Many miles within the earth, isolated from the rest, located in an egg-shaped concrete building. Many people were frantically flipping through holographic pages with data and observations about specific ruins' explorers while others were merely security overviewing certain locations on the ground above the bunker. An oppressive sound barrier had been put in place between the selections so that one could only speak within their respective areas or otherwise would be muted. But the overlying reason for a majority of people to be here was to gamble their precious merits on ruins' explorers. While there were such gambling games they could also play it was looked down on as a poor man's game.
The fact was that betting here could cost you dearly, but some people were willing to bet it all to join higher society even at the cost of falling back down. High potential explorers had already had their faces posted on most of the boards and had the most people swarming them.
"Explorer #010A13 has an excellent fighting potential."
"No no, look here Explorer #050B90 has great agility and reflex, a much higher survival chance."
"But look here you can see #030B23 Has high team-leading capabilities, they will surely die last.
Such comments practically described the atmosphere of the room, where even some gamblers begin butting heads over explorers with two different clashing potentials. But while these average gamblers threw in their lot, some elite gamblers looked at the full picture. Even considering the entrants for possible potential. These elite gamblers were in fact nobles of the Bunker, families of the Great Elders. They didn't seek wealth, they already had it within their grasp.
What they truly wanted was entertainment. Normal entertainment could no longer sustain them. Plays? They've seen them. Books? They've read them. Gladiator Pits? Stale.
These nobles truly wanted to see these wastrels firmly hold onto a chance of their survival to the end to motivate them, unlike gladiator pits where you would die eventually. This process was much more entertaining and they gained true satisfaction from life and death battles.
Two such nobles were both relaxing in real leather chairs sipping grape wine, floating on a hovering platform, and dressed in fine baroque-style clothing. Occasionally one would flip through a holographic page with a mere thought. Eventually one spoke to the other.
"Hm, take a look here." One male noble says to the other as he pushes the page towards the other noble who catches it and immediately begins analyzing it.
"So Leon, you think this latest batch of entrants has some potential talent then? He passed the holographic page back.
Leon smiles slightly, "Hardly anything of the sort Reginald. Rather a few select individuals are worth mentioning."
"How so?" Reginald maintains his composure despite being slightly irritated.
"As you saw, while they all have rather low experience in combat, you can see an elevated mutant inheritance attribute talent demonstrated among these individuals."
Pictures of eight people could be seen. If Ashur was there he could easily recognize Davis's photo listed as a high agility entrant.
"So what's the point in showing me all of these, if I may ask?" He taps his fingers on the side of the table.
"You see my dear friend, this year I'm looking for something more in our new entrants. For too long have such excellent talents been wasted, their lives ended before they can even blossom from their cocoon. I figure it would be best to nurture these talents in order to maximize our use of them. I'm sure you understand the underlying reason."
Reginald couldn't help but be skeptical as he squinted his eyes, "But why have you changed your mind so recently of late? This isn't like you at all, surely some other factor must be at play here."
"Who knows, perhaps I feel generous as of late and have decided to let a few sprouts progress longer than normal, can you blame me for my interest in such things?"
Reginald was inwardly suspicious, 'Could he be acting suspicious on purpose in order to get me on his side? Why is unable to say the exact reason.' He was quite baffled about the whole ordeal, but for now Reginald decided to agree with him.
"Very well my friend, to a long partnership!"
"Cheers."
"Cheers."
They clink glasses and soon move to a different topic. Now sitting across from each other. A buzzing noise begins to emit from Reginald's earpiece.
"Reginald speaking, state your name."
"Ruins' explorer manager Govero, reporting your majesty." His voice responds quivering
"What is it this time, I'm currently with a friend right now and your next report is in a few weeks! Speak."
"The urgent news I need to report is the fact that an entrant was found deceased at the bottom of the Monolith elevator. We went over the camera footage and found that the victim was pushed over by a fellow entrant while the elevator was in a free-fall. The entrant has been detained and is now expected to spend the rest of the preparation time within jail."
"And what is the subject doing currently?"
"He's been training everyday sir, using the bars as pullups as well as situps and pushups."
"Hm, then what of the elevator's free-fall? What exactly caused it and why was this not reported earlier?" His face nearly breaks out in anger, but in the face of Leon he can only straight face with a vein popping out of his head.
"Apologies Sir, an unknown order was sent to the elevator which overrided the speed setting as well as the drone's AI. We were only able to discover the discrepancy after the entrants went through the gates and we counted one less."
'An override, a hacker? No… it can only be someone higher up who wanted them dead. Yet if they wanted to kill them all why slow down the elevator?' Reginald thought to himself.
"Hmph, very well, I shall look into this myself later, right now I have a guest to attend to. Goodbye."
"Yes Sir!" Govero replies as the call hangs up.
Govero himself was very much interested in the reason for Joseph killing another entrant. Inwardly deciding to launch an investigation upon this event yet glad that he had not been punished for this oversight, this seemed like a problem for the higher ups after all.
Govero begins looking over the cameras in his private office, then he sighs as he sees Davis and Joshua on the camera.
"Something tells me I'm going to have a major pain in my neck." He sits back in his chair dramatically, leans back and reaches for a cup of coffee.