15: The Game Starts NOW 4

Raia looked at the surroundings while waiting for further instructions. It's been five minutes since he went inside this room but until now, he can't think of anything because of his nervousness. His hands are shaking while his eyes can't stop looking around the room. 

The walls are covered white while there are some cabinets at the side. There are some maps and other books, seems like props for Raia. After several minutes, he heard something from the other side of the room. He was sitting in front of the transparent glass. In this way, he could see whoever is on the other side of the room. 

A guy, probably 5'3 in height came over while simply looking around the room. He has this muscular body that, no doubt, one of his assets to attract girls. Raia felt insecure for a second. He looked like a lost kitten for a second until he met Raia's eyes. He slightly bowed down and smiled a bit. 

Raia's eyebrows furrowed as he was not familiar with this guy. 

"As far as I know, he's a friend of Rio, the one who likes to go to the gymnasium," he said to himself as he watched Wrenn sit in front of him. 

They now faced each other while staring blankly at front. After a second, both their pamphlets shine that catch their attention. 

"Ehem, ehem!" someone spoke from the speaker. 

"Raia Yuan and Wren Vincen...Team E and H are both in your hands..." the guy from the speaker said while both of them are putting headphones on their ears. 

They looked at each other. They read the next instruction in the pamphlet. They need to wear headphones while looking at the front. The questions for the average round are mathematical equations and they need to answer it as fast as they can. The first one to answer will have the bloody cookie. And the first one to get five cookies will be the winner. 

As per instruction, they could forfeit their position and call for help from their partner. But still, calling for help is out of Raia's option. He needs to win this and become the last man standing. 

He looked at Wrenn but he didn't seem to care who would win this game. He just looked at the screen in front of him. 

"Why is he so relaxed?" Raia asked himself while looking at Wrenn. And out of the sudden, the guy looked at him and smiled slightly. 

A few moments later, the lights in the room they were in, suddenly turned red. At the same time, the question appeared on the screen in front of the two of them. Both of them have serious expressions on their faces.

They know that once they don't pass this level, they won't be able to move up any further and there's no hope in this exam.

Raia immediately thought about the question when he saw it.

Solve the multi-step equation for x. 

"Fuck! What am I supposed to do now? I don't even have any extra sheets to solve this one." Raia said to himself while desperately looking at the screen. 

He mentally computes the equation. 

“So basically, this doesn't need much more complicated formulas as I only need to get the value of x. In the normal schools, this is taught early highschool days and I won’t bother to compute something like this mentally,” 

He starts looking intently at the given equation. 

“If only I could remove the 3 through parenthesis, the same thing as negative 5, four and negative 6. In this way, I could easily collect like terms. Then calculate their sum. And move this here… and here…”

“Negative six x plus sixteen plus two x then equals to four… wait, where am I?”

He felt confused sometimes but still pursued to find the needed value. 

Unyielding concentration could be seen into his face. Even the guy behind the monitor can't stop smiling. It's as if he's expecting this. He knows how Raia thinks. After examining the datas and files he has on this class, he learned how Raia loves challenging things. He loves solving mysteries. Though it's not his favorite, he also excels in mathematics. 

He put the easiest questions yet challenging ones in Raia's room. He wants to let Raia win this to achieve his goal. 

On the other hand, Raia, who finally finished answering the questions mentally looked at Wrenn with an exhausted look. 

But to his surprise, Wrenn isn't even looking at the screen but only at his eyes. He tried to raise his eyebrows to distract him, as if saying " what?". But still, Wrenn didn't budge as if he's not distracted at all. 

He slowly moved his fingers crawling towards the screen to type his answer, while still not cutting eye contact with Wrenn. 

Until he pressed the submit button. The light turned green, saying that the answer 3 that he gave was correct. Raia felt happy and smiled then he glanced at Wrenn. 

Wrenn still has this uninterested look on his face. 

"What the hell is his problem? He's not good at math, I guess?" Raia said to himself. Well, it's normal for people not to waste their time and effort doing something that they know they can't. He can't blame Wrenn for not trying to solve  such an equation. 

After a second, the lights turned red again, signalling the second question.  Raia was still focused while looking at the questions. But in this one, there is an illustration shown. 

"Evaluate the circuit shown and determine the capacitance and then the charge and voltage across each capacitor,"

“If I'm not mistaken this equation involves the resistance and the voltage, so the formula should be…” he slightly thought about it. 

After a minute, he smiled a bit when he analyzed the problem. Since this needs a scientific formula, which he is not good at... especially at physics, he's much slower than the first question. 

It took him a second after he started when the room finally lightened up and turned green. To his shock, he looked at Wrenn but that guy was just looking at the screen, blankly staring at it. 

What the hell?

Raia can't believe what he saw. He didn't even notice him solving like what he did, but he managed to answer the question much faster than him.

Then after a second, Wrenn looked at him and smiled slightly. 

"Did he just smirk at me?" Raia misunderstood the way he smiled. It's as if he was mocking him. Raia suddenly felt annoyed. 

He looked at the screen again to look for the third question. For now, they both hold the same number of bloody cookies. But he can't afford to let him get the next one. That's why Raia analyzed the next question as fast as he could. 

