A New Friend

It had been more than five minutes since Steven had promised Elina and Alexi. They both looked awkward and confused in the tree house.

Of course, being in a strange place they didn't know at all made them unable to act.

Both looked at each other, hoping they could communicate without making a sound.

The silence grew to the point where they seemed to be holding their breath.

Click

The door of the tree house opened just like that

At the same time, they both looked towards the source of the sound to witness the arrival of Steven and the girl next to him.

"Hi, everyone? Are you Steven's new friends? I'm Ellie," Ellie said very friendly and too happy to greet Elina and Alexi.

Both Elina and Alexi reflexively accepted Ellie's handshake.

To be honest, they both wanted to ask, "Who is this new girl? It's just that they both seemed reluctant to let their thoughts out and wanted to wait until Steven explained everything.

"Forgive my friend, she's just like that," Steven said, finally noticing Alexi and Elina's obvious confusion.

Neither Elina nor Alexi had any objections, after all, wasn't it in a place of strangers that they didn't realize that they should have a lot of friends so that they could adapt quickly to being there?

Even Alexi wasn't sure if the challenges in the Zone would be easier or not. No one can predict that!

"Does anyone know where you are?"

Spontaneously Alexi and Elina shook their heads, because it was true that neither of them knew anything about this new Zone.

The only thing they knew about the truth of the zone they were currently in was that it was different from the zone they had traveled through before.

There was no moving time, no number of survivors they could monitor, and many other things that were clearly different.

"Is this a Subzone?" asked Elina cautiously to Ellie and also to Steven, while explaining why she thought the universe had a subzones.

Ellie nodded her head slowly as she digested Elina's words before looking at Steven as if to ask him to explain in detail.

A clear click sounded as Steven pressed a button on a small remote control that had been in the boy's hands for some time.

The previously non-existent TV screen slowly descended from between the bulkheads of the tree house.

[Hello Boss]

"Woah!" squealed Alexi, quite surprised to find something he never thought would be there.

Ellie seemed to chuckle at Alexi's surprise.

"Don't look at his appearance, he is indeed the smartest among us, and that includes his skills," Ellie said trying to set him straight.

Shortly after, a presentation of the pictures in front of them explained the place they were currently in, as well as an explanation of the assumption about Elina's previous statement that was critical.

It took ten minutes for the presentation to explain some of the scope of what Steven had recently discovered while in the Border Zone.

"How long have you been in the Zone? Why have you come to so many conclusions?"

Steven gave a soft sigh to Alexi - the young man who had just asked him the question.

"I don't know, it's just that as far as I've been here, this Border Zone is the safest, it seems that this zone was deliberately created so that the survivors would have a breath over the zone that 'They' created in such a way."

"They?" asked Elina frowning.

Ellie and Steven nodded their heads at the same time.

"Do you ever think that we're trapped in here?"

"Of course!" shouted Alexi, who passionately expressed his opinion, because there was no way that he could suddenly be there, especially since he was sure that he had been in his room the last time.

But what he couldn't remember was that he was suddenly in Zone 1!

What exactly had brought him there?

It was a mystery to every survivor who was there.

"So we conclude that there is a 'They' who made this game."

Alexi's heart was beating fast, he felt that he was really far away from the colleagues he had met.

If before he felt a few steps behind Elina, now he felt even further away, because the existence of Ellie and Steven was far ahead of him.

"Ah, looks like there's one more fact you need to add," Elina said, realizing that there was one more clue Steven hadn't included in his explanation.

Steven frowned in confusion. He had written down everything he had investigated so far. So what was left out?

"The number of qualifying survivors in each zone has been determined."

It took some time for Steven to agree because he hadn't been paying attention.

"Reason?"

Elina explained that she had repeated the two zones twice, and in the second zone she had just noticed that the number of survivors who qualified for the next zone was the same.

"How many survivors made it to Zone 2 last time?" asked Steven finally.

"Sixty-two."

Ellie and Steven were surprised. They had almost missed that fact.

'Damn it! That means they're dialing!'

A feeling of anger and emotion stirred in Steven's heart as he realized the fact that he had missed.

He really didn't think that everything was already on 'their' count.

During the silence that followed, with all four lost in their own thoughts, the sound of a knock on the door suddenly broke the silence.

"It's full."

Steven turned his eyes lazily. The girl who had argued with him was now at the door with a man he didn't recognize.

Fey pulled Gerald's hand, who was still standing in his position, staring confusedly at the new people he had met.

It was as if Gerald wanted to disappear for a moment, to get away from the people in front of him.

Why was he meeting so many people in one day?

His peace of the last few times seemed to have vanished in an instant.

"Close the door," Steven snorted coldly at Fey.

Fey lazily closed the door of the tree house Steven was referring to.

Ellie clumsily tried to hold on to Fey. She realized that Fey's aura was not good at the moment, considering that Fey and Steven's relationship had broken up for no reason.

"Sorry, I met him by accident, anyway he said there was a new person, so I ended up here," Ellie said in a whisper, explaining to Fey.

Fey rolled her eyes lazily. She could not understand Ellie, who was so happy to meet new people who might not be able to help her with her mission.

More precisely, the mission that Ellie had revealed to Fey some time ago.

"You guys are a team?" asked Alexi, who finally tried to speak up to get the attention of the people present.

Fey's shrug was light, while Gerald nodded his head slightly in confusion and looked at Ellie as if asking for help.

"They're my friends here too," Ellie said, finally straightening up.

Alexi nodded his head as he introduced himself to Fey and Gerald.

[Mission]

Mission: Get a new weapon!

Reward: Earn 3000 points

A new mission appeared on Alexi's notification.

"There seems to be a new mission notification for me."

"So you're the new one here."

Those were the words that came from Steven's lips after he noticed and believed the notification that appeared on Alexi.

Alexi nodded his head while scratching his neck, which was not itching.

'Ugh, looks like I'm way behind.'

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