Venturing: UnderOr

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Tons of report had came to Yang who reported to Ling's group about a glitch in their town. They were sent to investigate it. But fell into a sudden trap with eight boxes and a mirror. What does this room had anything to do with their case and who trapped them there?

(Sorry for late upload)


We found ourselves in a small room. Eight boxes scatter around us. In front of us was a square mirror that reflected our image back towards us. As I turned my attention towards the eight boxes around us, I frowned with the thought lingering my mind in pondered about those boxes. So decidedly, I heed towards one of the eight and grabbed them from their spots. The other officers suddenly turned their attention towards me, ears already erected from hearing my soft footsteps and something banging against the ground. I retreated to the group and grabbed onto the red ribbon attached to the box. Pulling it off, I stared at the bared nakedness of it before placing my claw upon the lid. Opening the top suddenly as it revealed the contents inside.

Nothing. I growled a bit. My eyes narrowed while I held my head into the air. Spoke towards the rest of my unit with an order as they acknowledged it before spreading out on their own and left me upon the center of the room. For seconds later they had came back with their own boxes. Opened and stripped of its ribbons. Afterwards, they tilted the boxes in my direction and I looked upon the interior of the boxes inside. Five of the boxes had nothing inside. One had a hammer. Another had some sort of picture with some weird shapes upon it. I stared at the two boxes with contents inside of them, shook my head before raising them towards the two dragons that had them. Kyro and Ozkun. "Stuff these inside your pockets. Except for yours Kyro, think we need it for the mirror adjacent to us." Both nodded and Ozkun stuffed his item as Kyro walked over to the mirror. Threw it upon it and shattered into tiny pieces. The sound was also startling as well. But neither one of us flinched upon the sounds.

You may be wondering why we were inside a room. In front of a shattered mirror no less too. Well in summary, Yang had told us about the glitch in our town. How it alone had affected everything around it. It was a major problem that dragons and other reptiles have started complaining about it already. To the point that Yang ordered us to track this glitch to its source. Then shut it down. Thus here we are upon a single room where we suspected that the glitch is however. We were surprise that this signal was coming from the underground additionally. But we shook our heads, ignoring that thought as we had descended the stairs. Heeding into the room we were finally in.

"Get in Natty, ladies first." I heard Kyro suggested despite growls from Ozkun. Zander rolled his eyes suddenly and became silent as the pink dragoness went through the mirror. Entering into another room, she called out towards the rest of us. "The room here is empty." "Anything you find inside there?" I called back, she responded with a shook of her head after she turned right towards me. "Nothing but... A machine however.' "Videogame machine?" Zander questioned, his ears perked up suddenly and in interest while the pink dragoness shook her head, "No. Money making machine." "What is its-" "Just get into here already!" She demanded shutting the rest of us up. With Zander chuckling a bit, Kyro walked through the mirror next. Then Ozkun, Zander and finally me.

We gathered upon the room adjacent to the room previously after I had entered through the mirror last. I looked around upon the surroundings, quickly noticing how the place was a bit larger than the previous. But it was also empty at the same time too. A frown returned to my snout. But I paid no attention to it as my eyes settled upon the other dragons in the room with all of them returning their gaze back towards me. "Alright." I said, "So Natty said that there is a machine somewhere?" "In front of us apparently." I heard Natty spoke, raising her claw high towards the horizon. She pointed right, which was my left however. We followed her pointing claw, directly towards the other side where we spotted such said machine lying against the wall behind it. Kyro and Zander walked up towards it suddenly with Natty and Ozkun following behind them, just in case anything happened. With me standing behind as I drew my pistol and scanned the area, I have not noticed how silent the place was after our conversation and after I had entered through the mirror too apparently.

With an uneasy feeling upon how empty the place was and a machine isolated upon the other side of the room, I had tempted to split my snout and called out towards the other officers. But something was stuck upon the tip of my throat. I blinked with widened eyes before shaking my head and shifted my attention towards the four other officers already gathered at the machine suddenly. They talked amongst themselves, their conversation settled upon a lower volume. Their eyes were met with one another; claws already animated as some of them laughed or chuckled. Kyro seemed to have his arms crossed upon his chest, narrowing his eyes upon Zander.

