Jeremy fiddled with the card in his hands as he re-read the notification on his game screen.
A few comments from the audience also appeared there.
After Jeremy swooped in on the first day, a few Throskarts watching back home had noticed him, despite his lack of presence.
But Jeremy's expression was not good.
[Event Time!]
[Event Time!]
The game master's voice resounded in his ears.
[There are two events for the day! How can we let our dear contestants go without spicing things up a bit?]
[Today's Event: Killer Vote]
The audience may elect to vote an additional five people for execution.
One member may be a contestant in the top 10%!
The merit leader in this group may not be selected.
[Today's Event: Partition Break]
The audience can pay to break as many partitions as they can afford, up to all of the partitions.
[With two new events, perhaps even our strongest, most…nondescript… contestants of Group #188 could get pulled off their pedestals…]
[Huhuhu, I wish you all the best of luck…]
Jeremy's face paled slightly.
He struggled to maintain his composure.
Was it not enough that he was exhausted, thirsty, and hot in the middle of his desert for so long?
That he had to fight these damn spiders despite his thirst, every single day?
Of course not.
There was no doubt regarding as to at who these two events were targeted.
Separately, Jeremy was able to handle these events just fine.
He was the current merit leader of the group, and was not at risk of being chosen by the audience for selection of execution.
And even if the event [Partition Break] had occurred without the [Killer Vote], Jeremy would still not be at risk of falling out of the top 10%, since he'd spent his time so far doing his utmost to gather as many merits as possible.
But combined…while he wasn't at risk of falling out of the top 10%, he was at risk of falling below #1.
And he knew, instinctively, that as soon as the audience could vote him off, they would vote him off.
He…was doomed.
No. He wasn't doomed!
As long as he killed more spiders than…
Jeremy was woken from his thoughts by a barely discernible prick on his back.
A glare filled with ill intent landed straight on him.
It sent a shiver down his spine.
He turned to find exactly who he'd come to expect.
There, a Throskart stood in front of the lanes, arms crossed, an intimidating glare writ wide on his face.
He was almost a full 3 meters tall, with bulging muscles that looked as if they would burst from his skin at any moment.
His muscles were not for show, either.
His face also wasn't nearly as gaunt looking as the others.
In fact, so far this Throskart was Jeremy's primary competition for #1 in the group.
His name was Terrell.
From what Jeremy could glean with his basic [Inspect] skill combined with his own personal observations, Terrell was actually stronger than he was.
Moreover, despite his giant muscles, his body was wired like a panther's, and his speed was easily on par with Jeremy's own.
This was despite both Jeremy's agility attribute, AND the 25% speed boost that came with his special role.
He began to understand why the [Tower's] additional requirements for his [Extreme] mission were so low.
If Terrell was his competition…it indeed wouldn't be easy to take the center lane.
So far, Jeremy had been lucky.
His agility and the ability to position himself directly in front of the lane he wanted to grab gave him an advantage.
He was able to steal the center lane for three out of the four days.
But while Jeremy spent his merits to rent a small house each night, drink enough water, and eat enough food to keep his condition optimal, Terrell didn't seem as if he needed any sustenance whatsoever.
Jeremy currently had 490 merits stored.
Terrell had 350.
It was currently Day 5, with 48 contestants remaining.
Now that the lanes were at risk entirely, Jeremy felt increasingly nervous about the day's battles.
Moreover, the spider monsters were getting stronger, such that even Jeremy at this point was having trouble killing them.
The partitions appeared out of the ground.
Suddenly, Jeremy felt a small restraining force activate, wrapping around his body.
It couldn't harm his body.
But it would be able to slow his speed.
Jeremy needed to grab that lane.
He instinctively turned to glare at Terrell, who stopped briefly to sneer at Jeremy before sprinting towards the middle lane.
Suddenly, Jeremy's figure blurred.
He restrained a chuckle.
There was no way such a measly control skill would be able to hold him.
[Personal Trait]
[Slippery]
Evolving Trait | White
…
Below a certain standard, control skills and spells are ineffective on you.
Individual Control Efficacy -80%
The slow brushed off his body entirely with so many of his passives dedicated to evading enemy control.
Terrell's speed was briefly reduced as he turned to sneer at Jeremy.
