"We're taking this..." Yolan declared, her voice filled with a newfound determination.
"Taking what?" A voice echoed through the room, unfamiliar yet strangely familiar to IM, Lili, and Elang.
Tang! The sudden illumination of the room startled them all.
Bzzzzt! The hum of a generator kicked in, breaking the silence that had enveloped them moments before.
"Jean...thus," Lili stammered, her voice a mix of shock and fear as she recognized the albino boy standing in the doorway.
"Hey, traitor... no, the best way to say it is... hey, garbage," Jeanthus sneered, a cruel smile twisting his lips.
Elang wasted no time. His eyes narrowed, and he ignited his fire power, his hands crackling with purple flames.
Swoosh! With a roar of rage, he lunged towards Jeanthus.
"Oh?" Jeanthus reacted with surprising calmness. He simply raised a hand and uttered a single word, "Rubik."
Instantly, Elang froze mid-stride, a translucent Rubik's Cube materializing in front of him. Each face of the cube was covered in intricate mathematical equations, their complexity daunting.
"Elang, you know it's simple, right?" Jeanthus taunted. "Just answer the math questions. This time, I'll give you trigonometry."
Elang's eyes darted across the Rubik's Cube, his mind racing to decipher the intricate formulas. A bead of sweat trickled down his forehead as he grappled with the complex trigonometry problems. He knew that failure meant oblivion, the erasure of his very existence. The weight of the situation pressed down on him, his breath coming in short, ragged gasps.
Meanwhile, Yolan and Lili exchanged worried glances. They were powerless to help Elang, their own abilities useless against Jeanthus's Guardian's unique power. IM stood his ground, his fists clenched, ready to intervene if necessary, but he knew that any rash action could trigger the Guardian's deadly response.
Jeanthus, observing the scene with a smirk, stretched his back and yawned. "I knew you guys would come. That's why I've been staying here for a while. But it seems I overslept," he said casually, as if the life-or-death situation unfolding before him was nothing more than a minor inconvenience.
"Come on Elang, trigonometry is easy, just remember sin cos tan," Jeanthus continued, his voice laced with mockery. "Let me give you a hint. On the middle Rubik, there's a question: In a right-angled triangle, one of the angles is 30°. If the hypotenuse is 10 units long, what is the length of the side opposite the 30° angle? Use the sin function, which is defined as the ratio of the length of the side opposite the angle to the length of the hypotenuse: sin 30° = opposite / 10. Come on, answer."
But unfortunately for Elang, he was completely lost. He had never been good at academics, his focus always on honing his fire powers. He stared at the Rubik's Cube, his mind a blank slate.
"The side opposite the 30° angle is 5 units," Yolan's voice cut through the tense silence, her tone calm and confident.
"The side opposite the 30° angle is 5 units," Elang repeated, his voice echoing Yolan's words.
The face of the Rubik's Cube in front of him flashed green, indicating a correct answer. The cube then shifted, its faces rearranging to present a new set of equations.
"Oh... that one's smart, huh..." Jeanthus mused, a hint of annoyance creeping into his voice. "Then how about something a little harder... let's pla-"
He didn't get to finish his sentence. IM, who had silently moved behind him, suddenly grabbed Jeanthus and lifted him off the ground.
Thud! With a swift motion, IM slammed Jeanthus into the wall behind him.
The impact echoed through the room, the force of it sending cracks spider-webbing across the pristine white wall. Jeanthus groaned, his head snapping back from the blow. A look of shock and pain contorted his features as he slid down the wall, landing on the floor in a crumpled heap.
"You little...!" he snarled, struggling to regain his footing.
IM towered over him, his expression cold and menacing. "You're alone, aren't you?" he taunted, his voice a low growl.
"Four Rubik!" Jeanthus yelled, desperation edging into his voice.
Instantly, four translucent Rubik's Cubes materialized, one in front of each member of the Unveiled Family. They were frozen in place, unable to move, their minds trapped within the complex puzzles.
"Heh, take that!" Jeanthus sneered, a triumphant grin spreading across his face. "I'm going to call the others to take you guys down..." With a final mocking glance, he turned and fled the room, leaving the Unveiled Family trapped in his Guardian's perplexing game.
