"The final match after this end match is the real battle royale," Jack explained.
Jack then turned to Saddie and asked, "That's why your team only has five members, correct?"
Saddie nodded. "Why bother saving the ones in the sacrificial rounds when in the end they will be among the ones who try to kill you? Even the five in our team only agree to temporarily work together to reduce the number of the other teams. Once sufficient threats have been eliminated, we will go our own ways to prepare. All the tools you gather in this match will carry over to the final match's arena."
"What happens when you win this final match? Do you get a reward…? Like, maybe… freedom?" Winson asked.
"There is no freedom," Saddie replied. "You can forget to ever get it from the people in charge of this place. All the winner of this game gets is simply the right to rest while the others are forced to go through grueling and tiring training sessions to quickly get back to sufficient levels for the next game. Freddie from my team is the reigning champion in every game he participated."
Jack now addressed everyone, "You hear that, folks? All the organizers of this game want from us is to serve as their entertainment, forever! There is no escape. There is no freedom! If you want one, you have to take it yourself!"
"Do you have a way?" Tom asked.
"Yes. Thanks to this a*shole, we have a chance to be removed from this restriction imposed on us," Jack pointed at Master, who was starting to get irritated for constantly being called an a*shole.
"Once the restriction is removed, we will have the power to fight back. I will also have the ability to sense the doorway that might bring us to the exit of this place."
Master turned to Jack with a frown. He was wondering if this guy was telling the truth or simply trying to motivate the crowd. He also had a method to find the exit but he was planning to keep it to himself.
andasnovel.com The others, who heard Jack, had their expressions brightened, especially those from his team. They believed in Jack and they knew he won't let them down. Saddie was rather astonished seeing this level of trust. Even though she also wanted to believe in Jack, she was actually rather skeptical.
"All right, everyone rests. Tomorrow morning, I will go and find the last member of my team," Jack informed. "At noon, we will go to break this place that can give us our abilities back."
"If you are talking about the woman native from your team, there is no need to go search anymore," Saddie said to Jack. "She has died."
When Jack gave her a questioning look, Saddie added, "My team killed her."
"You, despicable murderer…!!" Winson yelled. Kerry was a native, so her death was permanent. Winson was about to lunge at Saddie when Spring Crown held him back.
"Aside from the ones in this room and Freddie, there is no one else out there," Saddie said. "The fourth team outside of the three inside here has been wiped out. My team made sure of that."
Jack looked down in sadness. "Well, what's done is done. Rest! We will depart early morning tomorrow to get our abilities back."
Jack walked to a corner of the room to take a rest while Grace and Spring Crown organized the people to take turns keeping watch. They had to make sure at least one person is awake in case the night hunters tried to break through the entrance.
When Jack got near the corner, he suddenly heard a beep from his God-eye monocle. The eight-hour duration from the equipment-free stone was not yet over. A marking appeared in his vision, denoting one part of the floor that was covered by rubbles.
Jack went over and cleared the rubble. The others were confused seeing his action. Kramer who had been following Jack closely to rest near him helped clear the rubbles without being asked. Everyone else came over due to curiosity.
After the rubble was cleared, everyone saw that the floor was empty. They wondered what was the point of clearing the rubbles there.
The marking on Jack's God-eye monocle was still there. That's why he noticed something the others didn't see. He leaned closer and saw a thin line along the floor, forming a square shape.
'A secret door!' Jack thought.
He blew hard at the floor and it turned out the dust was hiding a recess on the floor. He slipped his hand into the recess and grabbed a handle. He then pulled. It was heavy, but it was nothing for his strength. The secret door started opening.
Everyone stared at the hole in the floor with wide eyes. The inside was dark. They couldn't see what was in there. There was a vertical stair they could use to climb down.
"I will go down and check first. Everyone else stays up here," Jack said.
"I will go down too," Saddie said. "If this is what I think it is, we are in luck."
"I will go as well," Master declared. He also had an idea of what was down there.
"Then I will go too," Grace said. She won't let Jack down there without backup if Master was going.
"Well, I will be up here and take care of the others then," Spring Crown said with a smile.
So, the four climbed down the stairs with Jack in the lead.
It was pretty deep. Jack saw a dim light in the distance when his feet touched the ground. The dim light let him know he was in a tunnel. He walked in the direction of the dim light. He came into an enclosed small room with shelves. Multiple things were on the shelves.
"As I thought. it is a stash room!" Saddie said when she came into the room.
"A stash room?" Grace asked.
"It's a place where a lot of tools are stored," Saddie explained. "Throughout my three games, I've only found a stash room one time, and that was also by pure luck."
Jack wasn't exactly listening to Saddie because his eyes were fixated on one particular thing on the shelves.
He walked to the thing, picked it up, and uttered, "F*ck yeah! It is a f*cking RPG launcher…!"
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