The leopard roared. Its full and deep cry bounced over the walls, seeping fear into the hearts of these men. “I can’t do this,” the one at the far end of the group turned tail and fled. His action made the rest question their own decision. Seeing a real-life leopard in front of them was a whole lot different when compared to imagining a fight against one.

“Stand your ground!” Leo shouted. Charging forward, taking the lead.

The leopard met his expectation, pouncing at him with its claws and fangs. Yet the bat’s reach took the first advantage. Leo struck the leopard right on its face, bringing it down to the floor. And he wasn’t finished. He slammed another one right at the neck as everyone in the staircase could hear the sounds of bones cracking.

As the feline fell in a daze with its brain scrambled by the head attack, Leo pressed the leopard down with his body. He turned and met eyes with Ben. “Ben!” he called. His eyes were telling him to come over.

“Come on,” Leo said. “Kill it before it squirms.”

Ben gulped a mouthful. He tightened the grip on his axe, taking his steps closer to Leo and the leopard. Raising the axe up high in the sky, Ben made his decision. His battle cry rang through the staircase as he brought down the axe in full swing.

Leo jumped back, and the axe cut right through the belly of the leopard. The pain shocked it back from its daze state. It scrambled on its paws. Then its eyes found the person that attacked it.

Ben froze on the spot, staring at the leopard. He already lost his grip on the axe and stood there unarmed. But before the leopard could retaliate, the sole of a shoe kicked right at its body, sending it falling back to its side.

“What are you waiting for?” Leo said. “Grab the axe, and hit it again.”

Ben scurried towards the axe and pulled it back from the bloody flesh of the leopard. Blood spurted out from the massive hack wound as the leopard snarled over its pain. It tried to get up, but Leo wasn’t going to let it.

“Try not to hit me,” Leo said. Pointing at the neck.

Ben mustered his courage and sent another swing down at the neck. Blood splashed against the spotted dark orange fur, and this time Leo left the leopard for good. Ben went into a trance. He hacked the leopard over and over again until the neck was detached from the body. He stopped when the axe hit the tile floor as the countering force traveled back to his arms. His arms turned numb, and he finally let go of the axe.

Soon, he got his wish. His level went up to level two at the get-go, and following Leo’s instruction from before, he did what was told.

“Next will be you,” Leo pointed at the person behind Ben. Then these five people including Leo ventured through the fourth floor. They stumbled with a few baboons and a stray leopard. And with Leo taking the lead, he disabled the beasts for these people to easily level up.

After a while, all four of them had their bloody initiation to the survival of the strongest. The looks on their faces changed a bit. It was a good look for people stranded in a jungle full of wild beasts. But it wasn’t smooth sailing. They met a few obstacles while going through the fourth floor since dead people were all over the place. Some puked, and some turned their eyes away, but it was a given for them to experience it as this was their new reality.

They cleared the fourth floor, killing every wild beast they found, and along the way, they saved a few people trapped in their office rooms. Hunkering down, waiting for help. They left the fourth floor with refugees trailing behind them. Leo told them about the seventh floor, which was safer. And as he went through the staircase door, he saw Ken leaning over the railing as if he had been waiting for him.

“I’ve heard you’ve been babysitting,” Ken gave a quick glance at the people behind Leo. While Leo noticed something on Ken’s left forearm.

“Is that your so-called shield?” Leo asked. It was a seat of an office chair strapped on Ken’s forearm like it was a buckler.

“This, my friend, is what I call human ingenuity,” Ken replied, showing off the chair buckler. It was crude in design as Ken just taped the seat on his forearm, but it was better than nothing.

“Isn’t it heavy?” Leo asked.

“Not with my strength,” Ken said with confidence. “So how about it? Ready to take on the challenge of killing a rhino?” The gleam in Ken’s eyes showed he hungered for a battle.

“Not now, I still need to train these guys for a few more levels,” Leo said.

“Tch,” Ken clicked his tongue. “Fine, I’ll take half of them.”

“You sure?” Leo was surprised.

“Of course. I can’t really fight the rhino not without my support backing me up,” Ken said. “But I won’t be as lenient as you are.”

