A system message flashed before me: [Defeat the Magicians]
My eyes widened as panic surged. The territory master could assign roles?
Magicians, also called Sorcerers, were people who could freely manipulate mana and wield <Magic> as if it were part of their very flesh and blood. There were approximately 80 of those high school girls inside the cafeteria. If every single one of those girls were given the role of a 'Magician,' then...
Before I could even complete that thought, the voices of the high school girls rang out one by one and the formerly silent cafeteria slowly became noisy.
"Seraphiel, zaraqun imashia ve'orthaniel zellara, asphirael tuz'akkarun val'shekiel, zanasal tir'kasha len'seraphai al'kyrath..."
The first girl's eyes grew hollow as she recited those alien-like sentences.
"Lumiel, xathriel var'shilun ve'eladriel, ashaniel orath vel'themir al'sharia..."
Then the voice of the second girl overlapped with the first.
"Zarathiel, al'korath seraphiel, marathor il'kyran vir'thania, vel'orath el'draxian seraphim. Xal'koran na'rethiel va'sirian el'valior, ashaniel ta'zirar. Vel'dariel a'thalion xal'karath, mi'halon zariel sin'quor. Xilathiel vir'tharion el'nareth, vel'kadaral ul'marathil tharaniel. If'arel vir'thalion ishamar vel'orath, el'sarathiel kaltharion a'sharan vel'torion!"
The chanting continued with the voices of the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth and so on to the last. It sounded like a cacophony of incomprehensible utterances. A magician would would recognise those words as <Incantations>, but to me, those words felt like a countdown to certain destruction.
At that moment, the definition of the supernatural truly became apparent.
Each one of those high-school girls stuck out their tongue like a zombie and a ping-pong ball sized white glow manifested on the tip on the tongue. In the next moment, one of those balls shot out and transformed into a beam of light that travelled in a straight line.
Kwang!
The beam of light struck where I was previously standing, creating a hole in the lower floor and smoke along with dest erupted.
Looking at the melted floor, my mind abruptly recalled that the other king candidates were defeated and riddled with holes all over their body. Perhaps this was the attack that ended their stories.
"...!"
What if I was hit by such an attack? Would I also suffer the same fate as them?
At that moment, alarm bells rang inside my head upon the sense of a terrible premonition and I took an subconscious step backwards.
"Shit! RUN AWAY!!"
Upon my shout, Kagura and Lee Dokho snapped out from their reverie and broke out into a mad dash towards the exit along me.
"Wa–Wait, why are we running? Can't we just overwhelm them?"
"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?! ARE YOU INSANE! HOW THE EARTH ARE WE GOING TO DEFEND AGAINST ALL OF THOSE ATTACKS AT ONCE?! SOMETIMES, I WONDER IF THOSE BRAIN CELLS ARE WORKING INSIDE THAT HEAD!"
Lee Dokho screamed as if Kagura's very line of thinking was absurd. His panicked voice sounded rather strange. Even so, I could understand where he is coming from. Even with the blessings of the constellations, It would still be impossible to defend against all attacks without getting hit. Just one of those attacks was strong enough to melt the floor without resistance.
If we were hit by that laser of death, It would be an instant ticket to hell.
Boom!!
In the next instant, multiple rays of light bursted forth and blew apart the floodgates that was the cafeteria entrance. As the zombie-like highschool girls lunged out from the entrance like a swarm, we had no choice but to flee down the corridor.
Lee Dokho glanced back and cursed under his breath. "Damn it! What now? There's no way we can take them head-on."
I kept my eyes forward, trying to steady my breath. "It looks that way."
"Deputy-nim, how do you look so calm in this moment? Do you have a plan?"
I resisted the urge to snap at him. Calm? How do I look calm in this bloody situation? Even so, one thing was clear.
"Well, you're right about one thing. I do have a plan but..."
"But?"
"It's risky. We'll have to split up. Fighting them together won't work, but if we can separate them, we might stand a chance. The problem is, there could be more enemies hiding in the dark corners where the eyes cannot reach. It would be disastrous if we get surrounded while we were alone."
