Zack tore his gaze away from Skyler and slowly surveyed the remains of the sand warriors scattered across the vast arena.
His silver eyes flickered with disbelief.
Skyler’s even breathing made it painfully clear that the destruction before him had been created effortlessly by him. The only damage to Skyler’s still-clean clothes was the straight tears at his shoulder blades.
Yuris, Austin, and Charles were equally shocked. For a while, there was silence.
Ultimately, unable to contain himself any longer, Zack licked his lips and asked the youth standing at the center of the arena.
"Just how strong have you gotten?"
Skyler finally turned to face the four men fully. His hair, catching the dying crimson and orange light of the sky, glowed briefly. The scene formed a radiant ring around him. Yet instead of giving a divine feeling, what Zack felt from him at that moment was an air of desolation and detachment.
The thought left him stunned.
They were all clearly with Skyler, standing directly opposite him—so why did he feel that way? The fleeting notion vanished as he caught sight of the familiar, infuriating smirk curling at Skyler’s lips as the youth answered his earlier question laughingly.
"Not much. But stronger than you."
Zack’s brow twitched at his deliberately provocative words. But before he could even express his speechlessness, Skyler spun around and swiftly kicked open the door that had materialized behind him.
His voice echoed through the air as he stepped through the door without any hesitation, leaving behind two words:
"Follow up."
Ultimately, the question of how powerful Skyler had become was left a mystery, as was the peculiar detail of why his clothes were torn only over the shoulder blades.
Zack muttered a curse under his breath.
He could see that, just like him, everyone was utterly exhausted, yet they still forced their bodies forward, hurriedly trailing after the figure that had disappeared through the door leading to the next level of the Battle Royal, as if not wanting to be left behind.
The scene was almost comical, yet he couldn’t bring himself to laugh at them, knowing he was doing the same thing.
The instant they arrived at the 15th level, Skyler’s heart stopped for a split second, and cold sweat formed on his forehead.
A fleeting yet intense surge of reluctance, anger, and powerlessness, mingled with a sharp urge to mock himself, washed over him, stirring some fragmented memories.
The memories were cloudy, yet in all of them he was dying—there was even a time when nothing remained of his body. A chill ran down his spine as the images flashed through his mind, and he subconsciously clenched his fists, muttering to himself.
"It’s... giving me a headache."
However, before his hazy gaze could blur completely, the gem attached to the chain around his wrist—silent until now—began to tremble and radiate cold as if agitated. The sudden surge of cold snapped him out of his trance, and the memories vanished.
Skyler blinked and composed himself before those behind him could notice his anomaly. He lifted the gem, kissed it, and examined it from every angle with curious eyes, ignoring what had just happened.
In the end, he whispered softly.
"Did you finally wake up?"
Instantly, a faint, pleasant-sounding hum replied in his mind, filling him with joy. He remained unaware that the soul fragment within the gem had been startled awake by the momentary pause of his heartbeat.
Still, after the hum, no matter what Skyler whispered to the gem, he got no response.
Watching him try to converse with a gem, 505—long numb to its host’s oddities—felt nothing in particular except acceptance.
Yet the system still found pleasure in the array of expressions Zack, Austin, Charles, and Yuris showed. It was as if they wanted to ask Skyler if he had finally lost his mind completely, but feared he would beat them up if they actually did. In the end, they just decided to distance themselves from him.
Fortunately, before the four could move, Skyler stopped talking to the gem, making the four breathe a sigh of relief. The group finally began studying the surroundings.
The 15th level of the Battle Royal looked like a war-torn world, strewn with broken buildings, ruins, and scattered skeletons.
Smoke curled from shattered structures that looked very modern, and the air was thick with the acrid scent of burned earth.
Still, even amid the devastation, signs of civilization remained—some residents of the level, all elderly and seemingly mute, lived quietly among the broken buildings.
Soon, everyone following Skyler noticed that, unlike in the lower levels, these old residents ignored those from the outside world, and if they did look at anyone who got close, their soulless eyes seemed to mock those climbing the Battle Royal.
Charles muttered to himself.
"These residents... they’re human."
No one heard him, but as he watched the old residents, a mix of complex emotions stirred within him. After all, no matter how foolish someone might be, they could tell that this level was different from the ones their group had cleared so far. It was as if this level had once been a beautiful planet like theirs but had been conquered, only to be abandoned when all its resources were plundered, leaving behind an empty shell.
This thought made Charles shiver.
Still, despite the heavy feeling, he looked away and silently trailed after the others.
Right now, none of them, not even Skyler, was strong enough to fully understand or confront what had happened on this level. And even if they could see the truth, there was nothing they could do to change it.
As they wandered through the level, the group finally uncovered the nature of its challenge from an elf near a safe zone created by the Lights from their planet.
The elf had discovered a hidden mission nearby but was wounded while clearing it, so she was making her way to the nearest safe zone in search of anyone with healing skills to avoid using her system points. She was startled to see so many youngsters, as those who had reached this far in the Battle Royal were usually middle-aged, even if they appeared youthful. As Austin treated her wounds, she answered all their questions.
Having read the original novel, Zack and Skyler already knew what challenge they had to face in the level, but they remained silent, leaving the others to take their time processing the information—especially since clueless 505 had nothing to offer.