“So, what pathway do you wanna go in, little man?” Jack asks Loid while he looks down at him with a grin.

  Loid’s eyes widened and then his expression turned more serious and he went into deep thought. The boy has never really been asked what he wanted before so this was a new experience for him.

  If I want to make him trust me, it would help to be more kind and give him more choice and freedom instead of feeling forced into anything. A false sense of options will make Loid feel more optimistic about his situation.

  After what seemed like an eternity, Loid arrived at an answer.

  “We can just go to the one in front of us.” Loid finally answered.

  “Then, let’s go!” Jack says walking towards the tunnel-like structure.

  Loid quickly jogs to catch up with Jack. After all, the boy would have no idea how to go about escaping the maze without Jack. With the comfort of having an ally to rely on, Loid is now in the proper environment for growth.

  Inside the tunnel, it was much darker than the center in which the contestants began. The shadowy atmosphere would have usually prevented almost any vision for contestants, luckily however, there were torches that provided enough light to illuminate the tunnel.

  Jack walked with Loid for about 20 minutes in a straight line without any change in direction. Also, neither Jack nor Loid initiated any conversation at that time.

  Then, they reached a point where the path was separated into two separate sections, left or right.

  I doubt the way that we choose to go will cause a significant effect on each contestant's safety or at least refrain from lethal injury. Considering they gave us abilities that allow us to kill one another, and we have more “games” to play after this, it’s unlikely they’ll have traps that’ll kill us off too quickly. I can’t think of any benefits that would bring to whoever created the tournament of omniscience. So I’ll allow the kid to pick again this time.

  “Well, Loid it’s up to you, which way do you want to go?”

  He’ll pick left.

  “Left.” Loid said.

  In response both of them walked down the left path together.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  It was a fairly similar pathway as the previous one. Unfortunately, the terrain on the pathway the two were on now was much more rocky and difficult to get by. Along with the fact there were small little booby traps like spikes that came up from the ground every 30 seconds or a huge axe swinging from the walls.

  Thankfully, Jack’s agile movement and quick thinking and reaction time allowed them to evade all the traps. Before they knew it, Jack and Loid had been traveling for over 4 hours. At least this time, the two conversed in a good bit of small talk to keep each other company.

  Finally, Jack and Loid reached a large room with three other passageways,left, right, and forward.

  Someone is watching us, It seems they have been waiting even before we arrived.

  “It’s about time we reached a checkpoint, wouldn’t you agree?” Jack asked Loid, turning his head slightly in Loid’s direction.

  “Yeah, we’ve walked for a while.” Loid responded shyly, attempting to hide his fatigue from all the walking.

  Because of Loid being only 9 years old, his body was not able to keep up with Jack’s abnormal stamina and as a result he was barely able to walk anymore. Although Loid wasn’t going to tell Jack that, he refused to be a burden to him.

  On the bright side, Jack already predicted Loid’s tiredness even without Loid telling him. He even predicted how long it’d take to reach the room so Loid didn’t pass out beforehand. That’s why he planned on staying at the checkpoint for tonight.

  The attacker is coming from the top back left corner of the room, but is he aiming for me? No, he’s aiming for Loid,

  Just then, a man with short black hair dived from the air, intending to punch Loid with his right fist in the back of his neck. In response, Jack pushed the man’s fist outward, elbowed the man’s right shoulder and punched the man in the face with his left fist.

  The punch caused the man to fly from the air and roughly fall on the cold hard floor.

  Something is wrong, when I elbowed the guy and moved his fist his skin felt like a normal human. But when I punched him, my fist stung, does that mean he has the ability to harden his skin?

  The attacker quickly got back up from the ground and ran towards Jack.

  “Ты мертв!” The man shouted as he ran.

  He’s Russian? That means the people summoned for the tournament aren’t only from America! The tournament of omniscience must be a global death game.

  Jack ran up to the man in response and they began to engage in a fist fight.

  The attacker sent an punch from his left fist and Jack easily dodged and sent a kick to the chest in return

  He’ll throw a punch to my left side as a distraction, then he’ll try to kick me in my right knee to offset my balance.

  The attacker attempted just what Jack predicted, but when he tried to hit Jack in his side, he jumped back instead of blocking and caught the man’s fist. Then he pulled the attacker to him and kneed him in the face, and then he threw the man to the ground.

  Just as I thought, his ability gives him steel like skin, I can dent him and stuff he can fight for long periods of time because he can’t bleed like a normal person. I’ll have to kill him with non-traditional methods.

  The attacker jumped right up and continued to engage in combat with Jack.

  Loid had already materialized a pistol and wanted to help Jack but there was one issue.

  Where do I shoot? I know I have to help Mr Jack but I don’t know how to shoot the other guy without Mr Jack being shot!

  These were the thoughts currently going through Loid’s head. Which his why he hadn’t made any action to engage in the fight.

  However, Jack had already thought of a way to end the fight, and Loid is the key to doing it.

  Jack slowly moved the fight, without anyone noticing, to the entrance wall of the room. Which was right under a huge rock.

  “Loid! Shoot the rock above us!” Jack said, getting punched right after he said those words.

  Loid looked up and understood Jack’s orders. He shot lots of bullets around the rock to carve out an area so it was loose enough to have the rock fall off.

  Jack jumped out the way and the rock fell and crushed the attacker rendering the main unable to move. Once the main was immobilized, Jack walked over to the man’s head, which was slightly sticking out from under the rock. Then, he snapped the attacker's neck which killed him instantly.

  Jack looked down at the man with cold unwavering eyes.

  It happened again. I was unable to feel anything from killing someone. I’ve killed so many people that I’m unable to feel any emotion when I do it anymore. All the fear, disgust, remorse, and even guilt, has already disappeared. Does this make me a monster? Am I still even human?