"hmm...am I perhaps interrupting?

"

As light yellow particles flew in the air, I stared at Arnold and Amanda in the distance. Soon my eyes interlocked with Amanda's.

Noticing her situation, my brows slightly furrowed. The situation was a lot worse than I had imagined...According to my prediction, considering her skills, she should've been evenly matched against her opponents...yet why was she on the ground on the verge of losing?

Waking up from his stupor, staring at me, John flusteredly said as his mind raced.

"Y-ou, who are you?

"

What's going on?

...how did he make it all the way here from the center of the map?

According to his calculations, it would've taken ten minutes to make it from there to here from the center of the map with a decent movement art...yet, not even five minutes after they ambushed Arnold's group, and reinforcements had already come?

What was going on?

Ignoring John who was currently flustered, Amanda's eyes interlocked with mine. Thereafter, without me needing to say anything, Amanda capitalized on the moment when John was distracted due to my appearance and quickly moved her head away from the tip of his spear and quickly dashed towards where her bow was located.

"You, where do you think you're going!

"

Noticing Amanda's action, recollecting himself and glaring at her, John quickly raised his spear and prepared to thrust it at her exposed back.

-Kacha!

Hearing the sound of the air being split due to the spear thrust, Amanda didn't stop moving. She knew that Ren had her back...and she wasn't wrong.

-Swooosh!

Just as the spear was about to stab her right in the back, pointing in her direction from the opposite building, a translucent yellow ring quickly headed in her direction and directly stopped right before the tip of the spear.

-Clank!

A shockwave swept the surroundings as the ring came in contact with the tip of the spear. Debris and dust flew everywhere as a consequence of the impact.

Not long after, as the ring and the spear were locked in a stalemate, the ring slowly lost its luster and the spear soon broke through it...however, it was already too late.

Picking up her bow, Amanda quickly turned around. With an arrow materializing in her hand, without hesitation, she quickly pulled the string of her bow until it touched her lips before releasing it.

-Swooooosh!

Like a shooting star, the arrow coursed through the air as it hurtled in John's direction at an unimaginable speed. It was so fast that a blue line could be seen tracing the path of where the arrow traveled.

"Shit!

"

Opening his eyes wide, John tried his best to evade the arrow, however, it was already too late.

Brushing past the body of the spear, the arrow quickly pierced through John's right chest area.

Thereafter, John found himself helplessly thrown all the way to the other side of the building as his body crashed against one of the walls.

Baaam—!

"Khhhhaaaa...

"

As his back crashed against the wall, John couldn't help but groan out loud as spit escaped from his mouth.

His mind blanked for a couple of seconds.

"khhh...

"

A couple of seconds after John collided against the wall, as his mind regained some clarity, he heard the sound of soft footsteps headed towards his direction.

-Step! -Step!

Walking in John's direction as she coldly looked at him, Amanda's brows were tightly knit. She wasn't happy.

...although she had won. That didn't change the fact that she had still lost moments before. Staring at Ren standing on the opposite building to hers, Amanda didn't say anything.

Had he not come on time, she would've already lost. But that wasn't what made her bitter...no, what made her bitter was the fact that everything went according to Ren's plan and yet she still lost.

She had been warned beforehand of such a situation happening.

He had specifically told her that she would be attacked first and that at least two people were going to attack her...she knew, and yet her arrogance led to her downfall.

Ren had told her to just stall for time...yet she did the opposite. She thought that she could win, but it seems like she was wrong...she was still too naive.

Staring at John who was right before her, Amanda's feet paused.

...she still had a lot to learn.

"I-mpossible!

"

Snapping Amanda out of her thoughts, was John's angry yet bitter voice.

With his arms down, John weakly looked up towards Amanda. Thereafter, shifting his head to the right, John found a tangible blue arrow puncturing his body, right where his heart was.

Shortly after, to his sadness and bitterness, John found his body slowly turn into yellow particles.

"Cough...

"

As he watched his body turn into particles, coughing a couple of times, John couldn't help but softly mutter in a bitter tone.

"Cough...cough...I-mpossible! Ho-w could I have lost?...Everything went according to my plan, it should've been perfect, yet why am I losing? W-hat...happened?

"

His plan should've been perfect.

