I tried to steer things away from the doom and gloom; maybe there was something we were missing. Surely, if the Regressor of all people brought this up in a meeting, he’d have some kind of trick or quark that could be exploited, although given his less-than-sure posture, even I began to have my doubts.
“Let’s stick with the facts first before we panic,” I said, “So we got like, 1800 combatants, but some people stayed behind as well, what’s the numbers like for Pandora as a whole? I mean the people who chose to sit out.”
“2652 is the number of Aspirants who didn't come,” Jae-Hyun replied matter-of-factly, “But that number might have gone down since I last checked.”
Oh… it most certainly did after my little adventures with Alice and Toby, not to mention my stunt as Awake-Walter. Worse yet, to ensure that the Aspirants were frightened, I had instructed Abigail to let the two play in Pandora every now and then after I was gone. That uh, that might have been a mistake.
“Er, let’s just be safe and say we have 2500 noncombatants,” I added quickly, “So that’s like, 3300 or so people altogether. That’s not too bad.”
“Until you consider the numbers our enemies have,” Vadeem grumbled, “Any idea what those are like, Jae-Hyun?”
The Regressor gave me a bitter look. “All of the initial Aspirants were split up in various city-states evenly, so their numbers should be close to what we had before the Training.”
“That’s… what, 25,000ish?” I said, “But surely they’d have lost some members like we did.”
“They would have, but not by much. Remember that the Third Trials that most Aspirants faced would have been harmless, so the only casualties that they would see are from exploration and infighting. At most, we can cut that number down to about 23,000, 20,000 minimum.”
“So, we’re screwed,” Noel stated, “I’ve seen our non-combatants, they’re uh, they’re useless.” Yoona looked like she was about to protest the harsh criticism of the others, but even she knew the truth of things. Noel pouted before continuing. “So it’s more like 1800 vs 23,000. I mean, I did say our guys were super duper strong, but maybe they’re not that strong.”
“Wait,” Yoona added, “But surely some of the 23,000 would be non-combatants as well, right?”
Jae-Hyun shook his head. “Even with the best-case scenario, our forces will be outnumbered ten to one. Remember, our numbers will most likely be even lower after the Clan War. This Trial will take place practically immediately after it.”
The others grumbled at that. With the Regressor dropping such a bombshell on us, they must have forgotten that little caveat. It made sense that the Overseer would plan for the war to coincide with the start of the next Trial. It was his extra guarantee that even if we somehow survived by the skin of our teeth, we’d still be dead after. That damned sneaky bastard.
“I forgot about that,” Yoona muttered, “But… do you think we’d lose a lot more people then?”
“It’s hard to say,” Jae-Hyun said after some thought, “But it’s safe to assume we’re not getting out unscathed.”
Thankfully I had prevented the absolute worst-case scenario from happening, but as much as I wanted to tell Jae-Hyun and the others that, it just wasn’t the right time to reveal everything to them. Still, being able to help them on the sidelines was enough for now, let them worry about a foe that won’t appear, or at least a foe that’s significantly easier to deal with than the scheduled Restus.
The Regressor took another sip of his water before addressing us again. “But… there might still be some hope for us, slim as it is.”
That’s what I was talking about, I knew our intrepid leader would have some kind of ace up his sleeve.
“But it’s still a long shot,” he admitted.
“It’s better than just accepting certain death,” Vadeem said with a shrug, “Better than nothing, and it’s not like this is the first time we’ve faced impossible odds. I still shudder thinking about what Noel and I had to do in that Third Trial…” Both he and the woman in question shuddered, “Nothing can be worse than that. Let’s hear it.”
Man, now I wanted to know what exactly it was that they had to endure to make them react like that. It had to have been something horrible, but that same curiosity didn’t seem to affect Jae-Hyun.
He ignored the comment and continued, “Remember how I said that the entire purpose of this cruel game is to find the strongest individuals? Or how these Trials incentivize coming in first above all else?”
We nodded, that fact had been firmly implanted in our brains.
“The sick bastards in charge wouldn’t allow exceptional prospects to die off because of their peers, so there are some safeguards in place to prevent that.”
