Aren looked at the man with a cold gaze.

"Do you really want to risk fighting me?" he asked.

"Definitely," the man replied. "I know you're pretty strong, but everyone here, not only me, hates your guts because you're a nobody who wants to stand on top. It pisses me off." His face twisted in rage as he spoke.

Aren heard that and couldn't help but smile.

"Seriously? My survival pisses you off? I've heard a lot of stupid things, but this takes the cake." He raised his hand slightly, showing the wolf guard on his arm. "If you wish to come against me, be prepared to die.

"I said killing shouldn't be our answer for everything… but I will kill if you threaten my life."

As Aren spoke, his eyes glowed faintly. The man felt a wave of fear surge through his body, like he had stared into the abyss itself. But despite the fear, he refused to back down.

A few others stepped forward as well, getting ready to fight, their eyes locked on Aren with full intention. They all wanted to take him down now.

Aren turned and looked around, noticing the people twitching to attack.

"You can all come at me whenever you want," he said calmly. "If you really want to risk it."

He spread out his hands.

A shadow rippled beneath him, and all his wolves appeared at once, including the merged wolf and the boss wolf he had just gained. The massive shadow wolf stood there, black lightning crackling across its body.

The awakened around him froze in shock.

They could feel the strength radiating from each wolf, and it was the same strength those beasts had possessed when they were alive, only now they were shadows obeying Aren completely.

'Tsk… I can't keep this show up for too long. Hopefully this works as a deterrent. Otherwise, I'll be forced to kill each of them now,' Aren thought. He kept his eyes placed on each of them closely.

All the awakened slowly stepped back, no longer wanting to push forward or fight. Even the very man who had challenged Aren retreated. It wasn't just that Aren had multiple shadow wolves, he had two massive ones, and one of them was the boss wolf that had required nearly every top awakened here to defeat.

If they went against Aren now, they would surely lose. It would be definite death.

It simply wasn't worth it.

Their faces twisted with frustration. If any of them found an opportunity to bring him down later, they most definitely would. But right now, none of them could stand against him. Only the A and S tiers had the potential strength to face Aren, and from the looks of it, even they wanted no part in massacring a hundred people.

They might be murderers now, but they still had fragments of control and ethics left in them.

As the crowd finally backed down, Aren unsummoned his shadows. He scanned the surroundings for anyone still foolish enough to try attacking him, but not a single person stepped forward.

Then his eyes fell on Elena.

She stared back with a grim expression. Everything she had wanted to do, take control of the situation, Aren had done instead. He hadn't done it to seize authority, he had done it to prevent Elton from molding them into obedient killers.

But Elena didn't know this.

To her, Aren had deliberately undercut her authority and taken the spotlight for himself. The realization infuriated her to her core. Yet she forced herself to smile.

Because she finally understood something.

Aren had strength, strength beyond her understanding. And only hours ago, she had shown him her worst side, planting a sour impression in his mind. If she wanted to ensure that he could be useful to her goals later, she needed to change her approach. She needed to act nicer. She needed to regain footing.

Her father, a veteran of the trials many years ago, had taught her one thing:

People are the best materials for building your stairs to the top.

That was the quote she lived by.

Taking a deep breath, she sat on the ground cross-legged, choosing not to look at Aren anymore. She needed to focus.

Aren also sat down cross-legged.

Everyone needed rest before Elton returned. Now that they were being forced into the full ten waves, Aren had the feeling that every awakened here would have their eyes on him, whether out of hatred, fear, or calculation.

He needed full strength for what was coming.

Leon sat down as well and glanced at Aren.

"That was crazy, you know that, right?"

Aren turned to him.

"You lot did the same thing when Elton asked us to search the platform with those map fragments. All of you stood against them and controlled the situation. Why is mine any different?"

"Because then, we didn't know what the reward was," Leon replied. "Their motivation was high, but not 'kill myself' high. But now they know they're stuck between a hard place and a rock. A dilemma. And you've come in with a third path, your own path."

He continued, "You stopped them from choosing the escape that was right in front of them. So now, they're like in a bottle. Two things can happen: either they stay sealed… or the pressure gets too much and they burst out in another direction."

"It doesn't matter," Aren said. "Whatever happens, I'll stand by what I said. The angel is playing a very bad game, pushing us to become puppets that do whatever she wants. I'm not going to fall for it."

Leon chuckled softly.

"Oh, I see. So that's what this was about. Honestly, I really thought you actually cared about everyone's lives here."

Aren looked around at the awakened, then slowly shook his head.

"There's only one life that matters right now. Mine. And something tells me that if we keep doing everything Elton wants… none of us will have any life left to matter."

Time slowly trickled by, and finally thirty minutes passed. To Aren's surprise, no one had attacked him. Elton finally appeared again.

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