Just as the two talked about many things besides Redemption, the thunderous symphony orchestra sounded in the city sky. The song was tense and fancy, just like the war drums.
Arthur swiftly stood up, stepping towards the residence door with Seth following behind. The wooden door opened, Seth and Arthur immediately reflexively looked at the city sky. A large and bright light appeared in the New York City centre.
"What is it?" asked Arthur, curious with a stern face.
Seth was pretty doubtful about the sound. He preferred to check it on the system bracelet attached to his hand; the loud song reminded Seth of an unlocked floor.
[Floor Information]
[Unlocked Floor: 7]
[Game Location: New York, USA]
[Game Type: Capture the Essence of Life]
[Game Rules: Default]
[Note: Participants who have registered for the game are eligible for information about the game rules].
Seth's heart was racing, both eyes crossed violently as the notification on the holographic screen appearing above his system bracelet showed an unlocked 7th floor.
The floor's location was in New York; what Seth had expected was actually happening. He then pressed the digital map menu on his status bracelet, showing the map in blue light reappearing on Seth's bracelet.
Arthur turned his head to the side, looking at the map Seth had displayed, a green circle around Times Square, the area of the circle reaching 4 blocks from the city centre. The man with the rank of three-star general gasped, having no idea what he should do at the moment.
"I need to go there immediately and take advantage of this momentum," Seth said, walking down the small stairs outside the Redemption HQ residence.
Seth walked alone through the paving blocks in the residence's front yard. Realizing Arthur wasn't following him made Seth wonder.
He sharpened the focus of his eyes on Arthur while shouting to the man in the military shirt, "Hey. Don't you want to join me?"
Arthur's fearful reverie was interrupted by the shout, his eyes blinking a few times as he stepped closer to Seth, who was already halfway down the front yard of HQ Redemption.
"I don't know, Seth. I have bad memories of joining forces to complete the floor quest," Arthur whispered.
He seemed haunted by an overwhelming fear of something that might have threatened his life.
"Did you ever do floor quest in Washington back then?" asked Seth. Arthur cleared his throat.
He managed to survive because his three friends helped him, but he was wounded with cuts on several parts of his body. The task on the 2nd floor was actually easy enough; as Seth recalled, it only required collecting the assigned items.
Whoever collected them faster and more, then he was the winner. Each floor had its own winner, like the 7th floor, which offered three winner spots.
Arthur must have been scared because his expectations didn't fit the reality. While the survivors were only tasked with collecting certain items, the rules of the floor didn't prohibit the survivors from killing other survivors and stealing the items they had collected.
That's why Arthur had so many cuts on his body. People were trying to kill him because he was only focused on collecting items and not caring for himself.
"A bad first experience will trouble you later on. However, trust me. I will complete this floor and come out on top!" said Seth confidently.
Some of Arthur's friends arrived after finding out what the song meant. They took a quick step towards Redemption HQ to discuss this with Arthur, the floor duty in their city.
"Arthur. The seventh floor is unlocked!" said a man, younger than Arthur and older than Seth, pointing towards the bright lights around Times Square.
"Let's go and win there!" said the woman close to the man, trying to encourage Arthur.
"Where's Jackson?" asked Arthur, curious.
"He's not feeling well. He'll be in charge of this HQ while you're absent," replied the man. Arthur recognized him as Liam.
"Have you got your weapons ready?" asked Arthur.
Liam and the woman near him, Caroline, nodded as they showed their weapons: a rifle and a light sabre. Arthur also nodded. He seemed to walk into the residence to get his weapons.
Now, Seth was still in that place with Liam and Caroline. Arthur's two friends, who were younger than Arthur, looked sarcastically at Seth as if they saw him as a threat to their floor duties.
"Hey, stranger. Do you want to join this floor duty too?" asked Liam coldly.
"Yeah. I've been waiting for this moment since I was in Chicago," said Seth.
"Is that so, huh? You'd better take care of yourself," Caroline retorted, belittling Seth's abilities.
"That's a nice thing to say. You should also take care of Arthur from the trauma he's going through," Seth said.
Liam and Caroline looked at each other, never expecting Seth to realize that Arthur feared floor tasks, especially now that the unlocked floor task was on the seventh floor; the higher the unlocked floor, the greater the difficulty.
Arthur arrived after opening the door to the residence, coming in the same suit of clothes, except that his right hand seemed to be holding a spear-like staff with a blue glowing pointed tip.
"Are you ready? Don't worry, we'll protect you," Liam said, confident in his abilities.
