It all happened too fast, or perhaps the right phrase would be it happened out of nowhere. No one, as in no one, expected a Hero to be defeated by a Creep. And yet, here it was. Right now, being reported throughout the entire world.

The station that got the footage was being bombarded by several other bigger news stations, wanting to buy the drone and the rights for it—of course, the station refused all offers. They knew exactly what they had, a golden goose.

Even if the creep died later on, they would still be earning money as people would visit their pages to view it again and again. After all, right now, this was the biggest news in the Game.

Some people were covering it, making live reaction videos—but there was really only one channel everyone tuned in to get some answers, the official IBAA channel. And right now, their analyst was coming up with all the possibilities.

The studio was pristine white, with three massive screens displaying drone footage from different angles. The host, Conan, sat behind a curved glass desk that seemed to float in the air. Across from him, Dr. Helena Rhodes, one of IBAA's Game analysts, adjusted her glasses as she reviewed the footage.

Behind them, a wall of monitors showed several drone footage, heat maps of the battlefields, and social media feeds exploding with reactions. The IBAA logo rotated slowly in the corner of each screen—all of this, a reminder of how truly large the IBAA was.

"Now, folks. What we have here is very, very special. This is unprecedented," Conan said, glancing at the monitors behind him before pointing at the analyst. "Dr. Rhodes, you've had time to analyze the footage. What do you think happened here?"

Conan had a wide, excited smile on his face. But the first thing that came out of Dr. Rhodes's mouth was, "You're wrong, Conan. What the creep did wasn't anything special."

"What?!" Conan playfully slammed his palm on his desk, once again pointing at Dr. Rhodes with a smile on his face. "Slander! Look, even the people don't agree with you!"

Conan pointed at the screen with the chat next, and there were a lot of laughing and angry emojis flying everywhere. Dr. Rhodes saw this, and she raised her palm.

"Let me explain before you all crucify me," she said, leaning forward. "Gardo was only a D-tier Hero, almost E-tier, even. His specialty was sneak attacks, hit-and-run tactics. His physical prowess was rated to be in the F-rank, not much stronger than average level nine creep."

"That's true. That's true. But…" Conan nodded slowly. "…this is the first time this has happened."

"And that's the only thing that made it special," Dr. Rhodes replied without hesitation. "If it wasn't that creep, someone else would have eventually. I'm not undermining Gardo's abilities—he just got unlucky to fight a creep with such… tenacity. And even from afar, it's quite obvious this particular creep has a lot of expensive equipment."

"Ah!" Conan laughed, shaking his head. "How about the fact that he pulled out a sword from his chest?"

Dr. Rhodes also laughed at this. "We don't know that for sure since it was hard to see from above. The sword might have been caught between his armpit or even just slipped through the armor. As I said, everything we know is from afar."

"But then…" Conan squinted at this response. "…Wouldn't that make the creep even more impressive? He managed to hold Gardo back, pin him down, and then defeat him. Are you saying he caught the sword between his arm and managed to do all of that? We all watched the same thing—it was as if Gardo was trying to run away since he couldn't knock the creep down at all or kill him."

"Adrenaline is hell of a thing," Dr. Rhodes said, her tone becoming more serious. "Many creeps have experienced the same surge. This creep just happened to be a veteran, one step away from being a Hero, and had probably survived more than six Games or so. And… and! This might be someone who dumped everything on Strength because he didn't need the other attributes."

"Oh?"

"That's right." She looked directly at the camera and sighed.

"I might get flamed for being too realistic, so I'm gonna say this." She scooched forward in her seat and leaned. "That creep, if he survives the Game, would definitely become an A-tier Hero—and if I'm right... possibly even S-tier. And that's a big if. Whichever country the creep is from is very lucky."

"Wh—"

"I'm not done, Conan."

She raised a finger, then continued. "There's also a possibility that the creep was trained solely for the Game, and that's why he's capable of all these feats. We all saw it. He acted like a one-man army, and this is typical for those types of people. Very confident of their skill. There is one similar Hero, the S-tier Hero of Poland, Felix. He…"

Dr. Rhodes continued to say a lot of things. But of course, she was really only right about one thing.

