Season 11.5 [Rewrite: Continuation]

Success

Success is a fragment of one's life painting. After hundreds of shortcomings and thousands of misdeeds, after pitfall after pitfall, there is a time where, in the pools of such distress, one gleans a sand of knowledge termed, "Success."

Once stolen, it is a lantern to one's path, and what one once slandered as a pitfall is now naught but a canvas to a grandiose masterpiece of art.

>^<

"What.....happens when someone dies?" Kai suddenly pondered to the four in the room.

There was a moment of silence with four dubious expressions followed by a borderline sense of fear. Anxious expressions from all sped into the limelight, and only Scott was expressionless.

It broke with an unknown peer. "You get sent to Unigami. There's a robotic transport that comes and collects your information, and you're no longer able to function in the game."

He sent a shivering gale of an eye over to the team. Nya, Kai, and Cole braced from it, a sense of dread running down their throats. "We can't afford death, not even from one of you. So keep your head in the game and get that keytana. Got it?"

The unbothered stillness in the air was the agreement instilled between the team. "Good. Now let me tell you the layout."

There was a holographic diagram of the races with pictures of the racers. "I invested your time in building vehicles and levelling up your stats, so there wasn't much I could do to prepare you for the track. You'll be racing in the dark, I'm afraid."

His tone and posture exhibit that he was mostly timid over his own future and not there's. "But what I can do is tell you about the races. The tracks are based off on the real life race, the--"

"Ninjaball run." Cole intervened with a nod. "We've won it before."

There was a stint of light in Scott's eyes by the comment. "That makes my job easier. If you all have won before, then the territory should be a familiar feeling. As for the racers?"

Scott enlarged the images of the racers, each with a unique tattoo, hairstyle, or an abnormally large scar across their face.

"Cheaters, scumbags, and Unigami followers. They'll be your main problem."

"We dealt with idiots like them in the Ninjaball race." Kai confidently crowed. "We can handle them."

There was a gaze of distrust in Scott's eyes before it dulled with prior knowledge. Scott nodded in respect to their achievement with a dash of confidence.

"If you've won the real-life race then this shouldn't be too much different. You guys better win." Scott sternly warned as he deactivated the model. "Lose, and I'll leave you on the streets."

Kai gulped and eyed Cole with a whisper at hand. "He isn't joking, is he?"

"When has Scott ever joked?" Cole harshly slipped over as Kai dawdle.

"The races are to start one hour from now." Scott carelessly peered at the team. "What are you waiting for? Get going!"

>_<

Jay dumbly folded the tent, the food in his stomach and brain on his shoulders cycling as a basket of clothing in a washing machine.

It was morning. The remaining four concluded that morning was the best time to attack, a way to end this journey once and for all. As Jay picked up the bundled tent, his eyes traveled over to the innards of the maze and to the pixels of the sky.

Enraptured by it all, Eric bumped Jay by the shoulder. The ninja collapsed on the floor, butt on the ground and insult on tongue when Eric poured out a hefty warning.