No one said much as the players began moving through the second floor. As they ventured out past the safe zone, it seemed as though this floor would not function the same way the last one did, with an army of monsters meeting them right at the start.
The mood was awful, with most players keeping their heads low as they begrudgingly dragged their legs forward. Again, Neve felt for them, but it couldn't be helped.
This was just how things were.
As they walked over the sand, on their way to the red marker on the map, indicating this floor's boss, Neve kept her eyes peeled. A scream from somewhere behind her caught her attention, though.
"Uwah!?" A guy yelled out and everyone turned toward him.
A grey, sickly-looking hand had sprouted from the ground, grabbing his right leg.
"What?" Neve asked.
More screams followed. Her eyes went from one player to another, all of which were being grabbed like this.
"Monsters? Are they in the sand!?" Carson asked in turn.
Almost as if on cue, a few hands nearby burst out.
Neve was grabbed, along with everyone around her.
"Agh!"
Neve flailed wildly, nearly falling on her back. The thing's grip was too strong. Neve felt like her leg was about to come off. She tried, but she was powerless to shake it away.
Stella, however, came running toward her and cut the hand off with the blade of her spear, causing Neve to slip as the pressure pulling away at her was relieved.
The instant her back made contact with the sand, another hand sprouted. This one wrapped around her throat.
"Hegh!" Neve couldn't breathe. The hand squeezed her neck so hard that Neve wasn't worried she'd be choked to death, she worried her neck would break. Stella, however, came and cut that one off too.
"I've got you!" Stella told her as she grabbed her by her shoulders, pulling her up onto her feet.
Neve coughed twice.
[Holy shit.]
"Look out," she tried to say then, as a monster fully came out of the ground from behind Stella.
They were zombies.
Off pure reflex, Stella spun and kicked the creature in the head.
The blow was effective, but just barely.
Neve moved to cast some spells, but the look on Stella's face made her pause.
[Huh?]
Then, she spotted the creature's level. Instantly, she understood the problem.
Level 25
MP: 50/50
[Huh?]
Wondering if, maybe, it was just this creature in particular that was this strong, Neve checked the others' levels as well, trying to push the sounds of screaming players out of her mind for a moment.
No. Each and every one of the zombies was around level 24.
[Their levels are higher... Why? Why did they get stronger? Is it just because we're on the second floor?]
"Focus, Neve," Stella said. "You're a healer. Your responsibilities are too great for you to keep standing around like this!"
"R-Right!"
As she heard that, Neve began looking around to see who needed the most help. One of the zombies was holding a sword. It slashed at a girl's stomach, and the woman fell back, her guts spilling out from her body.
Along with a few other healers, Neve cast {Healing Ground} under her and the wound on her body slowly closed, cutting off the guts that had escaped her. If it had just been Neve's spell, individually, the player would have just died, but the healing effects stacked and she was saved.
Another player took that zombie on then, distracting it before it could finish her off.
Continuing to inspect the battlefield, Neve only had to cast a few more spells before the wave of zombies was dealt with.
The whole "fight" lasted just over a minute, but Neve was tired.
"Is that all?" Carson asked, looking around.
"Seems like it," Stella responded. "The boss marker hasn't moved."
"… Then this floor's different. They want to whittle us down before we get to the boss."
"Let them try!" Allen said, chuckling. "If every monster they send after us is this weak, we have nothing to fear."
"Yet," Uriel added.
"Hey."
Another voice spoke up.
The high-level players went quiet and turned toward it. Neve did the same.
Thomas stood there, his armor covered in blood, with a dark expression on his face. The level 8 player walked up to them.
"Yes?" Carson asked.
"Don't you think we should take a moment to rest?" He asked. To Neve's ears, it sounded like he was holding back a deep anger. "If their intention is to win a battle of endurance, then we need to keep our energy high."
"H-He's right!" A man shouted. "We can't just keep moving like this."
