(Narrator)
Carina remained motionless, drops of sweat defied each other on her forehead and her oxygen was only passing through the gap in her mouth.
Her lips were dry.
The wind passed over the dunes and lifted a fine dust which settled on their clothes.
The city was still there before them.
Barely visible.
A dark line amidst the white light, distorted by waves of heat.
She wasn't very far away anymore.
Five hundred meters.
Perhaps four hundred.
That was what his watch seemed to indicate.
At that distance, a person in full possession of their faculties could have reached it in a few minutes.
But with Ki-Moon… who was no longer moving, the task became impossible.
Carina looked at her poor people, but she had never known hardship.
His face was distorted by a mixture of melancholy and introspection.
The city was really far away.
She couldn't wear it.
She had neither the strength to support herself nor the strength to complain.
She had already thought of all the ways she would die in its warm sands.
A tear slipped from the corner of her eye but immediately rose to the sky, like all the other drops of sweat that evaporated every second, drying her out to the point of cracking.
She couldn't call in a drone until she was that low in the level.
His inventory remained locked.
And the system had been very clear.
The tests were easy but not entirely.
The riddles were nothing more than simple letters to her.
CHALLENGE: THE DESERT PARCHMENTS
OBJECTIVE: REACH THE CITY
– I'm going to go.
she murmured to the wind
She pulled her body heavily and out of the hot sand with her feet.
She thinks.
The problem wasn't the city.
The problem was the return trip.
If she reached the gates, the challenge would be validated and she risks being ejected from the game on her own.
The system might grant him access to resources.
– I will come back.
She took a few steps, stopped, and turned around.
Ki-Moon hadn't moved.
– Don't die.
Behind her, Ki-Moon gradually disappeared into the landscape.
She didn't turn around and quickened her pace.
She was not indifferent; returning now probably meant dying together.
The city was growing as far as the eye could see.
The walls were much higher, they were not made of gold but the brilliance was comparable.
The golden light had almost blinded her.
But as she got closer, she could make out yellow, ancient stones covered in cracks.
Faceless statues guarded the entrance.
There was no door between them.
Just a huge, dark passage.
Carina ralentit et fixa son bracelet .
DISTANCE: 127 METERS.
She continued.
100 METERS.
75 METERS.
The heat suddenly became less intense.
The sand beneath his feet gradually turned into stone.
She collapsed onto the city floor.
CONGRATULATIONS.
YOU HAVE REACHED THE CITY OF GOLD.
THE FIRST STAGE OF ZONE 2 IS COMPLETE.
EXIT . NEXT.
Carina waited.
Nothing.
She looked at her bracelet.
Still locked.
His face fell slightly.
She had just walked several hundred meters through a desert only to discover that there was no reward.