It’s a pity I can’t sleep here.
Looking around there were almost ten people left. There was one guy that specifically caught my attention somehow, he had a knight costume that looked as if it belonged to someone at a high level of swordsmanship. It was like a typical white horse rider in comic books.
I looked at the guy I was paired with. I was anticipating him wearing something red or black in color and a long cape with enormous armor covering him, but this guy had a sea-green suit on. And this made him flourish in his uniqueness as the ugly duckling. If it was just a suit, it wouldn't look so weird but he had a sword in his left hand as well...
Nonetheless, he looked surreal in his suit. I don’t know how long I stared at him before I finally came back to my senses. What was the guy from earlier's name… I forgot to ask.
“Hey… What is your name? I am Ashleen.”
“Anik” huh he is an Indian guy? He doesn’t look Indian though... I'd say he looks more like someone from the East.
“You are not as silent as I expected you to be. Your name suits you though. By the way, what’s this timer on your head? 50 minutes it says.”
He was silent again...
“Aeessh! Man, do you have multiple personality disorder or something? You shouldn’t have answered me in the first place.” He sighed and finally looked at me.
“Do you see a timer on someone else?”
“No?”
“On yourself?”
“Yes.”
“What do you think?”
“What?”
“You are hopeless... You can see the basic info about the person you are paired with.” this girl can she stop bothering me? I am already losing my mind. I thought I was dying but I am not dying what is this thing? And those guys had skills stronger than us? Does that mean we’ll have to fight them in the future? But they should be in the end. So it means there is an end to this place. What about after it then?...
Who am I even pretending for I know where we are better than anyone else present here. I am still surprised that the web novel I read became a reality, so all the characters are already here. But something is different, I didn’t get someone’s role but instead, I am an entirely new existence in this place.
Ashleen was supposed to enter the scenario alone but I partnered with her, I wonder how this will end now.
“Hey! Is that important to be disrespectful?” I don’t mind people saying me something like that but this person is getting on my nerves. He said 'hopeless' with such a straight face that I started questioning myself for a second.
Of course, he was silent again. But I was not giving up this time.
“Why do you think others were given advantage and what do they mean by scenarios?”
“Everyone here has their own set of skills and weaknesses. The couple that crossed out each other was sent to the later stages because giving them scenarios would be a waste of time and normal people would stand no chance against them.”
“Cool.”
He glared at her as if she had said something unspeakable.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“Why didn’t you join him when he talked to you?”
“That guy… something seems off about him.” That person is the one who killed Ashleen in the original story, although his actions were justifiable Anik still dislikes him.
“You mean my sis is in danger?”
“He can’t do anything to her. The death of their partner would leave him with only 20% of his original abilities. This means he needs to ensure her survival as well. I can’t promise your survival if you met him again.”
“Whoa! Cool. Means you need to ensure my survival as well.”
He was silent again and was silent for the next 40 minutes. Till then I tried making sense of what was going on. I wanted to act surprised by this sudden change etc etc but this must be my power. I have always been level-headed. Worse the problem calmer I was. And since it was some scenario world my ability should work as a superpower.
“Don’t try to take pity on everyone once you reach there. There are going to be NPC players. They can’t kill you but can ensure your death by making it easy for the opposite party.” According to what he remembers, in the first scenario, she’s supposed to get injured because of her so-called ‘basic morals’.
“Aren’t we going to be together?”
“No” This time I am not sure because there was no such existence like me in the original story, but most of the other characters with the role of princess entered alone first, so my guess should be right.
“WTF!!! I might as well die the very moment I step there.”
“Use your brain and survive. Death here means no one will be affected by it. But at the same time, it will be worse than what a death in the actual world can be.” He remembered the first impressionable remark made by her about how her death won’t affect anyone now, at that time Anik was already miserable because of his loneliness, and this girl added oil to the fire.
“Hey did that creature tell you all this? You seem to know more than needed.”
“You need to stay in your surroundings a bit more…” His face distorted as he looked at her timer.
…
A sudden flash came between us and the next moment I opened my eyes I was in a different location. It felt like a game glitched and mixed the modern and fantasy world in one place. There were buildings on both sides of this many-laned road. It already looked weird because usually, the road is not this wide… it’s never this abnormally wide, but even if it is still it’s meant to be a highway, and if it is a highway there won’t be so many buildings on the sides of the road. But now not only there were these buildings there but these were completely wrecked as well.
This all looks like some weird modern city but the problem was these people didn't even let it look like that. At least 20 people were around where I was and were looking closely at others about 50 people fighting with spears and swords. ‘Swords and spears’ was the first thing and their clothing was the another that made them look like aliens in this place. All of them wore clothes that could only be found in British museums nowadays.
Everything aside this fight was fascinating at the very least. Clashing and clanging noise made by swords, the expressions on the people’s faces giving their all… It looked so cool that for a second I forgot about everything and started cheering as if watching a movie. Everyone stopped for a brief moment looking at me. It felt so awkward that I wanted to go dig a hole and hide in it. Someone pulled me back to the center of the group of people and the flight resumed. But why the hell were they fighting?
“Princess, we will try our best to protect you… hey! You are that slow girl from earlier.”
It was the girl who told me about Vanshika’s situation earlier.
“Yea… pretty good first impression I made I guess.” I smiled awkwardly. “So what’s going on?”
“We need to clear this scenario.”
“What scenario is it?”
“…Why the hell did they choose you to be a princess in the first place?” She sighed deeply and continued. “Open your system message bar.”
“Huh??”
“MANN! I’LL KILL YOU” The guy she was paired with interrupted as they both got a warning over their head… because of disrespecting me??
“Since you entered late you might not know, but we all have our scenarios to finish to move to the next one, and our scenario, at the moment for us is to protect you.” Suddenly he moved closer and pulled me to the right. That was abnormally fast. As soon as I moved away an arrow passed straight from where I was supposed to be. That was close. “We all have different tasks to do for example the opposite team needs to kill you to become the stronger rulers.”
“But they are so few in number.”
“It’s just the beginning; it will start to increase in coming scenarios. Check your task now.”
“Okay…”
“Survive using your skills it says.”
“And what are your special skills? Don’t tell me if you don’t want to but use them to survive.” Both of them were distracted by incoming attacks, leaving me thinking alone. And they need to kill me to become stronger. Does that mean those people already have a status here?? And to improve it they chose easy targets like us who just arrived… makes sense but it’s too early to deduce something.
But I need to do something now. By the way long will he take? I remember seeing his timer, maybe it was 15 minutes. This means for now I am on my own.