Jeremy saw his chance!
His legs pumped into action.
He took the opportunity to dash past Terrell to occupy the center lane.
Jeremy turned around, only to find a livid Terrell standing right behind the closed partition.
He couldn't help but stick out his tongue!
After seeing Terrell's face redden further, Jeremy decided to ignore the giant Throskart.
His face bore a triumphant smirk as he pivoted towards the spiders once again.
Now, to start a massacre…
Time passed.
Sweat poured down Jeremy's face as he defeated the 38th spider, gaining yet another merit point.
He was just about to sit down when he heard a crumbling noise behind him.
His eyes widened in alarm.
The worst had come to pass.
The partitions had ALL collapsed!
Suddenly, the spiders tore out of the black maw at the end of Jeremy's lane.
They no longer bothered with an orderly single file entrance.
In a flash, Jeremy was surrounded by hundreds of spiders.
They didn't target him, but instead fanned out into the surroundings.
But Jeremy's heart sunk even further.
If they didn't target him, they would become merit points for others.
He decided to go all out instead of conserving his stamina.
A big gulp of condensed water entered his body.
He entered stealth just as the simultaneous attack of 11 spiders slammed into the sand where Jeremy had just been standing.
Jeremy flitted in and out of the spiders' attacks, using his now 0.8 seconds of invincibility to their fullest extent.
He pushed his mind and body to the limit.
His dagger slashed and stabbed with no end; he used his full power to take as many spiders down as he possibly could.
But he soon grimaced as he found a Throskart hovering at the edge of his vision.
Another control skill hit Jeremy head on, as mana wrapped around his ankles for the second time.
Thankfully, they too slid right off of him, unable to find a grip on his [Slippery] body.
He didn't even glance at Terrell as he continued to kill the spiders surrounding him.
Jeremy could only focus his full attention on the battle ahead.
He had no spare attention to pay for whatever Terrell was doing.
And his lack of awareness almost cost him dearly.
His dagger descended towards the back of the spider's neck.
But just as it was about to make contact, Jeremy realized that someone had gotten in between!
Terrell slightly angled his body such that he stood directly at the end of Jeremy's attack path.
Jeremy's dagger was aiming right for Terrell!
He knew that if that dagger made contact, dealing any damage whatsoever to Terrell, it would be him that died instead.
His face contorted.
He tried to angle his dagger at the last second to swipe away, but Terrell was just as fast as him, sticking onto his every motion.
Less than a millisecond before his dagger would make contact, Jeremy gritted his teeth.
He used one his new skills that came with his suit.
[Energy Thrust]
Instantly appear 10m away in any direction.
Cooldown: 10 minutes
Jeremy's body shot to the side as his dagger sunk in to a spider leg.
Terrell was really targeting him!
Jeremy could only do his best to grab as many merits as possible from these escaped spiders…
He shot a glare at Terrell and moved away, this time maintaining a single eye on his surroundings so that he didn't 'accidentally' hit another Throskart who 'happened' to be standing right at the endpoint of another slash or stab.
The fight continued.
Once, Terrell swooped in on Jeremy, but instead of targeting him, he simply shot a large bolt right at the spider's head.
It turned into minced meat.
He sneered at Jeremy and snarked,
"Guess that kill goes to me…careful, lest you find yourself on the chopping block without warning…"
But Jeremy stood stock still.
What!?
He'd also gained a merit point from that spider!
Did that mean…it wasn't only a single merit point per monster?
They were able to work together for everyone to get some merits?
This was… totally game changing!
Jeremy hesitated before glancing at Terrell.
He decided to keep this little tidbit to himself.
But his fighting strategy changed entirely.
Instead of attempting to keep the spiders to himself, Jeremy did his best to get a couple hits on every single spider he could see.
Now he knew.
That even if someone else killed them, there'd be a chance for him to gain a merit, too…
Hours passed as the contestants continued to fight spider after spider.
Maybe for Jeremy and Terrell, it felt a bit like an all you can eat merit buffet.
But for others, it was a life or death scenario.
13 extra people died while fighting these monsters.
Finally, Jeremy collapsed on the sand as the sun fell slowly from the horizon
The monsters were all dead.
He checked his merit.
[768 merits]
He grinned.
He knew he wouldn't be dying today.
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