Chapter 3

The door opened with a soft, mechanical hiss, almost as if it had been waiting for us to reach it. Behind it was a spacious room—vast and empty. Unlike the sterile, narrow hallways, the room had a more natural feel. It wasn't warm, but it wasn't cold either. The walls were made of smooth stone, with faint engravings on them, running in intricate patterns that I couldn't quite decipher.

I stepped inside first, my heart hammering. The others followed, but no one made a sound. The door clicked shut behind us, and I could feel the weight of it locking into place. We were trapped.

The countdown, still ticking in the back of my mind, was now just under six minutes. 6:00:00. The low, rhythmic beat of the timer seemed to echo around the room, underscoring the tension that clung to the air.

The brown-haired man walked to the center of the room, his gaze scanning every inch of the space. "This place doesn't feel like a normal test," he muttered, almost to himself. "It feels... wrong."

I agreed. It didn't make sense. If this was some kind of survival game, why would they put us in a room like this? There were no clear instructions, no obvious traps or clues. Just an empty space with strange markings on the walls. It was disorienting, and I could feel the uncertainty creeping in.

"Well, I guess we wait," the woman said, her voice flat as she crossed her arms. "There's nothing else we can do."

I glanced at her, then at the others. They seemed just as confused as I felt. There was no indication of what we were supposed to do. It was like we had been thrown into this place, without warning, and expected to figure it out as we went along.

The young guy stood near the wall, eyes darting nervously. "What if we fail the challenge?" he asked quietly. His voice trembled, betraying the fear that was seeping into all of us.

"We don't know what the challenge is," I replied, my voice sharper than I intended. "But we have to keep moving. We can't just stand around and wait for something to happen."

The woman nodded. "Agreed. Let's stay alert, and see if we can find anything that might help."

I wanted to say something reassuring, but the truth was that I didn't feel much better than any of them. The only thing I was certain of was the countdown. The pressure to act was palpable, the urgency of the seconds ticking away making every moment feel more dangerous than the last.

I took a step forward, scanning the room. There were no doors or windows, nothing but smooth stone walls and those cryptic engravings. I reached out to touch one of the carvings, but as my fingers brushed against the stone, the ground beneath me suddenly trembled. It was barely perceptible at first, but it quickly grew stronger, as if something deep below had been disturbed.

"What the hell?" I muttered under my breath, pulling my hand away from the wall.

The tremors intensified, and the room seemed to shift. I stumbled backward as the floor beneath us cracked, splitting open to reveal a dark abyss below. The sound of stone grinding against stone echoed through the chamber as a metal platform rose up from the depths, creaking with the weight of whatever it carried.

I blinked, stunned by the sudden change. The platform wasn't small—it was large enough for all of us, and it had several compartments that appeared to be filled with supplies. Water bottles, food rations, even what looked like medical kits. But the strangest thing was the large, glowing orb in the center of the platform. It pulsed with an eerie blue light, casting strange shadows across the room.

"What is that?" the young guy whispered, his voice barely audible. His wide eyes were locked onto the glowing orb, filled with equal parts fear and awe.

The brown-haired man stepped forward cautiously, his hand hovering near the platform. "I don't know," he admitted, his voice low. "But it looks like the next part of the challenge."

I stepped closer, drawn to the strange light. The orb seemed almost... alive, humming softly under its own power. I could feel a slight pull toward it, like a magnetic force. But as I reached out to touch it, the platform suddenly jerked, and a loud mechanical noise filled the room. The orb's light flickered, and for a moment, I feared the entire thing might collapse.

The voice from earlier, that disembodied, cold voice, echoed through the room once again. "Challenge 2: Retrieval."

The words sent a chill down my spine. "Retrieval?" I whispered, looking around at the others.

The woman's eyes widened. "What does that mean? Retrieve what?"

I didn't have an answer. But the sound of something shifting, coming from deep within the platform, told me we didn't have much time to figure it out. I stepped back, my gaze still fixed on the orb.

Suddenly, the platform began to rise, lifting us higher into the air. It was slow at first, but it picked up speed. The walls of the room blurred as we ascended, and soon we were surrounded by darkness. The air felt colder, the oppressive weight of uncertainty pressing down on me harder than ever.

"What now?" the brown-haired man asked, his voice barely audible over the sound of the platform's movement. "What are we supposed to retrieve?"

I had no idea, but my instincts told me that whatever it was, it was something important. Something that could mean the difference between life and death. And as the countdown continued, ticking away relentlessly, I could feel the pressure mounting.

5:30:00.

Time was running out.