It is another ordinary day at the Chronosseum, where a large stage and fourteen pirate rides were simply built in the middle of the lake of an amusement park, where Estres play their first official 'regular' game. After that poor welcome from Revon, the crow tamer (Or the bird watcher, according to Farkas), Estre had a better understanding of what they were dealing with. Estre did whatever the Chronosseum government wanted to save their life. For now.

The pirate rides are already 'sailing' as Revon promised: moving smoothly, heaving, swaying as if the lake's waves naturally caused the movement. Whereas the cause is actually the core mast and the cylinder above that connects the ships, making it possible for the ship to move flexibly in all directions. It amazes Grey that all the ships have their own unique motions, just like the sight of a fleet of ships sailing together in the middle of the ocean.

In this game, Chronosseum seems to be trying hard to make the immersive experience truly felt by Estre. The artificial breeze blows cool, the sound of artificial waves rustles through the speakers, the puppet birds are released flying above the clouds. This sense of awe at this different experience made all of Estre fall for a moment, wishing that they really were sailing away from the hell where they had set foot in.

The crow tamer broke Estre's delusion, signalling the monitor so that it showed the [Safe Seat] numbers in the first stage:

36, 26, 43

In this first stage, Estre are given 5 minutes to find the [Safe Seat] before the [First Obstacle] begins. The appearance of those numbers and times made the situation on every ship a mess. They frantically searched for where the [Safe Seat] were located. Five minutes is not a long time. They think the chance of being eaten by a bull shark will be greater if they don't manage to get a [Safe Seat] as soon as possible.

However, Grey instead used a few minutes of those five precious minutes to build cooperation with the crew of his ship. He knew very well that all Estre on the ship would be saved from defeat and even death by working together.

"All of you! Please don't be panic! Cool your heads and listen to me!” Grey shouted at all of Estre, who was busy looking for [Safe Seat] because the number had been leaked. Grey occupied all of Estre's attention on his ship; hence they stopped their activities. He then took command, gathering them in the middle of the ship. At this very moment, he became the captain of the ship.

“We can work together to find those safe seats! And if we do find them, we'd better give the first two safe seats to the women, while the remaining of us stick to the last stage to find the rest of the seats."

The atmosphere on ship 13 was quiet for a moment, in contrast to the overwhelming in the other majority ships where each was busy looking for their own behalf. Estre on board 13 mumbled in silence, pondering how the men would survive the first three obstacles and whether the plan was worth trying.

“Listen, it may sound absurd, but the truth is we all can survive in the first three obstacles. Think about it carefully, they didn't immediately tell us all of the safe seat numbers. This means some of the players definitely won't be 'lucky', right? Only three that are leaked in the first stage, meaning if all of the seats are found, then the other four Estre have to survive the first obstacle without the safe seats! And so on until the last part. They kept giving us a chance until the end of the game to find the remaining safe seats, as long as we can survive those first three obstacles."

"So what's your point?" Asked one of the men.

“We can survive all three obstacles by hugging a seat or holding on to our dear life to the mast of the ship. For the last safe seat, we can give it to the strongest man.”

Grey looked at the burly man, “One person who doesn't get a safe seat in the end can hold their hands or something to this strongest man to keep himself from falling when the ship flips over in midair at the final obstacle! Dangerous one, but believe me, this way we will all be safe, without anyone having to fall into the lake! We have to work together like crew members, right? If you listen to the tale told by that crow man, maybe cooperation is the essence of this game! With five people roaming freely until the very end, we should be able to find those safe seats easily!”

Woah, that's a great idea from that man who is good at throwing a basketball. He can use his head. Compared to these idiots like anchovies, he's like tuna. It would be interesting if I, the shark, were given the opportunity to play with him. Makoto, who was on ship number 14, had already found one of the [Safe Seats] thanks to the 'plan' and 'information' he had gathered before the game started. That's why in less than thirty seconds, he was already able to observe how the game was unfolding on the other ships casually from his seat.

