[Attempt 100: Failure]
[Completion Rate: 5%]
[Reason for Failure: Death]
[This is your 101st Attempt]
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Sebastian smiled as he saw the completion rate go even lower.
He felt a mixture of nervousness and excitement as the number closed in on the value of 0%.
He was sure that the only thing left to do was kill the boss of the scenario and all conditions of summoning the hidden boss would be complete.
The warehouse would be a great place to rig the explosives for the final battle.
Originally, Sebastian decided to choose this location as ending everything right where it started would be the most satisfying way of breaking the tutorial.
However, with the events that had taken place in the previous attempt, Sebastian now had an additional reason to choose this location.
The grin on Sebastian's face widened further.
Damien. Damien. Damien.
Always a loyal friend, even to the end.
'Not only did you manage to satisfy my curiosity, but you also managed to help me in more ways you could have possibly imagined.'
Sebastian chuckled as he remembered the last words that Damien had uttered before the round ended.
'See you on the other side.'
The amount of information given through the sentence and the implications behind it were both enormous.
What could the other side possibly be but Purgatory itself!
The appearance of the katana-wielding maniac had somehow led Damien to the conclusion that he was in the middle of my tutorial world and that his real self was already in Purgatory.
As far-fetched as that might sound… that was precisely what had happened.
The key piece of information was that the katana-wielding maniac was definitely associated with purgatory.
For one this confirmed that Purgatory allows one to gain supernatural abilities and that it was possible to come back to reality from within it.
The real groundbreaker, however, was that the true mastermind behind this operation wasn't the Bratva at all!
But a third party that had ties with Purgatory itself!
Previously Sebastian thought that the katana maniac was an avenger of the Bratva or just a person of the Bratva that had coincidentally managed to come back to reality from Purgatory.
This thought was discarded since Damien had made it pretty clear that having an avenger wasn't something mafias did.
The existence of a third party controlling everything behind the scenes also makes the contradictory actions of the Bratva make more sense.
They were all just pawns to be sacrificed.
All part of a twisted game.
But what exactly was this game?
With the final piece of the puzzle of this chaotic night in place, Sebastian had managed to deduce a shocking conclusion.
And the truth only made him laugh mirthfully.
It was really ironic after all.
The next time he and Damien met might be not as friends after all.
Seb shook his head and took deep breaths to calm himself down.
He was so close to the end right now; he couldn't afford to mess up because he got too excited.
He had a feeling that if everything went right this time, he might be able to break through the tutorial once and for all.
Sebastian wasted no time and immediately picked up his phone and called Damien using the number he remembered.
There was no time to waste!
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After finishing his deal with Damien and getting kidnapped as planned, Sebastian found himself gaining consciousness in the familiar warehouse once again.
"Welcome to our humble abode, moi druz'ya! Looks like the both of you have finally woken up!"
Sebastian smiled back at his bald captor.
He was going to miss his bald head once he got out of here…
… Just kidding, the guy disgusted him to no end.
A hundred deaths weren't enough for his kind.
It was time for number 101.
Sebastian waited calmly for the man to place the pistol on the table as he secretly unlocked the handcuffs binding him.
It was time to end this show.
"Now that you are done with your monologue, I would like to speak to the one pulling the strings behind this operation."
"Pulling the strings? There is no such person. I am the one in charge here."
Sebastian just scoffed at that. He would like to see how much longer they could play dumb.
"I know about Purgatory."
The temperature in the room seemed to drop by a few degrees as Sebastian started by dropping an elephant into the room.
For almost, the most imperceptible of moments, the Avtoritet's body seemed to stiffen before loosening up again.
"What do you mean by the word Purgatory? Are you referring to the heaven and hell concept mentioned in biblical lore?"
Sebastian scrutinized the expression of the captor in front of him.
Everything from his demeanour to his presence seemed to be different.
Either this was the Avtoritet's true self, or some entity had just taken over his body.
Sebastian was inclined towards the latter.
Seb smiled deviously.
It was time to take things up a notch.
"I know the identity of the person controlling you."
The entity possessing the man didn't seem to be fazed at all.
Perhaps they thought that Sebastian was bluffing.
To a certain extent, Sebastian was.
But when one has enough circumstantial evidence, clues and intuition on hand.
A solid bluff is not that different from the cold hard truth.
"Do tell." the entity prodded.
"Are you sure you want me to say it out loud?"
"Sure. It won't be a problem."
Sebastian paused for a second.
Usually, when people say that there won't be a problem, they meant one of two things.