"Like I said before," Carson began responding. "You're welcome to-"
"So, you want to sentence us to death simply because we can't keep up?" Thomas asked, cutting him off.
That question brought silence upon the group. Carson put his weapon away before continuing the conversation.
"You act as though I designed this place. I didn't."
"But, you know that we are not as strong as you. You know that we won't be able to keep up if we move forward, right? Doesn't that mean our deaths are on your shoulders?"
Carson scoffed, looking away. Thomas took another step forward.
"One hour. That's all we need," he said.
Carson put his axes away, looking down for a few seconds.
"… John," Carson said, looking away. "You're our strongest. What do you think we should do?"
The man in the black and gold armor was cleaning blood off both his swords as he was posed that question. He shrugged.
"We meant to keep this a democracy, right?" John asked. "We should rest, then. If that's what the majority wants, then it's fine."
"Then we'll do that," Carson said. "Resting for a single hour is pointless, though. We'll walk back to the safe zone and set up camp for the night."
Thomas did not give a word of gratitude as he quickly spun around and walked away.
The other low-level players followed behind him. Neve watched them go, feeling uneasy.
[That was... kind of intense,] she thought as she followed behind the high-level players. [Oh, well.]
---
Later, the tents were set up once more at the safe zone. As before, the low-level players were separated from the high-level ones, to prevent the high-level ones from doing anything in the nighttime.
A lot of the players had gone to sleep already, including the high-levels. As for Neve, however, she felt she couldn't just yet.
She was sitting atop a hill that overlooked a large part of the second floor's landscape. With some of her remaining WS tokens, and some that she gained from helping with the last two fights, she purchased a single slice of pepperoni pizza and a wooden bench to sit on.
Checking her status, this is what she saw:
Neve Stephens
Level 20
MP: 330/330
EXP: 141/200
Activity Points: 120
WS Tokens: 32
[Almost leveled up,] she noted. [Would be good to get stronger before we get to the 3rd floor. Though, with how things are going…]
"This spot taken?"
A voice cut through the silent atmosphere.
Neve turned to the right. Carson was standing there with a friendly smile on his face.
"Uh, no," Neve responded, shifting to the left to give him more space. He was a pretty big guy, after all.
"Agh…" Carson sat down with a huff. Like Neve was doing, he stared ahead. "You want a drink?" He asked, suddenly. "I'll pay for it."
"Ah, no, sorry," Neve shook her head. "I don't drink."
"Really? Why's that? You thinkin' of applying to the Church's Guild or something?"
"No, no," Neve laughed a little, forcing a smile. "Just… drinking brings up bad memories."
"Ah, understood." He didn't press her on that. Though, he quickly bought a bottle of liquor from the World Shop and began drinking on his own.
The man wasn't wearing his armor, right now. He was wearing a regular T-shirt and some shorts. He looked so… normal.
Bulky and absurdly buff, but normal.
"So, Neve… What do you think?"
"About?"
"Everything," Carson said. "How we've done. How we're doing. How things are."
"Uh… Not much to say," she muttered. "Looks like things are going to get harder, though."
"Heh… Yeah, seems like it," Carson gave a bitter chuckle. "I guess I should apologize for that."
"Hm? What do you mean?"
"You haven't caught on? I swore you would have, given how clever you seemed in that meeting we had before."
"Ehm, no, I haven't."
"Ah, well, uh... let me explain. So, you know how this place scales with our levels, right?"
"Yeah."
"Well, see, uh," he took another sip, "what that means is that the level of the monsters here is probably going to match the average level of our group."
"Um, yeah, I understood that much," Neve nodded.
"Well, Stella had some suspicions after seeing the zombies' levels. So, she math for us once we set up camp. You know she used to be a pencil pusher, right?"
"She told me."
