Ning looked at the sky, wondering how Genesis was possibly going to change the competition now.
He would most definitely welcome some change because of how boring his last day had been, but he also didn't want a big enough change that the entire competition on its head.
As he waited for Genesis to speak, after a long wait he finally spoke.
"Have fun." Then, he disappeared.
Ning and the rest looked with nothing but confusion at the place where Genesis stood.
"Did he say something that I missed?" Issi asked from the side, not sure if that was really it.
"I don't think he said anything at all. Maybe it was special info directly to the leader?" She said as she turned around. "Little worm, did he say anything to you."
Ning shook his head. "Nothing. I don't even know if he did anything to the competition," he said.
"Leader, you should quickly check on the system," Drake said from the side. He had come closer after Genesis had appeared.
"Right," Ning said and opened both the visuals on the other 9 groups, as well as upgrades.
However, there had been no changes to either of them. He could see the confused look on the faces of the others on the screen in front of him.
Then he noticed someone on the screen looking at him directly. No, she wasn't looking at him, but rather towards the location where his vision was taken from.
The place where Genesis stood.
Ning looked up as well and saw the empty space where Genesis had been at just a moment before.
Empty.
His eyes suddenly went wide in shock.
"It's gone!" he shouted, catching the attention of everyone around him.
"Huh?" Issi gave a confused look.
"What's gone, leader?" Drake asked with his hooded face.
Before Derel could ask a variation of the same question, he pointed towards the sky to show them.
As they turned, they saw nothing in the sky as well, and just as Ning's had, their eyes went wide as well.
"Where's the timer?" Issi suddenly shouted.
"It's gone," Drake said with his pale face that made him look like he was scared.
"So when is the monster spawning next?" Derel asked with her dark face looking even darker.
"We don't know," Ning said thoughtfully. "We will have to stay alert every minute now."
"Goddamn, he did make it interesting, and difficult as well," Issi said.
"Yes," Ning nodded. Now there wouldn't be as much boredom as they would have to wait attentively for the monster to appear.
"The pressure on us is going to increase now tho," Drake said from the side.
"It will indeed," Ning said.
Ning knew that there was about 23 minutes from when the skeleton appeared before another beast appeared. So, at the very least they still had 20 minutes to spare.
However, he wouldn't know how short the next one would be. Or after that one.
Since the spawn rate reduction wouldn't reflect on anything, they would be on their toes at all moments as the timer got closer and closer.
As they waited, Ning noticed that it was about time for the monster to arrive and they got ready.
They prepared themselves very well, so when the monster inevitably appeared, Ning immediately skewered it through the head with its spear.
The monster immediately turned into white light and disappeared, leaving behind a 'Defeated' and '20 points'.
"Ooh! not bad, little worm," Derel said.
Ning wasted no time and immediately brought out a clock he had in his storage from back when he was in Vilmore and started checking the time.
The hands of the clock said that it was 23 minutes past 16 O'clock. It was not a clock suitable for this world, but that would have to do.
"Leader, did you notice?" Drake asked from the side.
"Hmm?" Ning turned towards him. "Notice what?"
"That was not the same monster as before," Drake said. "It was a snake."
Ning nodded. He had noticed that but didn't say anything as he had been expecting it.
"Someone must have upgraded the monster to take advantage of the situation," he said.
Ning watched the time while he handed over the job of killing the monster to Derel and Issi.
As the clock slowly reached 16:44, Ning heard a boom and looked up just in time to see the fading '16 points'.
'21 minutes,' he thought to himself. 'it's getting lower.'
He wondered if he should take advantage of the situation and decrease the duration even more so, but he shook his head.
As Derel said, collecting the points was the best option for them all.
"This is not working," Issi said from the side as they waited for the next monster to appear.
"What isn't?" Drake asked him.
"This! We!" Issi gestured to all of them. "Us all waiting around together for one puny monster to appear. It's not working."
"We need to relax a little or we will be mentally fatigued to the point where we won't be able to do anything," he said.
They thought for a moment and nodded. "You're right. We should do it turn by turn," Ning said.
"I will do this one," Drake said. "If they improve the monster even more, later on, I won't be able to beat them fast enough to gain enough points."
"Okay," Ning nodded and laid down on the ground, completely throwing the thought of when the monster will appear next as that was Drake's problem now.
When the monster arrived, Drake managed to kill it fast enough to be in the top 3 and Issi took his place.
Then Ning, then Derel. They kept passing around the duty of killing the monster to one person, while the others rested on the side without a care in the world.
Doing as such, the day quickly turned to night, which then turned to morning.
Finally, once the morning turned to noon, Genesis appeared once more in the sky.
