■A sense of relief and annoyance imbued within Mathew, as below him stood the mighty, short idiot who was by far, the most uninteresting of the bunch, yet it was his uninteresting nature that bore who he is today■
Rubbing my eyes to make sure this wasn't a dream, that buffoon still stood there with his permanent grin rising even more.
■His eyes were a dark and mysterious color that you could never truly see his irises or what was going on behind them. Beside the eyebags dug deep beneath them, there were also two prominent beauty marks beside his left eye. His face always had a slight grin that couldn't be washed away and black, unkempt hair, which he never bothered to comb■
I almost didn't want to believe it was HIM of all people that saved me. Examining his outer appearance of his sky-blue, zip up jacket, there wasn't even a scratch on the guy meanwhile I was dirty from all the running and sleeping on floors.
■For the name is idiot was ?Jon Dolores? The unluckiest yet luckiest pathological liar alive■
"You gonna keep gawking at my gorgeous looks or what?" he asked full of ignorance.
A part of me REALLY wanted to punch him, but I can do that later as there were more important matters at hand.
"Jon, I would say it was pleasure to see you but its not. In fact, Id much rather have Ethan here despite how I feel towards him-"
I was already rambling and losing my sailboat, I swear this guy has an effect on you whether he's nearby or not.
"-I need your help. Scott and Marcus are both here though they might have been captured, maimed or worse. You were the last person I would have expected coming down that tree, so before we go and probably kill ourselves, mind telling me how you did THAT"
I finished my statement by pointing to the strung up boy staring at us like a deer in a headlight.
A good way to get Jon rambling in surprising detail is to make him talk about himself or something about a current topic, he doesn't know shit but he likes to think he knows all kinds of things and will blatantly make up information with what he is actually saying.
His eyes sparkled by my 'curiosity' about him.
"Welllllll, as soon as I finished my trial and got into this one, I heard a big ol' commotion inside the box, so I booked it to the forest when the walls fell and made that trap. I thought I'd catch some game, so I perched up on the other branches up there. I may have taken a small nap and when I woke up- I mean, heard the desperate cries of a helpless damsel. I obviously came swooping down to save your butt and didn't fall on accident, I swear"
I slapped my forehead, of course this nitwit didn't even mean to save me, nonetheless, he did save me. I wasn't even going to ask about what he meant by 'trial' because as of right now, we have another problem.
Shining a flashlight I picked up off the ground, the kid who was dangling from the branch was still in utter shock. Jon went up to him and squeezed his face a couple times while making a stupid noise too.
The kid recovered immediately, I noticed his eyes moved frantically around us until they locked on a sight behind us.
It was the two boys who were knocked out.
"Oh God! They're dead, aren't they? Please let me live, PLEASE! I didn't even want to be out so late!"
His eyes actually started to turn red and puffy.
"It was Tobais's idea to find the sour faced guy, but honestly, I never have a problem with you man, so let me go please!" He then full on wailed like a child for all the forest to hear.
I was taken back by the comment about me, although when I turned to Jon, I got a bad feeling because his annoying facial expression was replaced by an empty, emotionless face and wide eyes, almost like an alien.
I know that look all too well, like the many terrible times we've got into any mess. He was attempting to think. Which has never been a good idea because of how dangerous it is for his small brain.
After a solid minute between me and the kid, Jon returned back from orbit and sprouted his usual grin.
"I've got an idea to save the others" he had pulled me in to whisper.
"If this is anything like the drying machine fiasco, I swear to-"
His already tuned me out and put his entire focus onto the dangling kid; as soon as he opened his mouth, a series of lies sprouted forward like webs, weaving a story that somehow made sense.
I was honestly baffled as his entire plan was just to lie to this poor kid. We've seen him do this countless times before, for fun he will go to random strangers or con artists to just mess with them, some even believing his made-up tales.
It took some time, but the kid eventually stopped with a face full of mucus and puffy cheeks.
In the span of ten minutes, Jon painted his story of how he was there to help the kid, but needed to show the type of people he was hanging out with and used the fact that the other two were going to leave him behind. The kid grew angry, sad, then remorseful all at the same time and Jon looked as if he was enjoying toying with this guy's emotions.
While he was gaslighting the hell out of the kid, I began rummaging through the pockets of the knocked out ones and putting it in the bag, because the kid who we now know as 'Marty' pointed out they were part of Tobias's group who had control over the center with supplies.
