Second World



"You… You are Domon Fei's grandson?" Freddie asked.

"Yeah. We sparred in the past. Do you still remember?" Jack asked.

He did remember Domon's grandson who he played with as a favor to Domon, but that kid was just a little child back then. Now that he was reminded, he did see a resemblance between Jack and that little kid.

Freddie's expression softened, but only for an instant. It was soon back to a steely face again. "No! I don't care if you are Domon's grandson! Even if you are my own grandson, we will still be enemies in this place!"

"Uncle Freddie, be reasonable! I truly have a way out of here," Jack tried to convince him.

"No, stay away from me!" Freddie shouted. He gave Saddie another glance before he ran away from there.

"Uncle Freddie…!!" Jack called, but Freddie didn't respond.

Saddie came to them. She was still wary but she decided to just accept her fate in case this was a trap. Kramer and Winson looked at Jack, unsure if they should attack Saddie or not.

"Everyone, store your weapons," Jack told them. He sheathed his wrench and shortsword.

"I meant it when I said I have a way out. I can't say it is guaranteed but at least there is a chance," Jack said to Saddie.

Saddie felt Jack's sincerity through his words. She decided to trust Jack then.

"If you need my help, you have it," Saddie said.

"Thank you," Jack said.

Saddie could see that Jack was still sad that he failed to persuade Freddie. Saddie said to him, "This place turns the best people into a worse version of themselves. Freddie has been here for a very long time… So do I."

"Let's go. It's going to get dark soon," Jack climbed back on his bike and restarted it.

"So, you truly have known that we have been following you?" Saddie asked.

"Yes, but what I said about a way out is still the truth," Jack replied. Saddie believed him.

Kramer, Winson, and Saddie ran following Jack who led on the motorbike. He adjusted the bike's speed to the three's running speed.

While on the way, Jack asked Saddie a few questions.

They arrived soon at the safe house. Jack called to let the people inside know he was the one outside. Stefan opened the door. He was happy to see Kramer and Winson, but then he froze when he saw Saddie. This woman tried to kill him earlier today.

When Stefan gave Jack a questioning glance, Jack uttered, "Let's talk inside. Hurry! There is not much time!"

Jack had seen on his radar a large number of red dots appearing at the periphery of his radar. The dark creatures had come out again to hunt in the night.

Everyone hurriedly went in. Stefan closed the door and barricaded it with a cupboard and a heavy table.

Not long after, they heard a lot of crawling sounds from outside. All of them became tense from the sound. Something banged on the door, but the door was solid enough. After some time, the crawling sounds lessened until it was finally silent outside. It seemed the dark creatures didn't know that they were inside this building.

"We call them the night hunters," Saddie said. "Their number increased as this world arena shrinks each day. In the last two days, this battle royale match will become more about survival against these hunters."

"What is she doing here?" Tom finally asked. He had been agitated since he saw Saddie come in. Her team had attacked his team twice in the past, even taking out several of his team members during the first ambush. Windy and Naomi were also eyeing Saddie with hostility.

"Everyone, please calm down," Grace mediated. "Let's listen to Jack's explanation."

Jack came to the middle of the room and cleared his throat. "Ehem. Everyone, listen up. I know some of you have enmity with people in this room. Trust me, I understand how you feel. I myself want more than anything to beat up this a*shole right this moment, but I restrain myself."

Jack was pointing at Master, who scoffed in return.

"But in this place, we are all the victims. We are members from three different teams, who have been instructed to kill each other. We can choose to obey that instruction and succumb to whatever force controls our lives here. To which, Saddie here can explain what will happen."

Saddie looked at everyone in the room. She then said. "I have been here for a while. I'm not sure how long, but I think it's almost one year already. I have been on three different games until now. I've died in all three games. I came back to life and they forced me to train in a training room until I get past level 50 and then they sent me back into the game again. I'm not sure how many games the owner here has hosted, but I think they host one at least every month."

"That's not possible. I've been in captivity for two months," Stefan said. "They are still looking for participants for this game until recently."

"There are more of these teams than you think. Not just the four who were in this game," Sadie replied. You won't believe how many people are in captivity. There are more than you know. They purposefully let some first-time participants stay in captivity longer than necessary. They probably thought this could motivate us to be more enthusiastic when the game starts. Sometimes when they didn't have enough participants, they still run the game anyway by forcing all the old participants to play. But most of the time, they prefer the current setting. Three teams filled with new blood while one team composed of the old participants, my team."

"So… That's what they want? They want us to repeatedly play this game? For the rest of our lives?" Stefan asked.

"Some players decided to defy," Saddie said. "They stopped following the program and refused to level up in the training room… We never heard from them again."

"Did they… Were they killed permanently?" Stefan asked.

"Not possible," Master answered. "Even the Gods of this world can't do that. They most probably suffer a worse punishment."

"Worse punishment than death?" Stefan asked.

"Only an unimaginative mind thinks death is the scariest thing," Master mocked.

"There is one other thing you need to know," Jack said. "This so-called end match is not the real end match."

"It's not?" Almost everyone asked.

Jack turned to Saddie. He had heard all this from Saddie during their journey here.

"There is another match after this one," Saddie said. "If the winning team has more than one member in it, they were then placed into another smaller arena. In this arena, these team members will have to fight each other until only one remains."