Chapter 60 - 56.3

Destruction could be seen on the path that the young man walked on while Kilius on the other hand was smirking from his scheme.

'Let that anger consume you.' Kilius thought while he stabbed Lerrent on his thɨġh. The silent young man gritted his teeth while he sent a murderous glare on the other. As the ice princess was an immortal or a lesser deity, she was a bit spared from the torture as Lerrent was the one who was being vented by Kilius.

As the young man was an acknowledged friend of the ice princess because they got acquainted due to the plan that they concocted which was the kidnapping scheme. She couldn't stand the torture of her friend as she tried to use her power to kill the eyesore.

The ice spikes that she would sent to Kilius was deemed to be useless by the enemy as Kilius easily deflected it. Due to living in the mortal world, the ice princess had never used her ice power - aside from killing that witch which was another story - as she had limited power source because she was a lesser deity who needed the Qi Mountain's divine energy to supply it.

They looked at each other as they communicated in eye contact.

'He will come. Just endure for a bit.'

As if understanding her, Lerrent just nodded as he was full of bloodied wounds. His leg was the part that Kilius vented on as he was enjoying the splatter of blood that it was producing.

He mȯȧnėd as he spoke with relished, "Hmm…music to my ears."

Lerrent was left unmoving as Kilius sat back on his chair to wait for another minute to pass by. Even though, the time was suspended, Kilius had his own ways on counting time.

"Oh a minute had passed, what would you prefer? Your leg or hand? Maybe, your handsome face?"

The sadistic chuckle echoed as a cry followed forth.

----

Chun unconsciously felt dread on her place as she was agitated to some point. She sensed an unknown worry from her subconscious. Might be worried for the butler. 'Art should still be safe.' She optimistically thought while her heart reflected distress.

Zero continued on his path as the system kept ringing on his ears, an indication for his accumulated stat points. He ignored it as he was in a hurry to rescue the two individuals. Currently, he was now in the most deeper parts of the black tower as the young man encountered many kinds of unseen creatures that existed, they were more times stronger from the previous. The more he got deeper, the more stronger and agile were the opponents.

While he walked, he distributed each stat points and as of now his stats increased in effectivity.

[Performer: 0

Title: ?????? (Locked), Beaten Junkie

Task completed: 3 side tasks, 2 main task

Intelligence: 43

Stamina: 40

Agility: 40

Skills:

Charmer: 10

(No further skills)

Offensive:

Cosmic Fire: Atk dmg - 25

Dark Solar: Atk dmg - 78

Heat Beam: Atk dmg - 55

Healing Fire: effect - 30

Cooldown - 3 minutes

Item:

Dreamscape (equipped)]

When he stepped his foot on the next floor, he halted his movement as he felt nauseous. There was a strange spell was casted on this place as the young man felt repulsive from it. His blood was boiling as he couldn't continue on moving forward.

(Umm… I see someone standing at your back.)

Chun stated simultaneously with the system's notification.

[System Detection: Simulation Trigger had been activated.]

[System Detection: Chess Queen Lvl. 45. Description: She likes genius person. Don't get caught.]

'A chess board and its pieces?' The young man thought as he examined his surroundings. It was so silent that it felt surreal, supposed to be that so-called Chess Queen who was the boss of this place would showed up at this moment---

"Oh, a new entree!" On cue, cheering sounds erupted, the quiet scene change. Zero witnessed that he was not the only who was standing inside the arena as there were participants. It was five of them standing in the middle as the spectators around them cheered.

The young man was not sure if this people around were creatures in the black tower or part of the illusion but he's sure that he would perform well here.

This was his second time in simulation even though he lived for hundreds of years, he never experienced getting into simulation other than the system's simulation space back at the Circus. Mostly, experiencing a simulation game, he remembered his first time was the poker game with Xiu Jia.

"Our new entree was hailed from the Xanxia realm and he's centuries old despite his young appearance. We will call him as the Great Conqueror!" Cheers echoed inside the stadium as the people started to shout for his given title.

A title that deeply etched on his bones, his fate that he could not escape.

Zero looked around to see where's the announcing voice came from but instead of finding the emcee, someone caught his vision. It was Xiu Jia and Lerrent, they had both a calm expression as they returned his gaze. Looking at their state, they were both fine as there clothing were clean and out of dirt. They were on the front V.I.P box, looking animatedly at the arena.

The young man frowned as he got back in examining his surroundings. There were no signs of the emcee but his cheerful voice could be heard around.

(Who was that? Is he Lerrent?)

"You know him?"

(Yes… it's a long story.)

Chun had no plan on revealing her story at this moment as they needed to focused on concerning matters like this simulation game.

'Though, why was Lerrent here?'

The emcee with his friendly voice stated, "You may think that we are playing chess? No. The Chess Queen decided to make an interesting game and it's not chess. We will be playing 'Who is the extra?"

Zero and the other players listened to the weird rules of the game as the cheerful voice of the emcee rang out.

"This is a game of teamwork and betrayal. There is suppose to be one extra and one indefinite extra. Find the real one and you win the game. You are not prohibited to do anything, you can even seek out your teammates by revealing your identity. It's your choice that depends your fate. Happy playing!" The emcee with his enthusiastic tone bid his wishes as the players was transported to the exact platform of the game.

Zero observed the setting as it was an elegant bedroom, velvety duvet covers were on the bed as the young man touched the material. There were electronic lights in each corners of the room and the thick curtains covered the floor to ceiling windows.

The young man tried to unlock the window in order to get a better view of the outside as he could see through the windowpane that it was morning due to the bright sunlight. But the window did not budge from his action of opening it. Zero touched the windowpane and saw that it was like a reflection of water as it rippled from his fingers.

'An illusion.'

Zero noticed that he was the only one who was present inside the room while thinking that the other players had their own place being transported at. Zero strode to the desk table near the bed as there was a paper on it, a letter from the game…?

'Good day, Great Conqueror! You are the extra of the game. Your task is to eliminate the indefinite extra through voting him out or killing him. Mini task is to answer this short code by aligning it to the right seal of the house. -Yours truly.'

'Extra? So I'm their target but what will be the task of the indefinite extra?'

Zero concluded as they were just five players, the game would not last long and he will surely perform well for the Chess Queen. He remembered the system's description about her, it was about she likes genius person and don't get caught. It meant one thing. The young man smirked as he opened the drawer, coincidentally, there was a matchbox there. He ignited the letter but not fully burned it. He put what was left of the letter on his pocket as he strode out the room.

There was a girl wearing school uniform who greeted him as she caught up with him. From the looks of it, she came from the next room.

With her meek voice she stated, "A-are you an otherworldler?"

Zero understood what she was referring to as he replied, "Yes. And you are?"

"I-I'm… you can call me Strawberry. From Earth," Zero nodded to the girl as he introduced his given title and his realm as well.

Even though this was an illusion of the black tower, a part of the simulation. The objects, surroundings and people felt real.

He should hurry up on this one before he succumb to this illusion.

They went to the living room, knowing that the three players were there due to their voices. A stout middle-age man, a lanky young man and a mȧturė woman in her thirties. The middle-age man was quarreling with the mȧturė woman because of the voting situation.