"First, you'll take care of my moves. We can't beat them with this. Tell me the riddle, I'll answer." Second volunteered to do so.
First would use his mind for maneuvering her movements and his mind to create unpredictable defense and attacks. She would use her mind to solve the riddle and her body to fight the minions in combat.
"But-"
"Hurry!"
This is all she can help First with. She knew 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!" she groaned in pain.
"Are you alright?!" he asked worriedly.
"I can do it,"
A clone hit her left leg. In this game, she can feel real physical, emotional, and mental pain. A big disadvantage on their part, but this also means they can hurt and kill the minions, too. She ignored the pain and let First do his work. He insisted that he also wanted to solve the riddle, so she let him. She 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 alerted.
Hmm... Hotel, Strokes? A kind of illness as in a stroke? Or the one when writing?
Wait, in the fliers she 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, she guessed.
"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 she also has a co-character, Aeith, who is currently playing in another game category... now, what did Aeith choose again? They stumbled on her last chosen game category, 'The Firearm Assassination'. It asks the order of the game categories. She recalled the place where they selected their game categories. It was a rounded-shaped area with elevators surrounding it, and they were standing at the center. It is hard to remember which game category is first since she 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 hers was 'The Nightmare Enigma', which was sixth, the last one.
Apart from her number name, Second (2nd), what's with the second?
"First, any more clues?" This time she asked him. There must be a new one.
She was too busy solving the riddle that there were already four clones attacking her! 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. She hoped they would get this. "'then eliminate the number you got previously,'"
She stays on the 2nd floor of the hotel. Her room number is 205. The number she got earlier as an answer is second, so that's number 2. Is that 205 minus 2?
"First, try 203," she suggested.
"Sure," She waited for his response. "It says incorrect."
She is currently running away from the seven minions because they can't win like this. They can't commence an attack, purely on defense, and running.
"How'd you get 203?" First got curious.
"The second-to-last clue, I got second as an answer, which is number 2. I subtracted my room number, 205, from number two and got 203."
Her 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 herself hide in an abandoned warehouse to buy some time while the minions were looking for her.
"Good deduction, Second. The last clue says to eliminate, not to subtract. The answer is number zero and five."
It took her a second to get what he said. So, that's it. She should've eliminated number 2 in 205. How slow-witted of her.
"The screen shows the weapons that you can use." She let First choose whatever weapon he wanted. "A sword. I'll click on it."
Wow, a sword.
That was a courageous move on his part. Her hands trembled when she felt she was holding something in her right hand, which was quite heavy. She glared 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, she drew her sword and ran closer to seven.
"Hya!" She shouted with strong willpower.
Second keeps on wielding the sword. First is quite skillful in defense rather than in attacks. This is a good strategy because they need a stronger defense as they're against these seven. As time passes by, she notices that her stamina, agility, flexibility, and coordination are greater compared to when she fights a single minion. Not only did she have a weapon, but her entire physique transformed as well.
First can see the minions' vital parts on his screen, so he strategizes his moves and hits 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. They 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 she held her stomach for so long. All the minions died and turned to ashes. This battle was a great success.
Right after they finished all of them, she vomited. She felt very tired with every blow she made when fighting the seven. She has more scratches than before when she faced Zarod. That is to be expected since they just fought seven of them. She sat on a bench. She stared at the sword she was holding. It is silver and has a sharp tip and edges. She lifted it and saw her reflection on its blade.
"Hey, are you alright?"
First turned on their communication. Either of them can turn it on or off.
"Yes, thank you."
After that, he also thanked and praised her because she answered the riddle correctly—he must mean 'almost' correctly. Anyway, that was a great team-up that they've had. She's glad that her partner is First. And she hopes he also feels the same.
"Take a full rest."
"I'm good," She stood up, planning to go back to the hotel, or they'll talk about finding Zarod, their major target, to finally finish this game. "Let's go for Zarod."
"Apparently, there are still eight minions, a total of fifteen."
She choked on her saliva and almost stumbled on a stone.
"Fifteen?!" She 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," she groaned. "Let's finish the remaining eight today. And tomorrow, we'll do another mission," her persistent response to him.