Chapter 28: 27. The Monster

Petra's POV at the start.

POV change when you find the asterisk.

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This room looked much safer than the first one, and we even had the chance to get some rewards if we cooperated nicely.

I closed the system screens and observed the floor; it had many numbered tiles, most of them were red and some were green. The fifth one was green, and so was the ninth one and many others. I deduced that the green ones must’ve been the ones with positive effects, due to the nature of the color and their rarity on the game’s board.

I am enjoying this adventure so far, I thought. A shitty contract and some smiles were all it took for me to get these freebies!

Running errands for Jason was nothing compared to the stuff that I got in return, and he didn’t have the guts to force me to do uncomfortable things. I knew the best way to clear this room, which was for everyone to choose the same numbers in such a way that they got positive rewards, and avoided negative ones.

So that’s why he asked me whether I remembered that he could order me around, I thought. He’s planning to control the numbers that I chose to prevent me from betraying him!

I felt exhilarated, knowing how simple-minded he was. I looked forward to gaining some more rewards without having to do anything troublesome.

Suddenly, he turned toward me and smirked.

“Do you believe in absolutes? Do you believe that things can only be either black or white?” he said, “in other words, do you believe that some people are inherently evil?”

Oh, there he goes again, I thought. Sometimes, he starts rambling and uttering some weird stuff.

“Huh?” was my reply to his rhetoric questions, I squinted my eyes to imply my confusion.

“Petra, do you consider yourself to be a good person?” he added with a more serious tone of voice.

“Of course, I am! I consider myself to be a righteous person,” I said.

It was true. I had many principles and I adhered to all of them; that’s what righteousness was, staying true to one’s ideals.

“Then let me tell you a story of someone,” he said as his eyes lost their focus, “This person was just about average in everything, and he had an average life waiting for him. Suddenly, a calamity hit the world, and everything went downhill for him. Some people bullied him, stealing what little things he had away from him. However, do you know what was the most painful thing? He raised his hand to ask a stranger for help, only to get punished by those that he asked. They did worse things than the bullies.”

I didn’t know whether the story happened in real life, or if it was a work of fiction. However, I knew that he was telling a story that he witnessed in some way, due to the nature of our contract.

“Maybe he asked the wrong person for help?” I said, “besides, he’s too naïve to believe in strangers!”

“Don’t you think that the person who tricked him is the one that should be punished?” he said, “What’s your opinion on this story?”

Of course, it was all the fault of that weakling who couldn’t even protect himself. This was a harsh world, and elite people had to step on the others to reach their goals.

The law doesn’t protect fools, I thought. That’s how it is, strong people like me can do whatever they want.

I knew that my thoughts were disgusting to most people, so I tried to lie and tell him that the manipulator should burn in hell.

But I found myself unable to utter those words. I tried to force myself to speak, and I did. However, something else came out of my mouth

“Really?! If someone got tricked then it’s their responsibility,” I said with a loud voice, “The victim is the one who should burn to death!”

“Heh, you’re a horrible person for having such thoughts, y’know?” he replied, “I guess this sets my heart at ease.”

Suddenly, the atmosphere in the room got heavier; I started shivering. His eyes looked hollow and he had a slight grin on his face.

I averted my gaze and started looking at my feet, unable to maintain eye contact with Jason.

“Let the game start,” he said as the name ‘Jason Stubbs’ appeared on the tile with the number zero on it, “What are you waiting for, Petra? Join the game!”

His tone of voice was cheerful, but I found it to be so creepy.

“Let the game start…,” I said, and my name appeared on the zeroth tile too.

I had a terrible feeling about this, but I didn’t know what was irritating me so much.

“Choose the number one in this turn, Petra,” he said.

Heh, what is he playing at? I thought. The first tile is red; which usually stands for negative things. Does he have some kind of plan?

A system screen appeared in front of me, asking me to confirm the number that I chose for the turn. I subconsciously thought of the number one.

Suddenly, I could see my name moving to the first tile, but his didn’t.

Another system screen appeared in front of me.

[You chose the lowest number among your companions!]

[You’ll move one tile ahead of them!]

 

[Tile Effect]

[You’ll lose seven thousand tutorial points! (Penalty will be applied after the end of the third phase of the tutorial)]

 

I opened my eyes widely and looked at Jason, only to see him smirking.

This is impossible! I thought.

“What number did you choose?” I asked him.

“The number six, which is greater than your number,” he said as laughed loudly, “That much is obvious, isn’t it?”

Is he deliberately going to force me to step on the punishing tiles? I thought. I might’ve exploited him a bit, but he’s not supposed to have noticed!

I couldn’t even refuse his orders, and I couldn’t lie either. My hands started shaking and my face sweated as I looked at the forty-fourth tile. It had a different outline than all the other tiles, and the word ‘Death’ was written under its number.

*

Petra was an amusing person, and I couldn’t stop grinning when I remembered how she manipulated me before. Someone would call this punishment a ‘divine judgment’, others would call it ‘karma’, and others would claim that I was too crazy for clinging too much to things that didn’t even happen in my current life.

