"What the -" I looked down and saw my hands disappearing along with the rest of my body. I looked at Rona and Isaac, and they were the same as well.
"Teleportation? It has already been invented? Hmm... I wonder what's the mechanism behind it." Isaac calmly analyzed the situation. He couldn't care less about his body, disappearing like dust.
"Rona is fading? Oo~ Body feels tingly." Rona giggled.
I turned around and looked at the other children. Some were screaming, some were banging on the pillar, trying to escape, and some remained calm.
My first thought was, 'This is going to be hell.'
Whoosh.
All of us disappeared, leaving the dungeon empty.
[The Grand Maze]
I opened my eyes and the first thing I saw was a huge steel pillar in front of us. "Holy crap. That's freaking tall."
"We shrunk?" Rona asked. "Big food!" Rona cheered.
The giant blue screen with a smiling emoji appeared again and floated in the air. Beside, the giant blue screen were small tiny screens, showing audiences cheering.
[Ladies and gentlemen. Welcome and thank you for coming. I am Mr. James, your host, for this lovely evening. Looking at you all here, I know many of you are eager for the game to start. Therefore, let's wait no further as I humbly present to you the last game of the main event of the year. The Grand Maze!]
The audience went wild. Compared to the first game, the audiences this time were many times more and fiercer. Although we could only see the audience through the small screen, we knew they weren't cheering for us but something deep inside the maze.
[Before we begin the game, I would like to announce something important. Something, we all share, that is today. Today is a special day for all of us. Today is the day when "The Valley" was built from scratch by our ancestors. Their selfless acts, their sacrifice, their blood, sweat, and tears shall be remembered in our hearts for as long as 'The Valley' lives. Because of them, we and our loved ones were able to live in peace for so long. Now, we shall pray for the lives that were sacrificed for the peace that has been achieved till today.]
The audience went quiet and prayed. The surrounding that was in the midst of chaos turned completely silent in just a few seconds.
"No wonder he is so prideful. Everyone shuts up the moment he talks." Isaac said, and I nodded.
After some time, Mr. James continued. [This is the first time we held the main event on the day 'The Valley' was built. Therefore, we decided to tweak the Grand Maze a bit to make things more exciting for our little bunnies. Unlike before, when the little bunnies would just hop around happily until they reach the end goal. This time, the little bunnies would have companies waiting for them.]
The audience cheered again, screaming. "Blood! Blood! Blood!"
[That's right. More blood shall be shed, more screams shall be heard, and most important of them all... More euphoria for all!]
The audience stood up and cheered loudly. We, on the other hand, were quivering in fear.
I grabbed Isaac. "Oui... This might really be our last ride."
[For those who don't know how a maze game works, allow me to demonstrate.]
Creak.
The door behind us suddenly opens. Two small, cute brown dogs appeared. "Arf!" The little dogs barked.
"Aww~" Some children were awestruck by how cute and fluffy the dogs were. However, I was sceptical about it. 'It's cute, but there's probably more to that.' Rona looked at the dogs and wasn't impressed. "Rona doesn't like dogs?" Isaac asked. "Maybe?" I shrugged.
The little dog looked at us and opened its mouth. Its teeth reminded me of LM, deadly razor-sharp teeth. The children gasped and moved away from the dogs.
"Oui... I knew there was something wrong with those dogs. Nothing here is normal."
Rona cheered. "Cute doggies!"
"Before those dogs opened its mouth, you had no reaction. After it opened its mouth, you say it's cute?" Isaac said.
The two dogs continued forward and moved into the maze. The blue screen showed the dogs entering the maze.
I looked at the blue screen. "Huh? Are those mirrors?"
"Mirror maze. No wonder your master warned you about being blind."
"Oui... Being in a maze is already tough enough, but adding mirrors to it? Who designed this bullshit!"
