Chapter 67: Chapter 67

Tia circled behind one human-sized cage and said, "This game is called Save the Monkey King! In this game, each man will be put into this cage, and they will be given a lot of fruit."

"The monkeys in this forest are very hungry, and they will start circling around these cages, wanting to get their hands on those delicious fruits," Tia said, surprised and gasping with her eyes bulging out. "They will start stealing from the cages, and they might even get violent and start attacking the men to get their hands on the fruits!"

"So, you, men, must defend all the fruits in your cage."

"Wouldn’t that mean we would get hurt? The monkeys might scratch us," Russel asked.

"Yep, that’s why you need to pray that your partner can get you out of the cage as soon as possible!" Tia replied. "While the men are inside the cage, the women will be escorted to three different locations, where they are given a map to find the key to unlocking their kings!"

"So the first one to free their king wins, right?" Madeline asked.

"Not quite; the winning condition is the number of fruits saved by your man," Tia said. "Freeing your man as fast as possible will help because your man won’t get attacked by the monkeys anymore. But if he fails to protect anything, there’s no point in being the first."

Madeline understood the game immediately.

So, this was still a team game. The man had to fight the monkeys, while the woman had to save them. While freeing them as soon as possible might help, it might benefit her better if she manipulated the other girls instead.

’Such as making sure they can’t even find their key to ensure my victory,’ Madeline thought while glancing at Bertha, who had given her a side glance the whole time.

Bertha quickly looked away, but Madeline already knew that Bertha had the same idea as her.

"Okay, the crew will escort all of you to your location. You will be given a map and a clue. If you really can’t find the key, then you should just say that you give up and lose the game automatically," Tia said. "And for the boys, you must wear an outfit made of fruits. Best of luck to all of you!"

Madeline looked at Zane, who gave her an assuring smile, "Don’t worry about me. Just keep yourself safe, alright?"

"Oh, I always keep myself safe," Madeline giggled. "But it might take a while for me to save you. So bear with it, alright?"

Zane didn’t know what Madeline was planning. But he trusted her and her brain, so he just nodded and followed her instructions.

All the women were escorted to different spots in Alas Kedaton Monkey Forest.

Madeline didn’t know the exact location of Jasmin and Bertha because they were separated at an intersection.

Madeline was escorted to an area with many megabats hanging upside down on the tree branches.

The staff gave her an incomplete map and said, "You will start from here. Read it, and you should be able to see where your next clue should be. Once you gather all the clues, you will turn it into a complete map and instructions to find the key."

"Will I meet with the other girls?" Madeline asked.

"Possibly. Everyone’s clues are the same; you are all just placed in different spots, so everyone’s clue orders are different."

The staff was about to leave her alone, but Madeline stopped him, "One last thing, can I tinker with the clue?"

"Tinker with the clue?" The staff frowned.

"Yes, I want to know if I can do something to slow down other girls," Madeline said without a filter. She didn’t want the director to use this as a reason to disqualify her. So, it was better to ask directly.

The staff paused momentarily and replied, "You can put obstacles to make the clue harder to figure out, but not to outright remove the clue completely. You will be disqualified for that."

"Alright," Madeline smiled. "That’s all I need to know."

The staff finally left Madeline alone, with a cameraman silently following her.

Madeline checked her incomplete map and could only read one word:

Evil.

She checked the back of it and saw the picture of a megabat, the species of giant bat hanging upside down around her, eating a fruit, specifically a papaya.

"This is it? This is the clue?" Madeline frowned.

She looked around her surroundings, and other than the creepy bats that mostly did nothing, she saw nothing else that could be used as a clue.

She began to walk around the area of megabats, ignoring their creepiness. She continued searching until she found a papaya tree with a few megabats eating the papayas.

Madeline checked her picture again and matched the megabats who were eating the ripe yellow papaya.

They looked so unbothered by the presence of a human.

"Then the next clue should be around here," Madeline concluded.

She observed the megabats and noticed they continued eating without any problem, "Could it be that the next clue is inside that half-eaten papaya?" Madeline wondered.

But then, she decided that shouldn’t be the case. "No, if they put the clue inside a ripe papaya, then it’ll be eaten by the megabats by now. But what if..." Madeline circled around the papaya tree and grinned when she saw the unripe papayas had a red circle around the size of one finger at the bottom.

"As expected, they put it in here," Madeline inserted her index finger inside the red circle and endured the icky-gooey feeling. She continued pressing until she noticed a hard, plastic-y feeling at the tip of her finger.

"Ah, there you go," Madeline murmured.

She pulled her finger out of the papaya and...

Plop!

The next clue was wrapped inside a small plastic tube on the ground. Madeline chuckled as she picked it up, "This is too easy."

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