I had saw that the room was clear. The path that they had taken was additionally too. I called out towards them. Only Natty responded with a nod as I walked calmly to regroup with them however. As I inched forth and closed the distance between us, my ears flickered upon the ringing silence surrounding me. It grew louder suddenly, but I ignored it responding. My footsteps were the only thing making noises surrounding this room, 'so why?' I thought to myself pondering while I regroup with the other officers. They turned themselves around, settled their eyes back upon the machine in front of them and silence fell above us. Till it was broken a second later by Ozkun who piped up responding, "What is this machine?" "The screen is small." Noted Zander as he walked up to the machine, tapping upon the screen in front of him despite Kyro shaking his head, exhaling.

As he spoke, I turned my attention towards the machine too. Having noticed that it was medium size. Rotten to the core after being exposed to the air for way too long. The machine definitely looked like it came from an arcade machine or something similar to that however. I walked up to the machine and lowered my eyes upon the surface of it. Half expecting controls or something along those lines. Neither were there. Instead, ten buttons stand in my face. Numbers from zero to nine. A green and red buttons respectively were shoved to the corners of the keypad. Above the keypad was the blank lit screen. A short sentence was at the top of the screen. Followed by a two set password. I blinked pondering over the password. 'Considering that there is only two blank spaces, tells me that it is one hundred possibilities. I could perhaps brute force it. Should take no time however.' "Hey Zander." I responded, Zander's ears perked up suddenly as he turned his attention towards me and tilted his head, I motioned for him. He walked to my side suddenly till he stopped and turned his head towards the machine in front of him.

"Weird. This is not a videogame at all." Zander echoed Ozkun who first saw it beforehand. "I know right?" He exclaimed behind Zander's back as Kyro and Natty shoot glares upon the said dragon who kept quiet afterwards as silence loomed overtop of us. "You can brute force this right?" I questioned him, Zander smirked suddenly nodding in response. "Of course. Will take some time to do so however." "Good." I concluded and backed off from him. Regrouping again with the other officers as they continued their argument in a whispered silence. It had taken thirty minutes before we heard an exclaimed by the black dragon. Whom we turned towards to while his claws were thrown into the air, smirking for some strange reason however. I joined his side, turned my head towards the screen below and stare in silence. The screen became blanked. No blank spaces, no sentence however. Nothing came up which was a concern for me. Though I never spoken it to Zander however, I turned towards Kyro and Natty questioning about the blanked screen.

Neither of them had a clue however. "Apparently there is only five tries into breaking into this machine." "Five tries?" I questioned to Zander as his head nodded again, "So what was the reason you exclaimed happily?" " 'happily'? No, that was frustration." "You are weird." "Thanks, Ling." "So what happens now?" Ozkun questioned us as he stepped forth, breaking the line that he Natty and Kyro had created with his eyes pointing to me, "Guess we wait then." I frowned, admitting defeat. A breath drew from Ozkun's snout and he shook his head growling. Whether or not that was either towards me or Zander was not a problem for either one of us however. Although I did found myself frowning back in response towards the dragon in front of me. As he turned back around and avoided confrontation, he returned his sights back towards the mirror once again.

A few seconds into the silence was all I had needed to calm myself down. A breath shot up from my throat while my eyes lowered to the grounds below me. I began to think, pondering about the two blank spaces and the sentence above it. After which the ten buttons appearing in front of me, numbered zero to nine. "Why only five attempts?" I growled, clenching my claws in anger as I snarled. "It is back!" I heard Zander interrupted my thoughts as I turned back towards him. "Do not touch anything!" I demanded after his claws were attempting positions upon the buttons once again. He froze responding to me as he turned his head back to me. He met my eyes, I shook my head. Acknowledging it, he removed his claws from the pad and stepped away from the machine suddenly.

"Apparently, we need to find a code. We cannot go brute forcing this." I explained to Kyro and Natty. "We should look into the other room, see what contains there that we had missed the first time around." "Was there anything there?" Asked Natty, shifting her head towards the red dragon before he nodded back towards her. I exhaled a breath, closed my eyes before nodding at them. "FIne. Head there and come back, we still need to solve this case." "And bring an end to this virus that kept plaguing our town." Zander informed us, reminding us about our end goal. I nodded at him before following Kyro and Natty back through the mirror once again.

