Seven’s hands trembled, his prediction was incorrect. The Queen was not simply a breeder for the colony, to sustain such an impractical size on the human upper half, it needed an even larger ant counter-part and as could be seen, the sense of balance was completely off as it couldn’t even stand correctly.

More than the sheer horror of the picture, what disgusted him was the number of flaws the creature possessed.

“It is destined to die...”

Abandoned Queens were a result of the Colony not needing them. They were indeed left to die.

But how an ant egg nurtures into such a wretched life form, he couldn’t even begin to imagine.

“Why is the lower half soaked in blood?”

It was natural to get dirty while feeding in that small environment and with that peculiar body, but what felt off was that the entirety of the lower half had a leveled red line from which curtains of blood descended.

“The blood dried and stuck to the skin. It must’ve been there for a while”

If that was the case, Seven guessed that their mission would be to kill off the abandoned Queen. It would make much more sense difficulty-wise as the other ants nearby were mostly transporting food while the warrior ants scouted.

He had many suspicions, but the one doubt he couldn’t keep away: why was the Queen abandoned in the first place?

Regardless, he could at least be surer that the next quest wouldn’t take away the protagonists. If the level was alright, he would leave it to them – they needed room to grow.

But then again, he also needed to grow if he were to accompany the protagonists.

In a second instance, the return path took much longer and he wasted more than an hour, especially since he was tired from all the walking and sneaking around.

When tracing back to the gates, he took a last glance at the city landscape. There was something wrong with it, but he couldn’t figure out what.

“...”

“...”

“...”

“Tsk... I need to sleep, this is getting into my mind”

He went in the passage, curled into a ball and dreamt of nothing in particular – the scent of fresh paper and black colored ink.

***

Arthur went early to the gym to work out. His days started at 5 a.m. when inside the base the artificial lights mimicked a starlit night.

Most people were asleep.

-Hey big bro! Did you have a comfortable night?

Arthur tsked. It was a person he avoided at all costs. A small boy who barely reached to his chest, his purplish, fluffy hair was a big mess and the bangles covered his eyes. With Arthur’s height, unless they were at a reasonable distance, he wouldn’t be able to figure out the boy’s expression.

-Kyel... - he let out stiffly, almost like the word had been fermenting in his mouth until it spoiled.

They always met on his way to the gym. At first, he thought it was a coincidence but his head ached at the thought that their encounters would be painfully frequent.

“Way to start a morning...”

If it was about people he didn’t like, Arthur would just ignore them.

But not this one.

Kyel was dangerous, not only to him but to everyone: he was a threat. If Arthur chose to look away for a moment, he wouldn’t know if there would be a next moment.

-Why the cold shoulder? Did I... Did I do something wrong? - he showed a shocked expression that made Arthur flinch. If he didn’t know his true character, he would actually believe him.

-Move.

-Could it be... You’re still angry about that issue? I-I... I didn’t mean it like that! I just wanted to...

-I told you. To move.

Kyel’s pitiful face slowly changed into one of playful smiles.

-Or what? Are you going to force me? Mr. Warrior of Justice.

Arthur clenched his fists.

-If I must...

Kyel took a step back and his face contorted tremendously. He cried profusely, shedding real tears.

-Arthur wants to kill me! But I didn’t do anything wrong! I thought the quest would stop indefinitely, why must I be treated as a villain? I swear I thought it would end up alright!

Arthur looked at him with difficulty, he gazed back at his clenched hands and couldn’t help being utterly confused.

“Why does this make me feel so bad?”

-Or not, I just wanted to spice things up a little.

-Kuh! You...

-Say, little Bell. Do you want to save everyone?

As the form of address changed, Kyel’s face turned increasingly dark. It was the face of a demon.

-If I can, then I must.

-If? That’s an interesting choice of words.

Kyel giggled and playfully nibbled on his finger.

-This is not a game. You’re not a hero, you can’t save everyone. In fact, you’re not saving anyone. You are just killing them slowly. You’re giving them hope where there’s none, what a cruel man you are!

-Then what the fuck do you think we should do? Abandon all? There are children, elderly, people with chronical illnesses, do we just leave them to die? How do you expect them to survive on their own? Huh?

-Why are you asking me? It’s your problem, hehehe...

Kyel disappeared before Arthur could reply. Every morning was like that, he met with the boy and was left with anger, a headache and... Helplessness.

What he hated the most was that he couldn’t understand Kyel. He didn’t know which of his multiple expressions were telling the truth, and he didn’t know if he wanted to harm or to help.

It left him frustrated.

What Kyel had done in the previous round was to cripple an ant and leave it alive for as long as possible. No one had any reason to play around like that, and they were very busy fighting the ants to have noticed it. Otherwise, they would receive their rations and there wouldn’t be such a blow to morale.

Arthur already didn’t like him for confusing everyone on the first day, which resulted in them splitting forces. It felt like Kyel was taunting him, he was poking at his skin with a blade and asking “for how long will you keep this up?”

At the same time, it invoked in him a sense of urgency. People shifted the blame of failing the quest at Kyel, but Arthur knew that they barely made it through the end.

“...”

“...”

"Tsk, I don’t know!”

He went in and started training. It would be better to think about this once he let off the steam.

15 minutes.

30 minutes.

1 hour.

2 hours.

Arthur let out a breath of relief. His pacing was slightly quicker than normal, he had directly skipped stretching and went for the heavy lifting.

