After watching Arthur's footage she had spent the remainder of her time thinking hard and laying around. She didn't leave her room at all, choosing to stay inside the comfort of her space. All that thinking really wore her out, so after about 1 hour of doing so, she took a nap. It took up the remainder of the 10 hour break they received.

She was jolted awake by a loud alarm sound that blared throughout the whole mansion. Other contestants in different rooms and areas had a similar panicked reaction. The sudden noise was unexpected for mostly everyone.

After everyone's attention had been grabbed there was a sudden message. The voice that had previously explained the whole 10 hour break window, spoke once more.

"Goodmorning participants. We wanted to announce that starting this morning we will be holding the.... King of The Hill Test!" It was strange but after the test name was announced, the sound of gleeful children could be heard. They shouted out things like "Yay!!" and "Whoo-hoo!!"

That brought a shiver down Joy's spine. Not once had she seen a child in the Void, especially amongst the participants. It made her curious, were those really children and if so, where had they been the whole time? She had a feeling she wouldn't like the answer should she find out so she shrugged the thought away.

Despite her uncomfortable feeling, she listened.

"So first of all, before the 10 hour break I announced many things. One being about the room service feature within all of your rooms. I said you could ask for anything, which would've included food and more. If you failed to use that feature it's regrettable, but too late. You will not be getting a meal before the test. Everyone must head to the conference room at once to hear details of the test today."

And with that the voice ceased speaking, seemingly done with the announcements.

'That sucks!' Joy cursed silently, 'I completely forgot to eat. I had been so absorbed in the footage of the God Tag Test that I neglected to eat... The last time I ate was when first coming to the Void, which at the very least was 10 hours ago if I'm not counting the time the test took.'

Joy was standing in the conference room now, her arms crossed tightly, tapping her foot anxiously.

She and many other contestants were standing in a room that had a plain gray exterior. It took her a bit to find it but luckily, each room in the Void's Mansion had nameplates to the sides of the doors. So she simply looked for the name Conference room engraved on one of the plates and to her surprise, once she walked inside she recognized the room to be the same one they had been in before, but now, the classroom-like style was no more. Its color palette changed as well.

She didn't pay much attention the first time but the walls were painted a black brown but now it was a plain gray. Also there weren't any chairs or tables for them so all the participants had little choice but to stand.

The only thing remaining from the room's past classroom-like design was the desk at the front along with the whiteboard. Joy was tempted to go over and sit there, since it had a small stool behind it but that area of the room gave off a certain kind of aura, the "this is off limits" kind.

So much to her discomfort she simply stood.

Some people still found a way to be comfortable however, sitting in a crisscrossed position or fully laying down on the hard ground but Joy wasn't one of them. She was carefully watching any- and everyone.

5 minutes passed, then another 5, and 5 more. Joy was starting to lose her patience, 'What's going on here!? How can they say to be here early and on time yet Aku is nowhere to be seen!?'

By now the room was filled with people and while there were a lot, she noticed a difference. From what she had seen from the footage and the reports on the aftermath of the God Tag Test, 20 participants had died.

It wasn't a huge difference, there were still about 40 participants left but there were some areas that were noticeably empty throughout the room that wouldn't have been previously. After a bit of time scanning the room, Joy spotted Lorial, the guy who had been the first to question Aku.

She watched from afar as he was talking with a couple participants. She noted that he seemed pretty social, just chatting it up with whoever.

She was sure that wherever he was before coming to the void, he was a social butterfly of sorts. He was practically surrounded with people. In tow close by his side was a blonde haired girl, who she didn't know the name of yet but Joy remembered her to be one of the participants who preemptively ran during the God Tag Test. She was also seated at his table during the explanation of the last Test's rules.

Joy wondered if the two had known each other before coming to the void or if they just happened to hit it off when meeting.

At one point Lorial noticed her gaze, turning to face her and winking playfully. He had a cheesy smile so the wink didn't come off as flirtatious but Joy still didn't know how to react so she just averted her gaze awkwardly. He looked slightly dejected but shrugged it off, turning back to his little group and talking with them more.

Joy muttered to herself, "Argh, could Aku hurry up already! It's not like I'm exhausted from standing but he should've been here."

Soon after she voiced her irritation she and all in the room heard a voice from outside.

"Helloooo everybody!" The doors burst open and Aku leapt through them, a joyful grin beaming on his face. If it wasn't for him showing his dark side and true nature previously, his expression and attitude would've been cute, but here it was just unsettling.

He continued with a smile on his face despite no one returning his greeting, "I hope everybody had a good rest. Give me a shout if you're enjoying your stay right now!"

In the following seconds after his question, Joy could've sworn she heard a tiny fart somewhere in the room. That was how quiet it was; absolutely nobody made a peep.

