"What's wrong?!"
Ray cried out.
He noticed that the lights of the room where she was in were abruptly extinguished.
"Drag her down here before she falls by herself!"
Calvin gestured towards Hugo.
Hugo's expression turned stern.
He leaped upwards and like a fisherman reeling in his prey.
He swiftly took Rose into his embrace and dragged her back down the ladder.
This took quite some time to describe, but it actually happened in just a blink of an eye.
Rose's face was as pale as a sheet of paper.
When she felt Hugo's, thick body sticking close to her own— she struggled a lot which made Hugo frown.
"Let go of me! Let go of me! What are you doing? Are you trying to take advantage of me?"
Calvin furrowed his eyebrows.
'What an ungrateful woman! If Hugo didn't secure her in time, she would've fallen backwards into the ground below.'
Calvin inwardly criticized.
But Hugo didn't say anything.
He gently placed Rose back onto the ground.
"Damn it! What was that?" Rose irritatingly said.
She had won the admiration of everyone, but because of that blunder. She felt as if she lost her face.
Arranging her clothes that were now in a mess, she glared at Hugo and said, "You go first! Since it seems like you're quite brave and powerful. You should lead the way for us!"
Hugo was speechless.
Calvin was dumbstruck.
Even he couldn't tolerate the shameless attitude of this woman anymore as he spoke up, "You're such a shameless woman... You took the liberty to lead us and even stood at the front, but now that you met with an accident, you are suddenly relegating your job to someone else? Have some dignity!"
Rose went red from the sudden scolding.
She gnashed her teeth and stared at Calvin with hatred.
"If you are that brave, then fine! You go and lead the team!"
"You took the words out of my mouth..." Calvin shook his head and didn't bother about her anymore.
He stepped forward and amidst the nervous eyes of the newbies. He scaled the ladder and landed in the room.
The cold breeze that blew from the outside world to the inside Calvin's frail body shiver, yet the light in his eyes remained as placid and as determined as ever. It was because he knew that at the very start of the final phase, one wouldn't encounter any enemies.
It would be stupid for Fivecent to give the newbies no time to explore the area and just send some enemies down their way. It just didn't make sense.
As for what Rose said earlier regarding the final phase, she was wrong.
Fivecent didn't actually care that much for the lives of the newbies who didn't manage to pass the final phase.
In other words, for Fivecent, they were even worse than cannon fodders.
At least, Fivecent would give some attention and basic care for their cannon fodders.
But for them who were still taking the final phase of the trials?
Fivecent could care less if they died.
In fact, they wanted them to die.
They wanted to prune the newbies and search for the true diamonds among the rocks.
Sending the newbies to an incredibly dangerous place did sound counterintuitive to Fivecent's goal of having more subordinates or employees, but Fivecent had no use towards people who weren't even qualified to be cannon fodders.
Furthermore, resources exclusive to the world of Las Felipinas was too scarce that Fivecent couldn't possibly afford any freeloaders.
In other words, the two trials weren't just a test of one's bravery and courage. But also, a test for all sorts of traits that one would find incredibly valuable in the world of Las Felipinas.
One of them was the trait of knowing where danger lurked.
In this Asylum where danger was everywhere, this particular trait would be tested to the limits.
"There's nothing in here... There's only me... You can come up now." Calvin peeked out of the ledge.
Upon seeing the smile on Calvin's lips, the newbies felt reassured and they soon climbed up of the ladder one by one.
Rose was the last one to climb due to her skirt, and as soon as her feet landed into the room.
A transparent window appeared in front of the newbies.
[Current Objective: Survive and Escape the Asylum.]
The transparent window hung there for a while before disappearing.
"Survive and Escape the Asylum?" Rose uttered in astonishment.
"We just came here and they want us to escape from this place already?" Ray furrowed his eyebrows.
"I-I-In that case... I think we... I think we can go down the ladder to esca-"
Boom!
Before Jane could even finish her sentence, a booming sound rang out.
Roy, Scarlett, Zahra, and Rose rushed towards the ledge, and what they saw made their eyes constrict in fear.
"Th-The scaffolding! It collapsed!" Jane cried out.