Either everyone who would be listening in was already in on the truth and were associates, or all potential witnesses were nothing but dead men walking.
Sebastian honestly couldn't tell which one was the case here.
It was likely a mixture of both cases.
Seb looked at Ronnie and considered asking him to knock himself out but decided against it.
Ronnie too was but a ghost of the past, there was no need to treat the lives of creations of a simulation as something significant.
Having come to a decision Sebastian decided to reveal his guess.
"You are from the Ouroboros… aren't you?"
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Silence.
For a moment the entire warehouse was dead silent.
Not even a breath could be heard.
Sebastian felt like he finally understood where the term pin-drop silence came from.
As one would even be able to hear a pin drop in it.
But this silence didn't last for long.
*THUD*
It was the sound of everyone in the warehouse dropping dead at the same time.
Everyone, except Sebastian.
Even the Avtoritet wasn't spared from this fate.
"HAhaHAAHAHAAHAHA!"
Before Sebastian could even begin to process the situation, he was interrupted by deafening laughter.
Exhilarated, Enraptured and Exuberant Laughter.
It was as if the world's funniest joke had just been uttered.
In some ways… to the person laughing right now, Sebastian's words were the biggest joke they had heard in centuries.
*CLAP!* *CLAP!* *CLAP!* *CLAP!*
"BRAVO!"
Sebastian turned around in his chair to see a man dressed in a suit that seemed to be the standard formal wear worn by the gentry in the Victorian era.
The man used a finger to wipe the tears from his eyes as he barely managed to contain his laughter.
"That was the funniest thing I have heard in ages! You are an interesting fellow!"
Floating behind him were two ghost-like entities.
One seemed to be an ancient samurai with a sheathed katana on its waist.
The other was a clown wearing a top hat with multiple strings hanging limp from its fingers.
Sebastian couldn't help but do a double-take at the group in front of him.
The katana maniac that had been giving him such a hard time wasn't the final boss of the scenario at all.
It was this well-dressed Victorian-era… charlatan instead.
With the abilities he had seen so far, Sebastian couldn't help but feel that he was severely outclassed.
He couldn't even begin to imagine the number of rounds he would need to defeat this person.
Luckily for him, he had an alternate solution in mind.
One that didn't require a direct fight at all.
The charlatan rudely levitated Ronnie's body off the chair before flinging it away.
He then sat on the chair and placed his legs on the table, crossing them as he leaned back.
"So… Sebastian Alaister, was it? How did you come to the conclusion that I belonged to Ouroboros? If your answer interests me enough, I might just let you live."
Sebastian actually wasn't sure if the man belonged to an organization called Ouroboros at all.
In fact, there was a high chance that there wasn't even an organization that went by such a name.
After all, Ouroboros was likely the symbol of Purgatory itself, judging from the letter that Sebastian had received.
There was a reason why he made such a gamble though.
"It is because I know the real reason behind my kidnapping."
"Pray tell. What is it?"
Sebastian smirked in triumph.
The fish had taken the bait.
"Someone from within the Caputo Familia has hired you to send Damien Caputo into Purgatory."
"Interesting… please elaborate."
"Since people are able to return to the real world from within Purgatory, the secret that one can gain supernatural powers within it is no longer a secret."
"That is indeed the case."
"Since there are people who can leave Purgatory at will, it is only reasonable to assume that it is possible to send chosen individuals into Purgatory as well."
"Nicely Done!"
"However, it is not that simple to send someone to the other side. There are certain conditions that one must meet first."
"Ooh, how many have you figured out?"
"First, they must classify as a sinner. Having committed a crime of 'murder'."
"That's true."
"Second, they must be seeking an escape from reality. They must have nothing left that ties them back to the real world."
"Excellent Deduction!"
Sebastian still remembered the lines written within his invitation letter to Purgatory.
Sebastian seemingly had the initiative to make a choice and could accept it should he desire to achieve his true potential in a 'new reality'.
This already led Sebastian to suspect that 'wanting to leave' was an essential factor.
What sealed the deal though…
"The purpose of our kidnapping was to drive Damien Caputo into despair and make him 'lose' his only friends. The last thing tying him down to reality. Once we are gone, he should be able to meet the second condition as well."
Sebastian would be left alive as long as Ronnie killed himself BECAUSE of Seb's actions but they would be killed together if the game had somehow failed.
The only way to clear the game is for one of Damien's friends to die with the other becoming the murderer of Damien's best friend.
Of course, the possibility of indirectly causing death as one decided to shoot themselves also counted.
The idea was to drive Damien to Purgatory.
The charlatan clapped in excitement.
