What’s wrong with her? Isn’t she relieved that I saved her? Shouldn’t she be grateful? Why does she look so afraid?

  Jack didn’t have lots of time to ponder these thoughts before he had to get going once again.

  “BANG!”

  The sound of a gunshot ringed throughout the forest, catching Jack’s attention. This caused only one thought to go through the young man’s mind.

  Loid.

  Jack dashed over to where he heard the gunshot at top speeds, leaving the still frightened Riveria all by herself.

  As he ran he was solely focused on reaching Loid as fast as possible. So fast in fact, that he traveled across 12,100 feet in a mere 10 seconds which caused him to arrive at Loid’s location. The first thing Jack saw was Loid running towards his direction, gun in hand, as fast as possible, not even realizing Jack was there. But when he finally bumped into Jack, the relief on the young boy’s face was clear as day.

  Behind Loid there was the brown haired woman limping towards him, visibly in a lot of pain. Blood soaked her pants and dripped from the gunshot wound in her leg.

  I understand it now, the second he saw her he shot just like I told him to. And then ran away in order to make distance between them. After all, guns are best utilized at a distance. Plus, he had no idea what her ability was.

  “Y-you damn brat..I wasn’t even going to kill you…” She said before dropping to her knees and toppling over. As her blood loss visibly zaps her strength and consciousness, her eyes begin to close. Once her consciousness faded, Jack lifted his right leg and slammed his foot into her skull, killing her instantly.

  Then, a spear comes flying at Loid and Jack, only missing them due to Jack quickly moving out the way just in time.

  “WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO MY WOMAN!” Grayson yelled, running towards Loid as the spear teleported into his hand.

  Grayson lifted the spear up and attempted to strike but his attack was blocked by Jack's forearm. As the tip of the spear slowly penetrated his skin, Jack uppercutted the man and sent him flying away. Once Grayson regained his senses, he ran at Jack and thrusted the spear towards Jack's head. Jack ducked, grabbed Grayson’s wrist and twisted it, which caused the spear to fall from his palm. For the split second Grayson was disarmed, Jack kicked his ankle, grabbed Grayson’s face, and smashed it into the ground.

  Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

  As blood began pouring from Grayson’s head, Jack pulled his hand away and stepped away from the new crater in the ground. After getting a good look at Grayson, anyone would’ve known immediately that the man was dead.

  The sound of loud clapping rang throughout the area as Lucy suddenly appeared.

  “Congratulations on your win. I have to admit, I didn’t expect the outcome to be this brutal. All three of the murder by the same man. Very impressive. Which is why I’d like you to come over here so we can have a little chat.” She said with a mischievous grin.

  Jack waved at Loid and walked over to Lucy, giving her a confused look.

  What does she want? Did I break some sort of rule?

  “What is it?” Jack asks.

  “Well, us Onlookers put bets on which candidate will win the tournament. Unfortunately, none of my bets ever win. This time, I bet on you so I want to make sure you win no matter what.” She says as she gives him a green gem. “This will explode if crushed and create a poisonous gas. Use this when you really need it, and don’t tell any of the other onlookers about this.” She instructs Jack, finishing her explanation.

  “Understood.” Jack said.

  “Great, that is all. Today is the seventh day so you have three days left to complete the maze. Goodbye!” Lucy says and then snaps her fingers which cause Jack, Loid and Riveria to teleport to a checkpoint inside the maze.

  Loid and Riveria were very surprised by their sudden change in environment but Jack expected this so he didn’t react much. When Riveria saw Jack, her face contorted into an expression of pure rage. She ran over to him and held him by the collar.

  Who the hell does this woman think she is? She’d be lucky if I don’t kill her right now.

  “You killed her! You killed a person in cold blood! What is wrong with you?!” She yelled at him.

  “So? She was about to kill you. Did you want to die?” He responded calmly.

  “You don’t know that! Plus, capturing us is their goal! It’s what they were assigned to do! You can’t kill them by following instructions!” She rebutted.

  “And I was simply preventing that in order to win, which was our instructions. You call my actions wrong but saying they were simply following instructions is illogical. The very nature of this place is to do anything in order to win.” He says, still maintaining a calm demeanor.

  “I DONT CARE!” She shouts, now beginning to cry.

  “Those people had families and loved ones who cared about them! Now they’ll never see them ever again! Killing is never acceptable under any circumstances! HELL, IVE EVEN LOST MY OWN PARENTS TO MURDER!”

  After Riveria said those words, the entire room went quiet and the atmosphere became very tense.

  “Riveria…What happened to your parents?” Jack asked, a bit more softly than before.

  “My parents were just going out to buy medicine for me because I was sick. But they never came back. A shootout took place between two rival gangs over stolen money. A 7 year old girl was around my age at the time. My parents protected her with their bodies and got killed in the crossfire. The worst part is that neither of the criminals were arrested for their crimes. Heck, I’m sure they probably got the money they wanted so much that they were willing to get civilians involved. Now don’t you see how I hate murder? Even if we get what we need we destroy lives in the process! Murder always affects more than just the people you kill. The criminals not only affected my parents, but affected me as well with their deaths. We can beat this game without murder. We have to.” She says while looking down at the ground, her hair covering her eyes.

  But that kind of thinking is overly optimistic. It’s simply not the reality of the situation. This tournament is kill or be killed.

  “Riveria…how can you still believe that after playing game 0. The whole game was just a mindless massacre.” Jack says.

  “If I’m being honest…I don’t really know what happened in game 0. When I was teleported I just hid in the nearest building and prayed nothing would hurt me.” She responded.

  Once she said, everything clicked in Jack’s mind. All her actions, her outbursts, her thought process has now been laid bear for Jack to comprehend. He was now given Riveria’s story in the truest and fullest sense.

  “I think we should just rest here for today.” Jack said.