By Zephyria “Brother, but you know, isn’t it a bit strange?”
Leonardo and Ero hid in the shade of a tree, waiting for the smog to clear. The smog of the Great King Plarinus was, simply put, a pollen emission phenomenon. Although yellow powder didn’t fall and their noses didn’t itch, the water particles and dust floating in the sky combined to obscure the sun like a dark curtain.
Because of this, the area around the Surgery Tower became noticeably darker for 15 minutes after the smog started. Unless they had a scope as a supplementary item, moving in the dark was dangerous. Just a moment ago, six or seven people had been fighting in front of them, and they were injured and taken somewhere by the game staff.
Even if that wasn’t the case, the occurrence of smog meant that someone had passed through the Portal again. Even if they went to the top of the Surgery Tower, they would only have to keep others in check for 45 minutes, and there didn’t seem to be any clear strategic advantage. As of now.
“What is?”
Leonardo, who was reviewing the current situation in his head, asked back without much thought. Ero looked at the dim sky covered by leaves and replied,
“Did you hear the broadcast earlier when they said it had been 3 hours? That there were 11 passers?”
“Yeah. I heard it.”
“As far as I know, excluding this smog, there were only 2 previous instances of smog. But isn’t it strange that there were 11 passers with only 2 Portals opening?”
Leonardo crossed his arms, leaned his back against the pillar, and just rolled his eyes.
“It opened twice? Not three times?”
“I saw it twice. I was constantly loitering around here in the beginning, and I know that no one approached the Surgery Tower for more than an hour after the game started. Or rather, they couldn’t go.”
“Why?”
“Some crazy… participant with a whip would appear like a ghost as soon as anyone approached the tower and take all their Decisions. But he didn’t go up himself, so he wasn’t a gatekeeper, just a very troublesome guy. Usually, those guys aim to eliminate competitors from the test game in advance, so they try to drop as many as possible, right?”
“……”
“But now that about half of the passers have come out, I think he’s probably gone up now. Of course, even if he’s still there, he’ll cry and back down in front of our strongest, most supreme Brother!”
Ero added that the difficulty of this game had increased significantly because of that guy, and he didn’t know if it was fortunate or unfortunate that there were far fewer passers than in the test game conducted two years ago. Usually, when about half of the game time has passed, the number of passers is full and the game ends early, he said.
The golden eyes twitched as he listened to the story.
“How do you know that?”
“Huh?”
“How do you know that the goal is to eliminate competitors in advance, or that there are fewer passers?”
‘The guy who was begging for his life until just now.’
Leonardo hid his inner thoughts. He had felt the presence of being followed even before entering the arena. How could he be sure that there wasn’t someone secretly hiding among the participants and approaching him?
As his gaze turned suspicious, Ero, who had been asking back stupidly, waved his hands.
“Ah, Brother! What’s with that look? This is basic stuff! I’m a 4-time League participant, you know. I know this much.”
“4-time? This isn’t your first time?”
“Huh? Brother, don’t tell me….”
The two, who had been misunderstanding each other for a while, slowly sorted out the situation. They were both surprised by each other in many ways. Ero confessed that he thought Leonardo had already aimed for the main round several times or had already experienced it. Leonardo shook his head.
Then Ero shook his body excitedly, saying that a bloodbath would finally blow through the concrete-like main round lineup, and that he would go all-in on Brother later. Because of that, the branch he was sitting on shook finely, and leaves fell down in droves. Leonardo narrowed his brows and calmed the other party down.
“So. You have quite a bit of League experience, and you know more about the League than most guys, right?”
“Of course, ask me anything you’re curious about! I’ll answer to the best of my ability!”
‘An unexpected gain?’
The difference between an experienced person and an inexperienced person is like heaven and earth. To be honest, he had looked into the League in various ways, but all of them were indirect information that could only be heard from the outside. The story of an actual participant would be different.
Leonardo thought that the baggage 4 wasn’t completely useless and returned to the previous topic.
“So, why did you say the Portal opened twice instead of three times? I thought 3 people passed through the Portal 3 times each, making 9 people, and the other 2 people passed through by collecting 7 Decisions of the same color. Of course, it was surprising that 2 people had already collected 7, but.”
“Did you happen to hear the broadcast when 1 hour had passed since the game started?”
At that time, Leonardo was wandering in a cave under the island and didn’t remember hearing the broadcast. If he had heard even a mumbling sound from outside, he would have gone out to check what it was about. But now, he couldn’t even remember if there was any sign of that.
“No, I didn’t hear it. What was it about?”
“There was no broadcast when 1 hour had passed. It’s just my guess, but maybe there were no passers at that point. So, even if we assume that the first passer came out right after 1 hour and 1 minute had passed since the game started, the Portal could have opened a total of 3 times so far, 2 times excluding the smog that just occurred. 11 passers came out in 2 times.”
“…Are you sure there were no passers for 1 hour?”
“Yes, because of that guy I mentioned earlier….”
Swoosh—
At that moment, a subtle presence was detected in the bushes. Leonardo quickly rolled his eyes and raised his palm as if to tell him to be quiet. Ero, who was also nervous, hugged his bag and lowered his body. The presence seemed to be looking around, then crossed under the tree where the two were hiding. Then he ran straight towards the Great King Plarinus.
Afterwards, he blinked a small lantern and sent a signal somewhere. Then about two more people crossed under the tree and ran towards the top of the petals.
Ero, who was watching the receding figures, turned his head to Leonardo.
“Brother, it looks like they’re already moving? It looks like they’re aiming for the next Portal….”
