The trio stood in position with a look of confusion on their faces wondering which response they were supposed to follow.

Angy stared at Gustav with a pleading look.

​​

"Hmm, whatever," Gustav muttered while turning his face away from hers.

He continued eating his food. After the short drama, the trio took his statement as silent affirmation, so they proceeded to sit in front of both of them.

"Why are you so grumpy? Man, you should learn to cheer up!" Ria pointed at Gustav and voiced out immediately after taking his seat.

Gustav stared at him like he was retarded and replied, "I just don't like nuisances,"

Ria; "..."

Teemee; "..."

Glade; "..."

After saying that, Gustav resumed eating casually.

"You... You... Who are you calling a nuisance?" Ria pointed at him with trembling fingers, but Gustav just ignored him.

"We should really have a go at it. I'm going to knock that pride out of your skull!" Ria jumped up after voicing out.

"Calm down, you idiot, it's not like you can defeat him," Teemee said.

"Ak, you're... Right," Ria sat down with a crestfallen look and stared at Gustav while taking a bite from his plate.

"You may be strong, but I will become stronger than you soon," Ria pointed his spoon at Gustav while speaking and gobbled down the food he put in his mouth.

"Muscle brain idiot," Glade muttered from her position.

"Ehhh? Who are you calling me a muscle brain?" Ria shouted out again, but Glade ignored him just like Gustav and initiated a conversation with Angy.

"What's your reason for trying to join the MBO?" Glade asked.

---

After around thirty minutes had gone by, the participants were slowly starting to leave the eatery searching for their rooms.

According to the words of Gradier Xanatus, everyone had a room that can only be accessed based on their badge numbers.

They followed the map to the lounge area, located on the southern part of the floor.

It was also the area with the largest space on this particular floor.

Gustav headed with Angy and the trio.

After some minutes, they arrived in that area with a very long and spacious corridor that extended as far as the eyes could see.

Doors were on the left and right sides of the walls.

Each of the doors had numbers on the top right corner.

The participants stared at the number on their palms while looking at the doors as they walked across the corridor.

Gustav already figured out that the numbers were in an arranged format. So, he could tell that his room was still a distance away from their current position.

"Mine is here guys, I guess I'll go have a good night rest," Glade said with a smile as she headed for the door that had the number, '00054,'

"Hmm, Cow tail girl, good night," Ria voiced out.

"loud-mouthed idiot," Glade voiced out as she placed her palm in front of the door.

Ria wanted to retort, but the rest of them greeted her good night and continued moving forward.

Since he didn't want to be left behind, he quickly followed after them.

Angy and Gustav happened to be the next to find their rooms, and they weren't too far from each other.

Gustav was '00126' while Angy was '00121'.

As for Ria and Teemee, their numbers were in the thousands, so they still had to walk further down the corridor.

On arriving in front of his door, Gustav placed his hand in front of the door and waited.

Rays of light permeated from the walls, and scanned the number on his palm.

Kechum!

The doors slid open, and he walked in.

The room looked pretty nice. A bed could be seen in the middle. However, the room didn't look luxurious in any way. It was structured regularly.

Gustav checked and noticed that there was a bathroom and toilet also.

After checking everything out, he moved towards his bed.

"Map," He called out.

The map shot out from his palm again, displaying the structure of the floor.

'I wonder what floor of the tower we're currently occupying,' Gustav said Internally with an intrigued look.

He had always wanted to visit the tower. However, even after coming here, it still had a lot of mysteries surrounding it.

Gustav was still intrigued about the height of the tower. Still, so far, they hadn't been told anything about the tower.

'I'll check out the training room before the start of the next phase,' Gustav spotted the training room on the center of this floor on the map.

He decided to check out the next morning to complete his daily task because he had no idea what the next phase was going to be about.

He had thought about checking out the restricted areas so he could infiltrate other floors in the tower. He immediately threw that ridiculous thought to the back of his mind.

There was no doubt that the floor was under heavy surveillance. If Gustav tried anything, he would be found out immediately. There was no guarantee that he would actually be able to pass through the restricted areas successfully.

In his head, he had a fifty percent chance of successfully infiltrating other floors without getting caught, but he decided not to risk it.

If he managed to join the MBO, he would be able to go wherever he wanted without restrictions, so he decided to focus on that.

--

The next morning everyone woke up to the sound of the alarm.

An alarm resounded in everyone's room, waking them.

A holographic projection gave them instructions to head back to the hall, where they were addressed by Gradier Xanatus earlier.

Gustav was among the first to arrive there because he performed his daily tasks within the training room when the alarms rang.

Participants began to arrive one after the other, and in a few seconds, almost two hundred participants had walked in.

Once a minute passed, the openings on the side closed up.

"Uhh?"

Everyone was surprised at the sudden closure since some participants still hadn't arrived. Still, that same moment was when Gradier Xanatus appeared in the middle of the hall with a flash of bright light.

"Those that failed to arrive here within a minute have been disqualified!"

Gasp!

Those were the first words that came out of his mouth the moment Gradier Xanatus appeared.

"One of the things you will learn if you manage to pass the test and get enlisted is... Sluggishness isn't allowed!"

Chatter! Chatter! Chatter!

The participants thanked their stars that they immediately dropped what they were doing and headed here after hearing the alarm.

They silently pitied those who must have been using the toilet at that time.

"Now, I will explain the next phase to you!"

Gradier Xanatus voiced out next.