Calvin's expression turned serious.
He approached them and said, "That should be the signal to start. From now on, we are not completely safe anymore..."
"We must tread carefully, and whenever we go into another room. We must stay silent at all costs."
Calvin spoke and the room suddenly shook.
Jane who was quite close to Calvin subconsciously leaped into his chest.
Medea frowned, "An earthquake?"
But before the others could even process what was going on, electricity returned and the room wasn't pitch-black anymore.
"What is going on... We still haven't met our enemies yet, but I'm already trembling... It's as if my instincts itself is screaming. Telling me to get away from this place." Nicholas commented with a bitter smile on his face.
Calvin swept his gaze across the newbies and found that apart from Medea, Rose, Hugo, and Scarlette. Most of them were pale from fear, their knees were trembling and they looked as if they would collapse at any moment.
'Damn this is not good... If I want to reach that place and acquire that Notebook, then I need to deliver these newbies into safety as fast as possible.' Calvin inwardly pondered, 'I can't possibly have them come with me to that place! I have my own route prepared and memorized already, but I don't think that these guys can endure the fear like me...'
'What's more, since the spawn locations of the mad bastards are randomized every time. I'm not entirely sure if I'm lucky enough to get the same route arrangement as I got back then. After all, the teammates that I have right now is different from the teammates that I had when I previously came here. In other words, my plans aren't fool-proof...'
'I can't expose these guys to that kind of danger!'
'It would be too much for them to endure!'
He shook his head and approached the others.
"Guys... I think that before we get out of this room. We better plan our next moves."
Calvin spoke once more.
This time, no one opposed to what he had said.
But not because what he said made sense, but it was because they could feel that Calvin was far braver than them.
The fact that he volunteered to climb up by himself into an unfamiliar room was enough evidence for his bravery.
None of them could mock him anymore, even if he was somewhat younger than them.
"What do you want to say?" Rose was still quite annoyed.
Calvin proceeded to ignore her rude tone of voice as he said, "From now on, we must be careful not to make any noises... So, in order to communicate. We must devise a signaling scheme with our hands instead..."
"No worries, I've been a scuba diving instructor before so I will teach you some hand signals that we can use instead of talking and making noise."
"Really? You're a scuba diving instructor? Damn, that's awesome, man!" Nicholas approached Calvin and patted his shoulder as if he was a father that looked to be incredibly proud of his son's achievements...
Calvin could only shake his head towards Nicholas's actions.
"A scuba diving instructor at such a young age? It's probably some bullshit." Rose remarked.
Calvin raised an eyebrow, "What did you say?" He could normally tolerate rudeness, but since they were in a crucial time and place where they must communicate with each other efficiently and properly. He couldn't tolerate her resistant and uncooperative attitude.
"I'm saying that you are bullshitting! Didn't you say earlier that you play video games as your hobby? It's probably more like a drug for you! I'm sure that you're a video game addict than a scuba diving instructor, hmmph!" Rose coldly snorted and proceeded to ignore Calvin.
She had a triumphant look on her face.
She expected Calvin to beg her to listen, and when he did just that. She would "reluctantly" listen.
This way, she could earn the face that she lost earlier!
It was a win-win situation for Rose.
"Oh, I see... It seems that you're not interested to cooperate. In that case, then I'll just teach the others without you."
Calvin casually said before he turned to teach the other newbies.
"What? Why are you teaching them already?" Rose turned to look at him and frowned.
"Huh? Didn't you say that I was bullshitting? Since you clearly knew more than me, then I don't have to teach you!"
"Get out of my sight!"
Calvin fiercely scolded.
He had no time to deal with the antics of this childish middle-aged lady.
Rose's cheeks furiously blushed out of shame and fury.
"Fine, if you don't want to teach me then I will clear this final phase on my own!" Despite the scare that she received earlier, she still believed that Fivecent wouldn't possibly do something as counterintuitive as killing their own employees.
She harshly stood up and walked to the door.
Before Calvin could even react, she reached for the doorknob, twisted it, and...
"AH!"
Rose's shrill scream followed suit.
Hanging upside down in front of her was a mutilated body missing its head with its organs spilling from its stomach!