"I just want monster cores and other materials to sell to replenish my coins!"
Angelica pouted her lips in dissatisfaction. I felt her bitterness as she had to beg for her own fortune.
"If you consumed the coins and there are no more then I'll give you some," I shrugged, "but when you call for this, I'll order you to give me all your coins. And if I found that you still have even a penny left, then don't blame me."
Her face changed and I knew my guess was right. This girl here was trying to loosen her losses by any way possible. I didn't know if she was the stingy one here or I.
"Let's start," I urged her, "I don't have all night."
"Humph," she was still unsettled but she had to follow my orders after all. The consequences for not listening to me were rather unimaginable.
Just as she passed Sara after confirming her to be an ally, bad news started to kick in.
"How could this be?!!" Angelica turned to me while a youth of my group had a red color result. The look on my face told him there was something wrong, especially when I narrowed my eyes and released my killing intent.
"Wait… boss, something must be wrong… Ahhh!"
Just before he could continue his words, I slashed his throat and released his life away.
"A traitor well hidden in my team? How lovely!" I stood on the side of the powerless corpse while the faces of everyone, including my team, showed their shock.
I never imagined for the angels to infiltrate my core team like this. The team lived with me through the desperate times of the first part of the first quest. How come they would plan so much ahead, even managing to fool me?
Scary! I was fighting a really scary opponent who was planning far ahead than usual.
"Hye, what just happened?" At this moment Sara finally got the courage to speak, "and what's wrong with that compass?"
I asked everyone to bring forth a drop of blood for the test, but I didn't elaborate over the details. It was time for me to explain, and at the same time I didn't lower my guard.
"This is a special gear to detect traitors," I slowly said before pointing my sword at the one I just killed, "and it happens for him to be one."
"This…" the look over Sara's face explained everything. Despite telling her to stand guard, Isabella came all the way to me with an angry look over her face.
"Hye! This can't be right! They are our people, our team. They helped us till now. If they are traitors, then why didn't they help Arnold back then?"
Her words gained the recognition of many around. Some hummed and others nodded. A faint wave of whispers erupted but none had the courage to confront me like this except for these two girls.
"Yeah, Isabella is right. You can't expect me to believe some useless scrap of metal over what we experienced together."
I looked at both without saying anything. I leant over the dead body of this traitor and put my hand over him.
If he was an enemy, and I was sure he was, then a message would pop up in front of me.
[You killed one of the enemies, Amir the traitor. You can claim half of what he had in his inventory]
The long list of messages appeared next which proved I was right. "He is a traitor for sure," I calmly stood up before pointing my sword to Isabella and added, "give a drop of your blood now."
"You…" the look over her face was priceless. She never expected me to doubt her. Hell yeah, even if I listened to her legends back from the old man, I had to make sure she wasn't a hidden enemy.
In this world, enemies could mask themselves to be in the veil of the closest friends to oneself.
Luckily I got the compass to uncover that. In fact this was the nature of the system; balance. If there was something disadvantageous to us out here, then there must be another thing that would counter it to achieve balance.
"Here," under my fixed gaze Isabella complied. Yet she was angry and wasn't accepting this.
"Green," on the side, Angelica watched all this unfolding with slight amusement in her eyes. She seemed to be rejoicing in my unfortunate, cold hearted girl!
However no matter how I looked at it, I was the one gaining the most profit here. If these traitors were allowed to flourish under my wing, then the time they would plunge their thorns in my back would be the last day of my life.
"Next," I instantly turned and looked at the next one to take the test. "Give me a drop of your blood or…"
"F*ck you! The angels will prevail!"
Just before I continued my words, that youth seemed to see death knocking at his doorsteps. He took out his sword and shield and tried to attack me.
But I was already on guard. The moment he screamed and exposed his true color I waved my sword and slashed his hand holding the sword. I didn't hurry to kill him as I simply slashed with the second sword at his knees.
