PoV Valis ( girl with one small horn)
After the gods left, pure silence reigned over the hall. The first ones to break the silence were a group of beings that had the most human-like appearance. They had red skin, short, dark hair, and golden eyes. They were dressed somewhat casually, one of them was wearing a white sweater paired with blue jeans, one was wearing a suit, one was dressed casually with a white shirt with long sleeves and sweatpants and the fourth one was wearing pajamas. THey had a rather bulky physique and wore jewelry around their neck and wrist that were emitting some sort of purple glow out of them.
They loudly began chatting, introducing themselves to one another, trying to come up with jokes to humor one another while keeping the same awkward atmosphere.
Meanwhile, our table was… Diego and Forren were completely silent, and the other girl was barely paying attention to them. I, on the other hand, was comfortably resting my head on my arms, checking out the other groups.
I always thought that most advanced races were at the very least similar to us; some were, but it seemed that most weren't. The creepiest ones seemed worm-like with many mouths across their bodies; they didn't exactly have limbs, so when they wanted to grab something, they would simply move part of their body fluids onto a specific region so that it could create a weird protuberance that they would then use to move or grab various objects. A lot of times their skin would rip apart and the contents of their protuberances would spill onto the floor; in those cases, they would simply roll over the spilled content and eat it.
"Valis!" The sudden shout of a female stopped my train of thought.
"Valis, you should please pay attention to us when we're talking to you. You're being disrespectful to our heroes." The other girl suddenly called out ot me, while I was too absorbed watching all the other teams slowly loosen up and began conversing with one another.
"Forren, go grab me something to eat. I'm starving." Said the tiny man while cracking his fingers.
His name is Diego, and he is probably one of the most controversial heroes in my country. His deeds have allowed our race to flourish on his home planet, but his past isn't exactly clean. Having killed more than fifty thousand people with his own hands and another three and a half million with the EXO gas he created, he is not seen in a good light from many sides, while most of us hybrids see him as a savior.
As soon as Forren got up, Diego shouted. "I don't want any vegetables! And focus on meat-based meals!" He was pointing at a table filled with all different kinds of deep fried food.
"Sir I don't think this is..." The girl tried to say something, but he quickly pressed his index finger on her lips.
"Now we can start presenting ourselves; you already know my name, so if you have any questions, I'll try to answer them as truthfully as I can." He said with a confident smile on his face. It was a forced smile that didn't bring any comfort, his cold eyes were staring us up and down assessing our fighting capabilities while something sinister was probably going off in his head.
Forren seemed hesitant to go; his hands were trembling, and his walking speed was extremely low. After a long pause, I finally managed to muster enough courage to speak.
"Are you really human?"
The reason I asked this is simple: there are a lot of inconsistencies in the historical records. In some of them, he was shown to be weaker than most other humans, with only his intellect as his weapon, but in others, he was some kind of superhuman monster capable of tearing through reinforced steel plates with his bare hands.
"Sorta, I'm not really into science or biology, so I don't really know the details, but I can say for sure that I'm in no way comparable to the average or above-average human." He answered with closed eye with a smirk that clearly told us he enjoyed this line of questioning.
"You said you're not a scientist, then how did you create the gas EXO and all of its variants?"
I asked, and this time I was speaking faster.
"It's a... I didn't invent that gas; it was harvested from my body." He answered with an equally fast answer.
"Have you ever killed someone for no particular reason?" As I got more and more confident, the pace got faster.
"No, I only killed people who I hated or found extremely annoying to deal with." he replied.
'That's just what I meant.'
"Why did you quit the extermination force?"
"They asked me to kill my significant other; they said she was dangerous and that many people died as a result of her protests. I then killed every other member of my squad except for Forren. He's my brother, of course he would be spared."
'A lover? I thought that was just a groundless rumor.'
"How many lovers have you had in your entire life?" I kept asking the question without realizing that the people around had once again fallen silent.