"Yeah, she's good at math. To try to figure it out, she took note of our players' levels and calculated what the average would be. She said that there were a few ways to do that, but that her calculations didn't make sense. Then, she told us that if you do try to calculate the most common level and call that the average, it would be something like 13 or 15. But, that there's one method, one bullshit way of doing things that makes the levels make sense. The one that worked was, uh, taking into account all of our levels, taking the highest, taking the lowest, and using whatever number was in between. I think that's what she did, anyway. I don't know, I didn't catch everything. Anyway, you understand the issue, right?"
"... Ah," Neve lowered her head. "Yeah."
"Yeah," Carson replied with a smile. "John, Allen, Stella, Uriel, and I, and all the other high-levels. If the 'average' level is calculated that way, then as the lower-level players die, our levels will push the 'average' up."
"But," Neve interrupted him, "why was the boss's level like 50 or whatever?"
"That's simpler," Carson said. "The boss's level was 51. Isn't that kind of a very specific number?"
"I guess."
"Well, Stella assumes that it's because the way the boss's level was calculated is like this: the system took the highest level player, John, and made the boss's level that plus 10. You add it up, you get 51. Take it all in, think about it for a second."
Neve did just that. She played back the latest fight in her mind and tried to analyze each of the variables she'd just been presented with.
It didn't take long before she realized why Carson was apologizing.
"I get it now."
[So, that means that, as lower-level players die, the level of the monsters is going to get higher, because the lowest level is getting brought higher to the top, that being John's. But,] she continued, [even if John was to somehow die, as long as the higher-level players exist, things are going to be harder for the rest of us. Shit.]
"Wait, but," Neve added, "shouldn't the lower-levels be getting stronger too?"
"Huh?"
"That one level 8 guy was level 8 before coming into the First Floor... and he was still level 8 after. If the monsters' levels are getting higher, it would be more manageable if the lower-levels were getting stronger too, but..."
"That's cause we're doing most of the work, which is also not good because that means they aren't getting as much EXP," Carson stated. Neve paused. "Also... You heard what happened with those four low-level players, right? They ran away and tried to leave the dungeon. I'm guessing that a lot of these people... I don't know if they've even swung their swords once in the time that they've been here. Anyway, who knew this place's game design would be that broken, huh?" Carson cackled. "Fuck, that stings. The guild representatives came here to help but it turns out that we're fucking things up for you. So, again, on behalf of all of us, I'm sorry."
Neve took that apology, but she couldn't accept it.
"It's not your fault," Neve shook her head.
"I'm pretty sure it is."
"No, it isn't."
Carson turned toward her. The look on his face begged for an explanation.
"It's on the lower-level players for coming here in the first place," Neve shrugged. "This is the most important mission humanity has. Why would someone who's level 8 or whatever decide that they wanted to come here? They must have been suicidal."
"Well, why did you decide to come here?" Carson asked.
Neve paused, swallowing and looking away.
"… Because I'm suicidal."
That statement caught Carson off-guard.
Neve looked down, half-closing her eyes. Exhaling deeply, she explained herself.
"I… After the Unity Trials started, I tried to look for something to live for. I became a healer, I tried to help people, and I did everything that I could for anyone that I could. But, nothing worked. I had lost everything I liked," she said, laughing somewhat weakly. "I lost my family. I lost my- I used to be a gamer, but I lost my passion for that even after people discovered you could buy internet service off the World Shop. I wasn't dating anyone, I had no friends. I… I had nothing to live for."
Neve leaned back the same way Carson had been doing, staring up at the night sky.
"I heard about this. The 10th expedition into an impossible dungeon, or whatever. So, I… I thought I had enough."
"… You came here to die?" Carson was in disbelief. Neve nodded. "But, you're trying so hard out in the fights. What's that about?"
"Because, even though I want to die, it would suck if other people got hurt because of me. If other people got hurt because I failed, you know?" She looked over at him. "So, I want to do the best that I can before it happens. I want it to happen naturally. I want to be fighting a boss, with you and Stella, maybe, and I want to have the boss get one last, lucky hit on me just before you guys are able to take it out. That's how I want to go out."
