Trust (3) - 56

"So, you decided to join a guild?"

"Yeah... what's the problem with that?"

"The problem is that you did it without discussing it with me first!"

"But they said that you had already joined the guild."

"..."

Hearing these words, we both came to the same conclusion.

'Fuck, that damn bitch played us!'

Well, I guess there wasn't anything else that I could do about it now, so, I just decided to start climbing the Tower like a normal Player.

...

A Few Weeks Later:

<Akimitsu's POV>

Fina-fucking-ly, there was enough people to start the trial.

The actual number was 30, and well, it seemed like 15 of us were solo players while the other half were all from the same guild, apparent from the fact that they were all wearing the same black cloak which covered the entirety of their faces. (A/N: Basically all cannon fodder...)

I looked at the blue screen in front of me.

[Trial: Escape Room - Sector 1

Objective: Escape

Difficulty: Easy - Extremely Hard

Rewards: 10 stat points

Punishment for Failure: Death

Note: For the duration of this trial, all stats will be set to a base of 20, the inventory will be locked, and no mana will be accessible]

(A/N: These next 10 trials will be based off of a popular Webtoon of the same name. Of course, I won't be copying anything, just, you might experience some deja vu.)

Looking at the timer at the top right corner of the notification, I watched it closely as it approached zero.

And, exactly as I expected, right after it turned to zero, I blacked out.

...

I woke up, clutching my head.

Well, I tried to.

Quickly noticing that I couldn't move my hands, or my arms for that matter, I immediately "woke up" and opened my eyes, my mind now racing.

I hastily scanned my surroundings, as I knew that quick thinking and spatial awareness were the skills that one most needed for this Rank of floors.

(A/N: New terminology, "Rank", with a capitol, will mean the current set of 10 floors that a Player is on. So, like, the first 10 floors are called the "Strength Rank", and the second set of 10 floors are called the "Trust Rank".)

Looking around what seemed like a regular American Basement, I quickly noticed something odd.

With my heightened senses, I could literally feel that my blood was rushing towards my head.

This, coupled with the fact that there was a strange device clamping me to the "ground", I could only come to one conclusion.

Although the room looked normal from my perspective, I was actually upside-down in relation to gravity.

Now that I had figured this out, it was time to figure out the way to escape.

But, you might be thinking, "Why can't he just use his knowledge of the game?"

Well, it's all because I had left the level generation of the Trust Rank to an AI that I had built, so I had no definitive way to clear the Trust Rank.

But, I always passed during the beta tests, so it should be no different in real life, right?

Well, back to the problem, to escape, I needed to take stock of my surroundings.

In front of me, there was a couch bed with a table in front of it.

To my left, there was an old fashioned furnace with pipes running "up" from it, usually meant to heat the home above the basement.

To my right, there was just a wall.

Behind me, there were the stairs leading "up" and what I presumed was a locked door at the "top".

Above me, there was a singular lightbulb with a string attached to a switch on it, hanging "down" due to the influence of some magic, probably.

I was currently in the middle of the room, strapped to this contraption that held me to the "floor". There was a pathway for the metal contraption to slide on behind me.

My hands were tied behind my back.

A rope was leading from my tied hands to a hole in the wall.

Looking around, there were two other holes in the wall.

Knowing the Webtoon these trials were based on, I could only sigh when I saw the holes, especially the one that the rope that was attached to my hands disappeared into.

'My life is most likely in the hands of another person...'

So, for now, all I could do was wait.

...

Finally, after who knows how long, I felt a small tug on the rope.

Whoever was on the other side of the hole pulled gently and a little bit warily at first, but when nothing happened to them, I guess they started using their full force.

"Screeeeeeeeeeeech!"

The metal contraption started moving on the path, coming closer and closer to the wall.

Finally, after some amount of pulling, my hands reached the hole in the wall.

Then, nothing happened for a while.

So, once again, I had to wait.

...

After some time, the rope was cut without warning.

Not needing to know what was happening on the other side of the wall, I quickly raised my bound hands above my head before dislocating both of them, rolling them to the front, and then forcing them both back into their sockets with some fine muscle movement.

Now, with my hands in front of me, I could do some actions that I had planned out after inspecting the room countless times.

Reaching to my left, I was able to touch the railing of the stairs.

And, coincidentally, the railing was sharpened into a knife's edge.

Using this, I started cutting through my ropes.

Once the frayed ropes fell to the floor, I started moving my arms and hands, warming them up.

I was finally free, and now, I could start to try and escape the room.

Looking back up, my heart skipped a little, but my face was still indifferent.

"Why?" You might ask, well you probably would have had a worse reaction.

You see, I could finally see something in one of the holes.

It was a bloodshot eye!