But, is that alone enough to drive cooperation on your ship? The plan was good, but something important was missing from the plan: certainty and trust. Your strategy in this situation wouldn't work without those two things.

No one answered Grey's plan, but Estres felt Grey's words made sense and almost agreed to his plan until one of the different men opened all the players' eyes.

“Look, I agree with your argument that maybe we can all survive on the ship and win. But, isn't that unfair? These women sit nicely while we men risk our lives?” The two women on the ship looked away, trembling with fear.

"Do you have the heart to let a woman or even a granny risk her life?"

The man was silent for a moment, glanced at the two women standing opposite each other, and scratched his head.

“Even if I don't have the heart, are you sure we can find all those safe seats? It would be a mistake if we all lost instead because we couldn't find a safe seat. Then, can everyone here really be trusted? Especially the thugs there. Are you sure he wants to help? Then most importantly, how do we decide who will hang on the final stage?” The man's words left Grey speechless, “Then how about my idea; You're the last person not to get a safe seat. It's up to you to believe in whom. What is your answer?"

Grey is not distrustful of someone's 'helping' ability, but he is more concerned with the word 'hanging'. He imagines in the future if he has to hang to a seat or someone's hand while swinging on the high-speed ride. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up, all the pores on his skin oozed cold sweat, his legs trembled incessantly even though it was only happening in his mind. Grey is not traumatized, just 'afraid' of heights, and he has no experience riding high-speed rides or those that take him high into the air other than the pirate ride in his childhood. Because of that, her guts shrunk, causing her to look away from the man.

"See? You yourself are reluctant. Thank you for wasting our precious time on your lousy plan.” The man walked away from Grey, followed by the other two men who were whispering and huddled. The three of them rushed to find the [Safe Seat]. The bespectacled girl also left slowly, unsure of where to start looking.

In the end, the game is as written in the rules: Individual - Survival.

It's just as Grey had previously thought. Working together will be difficult to achieve because they are strangers to each other. He also couldn't plead back because he lost his confidence. Thus, he felt he had to work on the no-one-died-before-his-eyes plan alone.

But what Grey doesn't know is that, deep down in all of Estre's hearts, they are after Montre's promised grand prize. Every Estre wanted to take advantage of that seemingly limitless gift. Some want to pay for their 'sins' at 'time'. Some want to make their dreams come true. Some want to escape from their 'sins'. After Revon gave them 'injection', everyone here had their own will to win. Therefore, they cannot cooperate with just anyone. Moreover, from Revon's way of speaking, they thought it would be handier to eliminate competitors to quickly become number one in this country and achieve what they wanted.

Meanwhile, Grey had never thought that he had a 'sin', or at least, he had not realized it. He thought he was just a poor guy who was randomly selected to participate in this crazy game, for example, because there were not even a hundred players. What's more, if he could ever become Montre, the gifts that were currently running through his head would be trivial things: Wifi in his apartment or tickets to Dreamland's grand opening. Because of that, eliminating others was never in his head, let alone killing. All he knows is that every soul and the 'life' that lies within is precious. So he doesn't want anyone else to die in front of his eyes. He will make it happen no matter what.

"Hey, your idea is fine." The burly man tapped Grey's shoulder. “I heard everything, you trust me right? I decided to help you. I will also talk to the granny. We can form small groups of three. I'll be in charge of looking after the granny until the end of the game if we're unlucky.”

“R-Really?” The burly man replied with a smile and a slight nod. The enthusiasm and smile on Grey's face returned because there was someone to work with. At least he no longer had to fend for himself on his first personal mission. While the second personal mission, which is to find the surprise prize, will still be carried out by himself.

"Then we should split up to find the safe seat." Grey whispered to the burly man and the granny who was already in the muscular man's arms, “I'm going to the fore, while you guys search in the aft here. Let me know if you find a safe seat and keep looking until we find three. As far as I understand, safe seats don't have to be occupied right away, we can hold them because there are no rules forbidding it. Searching with three people will increase our success, right?”