"Hmph," Carson shook his head. "I don't know much about your life, Neve. But you're far too young to be talking like that."
"Is there a right age to start talking like that?" Neve asked with a smile. "I don't know if I can wait that long."
"… I hope my son never starts feeling like that."
"You have a son?" Neve asked. She had known of Carson since before they met here, in the Final Challenge, but she hadn't known that.
"Yeah," he answered. "He's a couple of months old."
"Months!? You… You had him in the middle of all this?"
Carson laughed loudly.
"Why do you think I fight so hard?" He laughed even louder. "Neve, before everything kicked off, I was working construction. My wife was pregnant when the monsters appeared. I was scared, I was terrified, actually. But, it didn't take much time at all for me to start fighting. I had someone to look after, and that mattered more than anything else."
Neve couldn't believe that story. Compared to his, her story seemed so much less meaningful.
"I don't mean to say this as a brag or anything, but, that's what it's like to have something you want to fight for. Stella's got a promotion lined up at the Valkyries, you know? If she succeeds here, they want to have her be the guildmaster. John almost has enough WS tokens to buy himself a private home, away from the real world. He actually hates fighting, so he's pretty excited about the potential of early retirement. Uriel thinks that this whole thing is a test from God, and he wants to prove himself to him. Allen… I don't know what motivates him. Probably drugs and hookers, if I had to guess, I dunno."
Neve chuckled. Carson smiled back at her.
"For me, right now, what motivates me is this." He reached into his pockets and pulled out a piece of paper. "This is a journal of sorts. I had no idea how long I'd be here, so I figured I'd take this and write something in it every now and then. I want to give this to my son when I walk out of here."
"I… I see," she responded. Carson kept going, though.
"Point is, I think, if you wait long enough, eventually, something comes around that's worth fighting for. Something that's worth living for. So, I'm sorry, but I hope it doesn't happen," Carson told her. He stood up, facing the moonlight defiantly. His scarred, bulky arms rested tiredly by his sides. "I hope that if that boss fight takes a shot at you, I'll be there to tank it. And I hope that if you get out of here, you'll find what you want to fight for. And that I might convince you to go have a drink with me sometime."
"That last one's less likely than me finding something to fight for, honestly."
"Well, shit."
They laughed together, sitting there.
However, the good times did not last.
There were raised voices coming from behind the two of them, by the camps. Both players turned toward them.
"What's happening?" Neve asked.
"Uh... Looks like Stella's arguing with someone."
Quickly, the two of them got off the bench. In the distance, there were two groups gathered around the high-level players' tents.
John, Allen, and the other high-level players, and the low-level players standing opposite them, with Thomas leading them.
Stella and Uriel were speaking to the level 8 player. The Valkyrie seemed incredibly frustrated.
"... I'm sorry, but we can't do that." Neve heard Stella tell him with finality, turning around to walk back to her tent.
She didn't catch any other part of this discussion. But, she didn't need to. What happened next was all she needed to see.
"So am I."
Then, as soon as he said that, Thomas raised up his hands and threw two daggers, as quickly as the low-level player could.
One landed between Father Uriel's eyes, killing him instantly. The other went through the back of Stella's neck.
Stella fell forward and blood began pooling around her body before anyone could react.
[What...] Neve froze. The pizza she'd been eating fell to the dirt. [What just happened?]
Neve stared at the scene ahead.
Nothing made sense.
Blood pooled beneath Stella's body. Uriel stared up at the night sky with blank, frozen eyes as one of Thomas's knives remained stuck between them, and now, all of the low-level players behind Thomas were drawing their weapons. The campfire's crackling was all anyone could hear for a while.
As the surprise slightly faded, a couple of mages rushed toward Stella, casting healing spells on her. The Valkyrie did not respond. John moved toward her and crouched beside the woman, disbelief clear to see on his face.
None of this felt real.
"You... What have you done!?" Carson asked, stepping forward, furious.
