[Sponsor Selection]

–Please select your sponsor

Various looks of concern met on my peers' faces, perhaps they also were trying to figure out what sponsor to pick.

[Sponsor Selection]

–Please select your sponsor

1. The Dog Who Threw Himself into the Flames

2. Victorious Lion Heart

---

 

I contemplated on my choices for what seemed like an eternity. The first option, Dog Who Threw Himself into the Flames doesn't seem like a very good sponsor. How could someone with a name like that defend me from inevitable battles ? Next choice. I shifted my gaze over to the 'Victorious Lion Heart'. I only had two options, but this seemed to be the better of the two. Although it sounded powerful, would a victorious person would boast about their power? Also, the fact that he was the only other person that wanted to be my sponsor made me think he wasn’t so strong after all. Minutes of battling my conscience, I finally settled on a choice. 

[Sponsor Selection has ended.]

I took a deep breath as I watched the messages float in the air.

[The Constellation 'Victorious Lion Heart' is displeased at your choice.]

[The Constellation 'The Dog Who Threw Himself into The Flames' is cursing your choice.]

I guess this was to be expected. 

[Due to the death of character 'Caission Grey', two constellations show a faint hostility towards you.]

Caission Grey..? Oh, that's most likely the man I killed. Two constellations disliking me at this moment in time would most definitely not benefit me in the long run. Especially with my decision. 

[You haven't selected a sponsor.]

This may be a shocking choice but I didn't think my odds were so good right now. The sponsors that wanted me didn’t seem very strong, and I didn’t have a wide variety. I looked over to Mia Becker and saw her expression light up, she must have chosen one. Hopefully there’d be another chance though, that was my last thought before the dokkaebi appeared once again.

[Haha, is this true…isn't there one interesting choice? Well, no worries. If anybody hasn’t picked a sponsor, there will be another chance. Now that everyone has finished the selection, rest for a while. I have to go prepare the next scenario. I'll see you in 10 minutes!] 

And with that, the dokkaebi vanished. 

 

---

 

All four of us gathered into the centre, if we wanted any chance of survival we all should surely cooperate. It was Thomas first who spoke. 

"So.. Since we've all been launched into this possibly never ending dystopia, shouldn't it be wise to gather food?" 

The remaining three of us were hit with a sense of realisation and started scavenging for food in duos, I of course with Mia. Whilst we were scavenging for food, I decided to make conversation. 

"I'm honestly really surprised that you survived… How did you anyway?" 

Mia Becker glanced at me then looked away swiftly with great embarrassment. 

"I...Uh...There was an injured woman by the front desk, crying out and I... She wanted me to…" She replied with a melancholic tone. 

I saw that she was uncomfortable and hand motioned her to drop the topic and brought up something else. 

"So, uh, did you find out if you have any skills?"

She seemed to ponder for a second before answering. 

"Skill? I don't think I have any… At this moment anyway."

As she finished her sentence, she glanced back at me, glanced away but immediately returned her eyes, a worried look had been composed.

“Say… Aksel, are you hurt anyway?”

“Hah… Y-yeah, kinda…”

I had tried hard to hide it, but she had found out already. Putting down the carrier bags she brought, she forced me to sit down on the ground.

“No… It’s fine, honestly. You don’t need to――”

“Sit.” She lifted her finger and pointed at the ground harshly.

Like a dog, I obeyed. With a bag in hand, I plopped my butt onto the ground.

“And wait here.”

Running off somewhere, she returned later with bandages in her hand. I tried to gesture that she seriously didn’t need to do this but with her glaring look, I ceased my stubbornness. Mia crouched down.

“You, um. Y-you should take off your shirt.. y’know…”

“――Y-yeah! I-I, uh completely forgot, sorry…”

With a rising inflection, I attempted to hide my blush as I quickly lifted off my shirt. Mia was rough, applying the bandages with swiftness. As I had already said, I wasn’t the type to go the gym. A girl seeing me like this, was embarrassing. I wasn’t fat or anything, but a lot of girls are attracted to muscles, must be why I’ve been single for a long time. Pushing that thought out of the way,

“Also, thank you…”

With the last of the bandages used, she picked herself up.

“I should be thanking you, really. If you didn’t save me back then… Just consider this a repayment for that, okay!”

Suddenly, she grew aggressive and turned away her head from me, hands on her hips.

“Right… Thank you again.” I replied, standing up whilst putting my shirt back on.

We grabbed the bags from before and proceeded to continue swiping the remaining food into the last carrier bag. It seemed the ten minutes were over and a new message appeared.  

[The second scenario has arrived!]

 

 

 

---

 

Demonic people? Mia Becker and I gazed at each other for a moment before sprinting back to the centre.

In the midst of our run, we could see weird, menacing purple aura emitting from the corpses. Are we really going to fight these things? Do zombies even die? I couldn’t let my worries get the better of the situation. In the distance I could see Thomas and Leo approaching slowly. If I had to guess, getting to Derlith Station quickly as possible would be the best choice scenario. 

"Everybody arm yourself with weapons if you haven't already!" Thomas shouted. "There's no way we'll beat them right now so don't engage in combat!" 

I glanced at Mia and she was grabbing a steel pan. Surprisingly, she was quite observant and quick-witted. Perhaps she'll be a good companion, I mean I'm pretty sure it's suicide to tackle the scenarios myself. Since Leo was docile and didn't want to take part in the violence, we made him hold the carrier bags containing variety of foods. At this point, we could see the reviving corpses slowly tread toward us. 

"Kuweeeoooh." They all exclaimed in unison. 

"Now that's our cue to leave." Thomas spoke hurriedly and kicked the door open, we all broke into a sprint, and into a new world that we had not known before.