The newbie who was about to kick the doors was Philip. Philip was the tallest of the men in the group and he had the intention of sticking out like a glorious peacock. Unfortunately, he didn't expect to be scolded by Calvin. Calvin's appearance was completely plain, black-hair, brown eyes, and an unremarkable height. He couldn't compare to Philip.

The intervention of such a puny man angered Philip. 

"What the fuck is wrong with you? We're still not inside the Asylum. Why are you so antsy already? We just want to test if the front doors are locked."

Calvin glared at him and pointed at one of the windows on the second floor of the mansion. 

"Look! They already know that we are here."

"Ah!"

"Oh no..."

"What the..."

The newbies gasped for when they followed Calvin's finger, they saw that he was pointing at an opened window. 

Visible behind the window was the silhouette of a man with red glaring eyes staring at their direction!

But when the man noticed that the newbies were staring at him. He seemed to have felt embarrassed for he staggered backward, hurriedly closed the windows, and ran away as fast as he could.

"What..."

"What was that?"

"Seriously, this place gives me the creeps."

Rose, the middle-aged accountant lady commented with an ashen face.

"Thankfully we are still outside the mansion and they do not dare to come out..."

"If not, then we would've already died here!"

Calvin heaved a sigh of relief.

Thankfully, these newbies did something stupid early in their journey.

If one of them caused a commotion while they were already in the mansion. That would spell everyone's doom.

Calvin's eyes flashed with the light of determination.

He was now determined to teach these noobs everything that they need to survive!

"From now on, I will take command... Follow me if you want to live." Calvin declared.

"What?"

"What did you say?"

"You are going to take command? Who are you? What kind of a person are you? You may not be as young as us, but I don't think that you are qualified to lead us all!" Philip immediately interrupted. He couldn't let this man steal the limelight.

"So, what? Who do you want to lead? You?" Calvin sneered, "Heh..."

"If you became our leader, then I bet that we'll die before even taking a glimpse at the exit!"

"You bastard!"

Philip leaped forwards with his clenched fists.

Calvin's eyes dangerously narrowed. He just wanted to help, yet why was he suffering this grievance?

He prepared to dodge the attack by leaping backward, but before he could do so.

A crisp sound rang out.

Philip's punch paused in mid-air.

"You..."

He raised his head and discovered that the person who blocked his punch was a middle-aged man built so wide that he looked similar to the Rock. 

A serious look could be seen on his face as he said, "Stop the fighting."

"We will die here if we fight."

"We have a common goal, why not we cooperate with each other?"

Hugo swept his gaze at everyone.

The light emanating from his eyes made these newbies feel shivers down their spines.

"T-Thank you..." Calvin knew that the man's name was Hugo. But this was the first time that he heard of him. Since the selection for teammates was done randomly. Calvin wasn't so lucky that he would get the same teammates as he had back then at the previous timeline.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

However, since this was the first time that he heard of the name Hugo.

It was obvious that this sturdy built man didn't manage to pass through Fivecent's final phase.

'What a waste... If a man like him managed to pass through the final phase back then... Humanity would've had an additional hero! Yet, he was defeated and his life got wasted in this godforsaken place!' Calvin shook his head and made a decision, no matter what, he would do his best to save Hugo.

A logical, clear-headed, and powerful man such as Hugo would definitely benefit humanity in the long run.

Philip was quite intimidated by Hugo's look. 

However, he was still unresigned, "Okay, I won't fight anymore! But I won't tolerate it if that bastard becomes our leader!"

Hugo's eyes narrowed.

He glanced at Calvin and found that Calvin seemed to be undisturbed.

"Okay, we won't have any leaders for now. But don't cause a commotion anymore. I can feel an extreme and terrifying danger from this place. What's more, from what we saw behind that opened window earlier. It seems like they already knew where we are." Hugo solemnly declared.

"T-T-The custodians said earlier that we must try our best to go back alive... Since they said that we will pass as long as we can return. Uhmm... How about... How about we go back to the gate, open it and go down the mountain?"

Jane, a young lady who seemed to have been scared shitless from what was going on as well as that window scene earlier, expressed her opinion.

Rose mockingly laughed, "Hahaha... All of you are just exaggerating. Fivecent recruited us because they needed our help, I don't think that they would go so far as to actually kill us. If they do then that is the opposite of their goals. Since they need manpower, why would they deliberately reduce the number of people that can help them?"

"Y-You're right..." Jane replied in a stutter.

The other newbies nodded their heads for what she said actually made sense.

Only Calvin had a frown on his face.

