Aside from the title written at the top of the screen, there are also a few prompts about the stage.
"Those who have abandoned their humanity must regain some heavenly virtues."
"Gain a virtue by entering its gate and completing the task inside. Acquire four (4) virtues to pass this stage."
"Harming another player is not allowed. Punishment: Death by slowly burning."
Below the prompt telling the conditions to pass is a timer. It has two minutes in it and is already counting down.
"Hey, morons! What's with the timer?"
Some of the "players" who are close to me also noticed the timer and were confused by it.
Someone near me who has his bald head full of tattoos bursts out, "Just a guess, but won't we die if we do not enter a gate when the timer runs out?" he said aloud.
Everyone near him falls silent for a brief moment. And before I knew it, I am at the center of a stampede. Seems like everyone also thought about what the timer meant when they saw a lot of people rushing to the gates. I've been dragged by the surge of people.
Without knowing which one, I entered a gate.
It felt different this time. Compared to the feeling of falling deep into a vast ocean, entering the gate felt more like being pulled somewhere in a swift.
Dizzying, I kept blinking my eyes and forced myself to regain proper consciousness.
As my thoughts aligned all I could see in a vast place is farmland. It's a rice farm. It's in the middle of the day and the sun is scorching. My feet are submerged in the mud. And my clothes were changed to match the theme of the area.
I am wearing farm clothes, the ones typically used by most old-school rice farmers. You know, a long-sleeved shirt, a straw hat, though there's nothing special about my pants, also I am barefoot. The long-sleeved shirt also has a pocket around my right chest.
Other players are also spawning near me, we're all around the same area. Must've been the starting point since no one popped up past the blue triangular flags. There's a huge house almost more than half a kilometer from where we are.
Looking at the balcony of the house, I saw a tall slender lady standing on it. She is wearing a blue dress and also has a straw hat on her head. It's weird how visible she is even though we are half a kilometer away from her.
From where I am standing the lady seems fair. Though, the lady in blue is holding something in her hands. Squinting my eyes, I still couldn't comprehend what she was holding.
As I am looking around, checking the other people who chose the same gate, I saw Amelka on my right maybe almost a hundred meters away from me. On my way to approach her, another notification appeared in the same form as earlier, a holographic screen.
"Diligence Is the Mother of Good Luck"
"Hard work and the love for it will never betray you. Through it, you will be far more likely to achieve success. As if 'Luck' had come your way."
"Objective:"
"Plant three thousand (3000) rice in the field manually. The lady in blue is hostile towards those that show any clear signs of slothful acts while working. Still, she is lenient. Executing only those who have been warned for the third time. But, you wouldn't want to be warned."
"Those who have completed the task will receive an invitation to enter the lady in blue's house. Once inside, your diligence will be recognized and you will be allowed to proceed in acquiring other heavenly virtues."
"Rice planted: 0000/3000"
"Click this button to receive your bag of rice."
Below the instructions is a minute timer. It is a countdown that indicates when you will be considered as someone playing the game and must leave the starting area in another thirty seconds.
Maybe it's because the other people who will choose the gate of Diligence as their second virtue will just enter the starting area and will join the remaining players who still didn't manage to pass the task. I was confused a bit about the warnings but I didn't think deeply about it.
I rush towards Amelka after reading the instruction. On the way to her, I clicked the button for the bag of rice. A brown pouch that is made of cloth appeared in front of me. The inside of the pouch is not visible. It only appeared dark as if nothing is in it. But, as I reached inside I could feel a lot of rice seedlings.
It is taxing running in a muddy field. My feet felt like it's carrying some bag of weights.
"Amelka!"
Amelka was standing still with both her feet completely submerged in the mud. As she heard my voice, she looked towards me with her typical expressionless face. Even those clothes look perfect on her, I thought.
I felt embarrassed when I notice how big of a smile I had on my way to her. Amelka is also holding the bag of rice seedlings in her left hand.
Looking at her face I could not stop myself from worrying since I'm not sure whether Amelka understood the instruction.
"Uhm... Did you read the instruction?"
Without averting her gaze towards me, she lifted the bag of rice in her left hand and shove it close to my face. Though I already saw it while I was running with a stupid smile, I couldn't help myself for being worried.
Soon as we entered the playing area we immediately started planting the rice seedlings. After planting a seedling on the plowed mud I noticed the rice seedling disappear. But as soon as I inserted it inside the mud, my progress count increased.
"Rice planted: 0001/3000"
Realizing this, I tried to plant another rice seedling in the same spot. The count didn't increase and a sudden notice appeared.
"Already planted in this spot. Wait for: 30 minutes."
I asked Amelka who is beside me to plant in the spot that I have planted. She nodded in reply and humored my request. She told me that her progress count increased.
The plowed mud is perpendicular to the location of the house. We decided to plant the seedlings moving sideways, facing the plowed mud instead of facing toward the house.
Another timer also started counting down soon as I removed my hand from the mud and stood.
"Plant another seedling in 7 second/s"
"Failure to do so will be considered as being idle and will result in a warning."
Most of the participants were doing what was instructed in the task. I could see them bend to reach the mud and stick a rice seedling inside of it.
My sweat is pouring nonstop. It was backbreaking. Only at the hundredth seedling and I could feel my back aching. I tried my hardest not to sigh and carefully watched the seven seconds timer.
Having five seconds of a break is not enough, sometimes I just stick my hand on the mud still holding the seedling for the sake of having a break. Beside me, Amelka also looked exhausted.
