||Tutorial: Lesson 2||

||Wave cleared//28 waves remaining||

||Casualties: 5||

||Time limit expired||

||Rewards: - ||

||Special Rewards||

||Natalya Wolskev: 97 – Rations (7 days); Ticket (x3), Gentle Wind||

||Arthur Bell: 19 – Rations (5 days); Ticket (x2) ||

||Kyel Prajna: 14 – Rations (3 days); Ticket (x1) ||

The district was all a haze filled with silence.

Although they managed to defeat the ants once again, they took a lot more damage. Until then, only Seven had suffered an injury serious enough to go to the hospital, particularly because those caught by ants didn’t survive to begin with.

But this time was different. They prepared well, they fought well, they did all that was within their capabilities.

It wasn’t enough.

Arthur wasn’t worried though, he had seen from Seven that on the hospital, patients were thoroughly nursed to health. This covered nutrition. As such, the injured could skip tonight’s meal, and with a simple rationing, they should be able to have breakfast.

As long as they accomplished the next objective, no one would suffer from hunger.

But he felt uncomfortable.

Ever since coming here things hadn’t been easy, but most of their casualties were thanks to them not listening to Arthur’s instructions. They were scared, and they were afraid.

But today was different.

They were still scared, still afraid. But they had faith in Arthur, and they followed his lead.

So why did it turn out like this? All of them suffered a blow.

“This is only the second wave... And we’re already in such a mess”

It was salvageable, but he couldn’t avoid this fear that, on the next day, a stronger army would raid the district and not only wouldn’t they fulfill the objectives, even more people would die.

It would start a chain reaction and what meager trust he built would crumble like a sandcastle.

-It only gets worse – he sighed.

While helping the others carry the injured to the hospital, he happened to see Natalya on her way to a distant terminal. Seven would instantly notice her abnormal state, but Arthur didn’t care much about her.

-Hey, have you seen Seven?

“That guy is always chasing after her...”

She lifted her head and looked at him. For some reason, he froze on his steps and couldn’t even blink. It wasn’t fear... It was a feeling he couldn’t understand.

A moment later, she turned her head and went off her way.

“What the hell was that...”

But she hadn’t said anything.

He sighed again and moved along.

Even though it wasn’t his fault, he couldn’t help but feel guilty about all of those deaths.

“I tried... I really did. But I can only do so much on my own...”

He was not a hero, that he understood very well.

***

Natalya went back to the place Seven had died. It had been only three days since they first met, but he managed to attract her attention.

She wasn’t far from Seven when the worker ants invaded the cave. He was clumsy and didn’t know how to fight, he didn’t possess much strength either, there was nothing to look at.

At first, she chose to ignore everyone. She didn’t think any of them would stay alive by the end of the tutorial, it was better not to get too attached.

There were those interested in her strength, others in her beauty. Some approached her with good intentions, although most did not have any.

She refused all of them.

Natalya could only move forwards. The moment she stopped to catch a breath, it would be all over. She wouldn’t stop for her own sake, and for others’ even more so.

So, when he first appeared before her at the gym and started to watch her, she didn’t think much of it. He would eventually grow tired and leave.

But it didn’t happen like that. Unlike the others, he went as far as to come to the frontlines, even knowing he was weak. That was new, but in the end, it didn’t matter, he was just a little bit more persistent than Nathan. With his skills, he would definitely die.

He defied logic yet again, and once she was finished with the monsters and headed his way, she noticed that he had mimicked her original fighting style to an astounding level. The difference between the current him and the one she had met on the first day was so great, that she thought they were completely separate people whatsoever.

It was strange, her eyes told her that he had no experience with combat or martial arts. His physique wasn’t great either.

She couldn’t understand. Even if he was a genius, it didn’t make any sense.

On the third day, he followed after her again, to the heart of the bloody battlefield.

Something was different with him.

His technique was much better, and he had successfully branched off and adapted the unconventional sword to his martial arts. Like her, he was always adapting. He didn’t just copy her fighting style, he changed it to fit him better, to survive against the ants.

A thought occurred.

Constantly challenging his limits, always pushing forward, always defying fate. While everyone was walking at leisure, he was desperately running, afraid to waste even a second. He gambled with his life on the line.

“He’s just like me... At least in attitude”

He would catch up with her very soon, he qualified to compete with her in that hellish race.

If it was him... Would he share her burden?

Reaching the place where Seven had fallen, she noticed that the body was nowhere to be found. Parts of the ant carcasses were missing, too.

“...”

“...”

“...!”

Natalya clenched her fists.

She tried to remember every small detail from the last two hours, but no matter how much she thought, he couldn't be alive. Even if he didn’t die back then, the thin thread of life filling the body would leave him as soon as he moved.

“No... He is dead...”

She shook her head and returned.

