[Please reach majority to validate the puzzle!
Majority not reached: 18/..]
As anxiety grew among the survivors, a discussion slowly arose, tinged with nervousness but marked by a desire to remain united. The palpable tension of the moment prompted them to question each other, each trying to understand what had gone wrong.
"Wait," said one man, his voice cutting through the confused murmur of the crowd. "But... How many of us are there, exactly?"
The seemingly simple question plunged the group into an uneasy silence. Everyone exchanged glances, searching for answers in each other's eyes. The silence, however, was quickly broken by another survivor, an older man whose face was marked by past trials.
"If my memory serves me correctly," he said, frowning as if making a mental effort, "the child's voice mentioned at the end of riddle 3 that there were 48 survivors remaining." "
This information sparked a flurry of activity in their minds, reigniting the conversation. Everyone now sought to confirm this number, relying on their memories and logic. One of them, a young man with an athletic build, took it upon himself to do the counting. He stood in the center of the group, taking a deep breath before beginning.
"Let me count," he said, determined to provide an answer. His eyes scanned the crowd, carefully counting each person present. A tense silence fell as he counted, every eye fixed on him, everyone holding their breath.
When the young man finished, his face paled slightly. "There are... 23 of us."
A murmur of concern rippled through the group like a breath. "Twenty-three?" someone repeated, incredulous.
The young man nodded. "Which means... someone is missing."
Silence fell again, heavier than ever. They had managed to remain calm, to search for a solution together, but this revelation brought them brutally back to the reality of their situation. They were incomplete, and the puzzle could not be solved until they were all present. This absence of one person, though seemingly insignificant, represented a flaw in their cohesion, an imminent danger they could no longer ignore.
But despite this new anxiety, the survivors tried to remain united, searching together for the best way to resolve this new dilemma. They knew that panicking would get them nowhere, and for now, the only thing to do was to think, work as a team, and find the one who was missing from their midst.
The group of survivors was still reeling from the revelation of the missing number when a voice emerged from the silence, coming from the mysterious group of five that had caught Sae's attention earlier. The speaker was a man in his thirties, his features marked by the intensity of the situation, but with a distant and elusive air about him. He stepped forward slowly, his footsteps echoing slightly in the tense atmosphere.
"I saw something," he began, his low but confident voice immediately capturing everyone's attention. "Ryo Kanjo. I saw him... taking advantage of the chaos to take a small group hostage. They are isolated, separated from us, and it is likely that they cannot return on their own."
His statement sent shockwaves through the survivors. The name Ryo Kanjo resonated in their minds, associated with fear and mistrust. The idea that he had taken hostages, that he was manipulating other people in this tortuous labyrinth, added a new layer of danger to their already precarious situation.
The man paused for a moment, seeming to weigh his words before continuing, this time with a palpable note of guilt in his voice. "I also saw... Bun. He was in danger, and..." He paused, his eyes lowering slightly, betraying an emotion he was struggling to contain. "But I did nothing. Out of fear, out of cowardice... I didn't help him." "
These words seemed to weigh heavily in the air. Saé, who was listening intently, felt her heart sink at the mention of Bun. The idea that he might be in danger troubled her deeply. She hadn't forgotten the burden he carried, the signs of his distress, and now the possibility that he might be trapped somewhere haunted her.
The man continued, his voice trembling with a resolve born of guilt. "I feel guilty for not intervening, and I swear to bring him back, with the help of my colleagues. We cannot let Ryo continue what he is doing, nor abandon Bun to his fate." "
His words resonated with unusual force, but they also sounded exaggerated, as if he were desperately trying to redeem his cowardice. He seemed to want to show belated heroism to ease his troubled conscience, but this overcompensation did not escape some of the survivors, who looked at him with slight suspicion. Was he sincere, or was he simply trying to ease his conscience?
As for Sae, although the mysterious nature of this group worried her, her thoughts were primarily focused on Bun. Anxiety gnawed at her, but she knew they couldn't rush into anything without thinking it through. She scrutinized the man, trying to detect some truth in his words, some sign that he could really keep his promise.
The group of five remained shrouded in an aura of uncertainty. Who were they really? What was their true intention in this cruel game? As the other survivors continued to ponder and discuss, this question remained unanswered, like a shadow hanging over them, adding to the complexity of their situation.
After a moment of reflection, the survivors agreed to the mysterious group's idea. They let them go without further ado, convinced that these four were their best chance to save Bun and thwart Ryo Kanjo's plans. The atmosphere relaxed slightly, and the remaining group began to reorganize, ready to follow the path laid out by Yanagi.
But Saé, despite the collective decision, felt torn. A deep intuition urged her to follow the group of four, not to leave them alone to face what could be a dangerous confrontation. However, before she could act on this impulse, a cry rang out among the survivors.
"Wait! Look!" cried one survivor, pointing to a new notification that had appeared in front of them.
[Majority reached: 19/..]
Everyone turned to the glowing screen floating in the air, reading the message with nervous attention. The notification now indicated that they had reached the required majority: 19 out of the total number of survivors. A murmur ran through the group. They exchanged puzzled glances, trying to understand what had just happened.
"How is this possible?" someone asked, confusion written all over their face. "A second ago, we weren't enough..."
That's when they noticed a discreet figure standing apart, someone they hadn't seen before. A new survivor had joined them, stepping out of the shadows with apparent nonchalance. She blended in almost too well with the crowd, her neutral face and subtle presence seeming to attract no one's attention except Saé's.
