In the blink of an eye, we found ourselves inside a high-rise building. There was a large glass window in front of us. I walked over to check and realized we were on the 9th or 10th floor. I muttered, "Oh my God. That was unexpected."
Alia, looking around in amazement, said, "Wow, I've never been in such a building before.
"
"Where are we?" I asked Alia, even though I knew she wouldn't know. I was just feeling a little dumb for even asking.
She replied, "I don't know."
"Well, that was expected," I thought to myself.
I looked around the room a bit more and noticed some papers on the table. The writing on them was in Chinese. That's when it clicked—I figured we were probably somewhere in China.
"Alia, I think we might be in China," I said.
"What? Are you sure?" she asked, looking surprised.
"I think so," I replied. "Look, I found this paper, and it's written in Chinese."
She raised an eyebrow. "How do you even know it's written in Chinese?"
"Well," I said with a slight shrug, "there was a time when I was into watching Chinese dramas."
Alia smirked and said, "I never thought you were the type to watch dramas, but hey, the world is full of surprises, you know."
Her sarcastic tone made me roll my eyes. "Hey, anyone can watch dramas, okay? Chinese dramas are actually pretty good," I said, defending myself
."At least they're better than those kids' cartoons, huh? Kids these days are so disrespectful to their elders. You should respect me. I'm older than you, you know?" I said, trying to sound serious.
Alia rolled her eyes and replied, "Yeah, yeah, older than me, older than me. I must be 11, and you must be, what, 16 or 17 at most? Do you really think you're old enough to lecture me?"
"Still, I was born before you," I shot back, crossing my arms. "And by all means, I'm also your mentor, so you should respect me."
"Dream on," she said with a smirk, walking away like she'd won the argument.
"My little, cute, innocent sister-type girl has vanished and turned into a little demon brat. So disrespectful!" I exclaimed dramatically. "I won't talk to you. And listen—I'm serious—I won't even give you food. I won't even collect your clothes. I won't do anything for you! You will do everything yourself. I'm not your sister anymore!"
"Yeah, yeah, I don't need you anymore," she replied with a smug grin. "I can work on my own. I'm pretty strong by myself. And your domain power, which isn't even useful in any fighting... what can you even do without me?"
Her words stung a little, but the smug look on her face made me roll my eyes and mumble, "Ungrateful brat."
She walked toward me, and for a moment, I thought she was going to apologize. But, as life often proves, my assumptions were completely wrong. Assumptions about anything in life tend to be wrong.
She kicked my leg. A bit harder than necessary.
"Why did you do that?" I asked, startled.
"Oh," she said with a sly grin, "I was just teaching you how to get back to your normal self. This dramatic self doesn't suit you much."
"Hey, I'm a human!" I protested. "I also deserve to be a little happy, you know?"
She crossed her arms and replied, "Happy? In what situation? We're in the middle of a huge problem, you know?"
"Oh yeah... I remember," I said, scratching my head awkwardly.
The problem was glaringly obvious: we were in another country, and we were supposed to be completing a challenge in India. Somehow, we had been teleported to China. From everything I could recall about this messed-up "game," I didn't remember a single instance where participants got transported to another country during the first challenge.
My mind raced. Could this mean elimination? And in games like this, "elimination" was a sugar-coated way of saying death.
To ease my rising panic, I quickly opened my watch and selected the "Problem" option. It cost me 10 coins to ask a question, but this one was crucial. I typed out my query: Are we going to be eliminated for being in another country during the first challenge?
It took about an hour to get a reply, and every second felt like a lifetime. When the answer finally came, I read it aloud:
"Yes, you will not be killed for being teleported to another country. However, you must complete your challenge within the country you are currently in. Due to the similar population sizes of China and India, challenges in both countries are interchangeable, making it eligible for you to continue in China."
I sighed in relief. "Well, at least we survived," I muttered. "I mean, we survived."
Alia looked at me with a mix of concern and amusement. "Lucky us. Now we have to deal with this all over again, but in a foreign country."
"Yeah," I replied, "but surviving is what matters most."
We looked around the place to figure out where we were in the country. I thought we were in Beijing, so, of course, we were in China. The people here spoke Chinese, so we switched to our translating device to communicate and understand the people around us. We moved around the building, from the first floor to the second, third, and fourth floors, and eventually went outside. The situation here was pretty similar to that in India. Everything was in chaos, with monsters roaming around and people chasing each other to complete their tasks. It was just a disaster, as I observed. It seemed to be part of the challenge.