10 Our God.

The 28th floor. A place where tall blue luxurious looking buildings were starkly contrasted by the surrounding wastelands. Residents of the floor lived like kings in the buildings while most regulars lived a humble life in tents on the wastelands. It also housed a famous landmark of the tower named 'The Hand Of Arlen.'

Only the strongest regulars had enough points or high enough status to be allowed into the buildings. Everyone else had to be content with what they had.

Of course, many weren't content at all so the richer regulars were always a target on this floor and a certain notorious group of hoodlums had just located their first targets for the night.

"Boss, those two girls look loaded with points and they're heading out to the empty part of the wastelands! Let's hurry and catch up to them!"

A shady looking middle-aged man with long, flowing black hair was the one who had been referred to as 'Boss'. Behind him, were about ten men, all of them accomplished E-rank regulars in their own right.

"Men, don't be so loud! We will trail them silently until we get far enough away from the residents. Then, no one will be able to hear their screams hehe."

As the men had vulgar thoughts about what they planned to do later that night, the two girls in question weren't even bothered by their snickering.

The one who looked like the older one of the two had pink hair and bright green eyes. She wore a robed pink outfit with green ribbons on her waist and head. All in all, she was extremely pretty.

"Namo, those men, shall we take them to him? You know he'll need to practice after his daily session of training."

"Don't ask me questions you already know the answer to, Sola. You were gonna take them whether I said yes or not."

Her companion who just answered was a girl with dark blue hair and yellow eyes. She wore a similar outfit to the girl next to her except that hers was colored blue with green ribbons on her waist and head. In terms of beauty, the girls were basically twins.

Sola then responded stoically, "Are you still upset that you couldn't bring your games down to the lower floors? You know Master Sophia couldn't allow you to be distracted while we were taking care of 'him'."

Namo was truly upset but at the mention of 'him', her face visibly softened. While playing video games was her favorite hobby, training the new slayer nominee was a close second.

"Whatever, Sola. The only reason you're not upset is because he's handsome. Weren't you going to leave Seolhwangyon because they weren't any men there?"

Sola suddenly waved her hand and a small whirlpool formed behind her, collecting all the men in the group following her while knocking them unconscious.

"Hmph. The quality of the men on this floor is extremely low. If it weren't for 'him', I wouldn't have even bothered coming to this dump. Namo, remember when we first met him?"

[Flashback to three years ago on the 20th floor.]

Sola and Namo were walking through a crowded marketplace on the floor, going to meet the man who would introduce them to their new 'God'. As usual, they were wearing their pink and blue outfits while having a cold, stoic expression on their faces.

It made anyone who saw them unconsciously wince and stay away.

"Namo, walk faster so we can meet Master Ha Jinsung. If we make him wait and he gets agitated, we might find ourselves being sent back to the upper floors as corpses."

Namo, who was playing a handheld video game, said casually, "Relax, Sola. I'm sure he-"

"Oi, girls. Why did you make me wait so long?"

A tall middle-aged man wearing casual clothing walked out of the crowd. He sported a cheap perm and was smoking a cigarette as he made his way toward the duo.

Seeing that it was indeed Ha Jinsung, Sola immediately gave a small bow and said nervously, "Greetings, Master Jinsung. I apologize for our late arrival." Namo quickly put away her video game and did the same as even a ranker like herself wouldn't dare anger Ha Jinsung.

Even her master, a high ranker, never went too far with him.

*Pufff*

Ha Jinsung blew a cloud of smoke out of his mouth and looked at the two girls sternly. After about a minute of seeing them bow without moving, he finally softened up and said, "It's fine. Come, let's not keep our little God waiting."

The two girls followed Ha Jinsung through multiple alleyways and finally arrived at a large building that was crowded with regulars.

"Let's not take the test anymore, I dont want to lose my life!"

"It's finally time for me to take this test and become an E-rank Regular! I'll pass this time!"

"I'm sorry, Wangnan. We can't take this test with you. We're just too weak."

Conversations could be heard all across the plaza as the trio made their way into the building. Many injured regulars could be seen being carried out of the lobby by stretchers while loan sharks took out the organs of those who owed them money.

