The days passed inexorably, Hel and I continued to fight together in 2v2 clashes, arriving at a streak of 6 consecutive victories, so much so that they nicknamed us "The Invincible duo".
Hel had now reached 187 fame Points, while I had reached 180 fame Points.
The day of the Ring Intelligence Plan was upon us.
[October 19, 2037]
Liza, along with Libert, came to see me that morning, without warning. I was supposed to train with Hel, however, they insisted, so I warned Hel of my absence and I followed them.
"Zeto, have you ever thought about why they leave us all this freedom here, in the Arena?" Said Libert, his voice, as far as possible, was even deeper than usual.
I only noticed after a while that he was actually talking to me telepathically.
"Now that you make me think about it ..."
I had already thought about it, but I wanted to hear where he was getting at.
"Don't talk, and limit the expressions you make ..."
I did as he told me.
"The control network of the Slters is incredible, first of all, every room, corridor, even bathroom in the arena is plagued by video cameras, most of which are controlled by artificial intelligence ... but, the thing that really makes them hold us in their hands are the three microchips that each of us has, one near the heart, one under the right arm, and the other in the left leg."
'EH ?!'
I couldn't keep a poker face.
"Um ..."
It was news that shocked me, but thinking about it now it all seemed to make more sense.
"Well, we've arrived"
"Got it… but where?"
"Now you will see"
We were in front of a black door with no sign. Libert led the way, opening the door, I followed him and finally, Liza entered it too.
The door led us into a large room, with a cylindrical glass case in the center and with beige liquid inside.
Then there were other types of machinery, with other people working on it.
"Oh, Libert, Liza…. and you should be ... Zeto? "
I nodded.
"Welcome ..."
"W-who are these, what is this place?"
"This is called by us the "Den", and it is the logistics and research center of us Rings ..."
"But ... the Arena lets you do all this?"
"Of course not, fool ..." Liza said.
"This place is secret to the Arena, or rather, on their maps, it is marked as a laboratory of the Arena, even the cameras outside this place are corrupt..." Added Libert.
"But how is such a thing possible ..."
"You know ..."
"Do you really want to tell him?" Liza stopped him.
'Tell me what?'
"By now he's one of us too, I think it's right to tell him ..."
Liza looked at me, my face was both confused and intrigued.
"Oh well, you choose"
"You see… we have a powerful "friend", who has a position at the top of the Arena..."
'Now ... all this makes sense ... but ...'
"And why would he be helping us? The Slters seem to be proud of their race and proud of their empire ... "
" Do you really think so? Has your manager ever treated you as inferior?" Lise asked me.
"In fact ... maybe only at the beginning ..."
"You know ... absolute evil, like absolute good, do not exist in this universe ... There are many Slters who do not like the oppressive politics of the Empire and would like to change it, our "friend" Is such a person..."
"Ah ..."
I was speechless.
'Perhaps with an acquaintance of this type we could have some chance of getting out of here, but ... there is something that does not seem right to me ...'
"But if, I mean, if this individual is really that important ... couldn't he provide us with all the information we are looking for? ... I understand he can't get us out of here, but ..."
" HEh, we can't hide anything from you, can we? " Libert said.
He was silent for a while, sighed, and then answered me.
"As mentioned, there is no absolute good ... this acquaintance of ours has provided us with all this" He made a large gesture to indicate the room we were in "however, the condition with which he has helped us in the past was that from then on we would make do on our own, at least until we got out of the arena ... "
" You know, for him, everything we are doing now is like a test to see if we will be strong enough to join his revolutionary group ... he said that if we can reach out of this Arena, then, he will help us escape this world and the Empire ... "
" W-What ... but you haven't told me anything about that! Are you telling me that even going out of here I will still have to fight following the will of others ?! "
"I understand what you mean ..."
'After getting out of here I wanted to find my family ... but now ...'
"I ... I wanted to meet my parents again ..."
Their faces darkened.
"Zeto ... do you really think they're still alive?"
"Eh? ..."
My heart tightened as if in a vise.
"In your opinion, how many years have you slept?"
'What? ... What are they talking about? ...'
"2 years, right?"
Libert and Liza looked at each other with a saddened look.
"You know ... one of the few pieces of information our acquaintance gave us was ..."
* Gulp
Liza froze for a second, it was as if she suffered as she said those words.
"We have all been told that we slept for two years, however, the truth is that it was only our body that aged 2 years ... actually it's been ... 60 years since Earth was conquered ..."