Trey climbed out of the hole he’d made in the trap door. His leather protection was scuffed up almost everywhere and he was covered in monster gore, but he didn’t seem any worse for wear.
“What, you still haven’t dealt with this guy?” Trey said, grunting as he vaulted back up onto solid ground.
“He’s a slippery fucker, alright?”
“You know, if I’d known it was someone who specialized in tanking I probably wouldn’t have bothered knocking you down there,” Ray said with a smug grin, “After all, there’s no way someone who’s as slow and bulky as you could ever catch up to me.”
Ray launched into his barrage of chained attacks once again, and Devon scowled when he realized the murderer was only targeting him.
So he wants to take me out first, huh?
However, a bright light shone from Trey’s mace, distracting both Ray and Devon. Trey locked his eyes on the fleeting form of Ray and muttered, “Smite,” While swinging his mace in the man’s direction.
A bolt of pure energy arced between the mace and Ray. The dextrous man avoided it in the split second before it would hit, but the bolt curved unnaturally and the man was blown back into the wall.
Activate amplification gem. Activate skill; Quickstab.
Devon’s spear pierced forward in a flash, easily impaling straight through Ray’s abdomen and digging into the dirt wall of the burrow. Ray tried to pry the spear out of the wall, but all his feeble attempt accomplished was further damaging his innards, causing a rush of blood to come pouring out of his mouth.
“Just because I can take a few hits doesn’t necessarily mean I’m a physical fighter,” Trey said solemnly.
“Heh, guess I shouldn’t have assumed,” Ray said before another mouthful of blood spilled out.
Trey stroked his goatee while looking at Ray’s incapacitated figure, “Now, how do we get you back to camp? There’s a lot of people who want justice for loved ones you’ve killed, you know.”
“Mind waiting a bit?” Ray asked through the pain of being skewered, “I still haven’t heard an answer.” Ray’s eye burrowed into Devon, demanding an answer with an almost fanatical curiosity.
Why do this man’s words resound with me so much? What is it I really want here?
When he’d been thrust into this strange place with this strange system it had felt like all of his limitations had been lifted. Here, everyone could become like the make believe heroes and warriors out of fantastical stories.
It was true that when he’d first learned of the overseer’s goal his first instinct had been to make a plan to save everyone. It was common sense to look after each other after all, wasn’t it?
But common sense on earth wasn’t truly applicable here. Especially not after everything he'd lived through.
It’s only been two weeks since we arrived in this place and yet I am already so changed.
He knew the cause, of course. The memory dungeon had molded and scarred him irrevocably, and there was no point in wishing for the old and naive Devon back. His first priority was and would always be self preservation, followed by the pursuit of power.
Yes, power is essential.
Back on earth knowledge and a good career path determined a person’s outlook. But here… here power trumped all.
This desire was not born out of greed but rather need. Even somebody as great as the cursed king had been brought low because they hadn’t had the power needed to protect themselves against any possible enemy.
I need the power to prevent anything this shitty system will try to throw at me. Yes… even if it pits me against gods and demons. Even if I must abandon who I was and forge a new self, a new ego. Even if I have to go against everything this universe has to offer.
The image of that terrible fist descending from the heavens was still fresh in his mind, but now Devon found it to be a symbol of his resolve rather than one of fear. In this world it was possible, even for a cursed being, to become as a god.
And it didn’t matter how many stepping stones needed to be left in his wake.
Schemer’s Ambition detected. Auto-generating Scheme… Done.
Accept Scheme?
[Birth of A Schemer]
Accept Scheme.
Immediate Task auto-generated: [Recruit a Powerful Piece]
“Trey,” Devon said to his still musing friend, “We won’t be taking him back.”
Trey looked at him in surprise, “You want to kill him?”
“No, I want you to kill him.”
Trey’s gaze hardened when he realized what Devon meant, but Devon just stared back, resolute. Ray stayed blessedly silent, though his gaze widened in expectation and anticipation.
“Why? We could easily keep him alive and take him back to face justice.”
“Yes, we could. It would be quite easy to amputate his limbs and drag him back. That way we wouldn’t have to worry about him trying anything.” Ray’s face slightly paled at that, but he still said nothing.