He was quite tired, but it didn’t ease the strange feeling he had. It was like something clenching inside of him, his chest felt stuffy.

Kyel’s words never left him.

Only after that did he notice Natalya at the wooden dolls. Kate was on her way, she exercised at 7 along with Seven...

“Pft, that’s kind of funny... Seven exercises at seven...”

He sighed.

“Good thing that I can still find my sense of humor”

-Morning, Arthur.

-Good morning! - he cheered up and greeted her.

-You look strange...

-Ah, you could tell...

Arthur wiped his forehead and drank half a bottle of water. He sat on a nearby bench and Kate tactfully sat beside him. He was silent for a good minute before she couldn’t bear it anymore and asked.

-I know we’ve only known each other for three days, but you can open up to me, you know? Things are all messed up, it’s hard to deal with it on your own.

-You’re right – he sighed – it's just... I don’t know if what I’m doing is the right thing.

-If you don’t know what you’re doing, you’re already doing it wrong – she laughed heartily at his pitiful remark.

-… What?

-It’s been three days. Shouldn’t you have something figured out already? I didn’t expect to hear this kind of thing from you, to be fair.

-…Huh?

-Humans aren’t perfect. Can you say, with 100% accuracy, that someone here knows what is going to happen in the future? Maybe your choice was the right one, but the end result could be bad, still. That’s how life works.

“...That doesn’t help me in any way?”

-Making a mistake here is the same thing as dying, right? Even though I can’t tell how things will go, isn't there an optimal choice that will lead to a better chance of having good results?

-Well, then you already know the answer. Consider your options and choose what you think is best, whether it works out or not is up to fate. But you know... - Kate got up from her seat and showed him a flowery smile – are you the kind of guy who gives up on the first try?

Not waiting for an answer, Kate got closer to an empty area of the gym and withdrew a book from her bag. It was a green book with no title in the cover, she removed the bookmark and continued to read.

-I don’t know about you, but if I make a mistake, I’ll look back at what went wrong and work so that it doesn’t happen again. That’s how people grow.

-...What are you doing?

-This is Seven’s book. He writes very well, I must say, I got hooked on it even though we don’t have time to waste on literature right now, haha... I was just going to take a look, but the System classified it as a high-level skill book, everything appears as question marks. I’ve learned a lot of stuff here, and some of them might be helpful.

-Where did you even find this?

-He always leaves it in his room. Yesterday after he died... I just wanted to know more about him... Anyway, there are many interesting things here, and I suspect he knew what was going on in this place. He knew what he was doing, so I’ll just take on from where he left. You should do the same and learn from our past experiences.

Arthur chose not to comment on why Kate knew it was always in Seven’s room, as he knew for a fact Seven barely went to the dormitory, and tactfully ignored that she had picked into the lock to get inside.

“Ah, whatever...”

-Thanks, Kate, that helped me a bit – he left in a better mood.

***

12:45, 15 minutes before the invasion.

[The contents of the tutorial will change today. In the last three days, you’ve faced foes inside your territory. Now, the roles will be reversed: you will be the invaders.]

Most of them were caught off guard. The last 30 minutes before an invasion was filled with tension as people mentally prepared themselves for the ordeal, and they had united very quickly under Arthur, whereas Kyel’s followers didn’t cause much trouble themselves and were well organized.

Just as they were starting to adapt to the situation, the rules had changed, and in a very short notice. They were visibly startled, but at least they didn’t whine and despair. They were more united.

[Outside of this research station is monster territory. There are a variety of species living there, but there is a specific target for each mission.]

[There are five separate territories, located at Terminals A-1, A-5 and C-5, and the subterranean Terminals F-1 and F-8, but the same areas are accessible through other Terminals. The Party function has been enabled in the Human System, you can assemble people into the party and they will share long-distance vision of each other so long as a pulse wave is produced from the crystal.]

[Invasion quests require you to annihilate the enemy faction, or otherwise to severely damage them. The players will be graded based on their contribution to the victory, and their rewards will be split accordingly]

[The time in-between each enemy wave depends on the activity of their colonies surrounding the research station, they could get shorter or longer depending on your success or defeat. Their strength may also diminish based on your performance, and the opposite is also true.]

[Players whose contribution is below the minimum score will be punished after the event]

While Arthur was calming down his people and planning how to go about this quest, inside the Terminal A-1 Seven had finished drawing his map of the area.

He was caught off guard by the mention of five separate territories. It was a gross mistake on his part.

However, the announcement solved many mysteries he had brought home from his earlier enterprise. He was bringing shape to the full picture.

Regardless of who it was, no one could escape the fate outside the walls.

10 minutes.

5 minutes.

30 seconds.

||Invasion started||

||Objective: Slay the Queen Ant||

||Territories claimed: 0||

||Minimum score: 40||

||Basic values: Worker Ant: 10 // Warrior Ant: 20 // Seasoned Warrior Ant: 40||

||Time limit: 8 hours||

||Contribution Ranking: - ||

It was the last moment they had before venturing outside. The occasion beckoned them that this wasn’t a battle, it was a war.

A myriad of thoughts passed through them as they left to the terminals. Some filled with unease, a few bolstered by courage, and others imbued by darkness.

Amidst these conflicted thoughts, Seven’s mind began to envision the bigger picture.

The pieces were falling into place.