Jarxen and Fujimoto quietly stayed where they were, not moving an inch as beads of sweat trickled on their faces.
"Two things struck him as odd? So, there's one for each of us?!" They both pondered in their heads. Right now, each of them was only hoping for one thing...
... that the other did a mistake worse than him.
"For one, every material we used are top-notch materials. There's no way a regular teenager can dislodge the neck of a humanoid that easily, right?"
"Sir, assuming that a person could generate a thousand newtons of force in his strike, he could possibly dislodge a humanoid's head." Fujimoto defended himself. It was clear that Cipher is trying to blame the assembly team due to the result of the humanoid-versus-Red fight awhile ago. "I've seen the live fight and that kicked exceeded fifteen meters per second. It's really surprising that someone of that built can pull off a huge burst of energy like that."
"You got a point. Let's move on." Cipher cut him off, returning to his expressionless state. "Next! We all clearly heard the beep echoing throughout the whole asterisk, right? Then why did your recruit continue fighting? You've cost us millions of dollars due to that unnecessary flashy kick."
"That's more or less my fault, Head Cipher. I was too surprised to see the humanoid in the Testing room that I forgot to tell the recruits the rules and regulations of testing."
"I see." Cipher seemed to stare right into their soul as he bore his gaze at them. Jarxen and Fujimoto knew that there's only thing waiting for them: either punishment or execution. The ironic thing was, the two of them wished for neither since punishment is just as bad as the execution itself.
"Don't worry, I'll be making a few arrangements myself. Look forward to it."
As the slight glimmer of bluish light faded in front of Fujimoto and Jarxen, the only thing they could do was prepare themselves for what's to come.
... ...
Lodging Room...
Red and the others unwillingly followed Jarxen once again just outside the Testing room. This time, they weren't alone, they were greeted by a bunch of teenagers that they've never met before. Just like them, they wore tattered clothing and a distinctive set of numbers and barcodes located at their wrists.
Red scanned their faces one by one to see if some of his memories would trigger. After all, unknown substances could trigger lost memories. However, Red still couldn't remember a thing, much to his disappointment.
"What's up with the hazmat suit, Jarxen?" Fujimoto asked while perplexingly looking at him.
"Oh, this? I just thought it would complement this white room. Don't mind it that much." Jarxen waved his hand. "In any case, do you know why we're here?"
"Isn't it obvious? To test that humanoid." Fujimoto smartly returned.
"Not that, I mean. If it's just testing that humanoid, then we could handle it just fine. Why were you also called here with your recruits?" Jarxen wondered. Everything that's happening was just as mysterious as Red dislodging the head of the humanoid a few hours ago.
"Probably to watch one of your recruits die. I'm sorry, I just don't have any other conclusions in my mind." Fujimoto immediately apologized since he knew how mad Jarxen would fly off the handle when pissed off.
"It's alright, this is probably the arrangement Head Cipher was talking about."
Red intently listened in to the conversation of Jarxen and Fujimoto. He knew that he could get new knowledge just by observing everything. Head Cipher? He's probably the leader of this corporation or something. Red assumed. Judging by their conversation, I'm guessing I attracted unnecessary attention to myself when I went and broke that humanoid's head.
He was absolutely right.
Suddenly the speakers reverberated and a cold tone was heard all throughout the room, adding chilliness to the already cold room.
... Now, for the testing... it will be decided by a... a game of... roulette, Russian Roulette to be exact. May I ask worker zero-seven-zero-three and one-five-three-one to step forward, please?
Everyone checked their barcodes and sighed in relief after concluding that they weren't called, except for Red. As Red looked at his wrists and saw the numbers zero, seven, zero, and three, he was surprised although he expected it. Realizing that he caused unnecessary trouble with the first humanoid he fought, he knew he would be sabotaged likes this. But why two people? And what's a Russian Roulette?
Meanwhile, Jarxen and Fujimoto remained silent while standing still. They wouldn't even bat an eye when Red and a muscular dark-skinned teenager stepped forward. Just like Red, the other teenager called had no idea what Russian Roulette is all about.
"I don't know what you call each other in your block but we use convenient names in ours. Since I'm a hard-hitter with my fists, everyone calls me Knuckle." The dark-skinned guy introduced himself, extending his hand towards Red.
"We happen to do that as well. I'm Red." Red shook his hand in return as he pointed his other hand to his hair. This made Knuckle nod in agreement.
Now that I notice it, all of them in their block have really muscular bodies. I mean, except for the girls but they all look strong nonetheless. Red couldn't help but think. They're either from the Assembly block or the Sorting block.
...Now, we will start the game of Russian Roulette. The voice from the speakers continued.
Suddenly, a contraption opened on the floor right in front of Red and Knuckle. The two of them took a step backward and prepared themselves for an attack, but instead, a small table went up from the contraption with a gun on top of it.
A gun?! Why a gun?! Red exclaimed in his mind. Somehow, all of the recruits knew what the gun was and no one was clueless about it. It was ironic how they all knew about a gun but never what Russian Roulette is. One way or another, their memories were conveniently limited.
... I will explain the rules of the game... The voice crackled.