Episode 4
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The door to the room burst open. A woman quickly inspected the interior.
"He's not here."
She looked into every nook and cranny carefully, but found nothing. Everything was gone. He returned to his room with his heart racing. As he checked the hiding place, his eyes widened.
'It can't be..."
The sword was gone. Someone had taken it.
"Oh, no..."
She swallowed saliva, nervous. The sword was supposed to be delivered today, but it had disappeared, leaving an eerie emptiness in its place. She had to get it back.
"James!"
The butler appeared at once. His face was pale and his forehead pearly with sweat.
In front of him, a purple-haired, blue-eyed young woman was staring at him with a frown. James felt a shiver as he remembered the young master's words before he left:
'Don't trust my sister.'
Although he didn't fully understand those words, they seemed to make sense now.
"Where is my brother?"
James hesitated for a few seconds. He knew that remaining silent was not an option.
"Young Master Freddy left two hours ago, heading south."
"Do you know where exactly?"
"No, young Miss Elizabeth."
She frowned even more. James looked genuinely ignorant, but that didn't assuage his frustration.
Thud!
Elizabeth slammed the desk down hard. She clenched her fists as her anger rose.
"You said he went south, right?"
"Yes."
"Good, then I'll go find him."
James trembled as he watched him. Elizabeth's anger was quite high and James couldn't even reassure her.
"I'm sorry, young master. I had no choice. It was the only way to save myself."
For even James could die before this woman named Elizabeth and as Freddy's sister.
***
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⟨⟨==Shadow Coliseum==⟩⟩
⟨⟨==Obtain a minimum of 100 points of shadows before the end of the event==⟩⟩
⟨⟨==All participants will be in the 'Shadow Coliseum' once the event starts==⟩⟩
⟨⟨==Depending on each participant's build, the rewards will be more likely to be better if you get the highest contribution among all participants==⟩⟩
⟨⟨==Expected survival rate: 9.97% of 1000 participants. Currently, an increase in participants is expected, which will cause the survival rate to decrease==⟩⟩
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Even after seeing this for the first time, it was still very surprising.
"This is what awakened people see every time they enter a 'Creative Abyss'. It is truly awe-inspiring."
Even though I had entered countless creative abysses and bankrupted many 'Creators', still, seeing the system's message when entering a creative abyss was amazing.
Living as an 'Unawakened' was a disadvantage: you could not see these messages.
That's why, in the past, Freddy never knew what he was supposed to do in the 'Creative Abysses' every time he entered one.
To bankrupt a creator of a creative abyss meant to die for good.
Coins are a form of money in the abyss; something that depends even on the very life of the creators every time they invest in their creations for a big event inside said creative abyss.
Bankrupting a creator after an absurd contribution or making it impossible to deliver rewards to participants is what bankrupts the creator.
For example, if a participant gets a value of 100 while the creator can only deliver 50 or 60 at most, the system forcibly steals some of the creator's value of 100, whatever it is.
At the same time, the creator dies by going bankrupt, with no coins and nothing to offer as a reward.
At first, humans saw this as a disadvantage for the creators, since the participants had everything while the creators gained nothing.
However, it was different.
If the participants completed the event, the creator earned large sums of coins.
In other words, they both made a profit.
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⟨⟨==The number of participants has reached the maximum==⟩⟩
⟨⟨==2000 participants have entered the abyss of 'Andariel'==⟩⟩
⟨⟨==Expected survival rate after the end of the event is: 6.77% of 2000 participants==⟩⟩
⟨⟨==Depending on the contribution of each participant, at the end of the event the rewards could be higher==⟩⟩
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Even when the survival rate in this creative abyss dropped lower than expected, Freddy remained unperturbed.
Holding the 'Sword of Death', he felt that he could emerge victorious from this abyss.
Still, his senses told him that someone was watching all the participants.
It was, of course, the 'Creator' of this creative abyss.
Freddy looked up into the black sky.
There they were, two eyes as yellow as suns, staring down from on high.
They were the eyes of the creator, examining the participants.
Kwasik!
The ground shook.
At the same time, a round, coliseum-like structure began to rise from the ground.
It was the Shadow Coliseum, where the event of this abyss would take place.
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⟨⟨==Kill Shadow Slaves. Each slave is worth 1 point==⟩⟩
⟨⟨==Level 10 Shadow Slaves will be all over the Shadow Coliseum arena==⟩⟩
⟨⟨==Get 100 shadow points for each Shadow Slave kill==⟩⟩
⟨⟨==All participants will be teleported to the 'Shadow Colosseum'==⟩⟩
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All the participants appeared in the middle of the coliseum.
Kwasik!
At the same time, the screams of several people began to fill the place.
This was because the deaths of several humans were already in progress.
Awakened people in black suits were scattering everywhere.
"Agents of the Abyss Management Department."
They were there to evaluate the creative abyss.
Creative abysses have ranks starting at "low," "medium," "high," and "maximum." Freddy, however, was unsure of the rank of this creative abyss.
Although he guessed that it was low or medium rank, independent of whether the level of the monsters suddenly increased.
Still, he looked at it as if it was nothing.
"To save everyone, the best way is to bankrupt the creator."
The easiest way was to get the biggest contribution? Not exactly. It was better to raise the contribution to an absurd level where the creator could not grant rewards.
Although it was doubted that the other participants would manage to kill the shadow slaves and get a few shadow points.
At least, levels below 10 were among the majority of participants.
This meant that the survival rate would definitely be met, unless something happened to prevent it.
The number of people was 2,000, and with a survival rate of less than 10 %, it meant that less than 100 or even only 50 people at a minimum would survive.
Because of this, Freddy raised his sword.
At the same time, a strange magical power began to emerge.
Although Freddy did not notice it, it began to move quickly.
Even with the Abyss Management Department's agents, it could be said that these were low level.
Even if they were agents and were prepared for these situations where the survival rate was so low, somehow they were still the strongest.
So, if an "anomaly" appeared, it meant that most of them would die.
Initially, this abyss was supposed to be of low rank.
Although Freddy had never entered this abyss, he knew from the news that it was low-ranking. Still, the death toll was quite high.
Even knowing that, Freddy swung his sword and began slaughtering the shadow slaves.
Without even understanding why he was killing level 10 monsters while he was barely level 1. This, despite the known rule: level is everything when it comes to strength.