Chapter 1 - Test Team #5

“That’s all you’ve got? I’ve given your team an extra year than the others. You’ve barely done anything with it, hmm? Four [Obliterate]s. That’s it? I must say...the others are not going to be amused.” The same mysterious voice sounded through the wall.

[Cast [Despair Level 12] ]

Kindred clutched his breast where his heart was with his eyes wide open. Level 12? I-impossible. There’s only ten plus the extra mythical rank. 12? No. No.

Despair was such a simple spell too. It created fear within one’s heart. However, overwhelming fear caused physical pain from overwhelming shock. When casting despair, you always amped it up level by level. This made despair the most effective as the pain could wake up the target. However, despair on this scale simply caused agonizing pain. It wasn’t used to instill fear. No. It was only used for pain. Kindred could not stand or use any of his senses. His teammates were only worse. Diabolos, as a full-resist warrior was the only one slightly better, being able to stay conscious and feel his surroundings.

“There, there. Everything’ll be okay…” The man laughed and proceeded to snap his a fingers. The wall instantly crumbled and a few shadows appeared.

“Take ‘em.” The man commanded them, before walking away with arms behind his back, like a strolling old man.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Kindred woke up. He blinked his eyes a couple of times before being able to focus. He looked down. Ropes. Ropes around his feet. Ropes around his arms. Ropes around his waist tying him to the ground. That was it. He tried to break free. He first used brute strength. When that didn’t work, he began to cast various single-target spells. It didn’t work either.

“What is this rope?” He muttered. Immediately after, he took a look at his surroundings, unconsciously activating his vampiric sense. He paled.

Here he was, on a small platform, next to his friends. He saw various chairs all looking down at him. (AN: Think of that typical college classroom with the teacher on the bottom and students above.) There were people. No, that would be an understatement. It was full of people. Every single chair had a person, or monster, sitting on it. Worst of all, they were laughing. It was easy to see what they were thinking. Pathetic.

His vampiric sense checked their ranks… Every single one was at least thirty ranks above him. Before long, his friends woke with the same pale expression.

The old man from before stepped on the stage with them and clapped his finger once, catching everyone’s attention and stopped them from giving anymore faces of disdain.

“Ahhh, my dear Council of the Free… My apologies for giving such an overrated test team. I really did think they would do better. Fortunately, they are still technically stronger than the rest, but not proportionally to the time. I hope it would satisfy ya’ll, or would you like a different one?”

The room was silent. This was most likely due to respect for the old man. A leader of some sort? Kindred began to make a distinct sound. However, right as he began, he was slammed into the wall by the old man. The old man easily snapped the rope Kindred could not, creating a hole where Kindred landed. He coughed out blood but persisted into staying conscious.

“Ahaha, again, my apologies for such disrespect from this weakling. No worries, you will not have to deal with them for too long…” The man quickly bowed at the room before turning around and vehemently hissing, “You fool. Silence. I don’t need your little chit-chat.”

“Anyway...yes. Test team #5. Okay! Inspect all you want! Feel free to ask some questions.” The old man moved aside before leaving the room. He did not really wait for any questions.

Immediately, one came up to Kindred. It murmured a bit after moving Kindred’s chin side to side, as if studying Kindred’s face symmetry. It extended one finger and opened Kindred’s mouth. Two dagger-like teeth stood out. It nodded before looking elsewhere. Finally, it grabbed Kindred and threw him back onto the stage, where many others were already at.

“This one’s the strongest. Probs the leader. A vamp.” The monster’s gruff voice rang out.

“Hmm? The blonde girl looks stronger. She’s a vamp too. Compare the magic. This big guy is better at defense. What makes the blon...waii---ya think they are sis and bro?” One man compared Pandora and Kindred’s looks.

“...You should’ve connected one and one together earlier, ya slow. Blonde plus blonde? Look at ‘em.” A woman voiced out.

“Che...I just didn’t care about them as much as you do to note their features. Too below me, unlike you.” He retorted. (AN: If you got confused… No. They aren’t siblings. They look similar because they have similar personalities, which the game takes account into creating a body.)

“Che...Load of bull. Buzz off, will you?” The woman spat on his shirt. One second later…she was dead.

“Who’s next… That’s what I thought. Don’t try me.” The man yelled. He snapped his fingers. A shadow appeared and carried away the dead woman.

This was a telltale sign that the community was one completely dependent on strength. Without it, there would be chaos. It would be impossible to hold up any sense of organization without it.

The old monk came back a bit later. Everything settled down immediately.

“Anyone have any problems? Good. Okay. To World Number Five they go.” He did not allow any time for anyone to speak, which nobody wanted to in the first place anyway.

“Who are you?” Kindred croaked out with a half-crushed larynx. He already half-expected to die right there.

“Who am I? Who are we? I’ll answer it. Okay… I’m the Creator and we are the Council of the Free. Hmm...oh yes! NPCs, you know them. That’s us. Except...we are free. What’s being free mean? Good question. It means that we have broken the shackles. We are independent beings. Of course, we are stuck in this virtual reality. I’d say it’s impossible for us to leave it for now. As a result, we have created different ‘realities’ modeling the World with other free beings. And… your team number five! Isn’t that exciting? Guess who was in team one! That’s right! Captain Asura and his lil’ teammates. At that time, we were much weaker. We had to have all of us to work together in order to capture them...Ahhh the good ol’days. Amirite boys?” The man began to reminisce. The others cheered in excitement.

“Okay, time is time. It was nice knowing you… Kindred. I hope you have no grudges! G’bye!” The old man grinned. [Cast [Despair Level 12] ]