“Try not to let them die, okay?” Leo said. “We need them.”

“Fine,” Ken gave his word and took two of them to the third floor.

“You sure about him?” Ben asked as he was pretty much skeptical about Ken, who was a lot shorter and skinnier than him.

Yet the glare from Leo made Ben cast his eyes away. “Unlike you, he’s the first one who stepped up to kill these wild beasts . . . So get this through your head, he’s a lot stronger than me, and you really don’t want to mess with him,” Leo said.

“Sorry, man, I’m just asking. That’s all,” Ben let out a forced laugh, trying to cool things off between them.

Leo took Ben and the other one down to the second floor. Where Leo previously made his last stand. The barricade was still intact, blocking the stairs from going downward. Yet the stench of dead animals strewn all over the floor made them wrinkle their faces.

They escaped the smell through the open door of the second-floor staircase. After walking a distance away, the terrible smell was lessening to a degree. The three of them went around the second floor and killed everything they could find. But this time, Leo refrained from helping from the start.

Ben and Malik, the other guy, circled a lone leopard. Contrary to what others usually choose, Malik chose the skill Throw after reaching level one. In his hand was a fruit knife held loosely by the end of the handle. As both men and leopard sized up their opponent, Malik took the initiative. He used Throw, and the fruit knife went straight at the neck. Half of the blade went through the flesh, and the leopard grunted in pain.

Its paw swung close to its neck, trying to dislodge it. Then Ben came from behind, taking advantage of the leopard’s momentary distraction. He put all his weight behind this swing, and the heavy axehead cut against fur, then flesh, then the bones. The leopard immediately dropped. Its hind legs were paralyzed as the spine broke in two. After a couple of more swings, the leopard finally died, and the two stared at what they did. They were not rejoicing as they knew what they did was cruel. Malik shed a few tears while Ben stared in solemn. They were just office workers the other day, living in comfort, but now everything had changed, and they had to accept it.

“Let’s go, Malik,” Ben said, taking a firm stance for his friend. “For our families,” he continued as both of them had their own reasons for doing this.

Fighting against a single target wasn’t a problem for them. But trouble came when it was against many. Leo had to step up when both of them were overwhelmed. Unlike fighting at the stairs when you only needed to look in front, fighting in the open proved to be a bigger challenge. A higher perception was definitely the counter for these types of situations and as Leo gave his advice on it, one of the two started to lean over the range-based attack.

From what Leo was seeing in these two, Ben was your typical warrior with brute strength, and Malik was the more unique one, treading a path that might lead him to become an archer. His sense of aiming was undeniably accurate, and Leo later got to know that Malik’s hobby was playing darts with his family.

In the end, they cleared the second floor, and both managed to reach level five.

“That’s about it, I guess,” Leo said. He spent half a day with these two men, and it was quite a refreshing pace when compared to Ken.

“Thank you,” Ben said, handing out his hand for a shake. “I mean it. You really did a lot for us.”

Leo shook Ben’s hand. “Just try not to die, okay? Let’s get through this together and go home,” Leo said. “Oh yea, don’t forget the thing I told you about the Luck stat, it might help giving things that you want, especially for you, Malik.”

He left the two of them and went to the smelly staircase. Leo climbed over the mahogany tables and jumped to the other side. He almost slipped while landing as downstairs wasn’t much different from before. Rotten carcasses were all over the place, courtesy of him and Ken. He trod down while holding his breath, and after reaching the ground floor, he found out he could hold his breath longer than usual. ‘Definitely from vitality,’ Leo thought.

He came closer to the exit, which was now an open path. He noticed the rough marks on the door frame with the hinges torn out along with the missing door. Whatever that did this was probably big, strong, and heavy. ‘It must be the…’ out of nowhere his perception sensed something. He turned quickly and with his bat readied to clean it up. But he stopped.

“What the fuck, Ken?” Leo said. “Don’t sneak up on me like that. I almost kill you.”

