*bzzt* "Notice to all passengers: we will be landing soon, please be ready to disembark within a moment." resounding from the overhead intercoms the voice of Beans, Netero's assistant informed everyone
"Would you look at that? Some sort of pillar, what do you think we are going to do this time?" said Leorio while we looked out the window of the airship
"I don't see any features on it and we are landing on the top so we most likely have to find a way to the bottom without dying?" I said aloud in response to his question
"Yeah, that makes sense… though I have no clue how I am going to do that," Leorio replied as the airship finally landed on the tower.
"Hey everyone! What's up?" from behind us came Gon who seemed to still have signs of exhaustion on his face
"Huh you really did come last minute, where were you?" Kurapika asked as we began to funnel out of the ship alongside the other contestants.
"Mmm! I and Killua were playing a game with the Chairman, Killua left halfway through though. Oh, and I didn't win either… anyways what were you guys talking about?" While catching up to his friends Gon and the others didn't notice that Magenta had disappeared from the platform of the tower.
{P.o.V Change}
"Motherfucker! As soon as I got on the platform I fall through a trapdoor!" Shouting as I lay flat on my back. Getting up I began to take in my surroundings
'Or rather lack of surroundings, it's completely dark… Now if I am correct this is Trick tower and the gimmick is puzzles or challenges against residents of the tower with a three-day time limit. On top of that, the challenges each examinee goes through have a different theme or difficulty…' As I thought to myself I got off the ground and collected myself, after a while, my eyes began to adjust to the light and I realized the room was rather small.
'Hmm what is that in the corner?' seeing a small silhouette in the corner I began to walk towards it and bent over to further inspect it
'Oh it's a lantern, by its design it seems to burn oil rather than use an electric bulb.' picking it up I began to fumble with it in the dark until it turned on
*tick* "huh it had an electric starter, oh well let's see what we have here…" Inspecting the walls once again I was met with writing that I could not previously see before.
"Path of light and darkness. For the examinee: you will have to reach your goal by completing multiple light-based puzzles… huh" I read aloud to myself.
'Well I have beat the spirit temple before in ocarina of time so this should be easy enough?' while I was thinking a loud click was heard behind me, turning around I was met with an opening in the stone wall leading into a new room.
"Well here goes…" walking into the next room with my lantern I am met with… Nothing! Though after walking far enough into the room the door behind me shut again leaving me in the empty room. Inspecting the room further I found nothing interesting, even pressing all the bricks did nothing for me. Time continued to pass as I looked for any sort of clue on how to proceed to the next chamber.
'Wait the focus is on light AND darkness, the first room was completed by turning on the lamp…' quickly opening the windshield of the lantern I blew out the flame returning the room back to inky darkness, shortly afterward a similar loud click sounded as an door to my left opened up into a stairway down.
"You know I feel really stupid for not figuring that out earlier… not like anyone will know thankfully." exiting the stairway I enter a slightly larger room than the previous two from before.
*bzzt* "sorry to burst your bubble but I have been both watching and listening along while you have been fumbling about." an audible buzz rang through the room as a voice of a sickly sounding man rang out inside the room
"Uhm…who are you?" I nervously said looking around the room
"Ah, allow me to introduce myself, I am Marc Bolan an inmate here in Trick Tower… You could say I am a sub-contracted examiner for this phase of the test. For every hour you spend inside the tower I get one year off of my prison sentence, therefore I made this gauntlet of puzzles as your exam." the voice over the speakers explained
"Sounds easy enough…" I said aloud as I continued to look around the room
"However I am doubting you will make it out of here when you spent two and a half hours in the first two rooms which were supposed to introduce the mechanics of the puzzles… anyways, you know have 69 ½ hours to get out of the tower," Bolan said before turning off the comms and returning the room to silence.
'I guess I should pick up the pace, I do not see anything of note in the dark around here so I might as well turn on the lamp…' with a satisfying click the lamp lit up in a warm yellow flame as the room was illuminated before me.
'Oh there is actually something here this time' I thought as I examined what looks like five white-colored bricks and six black-colored bricks spread out along the floor and three of the four walls. On the wall without any bricks was instead a diagram with pictures on it. Going back to further inspect the bricks I noticed the white bricks could be pressed similar to a button while the black bricks did not budge.
'If I am correct I have to use the diagram to decipher what order to press these bricks, and certain bricks can only be pressed based on the light level of the room… ' I deduced while turning back to the board and began to ponder how to find the correct order
*sigh*'Man why couldn't it be some easy light reflection using mirrors?'