An Opening

"Looks like someone came here before us.." Sandra said.

"Looks like it. And not to mention they've set up a camp already." Jayson added.

They reached the port and found a group of people under a tent and others guarding the place around. Their bus stopped in front of 4 people holding their guns pointed at the entrance.

"Where are you from? Who are you?!" a guard shouted, ready to fire.

"Guards, huh? Pretty clever.." Jayson whispered.

The door opened and Jayson went down first to talk to the guards on duty.

"It's me, Jayson Smart. I'm glad you're already here." He said to the guard. "We mean no harm.."

"Well, well, well, if it is not the mighty Jayson Smart..." someone pushed himself in the middle of the conversation and stared with a foul eye at Jayson. "I thought you people have died on the way here."

"Too bad we've managed to come here safe, Mike," Jayson replied with a piercing eye. "Sorry to turn your expectations down.."

"Ma..ma.. It's not the time we fight each other..." Sandra said to ease the commotion. "We're glad you people are safe." She looked at Mike and he backed down.

"Well, we're stronger than you think we are," Mike replied coldly.

"So, what's your situation here?" Sandra asked. She knew nothing will come with their conversation if she will let Jayson talk to Mike more and take care of things. "I need to be the mediator." She thought. "Or else.."

"We brought everything inside the tent. Come this way." Mike turned around and led the group inside their camp.

They saw the sad reality of the other participants inside the campsite. A few tents were assigned to take care of the wounded and it seemed to have patients tended by 2 people.

"Did all of them suffer from 'that' attack?" Jayson started to ask.

"Yeah. When the interference started, most of them fell and became helpless. We still don't know how to deal with it though." Mike replied. "Do you have any idea?"

"And you're asking.." Alex commented.

"That can't be helped, Alexy.." Mike grinned at him. "Aquarius did not dwell in these kinds of manner.."

"Orion doesn't have any thoughts of it yet as well. It was not part of our briefing." Jayson replied.

"Briefing, huh?" Mike sarcastically said. "So you're admitting you've known about this incident before it even started? Talk about rude and selfish.."

"We're just warned of the instances. None of this stuff was introduced to us."

"Save your explanation later, Jayson.." Mike turned around and walk the fort. "Let everyone hear what you have to say..."

"Ne, how many people do you have here?" Sandra asked, trying to break the ice. She knew they have done something wrong, they are just following orders. But the mere fact that they kept a crucial secret, she can't manage where to start to feel guilty.

"A group of 16 and a few refugees from Deimos,.. they have barely escaped their route," Mike replied. "...but only 10, including me, that 2 nursing the wounded and those guards we stationed on that post remained capable of moving."

"That brought us in a pinch, huh.." Jayson said.

"You don't have to say it. Those from Deimos have gone through hell, I have heard that some of their friends remained trapped in there.." Mike replied.

"Trapped? Can we still save them?" Sandra said.

"I guess not. They said they're on the brink of death when they left them. And besides, it's too risky to go there just to save a few people."

"They have lives, Mike. How dare you insult them?!" Sandra raised her voice.

"Let's be practical here," Mike replied. "We can't lose more hands unless we wanted to face death right away."

"He's right, Sandra," Jayson said. "We can't rush there without a plan. That's why we came here to have a proper discussion."

"But, Jay..." she said.

"Then we can discuss everything here." Mike opened the tent and familiar faces came to view.

"Jay?" Andra said.

"Jays--son!! Sandra! Alex!" Andi cried and ran to their embrace.

Being shocked at Andi's commotion, Sandra kicked him in the gut which made him roll on the floor.

"That's rude, Sandra.." Andi said.

"It's your fault. Well, I'm happy to see you are all fine, guys.." Sandra said.

"Us as well," Tori replied. "How have you been?"

"Many terrible things happened. De, what happened to your end?"

"Dangerous," Andra said. "If not because of Tori, we're still stuck in a garbage bin."

"A garbage bin?"

"Yeah.."

"Can you tell us the details?"

"Yeah..." Tori said. "Apparently, Yuri, ahh.." she looked in Yuri's way and started to jumble her words.

"Go on, Tori. Let's hear all of it. We might find a hint on how to solve things if we exchange details from here." Yuri said.

"Hai.. well, apparently, my brother was inside our bus going to the main Scorpio facility. We took the subway going to their underground entrance when the interference happened and the bunny on the TV turned into a monstrous hacker."

"Yeah, and everyone fell into a panic," Andi said.

"And you're the first one to react, idiot," Andra commented.

"That can't be helped, Andra. I mean, he announced the details of this INFERNO game and said it was like a simple trigonometry quiz. Like what?!" Andi muttered.

"So you're more concerned about the game being a trigo quiz than it being a death game?"

"Yeah, I'm not really good at Trigo, you know.."

"Shut, up.." Andra rolled her eyes and grabbed Andi's lips to shut him up.

"Anyway, when the lights turned off, I was grabbed on the wrist and when I got to it, I saw my brother leading the way," Tori said, looking at Yuri again. She saw her brother smile.

"Of course, I'll drag my little sister to safety," Yuri said.

"Then, what happened?"

"We got out of the subway tunnel and found ourselves surrounded by enemies. A group of Androids and a bed of Scorpions swarm the whole area. We hardly found an escape route. Also, other participants started to fall to the ground, coiling in pain. Then, I realized, 'it' was happening."