"Only one. I think relationships and intimate acts are meant to be done with as few people as possible; that's why I never chased other relationships after my first one." He claimed while stretching his neck making it crack more than a couple of times.
'Oh, so he's that kind of guy.'
"What was on your mind when you killed over 80 politicians during the Manitt attack?"
This was clearly an unexpected question for him, and after thinking for a while, he started swinging in his chair.
"Honestly, I try not to involve myself with politicians and politics. I prefer looking at others' actions before judging them; if I see a man doing good, I will praise him, and if not, I'll kill him."
"Then what's your definition of "doing good"?"
"It's simply managing the resources responsibly and ensuring that no human rights are being violated. Everything else is a bonus, anything less is just another corpse on the huge pile I already have stacked on my back."
"In your opinion, what are human rights?"
"That's a bit... mhhhh... there are many that are important, but having freedom and the ability to express our own thoughts are essential, then the right to an education, and... I guess... there are surely a lot more that I simply don't remember at the moment."
"Is there any right with which you disagree?"
"If I had to pick one, it would be that criminals must be treated as humans, not as beasts; torture is another issue with which I disagree. Everyone does it, so why bother pretending to be some kind of saint when you know you aren't?"
"Aren't you projecting a bit now?"
"I was there, and when I say it was common, I mean it. I was the one who needed to find ways to make them speak or turn them against each other. Whoever says the opposite is either delusional or is trying to convince you to believe a world of lies."
"Now, that's a little-"
" Next question!" This surprised me a little as for the first time he openly showed frustration in his face, he was frowning while clicking his tongue, meanwhile his eyes would bounce from one direction to the next without ever stopping to look at me in the eyes.
"You said you had only one lover; who was she, and when did you fall in love with her."
Forren came back at that time; he had brought food for everyone. Forren's dish was mostly fish, crabs, and lobsters; mine was mostly pasta and tomato sauce; he also brought a second plate that had some chicken breasts in a thick yellow sauce; Diego's plate was full of fried food; half of the dish was supplì (fried rice balls with tomato sauce and cheese inside); at last, the other girl had rice accompanied by lentils, carrots, and little chunks of meat.
"It's a long story, but I'll try to summarize as much as I can. So, first off, her name is... was Sofia Seji; she worked for a local news network. I first met her at her workplace, I don't remember much of why I was there, but that was not the important part."
He then started eating a bit and speaking in between bites.
"So... I found her... well she was crying for help... so I killed the guy and a female coworker of hers... cleaned every trace of her, and hid her in a small motel nearby... we didn't speak for months... then one day she finally opened up... started venting every single day about how horrible and unfair the world was... how she wanted to change things and make things better for everyone, and all that. Stuff you see kids cry all day basically."
'What kind of description is that? You didn't even mention how she looked like. And how did you fall for her? Is it because she was crying about unfairness?'
"Everything changed when she started working again; the new group of friends she made was toxic, and I failed to notice that." His eyes somehow changed color, from dark blue to a crimson red; his pupils also changed for a split second.
"She changed, and the nonsense she was spreading was something the higher-ups could not ignore anymore. It was during that time that I received the order to kill her."
"So you saved her once again, and..."
"No, I killed her; that night I killed all my comrades, her and her little group of toxic friends. Since I wasn't discreet about it, the media blamed the Noble faction and they blamed the corpo guys. It was a huge mess especially because… Well it's pointless to explain it now but you probably get the gist of it. After a few days and many deaths, no one talked about those incidents, so it's likely it didn't make it into the history records." He said it with total confidence.
"Then what about your last decade working as a scavenger?"
"That... I worked for her because I thought she was worthy of my protection; she never disappointed me in the many years we worked together, and she never asked me to kill anyone, so every time I pulled the trigger, it was because I deemed it necessary to our cause." He immediately became extremely defensive, he answered so fast I could barely distinguish words and he probably ate some of them yet somehow I still managed to understand what he was saying.
