Shortly after, the purple-hatted man waved goodbye, and bars of ascending white light surrounded his body until Minyu was nowhere to be found.

"Hmm. He never told me that before," Valgala muttered and continued speaking to herself with a pouting face, "Keep a close eye on the Testers? Of course I will. What does he think of me, a weakling? I'm his apprentice!".

As much as she would like to rest and laze around, the orders of her Master must come first. With a flick of her fingers, bars of ascending light covered her body before it teleported her directly to the Floor 2 Observation Tower.

The Observation Tower was located at the center of a thick forest, towering over the already tall trees. After Valgala appeared in the control room, one of the controllers announced, "Lady Valgala. Our maintenance checks are finished. Should we change the environment?"

"Keep it as it is," The silver-haired woman responded.

"The weather conditions?"

"Clear and sunny, but set monster presence from 10 to 30. Raise the maximum tier of monster spawns to D Tier. To compensate for that, remove the skill restriction threshold."

One of the other controllers intervened, "I apologize, Lady Valgala. Even if we consider the upper bound of the Testers' estimated strength, it might be disproportionate for them to handle a D-tier monster." The male controller fixed his glasses, "Likewise, some testers have gotten lucky with the skill randomization, and some skills are too danger--"

"What did I just say, lowly human? You dare reason with me?" Valgala's enraged glare frightened the man. She was already annoyed when Minyu left her to manage the entire test alone, and *now* this asshat was butting in?! Fortunately for the controller, he would get to live another day as the Testers had already begun appearing on Floor 2.

Valgala glanced at the widescreen monitor as she spoke, "Go. Do as I say."

"Yes, Lady Valgala," The male controller sat back, pressing buttons and turning knobs at her request. While nothing was notably happening with the realistic yet simulated environment, echoing roars were heard as the changes to the environment were made.

Meanwhile, a certain figure caught her attention. A bone-skinned man whose skin was pale, as if all the blood in his body was siphoned out of him. The corners of his mouth stretched to his cheeks, making his smile even more unsettling than his unusual stature.

Valgala squinted her eyes at the skinny man before a series of system panels were generated at her telepathic request to the system. She uttered what she was reading, "Ji Ong... Never taken an Entry Test before... Floor 1 District 12 Dweller... The timestamps check out too. Skills are nothing too out of the ordinary."

He was certainly someone who didn't look like a man at all, but Valgala had seen worse. "Hm," she shook her head to take the thought off the man. In the end, Valgala chose not to focus on him, and instead switched her attention to the other Testers who were ascending to Floor 2. She sat on one of the spinning chairs, putting her leg over the other while griped at the fact that Minyu still put her up to his work.

After being teleported to the first test, Koiya and Tenno found themselves inside a small room with three mahogany doors. Standing on the side of the room is a rather familiar figure, with his purple suit and tophat.

"Welcome to the Test of Intuition, young Testers!" Minyu spread his arms, greeting the two with a lively smile.

"This test is rather simple. Pick any entrance! But be careful; these doors will lead to your death, and only one entrance will lead to the next part of this test. Your group can only choose one, and the majority's decision will be the designated choice that your group should enter."

He continued, "One more rule: As long as I'm watching, you must remain in the yellow circle during the test. Your group will be given three minutes to reach a consensus and an extra ten seconds to confirm your choice before the entrance is fully locked, so be decisive and intuitive!"

The purple-hatted man added, "Though, I understand that not all people are intuitively adept, so here is a hint: The most obvious answer is most likely the correct answer. Good luck!"

With a snap of his fingers, Minyu conjured a wooden stool for him to sit on and a floating pocket stopwatch. A three-minute timer also appeared on their Status Bands, starting to tick down to 0.

Tenno crossed his arms in contemplation, focusing on the three identical doors before him. Each door was made with dark brown wood, a silver doorknob, and a circular window present at head level. The doors all seemed identical and nothing set them apart. They stood inside a hollow yellow circle on the ceramic-tiled floor, dirtied by steps of mud, dirt, and tidbits of trash from the shoes and slippers of Testers from Floor 1.

"These must be foottracks from the groups who came before us," Tenno assumed. The foot tracks led out of the yellow circle and into the left door. As for the middle door and right door, no tracks were present. "This means the previous groups went to the left door. No one else dared to go to the other ones."

He remembered the hint Minyu gave them, adding it to his train of thinking, "The most obvious answer is the correct answer. Then, isn't it obvious that the correct entrance should be the left door?"

However, a series of questions and the footsteps on the floor especially bothered Tenno. "If the left door was the correct door, how did they arrive at the correct answer? Did the previous groups figure out the correct answer, or did they only follow the first group who went through the left door?"

"This is the Test of Intuition. Are we meant to test our instinct to see if we can arrive at a definite answer without knowing the question?" Tenno kept thinking, "If I had to decide what door to choose..."

Tenno scratches his head in confusion and conflict, "Urgh, I'd choose none!"

Tenno glanced at Koiya. The silver hair glanced back as well, his expression calm and unthinking. Koiya asked, "I'm sure you figured it out as well?"

"You know the answer?" Tenno raised his brow. "What's the correct door?"

"Pfft," He chortled. "I expected more from you."

"Hey. You'll die with me if I choose the wrong door," Tenno remarked.

"I'll give you a hint since I'm such a nice person," Koiya pointed at the sitting, purple-hatted man, now peacefully drinking in a teacup. "Recall, Tenno. What was this magician's exact instructions for this test?"

The pocket stopwatch kept ticking. One minute left.

Tenno recalled the instructions Minyu previously told, "We can only choose one door. The group will enter the door in whatever the majority has chosen. We cannot step out of the yellow circle. We must choose after three minutes. That should be the rules." Even after Koiya's hint, Tenno was stumped again. Was that even supposed to be a hint?

"Wait. His exact words?" Just then, Tenno's eyes widened as he realized his mistake. The reason why his instinct didn't match well with this thinking: "Minyu didn't mention anything about choosing doors! These doors are--!"

He frantically looked around the room, searching for gaps of hidden entrances that might contribute to his realization if he was right about this assumption.

No, Tenno was sure he was right. There had to be a hidden entrance somewhere, yet the brown patterned walls and ceramic floor showed no signs of being entered, "What can be an entrance that isn't a door?!"

Koiya smiled as he muttered, "Seems like you figured it out already."

"I have! So if you can just tell me so I wouldn't have to--"

The pocket stopwatch rang, and their Status Bands vibrated as the digital timer hit zero. After Minyu stood, the conjured teacup, stool, and stopwatch all disappeared in a small poof of a cloud. "What is your choice, Testers? Please point at the entrance you wish to enter." Minyu awaited the two's answer, and even as Tenno glanced at Koiya in desperation, he still refused to give him the answer.

With no time to waste, Tenno gulped and trusted in his intuition, "I saw no hidden entrances. If no one walked out of the circle other than the wrong door, then this is the only reasonable choice...!"

"The entrance is above us," said Koiya.

"On the ceiling," answered Tenno.

They both uttered their answers in unison, with their fingers pointing upward. Tenno sighed in relief after realizing that both of them had chosen the answer.

Minyu smiled, applauding their correct answer. A circular platform emerged from the floor and lifted the two Testers to the ceiling. Consequently, the ceiling opened, revealing the hidden entrance Tenno couldn't even notice.

"Excellent choice, Testers!" Minyu congratulated, "You will now proceed to the second phase of this test. The same rules apply, so see you on the next test if you survive~!"

Minyu's voice fainted into silence as the platform connected with the floor above them. On to the Test of Intuition's Second Phase they go.