“Meow!”

With Lily’s meow, the battle came to an end.

Aleen gave a sigh of relief and closed his eyes.

His entire body hurt, and his left arm was bent in a strange way; Aleen suspected that it was broken.

He took a deep breath and tried to circulate his mana, but it was completely empty. He used it up with the last attack.

Despite it, however, Aleen smiled.

Inside him, he felt a strange feeling of satisfaction.

This time, he faced an overwhelming enemy, and he won. Though he would have preferred if the game was less dangerous, he could not deny the sense of accomplishment he felt after facing a dangerous trial.

It was… refreshing?

Aleen smiled wryly and shook those thoughts out of his mind. He urged his body to absorb mana from the surroundings and began to circulate, trying to recover his condition.

He could hear the cries and screams of the others, mainly the college girl, coming from the location of the bodyguard, but he ignored it. Either way, he couldn’t do anything if another zombie, even a level-one, attacks now.

One minute later, he heard the sound of steps approaching softly.

Opening his eyes, he raised his head and saw Aya coming towards him while carrying Lily in her arms.

“Are you fine?” She asked in her expressionless tone of voice, but laced with a bit of worry.

Aleen smiled wryly. “As fine as someone can be with a few broken bones.”

Aya smiled softly but quickly returned to her usual expression. She then let go of Lily and extended her hand.

“Let me help you.”

Aleen accepted her hand and stood up. He could see Lily looking towards him with animosity. Was she angry because Aya released her to grab his hand? Aleen wondered about it briefly while holding Aya’s soft palm.

Once he stood up, he examined his body. One of his legs hurt slightly when he uses too much strength, and his chest felt a little painful.

After confirming the state of his body, he looked at Aya. “How are the others?”

“… George survived, but he lost an arm. The stubble guy is also injured but nothing too serious.”

Aleen nodded and walked towards them.

As Aya said, the bodyguard fortunately survived; apparently, the zombie missed his heart when it attacked. The stubble guy suffered an injury in his shoulder, and he could not feel his right arm. Aleen noticed that it was pale white, and showed signs of rotting; and wondered if it was better to cut the arm, but the stubble guy refused.

Aleen only shrugged his shoulders. Even if the virus was infectious, it probably could not transform him in a zombie before they reach the central tower.

After all, they were pretty close already, and the biggest danger was already dead.

Thinking about the patient zero, Aleen grabbed his sword with his right hand and walked towards its corpse; then, under the dumbfounded gazes of the others, he cut it into pieces.

“It would be bad if the body can move without its head.” Aleen explained and pointed to the arm that moved alone after it was cut from the zombie’s body.

The others nodded in understating.

Aleen then took four pieces of the zombie and put them inside his ring. He explained to them that it was to complete the sub-mission and that he was going to give one piece to each one when they are about to leave the game.

Once he finished with it, they departed towards the central tower.

Behind them, the pieces of the zombie were still twitching.

The group took twenty minutes to reach the central tower.

They could have reached faster, but Aleen suggested going slower to not aggravate their injuries. Fortunately, the zone was almost free of zombies. They probably had been scared off by the level-three and left this zone.

After all, when the spiders felt the presence of the level-three, they tried to run away. Obviously, the level-three zombie was the top predator inside this game, and the other zombies tried to avoid it.

Aleen remembered that the underground laboratory was also mostly empty, and came to the conclusion that it was because of the level-three too. It probably ate most of the corpses when it escaped and it was the reason because the walls were stained with blood but he could not see any corpse.

Of course, it was also possible that he was thinking too much and the reason that the underground was like that was that the administration simply wanted to do it like that.

Aleen smiled wryly in his mind and decided to not think more about the topic.

When they reached the central tower, the group found a map posted on a wall that indicated the location of the interdimensional portal. Aleen praised the thoughtfulness of the administrators in his mind and followed the indications on the map.

The interdimensional portal was on the twentieth floor, so the group had to climb all the way until there (Aleen saw some elevator-like objects, but they were not working).

In the way, they ran into some zombies, but Lily killed them easily. Even when they ran into one level-two, Aleen had recovered enough mana to use his skill once and killed it.

When they finally reached the twentieth floor, the entire group sighed in relief.

Aleen looked at the counter in his mind and found that they still had a bit more than thirty minutes to complete the mission.

They quickly found the interdimensional portal. It was very noticeable, and its appearance was like the portals that brought them to the games, but a bit bigger.

When they saw the portal, the entire group fell silent.

“… Who is going first?” Aleen asked after a moment.

The college girl took a step forward after hesitating for a moment. “We’ll go.”

She then looked towards Aleen with a complicated expression. “Mr. Aleen, many thanks for your help. If you want, you can contact me in the real world. My name is Christine Beckett, and my phone is xxx xxxx in the US. My family can help you if you have any problem.”

Aleen just nodded politely and gave her one piece of the level-three.

Actually, Aleen didn’t have any intention to call her at all. After all, it wouldn’t be good if too many people know about his powers.

Christine understood the meaning behind his nod and was going to speak again, but in the end, she only shook her head softly. “… I hope we can meet again someday.”

Then, she stared Aleen with her black eyes and turned around to enter the portal.

Her short brown hair waved softly in the wind, and then, she disappeared.

The portal could only be used once each thirty seconds, so the others could only wait for a while.

Once it was ready again, the bodyguard nodded gratefully to Aleen and Aya and entered the portal too.

Aleen wondered if he was going to see them again someday, but in the end, he shook his head. Their paths were different after all.

When the bodyguard and Christine were gone, Aleen looked to the stubble guy. He nodded gratefully and walked forward.

When he was close to Aleen, the stubble guy extended his hand for a handshake; Aleen hesitated slightly but in the end, extended his hand.

“My name is Willian.” The stubble guy said. “I won’t forget your help today.”

Aleen nodded silently. The stubble guy, Willian, understood his gesture and smiled awkwardly.

He then raised his right arm.

And stabbed Aleen’s abdomen.