'Her?'
"That is enough; I'm sure our homeland found your story interesting. Now, do you have any questions we can answer?" Judging by his expression I knew that he likely wouldn't have answered any more of my questions so I tried switching our positions a bit to get a feel of his character.
"Did... no... I have no questions." After that, he started mumbling something to himself and then finished his whole plate.
"What a bummer... you've been awfully quiet this whole time, are you going to finally present yourself?" The little man inquired of the other girl at the table.
The girl shyly opened her mouth, but nothing came out of it for a solid minute.
"My name is Folarin, and I was the one that chose you as our representatives. I worked at a gaming café, so I don't have much combat experience, excluding my military draft." She shyly replied while hiding her face.
'Wait, what? Why did she just– how can you say that you don't have combat experience when you served for… When was the draft— just how long ago was my death?'
"As for why I chose you, the God of Combat saved me from a difficult situation on the condition that I chose Diego for this group, Forren was always portrayed as his right hand, so that was an easy choice; Valis was so powerful that she managed to kill her partner due to her immense magical pressure, and I just wanted to escape from my horrible circumstances."
'It isn't exactly clear since she is sitting, but I believe she is probably around 5'7 (around 173 cm). She has long hair, long horns, probably a D cup if that isn't the work of a push-up, and modest hips. Overall, a killer body.'
I couldn't stop looking at her. Her beauty was so captivating that even I felt a bit attracted to her. It was a strong thing I never felt in my life, even Forren couldn't seem to take his eyes off of her, but not Diego, because after the first glances he took when we first met, he didn't seem interested in her.
"I think we talked enough; now it's time to train ourselves." Diego concluded after snatching something from Forren's plate.
"Wait! Do you really want to do it right after eating?" I responded.
"Yeah, why not?" He said it with a straight face.
'But I barely ate anything.'
"My grandma used to tell me it's unhealthy to train right after eating." I tried to justify.
"I never had any problems with it. Enough with the excuses; let's go." But he was simply too stubborn to care.
"Please, I'm not asking for much. Half an hour of rest, how about that?"
"Ok, but in the meantime, we'll go to my apartment; I might get sick if I see any of these disgusting creatures any more." He said this while pointing at the wormlike creature that was standing next to us.
'He's not mistaken; when it comes to our table, we've definitely gotten the short end of the stick; every race near us is so damn ugly! Why couldn't we be near those red boys? Maybe we should team up with them.'
I never had the chance to look for the entrance of the dormitory, but it wasn't that big or fancy; it had 3 elevators of different sizes right in front of the main door, and the stairs were behind a huge corridor blocked by a one-way emergency exit.
Once I arrived on the 25th, I noticed that the floor was made almost entirely of hallways and doors, and every door was magically connected to each room.
'No reaction from the rest?! Am I the only one that had a normal apartment?'
Once inside his apartment, the first thing I noticed was the wooden floor and white walls. On the left, there was a wooden round extendable table with six chairs; there were no distinguishing features on them, and a small balcony connected to the room next to the sitting room.
On the right side there were a couple of black couches with a small glass table, and in front of them attached to the wall was a huge TV. On the right corner of the house, there was a door that led to the kitchen.
"I'll set up an alarm that'll go off in half an hour in the guest room on the left side of the corridor that's after the kitchen. It has a king-size bed and a TV, so you can relax however you want."
He said that while leaving.
"Where's the remote?" I shouted.
"No idea! You can search for it yourself, or you can try using manual inputs." He answered; his voice was a little pissed, so I stopped shouting.
When I approached the screen, I noticed just the power button hidden behind the bottom right corner of the screen. It had a touchscreen feature, thankfully, and when the menu popped, I immediately saw that the top five most popular series weren't even filmed on our planet.
"Is there anything specific you want to watch?" I asked while turning, and then I realized only Folarin was left in the room.
"Mhh, I don't have a specific title right now. How about a drama?" She proposed while laying down on the couch next to me.