Rose noticed his doubts, "Why are you looking like that? Could it be that you are doubting me? What a joke! You are just scared shitless by the eerieness of this place!"

"Let me tell you this!"

"I am quite certain that this place is just a bluff similar to the staircase test earlier!"

Rose's sound argument quickly rallied the opinion of the newbies towards her.

Calvin's eyebrows were still furrowed.

He felt conflicted.

He wanted to save these newbies from death for he understood that they would end up benefiting humanity in the future.

But at this moment, he could see that spoonfeeding these newbies would do them harm instead!

Why?

It was because they had no sense of danger at all!

'Can't they feel the menacing auras of the madmen lurking within the confines of this asylum mansion?'

Calvin lifted a bitter smile.

It seemed that he overestimated these newbies.

'They won't cry until they see their coffins.' 

Calvin shook his head and turned his attention to Hugo and Medea.

Hugo spoke up for him earlier.

Calvin could see that Hugo had immense physical strength.

From his movements earlier that had no wasted moves. It was clear that he has some experience in battles.

As for Medea, she hadn't talked even once.

But Calvin could feel that there was something special about her.

In the end, he decided to pay her some extra attention when they finally entered the asylum.

"It seems like no one has any objections..." Rose wore a triumphant smile on her face.

She felt incredibly satisfied that everyone was now staring at her as if she was the leader of the team.

"We should now continue our journey."

"First, obviously... The front doors are locked." Rose pointed out a fact.

"What? How did you know that the front doors are locked?" Philip furrowed his eyebrows.

Rose made a sidelong glance at him, "It's because if these doors were unlocked, the person who noticed us from above would've already come here to slaughter us! Considering that we stayed here for far too long already, he should've already been here if these doors weren't locked."

"I see... I see... That actually makes sense..." Ray, the blonde-haired attention-seeker from earlier nodded his head as if he thoroughly understood what Rose was talking about. He then raised a crucial point, "In that case, how do we get into the mansion? If the front doors can't be used, how do we get inside?"

The newbies pondered.

Of course, Calvin knew the answer.

He was just quite amused to see Rose acting like she knew everything about the Mount Spirit Sword Asylum.

Rose fell into deep contemplation, after a few seconds. She finally spoke up, "The entrance should not be far from here... I suggest we go and explore this place. I think we will be able to find a hole where we can crawl into, so we can go and infiltrate this mansion."

The newbies agreed to her proposal.

Philip looked unconvinced, but since it was clear that everyone planned on following Rose. He had no other choice but to suppress his grievance as he walked along with the others.

Soon, they found a hole in a nearby fence as well as a scaffolding that they could climb leading to an opened window.

The group moved quickly for they were too afraid of the dangers possibly lurking within the darkness of the courtyard.

"Hurry up! This room has some lights. It seems that electricity is available here in this goddamned place." Rose was the first one who arrived at the peak of the scaffolding. She climbed up the final ladder, and when she peeked her head out of the wall. She saw that the room inside was quite neat.

The walls of the room were painted all white. A strange sight indeed.

But the room actually had some furniture such as a table and several couches.

It even had a television!

Although only static was being displayed.

"Wheeew... Finally, a break from the creepiness." One of the newbies commented.

"Don't climb yet!"

Rose suddenly exclaimed.

The newbie below her stopped on his tracks.

"What's going on?" Nicholas, a slender-framed man wearing a pair of glasses subconsciously raised his head and glanced upwards. As soon as he did all of these, he instantly understood why Rose didn't want him to climb yet.

It was because Rose was wearing a pleated mini skirt!

"I-I'm sorry!" Nicholas quickly apologized.

Rose immediately realized why he was apologizing and she quickly became angry.

"Get down! Get down!" She kicked him down the ladder and Hugo had to catch him in mid-air.

Scarlett, Jane, and Zahra furrowed their eyebrows.

It wasn't Nicholas's fault at all that he saw her panties.

If she didn't want to be seen, then she could've climbed last!

Instead, she was in a hurry to save herself from what's out here lurking within the darkness.

They disapproved of Rose's crude actions.

Even Calvin had a frown on his face.

He was about to warn Rose not to step inside the room first, but after seeing her kick Nicholas down the ladder like that.

He formed a naughty idea in his mind.

A smile lifted on his lips.

"Hmmph, how shameless!" Rose scolded Nicholas once more as she finally climbed up the ladder.

But as soon as she stepped inside the brightly-lit room...

A cold breeze blew and the lights suddenly went out!

"AHHH!!!"

Rose's scream followed suit!