"System breakdown.." Yuri said.

"Yeah, the brain started to break in the midst of the AR. Fear and doubt flooded their minds and their bodies produced a large amount of dopamine and adrenaline induced by their sudden emotions that made that thing happen..."

"What a frightening instance. Good thing you haven't suffered from that attack, Tori."

"We were trained to capacitate our brains inside the AR. That helped me overcome the sudden changes of stimuli."

"Then?"

"Yuri dragged me further inside the tunnel and when we crossed the third corner, the Androids did not come after us anymore..."

"And why was that?"

"We're guessing that they only have a certain range to cover. Coz' even the scorpions stopped at a certain line. After a few minutes, they gave up and returned to their posts, back inside the tunnel."

"So, where are Andra and Andi then?"

"When we have calmed down a bit, Yuri said that we need to bring everyone to that place, outside the line, and help the wounded. So, we split up and tell the other participants to gather everyone in that place. I used the tracking device on our watches through the code from our team ID. I looked for the safest route and brought the two outside."

"Pretty nice guess huh?"

"Well, that saved many asses out there. But perhaps not that many, we lost a lot of people, not on the spot but when we reached farther. Others started to fall, succumbing to the darkness that the AR brings."

"No wonder..." Alex said.

"Well, just so you know, we tried to contact everyone using a broadcast when your message got through our system.." Mike stared at Jayson.

"Why didn't you do it first? You're first to set the camp here in the safe zone. I know you've known that much." Jayson asked.

"Honestly, I didn't know where to begin the hacking. When I saw your message, I realized we could have used the transport vehicle to gain access to the system but our vehicle was left inside the tunnel."

"It's just a fluke. If not because of Ethan, we cannot come up with that idea."

"De, what happened to you and the others, Sandra?"

"Same with you guys, we barely escaped from the enemy," Sandra said. "Our route was uphill, going to the observatory when we got stuck near the forest and were cornered by a group of baboons."

"Baboons?"

"Yeah, as big as King Kong.."

"Ehh?! That's pretty dangerous."

"You bet.."

"We fell from a height and found ourselves in a forest once again until we reached the highway."

"So, you know about the treasure?" Yuri asked. "Did you got wind on how to get it?"

"I dunno, haven't heard of anything about it yet. But if the hacker was not lying, we just have to defeat the boss and we'll get the treasure. Apparently, we don't know what are those and how to get them from the boss." Jayson replied.

"So, two groups are not enough to build a plan huh?"

"No, we'll work something out. With our members, we have more hands to play the game."

"You didn't lose anyone?"

"Seemingly, none. Someone had built a foundation on how the group has to think." Jayson looked at Sandra and saw her blushing.

"So, what are we gonna do?"

"First, we need to summarize what we know as for the moment..."

"Hhh.."

"First, we only have 10 plus 16 people here, capable of fighting. If we lose a member from here, we won't stand a chance to gain momentum. Second, we have 5 palaces to raid and obtain their treasure. That's pretty hard if we will just rely on our number now so we have to reach the others and work with a plan. Third, it seemed that each palace has a unique enemy. Our route found Scorpions blocking the way and yours encountered Baboons. It's safe to assume that we have to face these monsters, gigantic as they are, and take their challenge to attain our goal. So, what more?"

"Basically you've summed it up."

"No, you didn't mention we don't have enough firearms to fight against the enemy."

"We raided an Arms store a while ago and hacked a few sites to gain ammos. The GM said we can use stuff, right?"

"How did you get through? I mean, the Stonehenge is blocking the way, right?"

"I know. it was hard, but I managed to get through. I used a host server, I apparently tapped into something when I started the program."

"You ride a traffic?"

"Yeah. That was proven useful."

"And, one more thing.."

"What now?"

"We have to assume that the Androids we are to face are real humans."

"Humans?"

"Yeah, the first generation were humans remotely controlled by interference through the Orion eyeglasses."

"But the ones we encountered did not wear glasses.."

"We just have to be cautious. Mr. Louige warned us about the Scorpio employees allegedly supporting the hacker in this façade."

"The employees? That's ridiculous!"

"No, we know about the infamous rule of the Scorpio. We will assume that the hacker is one of them. With the Scorpio's resources, nothing now is impossible."

"So, how do we fight them? We can't kill them in that case right?"

"I know. We have to find a way to disconnect them to the system if they really are remotely controlled by the hacker."

"What if they're not? I mean, if the hacker is one of them, there is a chance that they willingly lend a hand."

"If that's the case, we don't have a choice but to incapacitate them."

"Incapacitate, huh?" Yuri said. "You're still too soft-hearted, Jayson."

"If there is another way, we won't resort to killing. Just make them immobile, something might work out. I know help will come."

"Help, huh?" Yuri said again. "You're quite optimistic as well.."

"If we'll let ourselves succumb to darkness, we won't see light. There is nothing wrong with hoping. It keeps one person to keep moving."

"Okay... do it your way. But I will say this just in case we really have to kill someone. I'll do everything to survive. If one endangers me and my team, I'll resort to killing. And not even you, Jayson, can stop me."

"I hope that time will not come, Yuri."

"I hope so as well."

"Okay, so.." Alex said. "Where will we attack first?"

"The main building is heavily guarded and we don't have enough people to fight them so I guess..."

"I guess we're thinking the same thing.."

"Just this once, we'll create an opening..."

"We'll take the uphill battle."