Chapter 6
If she had shown up at an earlier stage, the players would have caused massive havoc and rebelled for their freedom, but due to the last nine levels and all the bloodbaths and massacres they have faced in the challenges, this was not possible. They were all like a tamed dog in front of their owner after the reality have set it in. For a sadist like her, there was nothing more satisfying than the view in front of her and amongst all these domesticated dogs, there seems to be a lone wolf; there was no fear, despair nor anguish, it was just calm as if there wasn’t anything worth a spectacle for and that drives her crazy.
“Not bad…” Idia whispers to herself, barely holding herself back from grinning wildly, but her eyes do not betray her emotions. Her green eyes shook in excitement as she swept her long brown hair off her shoulder with her left hand. The red parasol was thrown into the floor—
—Swoosh
32 players was sweep off their feet and placed automatically on the assigned tiles whilst the rest was transported to audience seat that magically appear at the side of the ballroom, they were placed into two groups, black and white.
『 Welcome to the 10th floor of the Tower! 』
『Each players are assigned to certain position to play as a chess piece on the board. pawns, bishops, knights, rooks, queen, and king. Defeat the opposing team to pass the challenge
May the best team wins
Time Limit: 1 round for each player 』
『 MAY THE SYSTEM BE WITH YOU 』
『 -Administrator Idia 』
“Have fun everyone! I’m looking forward to your plays”
Distraught expression appeared in all the players' faces who were unfortunate enough to be chosen to participate in the first round. Then one of the participants falls under pressure and step out of her assigned tiles to run away.
Schleerk—
Plop!
The silence is loud and deadly as her head falls down to the tiles floor dyeing the floor bloody red as her body soon follows. Blood was sprayed everywhere turning the monochrome floor into a bloody color. Frightened screams released by other participants of the same round with them unfortunately tried to leave too and suffered the same fate.
Schleerk—
Plop!
It was an absolute chaos and reasonably so. Even whilst he was seated in the audience seat, he could hear and feel the anxiety and shudder from players around him by the sudden bloodbath. The past 9 floors didn’t prepare anyone enough for the sudden gore in front of them. Although this is not his first time in this round, he could still feel himself shudder in anxiety and disgust by the display round him and closed his lids to prevent him from seeing any further.
Most of the players from the first round laid on the floor, cold and decapitated without even having their chances to make their move for the game. The game ended before it could begin.
Clap.Clap
Idia clapped her gloved hands together, with insidious smiles adorned her red lips like the rest of her outfit as she tilted her head to the side, “ That was so anticlimactic, it was a draw”. She ended with a disappointed sigh and if Izz didn’t know her any better he would have thought she was truly sorry but her demeanor and smile said otherwise.
Izz closed his eyes once again to shield him from the view of what would happened next.
“ There’s nothing I hate more than an open-ending, it’s a boring performance”
“You were supposed to defeat the other team…checkmate! Get it!?” Her sweet tone turned to enraged one and with a snap of her finger, all the surviving players were decapitated too. The first round ended with both teams massacred.
‘This was the real challenge’ Izz thought, there was no time for us to think of anything but surviving and for that you have to be selfish and calculating but there was more, when a pawn (player) moves to eat another pawn. The pawn that was eaten will be decapitated. It was both mental and physical warfare for the players and some may win but will be eaten up by guilt for the death of others…and some may enjoy it more than others.
Like the man who sat beside him, Izz's eyes glanced towards his left as he looked at the man who was covering his smile of delight with both of his palms. Even with his smile covered, his eyes betrayed him as it shake in frenzy delight of the bloody display.
For some reason, he looked so familiar to Izz, but he can’t remember who he is but he was sure that he had met the man before him before the regression. People like him would absolutely survive for a long time in the tower. He took a proper look on the man before him one last time.
With Apicem Hominis title in effect, there was no worry in his mind whether he would forget about the man later.
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‘F*ck! I hate that I’m right’ Sung Hyun screamed in his mind.