I had not noticed that the previous room was much smaller in comparison to the room where we left Zander upon. I blinked in surprise but shook my head to rid of that expression before turning to Kyro and Natty while their attention was towards the mirror. "When this one was intact..." Kyro trailed, muttering words towards his mate. "DId you ever noticed something weird about the mirror itself?" Natty shook her head, frowning. Kyro groaned frustratedly before turning around and gaze at me and the wall behind me. I tilted my head to one side, questioning him. "Found anything yet?" He shook his head and walked passed me. Towards the wall behind me. "Say Ling. Get to the mirror again." "Alright." I responded walking towards the mirror. I stood in front of it and turned around facing the wall before me. A red arrow was pointing up, painted at the wall where Kyro was standing inspecting about. "An red arrow is pointing upward. Wonder what that meant." I spoke to him, Kyro nodded and tilted his head back. Setting his sights towards the ceiling above us.

There above us stands two letters. Both painted in red. Kyro was shocked that his mouth was hanging from his snout. Ears erected as he spoke to the rest of us in harsh whispers, "Guys. There is something on the ceiling above us." Me and Natty raised our heads high, gazing at the ceiling above. Our eyes widened as Natty exclaimed surprised, "How did we not see that there!" "Cause we never looked at our surroundings." Ozkun explained, grunting as I smiled brightly and warmly, "Guess we found our stuff. Come on back, we need to relay this to Zander." "Way ahead of you." Responded Ozkun as he zipped by me and Natty through the mirror again where he disappeared. Leaving us three alone, I groaned, Kyro and Natty chuckled before following Ozkun through the mirror. Entering right on in. I followed behind them, lastly.

As we gathered ourselves upon Zander and the machine, we had already realized that the dragon had punched in numbers upon the machine. A loud 'ding' entered our minds while I snapped into attention and reality that surrounded us. A low rumble vibrated the room we were in. Rocks started falling from the ceiling above us as lights shattered suddenly. Sending the entire room towards darkness as Ozkun, Zander and Kyro switched to their flashlights. We turned towards the machine, noticing rather quickly that it was sliding along the wall towards the right side. Revealing a brown door in front of us, I walked passed everyone and snatched upon the door. Tightening my grip, I tilted the knob towards the side. Then opened the door, hearing a loud moan. The door opened to reveal darkness beyond its gates. But something flicked and the place was illuminated afterwards.

We all poured in. The door closed behind us. We heard it but never bothered with it as we had more important things to look upon. The room we were in was much biggered compared the previous two rooms. But the flooring below us was unique and different than the other rooms too. For the floor below our feet was dressed in a pattern. Due to how faint the drawings were, it was hard almost impossible to determined the drawings without accuracy. Thus we had decided to ignore it and kept our attention upon the single strip of paper lying at the center of the room. THe first to move was Ozkun who walked calmly towards such said strip and picked it up from the grounds underneath. Thus, turning the paper over. He retreated to us and showed the strip to us. The strip of paper had a unique pattern much like the grounds underneath us. But the two patterns were different from one another somehow. The first upon the ground was a heart. The first from the strip was a spade. This had us scratching our heads in frustration as we pondered about the two patterns before us.

In addition to the room were four other doors; each of them were opened however. White silvery staircases leads to somewhere. Perhaps to the previous floor underneath. As I motioned for them to take a look upon the four doors; each of them nodded their heads. Yet Ozkun was the first to immediately picked which he wanted to head towards. The second door of the left side apparently. Zander rolled his eyes and chose the door a crossed from him. Kyro and Natty takes the doors closest to where I was standing. Each of them nodded and descended down, disappearing from my sights as I realized how alone and isolated I was. I felt my heart beating in my chest but my attention was towards the strip of paper and the grounds underneath me. Analyzing the pattern to passed the time.

For about a minute had the four officers submerged from their respective doors. Appearing upon the edges of the room. As their mouths were opened calling out towards me, I snapped back into reality and waved right at them which they responded with their own as well. All four gathered up, presenting their findings. Zander found a nail, Kyro grabbed a heart, Natty had a diamond of blood and Ozkun obtained three ling-yang coins. I tilted my head curiously about the three coins that were in his claws as he nodded his head and spoke, "That was just what I said too." "What? About the three coins?" I questioned him, he nodded afterwards. Thus became the silence of the room as I pondered about the four items in front of me.

