Back at the hospital where Rachel was admitted for intensive care, three individuals came to her room. They were two men and a woman. They wore that same white military uniform that Rachel and Malcolm had donned in their fight against the party. With anger and sadness, they stared at their injured comrade, who was currently unconscious.
"How...could this happen?" With frustration filling her voice, the woman asked. "Rachel...she's so injured...and Malcolm..."
"I...I don't know what to say, Rebecca, a situation like this has never happened before..." One of the males responded.
"It's obvious, Ethan, this happened because they were weak." The other male added. "The military has no use for defective super soldiers that can't accomplish their task of getting rid of blessed individuals turned criminals."
"Sebastian, you don't need to act cold like you normally do...you aren't fooling anyone," Ethan said. "We know that you are feeling bad as well."
"...shut it," Sebastian said as he averted his gaze from Rachel. "I'm...going outside." He said before exiting the room, without being stopped by the two super soldiers.
As Rebecca was observing Rachel's wounds, like a fire increasing in heat, her anger had risen in intensity. Ethan noticed that her fists were balled up and shaking.
"We...have to kill them," Rebecca said. "There's no way we'll let this slide!"
Alarmed by her increase in tone, Ethan cut her off. "H...Hey, let's not shout in the hospital. Besides, we have to leave soon. The doctors will be back to operate on her. Come on."
"...Okay." She agreed, but not before holding Rachel's hand. "Don't worry, we'll kill the ones that did this to you." Out of empathy, Ethan didn't rush her any further. He waited at the door for her to finish her promise towards her comrade. After declaring her promise, they left Rachel in the hands of the medical professionals.
* * *
With the chirping of birds and the warmth of the sunlight beating onto the earth, another morning rose, signaling the second day of Nathan's 'new life'. He was currently sleeping, however.
"...than."
"...Nathan."
"Hey, Nathan!"
Nathan was awakened from his slumber by the shoves of Zack and the callouts from Ada.
"...what." He asked as they surrounded his personal space.
"You sleep pretty dead, ya know," Zack said.
"Come on and get up. The news is on now! I think they're talking about the super soldier incident." Ada explained and so Nathan rose and turned his attention to the warehouse's television.
The news reporter, Ashley, usually jovial in her debriefing, wore an air of seriousness and bias to the broadcast, one of a greater nature than normal.
"As the nation is aware, due to the incompetency of our law enforcement, numerous casualties have been realized because of criminals that should have been dealt with quite a while ago." Ashley began, depicting her opinions of who should be blamed through her words.
"Understandably, our law enforcement has been blamed for this by the society. Their incompetency could be seen further as not one, but two super soldiers were unable to get the job done, even though super soldiers were used to detaining or eliminating Jack the Ripper and the battle-crazed killer, Charles, respectively."
Hmm, I wonder how Charles is still alive if they intended to eliminate him in the past? How did Jack get stronger despite being incarcerated? Guess I'll find out later or something.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
"Despite their response not taking place until morning, our country's law enforcement has decided to return Jack Knight and Charles Warner, along with adding Zack Isaac, Olivia Gray, Ada Foster...and Nathan Hayes to the level five criminal list, or more commonly known as the 'S class' criminal list."
S-Class...I've heard of that before.
"To understand the severity of this decision, you must understand that up until now, excluding Jack the Ripper and the battle-crazed killer, only two criminals have been recorded in the S Class list, with them both currently being incarcerated."
"Ooh, those guys sound strong!" Charles enthusiastically said.
"Who knows," Zack said.
"The reason for this rare amount of level five criminals is due to the effects it could have on our society. State of emergency, constant surveillance by the military, kill-on-sight issued on the target criminals, and in the worst case situation, martial law. With the use of super soldiers, a last resort martial law could spell more ha--"
Before Ashley could finish her explanation, the television switched to 'Audio Only'.
"Hey guys, did you hear that? S Class! You guys are finally getting the respect you deserve as my game characters!" The developer said, in his usual twisted encouragement.
"Couldn't you have just waited till the news finished?" Zack asked.
"The rest isn't important. What's important is what you guys will do in response to this!" The developer answered. "I've been waiting for this moment since I picked you guys out!" Excitement overflowed from the developer's words as he got louder.
"You guys have officially made your debut and killed two super soldiers! Thanks to that, the trust in the law enforcement society used to have is slowly starting to crumble away!" As the developer was monologuing, the party couldn't help but cringe at the unnecessary excitement.
"It's a good thing we're not seeing your face...I can bet you're smiling stupidly right now, nerd." Zack whispered, causing Jack to chuckle.
"Now, it would be stupid to pass up this opportunity to continue messing with them! The more the country hates them, the more drastic decisions the superiors will make! They'll make completing this whole mission faster than normal!"
"Sounds like more people will die," Jack said.
"Exactly! Tons of people will die to get rid of the nation's security! That is what my game is about! The actual commencement of the 'Murder Game'!"
Upon hearing the developer declaring that tons of people would die, Jack could not help but crack a sadistic smile.
"Oh yeah, Nathan, you don't want to kill unnecessary people, huh." The developer mentioned. Jack turned to Nathan with an annoyed expression after what the developer said.
"I...no longer care." Nathan clarified. "I lost the only thing that kept me sane...plus it's as you said earlier...I do hate this country. It doesn't matter what happens anymore..." Jack's annoyance quickly changed into a pleased expression upon Nathan's cold explanation.
"What an amazing resolve, Nathan! Keep drowning in your hatred. That will be useful in completing this game!"
"...So what do you need us to do now?" Nathan asked.
"Easy, all you guys need to do is cause mischief. Do anything you guys want to mess with the military. Force them to take more and more drastic measures, guys!" The developer explained.
"Killing buggers is always the best way, I'm sure," Jack said while doing knife tricks in his hand.
"I've got some ideas too..." Nathan added.
"Oh, also, I got these for you guys." The developer said before the NPC approached them with phone boxes in his hand.
"Gasp! Are those, what I think it is!?" Ada asked, her eyes gleaming with excitement.
"Yup, phones for everyone...some of the newest models too."
The NPC handed each of them a phone box.
"This way you guys will communicate with one another, even when you aren't near...and make sure to take care of them...right Nathan?"
"...Tsk, whatever."
* * *
After the announcement that the party was placed on the S Class list, the military did not hesitate to take some action. Military vehicles and police cars were parked on different streets. There were no super soldiers yet. However, just a large amount of soldiers and cops were seen surveilling the areas where they parked at.
Civilians seem nervous going about their daily lives under the now constant observance of law enforcement.
"Look, I'm just trying to go to my workplace, sir! I'm not a criminal!" A disgruntled individual could be seen arguing with a group of cops and soldiers who had stopped him.
"My apologies, sir, we mistook you for a wanted individual." One of the soldiers apologized. Disrespected by their assumption of him being a criminal, the civilians stormed past them.
* * *
Driving on the road was Nathan. He had been watching the movements of law enforcement and took some routes to avoid them as much as possible.
"It's pretty hard to avoid all these guys...looks like we annoyed them for them to do this, huh...good thing I can blend in with the traffic since they won't check everyone," Nathan said before checking the GPS on his new phone.
"It should be around here somewhere...ah, there it is," Nathan said before parking at the side of the road. A few buildings down was a police station. Before exiting the car, Nathan put on the black hoodie he got from Olivia with a mask. The mask was a white, generic one. It had the outline of a human's facial features.
"Well, here goes nothing."