"First, you'll take care of my moves. We can't beat them with this. Tell me the riddle, I'll answer." I volunteered to do so. First will use his mind for maneuvering my movements and his mind to create unpredictable defense and attacks. I will use my mind for solving the riddle and my body to fight the minions in combat.
"But-"
"Hurry!" This is all I can help First with. I know it's hard to comprehend two things at the same time.
"It's not really a riddle. There's only a clue given to solve this. The clue is 'The hotel where the player stays'."
"How did that turn out to be a riddle?"
"Look out!"
"Argh!" I groaned in pain.
"Are you alright?!" he asked worriedly.
"I can do it,"
A clone hit my left leg. In this game, I can feel real physical, emotional, and mental pain. A big disadvantage on our part but this also means we can hurt and kill the minions too. I ignored the pain and let First do his work. He insisted that he also wanted to solve the riddle, so I let him. I can feel the skin, flesh, and bones of the clones every time they attack. Okay, time to solve the riddle.
'The hotel where the player stays''
That's the clue. Hotel? At 'The Grand Chase Hotel'. What's up there?
"Second, there's another clue. It is 'Acronym Strokes'," First said.
Hmm... Hotel, Strokes? A kind of illness as in a stroke? Or the one when writing?
Wait, in the fliers I read earlier about the hotel, the hotel is also known by its acronym, 'TGCH'
What do the acronym strokes have to do with this? Does it ask how many strokes there are to write the letters T-G-C-H?
Let's try... T = 2, G = 2, C = 1, H = 3... 2 + 2 + 1 + 3 = 8
8 is the answer, I guess.
"There's a clue again. 'Co-character'."
Is my co-character First since he's my partner? Oh, but he's a player who controls the character in-game. It must be I, Fourth, Sixzen, Aiezen, Sectwen, and Aeith. 8 acronym strokes and Aeith (8th) is one of my co-characters.
The hotel and Aeith have a connection to solve this one.
"Another clue. 'Game categories' order'." Clues are slowly showing up.
'The Grand Chase Hotel' or TGCH. The TGCH has eight strokes in its acronyms. Coincidentally, the hotel has eight floors. And I also have a co-character, Aeith, who is currently playing in another game category... now, what did Aeith choose again? We stumbled on my last chosen game category, 'The Firearm Assassination'. It asks the order of the game categories. I recalled the place where we selected our game categories. It was a rounded-shaped area with elevators surrounding us and we were standing at the center. It is hard to remember which game category is first since I didn't memorize the virtual door numbers written just the names of each door.
Remember it, Heavien. Recall it one more time. Wait, Author talked about first 'The MMA combat' then... second! Second among the game categories that Author mentioned was 'The Firearm Assassination' and mine is 'The Nightmare Enigma' which was sixth, the last one.
Apart from my number name, Second (2nd), what's with the second?
"First, any more clues?" This time I asked him. There must be a new one.
I was too busy solving the riddle that there were already four clones attacking me! No wonder First stayed silent because he too is busy dealing with them.
"Yeah. It says, 'Last clue: Room number…" Uh-oh, just one last clue remaining. I hope we'll get this. "'then eliminate the number you got previously,'"
I stay on the 2nd floor of the hotel. My room number is 205. The number I got earlier as an answer is second, so that's number 2. Is that 205 minus 2?
"First, try 203," I suggested.
"Sure," I waited for his response. "It says incorrect." I am currently running away from the seven minions because we can't win like this. We can't commence an attack, purely on defense and running.
"How'd you get 203?" First asked.
"The second to the last clue, I got second as an answer which is number 2. I subtracted my room number, 205 to number two and got 203." My solution must've been wrong. No, all of them might be wrong. Ah! This is so hard.
"Second, a dialogue box appeared. It says, 'Riddle solved." He stated.
"Wait, how?" First made myself hide in an abandoned warehouse to buy some time while the minions were looking for me.
"Good deduction, Second. The last clue says to eliminate, not to subtract. The answer is number zero and five."
It took me a second to get what he said. So, that's it. I should've eliminated number 2 in 205. How slow-witted of me.
"The screen shows the weapons that you can use." I let First choose whatever weapon he wants. "A sword. I'll click on it."
Wow, a sword. That was a courageous move of him. My hands trembled when I felt I was holding something in my right hand, which was quite heavy. I looked at it and it really is a long, sharp double-edged sword.
"I will be in charge of controlling you with the sword."
With the oncoming minions, I drew my sword and ran closer to seven.
"Hya!" I shouted with strong willpower.
I keep on wielding the sword. First is quite skillful in defense rather than in attacks. This is a good strategy because we need a stronger defense as we're against these seven. As time passes by, I notice that my stamina, agility, flexibility, and coordination are greater compared to when I fight a single minion. Not only did I have a weapon, but my entire physique transformed as well.
First can see the minions' vital parts on his screen, so he strategized his moves and hit them on the spot for each of them. Each minion has different vital parts that serve as both its strength and weakness—arms, feet, neck, eyes, abdomen, head, and chest. We managed to hit a stab on the neck, eyes, abdomen, head, and chest while the arms and feet were cut into pieces. Yes, it's brutal that I held my stomach for so long. All the minions died and turned to ashes. This battle was a great success.
Right after we finished all of them, I vomited. I felt very tired with every blow I made when fighting the seven. I have more scratches than before when I face Zarod. That is to be expected since we just fought seven of them. I sat on a bench. I stared at the sword I was holding. It is silver and has a sharp tip and edges. I lifted it and saw my reflection on its blade.
"Hey, are you alright?"
First turned on our communication. Either of us can turn it on or off.
"Yes, thank you."
After that, he also thanked and praised me because I answered the riddle correctly—he must mean 'almost' correctly. Anyway, that was a great team-up that we've had. I'm glad that my partner is First. And I hope he also feels the same.
"Take a full rest."
"I'm good," I stood up, planning to go back to the hotel, or we'll talk about finding Zarod, our major target, to finally finish this game. "Let's go for Zarod."
"Apparently, there are still eight minions, a total of fifteen."
I choked on my saliva and almost stumbled on a stone.
"Fifteen?!" I was in disbelief.
Why are there 15 minions, then? I thought there were only 7 of them?
"Want to continue our first mission?" Ah, this is only the first mission, which is to get rid of the minions. But it turns out there are 15 of them.
"All right." I groaned. "Let's finish the remaining eight today. And tomorrow, we'll do another mission," my persistent response to him.