บท 25: 25 - Roles

A few more minutes passed, and it was now time to enter the First Trial. Lucian had just looked up, and it seemed that the trial had ended.

Out of the twenty that had entered, fifteen came out, and there were some chances that some inside died. Less than five people had managed to reach the second floor. If that was happening for the first trial, Lucian could barely imagine what the second floor and its trial would look like.

Seeing that everyone had exited from the trial, Lucian and the others joined at the same time as twenty others. Darius and his friends had obviously managed to enter… and they all had a big smile. Ever since they had joined the group, they kept muttering things to the others.

Unfortunately for Lucian, he hadn't managed to hear what they had said even once. But he also hadn't asked since he could imagine what they were saying. It was painfully obvious, especially after using the [Chrono Book].

"Let's try to get through this without any casualties!" Darius shouted with a fake smile as he stepped through the portal.

He disappeared under the gaze of everyone.

Entering the portal, Lucian looked behind toward the rest of the people waiting… and flashed a smile. However, there was something weird… it was as if his smile was aimed at someone in particular. Someone who couldn't be seen by others.

And then… Lucian disappeared into the portal.

Ariel, who had been watching them since they left the Coliseum, was confused about what had just happened.

'Why did he do that… Did he notice me? But how?'

Ariel had no idea what had just happened, and she could not confirm anything since they had already succeeded in this trial.

'Does he know about them…'

Many questions started popping up in her mind as she flew up, dismissing the veil that had been hiding her presence.

"Ah, it's not like this will work either way. I'll go tell Dad."

While this had been a plan that her father had created, Ariel was almost sure that it wouldn't work. She knew it wouldn't work when Lucian smiled at her. While it might have looked like a normal smile… Ariel wasn't stupid. She knew he had been hiding something behind it.

***

While Ariel had all those thoughts, Lucian was in what seemed to be an empty space, as there was only one thing that could be seen in that room.

[20/20 Participants… Creation of the world in which the trial will take place.]

Everyone was able to see the exact same thing… and all of them seemed febrile over what would be coming their way. With a quick glance at this dark, empty space, Lucian already knew that everyone who had entered were humans that came from Earth.

*Ding!*

Suddenly, a little bell rang inside Lucian's mind, and he could already guess what happened to everyone based on the reactions inside the room.

—-----------

[First Trial Name: Impostor]

[First Trial Description: You will be thrown into a strange environment where you will have to fix something… However, there will be an impostor or… multiple of them among all of you. Their sole goal is to trick everyone or, even worse… kill everyone. Every five minutes, there will be a vote where you will be able to vote someone out… and after each vote, a very simple question will be asked: Do you think the Impostor has been eliminated?

If the majority of you vote "yes", the game will stop, and you will either win or lose based on whether you were right.

But doesn't this look boring… The Impostor can be randomly voted out, and no one will know… isn't that wrong? Shouldn't the Impostor have an advantage? What if there wasn't one but many impostors? What if there weren't any impostors to start with?

…Also, If the participants don't want to wait five minutes, killing people is a possibility.]

[Rewards for the Impostor: Hidden]

[Rewards for the rest: Access to the second floor + 1000 Points based on successful votes.]

[Failure: ???]

—-----------

Lucian smirked. 'Seems like that informant didn't lie about the trial, huh?'

She had given even more details written there for Alex, Lucian, and Ava. The only thing that was worrying about this whole thing was…

Who would become the Impostor, and what his task would be?

Lucian had one wish: that the Impostor wouldn't be either Ava or Alex… If it was Ava, it wouldn't be that bad… but if it was Alex, who knows what might happen to everyone in that room?

There was also one other problem… if he were the one to become the Impostor. Everything would be in shambles since he would need to betray both Ava and Alex, which could potentially ruin their relationship.

'Though, it's possible that there are many imposters… Let's just hope what we have to fix won't be too complicated…'

Lucian dismissed the message, and he saw that most people in the room seemed somewhat shocked over what had just happened. However, those who had interacted with them before seemed extremely confident… but they clearly weren't the best at hiding their intentions as they kept staring at the three of them.

And it was extremely easy to see that there wasn't a shred of good intentions behind their eyes.

*Ding!*

[The world has been created.]

[Role distribution is in process.]

Lucian looked around himself as those messages appeared. He needed to take note of what everyone's reaction would be… not everyone in this room would be able to hide their true emotions, and he needed to capitalize on it.

However, while he needed to worry about others… Lucian seemed to have forgotten that he needed to check his own role.

He blinked, and a message appeared.

[You are an impostor.]

[Rewards: …]