When I finally came home, it was already quite late, and after all the training I did, I was pretty tired. But while I had all the equipment prepared that I could get my hands on in such a short time, there was still one matter left I had to think of.

It was the matter of killing. In the last fight, I died. Of course, it wasn't permanent or I wouldn't be here right now, but nonetheless, I died. While the Mission only talked about winning, it was quite clear that killing your opponent is the only real way to make sure you win a fight when supernatural powers are involved.

Actually, there might even someone who can infinitely revive, so even that wouldn't be 100%.

But that possibility aside, killing would be the only way to make sure I win, as was made pretty clear after my first fight. The problem with that is, killing someone is fucking scary.

Of course, I could argue that I don't kill them since they will just wake up, but besides the fact that I can't know that for sure, If I win, that means that six other people get "eliminated", which could mean pretty much anything.

Yes, I can convince myself that that wouldn't be my fault, at least to a degree. That they just had the bad luck to have lost. I could convince myself of that and then get over it later, maybe.

But there was an even more fundamental problem. The act of hurting someone. I could convince myself to kill them if I could do it quick and painlessly, but that would definitely not be possible. And I also won't delude myself with fantasies of making my opponents give up. If I don't know what exactly my opponent can do, I would never be able to effectively restrain them.

The problem is, I'm not someone who gets angry easily, and I don't like hurting people. Heck, it's not like it was my dream to become a nurse or something like that, but I just genuinely dislike hurting others.

Of course, that's not exactly right, I did do kickboxing after all. But there is a huge difference between punching and kicking someone who knows how to defend themselves and has fun doing so, and cutting someone open with a knife or smashing their head in with a sledgehammer.

Hell, I dislike cooking with meat simply because it gives me the shivers when I have to cut it. Every time I have to cut meat I can't help but imagine that it would feel not much different if it wasn't a piece of chicken on my cutting board but my own arm.

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In the end, it doesn't matter. I don't have a choice about this. Taking a deep breath through my nose, and exhaling slowly through my mouth, I calm myself down and force my mind to focus. Just forcing myself to remember how it felt to have my throat ripped out, I knew I didn't want to experience that again.

As my thoughts drifted, it took me almost two hours before I finally managed to fall asleep. Though trying to fall asleep with a heavy shield and spear in my hands, a knife on my belt, and wearing street clothes and shoes didn't help much either.

GENERATE AVATAR

ACTIVATE AVATAR

It was kind of strange suddenly appearing like this. Despite knowing that I had just gone to sleep, I just suddenly appeared here, not feeling even the least bit tired.

Quickly, I noticed two things. First, my shield and spear were gone, but I had the same clothes on I went to sleep with and the knife on my belt was also still there. That means people could bring small weapons, clothes, and probably even body armor, but nothing large. That would probably not prevent someone from bringing a handgun, but it gave me a significant advantage. I could feel through my Overskill that all the items I put into it were still inside my pocket dimension.

The second thing I noticed was that the arena had changed. While the first fight happened in an arena devoid of everything but the combatants, this time there were three big stones in different shapes.

Luckily, one of them was right between me and my opponent. At least I assumed it was. That meant I could quickly take out the smaller shield and hatchet without the other person seeing. Hopefully, they wouldn't notice that I shouldn't have these, and I could still use my pocket dimension to surprise them.

Looking at the big stone cube in front of me, I suddenly got an idea. Taking out my sledgehammer, I leaned it against the stone and used it as a step to boost myself up while simultaneously making a portal beneath it.

While I barely managed to grab the edge of the cube and pull myself up, the hammer fell right back into my pocket dimension. Quickly, I looked around, who knows what kind of abilities other people had that would allow them to get up here.

Keeping my body low, I carefully made my way over to the other side and lied down, crawling the rest of the way to peek over the edge. Unsurprisingly, no one was there. After thinking about it for a moment, it was obvious that they had moved already and didn't stand around. Or their entry point wasn't where I thought it would be and they were behind one of the other two objects.

Now I had to decide where to move next, or maybe not. I hadn't thought about it, but it was ridiculously silent in this place. the only source of sound would be either me or my opponent.

So I did my best and listened. At first, I couldn't hear anything. Only when I held my breath and kept as still as I could, did I finally hear the sound of careful steps to my left.

Now I knew where my opponent was, but they didn't, which gave me the advantage.