"After the struggles that we had, it all made us speechless."
While First and Ninth are observing the time pattern of the barrier, the rest are discussing the cards.
"Do we combine carbon and oxygen? I wonder what the atomic mass or number is… Or maybe the charges." Fourth is pertaining to the 3rd card.
"Carbon monoxide? Or dioxide?" Fourth's twin brother, Fifth, guessed. She still doesn't quite remember what she learned in chemistry. "If it has anything to do with the atomic name or number, it seems unfair for us to answer that because we have memory loss." They nodded in unison at Fifth's presumption that he shared.
"What about the 4th card? It looks harder." Aeith reckoned
"As far as I know, there is no word 'amond' even if they searched it in English dictionary unless it is a foreign word," Sixth shared her thought. They all nodded.
And because Second has difficulty with both, she reread the 1st card.
Death throe - 2 syllables
What are the first 2 letters of the words when pronounced?
True, 2 syllables. First two letters, D and T... when pronounced?
"Oh, so that's the spelling of 'throe'. I thought R-O-W, haha!" Seventh have something in his mind but it turned out to be wordplay.
What Seventh mentioned a while ago struck her.
Death-throe.... Det-tro... Det-ro... D and...
Second mumbled. "What if…"
"Hm?" Fourth leaned towards her to hear what she muttered.
She took the 1st card lying on the ground.
"Okay, 'death throe' has 2 syllables. The question is, what are the first two letters of two words when pronounced?"
"Yeah, that's what they're supposed to answer." Seventh concurred.
"The answers can be letters D and R," she answered. She's not confident in her reasoning, but she will share this with the team.
"How?" They chorused.
"'When you pronounce 'death throe', the th of 'throe' becomes silent. They can say it's the letter R, like Death Row, so it's D and R."
"Oh…" Seventh pondered. Thanks to what Seventh mentioned earlier, it gave her an idea.
"The others have already passed here, come quickly!" Ninth spoke abruptly and called out Fourth and Aeith because the two of them were near him. They stood up, and they entered the invisible barrier without pain or wounds. After five seconds, it became visible, then became invisible.
The two were on the other side. They could still see them clearly because the barrier was invisible, but they could barely hear their voices.
"How did you do that?" Fifth urged Ninth.
"Every 10 minutes, the barrier becomes harmless for five seconds. When someone passes by, it's still invisible, but it becomes visible for a while and goes back to being invisible and harmful." Ninth explained to them.
The barrier couldn't handle it when they all got through at the same time because the barrier's edge was sparking like there was some sort of electricity, so they just avoided the risk of it. All girls went through first. After 30 minutes, it ended as well. Ninth was the last to go through.
They approached their leader, and what was written on the map was
Go to the right
They ran and turned right. While looking around, something fell on her face, then it fell at her feet. She picked up the last card. She promptly gave it to Third, and they read it.
Enough Lose
That's what is written. Everyone frowned because of the subtle riddle. Third pulled out the map and opened it to let them know which direction they are going after finding the 5 cards. They are jolted by what they saw. Third was no longer holding a map of the maze but an ordinary blank piece of paper. Third flipped it over, but there was really no moving image or text popping out. Ten seconds later, a text appeared on the blank white paper. The font size is big, and the font color is black.
The real game will start in 10, 9, 8,
It is a text and a countdown.
"What's happening?" - Sixth
"Real game? Didn't the game start earlier?" - Fifth
7, 6, 5,
Real game? She bit her lower lip. They can't do anything but leave stunned as they stare at the map. What is your real plan, Author?
4, 3, 2, 1 ... Good luck
Then the texts that popped out disappeared. Third's paper was almost crumpled because he is agitated. Seventh stopped him from tearing the map off because they might still need it.
"Let's solve the riddles," First initiated, and everyone agreed.
If so, the game is just starting. After all, there is a reason why the real game will only begin now.
First, why do they have a map that will make it quick to find the cards? She doesn't think Author will allow it to be that easy. Second, why is there a barrier? If they are really trying to get the treasure, why is something holding them back, and do they have to wait every ten minutes to pass through it?
The barrier slows them down towards the goal. Never mind the marathon and traps that their team encountered, because it was all just a warmup. Apparently, in parts of the story, they're not yet at the climax.
Second wonders how the gold team is doing. They all sat on the ground and formed a circle to answer all the riddles.
"Okay, riddle number 1 solved. Help me remember the answers." Third requested their cooperation on this one.
"Roger!" they affirmed in unison.
"I know the answer to riddle number 3!" Everyone was curious about what Aeith uttered. "From what Second said earlier, I thought I'd just take the first letters of the two chemicals. According to Fourth and Fifth, the chemical symbol of carbon is C, and for oxygen is O. So, C and O."
They all nodded in satisfaction at her answer. She is impressed by what she was working on.
"Alright. They'll consider your and Second's answers, but they still don't know if they can get a word or phrase from these answers." She agreed with what Third stated.
It's not just about coming up with a theoretical answer. They don't know what answer they should come up with, whether it is supposed to be a number? A word? A phrase? A sentence?