"CAN YOU PLEASE TELL ME WHAT'S HAPPENING HERE?"

I had to ask Jang-mi again, but she didn't say anything. She just looked at the Swedes and giggled.

"Let me handle this," Jang-mi finally said. "Pelle Borg? Please stop this immediately."

"Apologies, Jang-mi," Pelle shouted. "I was just testing my powers."

"Perhaps, you can do that once you get to the arena, yes?" Jang-mi said with a smile.

The Swedes walked towards the stairs and went up. Do they have the authority to do this? Shouldn't they just wait for Jang-mi to call their names?

"No. 176, the Borgs of Stockholm," Jang-mi said, eventually.

I don't know if it's just a twist of fate or it's really meant to happen, but they're giving me an energy that wasn't welcome to me.

"Hello there. I'm Sigrid," said the woman with braids. "Sorry for Pelle's mischiefs. He's such a trickster. What's your name?"

"I'm Trick," I introduced myself.

"Pelle, manners. I think you should be saying that to our guest, instead of Sigrid doing so," Ragnhild spoke.

"Hi, Trick! Sorry for what I did before," Pelle apologized.

"Please don't do it again. I was really worried," I truthfully uttered.

Eskil then clicked his hand and that weird energy caused by Pelle on the door vanished. "Can we proceed now, Jang-mi?"

"Yes, please," Jang-mi responded.

"Trick, you may go on," Sigrid commanded.

"Are you sure it's okay now?" I double-checked.

"It is," Eskil responded. "You'll be okay."

Although they're serving me this weird aura, I really don't have a choice but to pass through the door.

I held Mrs. Xing's ring tight and walked towards the light.

[In three, two, one…]

After that, I arrived at a beach. Nobody was there. I looked around and I saw a skyscraper in the middle of the forest, which I think, was taller than the Empire State building. A few moments later, a hologram of Jang-mi appeared in front of me.

"Congratulations, participant and welcome to Orkatta. You successfully entered Phase 1: The Light. You are now on Phase 2: The Jungle. All you have to do is to get to the Orkatta Tower in an hour. Beware, as there will be challenges along the way. Good luck and I hope you make it safe to the tower."

Then, the hologram disappeared.

"What the… Tower? Challenges?"

[Fei? Can you hear me? Where are you?]

I didn't receive any answer. Was my magic being blockaded by some sort of enchantment in this place?

However, I only have an hour. I can't rely on anyone but myself, so…

I clicked my hand and in just seconds, my entire body is covered with this force field from Hanniel's power, which is strengthened with Vigdis's super strength and Arnau's incantations, so if something hits me, no matter how strong it is, I can tolerate it and it can backfire with a certain spell.

I don't have a trail to follow, though. I'm just following where the direction of the tower's location. Somehow, no one's attacking me nor there isn't any bad energy around. I think I'm still okay, until…

"You!" a girl called me.

I jumped because of fright. "Oh, gosh."

"You're with Haru, yes?" she asked.

"Earlier, but something happened before I got through the door," I explained.

"It's the Borgs. I saw it," she said.

From where have I seen this girl? She seemed familiar? Wait, she mentioned Haru… Oh, yes!

"You're Fenna, right?" I asked.

"I am. I just arrived here. We were called after the Borgs of Stockholm. However, when I arrived here, I didn't expect that I wouldn't see my brothers around."

"Same," I sighed. "I got lost, I guess?"

Then, she offered. "How about we go to the tower together?"

"Okay, let's go," I answered.

"Perfect. Let's take this way," she said as she took out a black bottle and poured green liquid on the soil.

"What is that for?" I asked.

"It's a potion to mark where I've been. I have a bad feeling about this forest," she uttered.

I then followed her further as she walked into the vast jungle. While we were traversing, I asked her a question. "So, Fenna, you and Haru, huh?"

She stopped walking and faced me. "How did you know about that?"

"Well, I've been close to the Xings for quite some time," I spoke. "Was Haru not enough for you?"

Fenna giggled. "It's a matter of priorities. Books before boys, yeah?"

"But Haru's a brilliant boy, though? Can't you really open your heart to him?" In Haru's defense, I spoke.

