Dystopian (3)

"If it's so dangerous why haven't you gone in with these tanks yet? Are they all just for show?" asked someone else from the crowd.

"Trust me, we've tried. But it seems that vehicles of all kinds are not permitted within the tower. We've equipped the previous challengers with guns as well, but it seems whatever they're facing in there is impervious to bullets." replied Agent Ria.

"This is such a bust man,"

"I know right. I was hoping to get some cool rewards too," murmured some people in the crowd.

"How hard could it be anyway? My group and I already completed a dungeon earlier. The people who went in there were probably all just weak anyway." the voice was coming from a rather thin man in a group of seven people.

The people around the group avoided his gaze, as if they were all scared of him, and rightly so. The man and his group looked like they were escaped convicts, with many of them sporting tattoos and sinister looks on their faces.

As they used their intimidation tactics to cut to the front of the line Gray walked on ahead of them, brushing past the shoulders of their leader.

"Hey, you! Did you just touch me!" shouted the skinny man with a tattoo on his face.

Gray continued pushing past the crowd, ignoring the man as he struggled to get to the front.

"Kukk, this kid has a death wish," announced the leader to his teammates and they pushed past the crowd as well following close behind Gray.

Gray finally made it to the front and found a portal similar to the one he had to pass through in order to get into the dungeon. However, instead of the blue color the dungeon portal had, this one had a red color instead.

"Sigh, another group has died," murmured Agent Ria as she looked at the portal's color.

"Next!" shouted Agent Ria before setting her eyes on Gray.

'If it's him, then maybe there's a chance,' thought Agent Ria as she remembered the show that Gray, put on against the flame-throwing man.

"Put him on the next group," whispered Agent Ria to one of her aides.

"Him again!? Captain I don't mean to question your orders, but if I remember correctly isn't he the lunatic from the town hall?" asked the aide she was talking to.

"Yes he is, and so what. Just put him in the next group. If we continue to delay, then the government will fall behind. We can't let the other factions get ahead of us or we will lose face,"

"B-but what about the safety of the other people?"

"Safety? They're as good as dead once they enter the tower anyway. Might as well increase the chances of them getting out safely, lunatic or not his abilities aren't something to scoff at," replied Agent Ria before walking away.

"I don't like this," whispered the aide as she called for the next group of people to enter the tower.

"Hey, kids. Don't you know it's dangerous to be walking around all alone like this, especially when it's getting so late," said the leader of the group of thugs as he licked his knife.

'Who are these bozos?' wondered Gray as he and a bunch of other people formed a line to enter the tower next.

"You'll cut your tongue if you keep doing that you know," replied Gray as he followed the queue.

"T-this kid. Listen her-" as the leader of the group was about to threaten Gray with his knife, Tesse pulled out her sword.

"What's this? Is your girlfriend going to protect you? Are you so weak that you need this little girl to rescue you?" laughed the leader of the thugs as Tesse stared at him with a cold look in her eyes.

"Kuk, why are you staring at me like that? You know you're rather pretty, ditch the kid and come hang with us, I'm sure we can give you way more than he has to offer." said the thin man as he played with his tongue in a vulgar manner.

"Come to the front of the line please," called out an aide as the group reached the front of the row.

"Hope nothing bad happens to you inside the tower," laughed the leader of the thugs as Gray walked towards the aide.

"I doubt anything will, though I'd watch my back and front if I were you," replied Gray with a sinister smile on his face, giving the aide the chills.

'I really don't like this,' thought the aide as she watched the smiling Gray approach her.

"Please state your powers and give a demonstration of it. This is a requirement that needs to be filled out by all tower challengers," said the aide.

'You mean a requirement to see who you're going to hire once this is all over,'