It was something amazing and infuriating to watch. Nearly a few seconds had passed after the announcement, some people grunting, most of them cheering and clapping.

Then everyone stopped.

His voice echoed through the space with such strength and authority, I could swear I was back in the military. I could see him from afar, a tall and slender man with a bit of his hair falling on his eyes.

Even if I could not see his expressions from where I stood, I could sense through his voice.

"Listen here. I don't know what kind of trial everyone went through the first time, yet right now we need to be organized. The real objective here is likely to protect these towers, this means we must play smart."

Huh, he sure was comfortable with himself, that guy.

"There are a couple of structures that need people either operating them or close enough to do a recharge. This means leaving these walls. I will first ask for volunteers and if none comes forward, we will make a random selection."

I opened the store again, confirming what trench-guy was saying. I got so focused on the price, I hadn't read the descriptions yet.

At first, I thought no one would be crazy enough to volunteer, yet at the front I saw a few raising hands, at least seven. My guess was those people knew him from the first challenge.

Kurosawa nodded once, as he saw the raised hands.

"Our main goal is to become self-sufficient, without needing to expend our own points to power the structures. This means we must make the biggest investment right now, to kill the monsters faster and increase our profit. If anyone would be willing to contribute for this first round—"

"We can count on older mister for this! He is rich, he said so!"

I bulged my eyes, staring at Hildr with a frozen expression. So this was how I was good enough for them, then?

By being 'rich older mister'?

"Isn't that the guy..."

"Oh yeah, it's him alright."

"Told you folks he was only up there because of his points."

It was so strange. There were no tears in my eyes, so why did it feel like I was crying?

When Kurosawa glanced at my direction, I thought I saw him squinting his eyes. "Do you have at least two thousand points then?"

Two thousand?! Is he insane? Why would we even need that much?

Perhaps it was because he had recognized me from earlier and was trying to mess with me, the nerve.

Or maybe...

If this trial was like a tower defense game, we could upgrade the structures. And if those upgrades were more expensive, if they were necessary even for the first wave, it could be troublesome.

Not only that, we didn't know how fragile the structures were, or how easily the monsters would be able to break them.

Things could get quite troublesome, quite fast, if we didn't handle the waves well.

"In fact, I do have two thousand points. You see, I didn't go spending my points irresponsibly."

Although I spoke directly to trench-coat-guy, I saw some people around me averting their eyes. Seemed like I hit a nerve on more people than I first intended to.

Kurosawa did not move an inch. Even from afar, I could feel his burning gaze. "Then I hope you are responsible enough to spend these points, adequately."

The smirk grew on my lips as if it had its own will. That bastard, he really knew how to annoy me.

"Since we are losing our time with this speech of yours, can I place the structures already? The first wave will start quite soon."

[Time Until First Wave: 0:58]

We had less than a minute, in fact.

"We should first discuss our strategy before—"

"Didn't you just say you wanted me to prove I can waste money responsibly? I will bank the entire first wave, this way everyone here can see how reliable and responsible I am."

Deep down, I knew I was being petty. Was it so wrong that I wanted to restore a little bit of my pride? Maybe it was a very stupid decision on my part, yet either way, I would have to deal with the consequences on my own.

When Kurosawa said nothing more, I took his silence as my 'permission' to do whatever I wanted.

I opened the store, seeing the items we could currently buy. There was a ballista and a spinning wooden hammer. The ballista seemed to be quite big, it would fire two arrows at a time, probably.

While the spinning hammer, there were thick, sharp thorns surrounding the entire thing with one lever on its back.

My guess was someone would have to keep turning and spinning the lever to make the thing move. This made things complicated.

The ballista just needed someone to aim, by the looks of it, so it would be better for me to focus on getting more of those instead.

When I pressed the ‘BUY’ button, a map appeared in front of me, divided by many small squares. I could see the walls surrounding us, as well as the trail that started in the woods and went all the way to the tower we were protecting, in theory.

The wave would likely come from the woods, so it was best to put a couple of hammers in the middle of the trail, one on each side, and a few ballistas surrounding it.

There would be people operating those things, so putting two ballistas in front and two in the back would protect the people responsible for the hammers.

Or so I was hoping.

I put a distance between the structures, picking their location simply by clicking on the squares shown on the map. Each time a structure was bought and installed, there would be a loud thump, the ground shaking beneath my feet.

“I hope you truly know what you are doing. Park Eunwoo.”

The voice was suddenly right behind me, hot breath brushing against my ear. I did my best not to turn around and punch that look out of his face.

“Only one way to find out, right?”

[First Wave starts in: 0:19]

And that was the only way any of us could find anything out in those games.

Trial and error.

“The ones who volunteered, I need six of you outside now! The wave is about to start.”

It was impossible to not feel pulled and lured by this guy’s presence. He was like a real general, a man who emanated… Trust. Competence. I truly felt like I could trust my back to him, and he would protect me.

That he knew exactly what he was doing.

[Unique Aura - Foolish Endeavor]

[Active]

Hah….

That made at least one of us.

[First Wave starts in: 0:14]

I saw two women and four men rushing out of the walls, toward the structures. From inside the walls, six small screens popped up, showing the status of each structure.

[Ballista - Operational]

[Level: 1]

[100%]

[Thorny War Hammer - Operational]

[Level: 1]

[100%]

[...]

I knew this would be the first real challenge. The first Trial I would have to face and win, the first of many. I kept wondering if what I had was simply luck, or if I was a fool who kept hoping for luck.

If I was truly smart and knew what I was doing, or if I was simply playing with my own destiny.

[First Wave starts in: 0:07]

I had relied on my reasonings and my logic so far. During the Trolley Problem, Jolly Train, even at the beginning of this trial—all I ever did was trust my own instincts and logic. Nothing more, nothing less. Yet would this be enough for the next trials?

Was it enough now?

[First Wave starts in: 0:03]

[First Wave starts in: 0:02]

Did I really want to be a fool? No, even more important than that—

[Unique Aura - Foolish Endeavor]

[ACTIVE]

Had I made the right choice?

[First Wave]

[Survive Until the End]

Whether I was ready or not, I was going to find out.