“So then why do you want to kill him?”
Devon said nothing.
Trey’s gaze narrowed, “Why do you want me to kill him?”
“Will you kill him, or won’t you?” Devon realized he was being evasive, denying Trey the information he needed to make a critical decision. But this was a test. A measure of how Trey reacted, and whether Devon would have to go down this path alone.
When Trey realized Devon had no intention of answering the question he changed his approach, “Fine, let me ask something else. I think our friend wanted to know this as well. What is your objective?”
Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!
Devon looked Trey over, gauging his expression. But Trey was as good at putting on a poker face as Devon was, and his expression revealed nothing.
Even when asked to commit murder there is no hint of confusion in his eyes, no evidence of frustration or outrage in his voice… Very well, if we are at a deadlock then I may as well lay it all on the table.
Devon had been toying with the idea for several days now, but he hadn’t had the resolve to even think about actually implementing it.
Devon took a deep breath before he said, “I will sow animosity and strife between the two camps to orchestrate an inevitable conflict between them. If this battle occurs on the day that the period of protection ends then the overseers will be forced into a decision. Either they allow their precious farm animals to eat each other or step in to join the fray before they miss their opportunity.”
Trey frowned, “Is that truly the answer you’ve come to? There’s nothing else? Nothing we can do to bring back some hint of the sanity we once had into this cruel new world?”
“If there is then it would be news to me,” Devon said, “But none of the other options I’ve considered have any real chance of success.”
“I want to hear why.”
Devon sighed. It would be irritating to go over several days worth of contemplating, but he supposed there was no other choice. After all, when taken at face value the plan was absurd in the extreme. Yet everything else was flawed in ways that were almost imperceptible unless you looked at the big picture.
“The most simple possibility is that of unification. We force the two camps to merge and form a united front against the overseers. If necessary we could dissolve Plainstown entirely and purge the weak to then meld with Arkania. However, this option is mired in numerous factors that we’d have absolutely no control over that could ruin the operation.
“First, differences in ideology between both camps will create friction and distrust, but without any spark it will only result in both groups' focus being significantly diminished. Entering a struggle where unity is paramount with this kind of fractured force would only end poorly.
“Second is the biggest and most important problem with any plan involving unity and cooperation; the attrition issue. It’s something we can’t get around no matter what we do, no matter how we do it.
“The overseers are monitoring us constantly, which means they’ll witness anything we try to do, including spreading the truth. But the real problem is how they can use what they know. If we unify both camps and create a unified front against the overseers then several things could happen.
“If they examine our combined power and find us to be the same weak and pathetic creatures we came here as, which they would know because they’re watching us, they’ll roll right over us. But far more likely what will happen is they’ll see a force they didn’t expect to be nearly as strong as it is, and decide to take a different approach.
“They’ll wear us down. They have the extreme advantage in that they don’t have settlements to protect, people to worry about and feed. They’re fully capable of being entirely self-sustaining and organizing coordinated attacks. Any hunting party that scavenges for food becomes a prime target, yet we can’t reinforce the hunting parties or else the base settlements will be attacked instead. The camps would start to starve and likely give in to desperation, throwing any chance of a coordinated effort out the window. This issue remains whether or not we merge the camps, so there's little point in a merger when it'll just end the same way.
“So unification and fighting defensively isn’t an option. This leaves the option of offense, yet this too is unlikely to work.
“You might think I mean we wait till the period of protection is over, gather as much strength as we can before going on the offense as we can, but I don’t because that simply brings us back to the attrition issue. What I’m referring to is preemptively performing assassinations of the overseers before the 30 days are up. Those who struck the killing blows would lose their protected status, but it would be an easy price to pay for thinning their numbers before everyone’s protected status goes.
“But if we do that there’s a few things they might do in response. First, they disappear into the wild or retreat back into the absolute safety of their camp, leaving the level 50s who we can’t at the moment kill to keep an eye on things. Then we come back to the attrition issue once the 30 days are up. The second thing they might do would be even worse.