“Then, what if the safe seat that was found was taken by someone else?”

"Take it easy. If we casually leave after checking the safe seat, other people will definitely think it's not a safe seat. In this tight time, there will be no time to check the same seats. In the following stages too, pretend to check the safe seats that have already been found. That's if we find it, anyway."

“You… Smart, huh? I don't regret deciding to work with you.” The burly man was taken aback by Grey's wits and ruffled his hair. Grey then looks at the monitor, only 2 minutes remaining until the first obstacle appears.

“There is no more time, I will immediately go to the front. I'm counting on you, uncle and grandma! Also, please take care of our granny!”

"You can trust me!" Said the burly man with his thumbs sticking out. The granny agreed to find the [Safe Seat] at the ship's back alongside the burly man. The man with short hair was searching eagerly, in contrast to the granny searching with great care, thoroughness, and a sense of trepidation.

In order to keep his new comrade safe, the burly man didn't take his eyes off the granny. On several occasions, he even asked her to just sit and wait in one of the seats while he and Grey looked for the [Safe Seat]. He is concerned because the granny is vulnerable to injury if she falls due to a sudden ship shock. But the short curly-haired granny refused, insisting on helping. She didn't want to be in debt and become a burden on his temporary team. Therefore, the two agreed to search the seats one by one together, thereby reducing the effectiveness of finding [Safe Seat].

Meanwhile, Grey darted to the front-most seat, where no one was searching. Logically, by finding the very end seat's number, he would definitely get much information.

If the seat numbers are sequential from small to large, then the front row of seats will have a number with a small value. The opposite happens if the seats are in order from large to small. Therefore, Grey checks the corner seat first, the seat with the highest probability of being numbered the smallest or the largest.

However, he couldn't find the [Tiny Monitor] that indicated the seat number on a surface that the eye could see directly, so it wasn't easy to find. Grey now realizes that this is a pretty tough game. Not only are the [Tiny Monitor] hidden randomly, Estre also has to deal with ships swinging and sudden moves, which can make searching more difficult. The rule of 'eye contact with [Tiny Monitor]' also ensures Estre to really look for that monitor and make sure they don't try to fasten seat belts carelessly. Not to mention that Estre is being chased by time which can decrease accuracy.

Grey has checked the front and back of the backrest. He also had to feel a lump on his head because the ship suddenly stopped while he was checking under the seat. But thanks to that, he could find the [Tiny Monitor] on the seat's iron support.

Not a [Safe Seat]. But at least Grey was a little fortunate because the chair had the biggest number, which was '50'!

Grey recalled his past. He's never been on an adrenaline-filled ride, but he believes that every ride anywhere has a numbering system. In cases such as seats on a roller coaster or gondola on a ferris wheel, the numbering must be done in a sequential pattern, making navigation easier. For this reason, he also believes that the seats on the pirate ride he rides also form a sequence pattern. Therefore, his discovery of the most distended numbers on the most corner seat gave him some hope. Perhaps the chair can give him a clue to the seat numbering sequence pattern, which can be a great help for him during the game. For that, Grey made a mental map to make it easier for him to narrow down the possibilities, and also to make it easier for the reader.

(This ‘mental’ map will be used as reference.)

The first obstacle will appear in a minute and a half. Grey didn't expect to get a [Safe Seat] in the first stage because the other Estre on his ship who had started earlier would have had a higher chance of finding them. For that, for the rest of the time in this first stage, at least he wanted to find the sequence pattern of the ship's seats to make it easier for him to do the search in the next stage. Grey didn't have enough time to check the three seats adjacent to seat number 50, so he had to do an inhuman fast calculation in his head and decide which one he should explore to find the pattern quickly and precisely.

