Chapter 618: The Group
The five figures remained still after stepping out of the unstable rift. Their weapons still raised as their eyes moved across the battlefield that left them momentarily speechless.
The ruined skyscrapers stretched endlessly in every direction, entire sections of the city flattened beyond recognition while the ground had been torn apart into deep fractures. All of it converging into a massive crater at the center.
The scale of destruction was far beyond anything they had expected to encounter in a Scenario and for a moment none of them could fully process it.
One of them lowered their weapon. His expression tightening as realization began to settle in.
He muttered under his breath with an uncertain voice. "This... isn’t normal."
Another one of them let out a quiet breath, eyes still scanning the devastation as they responded. "No kidding. This looks like a full collapse event."
The words lingered between them as they tried to piece together what had happened here.
In their minds, the conclusion came naturally.
A disaster on this level should have left behind countless deaths and casualties. There should have been bodies scattered across the ruins as signs of people who had been caught in the destruction, evidence of a large-scale loss of life.
But there was nothing. No corpses or remains. Only silence.
And at the center of it all stood a single young man.
Not far behind him, four others remained at a distance in different states. They were injured and barely able to stand. Their bodies showed clear signs of exhaustion. Yet they were alive. All of them.
The five figures exchanged brief glances, their confusion deepening.
One of them spoke in a low voice, almost as if they didn’t want the thought to become real. "They’re the only ones?"
Another nodded slightly, still staring ahead. "Looks like it."
A short silence followed as they processed the implication of that fact.
Then one of them spoke again, their tone dropping even lower. "So you’re telling me... these people cleared the last Scenario boss on their own?"
"Seems like it," one of them said.
"That’s insane." Another exhaled slowly with disbelief.
Their attention returned to Clyde.
He had not moved. He simply stood there, calm and composed, as if everything around him had no meaning. That was enough to unsettle them.
One of them, the tall man with brown skin, narrowed his eyes slightly as he observed him more closely.
"That guy. He’s the one who finished this monster," he said.
Another one of them nodded faintly. "Yeah. You can feel it. The energy around him is still unstable."
A third tilted her head, studying him from a different angle.
"He looks young. Too young, actually."
That only made it more unbelievable.
Another voice followed, saying with uneasiness. "But he doesn’t look shaken at all."
That detail lingered heavily in the air. Anyone who had just experienced something like this should have shown something. Fatigue, relief, shock, even fear. But Clyde showed none of it.
"He’s just standing there like this is nothing."
"Maybe he’s hiding it. Could be because of shock. Or maybe... he’s already used to it."
That thought settled heavily between them.
One of them shook their head slightly, rejecting it almost immediately. "No. That’s impossible. No one gets used to something like this."
"Then what?"
There was a brief pause before the answer came.
"Maybe he’s already broken inside."
Silence followed again. Not all of them agreed with that conclusion, but none of them dismissed it either.
Among the five, one person had remained completely silent the entire time.
He had not spoken once since arriving. His eyes were fixed on Clyde without wavering. Sharp and focused as he studied every detail. His stance, his breathing, the way he held his weapon, and the faint remnants of energy still lingering around him were all carefully observed.
Finally, the man spoke. "He’s dangerous."
The others glanced at him briefly, but their gaze remained locked on Clyde.
Clyde watched them in silence for a few seconds with his steady gaze as it moved across each of the five figures.
On the surface, his expression remained indifferent, almost uninterested, but behind that calm exterior his thoughts had already begun to move.
He knew them. Not their names of course. And not every detail about them. But it was enough.
They were not ordinary players. Not just another group that happened to arrive late. They were people who came from another place.
They had to be part of the Resistance.
The same hidden group that opposed the Higher Realm. The ones who operated in secrecy, gathering strength while avoiding direct confrontation unless necessary.
In his previous life, he had stayed within their hidden fortress for a time. He had seen how they worked and how they hid themselves from the eyes of the higher beings. He even helped them doing tasks and gathering strength
For a short moment, that memory surfaced again clearly. But he didn’t show it to them.
His expression did not change.
"If I had gone there again at that last moment..." he thought wistfully, his eyes narrowing just a fraction. "They would’ve been found already. And destroyed entirely."
The conclusion came easily.
The Higher Realm did not tolerate threats like this that oppose their rules. If he had chosen to remain within that hidden place that time, and not his hidden Ruin, his existence alone would have drawn attention to them.
And when that happened, the consequences would not have fallen on him alone. The entire Resistance would have been exposed and destroyed.
But none of that could show on his face.
They could not know that he recognized them. Not yet at least.
That kind of information would only complicate things.
So Clyde simply exhaled slowly, his grip on his sword loosening slightly as he shifted his stance into a more relaxed attitude.
His eyes met them directly with that same calm and unreadable expression.
Then he spoke. "Who are you people?"
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