"Eden?" The man replied, his brain searching through its memory bank for the name of such location, but nothing came as a result.
"I'm sorry but I don't think I have heard of such a place." With sincerity in his tone, he did not forget to size up the figure in front of him with scrutinizing eyes. The person's intentions were unclear and their mysteriousness only gave him more of a reason to increase his alertness around the figure.
"I see..." The area entered a state of silence, an occasional breeze would brush past their cheeks and the only sound present was the howling of the winds tickling their ears. The quietness stirred some of them to a restless state, their fingers tightening its grip around their weapons as they patiently waited for any response.
"Do you know of a place where I can gather information from?" For what seemed like an eternity, the figure finally spoke up and eased a bit of tension between both parties.
The middle aged man however, continued to raise his guard up against the cloaked figure. Despite the person's obviously deep voice, he could not assume his gender to be male for there have been others who were capable of manipulating their voices to disguise their true gender. If he were to release the slightest of killing intent he'd immediately take action for his own safety—selfish as he may sound, nobody can be trusted in this world he lives in. Besides, every survivor knew of the best place to gather information from; it was common knowledge. So was this person ignorant? Even those who decided to roam the world alone without companions knew such information, and even had their own methods of gathering them.
Underneath the hood, the mysterious figure's lips hooked to a smile as their eyes observed the man who remained quiet to his question.
One of his companions spoke up, a male with pale eyes which made him look to be part of those who lost their ability of vision; but seemed perfectly fine in gazing at the exact spot the figure stood on. He was taller than the middle aged man with above-average looks and disheveled caramel locks adorning his head, coated with glistening sweat.
"There's a large ruined city located north-east from here. It is known to be both a trading and resting point for all survivors and one of the safest places around despite the increasing dangers as the game progresses. You can gather intel from there." A friendly atmosphere radiated from the man's figure as the cloaked figure received a warm and welcoming smile from the man.
The middle aged man hid his glare directed towards the taller man, he wondered how such a dense and kind person could live to this day ever since the beginning of the game. Kindness is a double edged sword and more so is beauty, it can be wielded as a weapon or it could be used against you and the consequences could be dire. In fact, his entire group consisting of both handsome and beautiful people was a risk and he could feel his heart palpitate whenever time passed by, who knows when these ticking bombs would explode.
"...I am grateful for your assistance, I'll be on my way then." The figure lowered their head towards the group, before turning to face the north-east and proceeded forward with calm steps. As the group observed, the figure seemed to treasure the branch in its arms, caressing it and holding it in their embrace with so much care.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Aside from the middle aged man, another person remained suspicious of the cloaked figure. She had witnessed the twitch of the person's finger upon her companion speaking about the game. They seemed disturbed, was it a trauma? Questions flooded her mind and the answers flew further away the more she pondered about the matter.
"Wait!" The sudden shout of the pale-eyed man froze the figure on the spot.
"Would you like to join us? It's safer with people to accompany you and besides, we have the same destination." His suggestion made the middle aged man shoot him an exaggerated look.
Was he a fool or a fool in disguise? He seemed too kind and welcoming to the point it irked him. He was someone he deemed the most dangerous out of all the members in his group, he just couldn't decipher him and it was terrifying. Now he's inviting a person who had the ability to dispose of them easily, judging from the prowess they showed in subjugating the horde in just a few minutes. He desperately wanted to leave this group but it wasn't the right timing, he was still too weak to handle things himself.
He had hoped the figure would refuse but despair came in mere seconds.
"Of course."
Oh how he wanted to drown himself in his own piss.
"Great! I'm Quinton, you can call me Quin. The old guy is Morgan, the twins are Sean and Wendy. Blondie is Katelyn, and this cutie here is Delilah." He introduced everyone before gesturing to the short haired woman who looked unimpressed with him which only made his grin stretch wider across his cheeks.
"Mort." A single word escaped from the cloaked figure's lips. The name made the blonde woman, Katelyn's, emerald eyes glitter. The corner of her lips hooked to a small smirk.
"A suitable name for someone with that power."
The figure seemed a little uncomfortable under her gaze but stood their ground, holding onto their composure as interest was evident in their tone.
"Never thought I'd find someone who knew the meaning."
This raised many questioning looks from the others, "Are you perhaps french?" The cloaked figure laid its gaze upon Katelyn.
"Oui, Monsieur Mort." Her dimples made her more appealing to look at, but nobody missed the playful look flashing past her pupils.
"What exactly are you both talking about?" A younger and husky voice spoke out, belonging to the twin brother, Sean.
"Mort, it's old french for 'Death'." Katelyn rolled her eyes at the impatience of the youngster, throwing out that simple statement everyone but three of them; Katelyn, Mort and Morgan, made out voices of realization.
"Alright, we don't have much time left so I suggest we hurry our pace before the game resumes." Delilah interrupted everyone after breaking from her daze, her British accent obvious from the way she spoke.
Everyone nodded their heads before starting their journey, the countless questions in Mort's head remained unanswered. It seemed Mort stumbled upon a game unknowingly, would he be forced to participate or would he just observe from the sidelines? The circumstances from the past and the present were so similar. He silently hoped their future did not end up like those from the past. Ever since he entered this world, he was thrown into an unknown environment of danger but not as high as he expected. The stranger he met upon his first encounter with another human mentioned the place called 'Eden'. According to the stranger, Eden was similar and named after the 'Garden of Eden' in the bible. If he wanted to find the safest and most peaceful place devoid of any danger, Eden was the location he was looking for. The only problem present was gathering information and looking for any individual who could confirm its existence and knew where it was located at.
Even if Eden did not actually exist, he would continue his search for a place of similar conditions, and he would not rest until he finally discovers an existing and suitable location solely for the branch of cherry blossoms resting upon his embrace.