If doing an analysis using the probability that these seats are in sequential order, then there are two potential seats as a starting point for the sequence. First, if seat number 1 is in the lower right corner, then there are three possible sequence patterns: sorting row by row from right to left (Pattern A), sorting column by column from bottom to top (Pattern B) or snaking horizontally (Pattern C). The second possibility is, if the first seat is in the upper right corner, then the only sequence pattern will be snaking vertically (Pattern D).

He had four possible sequence patterns in his hand. Now it remains only to decide which seat to inspect next to determine the true pattern.

A SMALL GAME/RIDDLE FOR READERS! As already stated, Grey can only examine one of the three seats adjacent to seat 50. If he wants to search it in a definite and effective way, which one should Grey examine to find the seat sequence pattern? Seats A, B, or C?

Difficulty level: Easy, probably.-.

You can play the game and find the riddle's answer for yourself by not reading Grey's answer and thought process in the next paragraph. If you're just looking to give your brain a break, more than welcome to continue reading!

The seat in the upper left corner from the entrance is numbered 50. If these seats are in sequence, then the seat that I must check next is the seat below or to the right. One of them must have had the number 49. Of course, I'd have to check between those seats, right?

No. Those are lay people's thoughts. Not the seat numbered 49 that I'm looking for.

To increase the success ratio of finding the patterns, what you really need to look for is not the seat numbered 49, but a seat with a number other than 49. For example, if the seat below the 50 has a number 40, then the pattern that occurs is definitely Pattern A; if numbered 31, then it becomes pattern C; and if it is numbered 49, then there will be two possible patterns (B and D). If the seat is indeed numbered 49, then Grey will have to search the other seat to determine the true pattern between the two possibilities. Ineffective. The same goes for checking the seat to the right of number 50.

Considering this issue, the success of directly finding a pattern by knowing the seat number of the one adjoining the number 50 is only 50%.

For that, Grey decides to check the seats in the oblique right of number 50. According to his calculations, the conclusions and patterns obtained will be 100% correct by doing so. If the seat is numbered 39, then the correct pattern is A; If numbered 44, then the correct pattern is B; If it is numbered 32, the real pattern is C; and if it is numbered 42, then the seat sequence pattern must be D.

(Answer to the first Rotre segment: Seat C)

Grey concluded by analyzing, calculating, and deducing possibilities in his head in just a few dozen seconds. He is not an intelligent person, but his logic, reasoning, and analytical abilities deserve thumbs up. With that, he is superior among the students of the psychology faculty at his campus. Combined with his experience as a playmaker on a basketball team and MOBA games such as War is Hell, he also improves his spatial skills, problem-solving, critical thinking, and decision-making in critical situations. This, of course, makes Grey's 'value' and 'capability' as Estre increase.

He darted towards the seat on the oblique right with the remaining minutes, hoping to find the answer soon so that in the second stage and so on, he and his temporary group would not have to bother going through the dozens of seats. But the advantages of finding seat sequence patterns go beyond that; after the number was leaked later, Grey and his temporary partner could immediately secure a [Safe Seat] without having to wait until they found three [Safe Seat]. The possibility of surviving on the ship became more certain.

Amid the turbulent ship, Grey finds a small camouflaged monitor; covered by a sticker of the same colour as the seat painted dark wood brown. Proud of his calculations, he couldn't wait to open the sticker, so he opened it with a bit of force. As a result, there are white sticker marks that interfere with the monitor display. He spent the next fifteen seconds just scratching the sticker marks with his non-sharp fingernails.

It is seat number 38.

Uh... Am I getting bamboozled?

Grey had to accept that his proud super-fast calculations weren't helping him at all. At this moment, he got a hard slap on the cheek, that the entire seat number might indeed be completely randomized without a pattern.

Meanwhile, the granny and the burly man quest at the ship's back has not yielded any results. They struggled even just to find the [Tiny Monitor] hidden in the first seat they searched.