----Four days later----

"Have you recovered from your wound, oppa?" asked Kris while they are seated in the living room's couch.

Kris' neck was still bandaged, nodding to answer her question. "A bit. It's not that painful anymore compared to the last time it was still fresh. I couldn't speak at all."

"Must have been hard for you to sleep at night." Tao bit his lower lip. "My eyes are okay now. That was some strong pepper spray."

leaned in against his shoulder. "Another exposure to it would affect your vision. Be careful, if there is a next time to encounter it again." she intertwined her fingers to his.

Tao then responded by grasping her hand tightly. "I will be fast."

"I feel nervous for some reason. . . ." Kris glanced at the door then back at them.

"Is it because. . . ." couldn't find the right words to describe it, but Kris knew what she's trying to tell.

"Nearly there for me. I couldn't imagine something about flight."

"But a dragon breathes fire as well?" Tao pointed out.

"True. But it can be related to air as well." pointed out another one.

"Whatever it is, I would be hanging upside down-"

Screech.

The trio flinched from that sudden sound. It was that creepy speakers again. The clock's long hand would be pointing at 12 soon and the small hand at 4. It would be game time again for them, but hopefully, no more distractions would be made.

Well, well, well. . . .
Five of you are left!
I wonder how will it end for all of you?
Days pass by so quickly. . . .

Anyway,
I am guessing you three have some ideas on what's ahead.
Ding, ding, ding!
We'll play 100 Doors!

Proceed to the 24th floor's center lift.
To go there, use the left or right wing's lift.

After that, nothing was further instructed. quickly spoke in order not to forget what's in her mind. "I actually know 100 Doors."

"Huh?" Kris and Tao gave her a puzzled look.

She then explained. "It's an application. Since it's 2013, I think it's 100 Doors 2013."

Tao tried guessing. "I don't get it. If it's an application, does that mean we're playing live?"

"Maybe so." Kris shrugged his shoulders.

"If it is live. . . .some are only applicable for a live one to happen." frowned. "And those are really hard to guess. We need brains."

"Three is better than one." Kris nodded, pursing his lips. "This is Kai's turn to die. Maybe he's inside the elevator?"

"Possible." stood up. "We should probably go." she walked out first.

Tao and Kris followed her behind and out they went of their room. The three turned left because it was the nearest route to the west lift. As they walk through the hallway, they couldn't help the feeling of being watched. Was it because it's only the three of them left? Or are they afraid of what's ahead of them?

Questions were unanswered, but they have to press onwards and find out the truth. Finally, they arrived at the west wing's lift to go up some levels. pressed the up button, waited for the door to open, they all went in, and proceeded to the 24th floor. It only took a few minutes and they were now on the 24th floor.

The trio stepped out of the elevator and automatically went to the center to find the elevator. After another few minutes of walking, when the elevator came into view, their eyes bulged out of what there were seeing.

"What in the world is that wallpaper design?"

Kris halted into a stop, scanning the tiles surrounding it, and also the three huge chess pieces with a specific number on them, embedded on the right of the golden door of the elevator, along with an X Y Z letters on its left. On top of the door were also the same three letters, but in small letters. The left and right tiles contained some two digit numbers, and the X Y Z letters are placed either at the top left, two of them, and the other letter at the bottom right.

"A knight, a castle, and a pawn." Tao read the numbers on each of them. "One, two and one."

then saw a note taped over something. She took it in her hand immediately and read it out loud for them to hear. "You'll be answering four puzzles. If you got the number codes right, the elevator door will open up and inside, you'll find another note for the next instructions. You will use the stairs to proceed to another floor. Time limit? None. Spend your time thinking about the puzzle until you see. . . . .Kai and Luhan. Although Luhan has been. . . .dying to see you guys."

Exchanging looks with them, appears to be horrified. "I don't like the sound of that."

"We solve it. Now." Kris looked at the puzzle along with her and Tao.