***

Seven was sad. As a reader, the scenes he disliked the most on stories were those in which there was no interaction amongst the characters. As such, he didn’t like the idea of parting with Natalya, Arthur, and even Kate – he wanted to know more about them, to view the world through their eyes and be a part of it.

He never felt it so strongly, the desire to be a part of the fictional world.

Fictional? Absolutely. His world had been estranged for far too long. He had a warped view of reality, his only purpose in life was collecting new experiences and build his own world.

A world that felt “alive”, even though he didn’t truly grasp the meaning of it.

There wasn’t a good comparison between the real world and the fictional world. The pages were everything he ever had, and it would be difficult to change this.

But in simple terms, his reason to live was to create something interesting.

He had considered for some time: what kind of mission they would need to complete in the future?

Lesson 2 of the tutorial was going for too long, and with the level of difficulty, there would be less than 10 people alive by the end of the trial. It didn’t make sense to make a tutorial that long, without teaching anything new.

It would get boring fairly quickly.

With this in mind, Seven considered what new things would be introduced as the waves progressed, and he had a few predictions. And amongst them, he considered that the lessons 3, 4 and subsequent ones of the tutorial would happen at the same time as the current one.

The waves also followed a natural progression: worker ants, warrior ants, flying ants... They would quite possibly face a colony next. There could be variations, but he was sure it would eventually lead to the Ant Queen.

“A Boss type monster”

It was a bit strange to have the Ant Queen invading their base, but since it wasn’t a normal ant species, things could very well be different. There was another assumption that pointed to this.

“The facilities will be restricted soon”

He had these doubts ever since he understood the nature of the mastermind, and there was a hint because some facilities, like the casino and the restaurant, required a currency they did not possess.

Tickets.

They had been awarded to the top three of the second wave, and they would go up in value if other important facilities, such as the hospital, started accepting tickets to work.

“The restaurant will show its importance very quickly too, as people start to fail on their missions more often...”

So why were most of these facilities free for use, to begin with?

“Ai will slowly take them away. It wants them to get accustomed to the lack. I’ll bet that eventually, they will be removed completely when she introduces magic. It all revolves on adaption”

Because of that, he was sure that the first enemies, the giant ants, were also put up for adaption. Thus, the Ant Queen would exhibit similar characteristics to an Ant Queen on Earth: they were not fighters, their only purpose was breeding and keeping the colony alive.

Once they were past this, stranger and more unpredictable opponents would appear.

And this tip about the Ant Queen was important, because if he was right about everything, the third wave would be an invasion, but this time would be different.

They would be the invaders.

The decisive clue was the terminal hatches. If seen at a distance, only the hexagon was visible, but there was a small sensor just outside to open it.

They were never restricted from going out. It would eventually be found out, but he knew the reason why no one brought this up.

It was Arthur who scouted the surrounding area. He was the one who designed and presented a map for all to see, but he didn’t mention anything about the sensors. Someone as thorough as him couldn’t have missed it.

He knew what the sensor was used for, otherwise, there would be no need to hide it: it was better to disclose the information and figure out what was up.

So, knowing a bit of his character, he thought of two explanations:

The first: he might have entered the passage, but didn’t explore further. It could be dangerous and he wanted to avoid others from having this idea, at least until he could unite the group.

The second: he entered the passage, and went all the way to the other side. If he spoke of what he saw, it would create panic, so he chose to hide it.

There was still a chance for him to be wrong, but he bet on it. Because, if he was right, there would be a very interesting way to show that he was still alive, and at that time, he would like to see how they would react.

He moved closer to the sensor.

[This action is not recommended]

“I thought you wouldn’t interfere with my actions. After all, you already did enough by saving me”

[…...........]

Seven faced the Terminal A-1. He held his severed hand towards the scanner and let it detect the crystal.

{Subject Code QERT-6982, passage allowed}

The terminal was shaped like a hexagon, separated into five equal triangular shutters. Once the information was confirmed, they retracted and showed a long and spacious tunnel.

The tunnel maintained the hexagonal shape, extending for miles on rings that showed a metallic luster when contrasted with the blue lighting. There was no trace that anything had ever gone over.

“There should be traces of chemicals on the ground. Even if the ants’ secretions had already evaporated, there should be dirt, hairs... Something”

There was a time in which the tunnel was closed off for some reason.

“It’s not like you’re hiding it, so I think you can answer that. What is the time in which the entrance is closed off?”

[During 23:00 to 01:00, the Terminals are closed for maintenance]

“If there are objects left behind in the tunnel, will they disappear after the maintenance?”

[If it receives the readings of a crystal, the tunnel won’t close for maintenance. But objects left behind will disappear]

“Huh... Interesting”

Seven finished gathering the materials he needed from the ant corpses and moved in.

His hand was itching to write, but there was no time to spare.