Chapter 161: Getting to Know Each Other (Pretty Useless)
[One participant has died, 9 remain!]
"…"
"…"
"…"
And yet, no one said anything, and even the three that were still inside their cells didn't even come out to check what the message was about.
Everyone was way too calm, even though one of the participants had just died.
"He would be useless anyway, we need to get rid of the problems before beginning this trial," the man with the silver blade grabbed the two parts of the other guy's body and threw him into a cell, without any care for his condition as a corpse.
The calm man seemed to be in his mid-twenties, he had a manly face and white hair with a beard of the same color, he also exuded a mature and strong aura as he held his sword in hand, traces of blood on its tip, he was currently in a… business suit?
"I'm sorry for the commotion, folks," he bowed to all the people that were looking at him.
"That's fine, but we could have at least used him as a meat shield," another one of the guys sighed, he had tanned skin and spiky blond-hair, as well as semi-defined muscles, he was in a black tracksuit.
'What the hell are these outfits,' Stark tilted his head, although he couldn't deny that he himself was just wearing average clothes right now.
"Hmm… pretty strong, old man!" a little girl, around 1,48cm in size, with pink hair designed in a short ponytail laughed, she was wearing a high-school uniform with a short skirt.
She looked like a middle-schooler, and her features could also confirm this idea as her face was that of a child.
But…
"A little kid?" another guy with long-black hair, wearing a green robe with a snake pattern on its back, spoke, carrying a neutral expression.
"A K-KID?! I'M 32!" the kid… no… the lady replied, she didn't budge when seeing someone die, but THIS was what embarrassed her.
[7:32… 7:31…], meanwhile, the timer above the giant metal door was still going down.
They seemed to get along… well… partially, for now they were just building meaningless connections that would crumble the moment any kind of danger came in.
"I hope you all understood the rules, it means that no matter what, we can all get out if we somehow manage to get all the keys and reach level 0!" a blue-haired man with a gun in both his hands pointed at the metal door, he was wearing a police officer uniform.
These were the five (alive) people that were in the hallway, chatting with each other while waiting for the door to open.
"Maybe we should introduce ourselves to make it easier for later, shall we not…" the man with the green robe proposed, his expression staying still, his clothes and long back hair made him look like a sect leader, and he even did the iconic pose with joining the sleeves of his robe together to hide his hands.
"Sure thing…" the man that had murdered someone less than two minutes ago smiled, "But let's not forget our friend there," he pointed at Stark, "Why don't you join us?"
Frankly, Stark had a really bad feeling about all of this, and he didn't trust these people one bit, neither did any of them trust one another to be honest, but they were just acting… acting as if they would fight together.
Beyond those faces, Stark could see their true intentions, and all he could as he noticed that was smile.
When the rest of the crowd turned their heads toward the location the white haired man pointed, all of their eyes widened.
"Oh… that's him…" the police officer tightened the grip around his guns.
"Huh…" the tanned man scratched his head.
"Haha~ I knew he would be there, but seeing the real thing is better!" the loli laughed.
'…' Stark didn't walk toward them, "We can speak, but I would rather keep a fair distance from you bunch until the door opens, who knows what crazy bastard would attempt to kill again…" he spoke while precisely looking at the man holding the silver blade.
"Oi~ I wouldn't do that, I just had to get rid of the bad weed from the bunch, that is all!"
"The name's Chosen…" Stark just spoke before looking down at the ground, after all, introducing yourself only meant telling your name.
"Akira," the murderer smiled, Stark had no idea if it was his real name or his code one, but it didn't matter.
"Lolia," the small girl spoke right after.
"Then my name is Bang," the tanned man shrugged.
"And mine is Leader…" the one with long hair added.
"Officer is the name, I guess it does make sense though haha…" the police officer scratched his cheek.
This was all with introductions, and Stark quickly glanced at the folks he would be fighting with.
A calm murderer in a suit, a loli in a school uniform, a police officer with guns, a sect leader, and a tanned guy with seemingly no morals.
This was a weird group, and he didn't even know of the other three that were still in their cells.
[4:56… 4:55…]
"Soooo… how does it feel to fight a boss, then immediately get transferred to this shithole…" Akira smiled, his eyes analyzing all of Stark's movements.
By a simple glance, Stark could tell he was the most dangerous one of the bunch, alongside the sect leader that didn't change his expression even once.
"Nothing much, just trying to live," Stark replied with a neutral expression, not even looking at the man.
"It is surprising… a [Death] level second domination trial is insane, and I have heard no one has ever completed one of these…" Bang spoke.
"My first trial was from the [Godless] difficulty, so not that far behind," Akira informed them, godless was the fourth of the five categories.
"Heh~ mine was from the [Doom] category!" Lolia smiled, almost proud of herself for surviving.
"Me too," Officer nodded.
The sect leader didn't speak, not wanting to give info, he had only spoken twice so far, and only to redirect the conversation to something else. source-at-MVLeMpYr
They couldn't do much but wait for the doors to open, so all they did was engage in meaningless discussions, although all keeping their distance and also making sure to not reveal anything.
Stark was already at a disadvantage since they had seen how he fought, but it was fine for now.
[1:02… 1:01… 1:00]
But when the one minute mark was reached…
A panel appeared before all the participants.
A panel that would crush any hope they had in fighting alongside one another safely to reach the surface.
A panel that rendered everything they did so far meaningless.
[Introducing the 'Kill Bonus' perk… =)]
It appeared before all of them, and so all they could so was read as information was everything in this place, almost as important as strength.
'What the hell is that thing…' Stark's eyes widened as he read about that perk, it was beyond anything he could think of.
It was truly… twisted and cruel…
And it basically… as stated in the name… forced them to kill one another to receive advantages.
'Haha~ knew I couldn't trust anybody…' Stark's smile grew wider as he noticed the atmosphere of the hallway suddenly go from joyful to depressing in a single second.
Well… it was a [Death] difficulty trial after all, so what did they expect?
Only Stark knew how bad this could get.