Abruptly, truly abruptly, I instantly recognised her as the girl that was bragging about her high score on the make up exam in the cafeteria. But something was rather suspicious. We started running even before the girls came out of the cafeteria and yet somehow, this one managed to reach the bottom floor before me.
How was that possible? It only made sense if she had jumped from the window above to reach the bottom floor, but the rules stated that no one could leave the territory once inside. Besides, she wouldn't have survived the fall even if she did jump. Forget that—she didn't even look like she could fight, let alone use magic.
"Intruder detected! Initiating defence protocols! Beginning self destruct sequence 000901!"
The words that came out from her cute lips caused a terrible premonition to settle in my heart. Self destruct?
Before I could even express my shock, the girl's skin slowly began to become reddish as if something accumulating inside her body was about to reach its breaking point.
[Exclusive skill 'Omniscient Wall' has activated.]
"?!"
My anxiety rose as a ridiculous amount of information flooded inside my mind. Though said information came from a realm beyond my understanding.
Every living being in this world (우주) possesses a pseudo-nervous system called Magic Circuits which spreads throughout their bodies.
Magic circuits was an important device for the players of the Nightmare Trial. Magicians use the magic circuits in their bodies to convert life energy into magic energy which is then used to conjure magic. However, there were multiple cases where the magic circuits in the body abruptly exploded.
Such a strange phenomenon occurred when there's an error in the command sequence, resulting in the flow of mana to become chaotic and the circuit would burn out. In addition, there were cases where the user would intentionally explode their magic circuits to commit suicide during extremely different situations.
A prime example was the protagonist, Soo Jinyoung who had used such a method to commit suicide when she was captured by the regressor, killing both of them in the process. In fact, that was how this entire story began in the first place.
Given this, what would happen if this girl did the same...?
"Stop it..." Those were the only words I could muster as cold reality slapped me in the face.
"Damn it! STOP IT, YOU FOOL!! CAN'T YOU SEE YOU'RE DESTROYING YOUR OWN BODY?!!"
But the girl didn't respond. It seemed she could no longer speak. At this moment, she resembled a kettle left on a stove for too long due to the owner's neglect. However, what was accumulating inside her body was far more dangerous than steam. It was magic power.
"Tsk!!"
On one hand, a girl was standing infront of me, teetering on the edge of self destruction. On the other hand, multiple enemies were rapidly approaching from behind. If I head back, I will die. And if I was not fast enough, I would also die. My only chance of survival was if I killed the girl infront and then conceal my presence using the Hermit Cloak.
To begin with, I could easily kill that girl by using the hand gun in my possession. I also possessed a secret weapon, however, the gun was the best option in this situation.
"?"
But as soon as I raised the gun from dimensional storage ring and took aim, I hesitated to pull the trigger.
It was strange. I didn't hesitate when I killed Shin Jinhyuk in the hospital or when I killed Kim Minhyuk but for some reason, I couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger.
Why? A murderer like me hesitating in a moment like this?
The girl was an enemy that I must defeat to progress. I understood that. However, she was also a physically and emotionally wounded one at that. The reason I couldn't kill her was simply because she was different from the enemies I have killed so far. The girl was merely a puppet, bestowed with the role of a sacrificial lamb by the <World>, to take out the enemy upon her demise.
She did not make that choice on her own. Most likely, the girl must have not intended for this scenario to happen to begin with. She must have believed that she could survive if she joined the <World> but upon joining was manipulated and turned into a puppet.
Most people would have killed her without hesitation and justified their actions using the apocalypse as an excuse. Even so, there was no reason to abandon the girl to a fate forced upon her. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if I used the easy route.
"Damnit it! Wait a minute, can I try that? That should work, right?
Upon realising something, I activated a skill from my status window.
[Unique skill, Zero One has activated.]
[The sequence '0' power has been imbued into the bullet.]
I aimed the barrel of the gun at the girl's forehead and squeezed the trigger.
Bang—
What followed afterwards, was the sound of something exploding from the gun barrel and the girl infront of me dropping on the floor.