Gareth: "Damn, how are we supposed to deal with this?"

Looking at the unconscious bodies of the characters, Gareth felt a sinking feeling settle in his gut. After checking over them with Alice, he'd fully understood how bad of a state they were in. Though they didn't have any obvious physical injuries, their breathing was shallow and they had a high fever. If they left them in that state without treatment, they wouldn't survive for very long. let alone getting them out of the city, even getting them out of the underground would be impossible. Not to mention he still needed Robert to guide himself and Solomon later on. Facing down the horrible situation, Gareth couldn't help but let his mood sink.

Solomon: "It's too late to regret now. We'll just have to improvise."

Standing beside Gareth, Solomon was also looking at the characters. After hearing about their condition from Alice, his own optimism for the mission had shrunk quite a bit. Much Like Gareth, he realised how much the difficulty of the mission would rise if the characters were like this. Looking around at everyone, Solomon saw his teammate's expressions grow more and more troubled as they came to the same conclusions as him. Though he wanted to comfort them, he didn't have the heart to do so. It was already a struggle to ensure everyone's survival before, let alone now. Deciding to deal with the most pressing issue first, Solomon turned to Alice.

Solomon: "Alice, Can you use your potion again?"

The issue at hand was stabilising the character's condition. Though it was already bad that they were unconscious, it would turn much worse if they started dying. So to prevent that from happening, Solomon went to the only teammate of his that has a healing skill.

Alice: "Not right now, It's still on cooldown. I should be able to use it again in a minute or so."

Feeling weighed down by the current situation and Solomon's serious tone, Alice quickly answered Solomon's question.

Solomon: "Okay, once it comes off of cooldown I want you to share the Potion between them. Though it probably won't heal them, hopefully it'll keep them alive."

Without any alternatives, Solomon just had to hope that Alice's Potion would be enough to stabilise them. Right now this was the best, and only, way to keep the characters alive. With the pandemonium going on above ground, there was no way they could get to a hospital. Even if they did, it wasn't anyone would still be there to help the characters. By this point, most of the people above ground would have either escaped, joined up with the military or died to the creatures.

Alice: "I'm not sure if it'll be enough to save them, but I'll give it a go."

Glancing over the 5 people laid out before her, Alice doubted her ability to heal them. Though she knew one of her potions could easily heal one of them, she didn't know how strong the effect would be when spreading it out between 5 people. But based on her gut instinct, the outlook wasn't very promising.

Solomon: "We'll just have to hope."

Responding to Alice, Solomon also didn't feel very confident. But it wasn't like they had a choice. Deciding that it was best to not agonise over things he couldn't change, Solomon moved on to the other issues they were soon going to face. Glancing at his watch, Solomon saw that it was almost midnight. Since their arrival in the mission, several hours had passed. according to his memory, the bombs would drop at 6:42 am. So they had a little under 7 hours left to escape. Looking at the current situation, he didn't feel that escaping in that timeframe would be a likely outcome. With the characters in such a fragile state, their movement speed would be heavily reduced. So if they followed their original plan and kept on moving through the tunnels, completing this mission would become a pipe dream. But if they changed their plan, it would become a lot more dangerous for everyone. Thinking about that predicament, Solomon couldn't come up with a good solution.

Tony: "Solomon, I have an idea."

Hearing Tony suddenly speak up, Solomon hastily turned to face him. Having considered so many different possibilities in his mind, Solomon was beginning to go crazy. no matter what ideas he had, they would always end up with too many uncertainties. In one scenario they could go perfectly and in another, they could lead to everyone's death. Once again being reminded of the responsibility that came with his position, Solomon couldn't help but feel pressured. Hearing Tony offer up a possible solution to him made him hopeful.

Solomon: "What is it?"

Grabbing him by the shoulders, Solomon questioned him. Being suddenly placed under Solomon's intense gaze, he was a little startled. But being a hardened veteran of Domain, he quickly recovered.

Tony: "well, you probably won't like it, But I can't really see us surviving any other way."

knowing that everyone wouldn't like his idea, Tony became a little hesitant. Seeing that, Solomon was about to encourage him. But before he had the chance, Nicholas cut in.

Nicholas: "Arghh, Tony if you've got a fucking idea just tell us what it is already!"

