13: The Game Starts NOW 2

While Amelia was reading the next question, June suddenly felt bored. It’s almost 15 minutes after his partner went inside that room, and yet, they are still on the second question.

"Just how hard could those questions be?" he asked himself while both of his arms crossed each other. He slowly looked at the ceiling as he thought of Kanaye. 

'Maybe there won’t be any problems, wouldn't they? I think he should be okay. He was with Aki anyway,' he said to himself and looked down again.

The other students, like them, are preoccupied with solving the riddles. Others think that this was the most difficult thing for them to solve because all of the questions required them to think outside the box. While others think that this game was a piece of cake, well, at least for someone who was known as being a prodigy.

Raia just looked at Osamu as he continuously answered 4 consecutive riddle puzzles. Both of them decided that Osamu would take the easy and difficult levels while Raia would be participating in the average round.

However, Osamu only needs 5 minutes to answer 4 questions, and he is currently looking at the final riddle for this round. He clenched his hands and slowly breathed into them, trying to get rid of his nervousness.

While looking at Osamu, he could see the great difference in their IQ levels. He could not even recognize his partner earlier as he wore his thick and oldish eyeglasses. Oh well, Osamu is quite a fan of the old style. He is a fuddy-duddy person, indeed.

The strange look of Raia makes Osamu quite uncomfortable. As they decided, he would take this round. But seeing his partner look at him that way, he could not know whether Raia wanted to be here already or if he was just simply staring at him.

He shrugged his head and then looked at the pamphlet in his hands again. This is the fifth one, and he was about to enter the answer.

It only took seconds before the light from the pamphlet disappeared, which means the question has been answered. Well, this is very easy for Osamu anyway. Here is the question from that:

I’m often running, yet I have no legs. You need me, but I don’t need you. 

He was about to answer "politician", thinking that the riddle had something to do with politics. But he just can’t think of anything that relates to politics. Just like earlier, all of his answers were related to the things he could see inside the room.

So if he answers politics, then it would be nonsense since he wouldn’t get another bloody cookie that he needs to collect.

"Water," And then finally, he said his final answer and put it on the pamphlet. It only takes a second before the light goes out. He looked around and saw a bottle of water at the bottom part of the table.

He immediately went towards it and took the bottled water. He saw the door in front of him. He knew that it would be the last door on this level, so he was trying to figure out how to get out here. Not until his pamphlet lightened up again and he saw some words written on it.

"Freshwater is a good thing to get out," it says.

Osamu looked confused as he read it again and again while looking back and forth at the bottled water in his hands. He looked at Raia from the other side of the glass door. He was just looking at him until he realized that Raia was pointing something toward the door.

Osamu’s eyebrows furrowed as he looked in that direction. He saw nothing but a large glass like-aquarium but with no fish. It was divided into two with a membrane-like thing in between.

He looked at the bottle of water in his hands, and little by little, a smile appeared on his face, as if he had realized something so simple. He returned his gaze to Raia and gave him a thumbs up as if to express his gratitude.

But the latter has no idea what Osamu was saying or what he meant by that thumbs up. He just simply pointed at the door, trying to tell Osamu to get out of the door within 5 minutes. He alone could see the time limit from the outside, so he needed to warn Osamu to get out of the door. But it seems like he misunderstood him. Well, in a good way, though.

After a brief moment, Osamu exited the room with a triumphant smile, as if he had defeated something incredible.

"Hey, how was it?" Raia asked Osamu as he approached him. But he just smiled and tapped his shoulders.

"Thanks for the last advice, Raia. It helped me a lot, "Osamu suddenly thanked him and handed over the bottle of water.

"Huh? Why? " Raia finally asked.

"I turned the seawater into freshwater, all thanks to you," he said, then walked away. Raia was not an idiot, and after a second, he immediately understood what he meant.

Even he was surprised after the realization, so he looked back at the room. He examined it for a second and noticed something.

"I see," he said to himself. The water inside the bottle earlier was seawater. It contains a lot of salt molecules. And since it says that he needs to have fresh water to get out, he used the aquarium-like container in front of him.

But it was not just a simple container, as you can see some other tubes connected to it. Osamu probably applied reverse osmosis. The thing in between the glass is a membrane, while the tubes connected to it apply pressure.

To desalinate water, he applies pressure that is larger than the naturally occurring osmotic pressure, pushing the water through the reverse osmosis membrane in the process. This allows clean water to pass through while keeping back the majority of pollutants from the first water sample.

Even Raia could think the same thing if he was in the same situation, seeing the container with the membrane in front of him. But unlike Osamu, he might have consumed at least 20 to 30 minutes before he could think about it. Maybe he's just too genius.

Raia looked at the timer and saw that they still had more than 3 minutes before the time was up. He looked at Osamu, amazed. It is his first time adoring a geek. There’s no doubt that he’s a genius.

"Raia!! Come here! " Then, after a second, Osamu suddenly called him. He smiled at him and ran toward his partner. For the first time, he felt relieved to be partnered with someone like Osamu, though it hurt his pride a bit. So far, they've gotten five bloody cookies in an easy round. All thanks to Osamu.

It looked like Raia and Osamu were the first ones to finish the easy level. Others are taking their time, since they don’t have any time limit until the moment they open the door, just like Osamu. June and Amelia seemed to finish four questions after almost an hour. They took their time and did not rush anything. They have plenty of time because there is no deadline.

But still, it can’t be avoided to get a wrong answer. Other students, unlike Osamu and Raia, gave incorrect answers, resulting in fewer bloody cookies. So far, Amelia has gotten three bloody cookies. It would be enough as she has already taken at least more than half of the expected cookies to get to this level. But, because she wants to get 4 out of 5, she thinks hard about the last question.

However, in the end, thinking more than she already did, she still ends up losing another cookie. All in all, she only got 3 out of 5. Kanaye and Aki, who seemed confident at first, only got 2 cookies out of 5. This clearly shows how disappointed Aki is in herself, while Kanaye tries to comfort her.

Others also do the same. Chan Ming got 3 out of 5 with his brother Dae, Rio and Tobi got 3, and Ryota and Eva got 3 as well. Well, it seems that having 3 is good enough for now.

It might be an easy round, but it doesn't seem easy at all.

While taking their break from the game, the students ate their food to replenish their energy and hunger. Meanwhile, a pair of eyes looked at the specific student. He wasn’t expecting them to get five cookies right now, but he was confident that that guy would be the chosen one.

Oh well, he tried to manipulate everything to make him win this activity. If he let him win this activity, then he could dispose of him as soon as possible.

He smiled as he looked at the monitor.

This will be your end. Raia Yuan.