White Roses Dyed Blood Red

Fifteen minutes later, her team had wolfed down their breakfast and was out the door and heading towards the surprise building. The building wasn't far, but it wasn't close either, but with all the exercise they had been doing, none of them broke a sweat.

They passed by other groups rushing towards the dining hall to something to eat and groups heading in the same direction as they were.

Yaorui's hands were sweating, she was nervous, no duh.

She had a bad feeling all the evidence had pointed to the fact that this whole thing was a sick game of some sort.

But then again, it might just be her paranoia.

Up ahead, she saw her brother put on a strong face while one arm held onto Wenshi protectively, his gaze travelled behind him to meet her gaze and a few others.

The naive students didn't give the situation much thought, while others were to, paranoid due to the recent events. It didn't take long for the less observant ones to catch on.

She saw her cousin walking alongside her older brother, and Yaorui's older cousin, Zhou Aonu and Zhang Maorong.

Her hands tingled a bit when she felt four calloused fingers slip in between hers and give her a comforting squeeze. She didn't have to think much to know that it was Angli offering her support.

Upon entering the building, everything was dark, except for the artificial lighting, there wasn't any other source of light. Which was odd, considering the windows they had seen outside earlier.

Thirty-five numbered doors lined the walls. They were painted with luminescent paint along with the strips of light bordering the floor and walls.

There were other teams inside and filing in from behind.

Long Ao's watched buzzed, and he read out his notification:

"Welcome Team China, you are currently ranked first, please head to door number one,"

Door number one...that was at the end of the hallway.

Pass the door, they enter a room with a glass wall looking down at a stage.

From where they were, they had a perfect view of the stage and the jumbotron above.

There were five rows of ten seats, each came with their own Bluetooth headphones and earbuds for convenience of choice.

When they sat down, the seats automatically morphed to accommodate their favourite sitting position. When the chairs did that, most of them let out surprised noises, this was something that none of them had seen before.

From where they sat, they were able to watch other groups file in through the other doors and seat themselves right beneath the stage. What a shame, they won't be able to see much from there.

While they waited out the rest of the ten minutes, Gebao pushed for more photos and more photos she got. They played with the LED lighting and made funny faces for the camera.

Soon, the jumbotron turned on, and they all gathered in their individual seats and put on their headphones or earbuds.

The jumbotron displayed their rankings and the number of points each team had.

The teams were displayed from last to first, unexpectedly, Team Australia was placed last, followed by India, and France.

Team Australia had -453 points, while India followed with -350, and lastly France with -200. Looking at the teams, all three had missing people, but even though Australia only had one person missing, they were still last. For team India, she assumed it was because they had lost three team members, but that wasn't exactly their fault.

France was missing four people, and if she was correct, it was due to the poison in the strawberry macaroons.

Someone or some people from their team must've done something that would cost them 378 points. What could have cost them that many points? Maybe something like...poisoning...

Finally, their team was displayed with Long Ao, Precious, herself, Xun Shouhan, and Qi MingMing standing next to their number of points.

Total Points:

1393

A full one thousand more than the team sitting in second place.

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to Academy GIFTED!" Applause rang out in the auditorium.

Being the observant person she is, she noticed that everyone seemed to understand mandarin unless each team's headphones only projected their country's language. This was probably so.

Every second-team seemed to have somebody missing or at least someone that was ill-looking.

She saw a few of them excuse themselves and leave.

"You were all students of the GENIUS program, and now, you are all the first students part of the new program GIFTED!" The announcer paused, "Here, you are all part of a team, and each team will be treated differently based on your number of points,"

The man turned and pointed a finger in their direction, "You see that box right there? That is where the top team sits, best view and first-class treatment." The tint in the glass wall disappeared, and five attendants carrying a tray of drinks came in.

Their team was displayed on the jumbotron as the attendants went around handing out drinks. The drinks served were each of their favourites.

A few of them were distracted by the drinks and oblivious to the jumbotron. While a few smirked and waved proactively.

The tint went back up, and they were no longer visible to the outside world.

"Second place Kenya, you've got a long way to go if you're gonna beat your neighbours,"

She thanked the attendants for the drinks before they left, most of her other teammates followed her example.

Bzzt~

Points Notification:

+46 for being polite

"Oh, would you look at that! First place just upgraded, 1439 points total, China's on a roll!" There was an evil glint in the man's eyes.

And then she realized it. The man wasn't trying to encourage the other teams, he was trying to sow chaos among them, and they were going to be the center of it all.

"From now on, be alert at all times, keep a tight grip on your things and don't travel alone," She warned, "We're practically a target because we are sitting here if someone provokes you, wait for them to physically hit you, then it'll count as self-defence,"

She saw the majority nod in the reflection of the glass wall and let a breath in satisfaction.

Ding~~

She pulled out her phone.

'Have the same necklace made for the rest of the teammates,'

'The one you're wearing,'

Angli leaned over to peek at her screen, he was familiar with the ding her phone gave off when the mystery person texted. His eyes moved to her c.h.e.s.t, where her necklace laid beneath her shirt.

She opened her chatroom with Chuan Si and typed out a request.

'Do you think that you can make the same necklace for everybody else?'

'I could, but it would take a while, why?'

'I'll tell you later, but can you?'

'Sure, I'll do it, don't forget to tell me later,'

She returned to the chatroom with the mystery person.

'Who will need it most?'

'Your weakest,'

By now, the announcer had gone on for a while, blabbing about things unrelated to the new program.

"Oh, right! Who is wondering how their fellow teammate got food poisoning?" The man smiled cruelly, he gestured at the stage crew.

The jumbotron screens changed and displayed a video.

Her guess was correct.

It was team Australia that put the poison in the macaroons.

Her phone vibrated. It was a social media notification.

'You have yourself an ally China,'

"Who is it?" Sheng Rong asked.

"You know the Japanese girl I was talking with during breakfast?"

"Yes..."

"I told her about the macaroons, and now she wants to be allies,"

"Accept it, for now, we'll see how far they are willing to go for us," Her second brother leaned over her shoulder from behind.

'You've got yourself a deal Japan,"

And just like that, they made their first ally and a formidable one at that.

"Time is almost up, so here is the last announcement," The man grinned evilly, "Don't die,"

The lights went out, and they were instructed to leave the building.

Her brother stood up and gathered Wenshi, Aonu, and Bai Xiaotong, the detective in training. They huddled a bit before calling for Chen Jue, a second-year with superb hearing. After a bit of whispering, they dispersed.

"Alright, let's head out, be on guard and don't let others get to you, got that?"

"YES!"

_____________

Zhou Aonu's POV

As he had predicted, Team Japan was outside waiting for them. His cousin Long Ao had informed them of the new ally and briefed them about the situation.

The only hostile actions they received were glares and taunts thrown at them, nobody was going to risk falling in ranks.

He followed Long Ao and his midget cousin Yaorui over to the leader of the team. A strong-looking girl with an arrogant facade, she looked like the Diana Prince of Asia.

Yaorui did most of the talking, her being the translator, it was expected. They went back and forth while he eyed the girl's, right-hand man, the man reciprocated the eyeing.

They talked out a few conditions and agreements before making plans to meet up at their team house after school to finalize things. They shook hands, and the two teams left together.

The students scattered once they exited and headed out to fulfill their schedule for the day.

Let the games begin.