“I’ve come to get a pretty good grip on how the system works. If the overseers decide to break the agreement they made with the system for the right to host a tutorial and kill someone before their protected status is up it will most likely levy a mark of karmic disdain on them like it did to me. But these marks would probably only apply to the individual that broke the system’s mandate, and such an individual would be free to do almost anything they wanted."
He hadn't thought about it at the time, but when he'd killed his second and third overseers the system hadn't offered any words of protest as it had done on that first night.
“If the overseers judge us to be a genuine threat before the end of the protection period then they may decide that our existence constitutes a bigger threat than being cursed by the system. Perhaps the most efficient way they could accomplish this would be to assign an executioner. One overseer, anyone in the level 50s or even Val Kazar, could act as the executioner of those they deem to be threats.
“The final option is the least likely to succeed but it’s still worth mentioning. We’re on a sky island, but that doesn’t mean the possibility of leaving this place doesn’t exist. One possible solution would be using hang gliders to depart from the summit of the mountain to reach any of the neighboring sky islands. Even if they couldn't make the journey normally there's a basic wind spell in the terminal that could be bought to extend the range of the gliders to get to wherever we need to go.
“There are other options of escape as well, but all of them require construction of a means of transportation. This might work for a single person, as Ray here was trying to do, but it wouldn’t work for a large group. Or to be specific, the overseers wouldn’t allow it to work for a large group. It would be impossible to keep the work hidden considering the necessary scale of the project, and then we arrive at either the problem of the overseers destroying what we’ve created in an attempt to thwart our plan or the executioner possibility comes back into play.”
Trey stopped him there, “If you don’t care for the people trapped here within the tutorial then why don’t you just take that route? It would be extraordinarily easy for you to do with how well you know the mountain.”
“Because this is the point at which we define ourselves. That’s what the tutorial is, an isolated environment meant to draw out a person’s true character, one they may never have been able to express in their old world and may never be able to draw out in the future. If I run away here and now, then all I will ever be is a coward. This struggle is one that defines our existence.”
He felt his blood rush at the idea of the scene, “I will create a conflict so muddled and murky that the old concepts of right and wrong are left by the wayside like trash on the road. And upon that stage, that thin line that separates life and death… I shall dance.”
"I see… So you want me to do the deed because you aren't sure if I have the stomach to join you on such a venture," Trey muttered softly. Devon nodded in response.
Trey looked away, towards the blank cave wall and closed his eyes in contemplation. Devon let him think in silence.
When he finally spoke, Trey said, “When we first came here… I thought I must be going crazy. That a world with such game-like principles could exist seemed like something out of a delusion. But when you came to me and Eve and told us of the overseer’s plot… I can’t deny I felt a thrill deep in my heart.
“I thought to myself that this was a chance to be something beyond anything I’ve ever dreamed… To be a hero, like out of the stories and comics we’ve read.
“But since that time I’ve seen more death in this place than I thought I’d see in my entire life. I’ve asked myself over and over why such a cruel reality would exist, why I’d have the misfortune of being thrust into this horrible situation. I’ve kept myself going because of that dream, that ideal of being able to be a hero to everyone locked in this place.
“But you’re right. Banding together and saving everyone is nothing more than vain idealism. If this world is cruel then to survive there’s no choice but to cast aside my naivety and accept that I’ll have to match it.”
“No…” Trey looked back at Devon, a fierce fire burning in his eyes, “Perhaps it’s better to say that there never could have been anything resembling a hero to begin with in this world.”
He lifted up his club and stepped over to Ray, whose blood had trailed down the wall and was pooling on the floor. Trey looked the pale man straight in the eye and asked, “You’ve kept your trap shut this long so I’ll give you the chance. Any last words?”
“Heh. I wish only that I could have seen the storm you two will rip across this world, and all the worlds beyond,” Ray said with a smile. Despite the pain and the blood loss Devon still saw that spark of passion within the man’s eyes, and Devon knew he spoke the truth.
With a resounding thud and the sound of a crushed watermelon Ray’s head was caved in, sending blood and brain matter all over the cave.
Trey took the sight in and breathed in deep. Then he turned to Devon, blood splattered all over his face and armor, and asked, “So, what’s the first step?”