One of them was wearing a letterman of gold and purple, even though he didn't look athletic at all, he only carried empty snack wrappers and a lighter. The other was just wearing some school spirit shirt of the same colors, they only had a small pocketknife and a metal canteen of a clear liquid, I took a swig to immediately spit it out as the strong taste made my head spin in seconds. It was alcohol, a really strong one.
I now returned to Jon and Marty who were finalizing some type of plan, the sun slowly rose from where I think was East, which was strange because it had only been a couple of hours. I chalked it up to the fact that nothing in this place is natural.
"Hey Matt!"
Jon welcomed me into the huddle but snagged the bag to look through its contents.
"Smarty Marty over here was just telling me all about where they keep the 'potential voters' nearby on the other side of a hill, they found out that the hill was just another area filled with boxes of weapons so they have the upper hand here"
"Great, so we're outnumbered and outmatched, what are we gonna do? Throw a surprise party?" I muttered to him.
"You can say that. The plan requires a little bit of acting on all our parts, but this will ensure that we take down that Wanna-Be king and rescue our friends, possibly do a little more too"
Jon found the canteen and gulped down a large portion of what he probably thought was water to only spit into my face. He then smirked at the liquor and explained my parts. I was hesitant but as having no other plan or skills, I chose to comply.
I was then tied to a nearby tree and my hands were restrained using the rope from the bag.
The plan was for me to be 'captured' by a roaming patrol that Marty mentioned would happen in the early morning if the others didn't return, but in reality the ones who were knocked out are supposed to be waken up and take me.
Marty explained Tobais's agenda if I were to be captured alive, and my suspicions were right. I was supposed to be placed in front of him with my friends to be publicly executed as some form of example, but it's good to know the others were alive.
Jon and Marty parts are to follow the tree line to where the prisoners are being held, that way we can even the number a little and gain control.
Once we were ready, I pretended to be asleep and heard the other two go into the forest, although I heard footsteps return after a minute of waiting. Taking a peek, Jon had came back without Marty to pour a splash of booze over the knocked out kids, he then dashed off to the woods with that toothy grin to save our friends.
Not a moment later, there was the sound of more footsteps and a female voice barking out to the sleeping goons.
"Get up maggots!"
The two dolts rose quickly and bumped into each other as the girl and a few other people with her stood next to the other two. With just a single whiff she concluded they were passed out drunk.
There she berated them for what seemed like an eternity as any excuse to explain themselves was drowned, something tells me her and Kaleb would get along just fine.
Finally, after a small argument about some bag, their attention was brought to the fake sleeping guy. Me.
■He compiled his lines over and over in his head, as well as putting on his best face to make sure he wouldn't fuck up. Because he doesn't realize it himself, but when he tries to lie, a huge, ugly smile cracks on his frowning lips■
The girl came up to me to kick me 'awake' and didn't bother to wait for my whole groggy performance which I so definitely am good at.
"Wake up idiot, tell us where the bag you stole is or I'll put you six feet under"
Arranging my best half-awake face and rehearsing the lines from my head, I responded.
"I told the other two last night, someone stole it from me"
My lips trembled a bit, although with better eyesight, a saw there were five people in total.
The girl pulled out a large knife and cut the bondage that held me to the tree, however, her knife was solely placed on my chest when I was raised to my feet, compelling me to not move.
"Dammit, that's bad for us, you know how the 'King' gets" she said in a worrying manner to the others, then looked at me with resentful eyes.
"Don't know how to fight and too weak to fend for what you stole, jeez, your making things hard on all of us"
I could already feel the corners of my lips curl into a faint smile as my temper spoke for me.
"Wow, already calling him King, he's barely in high school. He probably flunked a grade or two by the way he acts" I retort off script, only to be rewarded with a slap to the face.
"Watch that smiling mouth of yours, it'll get you punished"
The stinging pain of the slap is the only thing I'm paying attention to.
"We are going to take you to our 'King' and that's where you're going to get what you deserve, as well as those thieving friends of yours" she finished saying with a smile as the goons ushered me to walk forward.
During the march through the meadow, beside the remarks made by those bastards, a few questions about Jon rummaged through my mind. Mainly how he seems so nonchalant about all of this whole ordeal and what he said to me back there.
'as soon as I got into this trial'
A trial? What could that possibly mean? Is this a test of some kind? He made it seem like he has already visited a few but why is that?