There was anxiety in Ero’s voice. That was because, after this break, there wouldn’t be much time left to open the Portal. Besides, it was about time for the other guys to have collected all three types of Decisions.
Leonardo, who had the same thought, took his back off the pillar and got up from his seat.
“I know. Let’s talk as we go.”
Contrary to expectations, there were quite a few participants climbing the petals of the Great King Plarinus in the darkness. As befitting the modifier “Great King,” the fluff of this flower wasn’t ordinary fluff, but soared like tall reeds. Thanks to this, it was suitable for hiding the body, and the participants were crawling in a prone position in the gaps.
But even in the midst of that, various things were happening in unseen places.
Leonardo, who had already twisted his eighth neck, blocked the mouth of the last guy with his palm. The man, whose face was so red that blue veins bulged on his forehead, used his fingernails to tear at Leonardo’s hands and forearms. But Leonardo silently endured, rested the man’s head on his chest, grabbed the man’s carotid artery with his hand, and instantly twisted it to one side.
Snap—
A gruesome sound like a vertebra breaking rang out. At the same time, the man, who had rolled his eyes back and lost consciousness, slid down from Leonardo’s arms. Leonardo laid the participant, who would soon be eliminated, down properly and checked his pulse. Then, he suddenly looked down at his hand when he felt a tingling sensation on his skin.
“Damn it, I got hurt.”
The nails of the man who was resisting dug in and tore off a piece of flesh. It wasn’t bleeding profusely, but the burning pain was annoying. Leonardo, as if annoyed, examined the injured area and tore off a clean part of the cotton t-shirt he was wearing inside his jacket and wrapped it around his hand.
While he was treating the wound as a temporary measure, Ero, who was stiff, could only look down at the scattered victims from a short distance away. Soon, he raised his head with a pale complexion and asked.
“Br, Brother. Are these people dead?”
“Why, is it wrong to kill them?”
Leonardo asked back with a playful look. Ero immediately realized it was a joke, but the problem was that it didn’t sound like a joke.
“Haha… well, there’s no need to kill in the test game….”
“I don’t kill anyone unless they’re bullying others. Not anymore, anyway.”
Then you killed them in the past?? Ero swallowed his words while sweating profusely. He wanted to ask what he had been doing outside and what his identity was, but he couldn’t muster the courage. He could only reaffirm that he had to be loyal.
“But why did these guys come up without Decisions? I was hoping they could collect all 7.”
“Wouldn’t everyone be getting impatient now that it’s the second half? Instead of wandering around the island looking for Decisions, it seems like they’re coming here with the intention of waiting and stealing them. I’ve actually seen quite a few guys who worked hard to collect them and then had them stolen by that sadist with the whip and went back. We need to hurry too. Before more competitors flock here.”
The sky, where the smog was clearing, was getting brighter, but as it slowly entered the evening hours, it no longer became as bright as daytime. If about an hour passed here, complete darkness would come. Leonardo, who agreed for other reasons, nodded and moved on.
“Ah, right. There’s something I wanted to ask you.”
“Yes, please tell me.”
“You said earlier that the broadcast didn’t come out when 1 hour had passed since the game started.”
“That’s right?”
“What I was wondering was, do they usually announce the passers by the hour like this? Shouldn’t they just announce it whenever a passer occurs? Like, how many people just passed through the Portal.”
“Uh… that’s.”
“Was it like this when you played the game before?”
“Well, the rules and locations change every game. So I’ve never experienced the same rules….”
Ero said that he had played a similar game before. At that time, they had to find a key to get out of the designated map, and in that game, the key was buried in the ground or even inside a demon beast’s belly. He added that the process of obtaining the items needed to pass was even more difficult than in this game.
“I remember that they announced it as soon as a passer occurred back then. This method is a bit different.”
“Hmm… If the Portal opened twice, a maximum of 6 out of 11 passers went through the Portal, and the remaining 5 have to pass through with 7 Decisions each, do you think that’s possible?”
Ero stroked the back of his head and replied.
“Actually, I was wondering about that too. Brother, have you been collecting Decisions since the game started?”
“Yeah.”
“Even someone like Brother hasn’t been able to collect 7 Decisions of the same color yet, so I don’t think there will be 5 people like that. You have to be insanely lucky or a strong person like that sadist, but honestly, it’s rare for there to be more than 3 strong people aiming for the main round in just one group in the test game, not even the preliminaries.”
“So that means….”
Just in time, Ero used the pistol in his hand to greatly push aside the fluff that was blocking the way. Then, suddenly, a cool breeze crossed between the two. When they wondered what was going on, a vast amount of standing water surrounding the Surgery Tower spread out before their eyes like a wide lake.
There were no stepping stones to cross, but instead, the items and shoes of the eliminated were floating on the standing water. Occasionally, sticky fluids were sticking to the items.
‘Is it there.’
Leonardo looked up at the Surgery Tower, which was covered by clouds and soared high. If his guess was correct, there would be many people hiding and moving in this area like them. Then going up there and reaching the seedpod was the main battle of this game. The weapons and clothing of the losers floating on the standing water were proof of that.
Then he looked down at his squelching feet.
At the starting point of the lake, the fluid was clumping together in lumps. When he touched it, it seemed to be the same component as the fluid that flowed out when he split the small Plarinus in half earlier.
‘Did it fall from above?’
Just as he was wondering, Ero, who was startled, grabbed Leonardo’s arm and pulled him down. Leonardo, who lowered his posture as well, turned to him, and Ero whispered urgently.
“Brother, look over there!”
When he raised his head, Ero’s fingertip was pointing somewhere. Someone was standing on a protrusion in the middle of the Surgery Tower.
“It’s that guy! The guy with the whip!”