"Is she…?" Neve asked but couldn't finish the question from the sheer shock of it all. The answer was obvious as the healers' spells had no effect, but Neve just couldn't believe it.
[Why? How!?]
"H-Hold on," Neve said, moving closer, "let me-"
"You take one step further and we will destroy you along with the others, Neve," Thomas warned her.
Raising his voice further, Carson asked:
"You, what is this about!?"
"'You', huh? You don't even know my name," Thomas replied, smirking back at Carson. "Of course, why would you? I'm just a low-level assassin, aren't I?"
"Look," Allen said, walking up, moving past John, and pulling out two daggers of his own, "I dunno what made you do this, but if it's a fight you want, I'm down."
"… Are you all looking for a fight?" John asked the people behind Thomas, quietly, with a threatening tone, without taking his eyes off Stella's body.
None of them looked quite as sure of themselves as he did, but they all remained in their positions, holding their weapons in their hands.
Neve looked back and forth between them.
[What the hell is going on?]
"Fine, then." John gently set Stella's body down and stood up, unsheathing both his swords.
"Wait, wait, hold on," Carson stepped forward, his hands raised. "People, think about this! We are in the middle of a dungeon, the most important dungeon humanity can face, and we're thinking about fighting each other? Why are you-"
"You. Know. Why," Thomas stated firmly, leaving no room for a response. "Do you think we don't know why the monsters we've faced are so strong? How stupid do you think we are?"
That made Carson pause.
"These two fights we've been through, the Forces That Be thrust them onto us for a reason," he stated, pointing ahead at John. "It's because this is the real test."
Thomas narrowed his eyes at the high-level players ahead. His determination was unshakeable.
"The Forces That Be wanted us to see this. When the Unity Trials first started, for the smallest time, humanity was perfect. There was no discrimination anymore, no injustice, no evil. Just people and a will to survive. True equality and equal opportunity. But, when we came into the Final Challenge, I realized that something changed along the way."
He turned, looking at the others. He even snuck a glance at Neve, whose face was still horrified.
"People began seeking power. Power they shouldn't have. And it turned things unfair. Now, a new type of injustice exists. And, *that* is what the Final Challenge is trying to tell us. That's why the enemies here scale with our levels. It's to show us that people like you, people with the kind of power that can make the world unfair, shouldn't exist. And now, the only way humanity can move forward is by going through you."
"Hey, that speech was nice and all, but can we just get to killing each other? My hands are getting cold," Allen said, twirling his knives in his hands.
"Stella alone could have cut down half of you if you hadn't attacked her while her back was turned," John muttered spitefully. "I will ask one more time. Are you sure you all want to die by our hands? Because I will spare not a single one of you if that's what you wish."
"Many of us may die," Thomas responded quickly. "But, those who are left will complete the Final Challenge the way it was intended to be completed. By the weakest amongst us with the strongest hearts. Those capable of standing up to the likes of you."
"This… This is foolish," Carson said, even more desperately. "Think about what you are doing!"
"We have, and our choices have been made. You, though, still have a choice to make."
Thomas did not aim that last sentence at the high-level players standing before him. No, he turned toward Neve as he spoke. That statement was for her.
"Choose," he added. "Who do you stand with?"
Carson, who was still near Neve, finally gave up on talking sense into them.
"... So, that's how it is?" He asked in a low voice.
Then, he turned toward Neve and said:
"You should go with them."
The fire crackling in the background was nearly louder than his voice.
"What?" Neve asked. "B-But..."
Carson smiled back at her.
"Don't worry," he said, as he looked through his inventory and pulled out his axes from a holographic screen, "I won't hold it against you."
In a split second then, he charged forward, toward Thomas.
"Agh!" Thomas cried out and immediately, the assassin became invisible. Neve's eyes widened.
Carson swung his axes at the air where Thomas had been standing, but it didn't seem like he caught anything.
Despite that, that attack kicked off a massacre.