"Ouch." Aku winced, having a dejected look on his face, "Absolutely nobody?"

Once again, there was silence.

Suddenly Joy felt a chill go down her spine as Aku smiled once more, but this time with a darker under-tone behind it, "No-one?"

All in the room felt a strange pressure as Aku's question left his lips. The pressure was coming from him, who had a wide smile on his face.

Aku had asked them a simple question, but with his tone and the pressure that came with it, it seemed like more of a command to answer. Just how someone would feel pressured to ask someone how they're doing after being asked that first, basically having to give a response as courtesy.

The realization of this clicked through many people's minds throughout the room. They had no idea how Aku would react if he was denied a 3rd time and so, many throughout the room responded, "We are! Definitely!" All in different tones, some quickly saying it, nervous shaking in their throats while others muttered it.

Aku's smile widened even more before he clapped his hands together joyfully, "That's great to hear." And with that, morning greetings had been concluded much to the discomfort of all in the room.

Aku, being satisfied, skipped nonchalantly over to the whiteboard. All in the room watched him with baited breath, curious about what would happen next.

After sitting on the stool behind the desk he started speaking, "So. As you heard from the announcements earlier, today is another testing day! The test has been named King of the Hill and it's a personal favorite. Me, myself and I came up with the concept but please, please, hold your applause." Aku released a boisterous chuckle. If Joy knew one thing about Aku, it was that he was a big fan of the theatrics.

After he was done enjoying his joke, he smirked, "The test rules go like this see. You will be paired in groups of 3, you can choose who you partner with, this won't be like those terrible school group projects. One person out of the 3 gets a crown, and the holder of the crown is known as the King. They have to stay on top of the hill at any cost. Each group will have a "King." The purpose of the other two members of the team, the "knights" is to dethrone other kings, bringing back the other group's crown for their King to wear. For your information each crown is with 5 points. You must have at least 15 to pass. Also once you take the crown of another king and give it to yours, that group fails. It's fine if your king's crown gets snatched, as long as you retrieve it before the enemy's king puts it on." Aku paused for a moment, scanning the room to make sure everyone was following.

One person raised his hand, "I have a question Aku."

"Alright!" Aku enthusiastically pointed at the person. It seemed as if Aku was trying to do a teacher bit. Essentially calling on a student in this room that used to resemble a classroom.

The man who had raised his hand was scratching the top of his head, "Well I was wondering. For one, how are we supposed to take the Kings crown?"

After hearing his question Aku gave a devious smirk before responding, "It's quite simple. They either relinquish their rule as a King, handing you the crown or you take it by force. Whether that be through killing or simply incapacitating, but honestly if your crown gets put on a different teams king your as good as dead anyway, seeing how you need at least one to stay in the game."

The room's atmosphere suddenly changed. It wasn't pleasant before, due to Aku's passive aggressive greeting but it got heavier now. Many shifted uncomfortably after the new information was told to them.

While it was known that the tests would require the risk of their lives based on the first test, no one expected Aku and Ben to not be the only threats. The possibility of their fellow participants being enemies as well never crossed their minds. Of course they would have to compete to win the one wish challenge at the end, but physically harming each other never seemed on the table but thanks to Aku's newly spread info, it was.

A few throughout the room were throwing suspicious gazes around now. The fact that the person they were currently standing by could come after them was running through everyone's minds, including Joy. In her case it was probably worse to a degree. She had no-one she knew or could partner with so she was already nervous but now, upon hearing they would have to fight for their lives she didn't know how to take it.

Aku continued on, either oblivious to the atmosphere change in the room or indifferent to it, "Well, the last thing I'll say is I decided to be generous. Instead of one large chaotic brawl, I decided to split you all in certain sections. There will be different sections and each one will be filled with 4 groups of 3. Due to this system each area will only have 3 winners at the end and if my calculations are correct there should be 9 winners. Now, if all goes correctly there should be one group with only one crown at the end while the other group has all the rest. If there's a group like that I'll hold a special sub-game for them and the winner of that test will join the original 9 winners. Now, does everyone understand?"

Joy was listening intently during his whole explanation, sitting on every word. From what she understood, even if they didn't win the initial game, there was a chance for victory in the sub-game.

"Good." Aku continued on, taking everyone's silence as a yes. "Now, we can all get started right away if there are no objections." He squinted his eyes before looking around, he had spoken with certainty as if there were none but he still checked.

Joy raised her hand, "I was just wondering about something small. WHen are we choosing our teammates."

"Right when you get to the field. It would suck for you to pick your teammate here, what if you get split into different groups?" Aku let out a small tear, "That would be too sad."

Joy rolled her eyes, 'So dramatic.'

Aku's fake tear was swiped quickly, before he exclaimed out, "Now that all questions and concerns are out of the way, let the second one wish the challenge begin!"