Everyone began running at full speed while Noor noticed a young man sitting comfortably by one of the trees, appearing indifferent to the test. He watched the contestants with a mocking smile on his face. Noor thought to himself:
"Is he that confident of his victory? Perhaps he possesses a special ability that allows him to win this race easily."
The contestants continued running without stopping, and differences in speed began to show. Noor, Keno, and Jean were running in the middle of the pack. Noor said to them while trying to maintain his breathing:
"We need to speed up to secure the top positions."
Keno responded with a dissenting tone:
"No, we shouldn't speed up now. Let's wait until the end of the race. We don't know what dangers and obstacles await us, so we should wait and let the fools in front reveal all the obstacles and hazards to us. Then we'll advance cautiously, and when we approach the finish line, we'll use this knowledge to cross."
Jean said in a trembling voice:
"I agree with him. They called it the Death Race. There might be frightening things waiting for us."
Noor fell silent, considering what was said, directing his gaze toward the contestants in the lead to monitor any changes, but nothing had happened yet. It seemed no one had used their special ability so far. Nobody wanted to easily reveal their secret to others.
After running for ten minutes, fatigue began to overtake some contestants, but nothing unusual had happened. Everyone was still running without stopping in an attempt to reach the end of the race. After a while, they entered a strange tunnel, though nothing peculiar was inside it. Noor said, trying to maintain his breathing:
"How much longer will we run? It seems like just an endurance race!"
Keno replied with confusion:
"The path must be very long to test our fitness, but there might be some trick. In any case, we'll continue running until there's any change in the environment."
Noor fell silent, thinking, while Jean beside him was panting, trying to control her body, exhausted from running without stop.
The contestants ran for half an hour non-stop, and the race hadn't changed one bit. Jean said, panting heavily:
"Five more minutes and I won't be able to continue."
Noor showed no signs of fatigue at all and said with surprise:
"I don't know what's happening, but I'm not tired yet, and I don't know why."
Keno responded:
"They must have made some modifications to your body and mine, but why didn't they do the same to Jean.
Noor said thoughtfully:
"Perhaps it's related to each person's strength and the exercises they performed while training on it. Jean, what is your power?"
Keno interrupted, saying:
"Guys, I've discovered the trick here!"
Both Noor and Jean looked at him with amazement and surprise, saying simultaneously:
"What is it?!"
"I've been analyzing the path since we started and placed some markings after we traveled a long distance. What I noticed is that I found one of my marks after five minutes, which indicates we're moving in the same endless path. But... I decided to run for five more minutes to confirm this. After five minutes, I didn't find the mark in the same place; it was on the other side of the road, which confused me! But after another five minutes, I found it in its usual place, and after five more minutes, I found it on the other side of the road again. That's when I understood what's happening!"
Noor asked urgently, his voice rising, which alerted some of the contestants around him:
"What is it? Tell me!"
Keno sighed and signaled him to lower his voice:
"I'll tell you, stop being so impatient. Anyway. the path changes."
Noor's jaw dropped, while Jean's eyes widened in astonishment. They said together:
"What? How?"
Keno continued:
"After two minutes of running, the path changes without anyone noticing, and this happens when we enter the tunnel. That's when the switch occurs. I now know what we need to do."
Jean said with intense eagerness and diminishing patience:
"But how does the path change? And how will we know the correct path?"
Keno paused briefly to gather his thoughts, then broke the silence, saying in a decisive tone:
"We're running in a straight path, but it repeats itself. Meaning the tunnel is simply a loop back to the path we came from. Of course, you don't understand what I'm saying, so I'll explain in detail. In short, when we enter the tunnel, it moves and turns without anyone noticing. When we exit, we're back on the same path we entered from. That's why I found the mark on the other side of the road—because we're traveling on the same path but in reverse. We run to the end of the path and then return to the beginning again. This means there are two tunnels, one at the starting point and another at the endpoint, and both are movable bridges that rotate to return us to where we came from. So we're running in an endless loop that won't end until we discover the trick. Many running around us think it's an endurance race and that the path is just long, nothing more, nothing less. But in reality, it's an intelligence race, not endurance. Now, when we enter the tunnel, we'll stop at its entrance, and I'll show you what will happen."
Noor scratched his head, saying:
"My God, what a vile deception. We might never have discovered it without you. I thought this was merely a test of speed and fitness, so I neglected to use my mind."
"Such words are unnecessary. We're in this together." Keno said.
They continued running for another five minutes. Jean was on the verge of collapse from exhaustion, but she forced herself onward as she spotted the tunnel appearing on the horizon. Meanwhile, Keno and Noor ran without fatigue or exhaustion, as if their bodies were forged from iron.
They entered the tunnel, and Keno motioned for them to stop while the remaining contestants continued running. Keno turned toward the entrance and gestured for them to look. Suddenly, they saw the tunnel moving, passing before the trees, then turning for two minutes until it stopped on a new sandy path that none had seen before. Keno's face bore the smile of victory as he said:
"Didn't I tell you it changes? Thus we've broken the infinite loop. Sometimes one must attend to what lies behind rather than what lies ahead."
Jean said happily, catching her breath:
"This means we're the first to discover this. You're a genius, Keno. I would never have noticed something like this."
Noor moved outside the tunnel, gesturing to them with a warning tone:
"Let's move before the tunnel shifts again. Onward to victory. I doubt anyone else has discovered this trick yet."
Keno spoke in a deep tone betraying some concern:
"On the contrary, many contestants have already discovered the deception. I noticed the numbers were decreasing and thought it was because they had grown tired and stopped. But if that was the case, we would have found them when we doubled back. It won't be long before everyone knows the trick, because many contestants will stop to rest. Naturally, they'll notice their companions returning from the same path during their rest. Then, with a little thought, they'll know the secret. We must hurry or they'll catch up to us."
Jean spoke in broken phrases as she prepared to run:
"Good... I've caught my breath... Now let's go. There's no time to waste."
Keno added:
"Yes, there's no time, but proceed with caution. We don't know what lies ahead."
The three set off cautiously along the sandy path and noticed footprints on the ground. They realized others had preceded them in discovering the path, so they followed the footprints, focusing on them as guides to safety. After three minutes, they heard an explosion echoing in the distance, followed by another, then another. All three felt anxiety about what was happening, and Noor tried to think about what might be occurring, knowing he would soon discover the truth. After five more minutes of running, they saw a group of ten people standing and talking among themselves. Keno's doubts faded as he said:
"As I expected, we're not the first to arrive here."
They approached the contestants cautiously, while the contestants eyed them suspiciously. Noor approached them saying:
"Why have you stopped here? Does anyone know anything about the explosion that happened a moment ago?"
A young man looked at them, in his thirties, with long hair flowing over his shoulders and Asian features. He was somewhat short with piercing eyes. He fixed them with a cold, serious gaze and said in a monotonous tone:
"There are mines placed in this section of the path, and no one can pass."