"In 30 minutes?" I asked her while setting up a filter to Diego's account.
"Well… we don't have to finish it now; we can continue it later." All of her indecisiveness seemed gone once those two were out of the room.
"You have a point; What do you have in mind? Do you have a name already or… Hey look, there's a filter for local shows and movies? What do you think? Local or not?." I said as
"I think something that is not local would be better; as far as I remember, things got a little stale and repetitive lately, I heard lots of bad rumors but never had the time to check myself if the rumors were true or not." She answered.
Once I clicked on the drama tag, I started setting up the filter. Once everything was done, I had a pretty neat list of titles, all with interesting posters.
"Is there anything that caught your interest?" She asked me as I got closer to checking the list.
"Probably just a couple…maybe…"
While scrolling down, I noticed one of the posters had one of the "red boys," the smallest one, more specifically; he was not as bulky as the others but he compensated with a stunning face.
In the picture, he was hugging what appeared to be the female lead from behind, with his lips on her neck, holding her tightly with his right arm, and fondling her breasts with the left one. His eyes were a deep purple, and he had a malicious smile on his face.
The female lead was holding his right arm, avoiding eye contact. She wasn't particularly attractive; she was just average with a few freckles. She was dressed in a white gown with gold embellishments forming a dragon, with the tail at the bottom of the gown and the head near her neck.
As for the background, they seemed to be floating in a dark space with lots of clocks, hourglasses, and other time-related objects.
"Hey, isn't that actor familiar? I think I saw him downstairs." Folarin said.
"It doesn't ring any bells to me." This one doesn't look anything like the ones I saw downstair, they were definitely a lot bulkier than this, had more pronounced jawline, the eyes were different and had vastly different hairstyles.
"Oh come on, he was part of the group that broke the silence after the gods left." Folarin insisted.
"I wasn't paying attention, sorry."
"No biggie."
PoV Diego
I woke up due to the temperature getting too low to sleep without any sheets on. After a quick glance, I saw the sun setting, and I immediately bolted out of bed.
'Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit! The training!'
That was all I could think of.
When I entered the sitting room, I saw Valis and Folarin sobbing as they witnessed a red man with tattoos impaled in the ground having his limbs severed from his body. As soon as I slammed the door behind me, Folarin shushed me.
"You are one crazy bastard. She has most likely forgotten about you and is beginning a new life with a new man. Tell me then, why do you keep sacrificing yourself for a vile person like her?" Said the man who was tormenting the impaled one.
"There's no need for you to understand my decision; you just have to keep your promises."
Forren was nowhere to be seen.
'How unusual of him to skip training in order to sleep. He got way too soft while I wasn't around.'
As expected, Forren was sleeping soundly under his down-filled comforter; he was sleeping with his head facing the bed and his body turned to the right, hugging a pillow.
'A snake?'
I then returned to the kitchen to grab some pans. I then proceeded to repeatedly smash them against each other, close to Forren's ear. I thought he would freak out or jump out of his bed, but he lazily tried to cover his head with the pillow he was hugging.
I continued smashing the pans until he tried to grab them with his right hand. I simply backed down a little and continued the chaos. He rolled over and fell off the bed in my direction.
"I'm up! I'm awake; you can stop now." His pleading was actually quite satisfying to hear. When we returned to the sitting room, the girls were still watching that show with the red-looking people covered in tattoos.
"When will the episode end?"
"Probably… I guess something like 40 minutes." The cafe girl responded. (lie.)
"There's no way we're going to wait another 40 minutes to train! Let's go!."
"Please, mister Diego, the show is starting to get good now." This time, the one talking was the petite journalist girl.
"No means no. Come on, it won't take that long."
They didn't seem convinced, so I simply grabbed them both by their waists, put them on my back, and dragged them out of my apartment. It was more tiring than I thought since they were heavier than expected and I had less strength than I thought.
Once I reached the ground floor, I dropped them on the ground and headed towards the main gate that led to the outside.