This was the 20th floor, where regulars were sorted out. The ones who passed were blessed while the dreams of the ones who failed were doomed to be preyed upon by loan sharks who would give them money to take the test.

What was happening right now was the result of said regulars failing the test once again. They had to pay up with their money, or something of equivalent value.

The trio then walked into a decorated booth where an extremely muscular young man was sitting down shirtless on the couch, looking in the mirror as he fixed his clothing. He wore long black pants with a black robe that had a red-eye printed on it tied around his waist. The man, probably around his early twenties, wrapped a black scarf around his neck while his large piercing red eyes locked on to the two girls through the mirror.

Sola was the first one to notice this and she looked back into his eyes through the mirror but broke contact immediately.

'What did he do? Why did my soul just shake?'

She was about to inform Namo about her predicament when she noticed that Namo also had a perplexed look on her face.

'Did it happen to her too?'

Sola was immediately intrigued by the young man when this happened. He was still a regular but he managed to strike at a ranker's soul with nothing but his gaze.

A feat like that was simply incredible.

'Is this the irregular Ms. Sophia Tan supports? Looks like she was right when she said I would adore his face.'

Noticing what the young man was doing, Ha Jinsung said casually, "Erik, stop teasing our newcomers and focus on your task. Remember, you have to set an example for Viole as our eldest slayer nominee."

Erik just smiled sheepishly as he finished tying his scarf. He then got up, put on the black robe that was around his waist, and turned towards the trio.

"Ah, Mister Jinsung, you're finally back. Who are these two girls you brought with you?"

*Puff*

Ha Jinsung took the cigarette out of his mouth and pointed at them with it, responding, "Blue hair is Namo, pink hair is Sola. They were sent here by Ms. Sophia Tan to train you in any area I might have missed. After all, I need to focus most of my efforts on Viole. He needs to catch up."

Erik chuckled as the announcement for the first part of the test began.

"THIS IS A 30-MINUTE SURVIVAL TEST. TEN REGULARS WILL PARTICIPATE IN ONE ROUND AND EACH WILL ROTATE EVERY 3 MINUTES. THOSE WHO REMAIN IN THE FIELD AFTER 3O MINUTES WILL PASS. THE REGULARS IN THE FIELD MAY USE ANY MEANS TO ELIMINATE EACH OTHER. THE ORDER OF ENTRY IS RANDOM. THERE IS NO COMPENSATION FOR EARLY ENTRANCE. PARTICIPANT NO.1! ERIK VON JAEGER, ENTER! THE TEST BEGINS NOW!"

Erik laughed again when he realized that the test administrators probably found out he was from FUG and deliberately sent him in first so that he had the highest chance of dying.

As he walked towards the door, his happy demeanor instantly changed into one of complete focus. Turning his head slightly back towards the girls, he said, "Since Ms. Sophia has sent you here to directly observe me, make sure you watch carefully. I'll show you something you'll never forget."

Ha Jinsung then said as he lit another cigarette, "Remember Erik, not one regular leaves this exam alive. That is your mission."

Nodding his head in understanding, Erik stepped through the test door.

Namo kept looking at the door as if she was confused about something for a short while before asking, "Master Jinsung...I-"

"You want to know if he's truly slayer material? Hmph. Don't let his playful act fool you. He's a full-fledged killer through and through. He's the complete opposite of Viole. The word 'Slayer' was made for people like Erik."

Both girls listened to Ha Jinsung carefully and sat down on the couch, waiting for the test to be over. Sola could see how serious Namo was being, even more than usual, and asked, "Namo? What's wrong?"

"That man is dangerous, Sola. If we weren't rankers-"

"We would've been severely injured or dead when we walked in the room. Well, you were the one who decided to test him with your Shinsu, Namo. He noticed and he retaliated."

Namo lowered her head as she knew that it was true but she still couldn't shake that dangerous feeling. Sola just shook her head and turned her attention right back to the door that Erik went through.

"Get a hold of yourself, Namo. If he wasn't at least this intense, then he wouldn't be worthy of being called 'Our God.'