Riddle, Luck Test And Crown Game.

In an almost dark room stood three individuals, there were Fang Yuan, Igor and their ever silent team member. This dark room was the test area for their fourth test.

In front of them, midair, was a bright blue holographic screen with a series of words on it. The words on the screen was a riddle.

The fourth test was simple, solve the riddle.

The riddle read: [My 5,4,7,3 is to wander around.

My 2,7,1,8 mainly comes in the form of bills.

My 10,7,9,8 is used as an extra hand or foot for a monkey.

My 2,7,11 is the fifth month of the year.

My 6,5,7,9,10 is also known as a characteristic.

My whole is eternal life. What or who or where am I?]

The rules of the test were simple. They were given 30 minutes to solve the riddle. All they had to do was find the answer to the riddle and each of them were to provide that correct answer at the same time to pass. If even someone from the team provides a different answer from what the others provided, they fail. If the answer they provided was wrong, they obviously fail. And they only had three chances to do the right thing.

It had only been a few seconds since they entered the test room.

After staring at the riddle for a while, Igor turned to look at Yanis and asked, "What do you think the answer is? I can not make head or tail of the riddle."

"The answer is relatively simple, it is Immortality." Fang Yuan replied in a confident tone.

"Oh, what makes you think so?" Igor questioned with a skeptical look.

"I know the riddle." Fang Yuan replied flatly.

Igor nodded and didn't ask any more questions.

"Next all we have to do is shout the same answer together." Igor said as he took a quick glance at their silent team member.

"I hope you are not dumb?" Igor asked their ever silent teammate suddenly with a smile.

She was silent for a moment and then shook her head.

"What!!" Igor shouted in exaggerated surprise.

Fang Yuan didn't really know what was up with this guy. It was almost obvious from the start the teammate was dumb. He had already made up his mind that if opportunity presented itself, he would get rid of her unless she showed some unique abilities.

"Though I suspected it, I was praying it wouldn't be true due to the nature of the test" He continued to say with a slight frown on his face.

"What should we do? Should we just kill her and shout the answer ourselves?"

Upon hearing the clause "kill her", the mute teammate immediately distanced herself from them, stared at them nervously with her red eyes pointing her needle at them. Igor looked at her with a smile, unsheathed his sword and started walking slowly with measured steps towards her whiles a mocking smile was on his face. He looked straight into her eyes with his blue eyes full on mischief.

"Hey!! Stop planting red flags! And what makes you think we can kill her? This is not like the previous test. Besides who said we needed to personally shout the answer. The rule said provided the answer for heaven's sake. So your way is not the only way out." Fang Yuan shouted with mock anger at Igor upon seeing the damage he had done whiles simultaneosly stepping between him and the other teammate.

Igor paused his footsteps and looked at Fang Yuan and said in an obvious fake tone of realization, "....Don't tell me you want her to use the pocket as her voice, right? That is quite clever."

"Yes. She will just type the answer into her pocket and use the pocket to project the answer in audio form whiles we shout it."

"Ok, I get that. But what if that doesn't work? The test might actually want us to shout the answer. What better way could there be to provide the answer apart from shouting after all?" Igor asked whiles sheathing his sword but still looking straight at the girl with a cold gaze.

"If that turns out the case, I have no other way. Then we were just not meant to climb the tower." Though Fang Yuan said this, he knew in his heart, if push comes to shove and there was no other solution, he would not prevent Igor from killing her and would do it personally if needed. He was just saying that to placate their teammate for now.

And he stood up for her not because he liked her or he was a kind hearted person. Unlike the previous test, this test didn't really say anything about killing teammates and therefore Fang Yuan didn't want to do anything out of line.

"But we can always kill her and try with just the two of us. Besides she seems pretty weak. Did you see her shaking legs when I said ' kill her'." Igor commented.

Though he consider himself a man of great patience and understanding, Fang Yuan had reached his tolerance limit. Igor continuously challenged him but he had been enduring.

