Chương 48: Silver Spoon

Gray and Nabi cut through the city streets, sprinting for the finish line. They passed duo after duo along the route, but Gray blew by every one of them. With seven keycards secured on his person, his sole focus was reaching the drop-off point. The others clearly had the same idea. Rather than start fights they didn't need to, they matched Gray's pace, heads down, surging toward their own markers. Nabi wasn't satisfied, though. She kept pushing Gray to engage the pairs they passed, eager to rack up more points.

He ignored her, eyes fixed straight ahead. Her combat restriction left her no room to argue, and she had no choice but to follow his lead. A half-mile out from the drop-off point, Gray eased his sprint into a wary walk. The streets had gone too quiet. The silence set the back of his neck prickling, like the whole block was holding its breath, waiting to spring an ambush. As he scanned the empty windows lining the street, Nabi broke the silence.

"Have you thought about what it'll be like on the outside?" she asked.

"I have." Gray slowly swiveled his head around the road to scan for any potential hostiles.

"But after meeting a few of the locals who left a bitter taste in my mouth, and learning the history of this planet—I can honestly say I'm not exactly looking forward to it."

"Agreed," Nabi replied.

"That's part of the reason I push you so hard. Why I push myself. If we 'Earthborn' aren't prepared for what's out there, we're going to get trampled on." She kicked a loose piece of rubble out of her path, sent it skittering into the gutter.

"Gwen thinks just like the rest of this world does. They despise Earth natives, and they'll stop at nothing to plan our downfall."

"I understand why the locals are so hellbent on that," Gray said, glancing over at her.

"We were essentially summoned here with silver spoons in our mouths, inheriting the classes of their elites and receiving streamlined mentorships from their esteemed Kaisers. What I'm having trouble figuring out is why you care so much about their prejudice. I figured you'd just brush off the insults with your crass personality." He crossed his arms. Nabi scoffed and mirrored the gesture, arms folding over her chest.

"You think a little bigotry will get to me? I've built up a thick skin. Figuratively and literally. Apparently my blood functions as an extra protective layer beneath my skin. But that's beside the point." She stopped walking. Gray halted beside her.

"Gwen isn't just some pompous royal who's all bark and no bite. I was on her team during the Mirror Matchup level, Gray. She put on an endearing smile when she recruited us to meet the minimum requirement, but once the timer dropped and the level began, she turned on us, impaling two of our members through the back before they even had a chance to scream." Gray's expression darkened.

"Luckily, I wasn't near her when it happened. We ended up in a skirmish, but it eventually reached a stalemate. Once she decided the fight wasn't worth it anymore, she went ahead and killed both her shadow and mine to end the level." She paused, and her expression tightened.

"During the Hide and Seek level, one of Jun's teammates told me they saw a woman with silver hair and wings killing everyone in sight. Gwen wasn't just surviving the Natural Selection. She was indiscriminately slaughtering every Earthborn she crossed paths with." Gray let her words settle. The memory pulled him back to his first encounter with the woman in the department store, to how she'd come at him without a second of hesitation.

Looking back with the information he know knew, her assault hadn't been some knee-jerk reaction to him attacking Shota. She had moved in for the kill entirely of her own volition. Gwen had come across as stuck-up when they first met, but he hadn't seen the bloodlust in her eyes that Nabi described from her own run-in with the woman. Was that because Shota had been there?

"And isn't it ironic that two of the most prolific guilds in this world—The Jade Lotus and Gisaeng House—are run by 'Earthborn'?" Nabi continued, snapping Gray from his thoughts.

"They're two guild masters from Earth, and apparently they're like that." She hooked her index and middle fingers together.

"Imagine the atrocities they had to commit to secure that kind of power in a world set against them." Gray's jaw tightened, his eyes hard with conviction.

"I don't have to imagine." You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. The next words died in Nabi's throat. She cleared the sudden tension with a cough into her fist.

"Anyway, it looks like our drop-off point is just ahead," Nabi said, pointing in front of them. Gray summoned his status screen. The drop-off point glowed a steady yellow, sitting right on top of their current location. A beat later, a translucent blue waypoint arrow materialized in his vision. He followed the guiding arrow down the block. As they turned the corner, the cityscape opened up to reveal a colossal concrete structure. Nabi stopped in her tracks and stared up at the architecture.

She recognized the place immediately: the Seoul World Cup Stadium. They followed the digital arrow into the entrance. Their footsteps rang through the dark, desolate tunnels before they stepped out into the open air of the bowl. Pitch-blackness swallowed the massive arena. Relying entirely on the soft blue glow of the waypoint, they stepped onto the grass soccer field. The arrow continued and led them straight to the center of the stadium.

