I arrived a few minutes late to the guild lounge, being the last to arrive... again. I nodded back in greeting and went to check out the large projected screen aimed at the wall. It was broadcasting another Host - not Jordan this time - in the process of explaining the next Trial to Pandora. The one thing I did find out from reading over the doppelganger’s notes was that announcements would be made via these strange virtual images from now on, which was nice since we didn’t have to all gather at the town square any more.

I suppose it only made logistical sense if we’d be growing in number going forward since we’d be assimilating other Aspirants sooner or later, and the people at Central would like to streamline the process of dishing out Trials before things got too complicated. It didn’t really matter to me, in any case.

“There you are, Walter,” Vadeem greeted before handing me a few BBQ leftovers, “There’s some drinks in the cooler as well if you want.”

I took the hotdogs and burgers with a nod. “Thanks, but shouldn’t we be paying attention to the announcement instead of snacking?”

I glanced at Noel, who was still stuffing her face with various grilled items and arched an eyebrow at Vadeem. I couldn't see how she could hear anything over the noise of her enthusiastic chewing. Yoona was here as well, although her usual cheer was still missing. She was off to the side with Marcus and the two were discussing something quietly, but neither of them seemed to be paying attention to the new Host.

He shrugged. “The boss was right. Seems the next Trial’s the same one as he said, so we’re not really missing much. We’re just here in case they deviate from what we know later.”

I nodded and took a bite of the still-warm food. Damn, it was good - Vadeem really was a good cook.

“Great, I know,” the big man said with a grin, “Just wait till I make the real good stuff, you’ll all be in for a treat.”

“Shounds g’ud,” I mumbled, mouth still full of burger. I grabbed a cool glass of water and took a large sip before continuing. “Did the host say anything unusual?”

“Nope,” Vadeem answered, “But he did just start. Don’t seem like there’d be any new information that we don’t know though.”

I sat down on a seat and listened to the announcement for a bit. Once again, the individual giving the speech was someone completely new, evidently, the Overseer did have someone to take over for Jordan, but this new guy didn’t have even half the charisma that Raffiel did. He looked the part, what with the fancy white robe and wings, but the enthusiasm in the way he talked just wasn’t there.

True to Vadeem’s words, the information the new guy was presenting went in line with what the Regressor said earlier and even the info that he chose to neglect telling was in line with Jae-Hyun’s predictions. I started to tune him out as he droned on and on, repeating the same textbook Central propaganda lines. He didn’t have the same pazzazz as Raffiel, I missed the guy.

Noel made her way over and took a seat next to me. “The new fake-angel kind of sucks, right?”

I nodded, choosing not to speak with my mouth full this time.

“I wonder what happened to that first dude from before, or the weird woman,” Noel continued between bites of her skewer. “Maybe there really is some kind of stuff going on behind the scenes. Eh, it must be bad if they’re getting these interns to do the job.”

“Must be,” I muttered, “But that’s just good news for us.”

The redhead shrugged. “Maybe, but these internal struggles usually spill out to everything else, and we’re part of that everything else. I smell more troubles ahead.”

I looked at the woman with curiosity, she was speaking in terms that made logical sense, that’s very un-Noel-like.

“What?” she said, “I know that look again! I was part of an organization before, you know, so I know this stuff! It’s why I don’t off my bosses no more, the underlings always make a mess of things after, and it’s no fun when everything’s so chaotic." She gave me another smile and grinned. "Oh boy, little bro, you should have seen me when I first started! Those were fun times!”

I think I didn’t want to do that at all, but I didn’t voice my opinion to the crazy woman. And if what she said was true, then Jae-Hyun was lucky he was with a more, er, “mature” version of Noel.

“Anywho, the new dude’s not saying anything new,” she continued, pulling me up by the arm, “So stop sitting around by yourself and come over! We’re gonna all be separated once the new stupid Trial starts, so this is the last time we can all chill! It's proper time we had some Guild bonding!”

I sighed and allowed myself to be guided by Noel to where the rest of the guild was seated. They were playing a game of what appeared to be a strange mix of charades and Pictionary, and by now, Yoona had recovered enough to join us. I checked with the new host one last time to make sure that there was nothing important being missed and joined my friends soon after.

* * *

Time passed quickly when there was a countdown looming, and before I even noticed, the start of the fourth Trial was right around the corner. The Regressor had spent the majority of the 24-hour grace period out with the rest of the Aspirants, doing his best to put them in groups that would ensure the best chances for our survival. Of course, he didn’t know what I had planned, but I hoped that he’d be pleasantly surprised by the sheer number of points the five of us would gain thanks to a little Luck.

I was worried that our leader wouldn’t make it back in time to leave for the Trials with the rest of us, thus making it impossible for me to use Noe’s abilities on him, but Jae-Hyun joined us with only 3 minutes to spare. It was close, but it was enough.

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Noe, time for you to work your magic.

“As you will, my Host,” she replied, “Please stand by.”

“Remember enough,” Jae-Hyun said, “Every one of us needs to win, the survival of our entire city depends on it. I’ve done what I can to prepare the rest of Pandora, but I’m counting on us to do our part.”

Noel gave him a thumbs-up, while Vadeem simply nodded. He was busy checking the twin’s equipment, making a big fuss over them. Yoona stood silently by their side, fidgeting with her bow.