"We'll start our daily routine with running around the resort. Six laps around the entire resort should be sufficient for beginners, in my opinion. After that, we'll do multiple sets of push-ups, pull-ups, and sit-ups, and maybe one hour of combat training every other day."
"Do you really think we'll be able to stick to that crazy routine?" The little girl was the only one who objected to my plan, probably because, in the entire group, she was the one who lived a rather peaceful life.
"It's not our choice; if you don't want to die, this is something you must do." I replied.
"Now run if you don't want to get beaten like dogs." I added.
'A good threat always works when they fear you.'
The result was way bigger than I anticipated, which resulted in quite a bit of trouble for a petite girl that had to stop on her fifth lap. I didn't expect the cafe girl to be this athletic; she managed to keep up the pace, and Forren was okay. I, on the other hand, was completely exhausted; my legs were in constant pain, and thankfully, the remaining exercises did not require extensive use of those.
'If I die now, during the reset, will my body return to its peak or not?'
"Forren, you're up first; for the pull-ups, you can use a nearby tree inside the garden."
The criteria are simple: the person has to do at least seven sets of each exercise in one minute. The amount of exercise in each set was determined by the standard we could find online.
Forren's results were nine sets of 45 sit-ups, 40 push-ups, and only 25 pull-ups.
He clearly suffered severely from the reset, but to this extent, he scored the same as a D specimen in the lab.
"Boss, now it's your turn." He said this while taking the tablet off my hands.
I tried to imitate the amount and intensity of Forren's sets, only to end up with six sets of 45 push-ups, 35 pull-ups, and 40 sit-ups. Forren stopped me because, at the start of the seventh set, my bones started cracking.
'If I remember correctly, their names should be Valis and Folarin, and the petite girl should be... ah, who cares? I'll figure it out eventually.'
"Valis, while Folarin starts her sets, why don't you finish your last remaining laps around the resort? Forren, can you please check them while I watch something on the tablet?"
"Yes, of course, boss."
Once I opened the shop, I immediately noticed my balance in the top right corner: 1500 points. The menu had a pleasant, clear layout with a blue interface and white words. On the home page, it showed the five most popular items, and underneath were four big categories.
The top sellers were ropes, compasses, parachutes, instant food, and tents. The four big categories were weapons, tools, food, and others.
I suppose this is self-explanatory. I should go look for some information regarding this place.
I tried checking most of the apps, and in the notes, I found an editable version of the info regarding the "starting area."
Apparently, we're situated on a floating island supplied by various magic crystals. The air is breathable thanks to those crystals. Somewhere on the island, there is a special cannon that can shoot the participants to the ground without harming them. The alternative is simply jumping from a 5-kilometer-high floating island and hoping for the best. If you do not pay the resort within three days, you will be thrown out with a penalty that is two kilometers greater than the penalty for those who used the cannon.
'That's brutal. Can parachutes cover your ass from a fall over 5 kilometers high?'
I searched, and apparently they can.
While I was waiting for Valis to finish her sets of exercises, I started looking for chat groups or some sort of communication app. I found one, but it was awful to use. In order to chat with someone, you need to have him on your friend list, and to add people to your friend list, you'll have to scan some weird squares on their profile.
After explaining the situation to the rest of the crew, I decided to stay silent and hear their suggestions.
Folarin suggested that we first descend by parachute and build a stable shelter before attempting to approach the various stages.
Valis instead opted to try and search the cannon; once on the ground, hunting and farming to get a steady supply of food, we can tackle the stages once we've got some sort of stable base and enough leftovers to last a few days' worth of rest.
Forren's idea was to try as many stages as possible on this island in order to secure a steady income as fast as possible so that we don't have to risk poisoning ourselves by eating wild, hunted animals.
We tried to vote, but we ended up in a tie. I voted for Forren's idea, while Valis voted for Folarin's. Since the conversation wasn't constructive in any way, shape, or form, we decided it was time to head back to my dorm.