Having stated been silent up until then, Nicholas's sudden outburst surprised Tony. In this stressful situation, he was beginning to lose his cool. Still being a relatively new person in Domain, he hadn't learned how to control his emotions in situations like these. So when he'd heard Tony propose a solution but hesitate on saying what it actually was, he lost control for a second. But even after hearing Nicholas, Tony still looked over at Solomon. Realising that Tony was waiting for him to speak, Solomon went ahead and asked him to explain his plan.

Solomon: "Go ahead, At this point there's not really anything to lose."

Though Solomon was hopeful for whatever Tony had come up with, he wasn't betting on it too much. After all, it wasn't likely that Tony had come up with something brilliant in such a short time. He just hoped that even if it wasn't practical it'd at least be a start.

Tony: "Okay. So, What if we were to abandon some of the characters."

Hearing his suggestion, everyone was shocked. For him to suggest leaving behind the people that they were supposed to protect was insane. Not to mention no-one felt comfortable with leaving behind the people who had trusted in them. So hearing Tony suggest such an action was like he was just trying to sabotage them.

Alice: "How can we do that!? It's our mission to help them escape, so why would we abandon them!? Do you want us to just fail the mission!?"

angered by Tony's suggestion, Alice started yelling at him. Being under the same stress as everyone else, she was worried about how they would finish the mission. So when she heard Tony say he'd figured out a method to solve their problems, she'd let a seed of hope grow in her heart. But now that she'd been presented with such a seemingly crazy idea, she felt that hope turn into anger. She felt stupid for believing in him for even a moment. Just as she was about to go on and berate Tony some more, Gareth stopped her.

Gareth: "Calm down Alice, he's not suggesting that we give up on the mission."

Hearing what Gareth said, Alice was confused. If they left the characters, wouldn't they also be giving up the mission?

Gareth: "You understand as well, right Solomon?"

Seeing Alice's confused face, Gareth looked over at Solomon. If he'd understood the meaning in Tony's words, Solomon had undoubtedly done the same.

Solomon: "Uhum, I get it too. Basically, he wants us to leave most of them here and focus on helping one or two of them escape."

Nodding his head, Solomon summarised Tony's idea. But even after hearing that, Alice was still confused. Looking at Nicholas and Sasha's similarly confused faces, Alice was glad she wasn't the only one who didn't understand.

Nicholas: "But wouldn't the system still consider that as us failing. The mission was to escort them all, right?"

Speaking up again, Nicholas was just as confused as Alice.

Solomon: "I'll put it like this. Our mission is to escort these guys out of the city, but what's our reward for that."

Looking at Nicholas, Solomon saw that he was confusedly scratching his head. Unlike Tony who had many missions under his belt, Nicholas was still a newbie. So, it wasn't surprising that Both himself and his sister was confused about Tony's meaning. Just the fact that he'd managed to regain control over his emotions after losing control earlier was impressive. It really went to show how Domain changes people. If a young 17-year-old like Nicholas could turn into a semi-hardened fighter after 5 missions, what would the veterans of hundreds of missions be like? Even more that that, what about people who'd been through thousands of missions. But to everyone one on the team the thought of surviving 20 missions seemed insanely far away, let alone thousands. To Solomon, that number was miles away.

Nicholas: "the reward?"

Thinking about what Solomon had said, Nicholas dived into his memories. Recalling the time when they'd received their mission, he remembered the rewards being 500 points for every surviving member of the characters. As he thought over that piece of information, the gear in his head started turning. After a few seconds, he'd figured it out. If the rewards were paid for every surviving member, then they weren't required to save all of them. The mission wasn't to have them all escape, it was to get as many of them out as possible. Thinking about that, Nicholas had his sudden moment of realisation. Looking at Sasha and Alice, he saw that they too were piecing it together. Though it was taking them a little longer than him, they too would soon realise Tony's reasoning.

Nicholas: "I get it now."

looking back over at Solomon, he expressed his understanding. Before he had the chance to rejoice his new understanding, the brutal nature of Tony's idea hit him. If they were to go with this sort of Plan, it would mean leaving several of the people who believed in them to die. Thinking about that gave Nicholas a bad taste in his mouth. But before he could bring up his objection with this idea, An ear-piercing gong ran through his mind.

Guild bot: "GOOOOONNNNGGG, system alert. Guild war initiated."