Hide and Seek: The Mad Girl Sees All novel Chapter 35

Chapter 35

The white light faded. Lyra opened her eyes and glanced down-black combat suit hugging her body, boots planted on soft earth, every pocket still loaded. She looked up. People stood packed all around her.

The system announcement came right on cue.

[Welcome to Round Forty-Six of Global Hide-and-Seek.]

[Current mission: Cursed Forest.]

[Participating nations this round: 62.]

Lyra kept chewing her lollipop, listening.

[Rules have been adjusted this round.]

[Hiding phase: fifteen minutes.]

[Hunting phase: one hour thirty minutes.]

[Anyone caught will die, and one district in their home nation will suffer a Wraith incursion.]

[Survivors will receive rewards.]

Fifteen minutes.

The last two rounds had been thirty. Cut clean in half. Hunting time was halved too-ninety minutes.

The total was compressed, but the ratio stayed the same. So where was the real adjustment? Difficulty?

“Lyra!”

A voice pushed through the crowd. Lina came barreling up to her, breathless, eyes shining with excitement.

“You changed your outfit! Super cool!”

“Obviously.

Before Lyra could get out a second word, a blonde head poked out from behind Lina. Lydia. She was in a dark training uniform, sleeves cinched tight, hair plaited into a single braid.

Lydia spotted Lyra and opened her mouth. “Lay-ra. Hel-lo.”

The accent was atrocious. Lyra froze for a beat, nearly dropping her lollipop.

1

“You learned Draconian?”

Lydia nodded, then forced out another line. “I… study… three day!

Lina was bent double laughing beside them. “She’s been at it nonstop since she got back. Worked her country’s translators into the ground.”

Lydia puffed out her chest, beaming.

Lyra studied her for two seconds, then gave a thumbs-up. “Sixty out of a hundred.”

The pride on Lydia’s face cracked.

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Chapter 35

Lina quickly translated. “She says you passed.”

Lydia huffed, then sprang another line. “Th-thank yoo.”

That one came out a little smoother.

Lyra was about to say something when a tall figure approached from the right.

Sergei.

ALE

He looked thinner than last time, dressed in camo. He stopped in front of Lyra, gave her a nod, then cleared his throat.

“Lyra. Hello.”

“Hello,” he added.

Then a three-second pause, lips moving silently, like he was rehearsing.

“Can… you… take me?”

He held out a hand and mimed a follow gesture.

“I… no drag down… promise.”

He finished by lifting his right fist to his chest-probably Belsoria’s way of swearing an oath.

Lyra chewed her lollipop and gave him a once-over.

“Lina.”

“Yeah.”

Lyra said, “Tell him he can tag along, but same rules. Do what I say, no acting on his own, no wandering off. And I’m not guaranteeing he stays alive. If he dies, that’s on him.”

Lina relayed it fast.

Sergei listened, then pressed his fist to his chest again and gave a hard nod.

“Yes!”

Lyra nodded, satisfied. “Fine. Extra hands aren’t a bad thing.”

1

Over on Draconia’s livestream, the chat detonated round after round.

LyraMyldol: [Fifteen minutes? Cut in half?]

NeverAteVeggies: [Called it, the upgrade hit! Three days off wasn’t for nothing.)

BornToCuss: [Lydia speaking Draconian killed me. That accent was too much.]

LuckyKoi: [Sergei jumped in too. Goddess Lyra’s running with three now?]

AnotherDayAlive: [Hold on. Look at the rules, hiding cut in half, hunting cut in half. Total time shorter. You know what that means?]

GoDraconia: [Means the pace is faster and the margin for error just dropped.]

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Chapter 35

LyraForeverGoddess: [Last round she had time to map the garden and test angles. With fifteen minutes, is that even enough?]

Inside command, the mood was grim. Garrett stared at the rule changes onscreen, keyboard clattering nonstop

“Hiding time halved-lines up with what we predicted.”

Lana stood in front of the main display, fingers pressed to the edge of the desk.

“What about the mission type?”

“Cursed Forest. Should be forest terrain. Heavy cover, plenty of hiding spots.”

“Don’t jump to conclusions.” Lana cut him off. “Last two rounds, one sight, one hearing. The hunters for this round havent shown up yet.”

Ms. Reed looked uneasy too. “What worries me is exactly that. ‘Haven’t shown up yet.””

Lana didn’t reply, her gaze fixed on Lyra on the screen.

A door appeared out of thin air at the mission entrance.

Beyond it was dense forest. The canopy blotted out the sky, and slivers of light leaked through the gaps onto the leaves carpeting the ground.

The crowd surged forward, more frantic than the last two rounds, footsteps a chaotic rush. Fifteen minutes, everyone knew what that meant.

Lyra didn’t rush. She stood at the entrance and took a look at the forest behind the door.

Tall ones, short ones, thick ones, thin ones, branches tangled together, leaves layered in dense sheets.

She narrowed her eyes, then stepped through.

Lina, Lydia, and Sergei stuck close behind her, along with a handful of others trailing along too.

Leaves crunched under her feet. After about ten steps, Lyra stopped.

Her gaze swept across a cluster of bushes on the left, then a row of tall trees on the right.

She kept walking. About thirty steps later, she stopped again.

This time she didn’t move on right away. She tilted her head and stared at a tree off to the front-right for a few seconds.

That one was tall, with a grayish trunk and branches twisting out in every direction, all warped and contorted.

Not like the others around it.

The surrounding trees had brown bark with vertical grain, and branches that grew upward.

This one had grayish bark with horizontal grain, and branches that reached outward.

Lyra kept walking, counting as she went.

One.

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