As we continued following the dogs navigating themself inside the mirror maze, I felt a sudden uneasiness. Suddenly, something came out of the mirrors and ate the dogs. "Crunch. Crunch. Crunch." We could hear clearly the monster chewing on the dogs' bones. If we weren't looking at the screen, we could have mistaken it as someone eating fried crunchy food. The children covered their eyes and screamed, whereas I stared at the blue screen. I saw blood dripping down from the monster's mouth as it slowly consumed the dogs' bodies. The blood was splattered all over the mirrors, and the dogs' guts hung out from the monster's mouth. My heart was pounding like crazy and I felt like vomiting. It was disgusting, but strangely, I couldn't take my eyes off the screen. I gulped nervously as I continued to stare at the monster, enjoying its meal. I didn't blink once as I didn't want to miss a second of it. After the monster consumed the two dogs' bodies, it sluggishly went back into the mirror. I continued staring at the screen, not making a single sound.
"Llyne? Llyne." Isaac called. Isaac shook me and said. "You okay?"
I jolted and looked at Isaac, feeling muddled. "Huh? Oh... ya... It's just... This place really messes with your head, huh? It ain't child friendly at all." I laughed.
Isaac sighed. "Tell me about it. And was that a Chimaera? I didn't know they existed. Besides that, how did it pass through the mirrors like that?"
I cleared my head and asked. "B-But... Do we really need to go into the..." I couldn't mutter the word.
"Maze," Isaac continued my sentence. "That's the only way to clear the last game."
[My. Oh, my. Looks like I won't be able to show you a full demonstration of the Grand Maze. What a pity. But not to worry my little bunnies and dearest audiences. I shall explain to you as much detail as possible. Firstly, our little bunnies will need to hop into the maze and navigate themselves to the centre of the maze. However, as you all had seen, there will be monsters lying in the maze, waiting to eat our little bunnies. Once our little bunnies had reached the centre, the guardian of the maze would be waiting for them. They would need to pass the guardian of the maze to proceed to the next level by climbing the ladders.]
"Why didn't he just explained it from the start instead of showing us that?!" Isaac grumbled.
"Wait? What? What next level? I thought once we reached the centre of the maze, we finished the game?" A child screamed.
'Dogs can't climb ladders...' I sweated.
[Oh, right. I forgot to mention. One of the extra features we added was the levels. Before this, the Grand Maze only had 1 level, but we thought, why not we put some more, right? So we added 4 more levels. Now, the Grand Maze has a total of 5 levels. Do be warned that as our little bunnies move up the ladders, the difficulty shoots up. In order to complete the entire game, the little bunnies would need to hit the red buzzer at the top level. The winner will be granted any wish they desire.]
"Detailed, my ass. I wonder what other thing he forgot to mention." Isaac mumbled.
When the nervous children heard 'that any of their wish be granted', they began to look at each other strangely, like some hunters after their prey.
'Oui... This is going to be dangerous.'
[Oh and the rules. Almost forgot. Our little bunnies must travel in pair.]
Suddenly, we felt a force moving us. "Woah!" I screamed, and I was pulled somewhere else.
Screech.
'Screech?' When I opened my eyes, I saw a little girl hugging a bear toy right next to me. She had a pale face with long black hair covering her face. She had a grim look and kept biting her nails. She peeked at me and quickly turned away and screamed. "Eeek!" I jumped back as I was startled by her loud scream. I looked away and found Rona paired up with the boy with bloodshot eyes, and Isaac paired up with an ordinary-looking brown hair guy.
Mr. James continued. [If one of our bunnies lost their pair in the maze, there would be punishment for them.]
"Die... all... hopeless." The little girl mumbled. I looked at her and reached out my hand. " Hi. My name is Llyne. What's yours?"
She looked at me with her tearful eyes. I smiled at her, but she began screaming. "We are all going to die. We won't make it. We will be stuck here forever and die. Those monsters will eat us. Everything is hopeless. Our blood will splat everywhere, organs spilling out like those dogs before. Life is meaningless... (She kept rambling on and on)"
I backed away. "Before they could eat us, I'll probably die from your negativity," I mumbled.