“Hahaha! Perhaps I don’t even need to send in my seven creations, they’ll have internal disputes and kill themselves off for me!” Yalda laughed.

Ain was filled with immense disappointment. Had he really been wrong about humanity all along? He paused his footsteps and contemplated.

No! Was that all his beliefs were worth? It was too soon for him to give into doubt. Although there were indeed many that were greedy and had taken more than one weapon for their own protection or benefit...

Ain turned around, and watched the many other groups that were scattered all throughout the world of Pandemonium.

…

In a meadow, a woman spoke, “Everyone, calm down and listen! Pay attention to the icons on the corner of your vision. Although we’ve all been taken to the middle of nowhere, we can’t jump to any conclusions. The safest thing to do is to follow the quest and listen to the warning of the person named Ain, everyone line up and take a weapon!”

The charismatic woman exuded the aura of a leader.

The woman had established order amidst all the chaos and confusion. Each person went up to take hold of a single weapon.

Miraculously, not a single person died in this woman’s group of hundreds.

…

In a swamp.

“No one move! Get down on the ground!” A man shouted. He pulled out a sub-machine gun from his side. The man’s entire body was covered in tattoos. On Earth he was a gang leader that dabbled in drugs, arms dealing, and human trafficking.

“You, you, and you,” the man proceeded to count out twenty people that caught his attention, “You’re all the people I need. Gather the weapons and pile them up over here.”

The former gang leader continued giving commands while waving his gun around threateningly.

‘Fuckin’ idiots,’ the man thought, ‘What the hell can a gun even do with the Divine Protection of Ain? Now’s the best time to gather all the weapons for myself and establish a faction. In times like these the only thing that matters is power, and whoever has the most power wins.’ He grinned menacingly.

The recently summoned people were in a state of confusion and fear, and most of them were unable to think properly to pay attention to the little details such as the Divine Protection of Ain, especially when a gun was being pointed at them.

“It doesn’t matter who Ain is, or whichever world we’re in. In the end, there are only two kinds of people: Leaders and followers. Anyone here wanna challenge my position as the leader?!” the man interrogated the terrified crowd.

“I didn’t think so,” he laughed uproariously while picking up an introductory weapon.

Within this man’s group, aside from himself and the twenty others he selected, everyone else died excruciating deaths, their bodies exploding into chunks of bloody meat.

…

In a snowy region.

“W-Wha?!” People were screaming incoherently as the first mandatory quest ‘Introduction to Pandemonium,’ had finished, and those that failed were burst apart into a shower of gorey blood.

While people panicked, a single girl stood dazed while looking up into the heavens, “I’m free,” she muttered softly with a dagger in hand.

Earth was an incredibly vast place with deep history. Seven billion people. Among Earth’s long history, there existed special organizations and ancient clans since time immemorial. The people from some of these dark organizations and ancient clans would be bred since young to become what people from modern day would call ‘Assassins.’

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These assassins would be given different upbringings depending on their clan, but they would generally adhere to strict training regimens and guidelines. Walking on glass and hot coals, digging their hands through buckets of iron powder, enduring unimaginable physical and mental torture. They were considered non-existent to society and lived only in the underworld.

Most assassins would be treated like machines and given tasks to complete. If they failed, they would be replaced, and only death awaited them. Their freedom was vastly restricted back on Earth, and at this moment in time many of them had been ‘liberated,’ here on Pandemonium. Their freedom was restored to them, given back to them as the day they were born. They were set loose into a lawless world.

“I’ll live life the way I want to,” the girl said, and her figure vanished.

The screaming survivors of the first quest dropped to the floor one after another. A shadow blitz past them and a dagger found its way across their throats. Some of them were clutching onto their necks, trying to stop the blood from making its way out.

With each person the shadow killed, it could feel a part of the slain’s power flowing into it.

‘A property of Pandemonium’s God and Devil System?’ the shadow thought.

“H-Hiii! W-what are you doing?! Why are you doing this?!” A horrified survivor asked the approaching shadow while running for their life.

“Because I can,” the shadow replied.

The last survivor fell with a cut to their throat, dead.

The girl reached out to loot another dagger and jacket off a corpse, and walked into the snow, making her way off.

In this girl’s group, she was the only survivor.

…

Many similar scenes played out on Pandemonium among the once seven billion-strong population of humanity. Now, there were only approximately five billion humans remaining. About two billion humans had lost their life on the first quest and its resulting aftermath alone.

In times of great chaos and strife, special individuals would make themselves known, rising to the occasion. Those with talents among billions would appear, and those that didn’t know they had them would stand out against the rest. Mayhem would always bring about a growth in character and aptitude, and this was a chance for humanity to shine. This was what Ain had hoped for by sending them to Pandemonium.

A trace of a smile made its way across Ain’s face as he watched these unique individuals.

“Now, do YOU see, Yalda?!” Ain mocked, “I believe in humanity! I believe in them! I believe in myself! I believe that in five years, they would have grown enough and be ready to defeat your seven apostles, and when they do, I hope you have the Hades Heart prepared for me!”

“Tch,” Yalda clicked his tongue in irritation, “Not bad,” Yalda praised while he sneered internally.

‘So what if there are still five billion of them left? Their numbers will be used against them. All I need is to wait patiently for five more years...’ Yalda thought. As soon as the five year grace period was over he would send his seven apostles into Pandemonium. Yalda already planned the line-up of his seven demons, and the first demon he would send in...

‘Isn’t that right, my son, Belphegor of Gluttony,’ Yalda mused.

‘Oh, how I can’t wait to see the look on your face while the humans you so believe in devour one another, Ain!’ Yalda thought maliciously as he licked his lip.