We nodded again, eager for him to continue.
“We can take advantage of one of those safety nets for the upcoming Trial, but the only problem is that I fear even that wouldn’t be enough to save us, given how many Aspirants we’ve lost.”
“So what’s the exploit?” Vadeem asked.
“I think it’s best if I give everyone a brief summary of what to expect first.” The Regressor spoke again once he confirmed that we had calmed down. “Let’s start from the beginning. I’m sure that many of you have surmised already, but there is a reason why the people in charge, the Central Collective as they call themselves, have placed us in isolated cities.”
“It’s to test our ability to lead,” Marcus chimed in, “If what you say is true and the end goal for these… Central individuals is to recruit us into some higher purpose, then it is a logical conclusion to assume that they seek leaders among the powerful.”
“Precisely, Father,” the Regressor affirmed, “And the best way, in their eyes, at least, to test these qualities is for us to wage unending war against the various other Aspirants in the Main Stage. We must do this until we’ve either assimilated the rest into one faction or have eliminated the competition outright.”
“Cruel way of looking at things,” Vadeem added, “But then again, what else would I expect from transdimensional monsters?”
“Wait,” I interrupted, “Assimilation? So we do have a chance to replenish Pandora’s numbers?”
Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
“We do, otherwise every city-state will be down to single digits after a few Trials,” Jae-Hyun confirmed, “This is why our current situation isn’t entirely hopeless. Every time we are victorious against an opponent - unless of course we are tasked with their immediate and complete destruction - we may choose to integrate them into Pandora. Of course, there is an alternative to that as well.”
“Let me guess,” I muttered, having understood just how cruel the Overseer’s Trials were first hand, “The alternative is to just kill the others entirely? I’ll also bet that they get some sweet rewards if they choose that option.”
“Right again, Walter. I don’t think I need to tell everyone which option is more likely to be chosen, especially at the early stages of the Trials.”
“Yeah,” Noel whispered, “If I had the choice to choose between taking in a bunch of losers who hate our guts, or get super duper strong, I’d choose the super duper strong option 100% of the time.”
Yoona gave her a concerned frown.
“What?” Noel said, raising her hands, “I’m just thinking about it logically! It’s like, what most people would do, right?” She turned to me. “Little bro, help me out here.”
I sighed. “Noel’s right, Yoona, most people would choose the safer option of strengthening themselves, especially in such a hostile and uncertain environment. They’d only consider assimilation if they’re low on numbers like we are.”
The High Schooler frowned, but even she could see the logic in that. I had the feeling that she’d be facing a lot of hard decisions moving forward, and I just hoped she was ready for it.
"Do you know how often we get to replenish our numbers?" I added, "Er, you said that sometimes we'll have to kill all of them outright, but surely that's not going to happen too often, right?"
Jae-Hyun frowned again. "You are partially right, but in the beginning stages of the Trial, a lot of the tasks will be centered around culling our numbers. In the middle to latter stages of the Ascension, we will have more missions around varying, less deadly, objectives, but I wouldn't hedge your bets at this stage in the game."
Yoona shifted in her seat again, looking increasingly uncomfortable. I don't blame the girl, but what else can you do when we're all stuck in this shitty situation?
“Anyway,” The Regressor continued, changing the subject, “Those concerns can wait after we’ve secured our victory. We don’t have the luxury of thinking that far ahead until we’re out of this current predicament.”
“Right…” Yoona whispered softly, “Sorry, please continue, brother.”
Jae-Hyun gave his sister a tired smile before turning to the rest of us again. “Like I said, we’ll be working as a collective from now on, but it’s not like we’re waging full-on wars. The next Trial, if it is what I think it is, will involve smaller teams of our choosing. Each team will be facing a random opposition in the next Trial, and the winner of each of those bouts will score a point for their city-state.”
“So…” Vadeem mumbled, “We’ll be shuffled around in groups to face off against each other?”
“Yes,” Jae-Hyun said, “And you can already see why we are at a big disadvantage.”
I thought for a moment and saw that it was as hopeless as it seemed. With 1/10th the population of the others, there’s basically no way for us to escape the bottom even if every single one of our teams won. But wait… the Regressor said we got to choose our teams…
“Do we get to choose how many people make up a team?” I asked.
