It wasn't long before Chris and the priest were at the right location, it was a long trip by car, but they were at last there, at the ruined mansion's ashes.

The place had already been searched before and the passage to the well was opened, they could already hear the wailing sounds the ghost made coming from inside the well.

Around the well was a small tornado that blew up ash and dirt, blocking their passage towards the ghost.

The priest was of the mind that they would need help, but Chris wouldn't listen, he charged through the wind and into the well, he was there to save Aidan, even if it was too late.

Passing through the ashes and dust, he quickly entered the well, he didn't know what to do next, but seeing the ghost in front of him caused him to feel pity for it. The ghost looked at him once and then extended its arms going for his neck, it didn't however tighten its grip, because it got a hug and a weeping head on its shoulders.

Chris was crying, he really wanted to help Aidan, but didn't know how. The priest saw a miracle happen as the tornado weakened and allowed him to come closer, while the wailing noises doubled, there was no doubt that Chris was crying together with Aidan.

The priest begun to chant and the ghost became alerted, but it was still being hugged by Chris, whom didn't let it go, his touch was warm and the priest's words were soothing to the ear. The ghost was sent to the afterlife and here our story ends. Or rather begins, since all this was but the beginning of Terror Infinity.

Everyone was shocked when their surroundings suddenly faded away and they appeared in front of that floating tablet with the new scores listed.

By looking at the scores one could tell what happened, with Tian being 1st place in the scores with 7000 points and followed by the others with around 3000 points, Chris was among those people who had around 3000 points, 3390 points was his score for this mission.

"Why?"

Chris asked, but there was no answer as the others were too preocupied with their own scores and the newbes were being instructed on what to buy for starters.

Only 4 of the newbes made it through and they lost Xiao. There were mixed feelings among the survivors, some felt relieved to be alive, others mourned for the dead.

Some like Chris were confused as to why Tian had more points than themselves.

"The guide takes bonus points, you didn't believe that we act as guides because we like it?"

Nick explained and everyone understood the meaning behind the guide and why Tian was happy to answer all of Chris' questions.

Of course he got more points for destroying ghosts and risking his life, while the others tried to stay safe and Chris was no different than the others, staying relatively safe if not safer due to the relic.

The people with the less points of all were Nick and his girls, they only got 1000 points for completing the mission, Nick however didn't seem to care at all.

"Gaining 1000 points should be all you desire from a mission, if you get more it means that the heroes didn't do their job right, if the heroes do their job all you'll need to do is wait for the mission objectives to be complete, one after the other"

Nick explained to Hera and Chrysa whom were disatisfied with earning so few points, even Hera only got 2000 points, since she found the secret piece once again.

All the pieces about what had happened to the ghost were put together once they saw the points and since Chris and Nick were still alive, they didn't need a second thought to see whom of the two defeated the ghost, the one with the most points of course.

It hurt being a commoner, Chris found. Since in this mission his points weren't great, while Tian's were excellent. Were the things Tian did what the system wants them to do?

The only thing he got for all his hard work were three new followers available, them being Rachel, Aidan and Aidan's Ghost, of whom he could only afford Rachel.

Who was right and who was wrong however isn't recorded in points, but in teamwork, the one that acts alone gets no points or rather the ones who play it safe get no points, the more you risk, the more points you get.

Tian's style was risky since he had no plans for the future and did stuff on the fly.

The most shocked for Chris however was that David and Christin didn't make it, until this point he hadn't figure out that the ones he had been talking to weren't the real ones, although he had his suspicions.

Non the less it felt sad to think that the lovely couple were imposters or look-alikes. He honestly felt embarassed with himself, on how he acted towards them as if he knew them. Must have been really awkward for them to have a stranger act all cozy with them.

The most sad however thing was that he did all that for nothing, no extra points no anything, if he hadn't got the relic, he would probably be even lower than the others in scores.

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

"Everyone gather up!"

Tian shouted gathering everyone near the floating tablet.

"Now that you have bought your basic equipment, you have two choices, those that are confident they can survive another mission have to keep their points to buy tickets, those that are not should raise their Cell Vitality, but don't go more than 150, you can also buy food, but I advise against doing so, we have enough food for everyone, I will now summon my house those that wish to continue as heroes can come, follow me inside"

Tian summoned his own house causing the new players to be awed and the old to feel thankful, after this mission they had experienced something much different than last time.

This time they knew it would be different, no strategy meetings or stories of the past, what they would be doing was just resting until the next mission was to come. There would be no laughers or jokes, because they now knew full well that the next to die might be themselves.