Then towards the strip of paper's pattern and the ground's pattern before looking up towards the four doors surrounding us. Spotting numbers above the doors, numbering themselves from one to four. Something clicked in my mind. I snapped my claws and smiled while the other four stared at me with their heads tilted to the side. I explained, " Kyro headed to the first door on the left, then Ozkun, Zander and Natty. After you had entered and exited, I had noticed four numbers hanging above the doors. Each item that correspond to the numbers has to be one or two of the patterns from the strip or the ground." "Then come on! Let just figure this out then." Demanded Ozkun as he snatched the strip pattern from my claws, staring down upon the grounds below us.

"Wait!" I exclaimed to the dragon, "We needed to figure this out together." "No need!" Ozkun replied back towards me with a wave of his claw. I became silent but said nothing else as I watched him attempt it. But after a while, he groaned frustrated before shaking his head. Hanging back the strip, he frowned as I lowered my eyes gazing back onto the strip remembering the pattern once again. Then spoke out towards them. "Guys; stand in this order from left to right at the center of the room. Ozkun, Zander, Kyro and Natty." They heeded my advice and stand in the order that I had recommended. A bright light shines below them as each of them had mixed reactions. Yet either of them kept quiet about it until after the light dims and the door behind them opened up. "How you know?" Ozkun questioned me, I smiled faintly and shook my head, heeding towards the next room with my officers behind me leaving behind Ozkun as he rushes forth to catch up.

How I know? Well it was not easy however and it did takes me a few minutes to understand what was going on. Each of the objects in the officer's claws were different from one another. But combining them all together, they tell a story. Considering that this series is all about evidence and finding the culprit, the four objects would make sense into telling a story about someone being murdered. Hence the nail, or weapon, bleeding heart, heartbroken about the loss of love ones or some victim being stabbed in the heart, the blood of diamond being the pool of blood surrounding the victim and the three coins. Although, I never knew why the author had threw in those three coins either. Were they just a red herring? Or something unique had to do with them?

Shaking my internal thoughts to the side, we gathered ourselves into the last room. A green large container stands in front of us. It was filled with rapid bubbles that were rising from the depths below of the container. In front of it was another dashboard with ten other buttons. All numbers. Instinctively, we would put the same password again into it. But we had refrained from it however. Even Kyro restrained Ozkun from attempting to put the password again into the machine. Fearing that something worst might happened upon the room. Behind the contain and the machine were six big letters. Illuminated lights of purple danced around those big letters too. "THE END" Were the letters.

"Wonder why those are all capitalized letters?" Questioned Natty as her eyes stared upon the letters before us. "Weird on how the H and D letters had some sort of slits on them. Wonder if they take coins." "Slits?" I asked Zander as he nodded before raising his claw, pointing towards the two letters in question then spoke, "See. slits." "Weird." I answered back before drawing my attention towards the machine. Upon reaching, I had noticed that two blank spaces appeared underneath the same sentence as before. I groaned frustrated before motioning towards Kyro and Ozkun. Both of which came behind me and I turned to them, requesting about the drive. Kyro reached into his pocket and brought it out which I grabbed from his claws.

I set my eyes back upon the machine. Staring upon its features in silence in wonderance of where should I placed this upon. The machine itself had nothing but the keypad and the screen. Even looking upon the sides and beneath it yield the same results. With frustration, I motioned towards Natty as she stepped towards me. I handed her the drive and pointed towards the word 'THE END' ahead to which she nodded and heed towards it. She attempted to place the drive into the letters H and D respectively. Neither of them work however and I found myself scratching my head. With Ozkun released from Kyro's claws, he rushed towards the machine and started punching in numbers. Random, mind you.

As beeps and sounds of sirens echoed through the silence of the room and I stepped back into the line of Kyro and Zander, Ozkun continued punching in random numbers that popped into his mind. But slowly grew frustrated into seeing the 'error' warning sign repeating before his face. Until which he pressed into the last set of numbers was the only time that the entire room descended into darkness. It had snapped the rest of us into reality while Natty growled and narrowed her eyes at Ozkun who suddenly and slowly stepped away from the machine. His claws were held up and he turned around, facing the rest of us. We each have our own emotion. Yet we were all disappointed into the dragon however. He hang his head in silence while the rest of us scanned the room around upon the darkness. But something snapped our attention. Something that shattered the glass and something came out.