Two players were playing the Riddle Game at about the same period although they were in different locations.
The players were Sethryn and RedQueen63.
While Sethryn was elated with the way his own game was going, not so much positivity was seen from RedQueen63.
Drops of sweat dripped from her chin and hit the floor. She gulped and wiped her forehead with her hand.
RedQueen63 was under immense tension and peeking at the timer made it worse for her.
[ Riddle Game ]
[ Time Remaining: 00h : 01m : 23s ]
Her time was fast counting down and she still could not find the answer to Nara's riddle.
Nara sat in front of her, relaxed into a tall throne-like chair with her head resting on her hand as she watched the player sweat her brains out.
She smirked.
"Looks like I've got this one," she thought.
That was the aim of the Riddle Game — to prevent players from ascending the Tower of Babel.
It was structured in such a way that only those that can use their wits will be able to make it through... most of the time.
The player with a red mohawk haircut was sweating profusely and her limbs quivered from the mere thought of her journey ending just at the 1st Floor.
What riddle did Nara pose that was hard enough to put her in such a dire state of panic?
RedQueen63 swallowed her saliva many times and loudly out of the stifling fear she felt.
"D-d-de-death," she shouted.
Her countdown was almost hitting zero across all three parameters when she blurted out an answer.
"T-th-the answer is d-death."
[ Riddle Game ]
[ Time Remaining: 00h : 00m : 02s ]
As the second side of the timer hit zero, she gulped her saliva unknowingly and rubbed her fidgeting hands together.
A drop of sweat ran down from her forehead to her chin, falling to the ground. The room was empty of noise that the sound of her sweat hitting the ground released an echo.
[ The Riddle Game Has Ended ]
Nara adjusted herself and sat up.
"Are you wrong?" she said, "Or are you right?"
The Riddle Game had come to an end for RedQueen63 and her outcome was about to be shown.
Nara waved an arm in the air and snap her fingers in a similar movement that mimicked the casting of a spell with a magic wand, except she was no magician neither did she have a wand.
She stood from her throne and walked towards RedQueen63 in slow steps.
Her eyes were shut and her face had a wide smile. The expression looked happy but in a creepy way that freaked the female player out.
The ring of a notification sounded out loud and the player shuddered from the sudden noise.
She could not view the notification.
The option was there, boldened to show that she had an unread notification yet she could not open it to check.
It was simply because she was afraid.
She was afraid of the outcome.
She was afraid of what would be born from the hasty decision she made.
After some seconds had passed, though trembling, sweaty and hesitant, RedQueen63 finally forced her hand to click the notification tab.
...
...
...
"Eureka!"
Sethryn uttered the word with great confidence that was noticeable in the calmness of his voice.
He had beaten the Simhas to their own game... or so he thought.
After so many minutes of thinking about the riddles, finding loopholes and avoiding the crushing effect of unspoken rules, Sethryn believed he had finally found the answer to the riddle.
His tactic was nigh flawless except for one thing, which he would soon realise.
His time was far spent and was still counting down.
The moment had come for him to reveal which Simha was which and end the Riddle Game.
Sethryn opened his mouth to speak and his lips paused midway.
It was then that he realised that his tactic was flawed.
He could only tell that the Simha on the left was the Simha of Lies but the other two — the one in the middle and the one on the right — had both told him the truth.
Now, which Simha was the Simha of Truth?
And which was the Simha of Both?
...
...
...
[ Riddle Game ]
[ Time Remaining: 00h : 01m : 39s ]
"Perhaps, I was too quick to celebrate," he thought to himself.
Sethryn was fast to count his chickens before they hatched.
Now, he was on the verge of counting his loss for that hastiness — the very attitude he was wary of from the start.
In the end, that attitude still dealt him a heavy blow.
Sethryn let out a deep and long sigh.
He had two options in mind — try his luck and ask one of them another question and see if it works or choose which one is which while counting solely on his fortune.
"I'm usually lucky with this sort of thing," he boasted confidently to himself.
Now that he was at the end, he started to feel as though the timer was sprinting to reach the zero count. In Sethryn's eyes, it was moving faster than it usually did.
[ Riddle Game ]
[ Time Remaining: 00h : 00m : 58s ]
He breathed.
"Here goes nothing."
Sethryn's current situation could be likened to a person who stood at the edge of a cliff and was about to jump off while stark naked without a parachute, yet hoped for a safe landing.
It was a crazy idea fuelled only by nothing else by madness whether obvious or subtle.
"You... on my left."
Sethryn lifted his finger and pointed it at the Simha that stood to his left side.
"You are the Simha of Lies."
The one he accused of being the Simha of Lies glared at him and smirked.
Was Sethryn right?
What was his plan for the other two Simhas?
...
...
...
Nara clapped her hands and laughed to her heart's content.
"You passed my test of riddles."
RedQueen63's heart dropped as she stared at the notification.
She could not believe it.
Overwhelmed by shock, she dropped buttocks first to the ground, panting with her eyes agape.
She expected a loss and subsequently, failure at the level of the 1st Floor.
Notifications started to pop up very fast.
<< Test 'The Riddle Game' Has Been Completed >>
<< RedQueen63 Has Completed The Test Of The 1st Keeper >>
[ +1 Level Up ]
[ +200 EXP ]
<< You Are Ready To Ascend To The 2nd Floor >>
<< You Have Earned The 'Right Of Roaming [R.O.R]' >>
<< Click HERE To Add Rewards >>
Her unexpected win left her dumbfounded with streams of tears gushing from her eyes uncontrollably.
She sobbed and sniffled.
"Ooh?" Nara muttered.
"You thought you were going to die?"
She poked fun at the player and laughed at her.
"Well, you would have died if you lost," she said with a grotesquely widened grin maintained on her face.
...
...
...
"You in the middle," Sethryn continued, "you are the Simha of Both."
[ Riddle Game ]
[ Time Remaining: 00h : 00m : 06s ]
"Finally... you, on the right, are the Simha of Truth."
Sethryn had answered just in time to escape time up.
He could not help but notice that his fingers now quivered and the calmness he had kept on this long was slowly leaving his body.
No matter how he pretends to be fearless, Sethryn is still worried about the outcome of the choice he made since the Riddle Game was not only about riddles and answers.
The Riddle Game was also a death game.