Gi Kwang quickly brought the lamp with him and put it in his backpack. As the boys got lower down the staircase, the padlock automatically locked itself and the entrance closed; hidden again.

The boys continued to go down.

Upon reaching the bottom, they were met by army robots who started shooting at them.

Immediately, the simulation was stopped.

“Boys, the objective is to stay alive—not get killed the moment you find the entrance. We will restart the simulation. This is the purpose of today’s training. We will repeat and repeat the simulation until you can get through the whole thing perfectly. At anytime you befall a situation we deem that you can’t handle, it’s an automatice restart. Are we clear?”

“YES SIR!”

“Alright.”

The simulation has been going on for 12 times now.

After getting through the entrance, the boys activate the device Prof. Woo gives them.

It is a device that imitates its surroundings—in other words, it serves as camouflage.

The boys easily pass through the army robots, going through every area looking for the master control room.

The Army Leader says that it is a hidden room—much like the entrance, they have to check everywhere.

The entire lab seems like a puzzle.

The boys soon realize that their camouflage won’t protect them the entire time in the lab.

Some rooms had invisible lazer beams, and no amount of cloaking was going to stop that.

That’s when they discovered the importance of Dong Woon’s deck of cards.

The first time they entered a lazer beam room, Dong Joon felt a searing pain on his leg without knowing caused it. The simulation was repeated. After about 2 tries, they found out there was lazer when Hyun Seung slid in a compact mirror he carried around with him. A beam appeared and reflected off the mirror—they assumed the whole room was filled. But they didn’t know how to make all the beams appear. So they asked for a restart—and Hyun Seung asked for powder. Watching spy films was good after all. They reached the same room later on and he blew some powder in the room revealing all the lazer. They came to a conclusion—there was no way they were getting through. The room was literally FILLED with lazers; absolutely no spaces to step on even if they knew acrobatics. There didn’t seem to be any switches either. They tried shooting at every side of the room to see if anything would happen, but nothing did. Yo Seob noticed a horizontal slit at the doorpost—something like where you slip your card in for ATM machines. It had the symbol of a spade engraved on top of it. He showed the others, then Dong Woon pulled out his cards and inserted all 13 spades. The lazers disappeared.

12 more repeated simulations later, they found out there were 4 rooms with invisible lazers (corresponding to spades, hearts, clubs, diamond), 3 rooms filled with army robots, 4 hidden passages on walls that brought them right back where they started, 3 trap doors to a pit of mechanical rats, and 3 more trap doors to a pit of mechanical spiders. They’ve been to what looked like a training room, rooms with computers, rooms with books, rooms with unfinished inventions, but still the master control room hasn’t been found.

Around this time, turns out the sun was setting already. The boys and everyone were told to take a break—they gathered to the assembly area where food and drinks were distributed.

While eating, the boys discussed their next moves.

Hyun Seung- “Man… 24 tries now and still no luck… I think we’ve d every wall and stepped on every floor tile over a hundred times already—the laboratory’s probably feeling harassed by now. (-_-)”

Doo Joon- “Did we check all items in each room?”

Dong Woon- “Well, we just recently found 2 new rooms with bookshelves. Let’s just explore those next.”

Gi Kwang- “It’s become really difficult compared to the first few times… not to mention when we found out our camouflage device only works for around 10 minutes before it needs to recharge (^_^) We were running for our lives during the 15^th simulation. Thank goodness it also takes only 10 minutes for the charging to finish.”

Yo Seob- “I think that the 2 new rooms we found are probably the last rooms in the lab. I think we’ve searched the entire place already all except the hidden control room.”

Doo Joon- “What makes you think that Yo Seob?”

Yo Seob- “After falling for the same traps, going in the same rooms and walking the same passageways, I just don’t think there are anymore places left to go—which means we’re close to finding the hidden control room.”

Doo Joon- “Well, we’ll find out in the next simulation. It’s a good thing that around the 18^th time we actually thought about spiltting up. I completely forgot we had ear pieces for communication.”

Hyun Seung- “Yeah (-_-) can’t believe no one told us beforehand. Those crazy people; ‘assuming’ that we knew just because it was on our ears.”

Dong Woon- “Actually, now that I think about it hyung, I’m surprised we never noticed (^_^).”

Gi Kwang- “Gosh well, it wouldn’t hurt if they at least gave us a hint about it seeing that we never used it the last 17 simulations (-_-). But hey, it’s about as twisted as this entire training. They already know where the control room is, but they won’t tell us—right from the start, they knew everything about the lab since Prof. Woo told them. I’m wondering why they don’t just let us know instead of making us find out. Wouldn’t it be easier that way? Or do they just enjoy the way we fall for every trap in that maze-like laboratory?”

Yo Seob- “Actually, this wasn’t such a bad idea. Since we’ve had to look for everything ourselves, we practically know the lab inside and out, save for the last 2 rooms and the hidden control room. I seriously doubt I’ll forget anything later after all that we’ve been through.”