Saé narrowed her eyes, a strange feeling running down her spine. Something wasn't right. She looked for Edano, finding him at the back of the group, arms crossed, observing the scene with his usual detachment. She approached him, her words tinged with doubt.
"Edano, this is weird, isn't it? Four people just left, and only one arrived... and suddenly we have a majority?" Saé whispered, trying not to draw too much attention.
Edano slowly turned his head toward her, shrugging slightly. "Maybe," he said indifferently. "But it doesn't matter. We don't have the luxury of dwelling on it. If we start asking questions and turn back to save Bun, we won't have a majority again. And you know what that means."
Saé clenched her teeth, feeling frustration rising within her. Edano was right, at least in part. If she left with others to help Bun, they risked compromising the success of the puzzle. But this newcomer, this number that suddenly matched... It all troubled her more than she wanted to admit. Yet she had no proof, nothing concrete to justify her doubts. And in this cruel game, every decision had to be made with care.
The rest of the survivors didn't seem to share her unease. They were more concerned with the next step, with the need to keep moving forward. Fear and uncertainty had made them pragmatic, almost resigned to going with the flow without asking too many questions. Saé, however, couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.
But for now, she had no choice but to follow the group, pushing her concerns to the back of her mind, hoping that her instincts had not deceived her.
[Secret Enigma: -The Embellished Maze-
! Congratulations, the majority has been reached, you confirm your choice of path 2B!]
In a remote corner of the labyrinth, Ryo Kanjo stood tall, surrounded by his hostages. His piercing, relentless gaze swept across the terrified faces of the survivors he had captured. They were all kneeling before him, their faces marked by fear and uncertainty, as he watched them with a disconcerting coldness.
"I asked you to bow down," Ryo said in a low voice, but one imbued with absolute authority. His words were like sharp blades, cutting through the air with icy precision.
One of the hostages, a man with an arrogant look in his eyes, raised his head defiantly. "Who do you think you are? Do you really think I'm going to bow down to you, you sicko?" He spat out the words with contempt, deliberately ignoring the danger emanating from Ryo.
Without a moment's hesitation, Ryo drew a gleaming blade, so fast that the action seemed almost unreal. With one fluid motion, he severed the man's head in a fraction of a second. The lifeless body collapsed heavily to the ground, while the head rolled a few feet away, its eyes still wide with surprise.
"I asked you to lower your head," Ryo murmured, calmly wiping the blade of his weapon, as if he had simply cut a piece of paper.
A deathly silence fell over the group. The other hostages were frozen, their eyes wide with terror. Some were visibly trembling, others dared not even breathe. Blood pulsed in their temples, cold sweat beaded on their foreheads. Death had just struck brutally, without warning, and they all knew that one wrong word would be enough for it to come back and claim them.
"Why... Why are you doing this?" asked a woman, her voice trembling. She couldn't understand what could drive a man to act with such cruelty, such indifference to human life.
Ryo slowly turned his gaze toward her, his piercing black eyes seeming to probe her soul. "Because you're all the same. You humans just keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again."
The hostages exchanged worried glances, trying to understand the twisted logic that drove Ryo. One of them, a large man, plucked up his courage and replied, "You're wrong! These trials will change us. They will make us stronger than ever. Once this horror is over, we will be different, better."
Ryo smiled coldly, almost amused by the man's optimism. "That's what you always believe," he replied cynically. "You thought the same thing during major sporting events, those moments when an entire nation comes together and rejoices. But what happens next? The same mistakes, the same hatred, the same divisions. You unite temporarily, but you never learn. History keeps repeating itself."
He paused, letting his words sink into the frightened minds of his audience. "This maze, these trials... it's just another version of that illusion. An illusion that you choose to believe you can change. But deep down, you know that you are doomed to repeat the same destructive cycles."
The survivors remained silent, unable to respond to the grim truth that Ryo had imposed on them. Fear and despair overwhelmed them, slowly eroding what little hope they had left. Ryo Kanjo, with his terrifying charisma and unquestionable authority, had succeeded in imposing his vision of the world, a vision where humanity was doomed to fail, again and again.
Ryo, standing among the terrified survivors, looked down on them with cold determination. "Do you really believe that these puzzles are there to make you better? To unite you?" His voice was as sharp as the blade he still held. "No, they are just another way to manipulate you, to make you believe that you can change. But I will destroy these puzzles, one by one. I will destroy them to prevent humanity from rising again." His dark gaze swept over each of the hostages. "And you, you will not be able to do anything about it." "
Meanwhile, Bun, exhausted and disoriented, stood slumped against a tree, desperately seeking respite after these events. His thoughts were spinning in circles, mixing despair and confusion. He knew he had to pull himself together, but his body and mind seemed to no longer obey him.
That's when he sensed a presence behind him. He slowly turned his head and saw the mysterious group approaching. Their gait was confident, each of them seemed to know exactly what they were doing. There was no hesitation in their movements. They looked like they had stepped out of a scene too well-written to be real, reinforcing the strange and enigmatic aura that surrounded them.
One of the men, who appeared to be the leader of the group, stepped forward toward Bun, an inscrutable smile on his face. "Finally alone," he said in a calm voice, but one laden with hidden meaning. "We've been watching you for a while, Bun. And now that you're isolated, it's time we talked." "
Bun, feeling his heart beating faster and faster, realized that despite his exhaustion, he had to remain on guard. He didn't know the intentions of this group, but their arrival at this precise moment, when he was more vulnerable than ever, did not bode well. The man's words echoed in his mind like a veiled threat, a promise that something disturbing was about to happen.