Ulrich heard a low whirring noise, and the coffin opened, letting him out. He sat there for a few seconds working out the pain in his back, and then got a look at his surroundings. It was a great change from the grey metal he had grown accustomed to. Yes indeed, he was inside a thick block of blue metal. He took a moment to breathe it all in, stopping after the industrial fumes hit his nose. He stepped out of the metal container, looking over the small mountain of poorly placed containers below him. There seemed to be two mountains of metal next to him, and Lloyd was on top of one of them, looking over the competition. He looked in Ulrich's direction, waving at him, and Ulrich also waved, trying not to meet his gaze, instead choosing to look slightly above Lloyd's head. Lloyd looked behind him where Ulrich was looking, looking mildly confused. He looked below, where Ulrich was standing, and pointed to one of the boxes below Ulrich.
Ulrich looked down, seeing the smiler slowly climbing up the metal tower, and Ulrich took a few steps back, retreating into the container he woke up in. The smiler lurched forward, and Ulrich tripped over the coffin, placing him inside it as the smiler started scratching his face, the beeping noises on his watch starting.
Without much to do, he took all the heat in both hands and fired it straight into the smilers chest, creating a large hole, alongside blowing off it's right arm, where the watch was. Not thinking, he grabbed the disembodied arm and threw it as hard as he could out of the container. His watch made it's fourth beep, and then stopped. The arm didn't do anything, staying as the disembodied arm he hoped it would. His watch made another beep, and he felt his heart collapse for a second, but it went back to working when it noticed he wasn't dead. He glanced at his watch, and it was one new message from Lloyd.
'You alive in there?'
'Yes. Is messaging on?'
'It costs ten coins and it only lets me talk to you and Amber, but yes.'
Ulrich looked at the messaging app, and as Lloyd said, only he and Amber were available. Valentina's icon flickered slightly but went back to greyscale.
'You and Amber wanna meet up?' was the next message Lloyd sent.
'Sure.' Ulrich sent back.
Ulrich went to the bottom of the pile, where Amber already was, with Lloyd appearing slightly after.
"So, what do we do now?" Amber asked Lloyd, arms crossed.
"Well, I say we take out all the smilers." Lloyd replied. "Then we vote somebody out."
"Any idea on who?" Amber sighed.
"I don't know, Seeta? Lady tried attacking me in the last challenge."
"Would she have a reason to?" Amber asked, squinting.
"I had a code, and she went and attacked me for it. I fought her off and got it back, but sheesh, she's a real pain. Wasn't even early in the challenge."
"I see." Amber said. "Ulrich?"
"Yeah, I'm not doing that. Pretty sure she's friends with Silvia." Ulrich replied.
"Any suggestions, then?" Lloyd asked politely, frowning slightly.
"No? I just wanna not die, please?"
"Look, how about we split up?" Amber proposed. "Aurora and Gemma are still out there, and who knows how they're doing?"
"Yeah, I suppose we can do that." Lloyd shrugged. I'm gonna go west, you?"
"North." Amber replied.
"East? Yeah, east sounds good." Ulrich muttered to himself.
"Cool. Good luck, guys." Lloyd walked away with his hands in his pockets, and Amber went the direction she said she'd go.
Odebode casually walked through the hallways of coloured metal waiting to see if anyone else would come out. One of the smilers was already killed according to the screen, so that was something. He scanned the hallways for anyone around, not finding anybody. He looked straight ahead, and the smiler was there. It just seemed to be staring at a wall, not trying to hunt anyone. But if Odebode knew anything, it was that certain things were bound towards bringing tragedy. He silently summoned his sword, feeling it's perfect grip in his hands. He took a few silent steps towards it, before lunging towards it as fast as he could…and it dodged.
How? These things barely seemed to think, let alone know what danger even is. He knocked his head against the metal container, and the smiler looked down, grabbing his face. The beeping on their watches started. One beep, two beeps…
Odebode tried fighting back but couldn't. he wasn't able to summon his sword, and his flailing around wasn't doing anything to stop it. He felt the fourth beep begin, shutting his eyes…
And then the weight of it's hand went away.