Their leader cleared his throat softly. Stepping together, they left the Redemption HQ area towards Times Square while Seth stood beside his black hoverbike parked outside the HQ entrance gate.
Before leaving, Seth tried to ensure his armament was complete and ready to use. He reinserted the blue plasma bottles into his two pistols until the blue bars were fully charged.
Not only pistols, but he also kept three hand bombs that originally belonged to Laura in his pants pockets. The right pocket held a shock bomb, while the left pocket held an explosive bomb.
"Alright. Game time!"
***
Seth flew over the city street on his hoverbike, passing Arthur and his two friends who were still walking from HQ to the place. Seth had pinned the floor information on his wristband, so a countdown appeared from the holographic screen above his system bracelet.
The countdown for each floor was different, ranging from 10 minutes to an hour at the most, depending on the difficulty of the floor. For the 7th floor, the countdown started at 15 minutes.
Seth had nothing to fear from failing to join, considering he was already close to the green area circle when the countdown time was still ten minutes left.
People who wanted to join the floor assignment were only required to stay in the green area on the map until the countdown time ended. The Skywatchers would detect the ID of each survivor in the circle. The read speed of the Skywatcher's ID system was extremely fast; even one second that someone was out of the circle, then he was out of the list of participants.
Seth arrived before the green circle. It seemed that the area had actually turned green thanks to the help of drones flying over the place. The man parked his hoverbike near a bakery, leaving it in an active self-defence system.
"I can't believe there are still so many people who want to join the floor duty," Seth said.
The man's two eyes witnessed hundreds of people in the area, in groups and solo. Seth could see it clearly: which ones were fighting solo, which ones were fighting in groups.
Seth's body was now fully inside the green circle, with a new notification on the holographic screen above the system bracelet he wore.
[System Bracelet Detected]
[Name: Seth Murphy]
[Level: 69]
[Has been registered as a participant of the seventh floor's Realms of Tentative]
[Game Type: Capture the Essence of Life]
[Game location: New York]
[Game Rules:]
[1. Participants are allowed to work together in groups or individually.]
[2. Participants are required to collect the shards of life within the game arena.]
[3. Participants are allowed to use any method to get the shards of life.]
[4. The participant with the most shards of life will be declared the winner.]
[5. The game duration is 72 hours.]
[6. The game maker will disqualify participants who leave the game arena.]
[Happy playing!]
The game rules appeared on the holographic screen above Seth's system bracelet, displaying the six main points of collecting the item. The game's theme was almost the same as the theme on the second floor, but people had no idea that the shards of life were in the bodies of living things.
Seth looked towards the outer circle. Arthur and his two friends came after walking from Redemption HQ. They were inside the circle and immediately registered as game participants with 7 minutes left on the countdown time.
"There will be a lot of people killed," Seth muttered.
A female survivor accidentally heard Seth's words, almost the same age as Seth with complete equipment, like a professional survivor. She turned her head sharply towards Seth, intending to uncover the man's intentions.
"Since the second floor, from the 3000 people who joined, only 700 have managed to finish the game," said the woman, walking over to Seth and standing right beside the man, her eyes fixed on the outer circle.
"Who the hell are you?" asked Seth flatly.
"You have absolutely no idea what you're getting yourself into," she explained, stepping away from Seth strangely, her forehead puckered with a glint in her eye.
"Weird woman."
With five minutes left on the countdown clock, the game makers began to prepare. The major alien craft in the sky began to drop down small, round, black aircraft containing 5-10 Skywatchers.
There were ten Skywatcher aircraft that began to descend in several places. They were usually tasked with clearing the game area from citizens who didn't join it.
They were given two choices: stay where they were or evacuate elsewhere. The seventh-floor game area is relatively long, based in Times Square and extends across the city all the way to Maspeth in the Queens area. It was the same distance from the centre point to the west, as the game area was circular.
"Are you sure you won't join us, Seth?" asked Arthur, offering Seth to join his small group.
"I'll fight on my own. You don't have to worry about me," Seth replied.
"All right. Take care of yourself, Seth!" said Arthur, leaving together with Liam and Caroline, leaving the Times Square location to the west.
[Three minutes before the game starts]
[00:00:02:59]
The notification screen reappeared, displaying the countdown. Seth changed his mind, thinking it would be more beneficial for him to ride a hoverbike. He briefly left the circle and re-entered.
He rode on the hoverbike and was ready to join the game.
[00:00:00:03]
[00:00:00:02]
[00:00:00:01]
[The Game Begins!]
[00:71:59:59]