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A scout stood from his place, divided the groups, and the three groups set out on a reconnaissance trip into the Playroom. Each group was assigned a leader: Malah for the first group, Amin Belzdi for the second, and Hussam for the third. Adam stepped down from leadership, feeling he was not qualified for such responsibility. Malah, despite being the most reckless and hot-tempered, was skilled in boxing and had been a boxer in his youth, but he had abandoned his dream after suffering multiple injuries that could have killed him.
We see the third team, where Hussam was complaining about Nada and Kawthar, telling them that they were a burden. Yahya stopped Hussam, saying: "It's the cafeteria; maybe we can find food and supplies."
The team moved forward slowly, but Kawthar was scared and refused to enter a dark place like the cafeteria. Hussam told her: "If you don't want to, stay here. Maybe your friend will stay too, huh?"
Nada and Kawthar remained silent and followed Hussam and Yahya. Yahya entered the school's cafeteria, sneaking around like a ninja, as he was one of the most playful students. Suddenly, Yahya saw a random entity that froze him in place—but worse, what this entity was doing shocked him: it was shaped like a chef and was stuffing one of the students, named Alaa, Yahya's friend from the second cohort, with rice from behind and putting an apple in his mouth so he couldn't scream.
Hussam and the others, realizing Yahya was delayed, advanced to check on him. In that moment, Hussam watched silently while Nada collapsed to the ground, and Kawthar screamed involuntarily. The entity noticed them and smiled wickedly.
Meanwhile, in the second team, Amin Belzdi was flipping through old faded notebooks given to him by Adam. They belonged to Adam's father, Nabil, and contained a code or riddle Adam couldn't solve. Amin, who studied codes and puzzles, deciphered it: it read, "A gift from me. We shall meet again, and you will find me."
Amin said: "Strange… what does he mean by 'we shall meet again'?"
Ziyad interrupted Amin, looking up at the ceiling where a huge eye appeared, mesmerizing him until he suddenly vanished. Amin hurriedly shouted: "Close your eyes, everyone, and rely on your memory to continue!"
Amin remembered what Adam had said about analysis and reasoning, thinking to himself: "We both looked at it, but I didn't disappear. Ziyad must have looked first. It seems the trick is not to look at these eyes…." He stopped thinking and said: "Even if you open your eyes, don't look at any eye that appears on the wall. Don't stare, okay?!"
Mariam and Malak in unison: "Understood!"
We see Team A, the strongest and smartest group, discovering corridors and accidentally arriving at the kindergarten, which contained all the children's comic books that would become monsters—or were already random monsters. These comic books were like a treasure that would help them on their journey. They entered the kindergarten, filled with bright colors and stuffed toys, unlike the dark, lifeless corridors.
They heard a girl singing—she had no eyebrows and empty black eyes. Suddenly, Salma jumped and hugged the little girl, singing along with her. While Salma was distracted, the others gathered comic books and left the place, as it was time to return.
Malah asked: "Why didn't it attack us? Isn't it a random entity?"
Omnia replied: "It seems its weakness is singing with the girl, which happened involuntarily because of Salma's excessive kindness. I found several corpses under the girl's bed, including Hanaa's!"
Salma collapsed in shock, crying because Hanaa was one of her best friends. Adam carried her on his back and moved toward the classroom until they arrived. They were asked for the password "Soka." The group sat waiting after Group D had placed some snacks from their bags.
Groups C and B were in a dangerous situation as the chef was still chasing the three of them, throwing knives. Kawthar and Nada hid in a huge garbage container, as everything in the kitchen was unnaturally large. Yahya, cornered by the chef, stepped backward carefully and fell into a food tray. Suddenly, the chef retreated and went after Hussam. Yahya shouted: "Grab a chef's tray to survive!" Everyone did so. Hussam, rushing toward a tray, was severely injured. Yahya took a knife and stabbed the chef's leg, who then turned away and ignored them, as it didn't attack objects with its own cooking smell. Yahya climbed the chef's back and popped its eyes, and the chef threw itself away. Hussam, despite his wounds, carried Yahya and moved to carry Nada and Kawthar along with two boxes of supplies, and everyone headed back.
Team B passed the corridor safely without encountering the eyes. Malak noticed a door and sneaked away to kick it open, finding a room resembling a control room with a safe containing three walkie-talkies and a flashlight box. Suddenly, a random entity entered—skinless, eyeless, with two holes and a sharp-toothed mouth, limbs unnaturally long. Malak hid in a corner, remembered Adam's instructions to stay silent, and waited until the entity left. She took the flashlight and walkie-talkies and returned, surprising the team with the equipment.
Everyone returned to the classroom, sharing the types of entities they encountered—so far, four entities. Malah suddenly wrote everyone's names on the board: "We have no clear losses except Ziyad, who will have a question mark under his name."
Omnia said: "We must be careful of duplicates. We might face copies of people we know. Let's mark ourselves with an X on our shoulders and use the password 'Soka.' This way, if we doubt someone, we can check."
Everyone marked themselves without exception. Adam recorded all observations, while Amin reviewed the notes from Adam's father, which mentioned the three entities they had encountered. Amin said: "Your father's notebooks help us a lot, buddy!"
Adam: "I know. Now let me sleep."
Adam turned his back to the wall and slept, while Amin continued reading the notebooks. They stated clearly: "The fears of people in the Playroom will follow them as entities or anything else. It's better to overcome your fears and write them down as a group."
After several hours, some were asleep, and some remained awake…
Amin then went around asking everyone about their fears, or what scared them most. The answers were:
Adam: I fear endings and what they conceal.
Omnia: I fear being alone in a threatening place.
Yahya: I fear losing my mother.
Hussam: I fear entering hell.
Malak: I fear the death of my loved ones.
Malah: I fear my horrific dreams coming true.
Nada: I fear darkness that may hide secrets.
Kawthar: I fear dogs.
Mariam: I fear death.
Salma: Anything terrifying or monstrous.
Amin: Facing something or someone far stronger than me.
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