Chapter 10: The Recruiter’s Test
The man in the leather armor stood confidently before the group, his eyes scanning over the survivors like a hunter evaluating prey. His smile widened with each person he inspected, as though every face told a secret he had longed to uncover.
"Wonderful!" His voice rang out with unsettling enthusiasm. "This many humans still alive? Impressive! You’ve all passed the test. Truly, a great accomplishment for our kind in this world!"
Niko felt a chill crawl down his spine as he eyed the man suspiciously. Test? His mind raced with unease. Was this massacre planned? Did he send those monsters to cull us?
Before he could think further, a voice erupted from the crowd. A short man, his face red with fury, stepped forward.
“A test!? People died out there! What the hell is wrong with you?” His voice quaked with a mix of anger and fear.
The man in armor grinned, his teeth flashing under the sunlight. “Good,” he said coldly, his voice devoid of sympathy.
The short man’s face twisted in outrage, and he took an angry step forward. But he froze when the armored man casually placed a hand on the hilt of his sword, fingers tightening around the grip. The grin on his face widened, eyes darkening with a barely concealed threat.
“Listen,” the man said, his tone turning icy. “It would be a pity to kill you now. I suggest you shut your mouth while you still have it. Those people died because they were weak. Death happens here every day, and if you can’t handle that reality, then I suggest you do us all a favor and kill yourself now.”
His voice cut through the air like a blade, sending a cold shiver through the crowd. Niko’s heart pounded, and he could feel the shift in the survivors around him. Fear rippled through them, the horror of this new world sinking in. The orb had warned them, but to hear it said so bluntly, so brutally—it left them no room for denial.
The man’s eyes swept over the crowd, a flicker of amusement in his gaze. "This world is us humans versus everything else. If you're weak, you’ll only hold us back. There’s no equality here—no fairness. If you can’t contribute, you’re better off dead. Doesn’t matter if you’re old, young, man, or woman. Everyone has to pull their weight, or they’re just a burden.”
Niko’s stomach churned. The rules of this world were brutal, far removed from anything resembling civilization. This place... he thought grimly. It's the complete opposite of Earth.
The armored man gestured toward a lone tree standing at the edge of the grassland. “Come. Let’s talk over there, away from these distractions,” he said, glancing at the bloodied corpses scattered across the ground.
Reluctantly, the survivors began to follow him, stepping carefully over the bodies, some averting their eyes from the grotesque sight of torn flesh and lifeless eyes. Niko quickened his pace, wanting to get closer to the man, curiosity and suspicion gnawing at him. The green orb that orbited him drifted alongside, eerily calm in the midst of chaos.
Niko’s mind churned with questions. Who is this man? Why is he here, and how much does he know? As they approached the tree, Niko decided to get a better look.
Celestial Probe.
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[Name: Marcos Rocha]
Level: 11
[Skills]: Piercing Sword of the Flaming Deity
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Niko’s eyes widened. Level 11? It was staggering—far beyond what anyone in their group could hope to achieve so quickly. And that skill... Piercing Sword of the Flaming Deity—it sounded devastatingly powerful.
He glanced at the man’s back with a new sense of wariness. This guy... is on another level entirely.
Once the group had gathered under the tree, Marcos turned to face them, his demeanor still disturbingly calm. “Alright, everyone. Sit down, relax. We need to have a serious talk. I’ll explain a few things you need to understand if you want to survive here.”
There was a moment of hesitation, but the survivors eventually sat down, forming a loose circle around the tree. Marcos’s eyes flicked from face to face, gauging their reactions.
“For those wondering, I’m Marcos Rocha,” he began, “a recruiter for the human settlement nearby. We’re in a ‘low-ranked layer,’ so it’s relatively safe—by this world’s standards, anyway. Ask me whatever questions you have, but keep in mind, even I don’t have all the answers. There’s a lot we don’t know about this world.”
A thin man near the front raised his hand, his voice trembling as he spoke. “What do you mean by ‘layers’? And what’s a ‘human settlement’? Why are you recruiting us?”
Marcos gave a nod, as though this was a common question. “This world isn’t like Earth,” he explained. “We’ve learned that it’s not a planet, but a flat plane. Imagine a giant plate with different biomes—jungles, grasslands, deserts—spread across it. There’s a day and night cycle, just like Earth. This plane is divided into layers, which are like territories. Each layer is ranked based on the level of monsters found there. The closer you get to the center of the world, the higher the rank of the layer.”
The group murmured quietly, trying to process the information.
Marcos continued. “Rankings go like this: the lowest rank is F-, where monsters range from level 2 to 5. The next rank is F, where levels range from 6 to 10, and it keeps going up. In lower-ranked layers, the monsters are weaker, but don’t get too comfortable—there are always exceptions. Boss monsters, for example, can appear and be much stronger than anything else in the area.”
He paused, giving them time to absorb the new information before he continued. “The human settlement I mentioned? It’s a small town built by the first humans who were summoned to this world. It’s located in a rankless layer, which means no major threats, at least for now. I’m stationed at one of the spawn points near the outer layers.”
Another man raised his hand. “Spawn points? Are you saying we respawn here, like in a game?”
Marcos shook his head, his smile fading. “No. This isn’t a game. The first humans discovered that new arrivals always spawn in the same general area. We call them spawn points. There are several scattered across the world, each one receiving a hundred people at a time.”
Niko furrowed his brow. A hundred people... So, the others I was summoned with are scattered in different places?
Marcos seemed to sense the confusion and elaborated. “You’re lucky you spawned in this part of the world. There’s a settlement nearby, and this layer is rankless, meaning it’s relatively safe. That’s why I had to put you through a test—it’s my job to weed out the weak.”
The cold, matter-of-fact way he said it sent another chill through Niko. He really doesn't care about the lives that were lost.
A woman in the back raised her voice. “If this place is rankless, why were those monsters here? Why did you send them to attack us?”
Marcos shrugged. “Just because a layer is rankless doesn’t mean there are no threats. Those monsters came from the jungle, which is part of a ranked layer. But make no mistake—those bugs were the weakest of the weak. You could’ve taken them out with a bit of effort.”
A ripple of disbelief spread through the group, but no one dared to speak up.
Marcos continued, “We’re always in need of new blood. People die here every day, and we need fresh manpower. There’s another human settlement nearby, but I’d stay away from them—they’re... less friendly.”
Niko’s mind spun with the implications. Not all humans in this world could be trusted. In fact, some might be as dangerous as the monsters they faced.
Suddenly, a question popped into Niko’s mind. He raised his hand, his voice steady. “What about the first humans? The ones who arrived here before us. What do we know about them?”
Marcos’s gaze shifted toward Niko, his eyes narrowing slightly. For a moment, his attention focused on the green orb that orbited Niko’s body. He tilted his head, curiosity flickering in his eyes.
“Oh, them...” he muttered, his voice taking on a more somber tone. “They were... special.”