"Attention to all players!" the announcer's voice reverberated all across the city, causing me to drop the food can in my hand in favor of giving the announcer my full attention.
"The break time is now officially over, and the second stage of the greed games will shortly begin!" the announcer stated in his usual excited tone.
"You have five minutes to make whatever preparation you deem necessary before we transport you to the second stage!" the announcer added. And I began checking my inventory to see if I had everything I would need.
"Let's see, Bloodsport, check. Snowwhite, check. Food and water, check. Extra badgers, check," I murmured with a nod as I glanced through everything I had, finally nodding in satisfaction when I noticed nothing missing.
The past week has been relatively peaceful, despite the many contestants arriving in my safe area.
As my reputation of being the man who killed the undead king, along with the presence of Little Billy, Arden, and Vilhelm, was more than enough to make any would-be troublemakers think twice before acting.
I had also tried to look for number 99, but he was again nowhere to be found, unfortunately, but I digress.
"Rady or not, here we go!" the announcer stated in an eager tone, and I sighed as I felt the familiar tugging sensation dragging me somewhere as my vision went dark.
My vision turned back to normal roughly six seconds later, and I found myself standing in the middle of a forest with four people that I did now know standing near me.
I Quickly materialized Bloodsport in my hand as I took a step backward, sharply eyeing the contestants around as they did the same, brandishing their own weapons.
"So, do we just start killing each other, or do we wait for the announcer to explain first?" Asked a female contestant wearing a white badge that had the number 96 written on it in back.
"I say we wait for an explanation," I say while shaking my head as I noticed she was wearing another, smaller, black badge with the number 19 written on it in white and that we all had that extra badge as well.
"Look at this," I remarked while pointing at my smaller badge, which also had the number 19 on it, causing the rest of the contestants around me to check their badges, which all had the same number.
"I think this means we'll have to work with each other to get through this stage," I explained with a shrug, and despite contestants' thoughtful expression after hearing my words, they still seemed unconvinced.
"It won't be too late for us to slit each other's throats after hearing whatever explanation the announcer has about this stage," I added, and the contestants finally seemed convinced as they relaxed a little, but they still maintained their vigilance.
The contestants and I kept staring at each other awkwardly while waiting for the announcer to explain the rules of this stage. But number 96 didn't seem to be unbothered by the awkward atmosphere, merely checking the surroundings with a smile on her face.
"Welcome to the second stage of the greed games!" the announcer said after roughly five minutes of us awkwardly staring at each other. "The rules of this stage are quite straightforward!" he explained in his usual tone.
"In this stage of the game, we have separated you, the contestants, into many groups, so you have to work together to survive this stage...," the announcer stated, trailing off at the end of his sentence.
"Just kidding, you don't have to do that, but you'll only be making things difficult for yourselves if you work alone!" the announcer continued with a small laugh.
"Anyway, we dropped each team near a civilized area, a village, a city, or a town, so your first task is to locate said civilized area!" the announcer added.
"You have 24 hours to do so. Good luck!" the announcer concluded, immediately going quiet, and I moved immediately, throwing three materialized aura knives at three of my teammates, killing them then and there.
Number 96, the only female and the only other teammate I didn't attack, looked me at with a raised eyebrow, smiling in amusement. "You heard the man working together is optional, and those three would have only got in the way," I remarked with a shrug of my shoulder, returning a smile.
"Oh? And you think I won't get in the way?" number 96 asked while tilting her head to the side, still smiling in amusement. "Will you?" I asked in a sharp tone, dropping the smile.
"Hahaha! I think we'll get along just fine, number 69!" number 96 replied with a loud laugh as she began nodding her head in satisfaction.
My question, of course, had an entirely different meaning, as I knew for a fact that with this girl's strength, she would not hold me back unless she did it intentionally, and I was basically asking her if she would cause trouble for me or not.
I had already read the status screens of my so-called teammate as we were waiting for the announcer to explain the second stage to us. And I had already deemed them dead weight except for 96 before the explanation even began.
So the announcer's statement of teamwork being optional pretty much sealed the poor bastard's fates, as I had no intention of carrying dead weight while fighting for my life, but I digress.
"We have to get going. We only have 24 hours, and we don't know how far we are from these so-called civilized areas," I stated with a frown as I began looking around me. "But first..," I added, trailing at the end of my sentence.
"We can't let these go to waste," I concluded with a shrug as I squatted near the dead contestants to retrieve their badges, frowning as the badges turned to gold coins as soon as I removed them for the contestant's clothes.
"Maybe we'll need these in the civilized areas," number 96 said with a smile as she retrieved several badges from her pockets that immediately turned to gold coins as well.
I materialized three badges out of my inventory, and my frown became more pronounced as they, too, turned to gold coins. "I'm sure we'll find out once we're there," I replied with a nod as I got up, heading towards the tallest tree in sight.
I immediately climbed the tree by imbuing my aura with adhesive properties, quickly reaching the top and looking around the area, searching for any signs of intelligent life.
The only sign I found was something that looked like a pillar of smoke on the horizon, causing me to sigh as I jumped down to the ground, only to be met by number 96, who was wearing a curious expression on her face.
"There's smoke this way, but it's too far away, so we need to move immediately," I remarked while pointing towards the south as I walked past number 96 with a jog.
"Right behind you," number 96 replied as she began jogging behind, not even bothering to doubt my words as I obviously had no reason to lie, and we were going in the same direction anyway, making us both passengers on the same figurative boat.
It didn't take us long, merely thirty minutes of jogging, to encounter the local wildlife, and the first of such encounters was a small green humanoid creature carrying a sharp stick.
"EIK!" The creature lunged at number 96 from the top of a tree with a shriek, and I didn't have to do anything as number 96's entire arm turned into a blade which she used to bisect the little creature in half.
"Is it just me, or is this thing actually a goblin?" I remarked with a frown as I squatted near the dead creature's corpse, inspecting it more closely.
"It is," number 96 replied with the same smirk she seemed to have plastered on her face all the time. "These little buggers first appeared on earth during the unveiling, but they are rather weak and easy to handle, as you can see, so humans hunted them down to the point of extinction," she added with a shrug.
"Well, this little motherfucker doesn't look that extinct to me," I remarked with twitching eyes as I raised my head to look at number 96. "After we've seen during the first stage of the game, do you really need to be surprised by this much?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Fair enough," I said with a shrug as I stood up. "But we've wasted enough time. Let's get going," I concluded as I resumed jogging in the smoke's direction.
"So, an undead survival scenario for the first stage and a possible RPG scenario for the second?" number 96 murmured to no one in particular.
"This so-called game master is trying too hard to make this look like one of those video games from the old world," she added with an amused tone as she jogged behind me.
"I wouldn't put it past the guy to do it," I remarked while shaking my head. "Did you know that the undead city had an invisible wall surrounding it, just like video games?" I asked, causing her to chuckle while shaking her head as well.