None of them even had the time to be shocked at the death of those that didn't make it, because the notification from the system pulled their attention.
Then suddenly, there was a bright light and Elton appeared, floating a few feet above the ground and looking at them. Her arrival pulled the attention of everyone.
She had a soft smile as she scanned through the people that were here, and then she spoke, "One thousand people in exact were sent to this starter town, current number, nine hundred and fifty." There was something eerie about the way she said that, like it was all going to plan for her.
"For the first trial, you'll be completing the climb to heaven." She said, and right before their eyes, several massive platforms bigger than the whole town as a whole appeared in the sky, going up like circular steps.
It just kept going higher into the sky, platform after platform, each one larger than the last.
"Each platform has a goal," she said. "You have to complete the goal before the time runs out, and head to the center crystal that has now appeared, and then teleport to the next platform. You'll be rewarded for every platform completed.
Each platform has its own test, and no test will be identically repeated. For this first test, you all are to have five kills to move on to the next.
There is a total of three thousand people in this town, including players. The time for completion is one hour. Good luck." She said and then vanished.
[59-50]
The timer started immediately, everyone stood there waiting, maybe for the monsters that were meant to come so they would have more kills.
But Aren and a select few could tell that it wasn't going to be like that. Working on the streets all his life had taught him something very crucial, and that was the ability to pay attention to the smallest details, because that was the only way you could survive.
'She said five kills and then proceeds to tell us the total number of people in this town, three thousand, but the awakened only make up about one thousand.
That means she counted the townspeople as well. Oh shit, fuck.' He cursed in his mind as he came to a terrifying conclusion of what she wanted them to do.
And it seemed he wasn't the only one that had come to that conclusion, others had also started putting two and two together. She wanted them to gather five kills from the people of the town.
'How can she want something like that? She wants us to massacre an entire town.' He thought as a lump formed in his throat. There were kids here, children, old people and lots more, some had even helped many of the awakened.
Aren wasn't the only one with this heavy thought, everyone stood frozen as well, shocked at the gravity of what they had to do, but also plagued with the repercussions of their refusal. They would be turned into a bloody mist. It was their life or five strangers' lives, a diabolical set-up.
'What do I do? What do I do?' Aren asked himself. Could he really just put a sword through the heart of some innocent person? But then an idea formed in his head. He looked in the distance, and he saw it, the house of the chief of the town, the manor.
The chief had guards, people that could put up a real fight. If he stood against them and killed them, then his conscience wouldn't take a heavy blow.
With that decision in mind, he dashed, but he wasn't alone, as multiple people ran in that direction as well, and amongst them was the silver-haired S-tier, the A-tier, and Elena as well. Seems all of them had the same idea.
Seeing others moving to do something, the rest began scattering, trying to find their way, and before long, the first cry was heard, a woman screaming. It cut through the air, her helplessness resounded in her voice before getting gurgled by blood.
Aren and some others looked back as they heard that scream, their hearts clenched as they knew one awakened had gone the savage route and killed an innocent woman.
But they were no better at this moment, all of them about to become murderers. The weight in their hearts was massive; it was almost suffocating.
Aren forced himself to look forward, ignoring everything and zoning out.
'It's my life against theirs,' he thought.
The current situation of this task they were given wasn't just to kill, it also carried an issue of lack of people to actually kill. At the end of the day, not everyone would be able to get five kills, and then they would turn against each other to get five kills, and when it was all over, less than five hundred awakened would be left standing.
'They want to turn us into monsters. They knew that alliances would have been made to survive the trial, trust would have been built. They want to shatter it and tell us that we are all alone and we must take the trials on our own.
That's pure evil, so this is the trials. I knew it was savage, but this, this is on a whole other level. That being said, I am here for myself, I have to fight for myself, even if it means something as ruthless as killing.' As his thought came to an end, he arrived at the gates of the manor, only to see several armed guards, full armor and swords in hand and ready to fight, reaching fifty in number.
"Who the hell gave a small town chief a small army? Where does he get such money from?" Aren muttered, making a joke to himself to calm his raging heart. He gripped his sword tight and rushed forward, "Come, Fang." He called out, summoning Fang to his side.