Their heart rates were increasing as they try and solve it, but they have to keep calm about it to think properly. "Okay. They're chess pieces. Maybe we should use them like how we play chess?" Kris suggested.

Tao followed. "And maybe those are the number of moves and we place them on the black and white tiles?"

"Let's try then. Knight X, and we'll do the L move. That would land~ here." pointed at number 37. "Number 37."

"Castle Y to number 12." Tao dictated.

"Pawn Z to number 95." Kris told the last number.

 then approached the decoder, inputting the corresponding password. " 3 7 1 2 9 5."

Ding.

The button lights up in green, and the elevator door opened wide. "Yes! We cracked the code!" she exclaimed.

"Let's go!" Kris gestured a nod and they hurriedly went inside, while Tao waited out.

As they did so, they saw another note attached inside.  saw it together with Kris. "Floor 32?"

"Okay. Let's go up." Kris went out first followed by , telling Tao what floor they would go next while running. "We'll go to floor 32."

"Whoa. 8 levels." Tao's voice echoed as they used the stairs to go 8 levels up.

A total of 9 minutes were used up and they have arrived at the designated floor, catching heavy breaths from climbing up the stairs in a hurry. "Okay~ ha~ next puzzle?" walked a few steps before taking a good look of the puzzle. "Crap."

"Why?~" Tao also had the same reaction as her the moment he laid eyes on the puzzle. "Double crap."

"Make that triple." Kris' brain wanted to burst by seeing many arrows in different directions, surrounding the elevator door and a single bullseye. "How do we solve this? I don't see any password decoder."

"Maybe we have to move, slide, or press these arrows?" Tao tried touching one arrow and it sunk surprisingly, hearing a clicking sound. "Okay, so we press them." it went back to normal after 8 seconds.

stayed silent to have a deep thought before suggesting. "Hmm. . . .we have a bullseye, right? So we need to press some arrows that would hit it? Like point to it?"

"These three arrows are pointing to it." Kris sat on his heels near the bullseye.

"Make it four?" Tao pointed at his far left.

"Try pressing them!" Tao and Kris did what told them to do and pressed the four arrows. But after 8 seconds, nothing happened. "That didn't work at all."

"Let's think of another way." Kris stood tall and stretched his right arm above his head.

Tao raised an eyebrow after seeing him do that. "What are you doing, gege?"

"I can only reach the 1st row of arrows and. . . ." Kris pointed at the crossbow at the upper left corner. "What if we start there?" he then brought his arm down.

stepped further away from the elevator to trace the trail of arrows with her eyes. ". . . .11 clicks and that last arrow, 2nd row, 2nd column, points down to the bullseye."

"Let's give it a shot?" Tao hoped it would work.

"Tell me what I must press." Kris went near the crossbow.

"Press the arrows in this sequence. . . ." pointed the arrows in sequence. Tao also helped with the pressing.

After finishing the sequence, the elevator door opened widely. They let out a huge sigh of relief because they thought they would be stuck figuring out the puzzle forever. When they looked inside, number 40 appeared, painted just straight ahead of their view. But the image was something that would make you shiver. It was painted in dark red, still dripping wet on the elevator floor like it was someone's blood, thick and new.

"Is that. . . .blood?" Kris stared at it for a while.

"I think so, gege." Tao hugged himself.

furrowed her eyebrows, mumbling her first sentence. "Dying to see us?. . . .That's Luhan oppa's blood. We should go!" she suddenly ran off to the stairs.

Both of their heads turned and immediately tailed her behind. "Why do you think so?!"

"I just have a hunch! And it smells like blood!" skipped 1 step to be faster.

Kris and Tao glanced at each other while running up. "How can she tell?" Kris asked.

"Beats me." Tao shrugged his shoulders. "But I would be scared if it is Luhan gege's blood. The killer's words are sometimes hidden and mischievous."

"You may be right about that, Tao."