Both sides clashed. The lower-level players did their best to swarm the higher-levels. Instantly, almost faster than Neve could see, Allen flung knives into the chests of four of them. John dashed forwards and tore through multiple enemies. Blood flew out in every direction as he cleaved a path through the low-level group. Carson spun and crushed a pair of low-level tanks, nearly bisecting them with his axes.
Neve could do nothing but stand by and watch in horror. Neither her hands nor her legs could move as she watched one person after another die. Players cut and broke each others' bodies in a frenzy.
The bloodbath before her was not entirely one-sided, however.
It did not take long before the low-levels' strategy began to bear fruit.
One of the higher-level players, a female assassin, nimbly took down a pair of tanks with rapid stabs to their abdomens but was too slow to react to a third low-level tank running up and plunging his sword through the side of her body.
A couple of high-level mages in the back tried to heal up their allies, maintaining a barrier on themselves simultaneously to protect them from projectiles, but a barrage of simple, beginner-level Fireballs eventually managed to break through their defenses, distracting them long enough for the swarm of players to overwhelm them.
It was a scene Neve had seen many times in the past, but not like this. The players looked like a horde of goblins as they pushed back their opponents through sheer strength in numbers and stabbed them while they were down.
It was too much. Seeing that was the push Neve needed.
She couldn't just stand there.
[This is insane! I have to step in,] she thought. [I have to-]
However, the instant she took one step forward, she felt a sword press against her neck.
"Did you forget what I said?" A familiar voice asked in her ear. "Not one step further."
Neve's lips trembled as she remained fixed in that position. The cold steel slid forward and positioned itself at Neve's throat as a hand held onto her left arm.
"Level 20 or not, I can easily kill you from this position," she heard as one final warning.
Ahead, she could see the three high-level players trying their hardest to cut down every enemy around them. They looked larger than life as they took out one target after another, but they were slowing down.
Neve gulped.
"I… You can't seriously think this will work," she muttered with a shaking voice.
"As if we have a choice," he replied. "I could see it in your eyes as I stood before those tyrants. You understood just like I did that this was all we could do in order to live."
The most annoying part of all of this was that Thomas's voice held no malice. It felt like he genuinely believed the words coming out of his mouth, and that made Neve even angrier.
"Even if you kill them all, even if the monsters get brought down to your level, that doesn't mean you and these players have the skill necessary to complete the Final Challenge!"
Player Count: 44
Player Count: 38
Player Count: 32
A symphony of cries and screams formed as a backdrop to the slowly decreasing number of players still left alive.
"That remains to be seen," Thomas answered. "If my theory is correct, and this was the true test, a test of our wills, then the rest of the Final Challenge will be a cakewalk because this will be what the Forces That Be wanted out of us."
"And if you're wrong?"
"… I do not believe that's possible," Thomas replied. "I told you, right? The Unity Trials have been nothing but fair to us. I do not believe they would begin being unfair now. This was all intended, and I understand that."
Naturally, the higher-level players who lasted the longest were John, Carson, and Allen.
However, as their allies fell, Neve saw that they were all heavily wounded.
Carson was brought down to one knee ahead, as a man slashed the back of his left leg. He tried to swing at the man with his ax, but a woman shot him with an arrow that pierced his right shoulder. More and more players surrounded him until Neve couldn't see the man anymore through their bodies, but she heard him cry out and suddenly go silent.
Allen finally fell when a series of ice-based spells brought him down and a few assassins took the opportunity to kill him while he was on the ground.
Soon, John Dulan, the level 41 Golden Dragon, remained as the final high-level player, standing opposite the horde of low-level enemies.
But Neve could see that he was breathing heavily, and it seemed as though he had no more mana left, judging by the fact that he stopped using skills altogether.
"Insects," John muttered," every last one of you."
He went to raise his hands and keep fighting, causing a few low-level players to flinch and back off, but then, he dropped his swords.
