"This place should be safe enough," I remarked, looking around and scanning the surroundings as I landed inside an empty simulation room and dropped Clark.

"We should hurry up and escape while we still can," Clark said as he began adjusting his attire with his usual neutral, deadpan expression.

"No. Not yet, at least," I replied with a sigh, shaking my head and earning a raised eyebrow from Clark. "This place is choke full of technology and valuable items," I added, smirking at Clark's expression of realization.

"And as things stand, they are all up for grabs," I concluded in an eager tone, immediately flying towards one of the room's corners to retrieve one of its hard light projectors.

"What's the plan, then?" Clark asked with a frown as he watched me dismount one of the hard light projectors.

"The plan is simple," I replied with a smirk as I stored the device I had just dismounted in my inventory. "You go on and find the others while I go around and see what I can get my hands on," I added as I landed in front of Clark again.

"That's fine, but how will you find us when you're done?" Clark asked in a confused tone, furrowing his eyebrow in a thoughtful frown.

"I'll be able to find you as long as you don't stray too far from this facility or whatever it is," I replied, shrugging my shoulders. "At any rate, I want you to prioritize finding Billy," I added as I started walking towards the exit.

"I felt his presence somewhere north of here," I concluded as I reached the exit, materializing Snowwhite as a pair of wings and flying into the air.

'I wonder what I can get my hands on, other than the hard light projectors.' I frowned as I flew through the game master's base, trying to think of anything that could be worth taking before I left this place for good.

There should be a teleportation device of some sort to transport items and contestants from place to place, which would be great for me to study and possibly reverse engineer with my intuitive aptitude.

The prizes intended for the contestants are a viable option like the drops from monsters in the second stage, as they were physical objects and not mere light projections.

But I will have to locate their storage location, which I imagine will be under lock and key, and the same will probably apply to the teleportation device, but I will deal with that when it comes.

And finally, there were rare items like the adaptive fiber, which I received for defeating the undead king, but I'm not even sure where to look for those.

So, in conclusion, I want to steal as much shit as I can get away with while trying to avoid confrontations to make sure I don't waste my time and leave this place with as many valuable items as possible.

Which is most likely easier said than done, as there were already three people out of my blood right now (the two freaks, gamma ball and Stink bomb, and the crazy bitch Briar).

Not to mention Demira and Flatliner, who I still for the life of me can't figure out what they want, but I will have to manage somehow.

"Let's get this shit show on the road!" I murmured to no one in particular with a smirk on my face as I increased my speed, intending to explore this place as quickly as possible.

...

"That's quite alright," the Deterrent replied, still smirking as he gave the game master a once over. "I'm not here on a social call, anyway," he added, cracking his knuckles.

"My oh my!" the game master exclaimed in a playful tone. "Then what could you possibly be here for, dear gues?" he asked, tilting his head to the side in mock confusion.

"Enough nonsense," the Deterrent replied with a frown, waving his hand to the side in a decisive manner. "It is now time for you to pay for your crimes!" he stated, raising his left hand and pointing towards the game master.

A beam of red energy shot out of the Deterrent's hand, flying towards the game master and hitting him in the chest. The game master screamed in pain, clutching his chest as he looked down in horror at the new hole in his chest.

The game master took one last look at his wound and looked up, staring into the Deterrent's eyes. He creepily smiled as his body began dissolving into a red liquid, falling to the ground.

The Deterrent looked at this scene and frowned, suddenly jerking to the side to avoid a jagged black dagger dripping with green liquid.

He turned around, delivering a kick to his attacker and sending the assailant flying back. "I guess it won't be that easy," the Deterrent murmured to himself while watching multiple clones of the game master surround him, all carrying different weapons.

"But," one of the game master's clones said while brandishing a machine gun. "It will be," said another while playfully tossing a golden coin, shining in black, sinister light. "Fun!" concluded another clone, carrying an ancient-looking shield with engravings of fantastical creatures on it.

All clones immediately charged at the Deterrent as soon as they were finished speaking, barraging him with deadly attacks that would turn an average person into nothing but ashes.

However, Clay Warn was no average man, and so he looked at these incoming attacks, unflinching and uncaring, as he raised his hand into the air, grasping the air as a white, long sword materialized in his hand.

He swung the sword in his hand, releasing a shock wave that destroyed most of the attacks the game master sent towards him, but some of them still persevered.

The golden coin was one of them as it spun in the air, flying towards the Deterrent with the same sinister black shine it had in the game master's hand.

Another one was a blue trident, seemingly made of ice with sounds of waves hitting each other coming out of it as one of the game master's clones held it while charging towards the Deterrent.

Clay watched the incoming trident and golden coin and frowned, pointing his sword in the trident wielding clone's direction, releasing a red and white beam of energy.

The Deterrent's energy beam cut through at least three of its allies as it made its way towards the trident-wielding clone, but just as the attack was about to connect, another clone appeared in front of the trident wielder.

The newly arrived clone's lips, visible under the half clown mask, stretched into a smirk as it received Clay's attack with its shield, only moving slightly backward to mitigate the force of the attack.

Though Clay wanted to attack the trident-wielding clone again, he had to dodge the golden coin, which finally reached him while the others occupied his attention.

The Deterrent merely jerked his head to the side to dodge the coin, but he spun around with an alarmed expression as the coin disappeared, replaced by the trident-wielding clone.

The clone immediately thrust into the trident, aiming to impale Clay's chest, and he quickly reacted, winging his word at the trident in an attempt to stop it.

Trident and sword made contact, but there was no sound of impact as the trident turned into liquid passing through the sword, only to revert to solid form again after passing the blade, getting buried into Clay's chest.

The Deterrent ignored the pain and still swung his sword, cleaving the clone in half and causing it to disperse in a show of countless light particles disappearing into the air.

With a grunt of pain, Clay took out the trident lodged into his chest, frowning as it turned to mist, flying towards another clone and reverting to solid form in its hand.

"You were right," Clay remarked as his frown as he turned to look at the countless clones surrounding him. "This will be fun!" he added, his frown turning into a savage grin, with a line of blood leaking out of his mouth.

Though people knew Clay Warner as a noble hero, renowned for his selfless acts of defending humanity, he had another side that very few people knew about; a much darker nature, which he had always kept hidden.

And the game master just earned the right to see the other side of earth's mightiest heroes..., something that no one had been on the receiving end of and lived to tell the tale.

"Oh!" exclaimed one of the clones in an eager tone. "How scary!" added another one in a gleeful tone as the battle resumed, even more viciously than before.

...

I frowned at the sounds of loud explosions, likely coming from outside the facility, as I continued to explore the area, searching for any valuables I could get.

"I wonder if the Deterrent is already here?" I murmured to no one in particular, shaking my head with a sigh, forcing myself to stop thinking about the subject.

'That shit is way above my league, so there is no point in worrying about it!' With that line of thought, I continued to fly towards the facility's center.

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