My sailboat was loosing its control on these rocky waves, if there are multiple ones and I found the duo, then what if Clay is here?
I'm not sure if he could handle a situation like this, yet again, look who's talking.
By the time I snapped back into the world, I was already led back to where the room once stood.
The once pure, white floors where muddied by footprints going in every direction and the platform in the middle was transformed into a small campsite, however, the main attraction was within sight as I got closer.
In the center of it all, made up from crates, laid a makeshift throne using blankets for cushions.
Sitting on that throne was am insignificant prick smiling with yellow, crooked teeth as his eyes watched me be placed in front of him. It was Tobias, the self-proclaimed King.
"Well, Well, Well. Look what we got here" He got up out of his throne and slowly walked towards me with a hand behind his back. "If it isn't the runt who thought he could just run away"
My mouth was about to open, until I realized any coherent sentence I was going to say to him left me. I'm sure he saw my dumbfounded face and mistook it for fear.
"Wow, your such a coward. I bet he's going to cry and piss his pants!"
A plethora of laughs enveloped from all around. That just made me pissed off even more and I accidently went off script, again.
"Your the coward here! We took a single bag from the pile and YOU send a bunch of losers who are afraid of YOU to do a job YOU could have done!"
My big fat mouth is going to kill me someday, because he did not look pleased with my response.
"Oh sure, stealing from MY PILE and hurting some of my guys is no big deal. I suppose I will let you go Scott free because I'm SO generous..."
His decrepit smile that stained his ugly face changed drastically as he now furrowed his brows and gritted his teeth.
"You and your friends caused a ruckus too big for my liking, so what do you think your punishment should be?" He wavered his free hand at two boys that brought me here and went to the hill over yonder.
He showed his hand from behind him, wavering his pistol from before. He tried to appear menacing by pointing it at me and pretending to fire, it only made my heart beat faster as a maniacal cackle pursued after his actions.
"How come nobody understands this situation? I knew exactly what was going on when we got those system notifications and in the moment, I realized that I NEEDED to be the King" he ranted on, not even paying attention to me.
"If you remember what the 'system menu notifications' said" I have no idea what he's on about, its as if he's treating this like a video game "Then you would know we needed to vote for a King. Doesn't every vote count?"
He slowly turned back to me and the others snickered to themselves.
"That's why you will be my guinea pigs for absolute power"
He knelt to my level.
"After making an example out of you, everyone will have to vote for me."
The cold barrel was placed on the bottom of my chin as he leaned in closer to whisper in my ear.
"I've been the loser of the game for far to long. Back on earth I was treated like trash and I had wished for a day like this to come for a very long time. Sadly it was on the day I was to get my revenge on those who ridiculed me since I was gonna shoot up the place full of disgusting nobodies' like them"
I slowly shifted my gaze to see his face grow sinister and him looking out in the distance as if his imagination was running away with his sanity.
This psycho, I wondered how he even got a gun in the first place but that's even more messed up than I thought. Whatever is going to happen next, I need to keep him distracted.
"I can sympathize with that. Back in my life everyone would talk behind my back for not being special, I didn't do anything unique in my life, and I wasn't sure what it is I wanted. It angered me why people saw a problem with that, but I understand that I'm not special, I'm just uncertain with my li-"
My rambling was cut short.
"Hey! this isn't some therapist session dumbass; I don't care about rat shit like you" He stood up and pounded an impatient foot on the ground "What's taking those idiots so long"
Like a prayer being answered, two boys came out from the meadows, one I recognized as Marty, but the one beside him was the guy with the letterman jacket who was now holding a baton. In tow were a duo with restrained arms, it was Scott and Marcus
"Where's the other one?" the girl who took me asked.
"The ones protecting the pit got their hands on a straggler, so he stayed with them, but they were carrying this around" said the jacket guy while presenting the bag we had.
Shit, what happened to Jon? His plan was to free the prisoners' not become one of them; I knew that idiot would mess up! Why did I put my trust in that fool...
Tobias rubbed his temple with his gun in hand, then looked at me and smirked.
"Good, that relieves most of my mind" he relieved "But don't think your punishment is over chumps, It has only just begun"
Tobias walked back to sit back prominently on his throne while ordering for the duo to be paced beside me, the guy with the baton went to place the bag near the throne and stood next to him.
