"Apparently we're all in the Nexus Corporation as part of a Testing group."
The invaluable information that the teenager voiced out shocked the group. How did he know about this place? Is he saying the truth? Should we trust him? The group started running their minds through countless questions.
After a few seconds, someone finally asked the simplest question out of the bunch "What?" He asked, urging for the teenager to repeat what he just stated.
"I said, we're all in the Nexus Corporation as a part of some Testing group. That Jarxen guy didn't lie to us about this Asterisk infrastructure, as well as why our luck has probably run out." He told everyone in a serious tone, making them completely speechless as they leaned in to listen for more information. Whether the teenager was saying the truth or not, it's better to have false information than no information at all. After all, one could disprove or prove if the information is true or not. Compared to not having information at all, it was slightly better. At least they'd have an indefinite grasp on the situation at hand.
"The Nexus Corporation is a mecha-company that designs war machines. Long story short, we're here to do some test runs on those machines as part of the Testing group."
*Gulp!
"Wait, how do you know that?! Are you part of this organization too?" The girl who called herself six-one-six-one fumed, her cheeks flushed red like a tomato. She accusingly pointed a finger at the teenager as she stood up.
"Call me Red. Let me sidetrack a little bit. Calling each other with our barcode names seems to be a pain, so I'll call you Curl instead of six-one-six-one; you got curly hair after all. As for my name, well, it speaks for itself." Red continued, pointing at the color of his hair. "And also, bold of you to assume that I'm part of this corporation when I casually just told you some reliable information."
"Enough about that, tell us what you know and by that, I mean everything." Curl uselessly threatened, thinking that Red was part of the organization and one of the traitors that Jarxen himself planted in the group.
Suddenly someone interrupted Curl who was throwing a random accusation.
"Are you dumb, or what?" The blond-haired guy retorted at Curl, his snide remark instantly stopped her in her tracks.
"What? Who are you calling dumb?" Curl couldn't contain her frustration any longer. "He knows something we don't, isn't it logical reasoning to harvest information out of him?"
"Relax, Curl." Red tried to calm her down. Then he looked at the blond-haired guy and pointed a finger at him. "Since we're calling names, I'll be naming you Blond, if that's okay."
The blond-haired, blue-eyed teenager nodded in response. His long blond hair kept on bothering him but he left it that way to not show most of his eye expressions.
"Wait, don't tell me?! No one noticed what Red did awhile ago? Like, when Jarxen poked him on the forehead?" Blond shot up and stared at each one in the eyes while his jaw dropped in shock. His surprised face made it all the more evident that he saw something no one else did. As to what it was, no one knew about it...
... except for Red, of course
"When Jarxen poked Red's head awhile ago, don't tell me no one saw Red's hand movements at that time?!" He confirmed. After seeing everyone's clueless expression, he finally admitted defeat and motioned for Red to explain some things.
This shifted everyone's attention back to Red.
Red reached out from his ear and held out an earpiece. "I don't know how you saw it but yes, I grabbed Jarxen's earpiece from him. Right now, they're having a briefing about us."
Red put the earpiece on him again, listening in on the conversation between Jarxen and what seemed to be the head of the place. Red heard some pretty disturbing things but he decided to keep it to himself. Instead, he told everyone the general idea of what he overheard. He didn't want to overload the group with information that would just mess with their mental well-being
"In other words, we're here to fight with the new machines they invented and keep on improving them until they're capable of killing us." Curl summarized. After hearing it a few more times, it was still hard for her to believe it.
"So, what do we do." One of the teens asked. He had a huge scar that ran on his left cheek. "You can call me Scar if that's more convenient."
"For now, we wait. Let's not rush into it. And Jarxen mustn't know anything about this earpiece." Red called out. He knew he didn't have the luxury to trust anyone in the room but he couldn't just hide the truth from everyone when their lives were at stake.
The constant clanking of gears that could be heard outside the block was the only thing that interrupted their heartbeat as they silently sat around the empty space. Some of them thought that the organization wouldn't actually kill them but this didn't ease their anxiety. The sight of the empty lodging room made them overthink and jump to a conclusion on where the previous workers ended up.
"Ahk~! " Red grunted, holding his ear.
"Jarxen finally realized that his earpiece was missing." Red blurted. He almost removed the earpiece when Jarxen shrieked in panic. "He's coming soon."
Huge tension befell the room as they dreadfully waited for the metallic doors to open. The room was probably soundproofed since they could hear their seemingly amplified heartbeats. Everyone held their breaths, awaiting the impending doom that will soon catch up to them, that is, assuming that Jarxen knew what happened.
"Hey, what's happening?" Scar shakily pointed at the testing room.
Suddenly, a panel slowly opened, revealing a huge chute that connected to the opposite end of the testing room. It was so big that a person could probably fit in it. Inside it was a conveyor belt that continuously ran towards the direction of the aforementioned room. A seemingly mysterious figure began to emerge from the dark far end of the chute.
Red and the others gulped as the silhouette became clearer and clearer. Pretty soon, the figure was brought towards the testing room via the conveyor belt.
Red and the rest stared at it for a few seconds and colors drained from their face.
That's right, the first machine that they're going to test has arrived at the testing room.