And Thomas let Neve go.
"Seems like this is the end. As I said before, do not take another step," he warned for a final time, as he then walked toward John.
The low-level players, tired and strained, let go of their own weapons just like John had as Thomas approached.
So many players on both sides died that the ground was nearly untraversable due to the number of piled-up corpses. Thomas had to move around multiple bodies, severed arms, heads, and legs just to reach John.
When he did, he put his hands up, holding the same sword that had been pressed against Neve's neck high in the air. A simple, beginner-level, rusted iron blade.
"Everyone, I thank you for what you've done today."
Neve saw sweat roll down John's face, falling onto the dirt beneath him. His eyes looked empty, as though he'd given up already. Perhaps feeling Neve's gaze, he briefly glanced in her direction before lowering his eyes again.
"Nine times, humanity has attempted to complete the Final Challenge. All nine times we were unsuccessful. Why do you think that is?"
Slowly, John began reaching for one of the blades he dropped. Thomas kept his back turned back to him.
"It's because none of those groups had the will to survive on their own. They were all laughably dependent on the strongest among them. Tonight, you showed that you may be weaker than they are, but your hearts may as well be made of diamonds. And that is why we will be the group that succeeds."
John's hand wrapped around the hilt of one sword.
"That is why we will complete the Final Challenge."
John slightly raised it.
"And that is why…"
John moved to stab Thomas in the back.
The man stepped to the side, avoiding the blade. None of the speed that John carried in his attributes showed itself due to his exhaustion.
And then, he stabbed that sword casually through John's throat.
"… we will honor the memories of all those who fell today, when we stand atop the final floor, victorious."
John dropped his sword. Thomas removed his blade, and John fell back.
And at that point, the Golden Dragon representative, the single highest-level player who had come to complete the Final Challenge, the man who had shined the brightest on the battlefield, died at the hands of a level 8 rogue.
None of the lower-level players celebrated. They all looked quite shaken by the gravity of what they'd done, but none of them seemed too sad either.
To Neve, it looked like they'd been through a particularly difficult dungeon. Not like they'd just killed dozens of innocent people.
"Come, everyone," Thomas said. "Now that the higher-level players are dead, the floors ahead of us will likely become so easy we can complete them in one night. Take whatever you can use off their bodies. We won't be leveling up much, so don't take anything that'll just take up space in your inventories. Everyone," he said, standing before the crowd, "Some of these people we killed today were heroes, sure. But once humanity receives its much-needed rest, as they watch us from the afterlife, they will understand that we needed to do this. And we will give them proper burials once our exit from this place is secured. For now, though, we need to remain focused. Come. Take what you want and let's get moving."
One by one, the players began scouring some of the dead bodies for loot. Neve watched a girl walk up to a man that had been nearly split in half. She gagged, looked through his inventory, took his clothes, and quickly put his inventory away, perhaps unable to deal with the sight any longer. The other players were equally as reluctant, getting through this as quickly as they could.
Neve, of course, remained where she was the entire time.
As the players walked out of the Safe Zone and began traversing the second floor again, Thomas walked by Neve one more time.
He placed a hand on her shoulder.
Neve looked up at him.
Level 23
MP: 130/130
"Give it a night," he said. "Think about this logically, and you will understand our position. I promise. Once you do, feel free to come find us. We will welcome you, a fellow low-level player, with open arms."
And then, he walked away.
She collapsed as her legs gave out from under her.
Tears rolled down her cheeks as she stared at all the bodies ahead.
She had been here, she'd seen it happen, she'd felt the same cold blade that Thomas used to kill John press against her skin, and yet she couldn't believe any of this happened.
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Komentar Paragraf
Fitur komentar paragraf sekarang ada di Web! Arahkan kursor ke atas paragraf apa pun dan klik ikon untuk menambahkan komentar Anda.
Selain itu, Anda selalu dapat menonaktifkannya atau mengaktifkannya di Pengaturan.
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