The Hidden World's

Chapter 3 Trapped in the Collateral

After about fifteen minutes of exploring on the first floor we finally found a staircase connected to the top floor. This ladder is made of iron and is already rusty.

“What can still be boarded?” Layla looked at the stairs worriedly.

“I'll go up first, you guys follow. Remember, go up one by one!” Nana looked at us, then stepped closer to the stairs. Nana very carefully walked up the stairs after the stairs. The shape of this ladder is circular without fringe, so there is no grip. These stairs are really scary.

Nana's upstairs, followed by Arthur, Layla, and I. Unlike its appearance, it turns out that this ladder is quite sturdy. My gaze swept Around. We continued walking down the corridor. The rooms here are different from those on the lower floors which consist of only empty rooms. Most rooms on the second floor are filled with several coffins.

“What do we need to check?” I pointed my flashlight at one of the open chests.

“I think maybe this—” Layla doesn't continue her sentence. He stepped into the room, approaching the chest. Me, Nana, and Arthur sat up, stepping after Layla.

“Manekin?” I'm confused.

“For what mannequin put in coffin?” Nana pointed her flashlight at the mannequin's body.

“What is this talisman possible?” Arthur checked the outside of the crate.

“See, there are some writings that use foreign letters.” Arthur pointed at the edge of the engraved coffin filled with strange contortions. And there are also some letters that I have never seen.

“What are the possible aliens living here?” Arthur looked up. Layla plays her lips, trying to hold back the laughter.

“Mana mungki? Thats impossible. Although aliens have lived here, are their civilizations the same as ours? A coffin? Do they also sell clothes using mannequins?” Nana smile. Don't make me laugh. That is what Nana's expression says.

I watched the walls of the room. On the right wall I saw a familiar carving. The carving depicts a box, and then a little boy runs into it. The next picture of the little boy opens the box. Whatdoes thatmean? The picture just stops there.

“Lina, we'll go to the next floor. It was just an ordinary mannequin. About that letter also no one knows and no hint.” Arthur patted me on the shoulder. I stood up, walked outside the room while continuing to look at the picture.

“Lina?” Layla looked at me straight. I'm a little bit surprised.

“Don't daydream if you don't want your body taken over by an invisible creature.” Nana turned right, led the way back. The more we entered the second floor, the more coffins were strewn about in the room.

Unlike previous circumstances, the air pressure here was much better. I was breathing normally again, even though I coughed sometimes with dust.

We walked and climbed the stairs for about two hours. At one o'clock in the night. We reached the tenth floor with a little run.

“Do we not have to go back?” I'm sweating cold. The air pressure did improve, but not with the pressure put on my mind. I'm scared, I admit. We were in a building that had been abandoned for a long time. Although it looks like this building is still sturdy, who will know if suddenly this building collapsed? Plus we are in an unknown place. Stranger and mysterious place.

“I agree with Lina. It's past midnight. They may have already returned to the tent.” Layla looked at Nana and Arthur.

“We continue one more floor. I'm still wondering what this building is.” Nana again walked in the tenth floor corridor. Arthur ran ahead of us.

“Hey, Look at this!” Arthur pointed into one of the rooms. Nana ran towards him, followed by Layla and me.

My eyes widened. What room is this? Expressory place? And what is it? I saw a big glass tube. There are two tubes. One tube height is not much different from my height is only a few inches higher than me. The second tube is twice as big as the first.

“What creatures are they?” Layla is inching backwards. Horrified to see creatures with strange shapes like them.

The two tubes contained a glowing green liquid until we could see the contents of the room without a flashlight. Smaller tubes containing humans, perhaps. The shape is somewhat different from humans in general. He had four eyes and four hands, but he had no nose. Her hair is also very long. He reminds me of one of the horror movies I've seen. Then the larger tube contains a creature that I don't know what to call. His body is big and tall. He's fat and his stomach is distended. His head was filled with eyes. He had no hair, no nose, no mouth. The nails are very long and look sharp. Like a double-edged sword.