Running all the way up to the 40th floor was tiring, but it was worth it since they are now close in finding Luhan and Kai. But something was definitely not right. They were on the final level of the hotel, and it's just the third puzzle. What could be the final puzzle? Putting that thought aside, they finally saw the third puzzle and it was about math.

"Math. . . ." Tao blinked twice, looking at the numbers.

Kris checked one out. "And we see four clocks?" he tried turning the upper left clock and something clicked after he did so.

had an idea after she divided the numbers. "Try turning them all?"

"Okay." Kris turned the clock and it had 7 clicks before it went back to its starting point. "7 turns."

Tao tried turning the upper right clock and it had 9 clicks. "This one had 9 turns."

"Oh~ try turning the rest!" she said.

Kris bent down to turn the lower left clock. "10 turns."

"8 turns." Tao finished turning his clock. "So, what's your idea?"

She cleared before answering. "When I divided the numbers, the number of turns you guys did was the answer."

Tao and Kris nodded in awe. "Oh~"

"So I assume, the 7 turns you did, Kris oppa, should only be turned twice." pointed the 21/3 fraction and then the upper left clock.

"Let's try it then." Kris then turned the clock twice by the number of clicks he heard.

"Then that clock should be turned 6 times." she pointed the 30/3 fraction and then the lower left clock.

Kris followed what she said and then she asked Tao to turn the others by starting from the upper right then to the lower right. "Four times and then three times."

After doing so, when Tao finished turning the lower right clock, they heard the 'ding' of the elevator door. When it opened wide for them to see, their eyes widened in horror. A video camera was playing the scene of how D.O was crushed inside the car crusher and while it was sitting on its tripod, to their concern, Luhan was sprawled on the elevator floor with his own pool of blood, the cloth on his back was battered and ripped, even down to his legs.

"LUHAN!!!"

The two boys immediately dragged Luhan away from the elevator, leaving something inside when they moved him. His body was so cold and he had a lot of wound slashes. It came into conclusion that he was whipped everywhere. nearly wanted to cry as they laid him down the floor, with her sitting on her heels to lay his head on her lap, slightly patting his cheek to wake him up.

Kris had a bitter expression as he stared at Luhan's wounds and his blood, still fresh, trickling down the side of his mouth. "His face is even bruised. . . . ." he knelt down beside Luhan, trying to whip up some breeze by fanning his hands.

"Op-ppa~ wake up~" tried her best to stay calm, but her emotions were overflowing that tears began falling. "Luhan oppa~ please wake up~"

Tao's eyebrows came together as he stood there, grimacing at how horrible Luhan's torture was. He then glanced inside the elevator and saw something square lying around, next to the video camera's tripod. He went back inside to get the video cam and also the square object.

"Oppa~ it's ~ hang on~" she sniffed, gulping down. "I know you can hear me~"

It took minutes before Luhan responded with a soft groan, saying her name. ". . . . . . .. N~no~"

Kris moved around. "Luhan gege responded! He's conscious!"

Tao turned his head to see them aiding Luhan, and so he went back to them, carrying the square object and the video camera. "Can he make it?!"

felt happy, smiling faintly to talk to him again. "Yes, yes! It's me! Hang on!"

"No~. . . . " Luhan weakly lifted his bloodied left hand to touch her cheek, opening his eyes half way. "R-ru-b-bik's. . . .c-cube. . . .l-last. . . .pu-u. . .z-zle. . . ." he was trying to say something but he couldn't get his conscious straight and so he went unconscious again.

"Oppa! What Rubik's Cube?!" shook him lightly but he was too weak to answer back.

"He's asleep, ." Kris bit his bottom lip, wiping his teary eyes. "Let's just watch him from now. I'll carry him."

Tao looked at the bloodied square object on his hand and decided to hand the video cam to  while Kris slipped his arms under Luhan's back and legs. "Hold the cam and check this out. . . .I think it's the cube." Tao wiped the blood away using his shirt and then it revealed the half completed Rubik's Cube. "It's quite heavy."