He fell on the ground while his hand let go of the sword he had there. "Convinced now?" I calmly said without even turning around to two girls who were just questioning me a moment ago.
"My compass can't be wrong," Angelica said in a bitter tone but I felt some understanding there. She started to see the gravity of the situation. Two out of four of my core team were detected as traitors. How much more would we discover then?
This time she didn't need to spend any coins for this traitor to be exposed. So she had the spirit to show off like this.
"This…" Sara's tone became shaky while I killed that traitor and got away half of what he had inside his inventory.
Just there I noticed the numbers beside my precious potions increase slightly. These bastards! They even got potions to help them survive longer by my side.
How deep will this scheme go then? How more traitors would I find?
"Go back and watch that bastard over there," I said to Isabella before motioning my head to Angelica to follow me to the next one.
"A traitor!"
"A traitor!"
"Another traitor!"
I couldn't believe this! My team was originally eighteen but after the last fight they lost five. And now out of the thirteen, only six remained.
How come they had such a large number inside my own team? I couldn't help but feel very enraged by this result.
As for the six who remained and were trusted were the two girls, Gerry who helped to heal my wounds before, and the two I sat my eyes upon from the start; John and Allen.
In addition to them, the girl who joined my team during the turmoil of the subquest was also there. I was surprised to see the one I suspected to be a traitor to not be one, and those I trusted went to become traitors.
"I should have my own compass from now on," I decided. After all appearances were deceiving and now even actions were also untrustable.
What else should I do but to endure spending my coins over the team I would spend my entire time with?
"Now let's scan you guys," I turned with some bitterness in my heart towards the group of people standing before me. I had to go again in the process of eliminating the traitors.
"That's ridiculous!"
"How can you act this abusive to us? What did we ever do to you?"
"Let's go guys, he can't stop us all from leaving."
Just as I was about to start scanning the long line with Angelica, few started to cause problems. This was expected. After all they all watched what I did with my own team as I showed no mercy even to those who fought side by side with me.
What mercy should I show here exactly? Even if they helped, they did that with ill intentions and I would never allow them to keep their lives no matter what.
*Slash!* *Slash!* *Slash!*
Without the need to say anything, I moved fast and killed anyone daring to get out of the line. After killing almost twenty people without much resistance, I shifted my cold gaze to the rest as I said in domineering attitude:
"I don't care if you are all traitors, I will kill anyone who is proven to be so. Leaving this line means you are one, even if you aren't. Stay put and if you are clean, don't be afraid of anything."
My words didn't help but stir another group to leave. This time they didn't waste their breaths on any words and simply turned around to run.
"Thinking you can outrun me?" I snorted before hurriedly chasing after them.
I wasn't alone this time. Allen, Angelica, Isabella, and even that girl who was called Sherry moved as well. Sara stood behind and used her fire tornado skill to kill a few of them even before I could reach there.
"Ahhh!"
"You are a monster!"
"Don't follow him, he is a brutal tyrant!"
"F*ck you!"
All sorts of shouts and curses were launched at me. While I killed the group of twenty people, I noticed that another group moved away towards the opposite direction.
And this group was much larger in size, approximately reaching up to forty people.
"Damn! How many traitors do they have here?" Isabella cursed while Sara was the first to react with her deadly skill.
"Keep killing them here guys," I said before adding, "Angelica, follow me."
I knew she was the highest one in stats here after me. So her speed would cover up the long distance to those rapidly escaping traitors.
"I'll come as well," Allen moved at high speed, reminding me of his highest stat. He had a high speed stat from the start, but I decided to let him use a sword and act as a swordsman for this stage of the apocalypse.
"Good, you can come," I looked at him for one moment before turning my gaze towards the group up ahead. "Sara, try to obstruct their route of escape," I shouted before thinking about something, "John, make sure to defend her well."
It was well known that magicians were fierce as long as they were safe. She was left behind without any support from any of us now. If I was one of the traitors, I would leave behind at least one man to take care of her.