Chrono’s twisted smile almost reached his eyes.
He had taken a total of four weapons, pocketing three sheathed knives and holding a short sword by his side. Chrono took more than one weapon for several reasons, one of them being for increased protection, but more importantly it was to test his theory. As for those that he indirectly led to their deaths? He couldn’t care less about them. This was to test the quest system. The previous quest’s success conditions was to acquire an introductory weapon, and the reward for the completion of the quest was the acquirement of said weapon, but…
The quest didn’t specify an amount of weapon(s). This meant that however many weapons you could acquire would be your reward for the quest, and this further implied that the quest system,
‘It doesn’t care about the methods to fulfill the conditions,’ Chrono thought. As long as they didn’t fail the quest, they were free to do whatever they wanted within the lawless world.
At the same time, those who understood this while taking more than one weapon were the truly, ‘Dangerous ones.’
The thought of not being bound by rules excited him, living freely without being tied down by the mundane lifestyle back on Earth.
‘This world- Pandemonium. I will enjoy it thoroughly,’ Chrono’s mouth involuntarily curved upwards as he thought.
Pulling himself out of his reverie of thoughts, he noticed a girl, a brunette with a ponytail staring directly at him with a strange expression. The expression contained minute traces of fear.
36 people had just exploded into a mass of blood that rained upon them and the entire group was in a crazed uproar, yet there he was, the only one standing there with an utterly depraved smile. Others were vomiting, some would definitely develop a trauma or have nightmares having experienced what they had gone through. It would be stranger if no one had noticed.
If Ain had seen Chrono at that moment, aside from shivering like Yalda, he would have included him within the group of thousands of ‘special’ individuals he sought out for. The capable individuals with the highest rate of growth and survival, ‘Humanity’s hope.’
A human that could smile in a situation like this, could that still be considered a human? At least to the girl who was observing him, if she were asked, she would have said, ‘That man isn’t human.’
She wouldn’t be able to forget the expression Chrono made at this moment in her lifetime even if she tried.
Chrono cursed inwardly, and he tried to cover up his mistake, hastily changing his twisted grin into a ‘shy smile.’ He judged that the best thing to do at the moment was to avoid attracting attention, and he had already messed up before he even started. It was best to stay inconspicuous until he was at least powerful enough to protect himself on his own. Individual strength was most important at the end of the day, thus his priority at the moment was finding a way to increase his stats.
Noticing that Chrono’s smile was directed towards her, she hurriedly turned her head and avoided eye-contact, while thinking, ‘This person is dangerous.’ However, no one else heard her thoughts.
Chrono opened up his Quest Log and looked at the newest quest.
Escape from the Forest (Mandatory Quest):
The forest you have arrived in is filled with many dangers that are able to threaten your lives. Escape before they find you.
Success Conditions: Exit the forest.
Failure Conditions: Die before being able to escape.
Rewards: Survival
‘This quest is a warning,’ Chrono mused. This quest had no time limit, unlike their first quest. This meant that they could stay in the forest for as long as they pleased, but they had the highest risk of dying here. They had to leave as soon as possible.
Assuming that the other inhabitants of Earth were teleported to different places, ‘We’re really unlucky,’ Chrono made a wry expression as he realized.
A woman’s shout broke the chaos, “Calm- Calm down! Everyone calm down!”
Although the woman’s words were in another language, Chrono, and everyone else, was able to understand the meaning behind them. This was another function of the God and Devil System.
Everyone’s attention was attracted to the source of the voice, and what they saw was a young woman in a police uniform. A police officer. While everyone’s eyes were attracted towards her, Chrono’s eyes moved towards what was at her waist- a gun.
“There’s a new quest. We need to leave fast!” The police officer continued. The consequences of failing the previous quest was still fresh in everyone’s mind, and they quickly reached a consensus to leave.
Just because they possessed the will to leave, it didn’t mean that they necessarily could.
“Why should we listen to your orders? Do you even know a way to leave the forest?” A man cut in. He was a giant, bald middle-aged man who wielded an introductory spear, but what stood out about him was his attire. An orange jumpsuit. He was a convicted prisoner, imprisoned for murder. He was in his prison cell just before being summoned. Naturally, his opinion of officers wasn’t very good. He had even known and experienced police officers abusing their power in prison. He didn’t want the group to unconsciously view the police officer as their leader, so he made efforts in swaying the group’s opinion.
The prisoner’s words planted a seed of doubt within everyone’s minds. Would they be able to leave? Did they even have to listen to the officer?
“I used to go out camping lots in forests, if everyone wants to get out of here alive, your best bet is to follow me!” The prisoner shouted while a grin formed at the corner of his lips.
The prisoner created a rift in unity within the group. Could they trust the words of a prisoner? People would unconsciously be biased against them, but he did have a point. Besides, who’s to say they’d definitely survive if they listened to the police officer? Two factions were quietly forming within the minds of everyone in the group.
Still, given the choice between order and chaos, respectively the officer and prisoner, most people would lean towards order. Most had grown up in a lawful society, after all.
Whether their current mindset was advantageous to their new world remained to be seen...