'Why mine specifically? Why can't they simply go back to their own room?'
The main gate was crowded, with most of the people grouped around a small group of six beings, two of which were beasts with humanoid features, while the rest didn't even look human at all.
They were insect-like and resembled a weird mix of various insects; they all had a head that resembled the head of a praying mantis, a spiky torso, a long and slim abdomen, and finally some very long limbs. Among the four insectoids, two had four pairs of wings that resembled the wings of a dragonfly and had very sharp claws, while the other half had butterfly wings. Their exoskeleton seemed much lighter, and they had something that resembled fur covering their shoulders and back. Unfortunately, the butterfly-like beings were both injured.
"How did you do it?" "How was the first stage?" "Did anyone die on your team?" was one of the most frequently asked questions.
I stopped the most human-looking figure that was following the injured team.
"Oi, what's going on here?" I asked a random human-like alien.
"That group is returning from the very first stage with almost no casualties."
The two beasts were uninjured and were carrying their injured teammates, who had their exoskeletons shattered; they were all ignoring the crowd and heading towards one of the buildings that were not in the residential area.
We ignored the group and went straight to the main hall, where the buffet was being held.
"You can all rest here; don't worry, I'll prepare your dishes tonight." Said Folarin. Her legs were still trembling because of the harsh training; she seemed to be struggling to get herself up and was walking like a drunk.
"See, I told you you'd be fine; vomit and all, you're in great shape now." As soon as I finished my sentence, Valis kicked me under the table.
"Wow, I would never have imagined this happening back in Guriath."
"Back in My Days"
I stopped Valis by pinching her cheeks.
"Anyway, tomorrow, Forry and I will go to test the first stage; if they can do it, we should have no problem."
"Boss… I don't think we should proceed so carelessly."
"Why not? We more than likely are superior to them physically, and if not, we still have our own gimmicks that'll come in handy for sure."
"Wait, I wasn't listening; what were you talking about?" asked the little girl.
"We were thinking of testing the first stage to see how difficult it really is, simply because our abilities give us something that resembles immortality. Wanna join us, Valis, Valis?"
"Yes, I'm Valis now." She suddenly stopped to look somewhere behind me.
I decided to turn around out of curiosity and saw a cafe girl being cornered by a group of larger females.
The group was composed only of females; their hair color was the same as that of Valis and Folarin, but their horns were blue for the most part; their skin was covered in scales; and they had massive tails.
"It's impressive how they managed to survive in those harsh conditions." Valis commented while pointing at them.
One of the females tried to stop Folarin, and both her hands got covered in crystals as soon as they made direct contact with Folarin's shoulders.
"Oh cool, so... Are we going to help them or ignore them? Why?" I asked.
Valis ignored my words and kept staring at them; Folarin ignored the group, returned to the table, and started serving us our dinner.
After a while, the group of females simply left the hall.
"Tonight before going to bed, buy a weapon that's reasonably cheap and useful; if you have trouble choosing, you can always ask Forry. I suggest not spending more than half of your budget."
I said that while I was buying a greatsword that costs 500 coins, the sword suddenly materialized in front of me. It was lighter than I expected, and after a few swings, I felt satisfied and returned to my seat.
"Are you sure the four of us will be enough?" Folarin's whole body was still trembling, and she seemed to be more exhausted than before.
"Of course, you just have to focus on yourself; Forren hardly needs any help, and so do I. I would recommend taking some gas masks just in case something bad happens during the mission."
I then almost choked while eating. The food that Folarin brought was weird and also pulsating; therefore, I closed my eyes, used my hands, chewed as little as possible, and swallowed as soon as I could in order not to feel the disgusting taste.
"Ahem, participating is not something you have to do since your presence is not necessary to us; it would be best if you trained your bodies and combat capabilities instead, so that at the very least you won't hinder us once your presence is needed." I said this to them before leaving.