don't have the fuel to do so? We're not asking for much, just something to eat for the day."

Red spoke with an even tone in his voice as if his statement was prerecorded and played. He didn't have a shift in his expression; the only time his expression changed was when Curl licked him on the hand again, making him let go of her mouth. "Did you see that?! I almost ate Red's hand due to my hunger. If you don't bring any food for us t-then... I will eat everyone in this room!" Curl shakily threatened, hiding her face after realizing how embarrassing her words were.

"That sounds way more interesting than giving you dinner. I guess I'll leave you to it." Jarxen sneered with his face contorting into an annoyed expression. "Will three days be enough for you to eat everyone?"

Curl gulped. She didn't expect herself to make matters worse than it already was. Before Curl could react, Jarxen walked closer to the center of the room while looking at Blond with raging eyes.

"BLOND HAIR!" Jarxen screamed, pointing at Blond. "Come here!"

Although Jarxen already shouted, Blond didn't hear him. Turns out, he was busy talking to the black-haired girl from before.

"I said, COME HERE, BLONDIE BOY!"

Blond's eyes finally locked on Jarxen's. He stood up and approached him, not too slow and not too fast. "Sorry, I was talking to Cat. What is it, Jarxen?"

"What?! You got a name for her now?" Red's jaws dropped at the sight of Blond's chill manner. "We're naming each other now?" Red thought.

What? As if you didn't do it yourself. Blond said to himself as his eyes narrowed while looking at Red.

"Oh, that girl you saved from entering the Testing room, huh," Jarxen muttered. "Listen here you yellow-haired celery, when I call you, you'd better appear in front of me in a second. The next time this happens, I'll send you straight to the incinerator, understand?"

Blond nodded. "Of course, Jarxen."

"I HAVE AN ANNOUNCEMENT, YOU LUCKY ORPHANS!" He shouted once again. "Because of blondie boy over here, the corporation suffered major losses. The server humanoid went into a state of malfunction due to the confusing data it got from its testing. Now, a huge network of humanoids went offline and it would probably take more or less one month before it gets fixed."

"In short, no humanoids to test for the next three to four weeks. Is that what you're trying to tell us, Jarxen?" Blond indifferently asked.

"THAT! That is for Head Cipher to decide. In case you didn't know, Nexus Corporation has a vast array of humanoid networks. You could be assigned two networks for all I know."

"But for now, we don't have any humanoids to test, right?" Blond rebutted.

"My steak's getting cold so I'll take my leave." Jarxen changed the topic. "Get those boxes over there and see what you can do with it. Eat it, or wipe your butts with it, I don't care."

"And... "

"Don't do anything suspicious. I'm always watching." Jarxen growled, eyeing Red with intense pressure before he finally exited the block.

A feeling of relief swept over Red as he slumped on his bed. He only had a split second to put the earpiece in his pocket and get a substitute for it. He couldn't believe that Jarxen would fall for his instantaneous trick— Curl's strands of hair molded into an earpiece. "Phew! That was close!"

Scar didn't waste any time getting the boxes just outside the lodging room. The boxes were unusually heavy for its size but Scar brought it in the room without getting help from anyone. "What do you figure is in that box?" Blond jerked a thumb as he approached Red.

"Food." Red guessed on a whim.

"I figured."

"Whoa!!! Check it out, guys!" Scar exclaimed. "It's not just food!"

The group gathered around like a meeting on the round table just started. They carefully watched Scar as he took out one item at a time from the box. An assortment of bread and cup noodles were neatly lined up one by one in front of them. After that, the bottled waters followed.

"So... it's not just food because there're bottled-waters inside? Is that what you meant, Scar?" Curl groaned at Scar's sarcasm.

"Hey, at least we got something. Moreover," Scar responded as he lifted up a small object from the box. "I don't know what this does but this is the last item here."

"A key? A key to what?" Red asked but one look and he knew what it's for. "I'll keep this for now." He smiles, acting like he didn't know anything about it.

"Yeah, for now, let's eat." Scar suppressed his drool at the sight of the food.

"Let's keep the cupped noodles for now until we acquire some hot water for it," Blond suggested. "Moreover, what's on the other box?"

No one paid attention to Blond's word as they tried breaking the bread for everyone. All the bread was shaped like a loaf. Still, it was as hard as a rock, and dividing them was no easy task.

"Is this cement?" Gadge doubtfully asked although it was clearly bread.

"Yeah, it is." Scar sighed, gritting his teeth as he tried to pry the bread open.

Red couldn't afford to watch it any longer. Without saying a single word, he grabbed the bread from Scar's hand. He easily divided it into two and then moved on to the rest of the loaves. All in all, there were four loaves equally divided among seven of them, well, not equally since there's a half loaf extra.

"May I have that?" Scar spoke with a full mouth as he reached out for the remaining bread.

"No, Red deserves that last piece!" Curl slapped his hand.

"It's alright, I'm not hungry. You can divide it with everyone." Red then realized that no one can divide the bread except him. Inwardly grumbling, he divided the half loaf into smaller portions.

"Red, should we open the box?" Blond asked as Red stood up and stretched himself.

"Go ahead, I just need to check something in the testing room," Red answered. "You can open it without me."

"Testing room?" Blond curiously asked. He wanted to accompany Red but since he was the one who suggested opening the box, he kept his lips sealed.

As Red got out of the lodging room and headed to the adjacent testing room, curiosity ate away in Blond's mind. "What is he up to, this time," Blond questioned himself in bewilderment.