SYSTEM ASCENSION

[Number of participants in safe zone: four hundred and thirty-five]

Silence followed for a moment. No one dare utter a word, in fear that the Nulls might return. They watched people got tore apart, and pulled into the hole on the ground.

Then, the system ding.

[First Trial: complete]

[Number of participants remaining: 435]

[Number of participants remaining: 434]

[Number of participants remaining: 433]

Elias and Yvonne exchanged glances.

"Some people are dying." She whispered.

After five minutes of staring at the system count down the number of survivors, it settled in four hundred and five.

[Congratulations!]

"Congratulations my ass!" She snorted in anger.

[Survivors> Players]

"Is this like an upgrade in a game?" Somehow muttered.

"Maybe it’s a virtual reality game." Another mumbled.

To Elias, the words were foreign. "What is virtual reality game?"

Yvonne glanced at him like he had spurt another head.

[Assigning players reward]

"Rewards?!"

For a moment, the horror was override by the promise of a reward. All eyes glimmered, as the system did a ten seconds countdown.

"What do you think we’ll get?" She helped Elias to sit, and sat beside him.

"I don’t know. Water perhaps?"

[Reward assigned]

An individual screen immediately appeared before everyone, and in it were two item.

"Bread and a pouch of water?" A girl broke the silence.

They tapped it, and it appeared in their hands. It really was just bread and a pouch of water.

Someone slumped on the sand. "I barely escaped, only to get bread and water? Are you kidding me?!"

Chaos erupted instantly. They began to nag at the air. At whosoever was pulling this prank.

Yvonne narrowed her eyes.

"This isn’t reward. It’s just rage baiting. I feel like we’d be fighting for bread soon."

She glanced at him.

"What are you doing?"

He was staring at the loaf in his hand.

"What is bread?"

She blinked. "Are you even alive?!"

*

*

A moment later, the chaos shimmered into whispered anger. Everyone was too tired to keep yelling. They just settled on the scorching ground, wrapping themselves with vital energy to feel a bit better.

Some dig into their rewards and eat it, while some just sat and stared.

While Yvonne drank a little bit of her water, and ate a slice of her bread, Elias ate nothing. He left it in the space described as inventory.

He sat rooted in a spot, staring into nothing until night came.

"We need to take turns keeping watch," She spoke after hours of staring. "I don’t trust those people."

"I’ll take the first shift." He replied immediately.

She didn’t argue. She just leaned on his shoulder and shut her eyes.

By the time darkness came, most of them were asleep. Silence settled, but not in his head.

"They are asleep."

He squinted his eyes.

"Mona."

"Long time no see." The voice beamed inside his head. "It has been a year, isn’t it."

"Cut to the chase. What do you want?"

"Cut me some slack Elias. You’re treating me like we’re different people."

"..."

"Look Elias, there are a lot of people, starting from this girl leaning on you."

"And?"

"Let’s devour their vital."

Elias casually gazed around the desert beyond the safe zone and back, eyes cold like he was actually considering it.

"This girl vital is particularly stronger." Mona grinned.

He looked at Yvonne, leaning against him without a care in the world.

"So?" Mona urged, but was soon interrupted.

"Excuse me."

He turned to see who had approached him.

There were four of them, with a blonde guy leading the team. The rest were two girls and a boy.

"Hey there." The leader waved. "May I have a bit of your time?"

"Tsk! They are already teaming up." Mona scoffed.

Elias inclined his head. "You may speak."

The four exchanged glances at the authority in his tone. Nevertheless, the blonde came forward.

"I’m Quil."

"So?"

He coughed slightly and bent down to Elias’s sitting height. "I was wondering if you and the girl wants to join our team? We should help each other until we find our way out of here."

"Accept it," Mona exclaimed. "It would be easier to suck out their vitals."

Elias shut his eyes a while and opened them again. "And what if we have to turn against each other."

The group were thrown off guard by his question. Quil on the other side, only smiled.

"We’ll have to face the problem in front of us first. We can turn on each other afterwards."

He tilted his head and his eyes met with the guy at Quil’s back. Their eyes locked for a moment, then Elias shrugged.

"Very well. Don’t just get in my way."

Without another word, the group of six settled together. With Elias and Quil keeping watch, the rest fell asleep.

*

*

By the rise of the scorching sun, Quil was startled awake. He glanced around, only to see Elias still sitting in the same spot.

"Did you move?"

"No."

"Did you even blink?"

"A few times?" Elias gazed at the rest.

The sun was already burning despite it being dawn, forcing them awake.

Yvonne streched tiredly, before realising she slept all night.

"Elias I’m sorry!"

She sprang up and headbutt his jaw.

"Aak!" He bit his lip.

"I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!"

She glanced around, finally seeing the people with them.

"Who are you guys?"

"We’re a team now. I’m Lisa." The first girl introduced.

"Laura." The second smiled, grabbing Lisa’s hand. "We’re twins."

"Oh..." She glanced at the rest.

"Roche." The guy mumbled, eyes locked unto Elias.

"And I’m Quil."

Yvonne shifted to Elias. "Are you sure it’s alright to trust this people?"

"No."

"Then why?"

"Because we might need each other," Quil cut in, eyes secretly scanning the duo.

’They are wearing the same cloth. Is it a lab cloth? They must have come from the same place. The shoe they both wore is probably one of them ability too. They is also numbers on their wrist. Five and Ten?’

"We know nothing about this place, or how we got here. Best to stick together." He added with a bright smile.

"Others are doing it." Laura added.

Indeed, there were no single players. Everyone had joined a team.

"Let’s understand each other," Quil turned on the sand to face them completely. "First, who is an awakened, and what ability?"

The others seem hesitant to say, so he spoke first.

"A ranker. Kenetic manipulation," he smiled. "I can absorb, amplify and redirect attack. Basically if you hit me with something, I’ll return it in ten fold."

The rest shuddered at his explanation. Not only because the ability was terrifying, but because it was well known.

"Torzi empire," Yvonne spoke. "The ring family."

His smile grew wider. "I didn’t think anyone would recognise me here." He leaned forward. "You are one of us."

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