Kaiden's eyes were wavering.

When he finally came to his senses, he saw the ceiling still far away.

"Argh!"

He suppressed a scream with pain, a piercing headache accompanied by multiple bouts of vomiting.

'This pain, it has never been this bad,'

he thought.

'And why do I see so blurry and dark?'

Frantically rubbing his eyes and temples, he sat upright on a now harder surface.

Kaiden only heard distant voices,

"You may not have realized it yet, but here, there's power, not morality! Those who are weak die, those who are strong survive!"

Immediately followed by a louder scream from afar,

"No one will pity you, and even if someone kills you here as part of training, it will be covered up and not revealed to the public! As you all know, we only need the strong, weaklings are abundant here. There are tens of thousands of other academies with even stronger individuals! So, work hard if you don't want to end up as bait for cryptids!"

As Kaiden listened to the distant voice, he recognized it somewhat blurry; it was the laughing blonde man again.

An uneasy and bad feeling overcame Kaiden.

'Was this man responsible for everything?'

Kaiden's anger overwhelmed him, but he knew he had to stay calm.

After all, until now, everything was just assumptions and far from facts, right?

Kaiden continued to observe them.

A group of about 20, to be precise, 24, seemed to be training together, mainly within their groups.

'Do they not like each other, or why do they see each other as enemies? What a foolish question of mine. After all, they apparently fought for life and death before.'

As Kaiden looked at them more, still massaging his temple, a sudden realization hit him.

'Then the reason was probably that I was attacked by them, and I just wanted to defend myself. Yes, that must have been it!'

Kaiden thought further, coming across a problem.

'While I could defeat one person with cyanide, how about two more?'

Kaiden thought it must have been very challenging for him to fight against three, considering he saw the girl and two men in the quicksand.

'Still, I feel sorry, even if they attacked me. They had to, as it was part of the test. However, I still can't explain why I have 26 karma points.'

'What happened that I got so many karma points? Even if I manipulated all three with cyanide, I would only have 3, not 26,'

Kaiden's thoughts were confused.

It made no sense to him, and surprisingly, no solution came to him.

'The only way to find out everything again is to reduce my karma points, but how again?'

After a brief thought, he remembered using so-called quests.

'But do I currently have one?'

[Quests: None]

Kaiden was momentarily shocked, as he had not anticipated this.

'No quests? Then it will take a while.'

"Kai, Kai, are you feeling better?"

A distant voice appeared louder and closer, as if it were approaching him.

Still, Kaiden didn't pay attention until the person touched his forehead.

His medium-length tousled blond hair directed backward by a soft yet rough hand, stained with blood, to measure his temperature.

"Are you feeling better now? You still had a fever earlier."

The feminine voice belonged to an orange-haired girl with emerald-green eyes, familiar to Kaiden.

"Elly?"

he said somewhat reserved and softly.

Followed by her response,

"Yes?"

Elly interrupted him,

"Don't bother him yet!"

Another voice came from a distance.

One he didn't particularly like; it was Zack.

With a slight eye roll, Kaiden continued to look, and more figures appeared.

Ren and Mark, joining at a jogging pace.

Mary, the only one walking gracefully and giving Kaiden an icy cold look as if he didn't even exist.

'I missed her,'

thought Kaiden.

With his hand still exploring his fluffy, voluminous, yet messy hair up to his ears, both hands gripping his neck.

'What is happening here?'

Kaiden wondered, feeling embarrassed.

Zack shortly after took his hand and pushed Elly slightly away from Kaiden.

"Leave him alone now; he surely isn't feeling well."

'What's wrong with him?'

Kaiden thought with a hint of gratitude for getting him out of the situation.

"Hey, everything okay?"

followed shortly after by two out-of-breath guys.

"Where were you the whole time? We thought you were with us, but suddenly you were gone. We've been looking for you the whole time."

Kaiden, now even more puzzled,

'They were looking for me? Why was I alone then? They would have found me if I had been near them.'

Kaiden didn't know how to respond, but he found a way out.

"I was nearby, wanted to join you, but then I heard someone fighting. So, I wanted to get to you even more, but somehow they got to me faster than I could find you. So, I was running away from them the whole time and got a bit hurt in the process, as you can see."

"Understandable; then you've been through a lot. We only saw a team of five looking for you and fought them. But since we had too little time, we could only eliminate two."

Kaiden found it somewhat frightening.

'Ren seemed innocent the whole time, but he was able to eliminate two other lives just like that, even if it was for a test.'

Mark added something, as Kaiden was unconscious for a bit.

"We all received a kind of currency on our chips, namely the Preaters, for surviving the test and eliminating two others who were too weak. For surviving, you get a tenth of a Preater, and for each elimination, you get a whole Preater. However, eliminations count individually, not as a team. So, only Zack and Mary from our team got a whole Preater each."

Kaiden's thoughts went blank.

Mouth wide open, as were his eyes.

Were Mark's words true and not lies?

Mark added,

"You can see the currency if you ask your hologram about your account or budget. You already have a tenth of a Preater. Also, from now on, we need this money because food is no longer free. Sergeant Ken explained earlier that everyone is forced to kill in one way or another because the rewards for just surviving are not enough to live properly. If you live like that without killing and only by surviving, you live at the existence minimum."

Kaiden met him halfway and said,

"Interesting to know; thanks for the info."

Mark replied,

"No problem. After all, we are comrades."

'Were they really true? If so, then Kaiden might have a lot of money.'

Although Kaiden felt guilty, when it came to money, he didn't care, especially since he lived only for that and his brother.

For the first time, Kaiden hoped he had killed those three.

The guilt almost completely erased.

'$3100, damn $3100 just for me, without having to give them back to anyone. How long would my brother have to work for that? Almost two damn months.'

Kaiden's greedy grin barely concealed, but by now, the other five were not looking at him.

"Everyone, it's break time, go eat, rest, or do something else, just disappear from here!"

The blonde sergeant named Ken shouted this message.

Without hesitation, Ren said,

"Let's eat something delicious."

Zack said shortly after,

"I'm starving too."

'In an instant, they all seemed normal again, especially Ren.'

But Kaiden no longer cared about such trivial things;

after all, his thought process was even worse and greedier.

Who could blame him?

He was a boy from humble circumstances, and when you offer them a finger, they want the whole hand.

Kaiden was no exception, especially with his current expression.

[Balance: 5.1 Preaters]

Was he disturbed?

Was he anxious?

Was he disgusted with himself or even hated himself?

Did he feel guilty for killing not 3 but 5 people, even if they were innocent?

In contrast, Kaiden was overjoyed.

Not only did he earn just under two but just over three months' salary for his brother.

A grin wider than a mountain, eyes sparkling like a star, and hands trembling like an eel.

Kaiden couldn't believe it and let his emotions run wild.

He squealed inwardly, making frantic movements, hitting his legs, barely able to contain his grin.

'I just have to get stronger, and in no time, I'll be a millionaire.'