...he was so close to beating Amanda and from there winning the whole game. He was going to be hailed as a hero right after this...he could've already imagined his whole class looking at him in reverence once he returned triumphantly.

Yet...just when his dream was about to come into fruition, appearing out of nowhere and foiling everything was the youth standing in the opposite building.

Turning his head to the right, with jet black hair and deep-blue eyes, the youth in the opposite building was currently aiding Arnold who with the help of his strange rings that stopped his spear attack previously, managed to close the distance with his team member. The bow user.

...Seeing this, John knew that they had lost.

With one last struggle, staring at the youth who had jet black hair and blue eyes, John raised his voice as he weakly shouted

"T-ell me, how did you make it here this quick?

"

He had to know.

He wanted to know how he was defeated.

...his plan should've been perfect, yet at the very last moment, he lost. Just where did he miscalculate?

Hearing John's voice, turning my attention back towards him, I looked at him strangely.

"Haven't you ever heard of something called a movement art?

"

...well, that was only part of the reason as to why I managed to aid Amanda and the rest quickly.

Although yes, my movement art was indeed the reason as to why I made it here this fast, it wasn't the most critical point.

Since I had predicted the opponent's decision beforehand, just when we spawned in this map, I had already told Amanda and the others the area in which they were to move.

Like this, I didn't need to go to the trouble of looking for them on this enormous map as I already had an idea of which area they were going to be in.

Moreover, as they were fighting, all I needed to do was head in the direction of where the sound of them fighting was coming from to get an accurate location of where they were. This allowed me to save a lot of time.

...Though I really do have to say, our opponents weren't half bad. Although they had moved according to my wishes, I didn't expect them to be this strong.

I was genuinely impressed.

"You-

"

Unsatisfied with the answer, John was about to rebuke, but just as he was about to speak up, his body suddenly turned into light particles before a blue text appeared in front of his eyes.

You have died

Thereafter, as John's body disappeared what replaced it was a white card that emanated a golden hue.

-Swooosh!

Subsequently, bending over and picking up the card, after a brief glance, Amanda flicked her wrist and threw the card in my direction.

"Thanks

"

Catching the card, I quickly looked through the contents of the card. Shortly after, turning on my watch, I called Zack who should've been waiting near the pillar.

"Hey Zack, are you there?

"

After a short pause, Zack responded

Yeah, I'm currently standing in front of the pillar, do you have the code?

"Yup, it's 2041689

"

2041689?

"Yup

"

Alright, I'm putting it in

-Click!

After telling Zack the code, turning off the call, I quickly glanced at the time.

05M : 36S

"Five minutes to spare...

"

Not bad.

Just in the nick of time. Had I come a little bit later, this would've ended in a draw.

Smiling, I quickly tapped on the screen of my watch and called Jin. Since I didn't get notified of his death, he should still be fine no?

...

On the opposite side of where Ren was located, in the easter area, feeling his watch vibrate, Jin heard Ren's voice coming out from the speaker of his watch.

Jin how is the situation going for you?

"Huuu...

"

Exhaling, Jin stared at the ground beneath him where two bodies slowly turned into particles. Raising his wrist near his mouth, he coldly said.

"Done

"

After a short pause, Ren's voice could be heard echoing from the speaker of his watch.

Alright, good job. We are done on our side too

"mh

"

-Click!

Turning off his watch and staring at the post-apocalyptic world before him, after a couple of seconds, Jin slowly saw it crumble before his eyes. Thereafter a blue text appeared in front of him.

Congratulations, your team has successfully inserted the code - You win

Staring at the blue text for a couple of seconds, clenching his teeth a curse escaped from his mouth.

"Shit...

"

Although he won, Jin wasn't happy.

In fact, he felt repulsed by the blue text before him.

...this just didn't feel right to him. Before, whenever he won he felt thrilled. Beating his opponents alone with his absolute strength felt thrilling to him.

'Alone...'

Yes, he had always done things alone before.

...he had always crushed his opponents through brute strength and by himself. Why did he suddenly change? Since when had he started working with others?

Why couldn't he just directly crush his opponents like before instead of resorting to some petty strategy or scheme?

Clenching onto his clothes tightly, Jin gnashed his teeth.

What was this feeling he was experiencing?

"...how disgusting

"