Silence descended upon the room, broken only by the soft hum of the fluorescent lights and the shallow breaths of the trapped heroes. Elang, still recovering from his earlier ordeal, stared at the Rubik's Cube before him, his brow furrowed in concentration. Yolan and Lili, their faces etched with determination, began analyzing their own puzzles, their fingers tracing the intricate patterns of equations.
Suddenly, Elang shouted, "F*ck! 0!"
Bzzz! A harsh red light flashed on Elang's Rubik's Cube.
"Aghhh!" he cried out, clutching his head in pain. It was clear that his incorrect answer had triggered a painful consequence.
"Don't answer it randomly!" Lili yelled, her voice filled with urgency. "Or else each of your brain cells will be destroyed!"
The gravity of the situation hit them like a physical blow. They were trapped, their minds held hostage by a sadistic game, and the clock was ticking. Each wrong answer brought them closer to oblivion, the erasure of their very existence. A cold sweat broke out on their foreheads as they realized the stakes.
Yolan, her analytical mind working overtime, began to mutter equations under her breath, her fingers tracing invisible patterns in the air. Lili, her eyes closed in concentration, tried to visualize the cube, rotating it in her mind's eye, searching for a solution.
"2x + 3 = 11, so 𝑥 = 4... x = 4..." Yolan answered, her voice firm despite the pressure.
The Rubik's Cube in front of her turned green.
She looked at Lili, her voice urgent. "How many questions are there?"
"I don't know... 64?" Lili replied, her voice uncertain.
"I'm going to telepathically contact Xian..." IM declared, his voice a low murmur.
***
Back in the hotel room in Singapore, I sat on the bed, the remnants of the celebratory party with the girls still lingering in the air. The concert had been a resounding success, the crowd's energy electrifying, and Hanna's performance nothing short of spectacular. Now, with the excitement fading, a sense of quiet anticipation settled over me as I waited for the next day to arrive, the day I would return to my country.
Xian! IM's voice suddenly echoed in my head, startling me out of my reverie.
My eyes snapped open, and I sat up, alert and focused. IM's telepathic call was urgent, his mental voice laced with a hint of panic. IM, what's wrong? I responded, my mind reaching out to connect with his.
We're in trouble, Xian! IM's frantic thoughts flooded my mind. We're trapped in some kind of underground facility, and Jeanthus's Guardian has us cornered. It's a mental challenge, something about solving a Rubik's Cube with complex math equations. Elang already got one wrong, and Lili and Yolan are struggling. We need your help!
A surge of adrenaline coursed through my veins.
Where!? What underground facility!? I can't teleport if I don't know the location or can't imagine it... I replied through telepathy, my mind racing to find a solution.
It's an old Seers training ground, near the burnt mountain on the outskirts of the city, IM's thoughts replied, his mental voice strained with urgency. Elang led us here, he said there were secrets hidden in this place.
The burnt mountain... I closed my eyes, visualizing the desolate landscape Elang had described earlier. A sense of dread washed over me as I realized the danger my friends were in.
"I can't..." I muttered, my heart sinking.
Sorry, I can't teleport there directly, but I think I can do something else. What do you need? I replied, my mind racing to find an alternative solution.
Make me super smart at math! IM's desperate plea echoed in my mind.
A surge of power coursed through my veins, the familiar sensation of my imagination taking hold. I focused my will, picturing IM's mind expanding, his understanding of mathematics growing exponentially.
Imagine... IM is a math genius, I commanded, my mental voice echoing with power.
***
In the dimly lit underground facility, IM's eyes widened as a flood of knowledge and understanding washed over him. Complex equations that had once seemed like indecipherable riddles now appeared as clear and simple as basic arithmetic. He could visualize the Rubik's Cube in his mind, rotating it effortlessly, the solutions to the intricate puzzles revealing themselves with crystal clarity.
"3x - 7 = 5, so x = 4!" IM declared, his voice ringing with newfound confidence.
"The square root of 169 is 13!"
"The integral of 3x^2 dx is x^3 + C!"
"The derivative of sin(x) is cos(x)!"
One by one, IM rattled off the answers to the complex equations on his Rubik's Cube, his voice growing louder and more assured with each correct response. Yolan and Lili, their faces a mixture of astonishment and relief, quickly inputted the answers into their own puzzles, the green lights flashing in confirmation.
< Chapter 176 > Fin.