When Hastin opened his eyes, he saw him standing in a dilapidated building. He walked forward and opened a room that was filled with corpses. He ignored that and moved further, he reached the fountain and looked up. There was a rotten corpse stuck to a tree while something from its body poured down the fountain drop by drop.
He heard some noise nearby and walked towards that direction. He saw three kids arguing and even talking about his new novel. He had never heard someone talk about this novel and neither received any comments or feedback from his readers. As this was his first time, meeting a real reader, he felt excited unknowingly.
"I still think that it was all due to the novel we were reading… Don't you think, if others from our class were also kidnapped, then why it's only us here? Why not the people who did not read the novel were also put together along with us?" Upton asked.
"Please do not tell me this is a coincidence as well…" Ura said.
"I don't know. I don't know anything… I am too confused and I do not want to believe that such a thing happened to me… All I want to do is leave this horrible place and go home…" Adan said while holding his head in hand.
He still could not come out of what he saw! At first, he was worried that it might be Zinna who was hanging on that tree. He felt guilty for not going up with her. But when he heard from Ura that a monstrous animal pulled her up, he considered himself lucky to escape that encounter. But now he was not sure it was actually its luck or the indication of more disastrous events to occur.
"If the app really brought us into this place, does that mean we will all die like the first five?" Upton asked.
"But from the first five, didn't the app send one lady to serve the author? Do you think even this time, someone among us will be chosen?" Adan asked.
"Doesn't that mean the remaining will be killed?" Upton asked.
"Did you even read the story properly or skipped a few chapters?" Ura asked.
"I did fast read the story until now… So I might have skipped some.." Upton said.
"I have read only the first two chapters, so far," Adan said.
"So no one read the complete story till now? Do you know even though the first five was sent to the abandoned warehouse, the first victim was killed by Slayer as he tried to escape before the author even started to write the outline for the novel?"
"Yes, we read that in the first chapter… So what are you trying to imply?" Adan asked as fear crawled near him and in reality, Murinus crept and coiled his legs.
Ura and Upton shivered and moved back after looking at that creature. Adan looked down and kicked his legs trying to get rid of the giant snake inching near him.
Hastin stopped and wondered, 'he was just following these kids and listening to them talk. Suddenly he imagined a scene after looking at this creepy location and environment. He thought if Murinus crawled near them then how would they react? Just as he visualized, Murinus appeared…"
What is happening? How did Murinus appear here? What did he actually do?
"No no...Is it like if I think about something then it would happen to them?" Hastin wondered.
"Runaway, run away from there..." He shouted.
They started to run away faster to escape from the giant snake. Murinus chased them and he Ran behind Murinus. They ran inside a room and closed the door. Murinus lingered around and tried to break the door. Then Hastin wished that the snake would go away. Murinus suddenly vanished from his view. He firmly believed now that whatever he imagine, it was actually happening in real life.
At that time a message appeared,
'The implementation is successful and the result came positive after the initial testing phase. The author is able to control the creatures and execute the terror on the victims. You will be notified of the progress whenever a new update is found.'
"What was that message that appeared on my head? How did the app do it? Is this the place that was selected for the next five and did I meet them just now? I made them run for their lives because of my stupid envisage?" He looked around and realized what he thought was actually a possibility.
He said, "Then, isn't it, his chance to help them all escape? But I saw only three people, so where are the remaining two?"
He was then taken to a floor above and saw Aaron lying down the stairs with a bleeding head. Aaron slowly woke up and looked around. At first, he did not understand where he was! Then it struck him that he was actually trying to find Zinna, but fell down the stairs and fainted.
He wiped his forehead and his hand became red.
"Ouch! It hurts…"
"I am sorry, I don't know how you fell down but it was not because of me! I did not think for you to fall down. so yours might just be an accident. Maybe when you tried to climb down the stairs, you might have fallen down," Hastin said.
Aaron looked down and saw his classmates were not near the fountain anymore. He walked up the stairs and decided to check on the other floors to find Zinna, before going down to catch up with his other classmates.
"Hi, I am Hastin. What is your name?" Hastin asked while walking next to him.
Aaron just walked forward and did not respond to him. He then stopped and walked int the direction where Hastin was standing. Hastin smiled and said,
"I am sorry, that you all were in this situation because of me. I will try to help you all escape…"
'Code: red Warning: Error: The author is moving out of track from his designated task. System failure is detected! Error: Error'
Hastin groaned in pain and the Asylum disappeared from his eyes. When he opened his eyes once again, he saw his body was kept inside the server and it was connected to a system. Then he realized that only his visuals were directed to the asylum. So no one actually saw or hear him when he spoke to them. There were many mini-robots, running around busily while trying to stop the error message.
"Where am I?" Hastin woke up from his unconscious state and asked.
He looked around and saw the mini-robots moving around in an orderly way. He tried to pick one but the robot was extremely faster than him and escaped from his grasp.
"What is this place? Where am I?" Hastin shouted.
'You are inside the server, Quietus. Can't you see you have made my Robots busy due to your stupidity! This whole creation cost the creator his life and he lost his body. Don't you think you have to be slightly responsible and appreciate his creations and his work; instead of causing us trouble all the time!' a voice spoke.
"Are you the app? I don't care about your stupid creator or his creations. Let me go now! I will uninstall the app from my mobile. I don't need any ideas from you, let go of me and also let go of those kids. They are young and they still have many years of life to live. You cannot randomly pick people and send your monstrous creatures to kill them all." Hastin shouted hysterically.
'Quietus, You need to relax first. As per our agreement, you still have five more months left. Until then, I hope you will be happy with our collaboration. And even if you are not, there is no other way left for you! Cooperate with us, so you can be happy with the results you achieve while we met our desired goals. It is a win-win for both of us.'
Hastin stumped and looked at the green, white and red lines flowing on the floor. He walked around to analyze the situation he was in. He saw a few creatures roaming freely but after looking at him, they all charged towards him with hungry eyes.
Hastin started to run as he chased by them all. The mini-robots stood in one line and stopped them. Then they guided them to their particular positions and connected them with the server.
'Quietus you are not supposed to roam around freely. This is not your mansion and until we solve all the issues here, you will be sent back to your mansion. I hope you had a marvelous trip to the Asylum and do expect many more trips in the future for the development of the story.'
Hastin was then transported back to his bedroom before he could even say anything. He came out of the phone and fell down on his back. Looking at his broken phone, he got an idea. He walked towards the laptop and ordered a new phone and a laptop.
After searching around the house he did not find Akemi or Nick in the mansion. He walked towards the basement and pulled out the cables connected to the server. Troodon, Slayer, and Tegus were pulled inside the server before it went out of power. He ran towards the gate and changed the passcode, so no one could enter his mansion.