Chương 95: The game (I)

If Snow didn't know any better, she would have thought that Red had a certain dislike for fairies. It wasn't that the fairies were kind, they were famously known for mischief and getting people in trouble—especially adults. But Snow didn't get into such problems and was blessed with their help.

Their help and blessing had opened her up to the magical community's society, allowing her to live in a unique setting that any Sleeper would dream to live in. Now it was as if their dreams were being mocked, for the world of magic wasn't as beautiful as they had imagined.

"Plus, the number of people who have the highest probability of magic, for some reason, is seven years old. After that, the chance of getting magic is low." Red went on about her thoughts.

Snow tilted her head. Everything that Red was saying was true. The older one got, the more difficult it was to get magic. Something about being an adult made it difficult to grow without a more fluid mind, which many adults didn't have. Still, it made Snow wonder how the Players could have exponential growth in magical force. The only thought she could think of was that these humans had some similarities with a child's mind when it came to magic.

Belief had always been a strong factor in everything magic had done.

"Hmm, it could have been a dormant gene somewhere in your family, maybe? This is usually the case."

"I wouldn't know. My family never talked about it." Snow pulled her hand back. "Anyways, let's go. We shouldn't dally here for too long. The others are watching."

Red realized what Snow meant. Almost everyone was curiously looking at them as if they were in a special event that told a backstory of her strange power.

Snow pushed forward, their next destination that brought their attention was a Ferris wheel. Surrounding it were booths that were still pretty well intact and not like the ones that had passed.

A loud thump thump thump sound rang in the air as if someone was playing with darts. Her feet shuffled slowly forward, being wary of the surrounding around her. Everyone pulled out their weapons, ready to fight if anything popped up.

So far, nothing.

The spooky sound of the music was the one that sung its dreary song, putting many on edge. A rustle of wind slithered by, picking up the dried leaves as it rustled on the floor.

Snow squinted.

The thumping sound of the dart kept getting louder. Her gaze focused on one of the booths standing in the front of the other booths in a circular formation. In the center was a carousel, and behind it was the Ferris wheel.

Snow could hear the waves splash against the dock, telling her it wasn't far away. Suddenly, the lights turned on, spooking a few people.

They whispered amongst each other with weary.

"What in the world is going on?"

"This place creeps me out."

"I swear, there must be a ghost running around here or something."

Snow felt the same thought cross her mind. Could it be a ghost? Possibly. This whole place was desolate of life since the circus tent that they had escaped from. She wouldn't be surprised if such a thing happened in the next second.

"You think there are ghosts here?" Tommy asked. He took a step closer to her as he looked around with a hint of worry.

"You scared?" Snow smirked; for some reason, she wanted to tease him. Mostly because she had seen him fearless most of the time that it was quite refreshing to see him scared of something.

"Absolutely not." Tommy covered it up, standing up straighter than he usually would. "Do you think I would get scared?" He waved his hand like it was no big deal.

"Boo." Tamaki seemed to appear out of thin air, behind him like a ghost.

Tommy did a high-pitched manly scream, which even Snow wondered how he could have such a high pitch of a tone. He stopped, looking at Tamaki, chuckling.

"Oh, for crying out loud." Tommy swung, which Tamaki dodged perfectly.

Snow burst out laughing as she gave Tamaki a thumbs up and winked. Tamaki was twirling his blade in his hand, whistling in glee. He went ahead, leaving Tommy cursing behind him as he stomped after him.

Tamaki was the first one to the entrance of where the only lit up booth was. The others surrounded the booth, wondering what the hold up was. They all seem enamored by something, making Snow wonder what they were seeing.

Snow eventually came over, squeezing her way through. It took a bit of time, but finally, she made it to the front.

There was a floating dart up in the air, hitting the bullseye every time. It was an odd experience to see the darts hitting its target without anyone throwing at it.

"What in the world." Tommy was baffled at what he was seeing. He stuttered. "Is that g-ghost?"

"Highly doubt it." Tamaki sliced the darts in half. It clattered on the floor, allowing the metal pieces to roll to his shoe. He kicked it away.

