Chapter 398 - Stage 2

Waiting in the centre room, Shiro saw others that arrived but there were no signs of the party yet.

Furrowing her brows, she wondered if she should head out when a man suddenly approached her.

"Miss Kasumi and Miss Chizu, sorry to disturb you but I was wondering if you wanted to team up?" The man asked with a smile.

"Team up? What do you mean by that?" Shiro replied while looking at his name tag.

[Lorenzo LVL 100 Wind Strider Assassin]

"You see, as I am an assassin, getting to this area quickly is easy enough. But for the later rounds where combat might be a big part or should there be teamwork involved, it would be handy to have some talented teammates. Of course, once we reach the later rounds, this temporary team would disband and we'll fight for the orange grade equipment.  But until then, we'll help each other and reach the last few rounds. What do you think?" Lorenzo asked with a smile.

Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro eventually shook her head.

"Thanks but no thanks. Everyone's fighting for the same goal. I'd much rather we compete fairly." Shiro replied.

"In that case then I won't disturb you any longer." Lorenzo smiled before reaching out his hand for a handshake.

Deeming it rude to reject, Shiro accepted the handshake.

Watching Lorenzo leave, she activated analysis and looked at her hand in case he had decided to pull something suspicious.

Immediately detecting a mark of sorts, Shiro narrowed her eyes and crushed it with the help of Celestial path.

Looking up in shock, Lorenzo felt the mark he set on Shiro disappear as he glanced back only to see Shiro glare at him with some killing intent.

'Oh sh*t, I might have misjudged this one.' He thought to himself before quickly making his way far from her.

However, he did not realise that Shiro had done the same to him.

A nanobot was currently on his body and waiting for the moment to explode and send him out of the competition.

Seeing Shiro glare at that man, Lisandra couldn't help but raise her eyebrows in confusion.

"Did he do anything mum?" Lisandra asked curiously.

"Somewhat. He placed a mark on me which might allow him to eliminate me hence why I got rid of it. Though he doesn't realise I've done the same so you bet I'll be kicking his ass out of this event when the opportunity arrives." Shiro replied quietly while keeping her eyes on the entrance to the centre room.

Thankfully, the party had arrived around the 60 people mark, causing Shiro to sigh in relief.

"Man, that labyrinth was annoying. We ran into so many assassins it's not even funny." Madison sighed while massaging her arm.

"Yeah, if not for your taunt skill, there would have been more people arriving here and we might not even get a chance to pass." Silvia nodded.

"Well at least we've passed now. Let's take this chance to recuperate since we don't know what the next round is." Lyrica smiled as the party sat down next to the walls.

Looking at the party, Shiro couldn't help but pause in shock since she just saw Yin give everyone some food from her own reserves.

'Hold up, what the hell happened to Yin? If she's the glutton I know, she would never give away her own food!?' Shiro thought to herself.

Lisandra was also shocked at Yin's change in character and couldn't help but wonder if her big sister had been brainwashed in these two months or not.

Sending a small nanobot to check out what had happened, Shiro listened in on their conversation.

"Remember, you have to pay me back triple for the food I give you ok?" Yin said seriously as the party nodded.

"Yeah we get it, you don't have to say it all the time you know Yin." Madison laughed.

"Food is my way of living so if you don't give back my food, I'll be annoyed you know." Yin pouted.

"Yes, but are you really going to go through your storage ring of food? It's something we got from the dungeons but the space in the ring is still quite big you know." Madison replied while pointing at her ring.

"Is that a challenge? I'll show you the act of me emptying out my ring right here and now." Yin replied in annoyance. To think they would look down upon her might of eating, how naïve.

Immediately retracting her nanobot, Shiro couldn't help but sigh.

"The stupid daughter of mine is still the same. But this time she's only giving away her food because the party said they'll pay her back triple." Shiro shook her head.

Hearing what Shiro had just said, Lisandra couldn't help but smile awkwardly.

"Well I guess it's good that big sis is the same as usual."

"In a way I suppose." Shiro shrugged.

While they were chatting, Lyrica had been scanning the room for anyone that could possibly be Shiro. With her capabilities, there was a good chance for her to arrive much earlier than them.

Looking at all the female adventurers around, she marked down those that reminded her most of Shiro.

The highest one on her list was a girl called Kasumi with the class Grand Archer Sage. While the look, temperament and class were completely different, there were still habits that Shiro couldn't completely mask.

However, she wasn't completely certain and it was just speculation for now.

{I trust in your 'Shiro Radar' so that woman has a good chance of being Shiro.} Yuan Tian chuckled.

'Oh please, what the hell do you mean by Shiro radar.' Lyrica rolled her eyes.

###

Soon, the 100 passing candidates had been gathered in the centre room as a hologram appeared in the centre.

[Stage 2: Hidden danger. In this game, there are 10 'slayers' chosen out of the group of 100. The group of 100 will then be split into teams of 10 and you will be trying to complete puzzles and tasks to get to the next round. Should the 'slayers' be able to sabotage 3 or more people in their team, they'll be given a free pass to skip the next round. Should they fail, they'll be eliminated. Teams will be assigned randomly on the screen, please regroup into your new teams.]

Reading the hologram, Shiro glanced at her badge and noticed that she was marked down as a slayer.

"Seems like I'm chosen." Shiro whispered over to Lisandra.

"Hm, I'm not chosen. We're not in the same group either." Lisandra replied.

The main party had also been split up as each of them were put into groups where they didn't know each other.

Looking at her own group, Shiro realised that she had been put together with Silvia while Lisandra was put in the same team as Madison.

"Good luck, try to be careful though." Shiro smiled.

"Mn, you too mum." Lisandra nodded and made her way towards her new team for now while Shiro did the same.

"Right then, it seems like we're part of the same team after all." Lorenzo chuckled as he saw Shiro walking their way.

"Oh please, we both know it's luck that I'm actually on your team." Shiro replied.

Sure it was luck, but not exactly good luck since a good way to guarantee that Silvia passed was to eliminate everyone apart from the two of them. But if she did that, it would be suspicious so she'll probably be going for around 3 to 5 eliminations.

"Why don't need introductions since we're only going to be in a team for one round. But for now, let's work together to pass this round. I have an idea and that's pairing up with a partner and doing the test in pairs. If they come back without their partner, there's a good chance that they're the slayer." Lorenzo suggested as the other's nodded their heads.

"So how are we going to split the teams then?" One of the assassins on their team asked.

"Simple, we'll just group up in the order that our names are displayed on the screen." Lorenzo smiled.

Looking at the screen, Shiro saw that she was paired up with a girl called Summer. She was an archer much like Shiro but didn't like to talk much. She only stood next to her and waited.

After the pairs were sorted, they waited for the hologram to show them the activity that they needed to do.