“And Yoona…” the Regressor continued, “Are you-”

“I’m fine, brother,” she answered, “I’ve… I’ve thought things over, and you guys are right. We’re not on Earth anymore, and…” She took a deep breath in. “I’ll do my part. I can’t forgive myself if anything happens to all of you because of me. I’ll be fine, brother. We can- we can discuss things when we’re all safe and sound, okay?”

“At the beach!” Noel interrupted, “You forgot that part, bestie!”

Yoona smiled, a genuine one this time. “Yeah, we’ll all have a nice beach vacation. Let’s all do our best here and look forward to that once we’re all back.”

“I already have things planned out,” Vadeem added, “Did you know they sell whole hogs at the store? Just you all wait, we'll be feasting like kings!”

"And queens," Noel added, "Most of us are girls here, Vadumb."

"I'm pretty sure it's half and half," Vadeem grunted, "And that's if I count you as a woman. That's a big if."

I smiled as well, ignoring Noel and Vadeem's bickering in the background. “Yeah, it’ll be fun. But let’s focus on the task first, and good luck to all of you. See you back soon, eh?”

The countdown ticked to the last few seconds, and I could already feel the pull of the usual teleportation.

“Good luck,” Jae-Hyun said one last time, “And come back safely.”

“Activating Absolute Luck Skill,” Noe added.

Luck Charges: 1466/1577

And poof, we were all gone. I felt the familiar disorientation hit me, although it was just a slight discomfort this time thanks to my strange new biology, and once I opened my eyes again, an entirely new world entered my view.

First thing first as always, I took a few minutes to survey the new local, and lo-and-behold, to the surprise of absolutely nobody, it was dark and dreary out. I was in what looked like a forest clearing, huge trees that seemed to reach into the heavens surrounded me, and the creepy sound of the blowing wind and nighttime insects were the only things I could hear. Worse still, there was an ominous fog that seemed to cover every nook and corner of the place, one so thick that even my night vision couldn’t penetrate. Last, but not least, there was a horrible, all-encompassing sense of dread permeating my body.

The only other feature that I could make out in the foggy gloom was a dirt path that led further into the forest. I squinted my eyes to see where this path could take me, but I could make out nothing other than obscure shadows and the outlines of trees. Whatever was down this path, however, made my skin crawl, and every primal survival instinct I had told me to go the other way.

Yup, it seems like the Trash Matrix had a thing for these horror movie-esque places for whatever reason. I’m sure there was some logic to it like perhaps it wanted to temper the Aspirants to fear or some other nonsense, but I just found it annoying that we couldn’t be sent to some nice tropical island somewhere for once. Let’s just see what horrors awaited me this time ‘round.

Welcome, Aspirants of Earth!

Ah, right. It’s been such a long time since I had forgotten about these intro announcements. Since this Trial wasn’t corrupt, the Trash Matrix should provide me with some kind of clear condition. Let’s see what it was this time.

In this Trial, each group will be pitted against the other, and escape will only be possible once one team emerges victorious. To ensure that you know who the opposition is, all information about the opponents will be displayed now:

I was bombarded with image after image of different Aspirants, each screen showing their basic attribute like name, level, and a 3D picture of what they looked like, but little else. I had Noe memorize them all, but somehow I don’t think that would be necessary. I had a sneaking suspicion that anything else in this Trial wouldn’t look very human-like, and since I didn’t have any allies to worry about, I shouldn’t have a hard time picking my opponents from a crowd. And true to Noe’s abilities, there were exactly fifty people on the opposition’s team.

The goal of this Trial is simple: Survive.

There is no time limit, and the Trial will end once all Aspirants from one team are eliminated. You may use any and all methods at your disposal to accomplish this goal.

Additional missions will be assigned as time progresses, and it is in the best interest of all participants that these missions are completed. Failure to do so will have severe consequences.

Finally, all Aspirants will be rewarded based on their individual contribution, along with the completion of the following bonus objectives:

* Reach the Village Center

* Find out the secret of the Village Ceremony

* Survive a meeting with the Village Elder

* Survive for 7 days

* Have at least 50% of your team survive

Good luck, Aspirants of Earth, and happy hunting.

Well, I doubt I’d get any additional rewards myself, but I was curious about those bonus objectives. The Trash Matrix was sending us into preoccupied dimensions, something that I’ve learned during the 3rd Trial, and there must be a reason why it was giving out these incentives to the Aspirants. My best bet was that it wanted to use its pawns to destabilize this place, or at least terrorize its inhabitants so that they couldn’t rebel against its invasion.

Either way, there was most likely a hidden reason why it wanted us to seek out these places, and I intended to find out what that was. I didn’t care for the rewards, but I sure as hell wanted to fuck with any goal that the Trash Matrix had. But that’s something I can worry about for another time, for now, I had to get my bearings, and figure out exactly what dangers there were in this nightmare of a place.

All of this meant that I couldn’t just hide in the forests here and wait it out. If there’s a village, then I was willing to bet that it’s located further in the creepy fog, and that meant ignoring all of the warnings in my brain and going deeper down the path. I steadied my nerves and followed the only dirt road into the all-consuming forest. Let's get this solo mission over with.