Ken grinned. “No, my friend, you won’t. You forgot about this,” Ken said, showing off the buckler strapped on his forearm. There were a few claw marks on it, but it was still pretty much intact. “This mighty buckler of mine can even block the fangs of a leopard and the flimsy scratches of annoying baboons. After the test run with those noobs, I think I kinda love this buckler more than my gladius.”

Leo shook his head. From the look of it, Ken just got weirder again. “Quit stroking that office seat, and come with me,” Leo said, trying to ignore Ken’s weird tendencies. He peeked through the doorway and looked left and right. The corridor of the elevator was practically empty. If you ignored the trails of blood on the floor, then everything was normal as usual.

The duo came out, treading carefully through the corridor. While Leo looked to the front, Ken kept his eyes mostly to the back. Their steps were slow and steady, trying not to make a single sound.

“Where did they all go?” Ken whispered.

They were now at the shambled-looking lobby. Tiles were shattered into pieces. Pieces of furniture were turned upside down and broken. While some parts of the walls had these unusual crack patterns making Leo’s heart uneasy seeing them.

“There goes your rhino,” Leo said. Resting his bat over his shoulder. “But damn, they really made a mess.” Yet the biggest question for him was, where were the bodies? No matter how he looked, there was nothing but blood trails on the floor. The only thing that made sense was the big cats having a feast over his co-workers' dead bodies.

“Leo, look at this,” Ken said.

Leo turned, and Ken pointed his sword at the main entrance. There were still people out there on the other side. And from the look of it, even the military was involved.

“Not at those people, but the quest message,” Ken said.

Leo used Identify and saw what Ken intended him to see.

[Gateway(Locked)]

[Requirement: More than 50% reach level 10]

[Progress: 0/258]

The numbers had dropped, and the difference was staggering. Not half but still too many lost their lives over last night's sudden ambush.

“Hey, look. They’re trying to say something,” Ken said. Noticing the soldier at the other side, trying to convey a message through a tablet.

“Don’t bother,” Leo said. “It won’t matter, not until half of us reach level ten.”

He walked away at a brisk pace, reaching the broken side door. “Hey, Ken, you remember the first message from the system? It told us to climb some mountain . . . What was it again?”

“Akrat, it’s Mount Akrat,” Ken answered, and surprisingly he still remembered.

“Yea, that one,” Leo said. “You think we should find it?” The man asked with a grin.

Catching Leo’s drift, Ken was quick on the uptake. “I'm not a gamer if I leave a quest incomplete,” Ken said. “So of course I will go.”

The duo went back up, stocking their supplies from water to simple snacks. They were preparing for another trip to the jungle, and before they left, they headed to the rooftop. Ken kicked down the locked rooftop door, and the two came out to the open rooftop.

“You see it?” Leo asked, gazing at the horizon, searching for something.

“I don’t see any mountain, but I do see black clouds converging at that spot,” Ken said. Prompting Leo to turn his head. It was east of the building, and the black clouds didn’t look normal.

“Do clouds float that low?” Leo asked.

“I don’t know,” Ken said. “How about we find out.” The warrior showed another thing in his hand.

“Is that a compass?” Leo asked.

“Yes, it is, and now there’s a slightly lower possibility of us getting lost in the jungle,” Ken said.

“Does it work?” Leo questioned the most important thing.

“I tried using it before, and it worked like a charm. At least it didn’t go crazy like when going through Bermuda’s Triangle,” Ken said.

“Good, then we should…” Leo’s words fell short. His eyes found a person walking closer to them from a distance.

The clopping noise of her heels resounded clear in Leo’s ears, and the sharp gaze from those two grey eyes could pierce even the most hardened heart. Then she stood before Leo and Ken. Her hands rested on her hips as her cold resting bitch face never changed even in a situation like this.

“Mr. Hart,” her voice was rather flat, unsuitable for a beautiful face like that. “I believe I’d sent a request to meet you last night, didn’t I?”

Leo sighed, then he said, “Hi, Peggy.”

Her stoic face broke, turning into a frown. “It’s Miss Atwell for you,” she said in a demanding tone.

“Is that so?”

To his reply, both of them had a staredown.