Seeing that the majority had sided with the police officer, the prisoner grunted in discontent before saying, “I’ll go along with you, for now.”
“You were right though. I haven’t been in any forests and don’t know how to leave them when I’m lost. Since you’ve camped lots, you must know a way, right?” The police officer taunted while sneering.
It was evident that the prisoner was lying to persuade the crowd, and the officer was hiddenly pointing it out. They were words laced in venom.
‘A bunch of monkeys,’ Chrono thought in disdain as he saw them arguing. They were in this sort of situation and yet they were still arguing among themselves. He had considered stealthily ditching the group and traveling on his own, but ultimately decided it was too dangerous and tossed that idea to the side. Traveling in a large group didn’t guarantee safety, on the contrary it would bring more risks by making them a bigger target. Chrono preferred traveling in a small group of capable people, rather than a large group filled with burdens. However, it would attract too much attention to him if he took the initiative to form a small group, so the only option left to him was to make do.
Chrono wasn’t considered a genius back in his school days for nothing. He had already thought of several ways to leave the maze of a forest. Among those ways were Trémaux's Algorithm, where you leave marks of places you’ve traversed as to not get lost, he combined it with the Wall Follower Algorithm, also commonly known as the right or left-hand rule, where you stick your hand out to the same side of a path and move forward, eventually making your way out of the forest.
The ideal thing to do when lost in a forest was to constantly travel in one direction, not deviating from your decided path. This would eventually get you out of a forest.
It was obvious to him that the group was going absolutely nowhere, so he had to reluctantly stand out and intervene.
“U-um, I know a way to leave the forest,” Chrono ‘nervously’ suggested and explained the method to the arguing duo and the group. His words were like a ray of hope, and caused the two to momentarily stop arguing with each other.
The group of 164 finally came to a consensus, and decided to go with Chrono’s method.
They chose an optimal direction and started walking, while Chrono quietly thought about the group, ‘If they continue to get in my way, I won’t hesitate to abandon them.’
He would unhesitatingly forsake the entire group because when all was said and done…
He had only chosen to stick with the group to use them as scapegoats if they encountered any danger.
…
The group had already been trekking for a few minutes. Somewhere along the way, Chrono had inconspicuously made his way to the center of the group. The center was the safest place in case of an ambush from any direction.
The group was tense as they chattered among themselves in an attempt to dispel their nervousness.
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Chrono was keeping to himself when he suddenly felt a giant arm wrap around his shoulders, along with the words, “Hey man, what’s up? Wanna be my underling?”
The large arm wrapped around his neck seemed like it would snap it at a moment’s notice if the owner of the voice heard the wrong answer. It was like he was being held in a death vice, and it made him feel uncomfortable.
Chrono continued walking as he turned to see the owner of the arm. It was the prisoner.
The prisoner had been impressed with Chrono’s earlier display of intelligence and wanted to draw Chrono to his side. Most importantly, Chrono’s ‘timid’ character made him an easy target for the prisoner, so he decided to assert his dominance and intimidate Chrono. In his eyes Chrono was the prey and he was the predator.
Chrono didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. His attempt at acting as a weak, background character to avoid attention had worked against him and made him the target of coercion for the prisoner.
“S-sure,” Chrono ‘nervously’ said as he made an equally nervous smile. There was an unnoticeable sharp glint in his eyes as he thought, ‘I’ve decided. You’re the first one I’m going to be killing.’
Someone actually targeted him? Chrono had decided to make it the prisoner’s worst decision in his life.
“Hahaha! Great! Great! You can call me Big Dog, from now on you’re under my protection,” the prisoner laughed with glee and released his overly-familiar arm from Chrono’s shoulder. The two traveled together side-by-side.
The group continued walking for a few more minutes when suddenly faint sounds could be heard from afar. It was the rustling of bushes and leaves.
“D-Did you hear that? It came from over there,” Someone said and pointed.
It was a given that their loud screaming and arguing from before would attract attention. Together with the sound of them chatting and moving, the large group of 164 was like a large glowing target to the original inhabitants of the forest.
From the direction the person pointed at, small, ugly, green creatures with rags tied around their waists gradually came into view. They came in droves, and there was at least fifty of them.
When the group focused on the creatures the name ‘Goblin’ popped up above their heads.
Goblins had the agility, size, and intelligence of children, and they hunted in groups.
They held a variety of crude weapons and bows, and their weapons were covered in mud-like grime. Others wouldn’t have paid any particular attention to the filth covering their weapons as it seemed to fit into their overall appearance, but Chrono was different.
‘Poison. Looks like there’s going to be a lot of casualties,’ Chrono thought grimly. They had no choice but to run. How could a group of people who had mostly never known death be a match for hunters that had known it their entire life?
He was right. Goblins may have the intelligence of children, but that wasn’t to say children were dumb. Children held the highest capacity to learn. Goblins were at the bottom of the food chain within the forest, and thus had to devise several methods of scavenging and hunting in groups. They covered their weapons in a mix of their urine, saliva, and feces, developing a natural poison. A single cut by their poison-covered weapons would most likely lead to a very slow and painful death. They, who were at the bottom of the food chain, suddenly found a group who radiated inexperience and fear. A new species that actually seemed to be lower than them in the food chain. They judged the group of humans to be an easy prey. Fresh, soft meat. Food. The thought fired up the morale of the goblins. It was time to hunt.