Marcus was set on my left but even they had trouble due to his big size and Aideen was on my right, he had no issue being told what to do. Bruises and bloodied cuts could be seen all over their bodies, Marcus was in a worsen condition with a swollen black eye.
Then two guards stood behind us with weapons and Marty watched behind them, averting his gaze with mine, he probably betrayed Jon and is feeling guilty now, that idea just made me more angry.
Tobias clapped his hands together and a goon of his began recording us with his smartphone, the act now commenced. His hand motioned down and our faces were planted to the ground but also facing forward, these bastards are starting to piss me off even more. His yapping mouth then opened.
"I have gathered you blokes here today because these guys' single handedly ruined my totally awesome plan by breaking the new laws I decreed. If you people haven't realized, we are not on Earth anymore, we were transported here to start a new life, it's like those animes where the MC is reincarnated into another world, but like the many times I imagined it, now I am the main character and I will have my-"
*Rumble*
A small thundering shock that could be felt through the ground cut off his monologue and brought everyone's attention to black smoke that went off in the horizon as a group of people came screaming over the hills. A fire spread across the golden meadows too.
The guy in the letterman began to laugh at Tobais's perplexed face, he then spoke while wiping away tears of laughter.
"About time you got hit by realization. I hate shallow characters like you. You really thought people would follow a loser like you? Don't make me laugh. Oh wait? I am!"
Everyone was in complete shock to what was occurring, but that one guy continued to laugh annoyingly.
"What the fuck did you say to me!" Tobias rose out of his chair and grabbed onto his shirt in an instant, but the baton guy raised his hand to Tobias's head.
"Don't you get it? You're not the main character here, of course a loser like you can't accept that fact"
[Gaming Hud has sensed the presence of a skill]
[Gaming Hud has recognized the end of the [ERROR] skill 'Illusionary Act' the level of this skill is ???]
Notifications filled the corners of my eyesight as his arm suddenly evaporated a sort of mist like substance and smoke dispersed around his whole body. Once the smoke was gone I couldn't believe who I witnessed in that spot.
■Again, there stood the Fool of the Story with his disgusting grin, and in his hand, was a revolver■
*BANG*
It all happened in an instant, Tobias fell down screaming in pain clenching the side of his face, but Jon's hand was now empty as the gun flew backwards, that dunce's jaw was dropped as he was looking at his hand surprised.
That setback didn't stop his actions, he reached into the bag and tossed the cylinder-shaped grenades over us, Marcus and Aideen broke through their bonds and before I knew it, a smoke cloud appeared around us. Someone came behind me to cut my bonds.
"Mathew, catch"
I heard Jon say as I heard the ringing of an object land before my feet.
"Dang it, I suck at throwing" he let out one last retort.
I reached down and grabbed a rubbery handle of a baton that extended to this weird hardened plastic, it was almost like a cheap one you'd find someone selling to kids. When the smoke thinned out, I saw two guys already fighting Marcus and the girl with her knife out fighting Scott, but in front of me was this rather chubby looking guy with one mean scar on his chin.
"Where do you think you're going punk?" He asked and charged at me before I could retort with sarcasm.
[***]
A sudden boost of energy hit my body and I felt like my senses grow sharp. I barely dodged his tackle, and I used this opportunity to whack him in the head!
*Ting*
The vibrations hurt my hand as it felt like I whacked a boulder. He clenched the back of his head but before I could smack him again, Aideen came in with a leg chop and forced his head on the floor.
"You good?" he posed.
I quickly nodded while panting heavily due to the rush leaving my body. I looked over to Marcus, who was already finishing the last guy with an arm choke hold.
We gathered as the mob made it to our side and were fighting the others, we searched for Jon in this mayhem until we heard distinct voices.
"Come on my guy, this was just a prank I swear, you wouldn't hurt a small guy like me, right? it's my birthday I swear, you wouldn't hurt the birthday boy, would you??"
It was the Jon's voice, but his words were slurred as he was giving rapid excuses.
"This is the last straw you motherfucker; I'm sending you straight to hell!" a voice of pure anguish yelled.
We managed to locate them and exited the riot into a small clearing by the edge of the floor to a now flattened meadow, the fire had spread to their location and encased them in a ring, making it hard to see what was happening.
There was an opening following the wall of flames, but I doubt we had the time to go all the way around, because a wounded Tobias had his pistol pointed dead center on Jon with his back to the floor.
