*******
Siege and Laila had entered the cave half an hour prior, and yet they found nothing but the endless path ahead of them. Only darkness lay ahead of them. Siege was taking the lead, pressing ahead, hoping to reach the clearing.
Just when he thought coming into the cave was a bad idea, he saw a clearing up about. The companions had just started to get used to the darkness when they were blinded by the light up ahead.
"Finally!" Siege muttered, raising his hands to call the clearing to Laila. But an articulate groaning sound made him pause. He froze, elegantly sliding back. He froze, pressing his body against the surface of the cold, wet stone.
Siege's gaze flicked towards the area the sound came from. He waved a hand to Laila, signaling her to his hiding position. Laila understood immediately, and knelt next to him.
"I don't think that's the exit..." Laila muttered.
"Thank you for the information, Miss Obvious!" Siege whispered, teasing her. Laila raised her eyebrows and said something. But her companion didn't hear anything. Her voice was drowned by a louder grumble.
They both froze in shock. As the light started to dim and their eyes started to get used to the brightness, a humanoid shape appeared and within a few seconds, a flash and smoke dissipated from the entrance of the new part of the cave.
When the smoke cleared, the entrance was empty. They both had enough experience to know that something was wrong. Siege knew that every simulation was programmed passed on a form of the Cosmological Argument, a argument stating that every action must have a cause.
Siege noted at the beginning of the challenge, all major events had to lead to lead to something different and will be life-changing.
"This looks major to me..." he whispered, his staff appearing in his hand. Alongside the light, his weapon glowed a faint crimson red, the gem in the middle seeming identical to the one that granted him the System.
It glowed brighter and brighter until Siege was covered by the unnatural light. Laila was too busy jabbing her spear into the light, too cautious to look behind her and see Siege becoming one with his weapon.
[Illegal weapon detected]
[Illegal weapon detected]
[Illegal weapon detected]
The simulation voice screamed at Siege.
"Huh?" Siege said, breaking away from his trance. The notification playing over and over in his head.
[Illegal weapon detected]
[Illegal weapon detected]
[Illegal weapon detected]
"Are you getting this notification?" Siege asked.
"Huh, what notif-"
Before she could finish, the whole cave blew up in flames, leaving Siege, Laila and a mysterious figure unharmed.
*******
"Are you seeing this?" a scientist screamed, jumping up from his chair. "Madam Violet, please see this!" she said, recomposing herself to her formal manner.
"What is it?" Violet said abruptly. She wasn't in a good mood. She had been assessing the simulation for any signs of accomplishments from the candidates, but nothing occurred. As the simulation did not let anyone or anything outside see it, Violet had to analyze the endless messages of people completing the trial.
It had been two hours since the challenge started, and she knew the candidates where experiencing a couple days in the simulation since one day in the simulation was 1 hour in real time.
"See this, someone is somehow able to use a weapon outside the simulation in there!" the scientist said, pointing to a 'Warning' message on screen.
"How is that possible?!" Violet cried, both happy and sad at the same time. She didn't want to disappoint her father by making such a huge mistake during the training. But she was relived she had some work to do...
"Track the candidate down..." she said viciously. "If they die, good for us, but if they come back, bring them to me!"
*******