He didn't want to waste anymore time on the topic since it was left with only 10 minutes for the test to end and he had to consider other options if they didn't pass on the first try.

Fang Yuan looked straight into Igor's eye with a cold, murderous and threatening gaze as he said slowly with a hoarse voice: "Enough with killing her!! Lets try my suggestion. If it doesn't work we try yours. Happy?"

"What ever you say, boss." Igor answered hurriedly in a nervous tone with a slight shiver as he turned to look at the holographic screen.

Though mischievous, cunning and murderous, Igor knew he had stirred the hornet's nest the moment h saw Yanis' eye full off killing intent.

Therefore it was time to stop. He had a feeling if he didn't, he wouldn't like what would happen next. Maybe just maybe, he would be the one dying instead of the mute girl.

"I know you are not deaf and therefore I am sure you heard what we said and you know the plan. Prepare, when you are done. Give us the signal when ready." Fang Yuan said reassuringly as he smiled at the mute teammate.

After some seconds, she gave them the signal.

" Ok, on the count of three. We will shout the answer to the riddle." fang Yuan said.

They nodded in understanding.

"1!.., 2!!.., 3!!!..."

The two regulars of Yanis and Igor shouted the same answer whiles a voice shouting the same answer was heard from the pocket of their mute teammate.

After a few moments, the text on the holographic screen changed showing a new message.

[ You have all passed the test, go through the door that has materialized to move to the resting area. Thank you.]

***

In a large garden about the size of a football field, Yanis and the rest of the regulars who passed the fourth test were waiting. The garden had trees and flowers of various species. There were many exotic species of flowers and also many butterflies and bees.

There were 26 regulars gathered in the garden. Some were standing alone whiles others were in groups of twos and threes.

"Hello everyone, I have some good news and bad news for you guys. Which would you like to hear first?" A young woman wearing a blue skirt, white blouse and a pair of red high heels announced she walked into the garden. She had long yellow hair which reached all the way to her waist, golden eyes with a black circle in it and an olive skin color.

Past experience had taught the regulars that rankers weren't friendly so no regular dare answer her.

"Oh, what a bummer. I guess that guy Karl scared you guys quite a bit. Ok, lets start with the good news. Some of you here will have the privilege to participate in an amazing and fantastic game, The Crown Game!!!. Any team that wins the game will be exempted from taking the all other tests and will have the privilege of ascending to the third floor along with all the other regulars who have taken their tests, passed and had their positions. Isn't that amazing?!!!."

After hearing what she said, the regulars were surprised. Most regulars started whispering among themselves with excitement.

"That's great news, right? This is game you need to climb to the third floor directly. It's an amazing game. I promise it will be fun." The test administrator said with an enthusiastic laugh as she looked at their surprised and excited faces.

She then sighed and said with a sad and painful and sad tone: "Now time for the bad news."

As soon as the regulars heard this, the whole place became silent as a graveyard. All regulars immediately gave her their full attention.

"Do you know what the most important thing to climb the tower? Is it charm, being charismatic, being a descendant of one ten great families, being a Zahard's princess, having strength, having friends or a powerful weapon or ability or is it talent? Do you know what it is? Is Luck." The test administrator said in almost inaudible tone.

"Why do I say this? Do you know the first time your luck played a role in your climb of the tower? Let me tell you. You were lucky to even be chosen by Sir Headon out of the billions of residents in the tower to climb it. If all of you were chosen because of your strength, then none of you were supposed to fail. But how many of you are left now? It is your luck that gives you the right to be here. I hope you get that."

Fang Yuan listened to what to what she said with an attentive expression but inwardly scoffed at what she said. Though luck played a role in why they were all there. Luck was just less important factor. If one didn't have have the sufficient power to cease the benefits their luck brought them, then what was the essence of that luck. Besides it wasn't Headon that chose him to climb, he opened the gates and climbed of his other accord.

Fang Yuan then sighed slightly. 'Why am I even worrrying myself? I am letting her get to me. I have my own ideals, she has hers. Let her live by hers, I shall live by mine. After all, what I pursue is Eternal Life. In front of absolute power, everything else is nothing.'