If someone were to ask for my opinion on the nature of what I was about to do, I thought. Then I’d say that this was just a selfish desire that I felt compelled to satisfy.

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Some memories from my past life came rushing in. It was the third phase by then, and I had about four thousand tutorial points after beating Marla in the second phase. I felt that things were getting better than before; Chris and the teenagers used to beat me in the first phase whenever I got outside of the safe room. They wanted me to play the role of a meat shield for them, and I refused.

I lucked out in the second phase and wanted to use my fortune to progress in the third phase. I approached Petra, asking her for her protection. I was as transparent with her as possible and told her about my need for her protection.

I told her that I could do anything for her, as long as she treated me with minimum respect. She proposed a contract with severe clauses for me, but I had no other choices.

I agreed to the contract, and that’s when my nightmares started. The only clause that protected me in that contract prevented my death, directly or indirectly.

I had been such a fool back then, I thought. I even thought that she was cute at first!

She forced me to take a loan for a hundred larger mana stones from Vulpinus, which was equivalent to a million lesser mana stones. She used some of the funds to buy information and took the rest with her.

She ordered me to give her my tutorial points, as she didn’t have many of them. She then forced me to stay in the safe room, unable to gain any more tutorial points.

Thankfully, I still had some tutorial points by the end of the third phase, I thought. Otherwise, I would’ve had to deal with a bigger problem than debt.

Even in my current life, Petra managed to find her way toward me. She tried to charm me with her words, to gain my protection. She was a hypocrite, and I couldn’t stop grinning when I saw the look of despair on her face.

“Alright, good job!” I said as I clapped, “Next time, I’ll choose six and you’ll choose one.”

“…Yes,” she replied as tears dropped from her eyes, “What did I do to deserve this? Why…?”

“Just shut up, you don’t have the right to know,” I said as I abstained from answering, “All I can say is that I won’t kill you.”

She wiped her face with her forearms, but the tears kept falling. Her name advanced another tile ahead, as a system screen appeared in front of me.

[You chose the Highest number among your companions!]

[You’ll remain at your previous place!]

[One of your companions is breaching the trust you had for them! You can still clear the game if you trick them, or regain their trust!]

 

I ignored the system screens and focused on the game. The closest tiles with positive effects were the fifth tile, the ninth one, and the twelfth one.

I ordered Petra to choose the number one for two more turns, as I chose the number six. When she reached the fourth tile, she regained her composure and said:

“At this point, I lost some tutorial points, some EXP, and some skill levels according to system screens,” she bit her lower lip before she added, “something is bothering me, what does it mean that the penalties will be applied after the end of the third phase!”

Ahh, so she realized, I thought.

If the penalties were too big, she might end up at level one and without any tutorial points when the tutorial was over.

“Now, you’ll choose the number six!” I said, “and I’ll use the number five.”

After confirming my decision when the system notification appeared, I advanced five tiles ahead. I landed on a green tile that had a positive effect; a screen appeared in front of me.

[Tile Effect]

[You’ll gain a hundred thousand tutorial points! (Bonus will be applied after the end of the third phase of the tutorial)]

 

I asked Petra to use [Identify] on each tile, and to tell me their effects one by one. I made sure to control the numbers that we chose so that she landed only on tiles that deducted tutorial points.

I don’t want her to go back to level one, I thought. I still have some plans for her.

The game went by quickly. I landed only on the positive tiles, but Petra wasn’t as lucky as I was.

At this point, we both reached the tile that had the number fifty-seven; it was a positive tile that increased our EXP by two hundred thousand points.

I’ll consider this as compensation for the EXP that I made her lose at the beginning, I thought.

“Now, we’ll both choose the number three,” I said, “this way, we’ll reach the last tile at the same time!”

Our names both advanced to the last tile at the same time, as two system screens appeared in front of me.

[Congratulations, Hosts!]

[Hosts managed to clear this room! Hosts didn’t fall for the temptations, and trusted each other! Hosts are allowed to pass into the next level of the temple]

 

[Host gained some tutorial points]

 

A trap door appeared in the place of the last tile, and it opened.

“Alright, follow me!” I told Petra, “We have one more room to clear before we get some treasures!”

She was crying and her hands were shaking, but she complied nonetheless.

The total number of tutorial points that she lost in this game was a million points. It was more than what she would ever gain with her current powers, so the number of points that she would have by the end of the third phase was going to be zero.

She’ll struggle for the rest of this phase trying to gather some tutorial points, I thought. However, it’s all in vain.

The system said that tutorial points were proof that we went through the tutorial, so the people who didn’t have any were treated as if they were lesser beings. They were ostracized by the system and the alien races that visited our planet, and humans too started stigmatizing those that lacked points.

The traders didn’t want to deal with them, and most of the guilds didn’t accept them; all to protect their reputation in the new world.

Most of those poor people ended up doing illegal stuff to get by unless someone went out of their way to give them a chance, and that’s what I planned on doing with Petra.

Whenever you manipulate someone, never push them to a corner, I thought. You’ll have to leave them with some options.

Petra wouldn’t have anywhere to go to; thus she would be forced to work for me on my terms.

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