Second World

Master arrived second. If he was upset that he lost to Jack, he didn't show it. The others came one by one.

Some that reached the finish line wore confused expressions. Were they locked all this time just for a simple running match?

By now, the one who should arrive last was almost clear. It was amongst three people. Richard, Dina, or the native Glover.

Both Richard and Dina had the magic class so they had the least dexterity. Among the two, Dina seemed to be doing better. She was a bit ahead of Richard and Glover.

Richard and Glover were running at neighboring lanes. They could practically touch each other while running side by side, both competing on not being the last. They kept on glancing at one another. Glover's face showed a panicky expression. He didn't want to be the sacrifice.

His hands suddenly grabbed Richard. Richard and the others who watched were taken by surprise by Glover's action. The old orc didn't stop there. Glover's leg came to Richard's running legs. Richard lost his balance due to this and stumbled over.

Glover let go of Richard when he was down and ran forward leaving him behind.

"What the… That's a foul…!" Stefan shouted. He turned to Aglea and demanded, "That orc should be disqualified!"

Aglea who was also watching the incident, turned to Stefan with her unchanging smile and asked, "Disqualified? Why?"

"He… He broke the rules…," Stefan said.

"What rules?" Aglea asked back. "I never said you are not allowed to touch your competitors."

Stefan was dumbstruck by Aglea's words.

Aglea turned her attention back to the race as if nothing weird had happened.

Dina arrived first among the last three racers. Glover was next. Richard arrived later after getting up and resumed running. When he arrived, he was understandably furious.

"You cheating piece of sh*t…!!!" He scolded while lunging at Glover.

Glover expected the aggression. His two arms grabbed Richard's incoming arms. Since the two couldn't use skills nor were they martial artists, they simply wrestled with strength.

"Damn, you! You, mother*cker!!" Richard continued cursing while he tried to overpower Glover.

Glover cursed back. "Screw you! You will just come back to life again. Do you think it is the same for me? I will die for real…!"

The others just watched the tussling without interfering. They did think Glover had cheated, but they also empathize with Glover's fear of permanent death. Except for Richard's friend, Stefan, who went and helped Richard by hitting Glover using his fists.

'Hey, leader. Aren't you going to do something?' Jack asked Master by doing gestures.

Master just glanced at Jack but otherwise remained silent. It was unsure if he just didn't care or if he didn't understand Jack's weird gestures.

Since Master didn't want to do anything, Jack was about to take action to separate the three. But a flash of light enveloped Richard and he was gone. Glover's hands that were grabbing Richard a moment ago froze in the air. Stefan, who was beside him, similarly stopped punching Glover. They were all surprised by the sudden disappearance of Richard.

"You… You kill him!" Stefan yelled at Glover. Since they couldn't use equipment, Richard couldn't wear the amulet of rebirth. If he died, he would lose everything and return to level 1.

Stefan resumed hitting Glover. Now that Glover's hands were free, he punched back. The two brawled like they were in a bar fight.

"Richard is not dead… yet," Aglea said, which stopped the two.

"No? But you said… He is the sacrifice," Stefan said.

"He is," Aglea answered. "There is a sacrificial round after a match. This will decide whether the sacrifice will die or if they can be saved to join the next match. We will now proceed to the sacrificial round."

Once she finished speaking, the world around them changed. Everything appeared to be reshuffled into something else. Before they knew it, the chaos around them stopped and they found themselves indoors again, but not in the dungeon where they used to be chained.

It was still a dungeon. It was an underground room filled with contraptions. At the center of that room, hanging from the ceiling was Richard. His hands were bound by a chain that was attached to some kind of a mechanism on the ceiling. His two legs were also bound together. He had a frightened face.

"Everyone, help me!" He shouted when he saw the others. He wanted to say more but his mouth was suddenly clamped shut. He was unable to speak, the same as Jack.

"Sorry, I want to say something, so everybody please refrain from speaking," Aglea had also appeared in this room.

She floated to Richard's side and announced, "Welcome to the sacrificial round! Where we have the second most fun part of this game. The most fun part is, of course, the end match. But I assure you all that you will enjoy this round no less. Now, let me explain the rules."

She pointed to Richard and said, "This is the sacrifice. You have ten minutes to free him from his binding. He will be slowly lowered during these ten minutes. After that, he will enter the pond below. Any questions?"

Everyone turned their attention to the large hole below Richard. They came closer and saw the inside of the hole was filled with lava. If Richard dropped into this so-called pond, he was a goner.

"How do we save Richard?" Stefan asked.

"That is for you to figure out," Aglea answered. "It's more fun this way, isn't it?"

"This is fun? This is torture porn shit!" Stefan exclaimed.

"If he dies, where will he revive?" Master asked. He didn't see any rune diagram in this room. He didn't care if Richard died, but if dying brought them out of this place, that could be an option for escape. He had the Immortal Soul so he didn't need the amulet of rebirth. The question was whether that skill could bypass the restriction of this dimension.

"In our nursery hall, of course. Where we will nurse him back to a suitable level so he can join the fun again," Aglea answered.

The players were dejected hearing that. This means even in death, there was no escape.

"What if it is a native who is sacrificed?" Kerry, the ethereal native, asked. "Will we get revived as well?"

"No," Aglea answered flatly. She then announced, "Okay, let the fun begin!"

The moment she made the announcement, the mechanism above the ceiling made a creaking sound and the chain that was binding Richard started to lower.