They were back in the dungeon, chained. Everyone heard Aglea’s announcement. Everyone knew the end match was tomorrow.

They were glad that they no longer had to go through matches with the possibility of being a sacrifice, but they were also apprehensive. What if this end match was something worse?

Whatever it was, they knew they had to go along with it. They had no choice anyway.

“It seems that you have dodged a bullet,” Jack said to Master. “You must be glad the matches aren’t set so each of us has to be a sacrifice at least once.” 

“I can say the same thing to you,” Master returned. “Do you think these folks are going to risk their lives just because you risk your life for them? People are selfish! Only a fool does what you do. The moment you become a sacrifice, they will only watch as you die. I have been very eager to see that happen, but it seems I don’t get the chance anymore.”

“You are wrong! I will gladly give my life for His Majesty,” Kramer declared.

“Then you are two fools!” Master talked back.

“Don’t lump your corrupt self with us. I will also return the favor for him saving me,” Naomi exclaimed.

“That’s right!” Stefan joined the chorus.

“Hmph, you people said that now. But when it happens, I bet you will all sing a different tune,” Master mocked. “Well, I guess we will never find out now.”

“Your skepticism on altruism deserves a lot of pity,” Jack said.

“Because altruism doesn’t exist,” Master said. “Only an idealist fool living in a dream world believes such a concept.”

“I prefer living in a dream world since it makes me happy. As a matter of fact, I AM living in my dream world. A game world! All thanks to you. You see? You can also do good things even if you didn’t intend to. Don’t sell yourself short. There is good in you.”

“I’m done talking,” Master said. He didn’t need to know Jack well enough to know that Jack was making fun of him.

The others, as usual, only understood half of what the two were talking about. They could see though that if opportunity arose, these two wouldn’t mind tearing each other apart.

Jack threw a few more words of ridicule, but Master was true to his word. He no longer entertained Jack.

*

The next morning, the nine was teleported to another pocket world. They could see this was a much larger one compared to the ones previously used for matches.𝗇𝑶𝗏𝖊𝓵𝑛𝐄xt.𝗰𝒐𝐦

It was an urban area, or what used to be one. The houses and buildings were in ruins. It was more like a scene from one of those apocalypse movies. Jack felt a sense of deja-vu. This place was similar to the stage when he had the team match against the dwarf team during the world tournament.

Perhaps this was one of the pre-setup worlds that could be selected from some sort of a list when someone was creating a pocket world. He wanted to ask Master about this hypothesis but he noticed Master was still giving him the silent treatment.

Aglea appeared above them. At the same time, a table materialized before them. On the table were ten different things. A wooden spear, a rusted shortsword, a bola, a steel claw, a slingshot, a wooden bat, a wrench, a nunchaku, a karambit, and a small round wooden shield.

When everyone was still gazing at this various assortment of tools, Aglea said, “These are your weapons. Pick one.”

‘Weapons?’ Everyone was confused.

They then noticed Master was already before the table. They didn’t realize that Master was already walking to the table before Aglea spoke.

Master took the slingshot. Tied with the slingshot was a pouch. Master checked the pouch to make sure that it contained the bullets for the slingshot. He then walked away.

After Master, the others immediately went and picked up their weapons. There were ten weapons while they were nine, so there was an extra one. Glover tried to pick up two weapons, but couldn’t. Some sort of a force field prevented him from taking another if he already had a weapon in his hand.

While the others were busy with the selection, Jack asked Aglea instead, “What are these weapons for?”

“To protect yourself and vanquish your enemies, of course,” Aglea answered. “There are three other teams here. You are to hunt them and kill them. They will also do the same. This is a battle royale death match!”

By the time Jack came to the table, everyone had already made their picks. Only the wrench and shield were left on the table.

Jack turned to Glover who held the shortsword and said, “I’m an expert on using swords. Do you mind if I have that?”

“What a coincidence, I’m also an expert,” Glover said, not willing to give up his weapon.

Master sneered at the side. “What did I say? Selfish,” he uttered.

“You can have mine, Your Majesty,” Kramer said, offering his wooden spear.

“That’s fine. You keep it,” Jack said. He took up the wrench.

“Where are these other teams?” Stefan asked Aglea.

“As I said, you will need to hunt them,” Algea said. “Please don’t lose your weapon, you can only deal damage to your enemies with those weapons. After you kill an enemy, you can pick up his or her weapon.”

“Considering this is a battle royale, we also have to kill everyone on this team also, don’t we?” Jack asked. He was staring at Master while asking. Master had armed a bullet into his slingshot. His weapon was currently slightly aimed in Jack’s direction.

“No, silly. You can’t damage teammates by any means in this match,” Aglea answered. “The point of this match is to vanquish all the members of the other three teams. The team that achieves that will be the winner, even if they have only one person left in the team.”

Both Jack and Master were disappointed hearing that. Master lowered his slingshot.

“Um… If we die here…”

“It’s the same as in the sacrificial rounds,” Aglea answered before Stefan finished his question. “Natives die for real. Outworlders go back to level 1 and we will prep you up for the next game.”

Everyone had expected this, but the confirmation still brought everyone’s spirit down.

“Around this place were also various tools,” Aglea informed. “They have different effects. They can give you buffs or other effects which you can use for your hunts. Some of these tools can even cause damage, so you don’t always have to rely on your weapons to kill the enemies. You will have to find these things yourself.”

“Any rules? Do we have to move together?” Winson asked.

“Hunt together, hunt alone. Your choice,” Aglea answered.

“What is the time limit?” Naomi asked.

“No time limit. This game will only end once all members from three teams are slain,” Aglea answered.

“So, if we can’t find them, we will stay here for eternity?” Stefan asked.

Aglea’s frozen smile never changed, but everyone could swear that her grin turned wider at this time. “Don’t worry. This world will continue to shrink as time passed. After five days, this world will shrink to the size of ten-by-ten meters. I don’t think you will have a problem finding them by then, do you?”

The others were gloomy hearing that. This meant they couldn’t buy time by hiding.

“One more thing,” Aglea said. “Everyone has the same number of lives here. Three! One hit by the weapon in your hand will take out one life. Whether you are high level or low level, outworlder or native. You have the same lives. Your HP didn’t mean anything here. So, all of you can only afford to be hit three times.”

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