Adam was now only one step away from becoming a Hero. The only thing he needed was to survive through the end of the Game—of course, it was already guaranteed that he would survive.

What wasn't guaranteed, however, was his mind… and heart.

Back in the Game, Adam was currently standing on top of dozens of corpses, his gaze down.

There was blood. Blood dripping from his hair, his face, his blade, his armor. Blood… everywhere. He was completely covered by it.

Even though his gaze was down, his eyes were wide open. And slowly, blood slid into them, but he didn't blink. Didn't even squint. He just stared down, staring at the eyes of the dead.

Bad. Evil. I'm very bad. Do I even deserve to live after this?

While the rest of the world waited in anticipation for what was next for him, Adam… Adam was losing his heart. It was all so fast, and so slow for him—as if everything was just happening for the sake of it happening.

No, for the sake of them killing each other.

It was so easy now.

It's… so easy to take a life. Is it me? Is it because of me? Of course. Of course, it's you. Adam.

Now that he was one step away from becoming a Hero, he'd become a lot stronger than when he was summoned to this Game—and it had only been several hours.

It was… so anticlimactic, so casual. So casual… that he didn't even realize just how strong he'd become. So strong to the point he could no longer stop himself. So strong that it felt like he was cutting through paper. That was what their flesh felt like now, paper.

Their bones, and their bones were just… tight rope.

Strong…

So strong, and so fast… that he didn't even realize he'd killed another child. The owner of the eyes he'd been staring at for a while now.

And it was the same child Adam had asked to be carried away to another lane.

Why… why is the kid here? I told him to bring—stupid. So… so stupid. Adam. So stupid. So naive. So—stop fucking wallowing. Stop being pathetic. Fight. No. Fight. No. You are here, fight. I can't… I don't deserve to live.

But you are alive. You have been. You will always be—that is your curse. Your burden. Your purpose. To suffer.

To suffer… for them. To carry them. The sheep.

No…

Yes. They are sheep. And you, Adam. You are the shepherd.

No. I… don't want this. I only want to help them. That's the same thing, isn't it?

No! I do this because I want to help them, everyone. No, you do this because they need help.

Stop deciding! If you want to be a shepherd, then take control already!

And how would that be possible, Adam? I'm you. And you've always been in control.

"Adam!"

Everything around Adam shifted, as if reality was snapping back into focus. The blood-soaked haze that had clouded his vision began to clear, and he realized he'd been standing motionless for who knows how long.

He didn't even realize it… but he hadn't been breathing at all.

He meekly looked at Hannah. She had her hand on his shoulder, her face twisted with concern and something else—fear, maybe.

Not of the enemy, but of him… maybe.

Behind her, dozens of Red creeps worked together in a coordinated assault on the enemy's middle crystal, their weapons striking in rhythm. The crystal's surface rippled with each impact, cracks spreading like spider webs across its translucent surface. They were halfway to breaking it.

"Adam, we need to move," Hannah said. "I'm sorry, I know it's hard. But we have to move."

"…Thank you." He finally raised his head and nodded. "Let's... get this—?!"

But before the two could actually take three steps toward their comrades, they saw a trail of green lightning dancing toward hundreds of them. The electricity moved as if it were alive, like a dragon swimming through the sand.

Adam quickly grabbed Hannah, his enhanced strength nearly lifting her off her feet as he dragged her away from the violent lightning. The electrical current torched and ran through the other red creeps, their screams echoing through the desert air as their bodies convulsed and then just fell.

Their smell quickly wafted through everyone's noses. One might think this smell would be nauseating—but not quite. It actually smelled good, well, only for a while.

Only until their brains realized what they were smelling.

The sand was everywhere now, and some even turned into glass. This haze, however, was quickly cleared with a whistle of… a weapon, perhaps?

Adam glanced in the direction of the whistle, which was also where the lightning came. And there, two figures were approaching them.

Two Heroes.

Two Heroes… already? He already struggled with holding back just one… and now he had to face two?

Shit.

Adam turned to look at Hannah, gritting his teeth before shouting,

"Retreat… Run!"

Of course, he wasn't going to fight them. He was, however...

"...I'll try to hold them back for as long as I can."

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