Doo Joon- “Ok, enough chatter. Let’s finish our food and prepare for the next simulation. Regarding the 2 new rooms, Hyun Seung and I will go to the right room while Yo Seob and the rest go to the left room. Clear? Preferrably, we find the control room soon—the sooner we find it, the sooner we can focus on perfecting our execution of the mission. We have yet to execute it without someone getting shot at least once.”

Training resumed.

The boys got through quickly and made their way to the 2 unexplored rooms. They split up accordingly and started looking everywhere.

Yo Seob talks to the other members using his ear piece.

Yo Seob- “Doo Joon hyung, this room looks quite normal. We’re currently checking the books on the shelves. How about you guys?”

Doo Joon- “Same here… keep searching.”

“Oh!”

Dong Joon- “Guys, Gi Kwang hyung found something.”

Hyun Seung- “What’s happening there?”

Gi Kwang- “I took off one of the books from the bookshelf, and the bookshelf split in half revealing a door.”

Yo Seob- “We’re walking inside now… it looks like… a pantry? It’s got supplies and stuff.”

“Congratulations boys. You’ve found the pantry. Prof. Woo had a hunch that Na Hyun is being kept there, but he’s not really sure since he didn’t see where Jun Hyung took her.

Now you’ve got only the control room to find.”

  Doo Joon- “That means the control room is probably in here Hyun Seung. Let’s hurry and look for it.”

Yo Seob- “We’ll go there and help you guys.”

The boys search carefully, but so far nothing.

Gi Kwang saw a lamp shade on a dusty table.

Gi Kwang- “Hmm…”

He took out the old lamp he hid away in his backpack. When he lifted the lampshade, there was a square mark on the table; similar shape to the bottom of the lampstand. Gi Kwang placed the lamp on top of that mark and after putting on the lampshade, the bookshelves in the room moved apart revealing the hidden control room.

Dong Woon- “Hyung, what did you…”

Gi Kwang- “Told ya the lamp would be handy~”

The boys quickly ran into the room, with Yo Seob ahead of the others. As soon as he stepped foot inside, he was punched in the face by a robot.

The simulation stopped.

“Boys, good job on finding the Control Room. But you should know that place is heavily guarded, since it’s the master control room; Prof. Woo thinks that Jun Hyung might be in there. So, we recreated an army robot with more strength and capacity than the others; but of course, we couldn’t recreate him exactly—that is too difficult.

You’re mission is to stop Prof. Lee without getting killed by Jun Hyung. When you enter the room, you’ll see a skull icon on the main computer. When you click it, a message box will appear—ACTIVATE ROBOTS: ACTIVATE, DEACTIVATE. You have to successfully click on the deactivate box. As soon as you do so, destroy the computer so Prof. Lee can’t reactivate them. By that time, I’m sure our troops will be able to make it there; we’ll take care of Prof. Lee.

The coutry will be safe again.

So, are you boys ready for another try?”

The day went by, and the group kept on failing everytime they went against the Jun Hyung robot.

Pretty soon, it was already well into the night.

“Boys, time to stop.”

Doo Joon- “But Sir, we haven’t succeeded yet. We’ve tried every tactic against Jun Hyung,  but he’s able to stop every one of us from reaching the computer.”

Hyun Seung- “All at the same time, too! We need to try again.”

“No; now is the time to rest. Everyone shall rest. You will sleep for 3 hours, and when the dawn comes, you will get into the helicopter and proceed with the mission; prepared or not.

Listen; it’s obvious that more tries won’t get you anywhere—Jun Hyung’s the perfect army robot, after all. And this is just the simulation; the real Jun Hyung will not hesitate to finish all of you in one blow.

But there’s still hope; no one knows what the future will bring. So pray hard before you sleep; pray for a miracle. You may continue to strategize with each other, but while lying down and only for 30 minutes. You must regain all your strength.

Go on and rest well.”

The boys felt sad that they were no longer allowed to continue their simulation practice.

After a whole day of training, in the end all of it was meaningless because they couldn’t beat the Jun Hyung robot.

The real Jun Hyung will be even harder than this.

The only thing they could do was to rely on a miracle.

They lied together in the sleeping quarters that night.

“Yo Seob hyung, I can’t sleep.”

“Oh; why? What’s wrong Dong Woon?”

“… we couldn’t finish the practice mission… do you think we’ll die?”

“Aww, Dong Woon; of course not. God’s on our side here. To be honest, I’m worried too. But we have to trust; we have to pray. I’m sure things will be alright.”

“…ok; I’ll continue praying until I fall asleep…  I can’t believe the other hyungs fell asleep the moment they lied down.”

“Well, we had a rough day Dong Woon. You should’ve seen it coming, hahaha.”

“How about you hyung? Why aren’t you asleep yet? Are you worried about Na Hyun?”

“… A little I guess… I was so focused on thinking that I have to save the country, that when the Army Leader said Na Hyun might be kept in the pantry… I don’t know; I guess I missed her…”

“Hyung is so stupid—you broke up with her while you still loved her, hahaha. Stuuuupid~”

“Shut up dude; I won’t let it happen again.”

“The next time I hold her in my arms, I promise I won’t let go.”

“Good for you hyung; good night. See you at dawn.”

“You too; may the Lord be with us.”