Fenna just shook her head and poured some potion on the soil once more. "I know, but I wouldn't have achieved my current status now if I chose to be with him."

"Really? Couldn't you do it together? Like, you pull each other up?"

Fenna chuckled. "I'm very competitive. I don't want to compromise my studies for some guy. My degree is challenging enough, so I don't need to spend time with anything else but my studies."

I felt bad for Haru. He chose the girl whose priorities do not count him. "Just a thought, what course did you take in NYU?"

"Microbiology," she replied. "Though, he insisted that I should take something related to the languages, since, you know, it's his forte."

"Yeah, he's a writer, right?" I replied. "I once—"

She stopped walking and asked me, "You once what?"

I stopped myself from talking, as I caught one piece of information that changed everything.

As she was about to pour her potion on the ground, I stopped her with my palm with the bar code tattoo. "I don't know who you are, but why are you doing this?"

"What are you talking about—" She didn't even finish her sentence. She just splashed the green potion on me, but I stopped the liquid on air and threw it back to her. The green liquid dashed on her face.

"Aaaaaah!" Fenna screamed at the top of her lungs, until her face melted like ice in high noon.

I stepped back and watched her disintegrate. Then, suddenly, the entire jungle turned into these panels, and a door appeared in front of me. I went through the door and there are the other participants, but the first one that I saw was…

"Fei!"

I ran towards him and embraced him so tight. "What happened?"

Fei giggled. "It was a test. We saw everything. Look." He pointed to all the screens across the room. "Good thing you caught that detail."

"Hey, there," a girl went near me and I was shocked to see who it is.

"Oh, my gosh, Fenna! I'm really sorry," I apologized right away.

"No, no, no. It's okay. It's just Russian AI. Good catch, though!" she said.

It took a couple of minutes more until Jang-mi called all the participants. However, from 500 participants, in this hall right now, I think we're roughly 150 here.

We all discussed what happened in the room. Surprisingly, I was the last to arrive in our group. Fei encountered Eskil and figured that quickly, as the Borgs went after the Xings. Haru faced Tiberion and the merman was caught as he didn't know about Hurricane Venus, where in fact he was in the home theater when we were watching it on the news. Jia met Dakarai and he was wearing Sara, when in fact, she hadn't given it to him. Ellis, which is so him, saw Salvatore and flirted with him, but Salvatore wasn't paying attention to him, as if he really didn't know Ellis.

Then, we all waited until Jang-mi arrived at the great hall we were in. All the screens showed one video. It was the rest of the participants who didn't make it. Some are fighting, others are running, walking, hiding. They were like these people who have mental incapacities inside an asylum.

"Ladies and gentlemen, these are the participants who didn't make the first round of the competition. It's been an hour since the last group was summoned, and sadly, only 144 of you made it. Congratulations. Now, we are now going to group you into teams of three, which are based on your home countries. You will be divided into six clusters with eight teams. Please listen carefully."

I looked at Fei, and he had a ghastly face. "What now?"

"So, we won't be on the same team?" Ellis asked.

"Let us begin with Cluster 1," Jang-mi stated. "From the United States of America, Manhattan Team. Jia Xing, Haru Hoshino, and Fei Xing. Next team from Cluster 1 is…"

My heart beat so fast. My name and Ellis's weren't called, which means we will be in a different team.

"It'll be okay, guys. Don't worry. We will make it through," Jia said. She might have read the tension in my face that we weren't in the same group.

It was a long announcement and after quite some time, we're now in Cluster 6. Our names weren't called in the past clusters, so this is where Ellis and I might be.

"In Cluster 6, we have the New Orleans team. The members are Rakisha Kembabazi, Makena Kembabazi, and Chikelu Kembabazi. Next is the Dublin team, Sorcha Kavanagh, Sinead Kavanagh, and Searlait Kavanagh… Then…"

Upon assessing the remaining participants, it seemed to me that the last team would be…

"And the last team for this competition," Jang-mi announced. "We have Oakley Stevens, Machiavelli Sanz, and Trick Sylvanie, from New York City. The Queens team. That would be the teams and clusters. The matches will be announced in the next hour. Please stand by and once again, congratulations to everyone who made it to the next level of competition. [Kamsahamnida.]"

Ellis and I looked at each other. "Really, Queens?"