An arrow whistled towards the group and pierced into the head of an unsuspecting person, instantly killing them. They didn’t even have the chance to cry out before dying.
The group quickly fell into disorder, some already began screaming and fleeing in different directions.
“Run!” Someone screamed in terror.
The goblins broke into the crowd of disorganized humans.
The cowardly within the group outnumbered the brave, and those that decided to stay and fight were quickly overwhelmed by the experienced methods of the goblins. The prisoner, Big Dog, being one of them.
In modern times with the exception of the minority, most sane humans were hesitant to kill. Big Dog was a murderer who had already gotten over that hesitation.
Two goblins with daggers from the vanguard rushed towards Big Dog from the front.
“You little shits! See how I kill you!” Big Dog shouted valiantly as he pierced the brain of one of the approaching goblins with his spear. The other goblin made use of its comrade’s death to slip into the range of Big Dog’s spear and leapt towards him.
Big Dog saw the goblin’s dagger growing bigger in his eyes. Time slowed down as his life quickly flashed past him, and he thought, ‘God damn it! Is this how I die?!’
Chrono circled around the goblin leaping towards Big Dog and pierced its back with one of his introductory daggers. Even though it was Chrono’s first time stabbing anything, there was absolutely no hesitation in his movements like those in the others. His actions were so natural that it made it look like the others who were clumsily fighting look like they didn’t know what they were doing. The goblin yelped in pain as Chrono twisted the dagger in its back and pulled it out.
The goblin leaping towards Big Dog suddenly paused and fell from mid-air. It was dead. Chrono felt a small amount of power flowing into him after killing the goblin, but there was no time to dwell on it. He had to move fast.
Chrono quickly took the two pouches tied to the waists of the dead goblins and handed the dagger he had used to kill the goblin to Big Dog while saying indifferently, “Take it. They’re too quick, you need to use a light weapon.”
Big Dog’s eyes widened in confusion and surprise. He took the dagger and said, “Y-You saved my life. Thanks.”
Chrono ignored him and started making his getaway, hurriedly and noticeably distancing himself from Big Dog. ‘I didn’t save you out of concern. I saved you because I want you to suffer,’ Chrono thought to himself and smirked.
Big Dog, who was still watching Chrono, noticed an eerie smirk appear on his face as he turned around and ran as far away from him as he possibly could.
“Huh?” Big Dog uttered in confusion. He suddenly noticed a swarm of goblins heading towards and surrounding him.
Two goblins were dead at Big Dog’s feet. The goblins’ first casualties. The goblins were incensed at their comrades’ death. Big Dog stood conspicuously holding a dagger and spear covered in goblin blood. Coupled with his valiant and intimidating nature, Big Dog looked like a god of war.
A human, who the goblins had deemed to be helpless, managed to kill some of them? That human looked large and fierce, he was obviously the biggest threat to them. He had to be eliminated, and he couldn’t be forgiven for killing their comrades. He had to be tortured before they killed and ate him.
Big Dog felt a sharp pain from his back. He was pushed into the ground from a goblin stabbing and tackling him from behind. Goblins quickly piled onto him as they sawed at his hands and feet.
“Ahhhhhhhh!” Big Dog screamed in agony. His vision slowly grew dark, his last view being the fading back of the one who had ‘saved him.’ In his last moments, he had realized, Chrono wasn’t the prey. He had never been the prey. All along, he had mistakenly targeted a predator.
The police officer was fumbling while trying to retrieve her revolver. Her hands were trembling. In truth, she had never shot and used it on a ‘living target’ before. She was preparing to shoot one of the goblins when a hand caught her wrist and pulled her into a run. A young man’s voice entered her ears, “Don’t. Firing that will attract too much attention.”
Chrono dragged the police officer as he ran towards their initial direction alongside some of the remnants of the fleeing group.
The goblins hadn’t bothered to pursue them, they had hunted enough humans to fill their bellies for the moment. They would stalk and kill the rest for later. It was a part of the hunt.
Seeing no one pursuing them, Chrono stopped running and released the police officer. He was filled with exhaustion.
He counted the people around them. There were about thirty people; these should have been the relatively luckier or smarter ones since they all fled towards the direction they decided upon at the beginning. They were all ragged and panting. Chrono noticed a familiar face and smirked before continuing to walk.
It was the brunette who noticed his twisted smile at the beginning. She had secretly and warily watched him all this time. The girl carefully observed him and followed in the direction he fled in when the goblins attacked. She thought, ‘Doesn’t anyone else notice? It’s all an act. He isn’t a timid coward like the impression he gives off. He isn’t even afraid. He’s too calm. He’s treating this like this is all a game.’ He was a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The thought terrified her. Even though she was afraid, she knew of one thing. The highest chance of her and the group’s survival lied with that man: Chrono.