It was now or never, the duo got ready to jump through the flames. As I got myself psyched up for the jump and followed behind them, the flame walls got bigger. This only stopped me in my tracks because they didn't even hesitate.
No matter how many times I tried to move, I couldn't.
I wanted to be angry with myself, however, a heard the sound of gunshots and the screams of Aideen.
Rushing beside the flames, I found the opening and went on through to see an expressionless Jon lying on the floor with bullet holes in his chest. However, nonene's brain could anticipate what happened next.
"*Te-hehe, fooled yah!" a voice said out of nowhere,
The familiar mist evaporated behind Tobias to show the small frame of Jon hitting the back of Tobias's head with a frying-pan. That's what he's been using???
*Pow!*
[[ERROR] skill 'Illusionary Act' has ended]
He fell to his chest, dropping the handgun in the process. Jon grabbed it immediately and handed it to Marcus.
"Break this for me will ya?" He asked him with a wink.
Marcus grabbed the slide of the handgun and pulled it off with ease.
The mob started to simmer down as the flames were slowly dying around us and now surrounded the injured Tobias crawling away with his arms, Marcus swiftly nabbed him and pulled him up.
Seeing his face, it was only his right ear that was bleeding, but a huge chunk of it was blown off and his eyes looked fierce as they were bloodshot.
"You damn bastards, I'll kill you, I'll kill you all for ruining my dreams. I SWEAR I-" His voice was cut short because he was punched in the side of his face by Marcus,
"This is for hurting my friends" he stated boldly.
Tobias looked dazed as if he was hit by a boulder, but Jon splashed his face with a water canteen he got from somewhere. He woke up again and was about to say something, until Scott kicked him in the gut, Tobias let out a groan of pain.
"That's for the black eye to Clem, you going to join in too?" He looked at me and I nodded, I walked up to the now sniffling Tobias.
"I just wanted revenge, for the pain people caused me" Tobias said in a low voice now, raising his head and looking at me with tearful eyes.
I couldn't do it, even if I tried, I wouldn't gain any better feeling if I did hit him.
"Please put him down, he's done for" I announced.
They both nodded, and Tobias was dropped to the ground, coughing.
As I was about to leave, I turned back and sent my foot towards his face. He flinched and put his arms up to defend himself, but there was no initial contact whatsoever, however, I watched as he soiled himself a little. The crowd laughed or gave disgusted 'ewws'
We returned to the crowd who focused on the others rather than me, a few complimentary claps turned into a plethora of people clapping and cheering for them, some even started chanting something funny.
"King Jon! King Jon!"
Jon glared around at his 'adoring voters' then at me with a wide smile.
"A thank you would be nice, now we should be getting the notification any second-"
I gave him a well deserved punch on the arm and asked,
"Are you going to explain to me what the hell you did back there?"
He acted like it caused him immeasurable pain then laughed it off.
"Well you see, I heroically rescued our guys and the others, but then I saw an opportunity, so I told them to elect me if I beat-"
I cut him short again,
"I'm talking about the gun and how you looked like someone else or the invisibility?"
He blinked at me a few times and responded,
"I got the gun from my second trial, you should have seen it, still had the guy's hand on it. Oh, and that's another thing, you get skills from your first trial"
Just after saying that, the ringing noise from the very start echoed in my ear, it sent a shiver down my spine, but a familiar screen appeared in front of everyone except me and Jon.
[Room 24 Introductory Story Completed!]
[Introductory Story Objective: King Election! /completed/ All Hail KiN& [ERROR]!]
"What's up with the message? It's like a video game glitch" I turned to Jon not expecting an answer.
"Beat's me, I'm sad that it won't give me a title like King of Awesomeness"
While he started to reminisce about himself as a king, I failed to realize I had a message of my own.
[Hidden Side Story completed: Complete a trial not of your own - 5000 Karma Kredits earned ]
I didn't realize Jon was looking at my message, he gawked at me dumbfounded. I was about to ask what his problem was until the same bright light enveloped everyone like before.
"When you get in there, follow the light this time you imbecile"
I spun my head to a grumpy Jon, he turned away and muttered out loud to himself.
"Feigning ignorance how skills work after stealing my gig that I discovered! Who does he think he is?"
"I heard that! You damn hypocrite" I yelled past his ego.
"Oh please, I'm like the King of H-"
His voice was cut off as I found myself back in the hallway.