LISA’S POV:

Having heard petrifying first-hand recounts of menacing robots, relentless whirlpools and unforgivingly vigorous fires, I had been fearing the worst when I stepped through the enormous iron gate. It wouldn’t get any easier, would it? Instead of being greeted by heart-stopping heights or barrages of bullets, though, the plain, dull-looking room we entered came as a welcome surprise. In fact, the entrance to the cave was barely 20 metres away from us.

I cast a hopeful smile towards my friends, but they merely shook their heads coldly and continued surveying the room warily. “Don’t let your guard down, this is even more dodgy.” Jisoo unnie warned disapprovingly. Point taken. I wasn’t about to doubt someone who appeared like she had nine lives, and incredibly, following the very next step we took, a large block of metal plummeted downwards and blocked off the opening to the cave. Right, it definitely wasn’t going to be that easy…

“Very impressive. It seems I underestimated girl power.” The gruff, sinister voice was back again, and just like before, it chilled me to the spine.

“Are the bolts dead?” I wondered aloud as I fumbled with the doorknob roughly, impatience and frustration boiling over as the door wouldn’t budge, and I was desperate to get back to the enthralling game.

“No, but you might be soon.” The evil chuckle that followed the simple yet impactful sentence resulted in a sudden onset of terror in my mind. I whirled around in a flash, but it was too late. A small projectile lodged itself into my neck, and in a matter of seconds everything went black.

“Square One and Two were pretty large, hmm?” The creepy voice brought me back to the present. “Square Three is...slightly different. No more robots, no more fires, you just have to survive for an hour in this unspectacular room, and Square Four beckons. Introducing...Square Three: Adaptability. Your time starts...now.” I rolled my eyes at his flair for the dramatic, but it soon became clear he wasn’t joking around.

The heat struck first. The instant his voice trailed off, it felt as if we had teleported into the Sahara Desert. The room had essentially become a large-scale oven at maximum power, making me feel like I had been set on fire. Surely scorching temperatures would be all we had to contend with? Wrong.

The sandstorm followed. Ridiculously strong gusts of wind billowed from behind us, millions of fine pellets of sand began raining down from the ceiling, and I screamed as numerous minuscule particles converged upon my eyes and attacked them with no holds barred. I’m blind! I wasn’t aware that it would hardly make a difference, for all I would have seen was sand, sand and more sand. What I was aware of, though, was that the gale force of the wind was literally sweeping me off my feet.

In a matter of seconds, I was hovering in mid-air, and as I opened my mouth to scream in terror, I ended up choking on the piping hot sand. I knew the winds were getting stronger, I knew I was beginning to accelerate forward at a worryingly fast pace, but I had no other option but to suffer in silence. And the real suffering came as I crashed hip-first onto the wall on the opposite end with great force. Then, all the action occurring simultaneously screeched to a halt. The sand settled on the floor in mounds, the air was still, and I lay on the ground clutching my hip and writhing in pain. That’s gonna be one heck of a bruise…thankfully I didn’t think anything was broken.

I glanced to my right first, where Jisoo unnie was getting to her feet unsteadily, clutching her glutes while wincing. Even so, I couldn’t help but think that she had gotten lucky, landing on the fleshiest part of the body would go some way to cushioning the staggering impact. However, Jisoo unnie’s expression showed no traces of relief. I only saw fear and worry in her expression. Slightly confused, I followed her line of sight and immediately understood.

Chaeyoung...my eyes widened in horror as her lifeless body lay slumped against the wall completely motionless. “Chaeyoung-ah!” Jisoo unnie cried out, her voice a heart-wrenching mix of pain, worry and panic, as she sprinted over to the unconscious girl. I followed in hot pursuit, and my heart rate skyrocketed as I began fearing the worst. A humongous bruise was forming on Chaeyoung’s forehead, making it apparent that she had collided head-first with the wall and been knocked out cold. I held my breath as Jisoo unnie began checking for a pulse frantically, only releasing it after she mumbled “She’s alive.”

We fondled Chaeyoung’s head delicately, shook her gently, Jisoo unnie continually whispered sweet nothings into her ear, but she simply wouldn’t come to. “Has the sandstorm ended?” I couldn't imagine what might happen to Chaeyoung if she suffered even more damage in the sorry state she was in currently.

As if on cue, the winds started howling with renewed vigour once again and the sand began spiralling rapidly mid-air. . I jinxed it. “Lisa, grab Chaeyoung! We’ve gotta stick together, it’s the only way we won’t end up being hurled around to our deaths.” I had to marvel at Jisoo unnie’s clarity of thought and survival instincts, even in the catastrophic situation we found ourselves in. She had been the first pawn deployed, almost acting as a sacrifice in the psycho’s demented game of chess, but she had resiliently avoided every trap laid out and it seemed nothing would break the rock she had proved herself to be.

With the winds only getting stronger with every passing second, we ended up sprawled on the floor in some form of awkward group hug, with little attention paid to proper organisation. Sand assaulted our bodies relentlessly, the only thing in my line of sight was a wall of brown, but I knew the bottom line was to cling to the bodies beside me, knowing my life depended on it.

In spite of our last-ditch efforts, when I felt our three-body unit skidding forward again, I was overwhelmed by resignation, it seemed we had been backed into a corner and consigned to cruel ends. I braced myself for the rapid acceleration. Miraculously, it never came. My foot came into contact with the wall with barely any impact created, and the dust settled once again.

I could see where the scientist was going with his experiment, but this was, putting it lightly, quite a sick way to test for adaptation skills. The uncomplicated, but tremendously unpleasant cycle of full-blown sandstorms striking the room after a minute's interval continued for at least fifteen more minutes, after which sand had probably covered every inch of our exposed skin. That was the least of our concerns, though, as Chaeyoung had remained unresponsive throughout the ordeal.

Jisoo unnie never cried. Or at least, I had never seen her cry. She was headstrong, took it upon herself to watch over us klutzes who were exceptionally adept at landing ourselves into sticky situations and usually bottled up her feelings, choosing to handle them herself instead of troubling us. She was the unspoken leader our clique never had. It spoke volumes about how traumatic the situations she had found herself in were that she was also sniffling uncontrollably in front of me currently, as she gazed longingly at Chaeyoung, who ironically looked very much at peace.

Seeing the girl I was usually so dependent on breaking down before my very own eyes should have been an out-of-body experience. However, I cast it out of my mind immediately as adrenaline came surging thick and fast through my veins yet again. This time, it wasn't sand we had to contend with. It was water.

Jets of water gushed into the room speedily, I wasn't sure where from, but that wasn't the pressing issue. Rather, the issue was that the water level was rising at an alarming rate. Jiso