While Skyler wanted to strangle the one who made him lose track of the princess, inside the 52th level of Battle Royale, the familiar woman with black hair—who had slain the boss of the Dark Lights, the ones who had been sacrificing people—clicked her tongue. Her blood-red eyes narrowed.
"Why did he reject all my offers?"
She flicked her fingers, sending the blood coating her nails flying, and sighed as she glanced back at the demons behind her.
"Are 100,000 points not enough...? I don’t know—it’s my first time attempting to get a little disciple in the lower levels. I thought I could wait until he climbed up, but not even a short time had passed, and I already want to see him and maybe bully him a little."
She laughed, a surprisingly sweet sound that made the demons behind her tremble in shock. Why on earth was their ruthless, cold, evil Queen suddenly in such a playful mood, when only a short while ago she had been seething after discovering that some lowly beings called Dark Lights had been using her name for their wicked deeds?
But they didn’t dare to question her.
They only listened to her in silence.
After all, they all knew their Queen never asked questions to receive answers; she asked merely for the sake of asking. If the demons dared to reply, they would die.
The woman seemed quite satisfied with their silence, and she continued musing.
"I suppose I will have to find something better. One hundred thousand points hardly look impressive. They are rather useless to me, so they should be the same for him."
The demons wanted to correct her weird misunderstanding. Their hearts ached at the number of system points their Queen wanted to give away without knowing their true value, but they couldn’t utter a word.
As they looked at the piles of corpses before her, they knew that if they spoke, they would become part of that heap.
***
Simultaneously, on the 13th level of the Battle Royale, Skyler—who had calmed down—felt a sudden chill, as if someone were secretly watching his every action.
He rubbed his neck with a frown.
"Strange..."
At the sound of his voice, Charles’s eyes immediately turned toward him. However, seeing Skyler walking silently through the dark, surrounded by little floating fireballs, he thought he must have been mistaken.
Their group had left the destroyed village soon after the princess Skyler helped and her people vanished and was now heading back to their side of the 13th level of Battle Royale, searching for the challenge of this level to complete it and reach the next one.
Zack had still not rejoined the group after leaving to alert the nearest base of Light about how the Dark Lights had sacrificed so many people for some twisted reason, so the Lights could investigate the matter.
Yuris yawned, his expression weary.
"How long are we going to keep walking? We know the challenge for this level is a maze. It opens at a specific time each day. We could just wait until it opens and enter when others in this level are attempting it."
Austin immediately agreed with him.
Isaac and Charles wanted to stop as well, perhaps take something edible from their storage rings, light a fire, and have a meal. Though their rapidly increasing power had gradually reduced their need for food, the desire to eat whenever possible remained.
But Skyler gave them an intense look, and they knew his mood still hadn’t improved. So, they shut their mouths and continued walking amidst the tall trees. Well, at least this time, this bastard wasn’t making them battle hordes of monsters here and there.
Skyler looked away and glanced at the system screen hovering in front of him.
_______
Status:
Name: Nate Addes
Elemental Affinity with:
1) Wind: 14-star (Middle stage)
Overall Strength:
14-star Epic (Middle stage)
Potential: 25-star Mythic
Class: Storm Sovereign
_______
"Hmmm, that guy only has one element affinity. However, I have to admit, just the name of his class sounds remarkable."
He rubbed his chin.
Suddenly, his eyes lit up as a brilliant idea struck him, and Skyler sweetly called out.
"505."
Hearing him, 505 trembled. What was its devil host planning to make it do now? It was already scared before it even knew! A trembling message appeared in the air.
("Yes... h-host?")
Skyler ignored the system’s trembling screen, his voice filled with excitement.
"Can you track the owner of this status? You have hacked Nate’s system, so you should be able to discover his location in the Battle Royale. In that way, I can finally find out where the princess currently is."
505 was terrified and wanted to cry out in protest but felt numb. It had already gone so far for its evil host—what was breaking another set of rules for the systems in the Battle Royale? It was nothing compared to what it had already done so far for Skyler.
("That would be difficult, since locating another system in the Battle Royale isn’t easy—the Battle Royale is huge, after all. However, 505 will try its best to locate the residual power it left in Nate’s system.")
Skyler’s grim mood finally improved.
"You are very close to becoming the best system, 505. I knew you had the potential."
505 was silent as it processed his words.
For the first time, it could feel deep within its system that Skyler had been scamming it with this ’best system’ bullshit, but it had no proof. Anyway, it had already decided to walk the path to become the best system, so it chose to ignore that nagging feeling.
It would surely become the best system.
Even if it was a lie, 505 would make it real! Otherwise, the Main System would erase its existence with a single command—perhaps even torture it. After all, it had come too far to go begging for forgiveness for its deeds.
505 shuddered and quickly set off to carry out the new task Skyler had assigned. Now that it and its host were in the same boat, it worked twice as hard as before to complete its host’s commands. Still, it wanted to cry when it saw the old tasks yet to be done!
Why was its system life so difficult?
Skyler soon noticed light peeking through the clouds, illuminating the surroundings.
As a new day started, the still slightly dark clouds above the 13th level of Battle Royale separated in different places, and everyone in the surroundings raised their heads—only to see intricate gates appearing. These tall, dark golden gates were the entrances to the maze that was the challenge of this level.
Austin slumped against a tree trunk.
"Finally! No more walking!"
Yuris, Isaac, and Charles shared his relief.
Although their group hadn’t stumbled upon any monsters all night, they were still worn out from the endless walking. But the four shuddered when they heard Skyler’s next words, spoken in a strangely eager tone.
"Another day wasted. Let’s speed up."
Isaac and Yuris dropped to their knees, literally on the verge of tears. Speed up? Just how fast did he want them to go?!
They were already the first in Eldoria’s history to reach the 13th level in such a short time! Not even two full weeks had passed since they all entered the Battle Royale! No one in the world would ever believe this—not even their own family!
Skyler simply grabbed Yuris and Isaac by the collars and dragged them along as he floated up toward the tall gate, shooting a sidelong glance at Charles and Austin.
"Keep up. Or should I show you my Object Manipulation skill? It ranked up recently."
Charles and Austin shuddered and hurried after him. As they reached the gate, where many people and teams had already started to gather to enter, Austin suddenly paused.
"What about Zack? He’s still not back."
Skyler glanced to his left.
In the distance, he could see a familiar silver-eyed young man approaching them.
"Don’t worry. He’s here."