The fact that the dream wasn’t wasn’t really a simple dream and was actually a vision for the future as he assumed so far also meant that the nightmare would happen too. He was one of the two bishops of his team, with the other already laid dead and decapitated on the floor. Surprisingly the other team was more capable than they looked as they have more surviving member and more composed than his own team who barely able to think strategically on where to move based on their role which led them to their demise as they didn’t follow their assigned roles and move without that in mind and the rest… was eaten up by the other team moves and decapitated too.
He looks at one of his team members who is still alive and thank god for it since he couldn’t win this by himself. The other player looked back at him and his eyes smiled meaningfully before making a move to eat the other party.
‘Wait if he did that!’
The latter soon laid decapitated on the floor, as the other party ate him back after eating one of their pawns. His tactical gambit open a path for Sung Hyun and it took the other party a moment before realizing that as Sung Hyun slowly move tiles by tiles toward the king.
“Please no! Please, I have a family!” The king kneeled before him as he pleaded Sung Hyun not to take a step onto his tiles to not get eaten up. Unaware that his statement made the other person freeze for a moment.
“Check”
“I’m sure that man and other people of my team have a family too and if they were in my place they would understand you and help”
The man looks up to him, eyes glimmering with hope, his other team members look at Sung Hyun’s back with anxiety as his move would determine their fate and end the game with their victory.
“Checkmate”
Schleerk—
Plop!Plop!Plop!Plop!
“Unfortunately, I never had one," Sung Hyun said to the decapitated head of the opponent’s team.
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『 Congratulations! 』
『 Server: 137040
Rank: 103
Rewards: 10 unallocated stats point 』
“Damn it, I was hoping for a skill or something”
『 (￣ω￣;) 』
“Just put all of it on my luck”
『 (^_<)〜☆ 』
『 Congratulations! 』
『 Congratulations for passing the 10th floor』
『 Would you like to skip to 20th floor?』
『 YES/NO 』
On the same floor. But in different game room both Izz and Sung Hyun unknowingly pick the same option, Yes.
With a flash, both of them were transported to the 20th floor.
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『 Congratulations! 』
『 Server: 137040
Rank: 1
Rewards: Mana Sense (S)(Passive) 』
『 The player was able to more efficiently harness and use mana. Use less mana when casting spells, and when mana stats reach a specific level, the player will be able to harness mana from their surroundings. 』
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The 20th floor was set on an ancient Egyptian city, the city of Memphis. The view of the floor looks like it was straight out of the museum illustration. The players from Earth01 feels like as if they are traveling back in time to the golden age of the Egyptians. if it weren’t for the presence of other players, they would have believed so.
The sand shines like gold, the city were thriving and bustling from players from multiple differents plane, the 20th floor was the place where the players all gathered and for the players from Earth01 this is where most of them realized that they weren’t the only humanoid species in existence and the myths and stories told by their ancestor weren’t simply a story.
Some players have green and purple skins, some have pointy ears and pale complexion; they are elves, and some have wings on their back. The most important thing is all these species and players have more advantage over them, more superior genetics than them who were an ordinary human except for skills and power given by the system that all other players had too.
It was fortunate that Earth01 they weren’t the only human plane that gathered here, there were also other Earthlings or humans from other Earth planes. Unfortunately, most of them were in the bottom of the society rank here. In the midst of the glorious beautiful golden city that thrives in trade and wealth; beautiful architecture, white walls of the great gates that surround the city and the view of the massive pyramids and palaces that were decorated with golds, ivory sculptures, scripture and lapis lazuli.
Welling in the shadows of the glorious city are the slums; players who became beggars as they beg for points, gambling addicts that fall for Administrator’s Wheel, drunkards who spent their days drinking, hazing their days away and clouding their mind from thinking soberly about the past 10 floors. Then they were orphans, sex workers and slaves.
For these people, the newest batch from Earth01 that just arrived on the 20th floor is like the fresh meat that they could bare their hands on to become their prey.
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『 Congratulations! 』
『 Player ‘Izz Putera’, are invited to the Ranker’s gathering for your performances record 』
『 Gathering will be held tomorrow at 11 a.m., Memphis Temple 』
