Adventure alliance

Just like the Alchemy alliance, the Adventure alliance had a statue in front of its building. The statue was posing like a hunter with a bow and arrow. It was extremely lifelike and as usual, the person in the statue was the founder of the Adventure alliance, one of the big bosses in the underworld.

There were a lot of people coming and going in the alliance. Some of them were returning from a mission and submitting their harvest to gain a reward. Another group of people simply browsing on the alliance mission list. Rest were simply there for taking entry mission including Leo.

Leo was not the only one without any choice, in underworld having a choice was a luxury. As he waited in a long and arduous queue, he could sense people's nervousness and tension slowly devouring their mental stability. Some people were biting their nails, some were pulling their hair, some were shaking their bodies, and so on.

Adventure alliance, on the other hand, didn't care about anyone. There were simply too many people, how could they bother about the mental stability of some random people.

In fact, they didn't need to care because the majority of the people in the underworld didn't have any background. So all the big boss-affiliated alliances were closed for them. As for the Royal family, they were not some charity hall that nurtured any random tom dick and harries. If Leo didn't have a promising soul potential, he would be queuing the adventure alliance on his first day in the underworld.

The fate of a soul was decided as soon as it lands at the checkpoints of the underworld. Once graded as average or below average, it would be given a third-grade body by the Royal family and sent to the adventure alliance for an entry mission. Only 1% survive in every entry mission, the rest of the souls simply get devoured by the creatures in the forbidden area. Even in that 1% most of them belong to privileged people from prominent families as they came loaded with all sorts of life-saving tools and medicines.

Apart from the Adventure alliance, the Royal family sends souls to all the alliances and tortoise sect. Everyone had a fixed quota. As long as they meet the quota, they could use the remaining souls however they want. Mostly Royal family recruits the rest for administration work. Also, the chances of above-average and high potential souls appearing in level 1 of the underground were extremely small. Hence no one bothered to put a bug in the Royal family.

But if some above-average soul appears at the checkpoint, the Royal family would be heavily rewarded if they could deliver it to any alliances or sect. For example, highly sought-after recommendation seats in Alchemy alliances or Forging alliances. If Leo's soul was above average, there was no doubt that he would be already in one of the alliances and his fate would be unknown.

One should not mistake that one's fate would be changed for good once he/she joins the alliances. It was up to the organization whether the soul would be used as an ingredient for a potion/ weapon or given a decent body to increase the manpower.

Fortunately for Leo, the Royal family could at least differentiate between above-average souls and higher ones, otherwise Leo would have been paying the price for their ignorance. But unfortunately for the Royal family, they couldn't use Leo properly because of the lack of resources and bad timing.

Coming back to the entry mission. The creatures in the forbidden area devour the weak souls sent via recurring entry missions to get stronger. Just when they get strong enough, powerhouses from adventure alliances in the name of 'hunting', kill them to harvest valuable body parts and magic core. In summary, adventure alliance just fattens the creatures using useless souls before they slaughter them for useful resources.

There was no kindness for weak souls in the underworld. Also, unless a soul clears the entry mission, it was just treated as livestock to fatten useful creatures. Only if a soul proves its worth in the entry mission, would it be deemed worthy to live and enjoy some privileges in the underworld. Of course, that didn't apply to the residents of the underworld who participated in the mission to broaden their horizons or join the tortoise sect.

Today like every first day of the week, the entry mission was about to start. Participants including Leo were given a GPS tracker and some basic rations to survive 7 days. It was up to the participants to carry anything else if they could afford it. Most of the prevailed children carry extensive trump cards and life-saving tools to increase their chances of survival.

There was no such thing as fairness in the entry mission. Adventure alliance didn't bother about how participants survived. As long as they meet the minimum requirement of 7 days, people could do or use whatever they could to survive. Everyone knew this but no one voiced their resentment. Even if someone tried, nothing would happen adventure alliance was too powerful.

Leo would have been like most of the poor people if he hadn't had a source of income. Fortunately, he still had 500 crystals which was no short amount in the underworld. Using that Leo bought various life-saving tools in the underworld market before coming to the alliance such as a speed booster potion, aura concealing pills, healing potion, and so on.

After checking everything in his storage ring once again, Leo felt much more reassured about the upcoming mission. He stood alongside thousands of people inside a teleportation circle holding an identity token number. Adventure alliance was too bored to even put a proper name tag and simply used numbers to identify people. No one bothered to fight for their right as there was no such thing. Everyone had only one thought in their mind and that was to survive! Survive at any cost.

Even people like Leo could encounter mishaps in the forbidden area let alone poor souls. Hence, the entire atmosphere was very solemn. No one bothered to have idle chats.

As for as numbering system. It had its advantage too. Once you enter the number in the Adventure alliance's database, all the details of the participant would appear. If people fail to return from the mission, they could simply delete the useless numbers from the database. And, just like that, there would be no trace of a soul ever entering the underworld.

More Leo understood the mechanism in the underworld more he felt how lucky he was. Although he felt the underworld was ruthless, he was helpless to change anything. He was struggling to save his own life and how could he possibly save others? But silently he swore in his heart that one day he could gain sufficient power to change the rules of the underworld however he wanted.

Suddenly, Leo felt many people scanning him from head to toe. He felt as if he was standing naked in the middle of the crowd. After asking people around him, he got to know the reason. Many people were forming temporary alliances to help each other out in the mission. But Leo only shook his head, sighing at the desperation of people. He no longer bothered about the people scanning him. He was aware of the so-called temporary alliance as he did extensive research before coming to the entry mission.

According to the experts of the underworld temporary alliances were just a means for poor people to fool themselves into a false sense of security. Other than steadying their anxious nerves for a temporary period. They were of no practical use.

Because everyone would be transported to a different place once teleportation formation was activated and there was no guarantee that members of a team would meet again. Even if they meet by some stroke of luck, it was very likely that they would betray each other the moment they find a good opportunity in the name of survival.

It was easy to survive against thousands of enemies in the front but difficult to guard against an enemy right beside you. There were countless stories in the underworld about backstabbing and betrayal. Hence veterans didn't bother about pointless groups unless they could trust the members with their lives. As far as participants who hailed from notable families, they had their own group clearly defining each and everyone's roles in the mission. They didn't even look at common people while they waited for the start of the mission.

Leo also didn't bother to volunteer for a group. Although some rich family groups asked him to work with them after knowing his identity in the alchemy alliance, Leo politely rejected them all telling them that he had no experience in teamwork.

In the middle of all these group farces, some girls started using their charms to attract novice youths to help them survive in the mission. Ignorant youths who had no idea about the concept of the external body agreed readily and tried hard to pacify the tense hearts of the beauties. Leo simply shook his head thinking ignorance was bliss.

Finally countdown started for the teleportation, 10,9,8.....1.

Leo and the rest stared at the glowing teleportation portal in nervousness. No one had any idea what awaited them in the forbidden area. Leo also felt inadequate even after thorough preparation for the mission. But there was no turning back now. Leo could only grit his teeth and hope for the best.

Everyone in the teleportation circle including Leo disappeared like a puff of smoke.