Round 2: The Labyrinth Trial.
Team 10 stood still, facing a massive steel door embedded in a concrete wall. Cold mist hissed from the seams. Red lights blinked.
A voice crackled from a speaker above:
"You have 30 minutes. Retrieve the Core Crystal and escape. Traps await. Teamwork is your only weapon."
The steel doors groaned open.
Darkness.
They entered without a word.
The door slammed shut behind them.
A faint digital timer lit up on the wall.
00:00:01
The countdown had begun.
Challenge 1: The Riddle Gate
The tunnel opened into a narrow chamber. Stone walls. A large metallic gate blocked their path, with a glowing inscription above it:
"I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. I have no body, but I come alive with wind. What am I?"
Tanya read it aloud, frowning. Shrishti squinted at it. Arnav crossed his arms. Nakul just looked lost.
"Thunder?" someone guessed. Wrong.
Beep. A red light blinked.
Time was slipping.
Rivet stepped forward slowly. The words echoed in his mind… just like the ones from his dreams.
He whispered, "Echo."
Click.
The gate creaked and opened.
The others stared at him.
"You read riddles or something?" Shrishti asked, impressed.
"Something like that," Rivet muttered, moving forward.
Challenge 2: Pressure Tiles
A long corridor stretched ahead, covered in black-and-silver tiles.
A warning above:
"Only the correct path will keep you whole."
Shrishti, ever confident, stepped forward.
BZZZT!
A small electric shock threw her back. Lights flashed red. A siren wailed.
Time Penalty: 2 Minutes.
"Damn!" she growled, rubbing her arm.
Tanya panicked. "We don't have time for this! We'll lose!"
Rivet stared at the floor. The tiles weren't random. They were... patterned.
But his heart was racing. His breath got shallow.
What if we fail? What if they blame me? What if I lead them wrong?
He froze.
A voice—deep, familiar—rose within him:
"Quiet your mind, child… and proceed in peace."
His eyes widened. His breath steadied.
Everything slowed down.
He looked again.
Third tile. Sixth. Tenth.
Odd multiples.
He took a step. Then another. Then turned back.
"Follow me. Exactly where I step."
Nakul hesitated, but followed. Then the others.
Tile by tile—they made it across.
No sirens.
The timer blinked:
00:22:19
Challenge 3: The Core Crystal
A circular chamber. In the center, floating mid-air, was a glowing blue crystal—encased in thin laser beams moving in slow, deadly patterns.
One wrong move, and they'd be disqualified.
Arnav muttered, "No way through…"
Tanya pointed. "Look—mirror shard."
Rivet stared at the lasers. Then at the ceiling. He remembered his dream again—the waterfall, the light thread, the shimmer...
He picked up the shard, reflected the light, tracked the beam's rhythm.
Only one gap. Only one angle.
"We need a thread," he said urgently.
Tanya blinked, pulled out her shoelace, and handed it to him.
Rivet tied a tiny loop. Measured the drop. His hands were steady now.
He flicked it.
Click.
The crystal detached, hovered... then landed softly in his hand.
No alarm.
Timer:
00:29:44
The Exit
They sprinted toward the door at the other end.
It opened as the timer hit 00:30:00.
They were out.
Teachers watching from the observation room whispered:
"He was just an average student..."
"But his IQ level... this is not normal."
Shrishti high-fived Rivet. Tanya just nodded in silent approval. Even Arnav patted his shoulder once.
But Rivet… was elsewhere in his mind.
The flame mark from the first trial? It flickered again, faintly, in his palm.
And in the distance, he saw Keshav watching.
Silent. Proud.
But not everyone was smiling.
Elsewhere…
Inside another simulation zone—Team 5 stood arguing.
"Why'd you go left?! I said RIGHT!"
"You weren't even listening!"
It was the bullies. Veer, their leader, shoved one of his teammates.
Their timer blinked red.
Disqualified.
No teamwork. No coordination. Just ego.
They stepped out, faces grim, watching Rivet and his team from afar.
One of them muttered, "This isn't over."
Later that day...
As Team 10 rested near the benches, Rivet sat alone, staring at his palm.
Shrishti came over. "You okay?"
He nodded. "Yeah. Just… thinking."
He was thinking about the voice he had heard when he was panicking. Now, he was deeply troubled by these voices and dreams, and all he wanted was to understand what was happening to him.
To be continued…