A ghost of a smile started to creep up on the Regressor's face, it seemed like I was on the right track. “That is also correct, Walter. There’s only a maximum limit of 50 per group in place, and that brings me to the only other advantage we have here.”
“What is it?” Yonna asked.
“The bastards hosting the Trials are not on our side,” he spat, “They will never tell us everything about a Trial, and will go out of their way to hide things that would benefit us. For this one, they won’t explain what happens to the bottom teams, and will instead emphasize the special prize the winning teams will get.”
I nodded slowly. “That means the other city-states won’t be trying to win as desperately as we do, none of them will take it too seriously about finishing as a collective. That’s good, but nowhere near enough of a handicap for us.”
“There’s more though,” the Regressor grinned, “The hosts will state that the winning team will earn wonderful rewards, but those rewards will be split evenly between the participants, thus incentivizing smaller team compositions.”
This time Vadeem was the one to chime in. “That’s good, that means we can divide our own forces into smaller sections without fear of facing overwhelming numbers. If we're up against random groups among all the cities then it's better to have a lot of smaller teams than a few huge groups of 50.”
Yoona shook her head. “But they'll still outnumber us by a huge margin, even if we can pad our numbers out with small groups of two or three.”
“But there’s still that safety net feature to account for,” I interrupted, “Your brother hadn’t told us that part yet.”
“I was getting there,” he replied, “This is the only thing we can rely on, but it will also depend on a lot of luck.”
Did he just say Luck? Well, maybe it wasn’t all hopeless after all, although the rest of the guild didn’t know that yet.
“Go on,” I said, suppressing a smile of my own.
“In my original timeline, before… before all of this,” The Regressor began, gesturing at the space around us, “There were three individuals who chose to go in alone and survived. They faced 5, 8 and 15 opponents each, and would you like to guess how many points they earned for their city?”
“5, 8 and 15?” Vadeem answered, “But I’m guessing everyone who doesn’t go at it alone only gets a single point for victory, yeah?”
“You’re correct on the second point, but not the first,” Jae-Hyun said before shaking his head. “What those three earned wasn’t 5, 8 and 15, but 50, 80, and 150 points.”
“Damn,” Vadeem whistled, “Then we might have a chance.”
“So all we gotta do is all go in as singletons and beat up groups of 50!” Noel quickly said, “Shit, then we’d have like, 5000 points!”
“Your math is horrible, Noel,” Vadeem muttered with a shake of his head, “And do you honestly think that Ana and Eva would go in alone?”
“Right,” she admitted, "So it’s more like 7 times 500, er…”
“The answer is 3500, but it’d take a miracle for us to all be placed against groups of 50,” Jae-Hyun answered, “Remember, the hosts will incentivize smaller teams, so we’re looking at cohorts of 5-10 on average. It’d be improbable if even one of us gets paired up against a group of fifty, much everyone.”
I smiled to myself. Maybe it wasn’t impossible.
The Regressor shook his head. “And that’s not how we’re splitting this group up. The five of us will go in solo, but Yoona, I need you to go with the twins and look after them.”
“But-” she began, clearly about to argue being the only one not assigned a solo task.
“Do you want them to go by themselves then?” her brother continued, “When they barely understand how this world works?”
“No…” she whispered, “But, they can also go with Vadeem, right?”
Jae-Hyun gave her a silent stare before his sister finally looked down.
“...I’ll go with them,” she said after a pause, “I know… I know I’m not as strong as everyone else here, but I-" She took a deep breath and shook her head. "No, I can’t complain right now, not when our survival’s at stake. Just… just promise me that the rest of you will take care of yourselves.”
“We’ll be fine,” Vadeem answered with a hearty grin, “And you need to make sure you take care of the girls while we’re gone!”
She gave him a weak smile back. “Thank you…”
Jae-Hyun nodded. “Then we have the plan set. At least for the 4th Trial, but there’s still the task of surviving the Clan War, and stabilizing Pandora.”
I sighed again. It seems like the workload was never-ending, but that’s a part of being an Aspirant.