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[Welcome to the system event: Who's Faster!]
[You have arrived at the event location through one of the entrances.]
[You are a participant in this event.]
[Welcome, Aurora, and good luck!]
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After passing through the portal that gave no resistance whatsoever apart from a slightly cool and cold sensation, the message on the panel was the first thing Ethan's eyes fell upon.
Ethan then turned to take in his surroundings, and what he saw took him aback.
Ethan's experience was mirrored by the two others, who also directed their gazes to their surroundings after reading the message displayed on the blue panel.
After taking several more looks at his surroundings, Ethan was able to make out that the location he and the others had appeared to have been teleported into was some kind of ruin.
The sky was filled with dark clouds, and it seemed like it was about to rain.
The air didn't feel stuffy though, so Ethan figured that it was just the atmosphere that suggested it was going to rain when it actually wasn't.
"It's just like the castle," RageHeart muttered.
"It feels so gloomy," Mia then uttered aloud as the other two nodded in agreement before turning to look at their surroundings in depth.
Just as Mia had stated, the surroundings were indeed very gloomy.
The ruins they were in appeared to be some form of temple with various stone houses.
The surfaces of the stone houses mirrored the one outside the portal that had disappeared.
The stone houses looked like they had spent ages standing.
Although their walls looked old and emitted gloomy auras, they still stood strong.
Removing their gazes from the stone houses around them, Ethan and the others shifted their gaze to a hill in the distance from them.
On the hill stood a large temple, and above this temple was a familiar golden light descending upon it.
It was the temple building that gave them an idea of their surrounding lineage, and it was the golden light descending onto the temple that assured them they were in the right place.
Well, they wanted to believe that and not panic about the fact that what had brought them here had disappeared.
"I might just develop PTSD from anything golden in color because of all this," Ethan stated, and both Mia and RageHeart nodded as if they could relate to him.
Not understanding why the locations associated with this system blessing seemed to be so weird and unusual, Ethan and the others decided to head towards the golden light, as that was the only obvious location they knew could be related to their purpose here in the first place.
Aside from this, the fact that the portal which had brought them here was nowhere to be found left them with no choice.
After deciding what to do, the three immediately began moving toward their chosen destination.
The stone ground they were walking on was already cracked in different places and had weeds growing out of it.
The weeds appeared withered and drained of their vitality.
To Ethan, it felt like he was witnessing something that was dead but still struggling to survive.
The gloomy atmosphere and silence did not help his thoughts at all; he also felt that his location was something else entirely.
It felt demonic.
Just as they were walking down the ruined street, Ethan and the others came across something that made them come to a halt.
Two wolves were in front of them.
They were as big as the ones Ethan had fought before. However, these ones were a little different.
They had the same body as the last opponent Ethan and even RageHeart had fought; they were undead, and now they were feasting on the body of what appeared to be a dead human.
The sight made all three of them want to vomit their stomachs out then and there, but thankfully they were able to hold it in, including Mia, surprisingly.
Due to their caution, as Ethan and the others walked down the streets of the ruins, they moved slowly, observing their environment with their guards up.
As a result, they remained mostly silent throughout their journey, which ended up being the reason they went undetected by the busy wolves.
"Can we please leave?" Mia whispered to Ethan as she gently tugged on his clothing from behind.
When they spotted the wolves, they had retreated to hide behind one of the walls of a nearby stone house.
When Ethan felt the tug on his clothes, he turned to see Mia's tear-filled eyes.
Ethan was positioned by the edge of the wall, peeking out to observe what was happening. Mia was beside him, and RageHeart was next to Mia.
When RageHeart heard Mia's words, he wasn't actually against it and agreed to some extent with what she had said.
RageHeart's thought process differed from Mia's; he wanted to leave the dangerous area to avoid attracting the wolves' attention before entering an unnecessary fight.
Not that the sight of a human being eaten was something he could stomach, as he had been a normal human before all this happened.
RageHeart tolerance for gore scenes was simply higher than Mia's, and his initial experiences of death and brutality in this world had slightly strengthened that tolerance.
Ethan didn't have the same experience as RageHeart, but he also had a better tolerance than Mia.
This didn't matter much, as all three were incapable of staring at such a scene and feeling numb—unless, of course, they were individuals who had witnessed or caused numerous deaths. But was it even possible for players of this world to have such a background?
After gazing at Mia and RageHeart for a few seconds, Ethan softly opened his mouth and spoke, "Let's move away from this area."
Without hesitation, all three of them slowly navigated around and walked away from the wolves that were still engrossed in their meal.
After finding a route that would allow them to continue their journey to the temple and the golden light, they began moving in a straight line once again.
As they walked, no one spoke to each other.
Ethan, Mia, and RageHeart were all lost in their own thoughts.
The similarity among the three was that they were once again reminded of their current reality.
If anything, they needed to get stronger—strong enough to avoid being consumed, alive or dead.