"You okay?"
Odebode heard a woman's voice call out to him. He stood up, and it was the girl with the metal arm.
"Valentina?" He asked.
"The very same." She nodded. "You okay?"
"I…I am, thanks." Odebode responded, checking around for any damage. All seemed well.
"Great. So, you see Cyrus anywhere?"
"The baseball cap man? Not yet."
"Damn." She muttered. "Well, I'm going to try find him, want to tag along?"
"Uh, sure. If you're offering."
The two walked around the paths of metal containers, not noticing any smilers around.
"So, if we have to vote somebody off, any ideas?" Odebode asked, trying to spark some kind of small talk.
"Haven't thought about it." Valentina replied. "Any ideas?"
"I suggest that blood girl."
"Oh yeah, her. Wait, didn't you try to kill her?"
"Somebody had to die back there."
"But it seems you have something against blood types specifically." Valentina responded in a worried tone.
"Well, you know them. Shifty types. Ready to strike at any time."
"Wh-what makes blood types more like that?" Her voice changed to a higher pitch for a brief second, before letting out a cough and
"It's in their blood." Odebode replied, completely serious.
Valentina looked at him with a completely blank expression. "I'm ending this conversation."
"But-"
"Please, just shut up."
Gemma looked out of the holes in the door of the container. The smiler was still walking around. It didn't seem to have a set path, so she didn't know when to run when it had its back turned. She observed it slowly lumbering around the hallway and saw that it was looking away. She opened the door open just a tad, trying to get away. And then it turned around. She closed the door immediately, but the smiler started pounding at it. She backed away into the other end of the container, as she pushed her thumb against her index finger, letting her fingernail fall into her other hand. As she feared, it was capable of opening doors. She threw the fingernail at it, hitting its head before exploding into a cloud of smoke, and Gemma ran as fast as she could out of the door, hitting her head as she ran out. She felt a hand of the smiler run against her back and a single beep of her watch, but she was fine. Alive. And now she needed to run. She ran around the corner, running into someone else and falling over. She screamed out of instinct, thinking it was another smiler.
"Woah, woah now."
She looked up, and it was just the big guy. She rapidly checked her watch to check his name. Andrei Lupo, right.
"H-Hello."
"Hey, you okay?" He asked calmly, offering a hand to her.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine." She replied quickly.
"You running away from one of the mask guys?" He asked. She nodded.
"I'm assuming it's still alive?" He asked. Gemma nodded again.
"Okay, cool." Andrei nodded back, summoning his greaves. He went around the corner, locking eyes with the smiler, or at least presumably. He ran up to it, and it's head was splattered on the wall with one swift kick. It ambled along for a few seconds, before falling to the ground.
"Sweet, hundred coins."
He looked back at Gemma behind him, and then at what the dead smiler was holding.
"Wait, you wear shirts, right?" Andrei asked.
Gemma looked down, and her pink t-shirt was gone. It was just a white bra. She looked back up at Andrei, trying to cover herself up with her hands.
"Oh, crap." Andrei whispered to himself, turning around and picking up the shirt Gemma wore. Seemed torn at the back, and also covered in blood.
"Uh, I'll just give you my shirt."
He removed his tank top, handing it to her without trying to see her. Gemma put it on, hoping there wasn't any blood on it. Nothing was felt, anyway.
"You're okay with this, right?" She asked.
"It's whatever." Andrei shrugged nonchalantly. "I'm used to being shirtless."
"Oh…okay." Gemma replied shakily. "Why, exactly?"
"Don't think I can mention that." He mumbled back, cracking his knuckles.
"Oh…I see. Mind if I uh, tag along?" Gemma asked.
"Yeah, do whatever." Andrei replied.