Inside Tian's house everyone was silent, the tension during the mission and the possibility of death made them want to just relax and forget about everything.

"Don't we need to do something to raise morale?"

George suddenly said, seeing that everyone was tired and despirited.

"Morale isn't important, the only thing that is important is survival"

Tian said somewhat despirited himself, even he didn't expect last mission to be so difficult, if not for the ghost having shifted its attention to Chris, they might not have made it at all.

"When you survive long enough you will see hundreds of people dying, some even more powerful and experienced than yourselves, but I don't blame you, because you can only become real players of this game of death after you use your first ticket"

Tian said, making everyone confused by his words, weren't tickets just a means to returning to real world for a day or more?

"leader Tian, I have a question for you"

Mike suddenly said.

"What is make it fast we only have 7 hours to sleep"

Tian said making everyone a bit anxious

"Why did Nick say that you derailed the plot, what does it even mean?"

Mike's question was understandable, because and many others were interested, but to Tian it sounded more like an accusation.

Derailing the plot of a mission was similar to making life more difficult for yourself, but on the other side it also meant more opportunity for points.

"It's simple, if you know what will happen in the story it's easier to plan ahead, deviations from the storyline of a movie are just bound to happen sooner or later, thus adding more objectives to a mission, but only cowards will try anything to stick with the story, because the more objectives there are the more points we will earn, yes the risk becomes more but unlike story deviation, taking the relic is even more troublesome, because it not only adds new objectives, it even makes them more difficult, do you think that Chris completed the last few objectives because he had the skills to do so, it's all because of the relic"

Tian explained, causing everyone to look out of the window to a small campfire, where chris sat lost in thought.

"Wait isn't that just pushing the responsibility on someone else?"

Thany said somewhat disappointed with Tian, he could at least apologize for making the mission longer than needed, his words sounded like some cheap excuse.

"You don't understand anything, when you take the relic, the system makes the mission more difficult, adding to our abilities the usage of a relic, but what happens when you cannot use the relic, for example what if the condition for using the relic is the ability to speak swahili or having psychic powers, the system will still add the difficulty since you have gotten the relic, but you won't be able to use it at all to help you in the mission and there is no way to know those requirements, it's a huge gamble to take the relic in the first place"

The people in the house now came to a realization, Chris indeed had screwd them up by taking the relic and Tian felt satisfied to shift the blame, not that he was lying, because it was an unspoken rule to not touch the artifact unless you had the ability to take responsibility for it, in a way Chris had taken responsibility by using the relic to end the mission, but why tell them that, it was better for their unity to shift the blame on Chris, who was a loner in the first place and even now refused to join them.

While the others had begun badmouthing him inside the house, Chris was still shocked by his own failure, he felt as if they had suddenly become villains or something, before they were slaying monsters and saving the people from the virus, but now what they had done was fighting against the police and killing innocent people. Fighting against the police wasn't so bad, after all in many countries the police has changed duties and has become a force of opressing people from protesting against the government, Chris hadn't personaly taken part in these protests, but his ideology was that the government was corrupt and those people protesting were brave and admirable people, unlike himself who was a sore loser and a coward.

Truthfuly he wouldn't have minded dying to a monster, dying with claws and teeth and dying against an unbeatable foe.

The question he had however was the floating score board, he simply couldn't understand why his score was so much lower than Tian's, whom was a scumbag that killed people without a reason.

Not knowing that his team had killed hundreds of people during theirs escape from the facility, but at the time he was doped on adrenaline and saw those people as enemies and bad guys, now however he felt as if the bad guys were his own group. Of course partialy he was affected by his relationship with Rachel, he had simply fallen in love with her.

He spent a lot of time in the store looking at her follower card, he could summon her any time, but that would only bring trouble to him, her cost was only 1000 points, since she was only a regular human with no special abilities at all, unlike the soldiers from recident evil whom cost around 3000-10000 points and came with their own equipment.

He was however not an idiot, what would block Tian from shooting her once more?

The scene of him killing her in front of his eyes repeated in his mind, feeling him with anger, the penalty for killing someone was 1000 points, Tian had told him so.

A wild idea came to mind as he looked into the distance towards tian's house a small smirk on his face as he begun to plot with the Red empress on the best way to make it appear as an accident.

The people inside the house badmouthing him had a weird chill go down their spine as they saw him turning his gaze towards them, as if he could hear them.