Max stood nearby, flashing a confident smile, but behind his grey eyes, he was calculating his losses. "Fuck! For this asshole, I lost 1 million for the secure room. If I had found out earlier, I wouldn't have lost these points. But it's okay, I know how to get my points back." He thought and made another cruel plan. "Okay. Well, "It's time for me to go," he announced in a confident tone. "I hope we meet in future Tasks."
August and Devin both exchanged a confused glance, "But Max, yesterday you told me you would be with me, right?" She interrupted.
Max gave a small, welcoming smile and patted her head. "Of course, but you've got your partner now, so I don't have to worry. He will take care of the rest of the things. I have hope for him."
She tilted her head slowly.
Devin bowed slightly, a gesture of cold respect. "Thank you for the companionship, Max."
"Okay, see you later!" Max announced as he folded his sleeves to press the teleportation button.
"Wait... Let us pay you back for yesterday's entry points. We have 26,000." Devin interrupted and stepped forward, ready to transfer his points.
Max smiled and winked his one eye coolly. "It's okay; I will collect my points later," he said casually and pressed the button.
Within a nanosecond, a small green light flashed, and he completely vanished into thin air without any trace of that person.
August and Devin's jaws dropped, and they looked around with shock. "Wow! He's so impressive!" She said, looking back at him.
"How was last night with him? Have you found anything stranger?" Devin asked.
"Good!" She blurted out, lowering her high-pitched tone when he made a side pokey eye. "I mean, it's not good; I was always worried about you! You know," she managed to lie with a puppy smile.
"Hmm. Okay," Devin clicked his watch, his expression intensifying. "I found something interesting."
"What?" August stepped closer, watching as a blue light glittered from his wrist. A complex web of lines and tangled boxes projected into the air—a digital route through the ruins.
"This watch is not a just a watch, it's an advanced device to control everything. It's a GPS," he explained, zooming out from their current coordinates. "It shows every available building in Area 99. We can see which structures are reinforced and which are just empty shells. It makes shifting locations a mechanical process rather than a guessing game."
"Wow. How did you even figure that out?" August asked, her eyes wide.
"I studied the whole night. This is not an interesting thing; we can connect our devices too. The system allows a three-person link, which means even if we get lost, we can connect through this watch!" Devin announced another mystery, his fingers swiping above the air.
"Seriously!!! This will be the best thing in the whole mess, I guess. We won't get lost," she exclaimed and raised her hand to clap his.
Devin didn't react, just ignored her like nothing. "But there's some tricky limited condition. The link is tethered to a 10-kilometre range. If one of us extends past that, the connection severs. We'd be blind again."
"We can connect again when we met?"
"Yes, I guess", he nodded.
"Beep!"
"NOT AGAIN!!!" she roared.
The rhythmic chirping of the watches cut through her exhaustion. They both looked down.
"What next?" he questioned as he clicked the watch.
[SYSTEM ALERT: EVACUATION PROTOCOL INITIATED]
[RE-APPLY ENTRY FEES: 10:00 REMAINING]
A notification popped up in HD Letters above.
The notification pulsed in high-definition letters above their wrists.
"Shit! We have to pay again!" August scrambled toward the ground-floor terminal. "We need to recharge the room before the timer hits zero!"
Devin remained confused and interrupted with a sharp, cutting tone: "Stop! We are not staying here today."
Hearing those words, August froze, turning back to him in disbelief. "What? Then where the hell are we going?"
"We are not here to stay in this single apartment; we need to move forward, eventually, time by time and find my sister and your friends," Devin said, his logic cold and unyielding. "I am not going to waste my 10,000 points on this huge apartment. We need a small house at low cost," he made his point clearly.
A creature roared, and human screams were echoed from the outside; it was clearly visible in the glass wall.
August's jaw clenched, hearing his words, and grinned. "You must be crazy!" How are we supposed to find shelter from these stupid human-eating creatures?" she roared.
"We need a plan!" Devin said simply.
"Within ten fucking minutes?" She arched her brows like a dare and shook her head in disappointment.
"Yes!"
"That's impossible! You're betting our lives on a ten-minute window!"
"Everything is possible in this world, August. Trust me." Devin swiped to a different tab on the watch—the Purchase Menu. "We aren't buying safety. We're buying power. We can buy weapons."
"But how? We left only 26,000 points"
"Together, we have 52,000," Devin corrected her, his eyes fixed on a specific icon in the armoury. "I found a purchase item. It's an old-style bolt-action rifle—rugged, heavy, and reliable. In this system, it's classified as legendary."
He looked at her, his face a mask of grim determination. "We stop paying for walls, August. We start paying for bullets."
"So, what's your plan?" she asked in a lower trustable tone.
"How much is it?"
"Umm! Nearly 45000 points," Devin started.
Before he finishes his sentence, "Seriously? You are going to spend whole points for that fucking gun." She shouted; her voice echoed in the whole empty ground floor. "I don't think so; it's useful now." She swiped her hair back.
Devin didn't flinch. "It's not just a gun, August. It's a guarantee."
August stepped forward, looking into his blue eyes, "I am not gonna give my points to purchase that stupid gun?" she rejected without second thought.
A disapproving smirk curled on his lips. He punched the air and let out a deep exhale to regain control. "Then, are you going to stay here?"
"No! It doesn't mean that, but today's scenario is different, and we have no idea how the creature will react or where it will stay. We need a plan, Devin," she murmured in a low, calm tone.
"What about a speaker?" Devin suggested a new idea, "It may draw the attention into one direction. Using that time, we will find the shelter or any place to hide. Trust me, this will work perfectly. Last night, there were no screams at all. So, this is a chance to get out!"
[TIME REMAINING: 03:00]
"Who's going to set it? Where are we even going?" August demanded, her breath hitching.
"I am going to set that speaker in the corner of this road path. After that, we are leaving for the other side of the road!" He suggested.
She still thought it was a foolish idea but chose not to say anything, simply nodding in agreement. He proceeded to purchase the settings and clicked on the speakers, which cost around 22,000.
He clicked the purchase symbol below a single speaker; both are curious how it will appear. Suddenly, on the floor, a circular panel spun open with a sharp, crackling mechanical sound, and a speaker emerged from the ground like a rising tombstone. Devin snatched it up and pressed a volume button to check whether it was working. The sound blasts through the empty hall.
Then he prepared himself, holding it tightly, ready to run.
August's fingers hunched the metal knob to push open. They burst through the heavy doors into the street. Noticing no one was on the road, not even zombies or humans. The area was clean and silent, and there was no movement around.
"Where did they go?" August whispered, her boots pounding against the pavement. "Why is it so quiet?"
Devin, looking around with the same confusion, says, "I am also wondering." He said, breathing heavily after thirty minutes of running, "Maybe it's time to run without stopping."
"Yeah, it's better." She said, running without any rest.
Suddenly, a sharp, piercing, jagged alarm wailed from every skyscraper at once. August immediately recoiled, her hands closed her ears and screaming against the noise, unable to bear that noise. "Where the hell is that sound coming from?"
The next minute, the sound vanished completely as if it never existed.
They didn't regain their posture. Suddenly, a chorus of human screams erupted from the clouds.
Both of them are looking at the sky, and a bunch of people are flying down towards them. "It's happening again?" she murmured, "Are we in a loophole or what?"