She covered her head, and it was throbbing with pain.
Once she opened her eyes and looked into the sun, the strong rays of sunlight made her close her eyes immediately, and her eyes were filled with tears. Her arms were suddenly being pulled by someone. She looked up; it was Monica, and she pulled her on the ground for a meter.
Maxi sneezed loud and clear. She was also suffering from a headache.
“What happened?”
Shen Qianshu climbed up. The ground was filled with yellow sand, and when she looked afar, it was an empty desert. The sun was scorching, and young girls and boys were thrown on the ground. In front of them was a desert while the other side of the desert was a shrubbery almost one kilometer away.
“You guys, look behind!”
“Where is this?”
“Where is this? What happened on the plane? Why are we here?”
“Does anyone know?”
“Yang Lihua, Mo Er, Black Rose, why isn’t there anyone?”
There was a total of sixty people, and everyone was crowded in the desert as if someone had thrown them in the desert at random. There were some drones flying mid-air, creating a sharp piercing noise.
“What is this thing? Why can’t I take it off?”
Everyone cried out in alarm. Shen Qianshu looked at her left hand. Her wrist had a watch, a watch that could not be taken off. Everyone had one, and the timing of the watch was one o’clock in the afternoon. Monica and Maxi looked at each other.
The two of them could not take them off as well; the material was especially sturdy.
Monica pulled Shen Qianshu to hide at the back, away from the others.
“Monica, Maxi, look!” Shen Qianshu pointed to their backs.
Monica noticed it long ago.
This was an abandoned city situated in a desert. The buildings were crumbled, walls dilapidated. Shen Qianshu recalled the rundown city in the biochemistry crisis: desert, shrubbery, and an abandoned city.
Everything looked like a mystery.
They did not have any supplies.
No compass, no communication device.
Monica and Maxi looked at each other and pulled Shen Qianshu even farther away from the group of young boys and girls.
Monica lowered her voice. “Did the selection start already?”
Maxi said, “Isn’t it half a month later?”
Nobody would think that the selection had begun, and the young boys and girls divided themselves into groups. Meng Qi and a few boys were together. The sharp sounds from the drones finally stopped.
Monica shouted. “Run!”
Monica and Maxi ran forward, and Maxi pulled Shen Qianshu along.
“Hurry up and run! Are you waiting for someone to kill you?
The young girls and boys still had not understood the situation. They only saw Monica, Maxi, and Shen Qianshu run towards the abandoned city.
Suddenly, the drone gave out a cold machinery sound. “Greetings to all members, the half-month Black Rose selection competition will start immediately. The first three days are peace time; no one is allowed to be hurt or killed. You will have to find the supplies you need on your own. You can go anywhere on the map. After three days, it will be free time; regardless of life and death, everyone is your opponent. The borderlines are set on the map, and do not cross over. I repeat, do not cross over.”
“Food, water, weapons, look for all of them on your own. Now, the selection starts!”
When they first announced that the selection had started, the young girls and boys had already dispersed. The first three days were peace time, so they could not attack, but they had to start preparing weapons, supplies, water, and food.
Some of them ran towards the shrubbery while some of them ran towards the abandoned city.
