"Fuck. I can’t see a damn thing."
"It’s too dangerous, Fitz. Going in there’s a death trap."
"You heard that explosion. There’s no way anything survived that."
A duo of young men looked out from around the corner of the wiry gate’s doorway, trying to peek inside but seeing nothing but walls of smoke.
Just behind them, a young girl stood. She was probably no older than Grey himself, but she had a quiet disposition that made her seem even younger than she was.
She didn’t seem to want to interject, remaining silent even as Fitz started to strong-arm Ray into going forward.
"If we don’t take risks, we’re all going to die. You heard that floating head—we’re in a game show right now. There’s probably fan voting and sponsors involved. If we stay on the sidelines for everything, we’re going to be left behind.
"We all saw those corpses. There are either other people here, or these goblins are fighting amongst themselves. Either way, if we wait too long, someone else might take the chance that should be ours."
Ray grit his teeth. "Let’s do it."
Fitz grinned. "You go. I’ll cover you from the back."
Ray froze again. "What?"
"I’m the archer. How are you going to cover me if I’m the one who goes? And May here’s just a girl. You can’t expect her to go instead of you, right?"
The hesitation on Ray’s face was palpable, but the mention of May seemed to have injected him with adrenaline. He couldn’t refute any of Fitz’s logic either, so it seemed he had no choice.
Giving himself a slap on the face, he gripped his sword hard, regretting for the dozenth time this last hour alone that he had chosen a weapon so heavy.
He had thought a greatsword was badass—who wouldn’t want a weapon three-quarters their own height? Unfortunately, his wrists and shoulders didn’t agree, but it was all he had now.
Ray began to make his way forward, holding his greatsword out, hoping it would skewer anything he came across long before it could take his head.
...
On the other side of the smoke, Grey couldn’t hear what was happening. The sound he heard was Ray’s sword piercing one of the crates through, and, in his panic, causing even more noise trying to pull it out.
’What do I do?’ Grey frowned.
The encampment was large, but the quality of the smoke bombs was poor. In another few minutes, even if the air wasn’t completely clear, it would be possible to see well enough that there wouldn’t be many places to hide.
He had also seen a room like the one the goblin boss was hiding in before. So, he knew that it was a valuable room. Defeating that goblin meant a lot of rewards and loot boxes.
The trouble was that even if Grey did clear that room himself, he couldn’t interface with any of the rewards that were given. At best, he’d be able to benefit from the armor and weapon the goblin was wielding.
Unlike the shoddy weapons of the common mobs, the bosses had much better quality items. These starter bosses would have weapons about equal to that of the starter weapons given to the participants, and that was beneficial to Grey, who had obviously gotten nothing.
But... he could also receive a reward like that just for sitting on the sidelines and waiting for these people to tire themselves out.
Should he, though? Killing these goblins was one thing. Killing fellow humans was another.
Though it was true they had killed that girl, for all Grey knew, she had tried to stab one of them in the back first. It wasn’t like an innocent face immediately meant you were innocent.
Grey couldn’t remember the last time he was so indecisive.
’Dammit. What if I’m stuck here if I’m the one to clear the boss room?’
When Grey stumbled onto this place before, it had opened up to a new, much larger area. There had been far more participants there. If this region was like a tutorial zone, the location on the other side was where the real game map opened up.
But he had a feeling that if he made the choice to kill these people and then take their things, he might not ever be able to leave this tutorial zone.
’This is just fantastic.’
Realizing the real problem now, Grey knew it wasn’t worth it to take aggressive action. He suppressed his annoyance and slowly made his way to one side, curving around the room in hopes of avoiding these people.
...
Ray continued to walk forward slowly, the earlier panic having left his cheeks flushed with embarrassment. But it also helped him relax a bit.
He had made so much noise, yet nothing had come to attack him. That probably meant that Fitz was right. That explosion probably took out everyone.
He turned back to give Fitz a glance, only to notice that he couldn’t make out Fitz at all. The latter had retreated the moment he heard the noise and was currently pressing a palm to his chest.
"Damn, that idiot," Fitz cursed beneath his breath before settling down. He realized the same thing Ray had and felt more confident walking forward.
...
Grey came to a stop when he felt the opening of the gates, slipping outside. He exhaled a breath, thinking he was free and clear, when he suddenly froze.
Slowly, he looked to the side to find a familiar young woman staring at him with both her palms clasped over her mouth.
Grey could only watch in slow motion as the spear she held slowly fell to the ground. Inwardly, he groaned, but he was already running. The last time he had seen this girl, she had an arrow sticking out of her eye socket. He wanted absolutely nothing to do with that.
A clang echoed through the silence, and both Ray and Fitz—who hadn’t made it very far—looked back at the same time.