“If not what nails again?” Nana looked at that face full of eyes, shuddering in horror.

“See! Under this tube there is the inscription.” Layla stared fixedly at the bottom of the tube made of iron. There is the inscription ‘Aryek’

“Aryek? What is the name of this creature?” Arthur looked up, staring at the face that was twice his height.

“This letter we can read.” Nana rubbed the writing with her fingertips.

“And this is Arf-ak? Even this name is more strange than the previous one even though the shape is less human. Just a little, take note of it!” Arthur brought his face closer to the glass tube. As Arthur was looking at the four eyes of the Arf-ak creature, his eyeballs suddenly moved. Arthur was aghast, his breathing stupefied. Nana Scrunching her forehead, increasing alertness.

“They live?” Layla is inching backwards. His eyes stared warily, unblinking.

“We're back. It would be dangerous if it continued to be in this place.” Nana turned right, walked out of the room. Arthur followed. Layla was still in her place. I pulled Layla's wrist, soon after Arthur and Nana.

“Either I wish this was a dream or not. If the monster suddenly came out I wish this was just a dream. But this is too cool if it's just a dream.” Arthur blabbed while running around in the corridor passageway.

“Can't you be serious a little?” Nana ran down the stairs. His legs slipped, but he stood up again.

****

Fifteen meters away from the exit. My mouth opened to take a breath. My lungs are burning. I can barely breathe. Just imagine running from the tenth floor to the bottom floor without stopping, it was really draining. My head was also dizzy from it.

“Finally to also.” Layla had a hard time talking. Among us Layla looks the most exhausted. He even immediately fell flat upon reaching the door.

“But how do we open this door? Look, there are no cracks or any buttons and this door and another one, this is the most important. The door opens inward, there is no way we will pull it plus this door has no doorknob at all.” Arthur straightened the body. Both of his hands were bent to the waist. Arthur took a deep breath, then took it out slowly.

Arthur's right. How do you open a big, heavy door like this? Although this door has a handle to pull on, we won't be able to open it either.

“Are we stuck?” Layla tried to stand up, but fell back down. Suddenly the door was shining. There was some kind of hologram on the stone door. There are letters with foreign letters. Not long after that the hologram screen vibrated, displaying the translation. There it says ‘click here'. Then Nana pressed the column on the hologram. The hologram screen is back vibrating. There's a post ‘Who's your name?’. Below it is a column of boxes.

Nana touches that column, then the keyboard appears below the column. Nana typed our names on that column. After Nana clicked the button finished the hologram screen vibrated. The hologram screen showed nothing. Instead, a hologram card suddenly came out from the floor. Nana took the card, knocked it.

A duplicate of the building emerges from the hologram card. It is the building we are in now. There are four green dots under the hologram's duplicate building. The four green spots are us. There are three yellow dots. One point was on the second floor, another on the twenty-fifth floor, and the last on the forty-fifth floor. After that there were two red dots on the tenth floor. I think these two red dots are those two weird creatures.

The hologram screen is back vibrating. There is the inscription ‘keywords' then there are three boxes beside it. Below the writing there is also the inscription ‘Place'. Below the book is also a column. Inside the column were four more columns.

“What is this puzzle?” Arthur tilted his head.

“Viewed from wherever this is a clear puzzle.” Nana pulls a duplicate of the collateral on the hologram card with her thumb and forefinger. The duplicate enlarges, revealing more details of the contents of the building. Nana slid her index finger. The duplicate was spinning ninety degrees.

“Wuuuh!!” Arthur put a lip. Layla stood up, stepped closer to us.

“How do we solve this puzzle? We're not even given a hint.” I stared at the hologram screen at the door. Sighs.

“See! There are ‘keywords’ and three columns. The yellow dots on the map are three. Meaning one point there is one keyword. I don't know what that keyword will be. But for now we check first the first point on the second floor. After that we just searched for the keyword there.” Layla looked at us. His eyes were filled with confidence even though he painstakingly explained with a still-boring breath. We sat, nodding. At least we have to solve this puzzle if we want to get out of this big building.