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n

n“Yes, sir,”

n…

n(Present Time | Orion POV)

n“It’s been a while… Simo,”

nA single man with dark brown hair, cold black eyes, and bushy eyebrows stared right down at us, and his appearance didn’t even make a sound.

nBut, we were already prepared.

nBAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM

nA few mines had erupted from behind the man, frightening him as he was blasted towards us.

n“Let’s move,” Simo said.

nThe mines did very minimal damage, and he was about to come to attack us, full-on enraged, but our first most worry would be the people revealing themselves from behind the trees.

nThey immediately began to spray us with sub-machine guns, but we slid down the small hill and continued to run as fast as we could.

nWe were also forced to leave our snipers… our or so precious snipers. But if it were for survival, we would easily give them up.

nOur moves were perfectly calculated, and as we were now using the breathing technique, predicting the bullets’ paths was easy as pie.

nBut, I had only a minute, so we needed to be fast and lead the entire group to where we had set up another field of mine.

nWould they fall for it? Well, that was entirely up to fate.

nKrkkkkk

nFor some reason, there was a bit of an icy patch beneath the snow we had just slid down, so my legs were being scraped.

nThe pain was pretty bad, but enough for me to suck it up and focus on my goal of survival.

n“*sniff*… Ah, that’s a battlefield right there,” I muttered but this time, compared to the other times I sniffed out a battlefield, it was so strong that I gagged.

n“You good?” Simo asks as he pulls me behind a tree, and we spring through the snow towards a slightly open part of the forest.

n“Yeah… Just… Nothing,” I muttered as I needed to focus.

nRight about… here.

nWe both jumped over the large patch of mines and, this time, slowed our sprinting as we needed them to catch sight of us.

nBut, we also had to make it believable enough so the people following us wouldn’t predict we were leading them into a trap.

n“FUCKING HIT THEM! SOME FUCKING PROFESSIONALS!” I heard a familiar deep voice yell.

nBullets were now getting closer to us, with some even tearing off chunks of our large coats, but thankfully none of them actually pierced us.

nAnd all of a sudden, the bullets had died down.

n“They’re out of ammo….” Simo muttered.

nA few more angry yells could be heard in the distance, and then what followed was a trail of explosions.

nBOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM

nI didn’t even look back as we ran as fast as we could, just barely escaping the blast radius but still getting blown a bit forward by the gust, soon colliding with our backs.

nWe rolled across the snow, holding our guns as tightly to our bodies as possible, and once everything had slowed down, we kicked our bodies upwards and continued to sprint.

n“Do you think we got them?” I asked.

n“We can never be too saf-“

nFWOOSH… SHING

nAs if the very gods had hated us for our extreme effort, an unfortunate serrated battle knife stuck through the back of Simo’s head.

nEven he didn’t expect it as the light in his eyes instantly left faster than the hope that was slowly beginning to fill up my soul.

n‘Hey… Here, take this chocolate. My stamina is much higher than you,’

nHe said those things, but I saw how much he was struggling to just walk.

n‘Take my sleeping bag. I’m more used to the cold than you, and make sure to get a good night’s rest,’

nHe said those things, but I saw his dark eye bags the next morning that he tried to cover with his scarf-like mask.

n‘If I die… I want you to live a happy life,’

nHe kept repeating those things as if he already expected him to die before me… but I never thought he could actually be killed.

nWasn’t he supposed to be a popular figure in the future? Wasn’t his death supposed to be impossible?

n“Hey… Simo…”

nIt was a strange feeling as I saw his body drop to the ground with nothing else approaching me.

nWas it sadness? No, not really… I’ve been sadly a couple of times, but it never felt like this.

nConfusion? Yeah… I guess. I was a bit confused as to how a knife suddenly appeared out of nowhere and stabbed him in the back of the head.

nWas it… fear? Fear? Fear? Fear? No… Not really. I’ve been scared, overwhelmed, and felt completely helpless before, but this wasn’t it. No, this wasn’t it in the slightest.

nIt was an unfamiliar emotion that I don’t think I’ve ever felt since the death of my mother.

nThe smile that I never thought I would be able to see seemed to overlap with the smile of my mother as she passed away.

nThis was…

n‘Rage,’

nA deep voice rang through my head as the entire unit chasing us surrounded me and the corpse of Simo, which bled dry.

n‘That’s right, boy… This is rage. The source of your power,’

nI couldn’t reply to the deep voice as the unfamiliar feeling kept welling up inside not only my body but my soul itself.

n“Surrender, boy. My only goal was to kill that bastard right there… I’m not a fan of killing such young people, so just surrender and wait out the war. We’ll release you then,”

nA blood-red aura lined my body.

nThe tips of my purple hair seemed to darken, and my eyes turned completely pitch black.

nA single white dot was in the middle of them, causing the men before me to shiver slightly.

n“Kekeke… AHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

nIt was a laugh that echoed throughout the mountain, even reaching the base at the very foot.

n‘That’s right! THAT’S RIGHT! NO MORE MANIPULATION! NO MORE RUNNING AWAY TIRELESSLY! YOU ARE A SYMBOL OF WAR! A WARRIOR DESTINED TO DIE FOR THE SAKE OF BLOODSHED! SO KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL! AND KILL UNTIL YOUR ARMS DROP NUMB! YOUR KNEES BREAK! YOUR TENDONS STRETCHED APART! KILL UNTIL THE WAR HAS ENDED! UNTIL THE WAR HAS DISAPPEARED! UNTIL YOU ARE THE VERY LAST! THE SOLE WINNER OF THE WAR!!!!’

nYou have forcefully used the system

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