"Now for the bad news. There were two test areas for your batch of regulars. Each test area had 400 regulars each, a total of 800 regulars. From each test area, there are supposed to be eight teams with each team having three regulars. That means from the two test areas, there are supposed to be 16 teams. Now I think the smart ones amongst your have already figured out the bad news. For those of you who haven't, here is basically what I am saying. There is going to be culling of your numbers. But here is the catch. The four teams with three members will not partake in this culling, they are exempted. So the four teams with three members, leave. Go to the room on your left outside the garden. As for the rest of you, time to test your luck. Time for the luck test."

Fang Yuan's team and three other teams then left went to the waiting room after they left the garden.

In the room were eight other teams. Some of the regulars were standing, others were on a sofa in the room or on the carpeted floor.

As soon as Fang Yuan's team and the three other team entered, most of the regulars turned to looked at them.

[ABOUT 5 MINUTES LATER]

The four other teams also entered with the test administrator behind them.

"Now, let me introduce myself. As you are already aware, I am a test administrator but since we will be playing a game, I will be a game administrator. I am Tu Perie Chloe. I am a low level ranker with the most obvious position for a member of the Tu Perie Family."

"Now for those who would want to participate in the crown game, follow me as we go to the game play location."

She then turned around and left.

Not surprisingly, all the teams followed her.

***

In the large arena stood four teams of regulars. In the middle of the arena was a gold throne.

The crown game had officially begun and the rules of the game had already been explained but the teams participating in the first round had not yet begun to fight but cautiously looking at each other.

The crown game was simple but complex. The goal of the crown game is to both take and keep the crown for the still the end of the game.

To take the crown implies a team member must wear the crown and sit on the throne whiles keeping the crown implied that team member must maintain physical contact with both the crown and the throne. Also, the team member who actually takes the crown and sits on the throne cannot leave the throne for any reason whatsoever till the end of the game. If at any point in time during the game, that team member loses possession of the crown or comes off the throne before the game ends, that team loses the game and not just the round.

The game lasted for 5 rounds and each round lasts for either 10 minutes or until someone steals the crown. In fact, the team in possession of the crown at the end of the 5th round is the winner.

In each round, at most 5 teams can participate. The right to participate is determined by pushing a buzzer in their rooms. The team that pushes the buzzer first, gets to partake in that round. If there is a tie at buzzer pushing, the teams that participated in more rounds in the past gets to participate again. The team that has possession of the crown automatically get to participate.

At any time during one of the rounds teams can forfeit the game by going back into their rooms but are eligible to participate in the next rounds again.

****

In a small room directly connected to the huge arena where the crown game was ongoing were Fang Yuan, Igor and their mute female teammate.

Fang Yuan was sitting with his back leaning against the wall and eyes staring at the ceiling. Similarly, the mute girl was also sitting opposite Fang Yuan but her eyes were staring at the floor. Igor was standing wiht his back towards them looking at the four teams in the arena through the bar door. They were not participating in the first round since that would put them at a clear disadvantage.

"How about we discuss our plan for the crown game? You know, I would hate to loss." Igor said as he turned around.

"So, how about we link our pockets and form a private chat group and communicate through text?"

"I got no problem." Fang Yuan said as he looked at him.

For their mute teammate, it was necessary. Only God knew how long there were going to be with her. And a private chat group could facilitate secret conversations.

The girl also nodded her head in agreement.

"Great!! So what shall be the name of our group?" Igor asked with his arms crossed and a deep frown on his face.

He seemed to be thinking very hard about the group's name.

A few moments later, he seemed to have suddenly realized something as he took a small sheet of paper from a very small notebook and a pencil he took from his back pocket and handed it to the mute teammate saying with a friendly smile: "Write any suggestion of yours on the sheet."

The mute girl took the sheet and pen from him with suspicion and vigilance. That wasn't surprising since they were not in so much of a great relationship.

After almost a minute, Fang Yuan gave a suggestion: "How about Love Alliance."