The white emptiness seemed to stretch limitlessly, and due to its monochromatic nature, it was tasking to discern its edges—if it had any.
I picked my fallen body from the ground and swung my arms around my clothes in a bid to dust them. Surprisingly, not a single speck of dust had been lifted from my clothes, contradictory to the other realms we had faced.
I shifted my vision to Noelle, who had just stood up and was observing the environment, and then to Lucas, who stared enraged at the other groups who were spaced out. Lucas waved his right arm as if shrugging off their existence.
'So what do we do now, leader?' I muttered, mocking his leadership as I found it hard to believe he surpassed my strength.
'Huh? What was that!' he turned back, smirking ominously as he approached me with full force. I backed off, readying myself for a fight only to be disrupted by a faint voice.
'Stop... let's try to work together so that we can escape here. No need to fight or anything.' I looked at Noelle as she spoke, knowing she regretted speaking up due to her shyness.
As expected, there were two rebellious teens in the group, me and Lucas, and only one cool-minded member, who unfortunately couldn't find the courage to lead, Noelle.
Suddenly, Lucas stopped his advance and faced the emptiness as he maintained his casual posture. I could feel the tension loosening and soon he spoke.
'What was that stuff the Instructor was talking about? The 'system taking over' thing,' he spoke, his voice calmer and lower than it usually was.
I looked at him, bewildered at his unusual calmness, and then decided to speak.
'How would we know?' I sighed heavily and moved back to Noelle, trying to regroup. I stared at the other groups as they began conversing—planning perhaps.
As soon as Lucas retaliated, a holographic panel appeared before us, this time, visible to everyone. It was like a virtual reality lobby but in fact, it was reality.
'What's this?' I said, amazed, as I focused on the text written in thin white font on the neon blue panel.
[ Quest: Delete 5 Players From Existence
Punishment: -Beast Taming Skill ]
I stared at the panel, surprised at what I had just seen. It instructed me to kill 5 Players, probably from other teams. The punishment was most surprising and to an extent, disheartening.
I would lose Blaze? I questioned myself as the panel slowly disappeared from my view. It was then that a thought struck me. Only I was able to tame the beast, or so I thought, which meant that others must have different Punishments.
I stretched my neck to view Noelle's quest just before it had disappeared beyond comprehension.
[ Quest: Delete 5 Players From Existence
Punishment: -1 Ability (Mana Wielding) ]
'It's the same quest but a different punishment. It's almost like the system wants us all to die,' she whispered as I slowly drifted my head away from her panel until it completely disappeared.
She was right to an extent, only a few of us would survive. Ten at most, assuming we were fifty. Luckily, I wasn't the usual back-bencher in High School, and I put an effort into learning Mathematics.
'Hey Lucas! Did you see it?' I called out, hoping Lucas would fall back and strategize.
'Yes, of course. Now don't disturb me, I'm thinking,' he replied in a low, almost deadly tone. I was disturbed by his calm tone, knowing he could end up getting us all killed.
I looked around, counting around 80 groups in total, and discussed my findings with Noelle. She didn't seem willing to listen but frankly, it was the least I cared about. All I wanted was to come out alive, with or without my friends.
However, having a few friends by my side would be encouraging so I concluded that I would carry the team to victory.
'So, there are a total of 80 teams with 3 members each just like us. It took a while to count but I think I'm accurate,' I started, looking at her as she surprisingly paid immense attention to what I spoke of. She turned her gaze to Lucas, questioning his intentions, and I immediately dismissed the topic, fixated on our survival.
'So there are 240 of us?' she replied, actively engaging in the conversation. 'Doesn't that mean only 48 of us can survive?' she continued.
'Yes, exactly; however, I doubt we will have to kill each other. Notice how the system says 'players' instead of people?' I replied, hinting at an idea.
She looked at me confused, breaking the flow of the conversation. The atmosphere was thick and dense, making it harder to breathe although our modified bodies easily withstood it.
I immediately noticed her lack of attention, and in an attempt to regain her attention, I called her out staring in the same direction as she did.
'What the...' I said, immediately baffled by the sight. She quickly stood up and I did too. Her body positioning was impeccable and once again, I began questioning her strength.
Everyone in the center—or what seemed like it—had engaged in battle. Noises emerged, sparks of fire and light blinded my eyes and we backed away. At that point, I couldn't discern where the location of the strongest team was but anywhere that was far away from me would do.
As Noelle and I braced ourselves for any stray magic, an arm, soft and pale wrapped around our necks. I felt strands of hair on my face and based on the firmness of the arm, I could tell it was a male.
'Hey! Get off!' I mumbled as he quickly pressed onto my mouth, increasing the pressure in an attempt to crush my skull.
'He took the silent approach, what group is this guy from? Third?!' I thought as I squirmed in his grip, filled with anger. Noelle looked at me, her eyes conveying a message I couldn't understand. I shifted my gaze to her limbs which surprisingly stayed still and calm as opposed to mine.
It was at that moment of silence, that reality struck hard—I was the least strongest of the group.
'Celestial Bind,' she uttered in a faint whisper.