Inside the labyrinth, a few statues were lined on each side of the narrow path. The statues were of knights holding purple flames.
Since they had gotten inside, Belle hadn't said a single word to Aiden. After having the feeling Aiden was the boss, her emotions were mixed up.
Anger, regret, and something else. Aiden noticed she had been keeping her words to herself.
"You realize I'm not worried if anyone finds out," said Aiden.
Xs didn't reply for a moment, until Aiden held her arms. "Why did you do all this? You killed millions of people," said Xs, as if whispering so the others wouldn't find out.
Aiden had no answer for that. He couldn't start explaining everything from top to bottom at this spot, so he just let go of her, and they continued walking.
"When everyone is prepared, the tutorial will stop," said Aiden.
Even though she heard that, Xs had no idea what that meant, and she didn't ask either.
After walking along the narrow path, the group finally walked into an open space.
But it wasn't much of a space, since there was a black metallic door stopping them.
"Okay, what the fuck? Don't tell me this is a dead end."
A system appeared floating in front of the door. "What does it say?"
But no one understood it, because it was a gibberish word. It wasn't English, that's all they knew.
"Anyone speak Chinese?" the muscular player asked, looking around.
Aiden and Xs were no different from the rest. "Tsk, I'll just burn this door to the ground."
The magus lit up his veined fist with purple flames. But before he could punch the door, he was stopped.
"That's a timer... It says we gotta wait for an hour. Guess someone else is already in there," said Aiden.
"Uh? You read Chinese?"
"Leave the moron. Now you ain't in my party, so I'd prefer you shut up and do nothing. Imagine you die—with all the troubles, the government wouldn't have time to investigate every player's death," said the magus.
While Aiden just kept his cold eyes on him, not reacting to the words because he knew Xs was looking at him for some reason.
Even with the warning—boom—the magus dashed toward the door at tremendous speed and punched the gate. Bam.
The whole cave rumbled, with some dust and debris falling down, causing the others to be wary.
Ding—
-[System notification: ihhkussgug kigjihgu ohkuhhkk]
"What the hell, more garbage."
Even with punching the door, there wasn't a single scratch on it. "You just activated the penalty," said Aiden.
"Maybe I should shut you up."
Accompanying the magus' words, the statues holding the flames all switched off.
The magus quickly helped with his flames, but the rest had their smartphones with them.
Then, those leaning against the cave wall stood up straight, the sound of footsteps creating a little shockwave.
"The statues, they're coming."
The statues all had purple glowing eyes, walking toward them.
"Tsk, pests."
As usual, the magus player looked down on them, and he was the first to launch an attack. "Magus heeelll!" he yelled so loud, veins were at the surface of his neck and forehead.
And—boom—a sea of purple flames burst out of his palms. The heat from it caused the players behind him to shift back a little.
Unknown to him, a statue knight was coming at him, the blade cutting through the air. When he ran out of energy, the flame stopped, and he saw it coming.
A hairbreadth from taking his horrible life flashed before his eyes.
A shotgun was heard behind him. The bullet of the player was so fast that after the sound—boom—the statue's head was blown to pieces of rock.
"Maybe the guy is right after all," said the muscular player.
"Rest, man. You've obviously run out of mana."
Right in front of them, the once-dead knight started rearranging itself. Its shattered rock head came together, and the knight stood like nothing had scratched him.
Boom.
As the blade destroyed the ground, the players were fast enough to jump back away from it. As of now, the little space was starting to fill with statue knights.
"Uh, so we can't kill these things?" asked Xs, twirling in midair to avoid an attack.
"It has to do with the magus behind them. He's the one resurrecting the fallen," said Aiden.
His information had been correct so far, so everyone believed this as well. They all gave a nod—the magus behind was their target.
With the information at hand, the players ran into the statues with brutal force. The shooter was more agile than anyone else.
His bullets were undoubtedly fast, and his precision was maxed out, which made it easy to take out a lot of statues.
"We'll create a path leading to the magus. Someone has to go for it," said the shooter.
The muscular player growled in response and grabbed hold of two statues, slamming their heads to pieces.
'Level 30 fighting better than maxed-out players,' thought Aiden.
He barely interfered. Leaning against the door was no way of helping, while Xs was battling and leaping backward for breathing space.
Boom.
The magus player was slammed back, bouncing on the ground a few times. Overall, he was more tattered and injured than anyone else.
"Shitty pests." As he said that, he fell back on his knee, coughing out blood.
"Aiden, do something!" yelled Xs. As of now, the outcome of the fight was looking unfavorable.
But Aiden still stood, looking at the magus.
"Aaarrghha!"
"Kweuk!"
Right before the magus' eyes, his teammates were getting injured as well. He could hear them screaming.
It was now his pride or his teammates' lives. "P... please help us," he muttered.
Immediately after he said that—kaboom—Aiden skyrocketed toward the army of stone knights, a dagger appearing in his palm.
As he sped past, the statues would all scatter on the floor headless, to the point where Aiden created a narrow path of headless stone knights.
And he immediately reached the stone magus in one attempt.
It didn't take long before he covered the magus' face with his palm, a smile appearing on his face, and then—boom.
The magus was crushed with Aiden's cruel might, slamming it hard against the floor, its face shattering to pieces like the rest.
The rest of the players couldn't believe what had just happened.
However, everyone's gaze quickly drifted from Aiden as the door opened, confronting them with an abyss.