'The Conversion System?' Ning wondered what that was. Genesis sounded rather proud about his system, so Ning couldn't help but wonder just how many fundamental rules of the universe it broke to obtain it.
'250 people he brought here. And now, only 10 remain. 240 dead, in less than 2 weeks,' Ning was finally starting to feel horrible about this.
The worst part was that Genesis wasn't doing it to give one of the winners a system so they could live freely. He was doing it so he could see how his little system did in the real world.
He wanted a lab rat, and he was willing to kill 249 people, and 1 soul to get it.
Ning couldn't help but wonder if there was any way for him to stop Genesis from getting too far with all of this.
But if even his System was too scared to do anything against him, Ning didn't know what he could do.
So, he had to keep on doing what he had been doing until now.
Shut up and go with the flow.
"Look at you all, fighting such a tough battle and winning. I never expected for you to make me create such strong creatures."
"As a reward for all of this, once your little break is over, I will tell you exactly how my system will work," Genesis said.
"Until then, have fun."
Before anyone could speak up, Genesis disappeared. Not long after, they all disappeared as well.
Ning appeared on the street of one of the many cities all over this planet. He tried to use his Aether, but as expected, it was all gone.
The other four teammates of his appeared next to him as well.
"So we are all still together, huh?" Issi asked as he looked around. The folks with the question marks over their head still walked around.
"We're all in this together, little worm," Derel said and started looking for an exit out of the city.
Drake slowly shifted away from Nova and tried to distance himself.
"Our powers don't work here again," Ning said so he wouldn't be so afraid of her.
Still, Drake didn't listen to him and moved to the wall before uncontrollably slumping on it and sliding down.
The cloak covered his face from the sky, but the hot sunlight still hurt him to stay under.
"Oh right," Ning said. "Let's get you inside."
Ning carried Drake into a normal house next to them and laid him on the bed.
"Thank you, leader," Drake said after taking a deep breath. After coming indoors, his body was able to move a little more and he could stand up.
"I don't think I'm a leader anymore. The competition is over and there's nothing to protect after all.
"Well, I will still call you a leader," Drake said.
"Such an embarrassing act from someone named Drake. You should have some pride and fight against the pain," Derel said.
"My parents didn't name me Drake. It's more of a nickname they used to call me with, and I adopted it as what I want everyone to call me," Drake said.
"So your real name isn't Drake?" Derel asked.
"No, its—"
"So you are just another little worm," Derel said with a sneer. "Tsk, and here I thought I met someone worth of me remembering their name."
"Whatever," Drake said and laid back on the bed.
"So… what do we do now?" Issi asked when all of them were silent.
"I don't know," Ning said.
"Will we have to fight each other now?" Issi asked something that had been bothering him for a while now. It was something everyone else had on their mind as well.
"Hopefully not," Ning said. "Genesis might come up with a different type of competition for the rest of us."
"What type is that?" Derel asked.
"I don't know," Ning said. "Let's not bother with that at the moment."
"Sigh, fine," Derel said. "I'm going out. I need mana to fix my circuits."
As everyone watched, Derel walked out of the door and left.
"I'll go train as well," Issi said. "I don't like the fact that I had to sit out of the last 3 fights."
He too left the room, leaving the 3 behind.
Ning thought for a moment. He too needed to go collect some Aether. His reserves had been quite low after the last fight.
"I should probably go get ready for the next competition too," Ning said. "I'm assuming you won't leave now either?"
Drake shook his head. Just like last time, he wanted to stay back in the city.
'Well, since his only source of power are other people, it's not surprising he wouldn't want to leave,' Ning thought.
"You will be staying too right, Nova?" Ning asked and turned towards NOva. Only then did he notice that she was huddled up on the floor behind Drake's bed.
Seeing Ning's eyes, Drake too stood to check on her.
Ning walked up to her and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Nova?" he asked. "What's wrong?"
Nova jolted out of her trance and looked around in fear. Her breathing got quick and Ning could clearly see the effects of her trauma on her face.
"What's wrong?" he asked. 'Did her trauma from the first round come back? Or did she see the people die in the 2nd round?'
He was sure that as far as she knew, nobody died because of her in the 2nd round.
"They died because of me," She suddenly said as tears rolled down her face. "I killed them. I killed them."
She started shivering like she had felt the coldest of chills ever.
"What are you talking about, Nova? You killed nobody," Ning said.
"No, I killed them. They were just protecting themselves, and… and… I killed them. I didn't want to kill them, but I had to… oh god!" she cried.
Ning was stunned. "You had to?" he asked, but Nova didn't answer at all.
He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. "Nova, who did you kill?" he asked.
Nova looked at him with fearful eyes. "I killed them," she said. "Those people from group 3."