But this time, the question also involves the formula used in physics. Raia clicked his tongue as he saw the question. He looked at Wrenn but as usual, he was a lowkey genius, analyzing the problem mentally. He didn't expect this from Wrenn. Especially after 30 minutes of their game. 

Wrenn already had 3 cookies while he still got one. He already have two cookies ahead of him - this makes him annoyed not just in himself but also at Wrenn who is pretending to be dumb. 

Raia felt dumb for the first time in his life. He blamed himself for underestimating Wrenn. Meanwhile, Wrenn who is starting to notice the sharp gaze of Raia towards him. He couldn't help himself but to lower his head. 

He can't even look at Raia because of his gaze. It seems like he did something wrong, where in fact, he's just answering the questions.

"What's his problem? If he wants to have more bloody cookies, why don't he just answer the questions faster than I do?" he said to himself and proceeded to the next question. 

Meanwhile, behind the monitor, a pair of eyes kept looking at the screen. He's currently watching the battle between Raia and Wrenn. He's gritting his teeth not  because he's disappointed by Raia, it's just, Wrenn did something unexpected. It's beyond his imagination that Wrenn will surpass his expectations. 

He looked at the other screen and saw the other players doing their activities. It's been an hour since they went inside the room, though every player has a different time of when they started, most of them are still in the middle half of the game. 

Others already played their sacrificial friend, just like Dae Ming who sought help from his brother Chan, even if it cost him defeat. 

The pairings of the average level comes like this;

Team A: Amelia and June

Team B: Chan and Dae Ming

Team C: Rio and Tobi

Team D: Ryota and Eva

Team E: Wrenn and Ivy

Team F: Everett and Emma

Team G: Phill and Jing

Team H: Raia and Osamu

Team A with June versus Emma of Team F.

Team B with Dae vs. Ryota of Team D. 

Phill of Team G versus Rio of  Team C. 

And Raia of Team H and Wrenn of Team E. 

This pairing of the game was well calculated by Mr. Rayven, expecting Raia to win every level as a piece of cake. But it seems, pairing him with Wrenn is a miscalculation. If this goes on, he might get eliminated at this early stage. 

Mr. Rayven clicked his tongue while watching the monitor. Wrenn already has four cookies while Raia has 3 cookies. But it's still not enough. He needs to get at least two more cookies to get ahead of Wrenn which is very impossible if he can't answer the next question faster than Wrenn. 

Dae Ming on the other hand, went out of the door disappointed. He knew how Chan, his brother, wanted to win this activity and he knew from the start that he had no chance against Ryota. That's why he chose to forfeit and give the chance to Chan Ming. While in the third room, Team G which was represented by Phill saw a clear defeat against  Rio. Even from the start, he knew he got no chance. Neither he or his partner, Jing, are good at math, so calling for the sacrificial friend won't even help. 

And just like Team G, June could also see a clear defeat against Emma. He didn't expect that she's this good. Especially in scientific equations. 

"Are you underestimating me?" Emma asked him

"A little bit," 

"Then you'll regret underestimating someone like me,"

June sighed as he suddenly felt regretful after realizing that he woke up the monster hell out of her. After she said that to him, he didn't get any chance to answer the question faster than her. He was totally defeated after getting only one cookie while Emma got five in two hours of their game. 

He looked at her, exhausted. After she got four cookies, June stopped thinking anymore and let her win in the end. It's useless anyways. She's already three cookies ahead of him, so what's the point?

Emma smirked at him then flipped her hair before she looked away and walked towards the door. June sighed and bowed his head down. 

"Darn it! Why do I feel like I fight against a monster," he said to himself. 

Meanwhile, those who failed the easy level stayed at the Murray Building. They are monitoring the wins and defeats using the monitor at front. 

Aki and Kanaye looked at the screen while waiting for the result. The screen only shows the result but not the actual game inside the room. But since they don't see anything yet, it means the game is still on play. 

"Hmm...I thought Amelia would play this round?" Aki asked Kanaye. 

"I don't know, maybe they change their plans?" He answered. They know that the average level will be about mathematical equations and knowing Amelia, she is much more capable than June. 

This makes them wonder why June pictures were appearing at the screen as the representative of Team A. 

Aki sighed. 

"Do you think he'll be okay? I mean... do you think they will survive this level?" Aki asked him again. Kanaye looked at her. He was enchanted by how effortlessly she made herself amazing. But before he could drool over her, he looked at the monitor again. 

Honestly, he believes in June. And knowing that he will be against Emma, then it might be a piece of cake for him. That's what he thought. 

Not until the screen flashed showing the result of the game. 

The first match to finish was Team A vs. F.

"Here's the result!!OMG! Did they win? Did they?" Aki excitedly said while waiting for the screen to show the result. 

Team A vs. Team F. 

Team F WINS. 

Emma Sutton- 5 cookies.

June  Smith -1 cookies. 

Aki and Kanaye seemed like frozen meat in the refrigerator when they heard the result. Even the other students around didn't expect the results and the murmuring could be heard around. 

Kanaye lowered his head, felt embarrassed when he saw everyone looking at them. Well, they are his friends after all. 

"Seriously June? One cookie?!" he said to himself, unbelievably.

June bowed down at Amelia when he walked towards her. He felt embarrassed for the first time of his life. Amelia, who seemed disappointed, looked away and walked towards the door, leaving the venue without a single word.