Terror

Liam touched his knees full of sweats as he was catching his breath after he had taken the opportunity of Murkee's bewildered state earlier to escape safely.

He could not afford to reveal vital information about himself at this early even though Murkee seemed helpful.

He didn't know who his enemies were and allies at his quest to defeat the Warden so he thought it was better to work alone for now, at least.

Shortly afterward, he trudged cautiously as his breathing gradually stabilized, glancing side to side and expecting another enemy at any moment.

It had been a while since he felt like this, vulnerable and clueless about the world he was currently in.

The creatures were different and yet similar to humans to a certain extent.

It was as if he was back at the beginning of his previous life, lacking in every aspect.

He recalled when he had nothing but himself!

He clutched onto his unquenchable curiosity and wore his confidence to face everything.

And he wanted to keep it that way.

As he arrived at the base of Mount Bahamoot, he directly saw the terror of this lawless place.

The other players left innumerable dead bodies in their wake and ascended the mountain with one goal in mind, pass the pre-trial.

He found dead bodies scattered at every angle and various colors of blood from the annihilated players flooded the ground.

Because of his sickness, Liam's tolerance against this horrifying spectacle was still pretty weak despite being used to this kind of scenery and smell.

But he knew he shouldn't complain about that now.

He should be grateful that he was not one of those carcasses.

He pinched his nose to avoid the nauseating odor as he walked past the corpses.

'I was right to avoid this brutality. I could imagine how vicious the battles turned out judging these aftermaths,' Liam thought.

Among the countless corpses, a familiar individual with agony painted all over its face was lying at the beginning slope of the steep mountain, lifeless and eyes were still open.

As per the system's description, the ID in his system was evidence of his existence in the <Mighty Tower> and it would belong to him even though he died.

Since there were countless players in the <Mighty Tower>, their IDs were used by the <Tower Regime> to check the records of their previous lives (if any), their achievements, and other important stuff.

When he studied it earlier, the codes in his ID were A81-69-8411-2-2, meaning his species origin was from Planet A81, Universe 69.

And his recruitment batch was 8411th since the beginning of the <Mighty Tower>.

The first number 2 in the ID was because of his type as a recruitee, an invitation failure.

It should be number 1 if he passed the ciphered invitation and the system would send him directly to the <First Floor> if that's the case.

However, since he broke the rule, he would belong to the second type of recruitees, which needs to undergo a pre-trial to get qualified to enter the <Mighty Tower>.

And the last number 2 was his personal number among the creatures who entered the <Pre-trial> that came from the same Planet, Universe, Batch, and Type as him.

Therefore, there's at least one more person from Earth in the pre-trial besides him since he's only the number 2.

He instantly thought it was Selene earlier.

If it was Selene, she would notice the trick to pass the pre-trial like Liam.

That's why Liam was expecting to see her in the forest or nearby the lake.

But seeing Christian's dead body in front of him now narrowed the possibility that Selene was in the <Pre-trial>.

Simply because there was no guarantee that there was a third human.

Liam unreluctantly got on his one knee, closing the naive young man's eyes.

'So you couldn't finish the ciphered invitation by yourself and cheated, huh?' Liam let out a painful expression, 'Well, you and our society were to blame, young man. You uncomplainingly took the heavy responsibility to seek wealth in order to provide for your siblings' needs as the firstborn in the family. A responsibility that your parents should have carried. But... I could not blame you. That's your choice and I respect that.'

Liam looked at the gloomy sky, mulling over his life.

'I picked the same previously, haven't I?'

Liam recalled how he grew up without experiencing being drunk in the city where enjoyment was deemed deniable.

Because of his Asian mother, he could not hang out late after school even on Fridays.

It was as if he was programmed to study hard and compete among his peers academically to have a high-paying job, proving society wrong about him or his race.

Working sickening jobs he hated so much to have things he didn't even need in his life.

So the society could praise him and make motivational things out of his journey that they call success, which they would bestow to the next generations to continue the cycle of manipulation.

And what?

He was going to pay their bills until he was old and gray by sacrificing more than half of his life for a single purpose, the purpose of his existence to provide just because he was a man and the firstborn as well.

Was that really how he should live his life back then?

And that just leads to his dreadful death without having a chance at what life could truly offer to him, same as Christian who took a responsibility that he shouldn't have if he wasn't kind.

If only Christian chose to live for himself, this thing should have never happened.

Can't we just live without a purpose?

Is it not really okay to wander through life to find interesting things he could enjoy until he dies?

Is that too much to ask for?

If being the world's hero asked for that much, then he didn't like to be a hero anymore.

What he truly wanted was to enjoy the second life given to him.

He wanted freedom.

He wanted to do everything according to his free will alone, not things he thought he wanted because of outside influence inflicted on him by his parents, relatives, society, and all other external influences.

Before he had realized it, tears were streaming nonstop like a river flowing down on his cheek as the enlightenment he was looking for in his previous life finally happened.

Maybe life was paying attention to oneself, not other people's viewpoints at him.

He didn't even enjoy any of their attention in the first place.

He thought that making other people admire him and idolize him will give him the satisfaction that he was looking for.

Sadly, it wasn't.

Liam finally felt the unexplainable peace for the first time.

In extreme chaos, the current world he was in, there was tranquility, him.

The shackles that forced him to do this and that, the emotions that compelled him to do unnecessary things miraculously faded away.

However, there was still one more thing that he could not let go of in his previous life, Selene Fay.

"I'd be delighted to meet you again somewhere in your next life, Christian. I am grateful to be the detective assigned for your case. No, grateful was an extreme understatement," he sobbed, "I am free," Liam tearfully said to the dead before he wiped his tears and moved forward.