The instant Gray reached the middle of the field, the glowing arrow shattered into fragments of light and winked out. THUNK A heavy industrial switch slammed into place. High above, a row of massive floodlights flared to life. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. One by one, they ignited and cleared away the darkness until blinding light engulfed the entire stadium. Gray threw an arm over his eyes to block the sudden glare. SMACK. SMACK. SMACK.

The echoing sound of plastic thundersticks clapping together snapped his attention toward the sidelines. Sitting alone in the bleachers was a figure in a black-and-white striped referee's uniform, and a silver whistle hanging around his neck. He vaulted over the railing and plummeted a solid fifteen feet, landing lightly on the grass without a sound. Up close, he stood three feet tall, pale-white skin, and a face so plain it was unnaturally ordinary.

The man sported a messy black mop of hair that spilled into his eyes, and a belly that had seen better days. The plastic thundersticks dissolved into nothing, leaving his hands free to break into a slow, theatrical applause.

"Congratulations, Gray and Nabi!" the tiny referee cheered, his voice booming across the open field.

"You've successfully navigated the first part of the level!" Nabi lowered her arm from her eyes, squinting through the harsh lights at the figure.

"Who the hell are you? And what do you mean, the first part? I thought the objective was to reach the drop-off point." The little man spread his arms wide.

"Why, I am the one in charge of handling this level, of course! My name is Tom! Or you can just call me the Level Master. And reaching this drop-off point was merely the prerequisite. Welcome to the real theme of this stage: a duel to the death!"

"A duel? Finally some action. Who does Gray have to fight?" Nabi asked. The referee swiveled his head back and forth the stadium, then snapped his gaze onto Nabi, pointing a finger straight at her chest.

"I don't see anyone else here." Gray's eyes went wide, and he turned to his partner. Nabi didn't hesitate. A thick trail of blood erupted from her palm, spiraling up the shaft of her scythe and sheathing the blade in crimson. She surged forward and drove the weapon down in an overhead cleave, straight through the center of the referee's skull. The little man didn't even flinch. He just stood there on the grass, arms crossed, patiently waiting for the impact.

The scarlet blade passed clean through him, but not by severing flesh. It phased through his body with a static ripple. He was nothing but a hologram. Nabi gritted her teeth. She ripped the scythe back and swung again, carving a horizontal arc through his torso. It passed right through him once again. With a heavy exhale, she let the blood recede back into her palm, leaving the scythe bare steel again. Nabi pulled the keycard over her head and tossed it onto the grass.

"If I read the rules right, losing possession of the card for thirty seconds results in an automatic failure," she said, dusting off her hands.

"Looks like neither of us is passing, Gray." The tension drained from Gray's hands. He released his grip on his katana and dragged the back of his hand across his sweating forehead.

"Oh, thank God. For a split second, I legitimately thought you were going to take my head off." Nabi scoffed, exasperated.

"Do I really strike you as the kind of person who'd slaughter an ally just to climb a few spots on the ladder?" Gray slowly tilted his head, staring deadpan into her eyes. A smug smirk broke across her face as she scratched the back of her neck.

"Anyway. Good luck in the last level." The hologram waved a hand for their attention.

"I don't recall stating that this was optional." Nabi shot him a scowl.

"We aren't concerned about failing. What are you going to do? Force us to fight?"

"Absolutely." The referee snapped his fingers. A system prompt flashed into Gray and Nabi's view. For every second a victor isn't determined, 50 Contribution Points will be deducted from your status. -50 Contribution Points -50 Contribution Points -50 Contribution Points -50 Contribution Points Gray knew exactly how Nabi would react. But as ruthless as she was, he had formed a genuine bond with her. Was that not allowed in the System's eyes? Apparently not.

The matchmaking criteria for this level was far too convenient to be random. The System paired the top two Awakened on the board, Shota and Gwen, and Ethan and Rosie clearly shared a history. Was it based purely on past bonds? Did the System purposely force these connections together just to sever them, evaluating who was cold enough to stand alone? If so, why did it link him with Nabi? He hadn't seen her since the first level and had zero intention of forming an alliance with her before this stage.

Intention be damned. Solving the puzzle of the System wouldn't save him right now. With his CP actively bleeding out, survival became the only priority. Even with the odds heavily skewed in her favor, he wasn't going to go down without a fight. Gray dropped his center of gravity, his hands snapping to the hilt of his katana.