Second World

The next morning, everyone was gazing at a ruined high-rise building. Master led them to this place. They spent several hours walking since there was only one vehicle. The motorbike had been stored back in Master's capsule case.

The high-rise building before them was heavily damaged. Two-thirds of its walls were gone, revealing its interior. Tall walls made of debris from the collapse of nearby buildings surrounded this high-rise building, making it inaccessible.

"That is where the main node is?" Jack asked.

"You said it is full of the night hunters, right? It looks empty to me," Stefan uttered.

"Hello, it's called night hunters. This is daytime," Naomi told Stefan.

"Well then, case closed. We should have no problem getting to the top of that building without those night hunters hindering the way," Spring Crown said.

"How do we get there? I don't see a traversable way," Winson said.

"Jack, maybe you can use one-free skill stone and fly over these walls," Grace suggested.

"Don't waste that stone," Master finally uttered. He just stayed silent when the others discussed the place. "You can't fly into that place. I've tried. There is a no-fly-zone enchantment around the building. Follow me."

Master approached one side of the debris walls. The others looked at each other before following him.

When they thought maybe Master knew a secret switch that could make the wall open a path, he disappeared.

"Huh?" The others were confused by this turn of events, except for Spring Crown and Grace who had a better look at what had happened.

"He just stepped in," Grace told everyone.

Spring Crown walked to the place where Master disappeared. He had one hand touch the wall. Except he didn't feel anything when his hand came into contact with the pile of concrete. His hand just went through as if there was nothing there.

"It's an illusion," Spring Crown said. He then walked in.

On the other side, he was greeted with a very different scene. The high-rise building in front of him was nothing like the one he saw outside. This one was in perfect condition with all its walls intact. But what was more intriguing was the sky above was dark as if nighttime.

There were still debris walls around the perimeter of the building, but the space around the building was clear of any rubble. The only entry into this space was through the hole in the wall he had entered from. The others also entered one by one through this hole.

"What the…? Do we enter another world?" Stefan asked.

"Crap. Here I thought we are going to get it easy by going up this high-rise during daylight," Jack said after he entered.

"Do you think I still need your help if that is the case?" Master uttered annoyingly.

"So, you have tried entering the building?" Jack asked.

"Only the first floor…," Master answered. "There is a shortcut and a long way to get to the stairs to the second floor. The shortcut is through a large hall filled with night hunters. The long way is through a series of corridors. Some night hunters roam this corridor, but it is possible to sneak past them using the monocle's radar. But after checking the situation, I don't want to risk sneaking up and getting trapped in between the floors if things go bad."

"How very cowardly of you," Jack ridiculed.

"I think that is called cautious," Tom said. "I don't think that's bad."

"Hey! Whose side are you on?" Jack said to him.

'Aren't we all supposed to be on the same side at this moment?' Tom thought bewilderedly.

"Have you tried killing any of the night hunters when you entered the last time? Do you know if they spawned back?" Jack asked Master.

"No, I don't," Master answered.

"Do you plan to brute force your way in?" Spring Crown asked Jack.

"If they didn't spawn back, maybe we can lure them to a chokepoint and kill them slowly," Jack replied. "Or better, lure them out so we can take them out while they were going through that door. They will have to come out one at a time."

"I don't think they will follow you out of the building," Master said. "Furthermore, we don't have much time to do this slowly."

"Yeah, the world will shrink," Saddie said. "The layout of every game is not the same. However, there is never a large building on the last day of the end match when the world shrunk to ten-by-ten meters. This building will be inaccessible after two days."

"Wait, one thing worries me," Stefan interjected. "That main node is super important, right? Then won't Aglea or whoever is in charge knows when it is destroyed? If she has the power to create this constructed dimension, won't it be easy for her to take us out even if our powers are back?"

"I don't think she will know," Master said.

"Are you sure?" Jack asked.

"No, I don't," Master answered. "But remember when I said about the controller of this dimension becoming more preoccupied the larger the scale of the constructed world is? During the sacrificial selection match, Aglea could stay with us all the time. That showed it didn't take much energy to maintain that world. During the sacrificial round, she was absent. She was only present at the beginning and the end. She wasn't aware of what happened during the round but she was aware when the round ended. That's why she always reappeared either after the sacrifice was killed or saved. As for this world, the scale is incomparable to the sacrificial round. My speculation is even if we destroy the main node and take out the rune diagram blocking our powers, she won't know."

"Speculation? We are risking our lives for speculation?" Jack asked.

"The fact that Aglea put such high security around the main node is proof of my theory," Master said. "Otherwise, she can just swoop in and undo all the damage we do. There is no need for all this security."

"I think he is right," Saddie said. "During my second game, my team won this battle royale match on the second day. Everyone from the other three teams was already dead. We thought the game would end then, but it didn't. We just loitered around during the day and hid from the night hunters in the night until the morning of the fifth day. Then only did Aglea appear and announce us the winners."

"I see. This means if we destroy this main node today, we still have one day free to look for the exit," Jack said.

"That is my plan," Master said. "You might be a fool, but I don't think you are that stupid to think destroying this main node is the end of our trouble, are you?"