In front of his eyes, around 40 dolls manifested. Each, with a different expression, danced in a formation around him.
They moved with perfect coordination, as if performing for him while singing a lullaby.
"Stars are bright and the moon will shine, oh my love now you are mine. Don't just stand and embrace your love, you might not get another chance." x∞
He was in middle of the dancing dolls while the time was ticking but he had no clue where to start. He came here to test the air gun but this isn't a task to kill or maybe it was.
'I have no clue, let's just do this.' He took out the gun from his inventory and decided to use his skill to first restore the gun.
The gun in his hand shone in a bright light and in moment of seconds, it became all new. The old texture was gone, now the gun was back to its prime.
Ray pointed his gun at the dolls and kept changing his target. while unfazed by his action, the dolls were dancing and singing.
Ray finally stopped at a doll with a crown like hairs. He thought maybe this is a intruder but then his eyes landed on another one, it was a female doll and loudest of them.
he again confused among all of them. To him, they all were creepy and scary. For a second, he felt shooting all of them but just in this confusion, 15 minutes were gone and now only 45 minutes are left.
The atmosphere was all scary, his gun pointed at the certain doll and then.
The head of the doll with crown like hair blasted into pieces. All the dolls stopped dancing, and in unison, their heads moved towards Ray. It was scary as hell.
Ray froze in his place, then a notification made things more tense.
[You have killed the wrong target. The intruder is still alive.]
[Penalty: 1 minutes will be deducted from your time]
[Time left: 40 minutes]
The dead doll vanished and others began dancing once again but this time, the speed of the dolls also became faster.
A mocking but scary laugh resounded from outside. Ray realized that the joker was watching his every action.
'This is just a level 3 mini-game, why is it so difficult?' He thought while thinking of another way.
Ray again looking at every doll. From their expressions to their movement, he was trying to find anything odd from them but he finds nothing that can give him clue
Then he focused on the lullaby they were singing.
"Stars are bright and the moon will shine, oh my love now you are mine. Don't just stand and embrace your love, you might not get another chance." x∞
He starts repeating words by words to find anything from it. "Stars are bright and moon will shine, oh my love now you are mine."
'What does this mean? Stars are bright and the moon will shine.' At first everything was confusing. He tries to connect dots but still felt that the words aren't meant anything.
Just then his gaze towards the dolls, 'What if?'
'Stars are bright, means these dolls and the moon will shine meant, other than them, only I'm here in middle of all of these which means I'm the moon.'
Then he focused on next part, the most difficult part. though he didn't knew if his guess was correct but only this was the clue he could find after spending 40 minutes of his one-hour time limit.
The spooky laugh of the joker had increased with every minute that wasted. This only made the atmosphere more tense for Ray.
'Don't just stand and embrace your love, you might not get another chance.' He thought but the laughter of the joker was only disturbing him from thinking straight.
[Time left 10 minutes]
Just in middle of his thoughts, the dolls stopped moving. They stopped dancing, they stopped singing. Their body shudder, then he saw Joker entering the room.
This time he was the one singing the lullaby but a different one. "Your love has ended and your life will too. Maybe you are not destined, let's start all new."
Ray gripped his gun. He looked at the Joker and then the dolls. He had no clue, what should he do?
[Time left: 5 minutes 59 seconds]
[Time left: 4 minutes 58 seconds]
[Time left: 3 minutes 57 seconds]
Only two minutes were left. The joker wasn't moving from his place, but with his spooky laugh, he was singing the lullaby. On the other hand, the dolls had also become stiff, as if they were afraid of something.
He noticed it late but as he does, the last piece of puzzle began to solve.
[Time left: 56 seconds]
He had a tight grip on his gun. Ray realized that he wasn't prepared for this or maybe overconfident due to his cheat skills and now he realized, why the game is called 'Apex Survival'.
Only 30 seconds were left; he didn't take long. Either he'd clear the mini-game or die. Then he shot towards the Joker, whose spooky smile turned into a horrified expression.
Just like the doll before. The Joker's head blasted and the scene was full of gore. Pieces of head and bones scattered all around the place.
[You have cleared the trial.]
[Congratulation! You have become the first person to reach different ending.]
[Calculating rewards...]
[Author's note] We need Power stones asap!