"You know, it's not good to make the spirit mad," Tommy replied he was looking around, hoping that they didn't upset anything.

"Right…" Tamaki didn't care. He was busily looking for clues of what was going on.

A deep voice spoke out from behind the counter as a ghostly apparition appeared before them, taking form into a physical body. It was a large, buff man straight out of the gym. His over obtuse muscle was quite bulky, making him look bigger than usual. What was more disturbing was the tight-fitting clothes that he wore, which hugged his very body. If one wasn't careless, some of the men felt like barfing as they looked away. Even his face was cake white with paint, and his body had some form of a tribal tattoo on his chest and down his mighty arms.

Jumping out from below, a short man, which Snow thought was a Gnome with its pointy ears and sharp teeth, smiled a bit too creepily for her taste. The Gnome looked up at them for a moment. He then turned around and hopped on top of the man's shoulder.

Surprisingly for the Gnome, he had the same rough and muscled out body with matching clothes. Though his face was painted brownish-black, reminding people of dung.

"Hello. Hello." The small Gnome spoke out, flexing his muscles a few times. He turned around into different poses before he stopped and looked at the group before them.

"Who are you?" Mike asked.

"Why, I am the advisor of this zone." The Gnome gave an ugly smile that showed off his crooked white teeth. His hand was leaning against the other man's head. "Just like how you met

our first one at the circus tent."

"Wait, you guys are the ones that rule these places?" Mike was glowing with electricity. He zapped it to the Gnome with such ferocity that a mini bomb-like explosion happened before them.

A cloud of smoke covered their view as Snow coughed. Her eyes were clouded as she tried her best to keep her view clear.

The smoke was washed away. Both the Gnome and the bulky man was standing in place. A black shield covered them. The Gnome snapped his fingers, allowing the barrier to disappear.

"Not bad." The Gnome said, a bit impressed by Mike's outright challenge. "I didn't think a human would attack the supervisor so quickly, but no matter. The dungeon of fun is no place to be so tight, young man. We are just getting started." He giggled with glee.

Snow wasn't sure she liked his giggle or what he had said. It made her realize now that they might have entered into the third type of dungeon where the rules were as fickle as a child. If she didn't know any better, she would have thought it was just a simple one-level floor. But the strangeness of these monsters that came to them as advisors was unusual.

"What kind of game do you have in mind?" Snow wanted to test her theory. These advisors probably had a set of rules that they needed to follow, as they didn't seem to want to hurt them.

"Well, young miss. It seems you are catching on quite well." The Gnome was pleased with her answer. "Every single one of these booths has a game. Win three tokens, you can take the ferry to the next area."

"That doesn't seem to be that bad." Snow murmur, getting three tokens, didn't seem like a bad deal, though she felt like there was a catch. There was no way that it would be this simple.

"You see the booths around here?" The Gnome waved his hand, each of the lights turned on inside the booths. Ghostly figures stood in place, waving them over to come and play their game.

"There are only a certain amount of tokens for each game and only thirty booths. From my calculations, there are only 1300 of you guys to be able to pass. The rest will stay here."

"What?!" Rodney was furious. "I'm not leaving my men behind."

"Well, that is the game." The Gnome wasn't phased by Rodney's outburst, and instead, he was picking his ear. "This is my place. My rule."

"We shall see about that!" Rodney dashed forward, his dagger in hand. His quick steps made him fly towards the Gnome in seconds, but before he could do anything, he was roughly stopped by the same black barrier.

With a wave of his finger, the Gnome snorted as he yawned. Throwing Rodney across the ground as if he was just a simple ragdoll. Rodney groaned in pain, he got up ready to go for a second round. Mike stepped up in front of him, raising his hand. He stopped him.

"Let's just play along. We can find another way out of here." Mike reassured him.

Rodney went silent, he shook his head, realizing that he was being played by the Gnome. "Fine." He pulled his shoulder away from Mike's hand, peeved that he was stopped.

"Is he always like that?" Red whispered towards Snow, tiptoeing next to her to get to Snow's ear.

"No, but I wouldn't want my men stuck here as well." Snow dispersed from the group.