Second World



The space around them was rearranged again just like yesterday. The outdoor field gave way to a dark and gloomy indoor chamber.

There were again many contraptions around the room. They were having trouble understanding what is what.

The second they were in this room, Jack searched around for Kramer. There were only eight of them standing at the center of the room.

This room was larger than the one yesterday, but Jack quickly found Kramer. A wire wall separated the room into two, Kramer was on the other side of this wire wall. He was bound and gagged. His eyes were looking straight at Jack. Jack could see from those eyes that the boy was terrified.

"Kramer!" Jack called. He ran to the wire wall. Kramer was a human native, which made the boy his subject. His responsibility.

Kramer also always treated Jack as his king, even when the others kept on telling him not to believe Jack was the king.

Jack couldn't let him die. A native's death was permanent.

The wire wall separating the two rooms seemed fragile. Jack used his bare hand, attempting to tear the wire wall apart to get to where Kramer was. But the instant his hands touched the wire, he was zapped by a strong electric current.

The shock threw him away from the wire wall. Damage number appeared above his head. Without his equipment and passive skills, his lightning resistance was none existent. His HP was too high, though, so that jolt didn't endanger his life.

Aglea materialized in the other room where Kramer was. She made a wave and one of the contraptions above Kramer started moving. The contraption opened and revealed a giant revolving circular saw. This circular saw was slowly lowered.

This time, Aglea just gave them two words. "Ten minutes." She was then gone again.

Kramer saw the circular saw above him. His fearful eyes turned bloodshot. He tried to say something but his voice was muffled by the gag in his mouth.

Seeing the boy's terrified expression, Jack couldn't keep his calm. He ripped his ragged cloth and wrapped his hands with the cloth. He knew it wouldn't stop the electricity from damaging him, but he believed he could rip the wire wall apart with his strength as long as he endured the electricity long enough.

Everyone could see his intention. Some thought he was being foolish to attempt the impossible. Some thought he was brave for risking himself for a stranger. No one stopped him except for one person.

Jack sensed this person came to his side and caught the arm that was about to stop him.

"What do you want?" Jack asked Master crudely.

"Do you forget already the lesson from yesterday?" Master asked back.

The statement reminded Jack. He had indeed been emotional. This was unlike him. This whole king's role did place a heavy burden on him. He was a gamer who liked to do whatever he wanted. No responsibility, no worry, no fear of dying. Despite this game world being the real world, he tried to keep this gaming spirit of his. Yet, the burden of taking care of others was indeed not light.

Jack took a deep breath. He forced himself into a gamer state of mind. Looking at all these as if from a third-person perspective. Detached. This was how he had always been able to keep his cool under critical situations.

"It's all just a game," he told himself.

He turned to Master and said, "I never expect saying this to you, but thank you."

"Hmph! I simply don't want you to waste a team member unnecessarily," Master replied.

Jack looked back at Kramer, who was still pleading with his eyes. His determination to save the boy was still there, but he was now looking at the surroundings with calm eyes.

The first sacrificial room had taught them that they needed to go through a proper method. Ripping the wire wall apart was most likely an unconventional method. That's why Master stopped Jack. Kramer would likely be killed instantly once Jack destroyed the wire wall.

Now that Jack knew there was a puzzle in this sacrificial round, he could see it. If it came to solving puzzles, he believed he didn't lose to Master.

"There!" Jack pointed.

Atop something that looked like a cabinet, there was a rubber duck. Jack went and took the doll. He then walked to one of the sides of the wire wall. There was a row of five open boxes on the ground. The boxes were fixed to the ground and not removable.

Jack placed the rubber duck into one of the boxes. The lid automatically closed shut and the light on the box turned green.

"How do you know you should put that doll in?" Stefan asked.

"Look for things that are out of place," Jack answered and informed the others at the same time. "Once we filled these boxes with such things, Kramer can be saved."

"Hm…," Master was again dissatisfied. He had been looking for the connection between the contraptions in this room like he did yesterday. He never thought the puzzle for today was much simpler that he missed the clues.

Everyone started searching around. Jack found another two and put them into the boxes. Master found one.

Stefan thought he found one but the box emitted an alarming sound when he put it in. He quickly took the thing back out. When they looked at the circular saw, they found that it had dropped a great deal. Kramer's time had been shaved due to the mistake.

Jack warned everyone to not just place the goods carelessly. Everyone needed to show him the thing first before putting it into the box.

Everyone started showing him what they suspected to be the correct ones. The more they showed, the more Jack was getting annoyed. The others seemed to just pick up things randomly. It was much better if he just went and looked for the correct one himself.

While he was studying all these random things, Master put in the last one and the box closed. A loud sound was heard and they felt the room shaking.

"What happened?" Dina asked in alarm.

No one could answer her.

They then saw one part of the floor open. They went over and looked at the opened floor. It seemed like a tunnel, and this tunnel was filled with green gas.