Chapter 2 : Sponsor

Rean, the leader of the Celeste team, gets a strange call of unknown origin that connects his soul to an existence beyond the instance. He stopped in mid-step, leaving his friends wondering.

"Brother Rean?" A girl on his left side was the first to ask the question with a confused and worried expression.

Rean pressed the power button on his left side in response, the dark room they were in instantly bright and clear.

"I think I just received a Sponsor, giving me a useful clue so that we can escape this instance," explained the young man with auburn hair.

Rean explained the reason why he had turned on the lights in this room, even though they had to complete the mission of hiding from a psychopath. This is an escape game set in an abandoned hospital.

With them stationed on the third floor of an empty and gloomy former hospitalization building, they had to find clues to get out of this hospital in three days.

"Really?" exclaimed Litia, the girl who had asked earlier with a tone of happiness and relief.

Edward, a party member with an appearance no worse than Rean's, chimed in, "Who's the Sponsor? I heard that no Sponsor would be so kind as to help out in this low-level instance."

They were a new group that had only gone through two instances in total, so they were still considered beginners. Edward was the member who gathered various information for their party so his words carried quite a bit of weight.

Rean closed his eyes for a moment in response, he decided to agree to the Sponsor's suggestion while stripping away his identity. He soon got his answer through a mysterious mind connection.

Only the connection of the Sponsor and its incarnation can occur regardless of time and space, it is like an absolute power that the owner of the Death Game himself cannot resist.

Unfortunately, the Sponsors also had their own status with different powers, they were the equivalent of Gods to the Death Game survivors.

"The Sponsor calls himself 'ErHa'," concluded Rean whose expression turned gloomy, instantly the atmosphere around him seemed strange.

Litia wore a hesitant expression before finally revealing her thoughts, "You're not kidding, are you? ErHa wouldn't bother to be our Sponsor unless he suddenly lost his mind!"

This was too unimaginable for them. Which of the survivors who had entered Calamity City did not know the Legendary Sponsor ErHa?

Known as the sadistic Sponsor who wanted survivors to kill each other and reap their lives. However, ErHa's targets are not random. He only targets the strongest individuals who have the support and respect of many in Calamity City.

It obviously made no sense to sponsor the weak Celeste team, it was useless for ErHa to toy with them. Still, knowing this, the Celeste team felt a chill down their spine. Would ErHa eradicate them?

Rean, who made the mistake of immediately agreeing to the deal with ErHa felt guilty. He tried to break the connection, unfortunately he had no right to do so.

At that moment, as if realizing Rean's intentions, the Sponsor responded directly with voice communication, which was rather childish, in the minds of all Celeste team members.

[I am not the ErHa you know. If you want to complete the instance in the fastest time, follow the instructions I give you."]

Team Celeste was instantly dumbfounded. They were speechless for a long time until the voice continued,

[In exchange, give me one of the props you got.]

Their expressions changed from confused to wary. Props were Artifacts obtained from instances, they were very expensive and had a lot of uses.

Litia and Edward felt that this deal was ridiculous, they could still get out of this low-level instance without having to make the deal, also the prop they got would still be theirs.

"Why do we have to do this ridiculous deal? You're not ErHa, so it's fine if we refuse. Brother Rean, cut ties with him! If he's not ErHa, then he must be weaker," Litia persuaded in a mocking tone.

That's natural. This was the first time they had received a Sponsor and it was quite strange, unlike the news. Shouldn't the Sponsor be stronger than them and not need a low-level prop at all?

"Wait!"

Rean interrupted.

"Brother Rean?" Litia wore an expression like she had swallowed something bitter.

"He only asked for one prop in this low-level instance and we can come out with the fastest time. If we can get that fastest time, we'll get a ticket for this week's exemption from the Administrator!" he explained, poking at the hidden important point.

Another girl, who was quiet and didn't really like talking, chimed in, "Then, let's just agree."

"Maya?! You too? You guys believe in that weird Sponsor?!" Litia challenged. Her ego was pricked.

She did have an arrogance that her friends could not shake, she thought that her intuition was always right and she trusted it more than rational thought. Her intuition was currently telling her to reject the deal.

Liam, the young man with black hair with bangs covering his right eye, nodded calmly. Next to him, Tara, the girl with brown skin and blonde hair glanced at Litia unhappily.

"You lost, Litia!" she quipped.

"You guys!" Litia's face flushed with anger. She had always been scorned because no one believed in her.

Even if her intuition was correct, they considered it a coincidence. She was worried that something bad had happened to Celeste's team that had hosted her all this time, but they had not heeded her warnings.

The message once again popped into their minds as if a certain existence did not want to waste time.

[The deal will be canceled if you do not answer within one minute. This is your choice. Also, perhaps one of you is feeling suspicious and insecure, so how about this addition. I'll send one of my subordinates among you and watch without interfering. He's still quite a rookie].

...

On the other side of where the existence was located, which was precisely in the Clausa Room, Ryu Hyun completed some of his series of plans. That's right, he used the Sponsor feature to train himself into the instance.

In addition to that feature, he stared at the unique logo next to it and the explanation of use.

[Avatar: You can create an Avatar that can participate in instance clearing with your Sponsored incarnation].

In addition to training himself, he also wanted to know the ins and outs of this world, freeing himself temporarily from the confinement of the Clausa Room. Perhaps if his Avatar made it to Calamity City, then he would investigate this world to find his brother.

Waiting for Celeste's team to respond to his deal, Ryu Hyun modified the Avatar he would use. The realization of going into that Avatar seemed to split a part of his soul, but that was the price he had to pay, the pain of splitting a part of his soul. Fortunately, it was worth it. The Avatar would have the power he wanted according to his modifications.

Ryu Hyun saved his Avatar's modifications, he used the body of a young man the same age as Rean instead of the body of a child who was clearly underestimated. This would be the beginning of his journey in the Death Game world.

***