"We promise that we will never try to rob anyone if you let us go!" the men said in unison, feeling as if they were somehow swaying Elias.
Their plan was working. Even if he was strong, he was still a child in their eyes, someone who hadn't seen the cruelty of the world. It was normal for him to fall for emotional tricks.
At least that's what they thought until Elias responded.
"What do the lives of your families have to do with me?" he asked, calmly wearing the brass knuckles on his fingers. "When you were trying to hurt me, did you think that I might also have a family?"
"We weren't trying to kill you! At most, we would've hurt you!" one of the men exclaimed, having a really bad feeling about this. "We told you, we had no other choice."
"I also have no other choice. I hope you can understand..." Elias mumbled, looking out the window at a world that was slowly being covered in an embrace of snow.
"You bastard, you never intended to let us go in the first place!" A man jumped at Elias with a knife in his hand. Even if he had to fight for survival, he was willing.
"I thought you weren't trying to kill anyone?" Elias asked, dodging the knife. He grabbed the man's wrist, twisting his arm behind his back.
"Argh!" the man groaned in pain, the knife dropping from his hands. He was turned around and tossed out of the window, falling to his death.
"Make things easier for me..." Elias picked up the knife and tossed it before the men, as if waiting for them to attack him again.
"Are you mocking us?" The men, even if they were scared, picked up their weapons. Although they wanted to avoid a fight, there didn't seem to be any other choice.
Unfortunately, the faster they came, the faster they were tossed out of the apartment to their deaths. Before long, the entire room was left empty with only a knife and a few other cold weapons left behind on the floor.
"Would I have fallen for their words if I hadn't seen their actions on that screen?" He picked up the knife, his fingers brushing against the sharp blade. "I wonder."
He stepped out of the room, fiddling with his watch. He pressed the second button, which was said to hold the map of the entire domain that belonged to him.
As soon as he pressed the button, a holographic map appeared before him. Contrary to his expectations, this wasn't just a map of his domain. It was the complete map of this world.
There were seventy domains marked on the map, each with a black line that wrapped around it. Each domain had only one blue dot, which he believed depicted the others from the Academy.
Most of the blue dots were near the center of their domains, but a few were rushing towards the borders. It had barely been an hour since the test began, and things had already started heating up.
There were several red dots in each domain. Even Elias wasn't sure about their meaning. Did they show humans with abilities? he wondered.
"Is that green dot representing me?" He looked at the green dot in the center of his domain. There was also a smaller red dot, which was right here he was.
There was one more dot that stood out from the rest. It was a beautiful, bright white dot. It was the Professor, who was watching over the world.
There was also a third button on the watch, which the professor hadn't explained. He pressed it, and another hologram appeared. This time, the hologram formed a list of names, with something akin to scores written next to them.
There were already a few who had gained over a hundred points, which was equivalent to them killing around a thousand people each. This world had really become a hunting ground for them, with each of them fighting for the top rank.
The list was refreshed every second, and the scores only kept rising. At this point, Elias was even more certain that it was impossible to catch up to their scores by following the first method.
There were only two options for him. He could either kill the top ranker and take that score for himself, or he could turn the third option into a possibility. He wanted to try both methods, but there was one thing he needed for them.
He walked to the stairs and started checking upstairs to find the human with abilities who was staying inside this apartment building.
Although it was said that he could get one point by looking at people with abilities, Elias looked at it differently. One one wasn't worth anything in the grand scheme of things. What held more value was their abilities v
The people with abilities were targets for others. But in his eyes, they were extremely useful. Each of them had an ability that was unique. Although these abilities were temporary, it didn't matter to him. It wasn't as if he was going to live here forever.
He only needed those abilities for seven days. It didn't matter if it was the second method or the third option. It was only possible with their help, especially since he didn't have any elemental abilities.
Although searching throughout the entire building was a time-consuming process, he finally found his destination after an hour. He stood in front of an apartment.
Even the door of this apartment looked different from the rest, as if someone had spent a lot of money to have it reinforced. This couldn't have been possible after the apocalypse arrived. It only meant that the person knew that this apocalypse was about to arrive.
Elias knocked on the door and waited for a response, but even after a few seconds, no response came. He knocked again, but the result didn't change.
The person inside the room didn't open the door, which made Elias rub his forehead in frustration.
"Fine. I'll let myself in." He placed his hand on the door and said, "Confirm Extraction."