Hell and Back (EXO x Reader)

Enigma (Trial 15)

Chapter warnings: Mild language and slight graphic content

Word count: 1464

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"It says, uh..." Lay looked annoyed as she stalled, leaning forward to grab Y/N's wrist, removing the phone from her grasp. He could have just looked on his own device, but he wasn't one known for patience. Or reasonable thinking. Looking down, his eyes formed the same confused gaze as hers had.

"What's it say?" Xiumin asked as he watched the man's face shift.

"It says to walk through a construction site. With no shoes?"

"That's kind of random." Kyungsoo commented. "It doesn't line up with the other trials. What's the dropout fee?"

"Still just money. $550."

"So I guess we can assume the fees will just go up by 50 until the end." He decided.

"Maybe... Anyway, that seems really strange. Is that dangerous?" Suho asked.

"Not $550 dangerous." Lay muttered. "It's fine. Where are we gonna find a construction site, though?"

"I can look it up." Sehun offered. "Or maybe we can use the question bar? In the rules tab?"

"That's a good idea," Y/N agreed, pulling it up. "Let's try it." Typing into the little bar, she typed in, Where is the nearest construction site? Buffering, it flashed new white letters. 'Do you wish to request a set trial location? Note that this cannot be changed freely.' Looking confused, she showed it to Suho. He shrugged, asking,

"I mean, what's the worst that happens?" Knowing how this kind of thing usually played out, a lot, but she wasn't going to argue. Accepting the request, she watched as a navigation window popped up. It didn't look unlike Maps, with a directional bar at the top, a map and car icon in the middle, and an ETA at the bottom. It was four minutes away.

"Alright," she put her phone up where Kris could see, "Let's hit the road." Following the GPS, the boys in the backseat were muttering about this trial in particular. She picked up a few little things as they were talking, but not enough to put the entire conversation together. Trying to find a different way to entertain herself, she checked the location selector that she had used to pick the construction site. There was a new button now, one that read, Change Location for a fee? Intrigued, she read the fine print on the page, trying to locate the actual fee, but she saw nothing. Moving to the question bar, she typed, What is the fee to change my location? Buffering, and...

You will not be given that information until a decision to change locations has been made. Brows rising, she poked Kyungsoo in the side, trying to get his attention.

"Hey, look at this-" Reading it over, he looked to her skeptically.

"I mean, in that case, we should never switch locations. Hell, we should never request locations, aside from this, of course."

"But aren't you curious to know what the fee is?"

"No? What if it's like, an arm?"

"It's not gonna be an arm."

"It's better if we can pick where we do things." He argued.

"I'll bet we could still go do it wherever if we wanted to." She rebutted with.

"Fine, ask it."

"Fine." Typing in again, she asked, Do you have to complete a trial in a certain place? After it loaded in, the machine responded, Trials can be held in any location unless specified by a current/previous prerequisite or a location has been selected through the help bar. Kyungsoo, reading it over her shoulder, childishly stuck his tongue out as a kind of 'I told you so'. Annoyed, she rolled her eyes, tapping out of the app as he returned to occupying himself by looking out the window.