From time to time, I was checking on Amelka and was matching her pace. She was not moving for half a minute now. Her hand is stuck in the mud.
Worried, I also stopped and let my hand stay on the mud for the timer not to start.
"Amelka? Are you okay?"
She stared at me for a while before saying something back.
"Just go, I don't want to do this anymore."
Rather than being just tired, Amelka seemed more like she was unmotivated to continue.
"What do you mean? We can do this."
Amelka seems hesitant of saying anything back. But I guess trying to talk to her every day for the past month somehow made her feel a bit comfortable with me. Though, it took longer this time for her to say something.
"There's no point. No one is waiting for me outside."
My heart broke as I heard what she said combined with her expressionless face that now seemed unhappy. Especially since I'm the same.
Out of spite, I replied with a smile. "Then, let's survive together. I'll be there for you!" A cliche line, even I didn't think I could say. I even felt like a few worms are squirming inside my body.
It was the first time I saw her eyes widen. She must've been startled. But after a few seconds, her eyes reverted back, and somehow I felt anger from them. Maybe even disgust. Her eyes focused directly on mine.
"I'm a killer. I know you don't fully trust me and I don't trust you."
Taken aback, I became speechless for over half a minute. As I remember our encounters in the library, I smiled.
"I trust you."
Her forehead wrinkled a bit, and her gaze turned into a glare.
"You don't! I'm a killer! I know you're also lying about being framed! You're just saying you trust me... being kind to me, to later take advantage of me or even use me!" She said, her voice a bit louder than normal. It's the first time I've seen her angry and speak that much.
It was maybe around a week and a half ago when I brought up how I ended up in Hell's Oasis to somehow make her share her situation as well. I was curious, and I still am. I thought she didn't listen since there was no response from her. But I guess her situation is also somehow related to killing someone.
"But I do trust you. To be honest, at first, I was only attracted by your beauty. But then I met you at the library. You rarely respond, but you somehow made me want to continue talking. As days passed you talked more and reacted more. It was peaceful, very fun as well. I've never had both of those in my entire life. Crazy how I've had the most peace and fun inside a prison. And it is with you."
I was embarrassed realizing I'd just had a speech. Including the fact that I have never said it to anyone. But, the few worms wriggling inside me earlier seem to have calmed. I guess they got used to it.
Amelka's face became calmer, and her wrinkled forehead started to flatten but I could see her eyes shake a bit.
"You don't mean it..."
"I do."
"I'm a killer!"
"I don't care."
It might seem that I'm just saying it out of spite. But I'm not. She could be a serial killer, terrorist, or mass murderer and I still don't think I would care. Maybe I am more twisted than I thought. But I trust the "her" that I know.
Still, with the same expression, Amelka spoke, But I expected what she would say.
"You're just saying that to use me late-"
"Just live! I don't want anything else from you."
Tears were forming in both her eyes, she tucked her face in her left arm and put it atop her legs.
She then stopped covering her face, "I'll curse you if you're lying." she said
"Wait, what?"
Her eyes still a bit red she looked at me with a faint smile. In return, I also smiled at her, "Let's both survive," I said.
After a while in the task, a participant decided to approach the task in a different manner. From where I was, he appeared to be a huge man with dark skin. His head is also shaved. Every time he planted a seedling he would run towards the house, timing himself every time so that he could plant another one before the timer turns to zero.
He was already near the house when he stopped and decided to plant horizontally instead of towards the house. The guy also moved slower and stuck his hand in the mud for a longer time.
As we were also close to the house, I realized why the black guy stopped and took precautions. The house is still almost a hundred meters away from the field and between the house and the muddy field is dry soil with short green grass. But what made the black guy stop is something else.
Seeing it up close I distinguished what the lady in blue is holding. It's a sniper rifle, she was pointing it at the black guy earlier and made him scared of leaving the muddy field.
Another man who's also at the edge of the muddy field couldn't control his temper. He has brown skin and fuzzy short hair.
The guy started shouting and cursing at the lady in blue while his hand is still inserted in the mud. He then removed his hand and throw a middle finger at the lady while shouting profanities.
The lady in blue pointed her rifle toward the guy with the fuzzy hair. I counted, and after seven seconds, everyone heard the loud sound of a bang.
Next, is the sound of a person wailing out of intense pain. Though we are in a bit of a distance I could see the guy hold his left leg as he cried out while gagging on the mud.
Most of the people weren't bothered and continued doing the task. While the guy who was shot is rolling on the mud and continued his cries. The lady in blue is still pointing her gun toward the guy she just shot.
"It must be the warning," Amelka said.
A bit startled I looked at her and replied, "I think you're right."
I counted it. It was after fifteen seconds when we heard another loud noise that came from the lady in blue's rifle.
This time, the guy who was rolling on the mud wailing is shot in his other leg.
Someone started laughing aloud after seeing the second shot, "His leg came off," he said.
We continued our task while having a crying man as our background music. His bawling kept on increasing in volume. It was after another twenty seconds when the third bang was heard and the background sound is turned off.
"In between the eyes!"
A participant close to him shouted with a big smile on his face. After a few seconds, the body of the deceased guy disappeared.
"Rice planted: 1324/3000"
I am so tired. Gasping for air, I continued to do the task. On the other hand, I could hear Amelka's heavy breathing.
As I thrust my hand into the mud, I felt a hard object buried inside. I decided to grab it and examine what it is.
Circular and flattened. I have guesses in my head as I felt it on my hand. After wiping off the mud, a shiny gold coin is revealed.