"I can confirm that all of your assumptions so far have been true. Let me list out the four known conditions that we have managed to conform are necessary to get invited to Purgatory."
He raised his index finger.
"First, the sinner has killed at least once, with full purpose and intent in a way that it was a crime."
He raised a second finger.
"Second, the sinner must be seeking an escape from their reality and have no attachment to their real lives."
"These two rules were exactly as you had deducted."
He raised his third finger.
"The third rule is that the age of the sinner must be no lower than 10 and no older than 70 at the time they receive the invitation"
He raised his fourth and final finger.
"The final rule is that the sinner must have somehow escaped punishment for their murder in the mortal realm."
He then proceeded to open his thumb as well.
"There is even a fifth additional rule whose certainty we still haven't been able to confirm."
Sebastian felt a little curious.
"What is it?"
The Charlatan smiled mysteriously before answering Seb.
"The sinner must have the ability to endure suffering."
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Sebastian felt as if a thousand horses were galloping over his heart.
Endure… suffering?
What the heck!
Sebastian felt mind-numbing rage boil up his throat.
He barely managed to force it back down and tried to not let any signs of his mental struggle get detected by the charlatan.
"Thanks for telling me."
The charlatan just waved it off while smiling smugly.
"You earned it."
Whether or not he noticed Sebastian's earlier distress was uncertain.
He then tapped on the table with his finger.
"So I assume that you thought I belonged to Ouroboros as I was undertaking the task of sending a person from Reality into Purgatory?"
"Yes, that was the only possible answer I had regarding an organization that had the ability to send people to Purgatory."
"Hmm… interesting. You were extremely close to the truth. You almost hit the mark!"
The man slid a business card across the table.
Sebastian picked it up and saw another snake-related symbol on it.
It wasn't that of a snake biting its own tail.
Aka the single ouroboros.
It was that of two snakes biting each other's tails while intertwining to make the infinity symbol.
"My organization is called the Double Ouroborous."
The charlatan announced the name of his organization.
Sebastian smiled and put done the card.
"It looks like I was close enough."
The charlatan chuckled in response.
"Yet that slight difference has an ocean of difference in meaning. While our organization has known about Purgatory and has been exploring its mysteries the longest, we are, by no means synonymous with Purgatory itself!"
The man continued to chuckle before continuing.
"That was the very reason I found your statement so incredibly funny. Good fellow. I like you! I have decided to spare your life for now."
Sebastian just nodded non-committedly in return.
"I am extremely thankful. Why only 'for now' though?"
The charlatan grinned sinisterly at that. He put his feet back down from the table, leaned forward and crossed his fingers under his chin.
"You see… our organization specializes in not only sending people into Purgatory, but we hold the only channel of sending people out of Purgatory."
"That's impressive of your organization."
Sebastian clapped in response as if he were really impressed.
The man just snorted in annoyance.
"We thus know the details of every person that has left Purgatory."
"I see."
"The problem here is that we have no records of sending you out of Purgatory."
"That's because I didn't use your channel to leave Purgatory."
"You say that, but you have never even been to Purgatory in the first place. You haven't even manifested your primary trait yet!"
"Looks like you found me out! I indeed haven't been to Purgatory yet."
The man ignored Sebastian's response and continued.
"The fact that you know about the single ouroboros but not about our organization means that your only source of information about Purgatory was the invitation letter."
"Bravo! It looks like you managed to figure it out! I am impressed!"
The charlatan's left eyebrow twitched in annoyance at Sebastian's antics.
"You don't seem to be worried at all."
"Yes?"
"You are not worried that I will kill you right here and now."
"Correct."
"That is reasonable since you can always escape by accepting the invitation, but you are also not worried that I will make arrangements to destroy you once you get to Purgatory."
"Right once again."
"The lack of worry also doesn't seem to stem from some sort of leverage that you might have over me."
"Half-true this time. I do have something that could be used to leverage over you, but that is not the source of my confidence."
"The fact that you don't have any supernatural abilities yet seem to somehow be acquainted with my samurai spirit slave and that your personality doesn't match that of what we had recorded lead to a very interesting conclusion."
"Pray tell."
"We are currently in the middle of your tutorial, in a realm created from your memories and Purgatory's access to the Akashic Records."
"Wonderful! As a reward for your perfect deduction let me offer you a deal that you cannot refuse!"
Sebastian smiled sinisterly as he removed and threw away the handcuffs that he had long since unlocked.
He then proceeded to pick up the pistol on the table and offer it to the man sitting across from him.
"I want you to... kill yourself!"