Chisiya and I waited another day before we joined another game.

It’s time to go and I put on my shoes. I am a bit nervous. You never know what kind of game we’re going to get. I do hope it’s going to be a clubs game or a spades game and not a hearts game. I honestly hope I never have to do one.

Like the man from the first game said; it’s the most troublesome one. We head out after we had something to eat and look for a game. Some buildings in the distance light up. It’s quite a walk to all of them, but we should be able to make it on time.

“Should we head for the mansion over there?” I point to a beautiful, big mansion.

“Got a good feeling about that one?” Chisiya asks as he already makes his way over there.

I simply nod and just walk with him. It takes us about 20 minutes to get there and we each grab a phone. I look around and see two familiar faces. It’s the guy with the blonde hair from the first game and Kyuma.

The blonde guy wasn’t alone; he was talking to what seems to be his friend.

I remember he lost a friend in the first game so I make my way over.  

“Hey, I remember you from the first game. How are you doing?” I ask

He looks up and nods. “I’m doing better now, thanks for asking. Also thank you for helping me back then. If I stayed there I probably would’ve died as well.”

“No problem. My name is Luna by the way.”

“Karube, and this is Chota” he points to the guy standing next to him. I can see he’s injured, his leg is all wrapped up and some blood is seeping through, probably happened in a game.

“Nice to meet you. Hopefully your leg will heal soon. If you need any help, let me know. I’m gonna head back to my friend now before the game starts.” I smile and walk back to Chisiya.

“The guy from the Tag game.” He says as I stand next to him.

“Yup, brought his friend with him. Poor guy hurt his leg, hopefully that won’t get in the way of them with this game.” I sigh and look at my phone as it lights up.

Registration has closed. There are a total of 10 participants. The game will now commence.

Difficulty, Six of Clubs.

My first Clubs game, and a slightly high level. Clubs games are team battles that balance the different elements of teamwork.

Please form a 2 teams of 5.

I look at Chisiya and he scans the other players. “let’s go for the people we already know.” He says and makes his way to Kyuma. So I head over to Karube and Chota.

“Want to join our team? That’ll make five.” I ask.

Chota whispers something in Karube’s ear, but I couldn’t hear what. Karube does the same thing to him and then looks at me.

“We’ll join your team.”

Kyuma joins the team as well, so we have enough now. Hopefully we’ll finish the game together. The phone lights up again.

[Game] Treasure Hunt - Deathmatch

[Clear condition] Leave the house first by finding the keys through solving riddles.

[Rule] Team must stay together. If one leaves the room before riddle is solved, you die.

[Time limit] 120 minutes. If one team hasn’t escaped by then, everyone will die.

I am actually a bit relieved by this. I’m good with riddles. And no running or anything, so the injured Chota should be fine with all this.

Please enter the house. One team will go left. Other team will go right. Whatever team  leaves first will win. The other team will die.

I take a deep breath as we enter the house. We go through the door on the right and it closes behind us. The lights go on; the room is quite charming; it resembles a hallway. The wall is filled with paintings, clocks, photos of nature, almost every space on it is filled with something. There isn’t too much furniture in here, just the basic things.

“We have two hours in total. We don’t know how many riddles we’re going to get. Let’s get started and go through them as quick as possible.” Kyuma begins.

“I agree.” I walk to the table in the middle of the room and see the first riddle.

“Okay, first riddle guys: I have cities but no houses. I have mountains but no trees. I have water but no fish. What am I?” I put the card down and look around the place.

“Cities, no houses. Mountains, no trees. Water, no fish” Karube repeats, scratching the back of his head.

I look at the pictures that are hung on the wall.

“It could be one of the things on the wall. They put up so many of these.” Chota joins in.

“The first one is normally easy, they want to give you some hope in actually finishing the game. So I think you’re right.” Kyuma says as he starts to look at everything that’s on the wall.

Chisiya is quiet and looks around as well and after a few minutes he calls out.

“It’s a map. Look.” He points at a map that’s hung on the wall, and we all walk to him to see for ourselves.

“It has cities but no houses. Mountains but no trees. Water but no fish. It’s this.”

He takes the map from the wall and finds a key on the back of it. The key for the next door.

Alright, first one was kind of easy, just like Kyuma said. We don’t know how many riddles there will be, but it’s the plan to just stay calm and think.

We make our way to the next room and Karube goes for the card. This room is more styled like a standard living room. Decoration items are all over the place, both on the wall as well as on the table, in and on the cabinets, by the windows. It’s way more full than the first room.

“Second one: This thing all things devours: birds, beasts, trees, flowers; gnaws iron, bites steel; grinds hard stones to meal; slays kings, ruins towns and beats high mountains down.”

This one is a bit more difficult, but I heard it somewhere before.

“I’ve heard it before.” Chisiya says. “but I can’t remember the answer to it.”

“Could it be fire? Because fire can destroy stone into powdery meal.” Karube asks.

“I don’t think I’ve seen a fire beat high mountains..” Kyuma says.

“True. Let’s think again.”

“I believe water could be possible.” Kyuma adds. “Kings can be slain by water in many ways. Both iron and steel diminish and fade under waters influence. It carves paths through mountains and water conditions by flooding or tainted water ruin towns.”

That actually makes sense. We look around for anything made out of water and find a few bottles around the room, but none have a key attached.

“Then what could it be? We are wasting time in this room now.” Chota says. It’s been at least a good 10 minutes since we entered this room.

“Wait! That’s it! The answer is time.” I say, and I also remember where I heard it before.

“I’ve seen it in a movie!” Chisiya and I both say at the same time.

“Time devours everything! Look for a clock or anything that has to do with time!”

We start looking around the room again and on the small table by the window was a small digital clock. I pick it up and see the key taped under it.

“Got it!”

Everyone walks into the next room; a child’s bedroom and Karube grabs the note once again.

“There are two notes here. This one says: What makes this number special?” He grabs the other note with a number on it and holds it up for us to see.

8.549.176.320

Something different this time. What makes this number special? But before I can even have the chance to think about it, Chota speaks up.

“I know the answer.”

“Well, do tell us.” Kyuma says.

“But I don’t know what to look for then.”

“We’ll figure it out. Just give us the answer.” I add

“The numbers are in alphabetical order. E for eight.. all the way to the Z for Zero.” He finally says.

I think about it and he’s right. But how do we find the keys to the next room with this information?

“Maybe look for a math’s book, or something that has to do with the alphabet?” I don’t sound to sure about it, but we still look around.

After about 2 minutes of searching the room Karube finds a book. “I think this is it. It’s called ‘Learn ABC.’” He opens the book and sees it’s hollowed out and holds the key.

“We’re doing great guys!” I say as we walk into the next room, the 4^th room; it was another living room, almost identical to the first one.

I walk up to the table and read out the next riddle.

“It can’t be touched and can’t be felt. It can’t be seen or heard or smelt. It lies behind stars and under hills, and any empty holes it fills. It comes early and follows after. Ends life and kills laughter. What is it?”