I had stockpiled a decent number of badges that I could use to save my life. However, the badges weren't full proof, and anyone strong enough could find a way around them, as Demira demonstrated by paralyzing me and rendering me unable to make use of them.

I can only imagine what fates await me if I met some psychopath who could overpower me like that creepy redhead, and yet I couldn't get the idea of trying to kill the undead king out of my head.

I was always greedy by nature, which is why I resorted to doing so many questionable acts in my past life. I was never eager for materialistic gain as I did what I did in search of meaning to my dull, unremarkable life, and I'm exasperated to say that I found none at the time.

But now things are different in this new world where the strong rule, getting whatever they wanted and more while the weak are left with less than scrap; I'm sure that I can find meaning here.

I don't want to remain hidden in the shadows all of my life. I want to make something out of myself and live a life that I can look back into when I die with a satisfied smile instead of consoling myself and thinking that I at least had no regrets, like what happened when my past life ended.

I wanted more, more from this world, and more importantly, more from myself, which is why I needed to take the risk and go to the city's central area to try my luck.

Is doing that reckless? Yes. Do I need to take that risk? No. But I couldn't bring myself to care. What's the worst that could happen, anyway, death? Been there, done that!

I still needed to do some preparations before that, like gathering supplies and creating a proper safe area in the outskirts for me to run back into and endure the coming storm if things go south. I'm a thrill seeker (apparently), not an idiot.

With that conclusion, I quickly make my way outside to begin exploring the area with considerably lighter steps.

...

"Weird," I remarked with a frown as I put my hands in the air with absolutely nothing solid in front of me, feeling a wall or a barrier of some sort.

"I didn't really expect to walk out of the city with no problems, but an invisible wall was the last thing I expected," I murmured with a sigh while running my hands through the invisible wall which most likely surrounded the entire city.

I had decided that I should go to the city's border to try and get a clue about the city's whereabouts, leading me to this situation.

"Even though it's called a game, does that shit-eating clown need to go so far as to make an invisible wall surrounding the city?" I murmured while shaking my head.

"It's like he's trying too hard to make it look like a video game," I concluded with a sigh as I turned around, intending to resume exploring the area.

The city's outskirts looked even more lifeless than the area that I made my base previously. Granted that there were fewer signs of destruction, the absence of both living and undead creatures was downright eery and depressing.

There were no signs of movement within sight as all undead creatures were making their way towards the city's center, and most contestants were still making their way here to survive the undead swarm.

"Little Billy is starving! Can little Billy have some food now?"

I heard a loud voice that had a childish tone just as I was about to call it a day, causing me to sigh as I promptly made my way to the source of the sound to investigate.

"No, little Billy, you have to earn it first," said a short man with a hideous smile as he emptied a can of food into his mouth while following behind a tall, almost gigantic, broad-shouldered teen, who had a goofy smile plastered on his face.

"Eh? But it's been two days since little Billy ate!" the goofy teen said with a troubled expression, scratching the back of his head. "No means no, little Billy! Besides, we only have a limited amount of food!" the sort man explained with a clearly fake smile on his face as he threw the empty can of food away, taking out another one.

"Do you want me to starve to death?!" the short man added as his fake smile twisted into a fake outraged expression. "No, little Billy doesn't want the nice uncle to starve!" Billy hurriedly said in a panicked tone, wildly gesturing with his large, shovel-like hands.

'Even a blind man can see what's happening here.' I shook my head with a sigh as I focused on the two individuals, trying to take a look at their status screens.

Name: Billy

Age: 16

Race: Human

Bloodline: Half titan

Parameters:

Strength: B+

Agility: D

Endurance: B

Intelligence: F--

Energy: Locked

'Half Titan, eh? Well, that explains the kid's enormous size at least.' Titans were some of the most powerful creatures to appear on earth during the unveiling, but they were luckily peaceful creatures content to live in solitude., away from humans.

However, if someone disturbed their peaceful lifestyle, then there will be hell to pay as destroying entire cities and towns were some of the milder reactions Titans could display if angered.

But the OWR still considered them a threat despite their usually mellow nature and dispatched their finest to exterminate the gigantic creatures, leading them to the brink of extinction until the Deterrent himself interfered, stopping the unprovoked slaughter.

There were also rumors that OWR didn't hunt the titans because of the threat they represented but because they were trying to implement their genes into humans to create super soldiers instead.

And not so little Billy here could just be living proof that these rumors might have some truth in them.

Name: Norman

Age: 19

Race: Human

Bloodline: None

Parameters:

Strength: F-

Agility: F-

Endurance: F-

Intelligence: E

Energy: locked

And then we have this piece of shit, a literal incarnation of the word parasite. He's clearly tricking the half-witted giant into working for him.

'What to do?' Little Billy would be a tremendous help if I could get him on my side, but this Norman fellow is bound to get in the way one way or the other as I can't imagine him liking the idea of losing such a convenient tool.

"Well, time to put on my Mr. Nice guy face," I murmured with a sigh as I began making my way towards the duo. "Hello, fellow survivors," I greeted with a smile as soon I was close enough for them to notice me.

"Hello!" Billy greeted back with a sincere smile, happily waving his hands at me. "Who are you, and what do you want?" asked Norman with narrowed eyes, not even bothering to hide his suspicion.

"My name is Kaden. I'm a game contestant like you," I introduced myself with a smile, keeping my distance so as not to agitate the duo while pointing towards my badge.

"Hello, Kaden. Little Billy is Little Billy," Billy said with a cheerful smile, causing me to smile genuinely despite myself at the guy's carefree attitude.

"Well, it was nice to meet you, so say what you want to say and fuck off already!" Norman remarked with a frown, trying to shoo me away. "Well, I couldn't help overhearing that you two might be lacking in the food department," I said with an apologetic smile.

"Yeah? What of it?" Norman asked with a scowl while Little Billy merely nodded sadly at my words. "Well, my friend and I have some extra food that we'd be more than happy to share if you want," I replied as I took out a can of preserved vegetables, throwing it towards Norman.

"So you're offering us free food? I don't believe you!" Norman asked with narrowed eyes as he picked up the can, briefly inspecting it with a suspicious look on his face.

"It isn't exactly free since I will be expecting you to help us around with building fortifications, exploring the area, and defending it when needed," I explained with a resigned shrug, pretending as if Norman caught me red-handed.

"That's what I thought!" Norman said with a satisfied smile as Billy gave him a quick thump up, seemingly impressed by his cleverness. "But I refuse. We don't your help!" he added, his smile quickly turning into a scowl as he dismissively waved his hand to the side.

"I assure you, I won't ask you to do anything that's too difficult, and you can always leave whenever you want," I said with a smile. "It's no different from receiving free food, and you are lacking that right now," I added as I took out several more cans of preserved food, tossing them towards Norman.

"Surely you don't your friend here to starve?" I asked while gesturing with my hand towards Billy, who had a sheepish smile on his face as he moved on to whisper something into Norman's ears, probably trying to convince him to take my offer.

"Very well," Norman said with a hesitant expression as he greedily picked up canned foods, stuffing them into a shabby-looking make-shift bag. "But if you try anything funny, then Billy here will bash your head!" he concluded as he picked up a small rock, throwing it on Billy's head and smiling as it cracked on impact while Billy didn't even flinch.