Yun-Yeong calmly made her way through the hallway, no smilers yet, that was good. She was on top of a container, so she got a decent view of Seeta making her way through one side with an axe out. She looked over at the other side, and there was a smiler looking around, not noticing anything. She took a few steps back to avoid it's gaze, hearing a few footsteps in her direction. She was fine, though. These things seem really dumb, so it was all fine, right? She looked for a box to get up on, and there didn't seem to be one. She looked around for a way to get down, finding a metal container slightly lower down. She walked over to it, stopping when she saw an arm on top of the container she was just about to step on. She screamed an incoherent noise, and heard an "I'm coming, Yun!" Almost immediately after. In a flash, the smiler's head was covered in a bubble, and Eric pulled it back. She hopped down, reaching for her knife to finish it off…and it wasn't there.
Wait, did she ever get it back off Silvia? Well, this sucks.
"Wait, don't kill it!" Eric yelled.
Yun-Yeong looked at him, and he looked…genuinely terrified at whatever this smiler was.
"Wait, why are we not killing it?" She asked.
"We just aren't, okay!?" Eric screamed. "Quick, where did you come out from?"
Yun-Yeong pointed at the level above, and Eric quickly put himself up there, the smiler still in hand. He quickly threw it into the container Yun-Yeong was in, slamming the door and pressing himself against it.
"What was that about?" Yun-Yeong asked, making her way up.
"Look, we just…can't kill that one, okay?"
"Wait, what? Why are we not killing this one?"
"Look, if we keep it alive, I might be able to figure out the science behind them, or something."
"How?"
"I don't know, are there any scientists around here?"
"I-I don't know?" Yun-Yeong yelled back.
"Look, I'm gonna relax here until the end of the challenge. Maybe you should too, you're looking kinda pale."
Yun-Yeong sat down silently, feeling the heat radiating off her forehead before she touched it. She looked at Eric, who was already looking anxious. She'd tell him later.
Wendy made her way through the hallways. Bottom floor of the place, and she was shivering with fright. She had to find Eric, that much was obvious. She looked up, and nobody was here, but footsteps were making their way through the other side of the hallway. Pretty slow ones, too. One look, one quick look. She could definitely run from one of those should she have to. She walked down slowly, her legs shaking uncontrollably. Don't think about tripping. If you think about something, it has a higher chance of happening. So just don't think about tripping.
She tripped.
The thing across the hallway was still out of sight, so she got up quickly and inspected her shoes. As worn down as ever, but neatly tied. She looked over, and there was a metal pole on the ground. She looked up, and a small piece of rounded metal seemed to have fallen from the ceiling. She picked it up, and it fit her hand nicely. She hit it as hard as she could against a container, and it made a weighty sound as they collided. This was good, all she needed. But with this new power, she could test it on something.
She looked to the direction of the noise, and it was one of the masked creatures. She knew what to do next. She approached it, swinging at it's leg. The leg came off easily, which was good. It smashed it's head against the wall, and Wendy let out a jolt from her hair as it fell, and she got an idea. She pointed the pole on the smiler. She felt her nerves light up and the energy scrape through her bones. Her hands started crackling, and the jolt of electricity shot through the head of the smiler. She lost the feeling in her left hand, but that was normal. She walked away from the smiler once the beeping started, getting a good distance once the explosion went off. She smiled to herself. She was more capable now, which was good.
She heard another explosion a small bit away and went over to see what happened. She looked at the screen, and there were still eighteen blue dots. As she walked away, a few small bugs made their way past her, with one crawling up her trousers. She pulled it away, and it was around the size of her finger. It started biting, trying to dig into her hand, and she pulled it out and flung it at the wall.
"Oh god, are you okay?"
Vanessa ran up to Wendy, panting heavily, grabbing her hand and inspecting it.
"I'm so sorry, did any of them get into your skin?"
"I pulled it out."
"Oh thank god." She panted. "Those are mine, sorry. Be careful, if any of them get into your skin, you'll die in three hours."
"Wait, what?" Wendy yelled.
"Look, if I get stressed out, they just start pouring out of me!"
"Well, if you get stressed, wanna team up until we find Huang?"
"Uh, yeah?" Vanessa replied, noticing the bloodstains and black goo on Wendy's jeans.
"What happened there?" She asked.
"Ah, you know. Got stronger. But anyway, let's move forward. Smilers gotta die."