Chapter Thirty
[First Mission Assigned: Ti To Stream, Baby!, Make The Viewers Go Broke!]
[Ti To Stream, Baby : Host is required to enter the Crystal Realm in thirty minutes and begin streaming. Inside the Realm, the host must find the Awakening Crystal and awaken his hidden details successfully through Elexian Tower.]
[Make The Viewers Go Broke : During the ti period of this mission, the host must attain a total number of gifts from the seven sins that is equivalent to 400 shop points.]
[Countdown To First Mission: 1 Hour 32 Minutes]
[Rewards:]
[Punishnt: Torture By Xen’s hands, Dissolution Of The System]
Ren blinked at the blue screen as he let out an irritated sigh. "Hao! Hao! Why don’t you just kill like that? Why threaten ? Plus, it was you who brought here! When did I ask for your system!?"
HONK! HONK!
Ren lifted his gaze to look up at the honking vehicle, already feeling a headache forming behind his eyes. Sian sat astride a matte black motorcycle, one boot on the pavent, helt hooked on the handlebar. His blue hair was ssier than usual, wind-tossed from riding.
"Broski?! What are you yelling at? Weren’t you going to the venue with that Elena?"
Ren glanced at the blue screen still hovering in his peripheral vision. The system had gone silent again.
"Just talking to myself," Ren said, shoving the pistol into the back of his waistband and pulling his shirt over it. The tal was cold against his skin. "Weren’t you leaving like fifteen minutes back?"
"I knew that Elena would leave you behind. She is a spoiled process who can’t do anything properly. So, I was waiting for you. Get on! We’re getting late! I’ll take you to the venue!"
Ren stared at Sian for a long mont. The motorcycle idled with a guttural hum. Sian’s expression was caught sowhere between impatience and genuine concern.
"You waited for ," Ren chuckled as he wiped the splatters of blood off his cheek.
"Don’t make it weird, broski." Sian looked away, scratching the back of his neck. "I just didn’t want to show up alone. Miss Alex is... a lot. And Elena was supposed to be your ride, who is conveniently... gone." He shrugged, a little too forcefully. "Get on before I change my mind."
Ren almost smiled as he made his way to Sian’s bike. "Don’t think that bad about her. She had to take an injured person to hospital."
"I don’t really care about won like her."
"Whatever you say." Ren answered, not wanting to argue over Elena as he swung his leg over the back of the bike. The seat was worn leather, cracked in places, and it slled like gasoline and sea salt. "You’re surprisingly considerate for soone who acts like an idiot, though."
"Says the guy yelling at thin air in an empty parking lot." Sian twisted the throttle, and the engine roared. "Hold on tight, princess."
"Call princess again, Sian Rover and I’ll—"
The bike shot forward before Ren could finish, cutting his threat into a strangled grunt as he grabbed Sian’s shoulders to keep from flying off the back.
Sian’s laugh was swallowed by the wind.
—
The Zenia Sea appeared on the horizon like a strip of hamred tal, grey-blue and restless under the afternoon sun. The road widened as they left the city behind, buildings giving way to sparse trees and then nothing but coastal grass swaying in the salt-heavy wind.
Ren’s thighs ached. His knuckles were white from gripping the seat. But his mind was sowhere else entirely. ’It’s been three weeks... I wonder, how’s Monica?’
"How long till we reach, Sian?"
"Lift your head and look, broski. We are here."
The bike crested a low hill as the world opened up.
Ren lifted his head.
The Zenia Sea sprawled beneath a sky streaked with clouds, grey-blue water stretching to a horizon that seed impossibly far. But the sea wasn’t what stole his breath.
The portal was.
It hung above the beach like a wound in the air. It was a massive oval of swirling rainbow light, easily fifty feet across, spinning slowly like a galaxy caught in amber.
Colors bled into each other: deep purples, electric blues, violent reds, all churning and shifting with a speed Ren felt in his teeth.
Beneath the portal, the beach teed with people.
Hundreds of them.
Candidates in matching dark uniforms milled near the water’s edge, their pale faces a mix of excitent and barely concealed terror.
Officials in grey moved among them, checking wristbands and pointing toward a large white tent pitched further up the sand.
Families clustered on makeshift wooden platforms, mothers clutching handkerchiefs, fathers with their jaws set and their eyes too bright.
Vendors had set up carts along the road leading down to the beach, selling water and sandwiches and small crystal trinkets that caught the light. The air slled like fried dough, sea salt, and expensive perfu.
"It’s a carnival," Ren muttered.
"Death carnival," Sian corrected, killing the engine. "Most of those who don’t pass the test commit suicide or their families kill them to preserve their dignity."
’Who would know better than ? After all, the original owner was left to commit suicide as well.’
"Where did you stuff that mask I asked you to buy on the way?" Ren asked, getting off the bike as he stared at the crowd, trying to spot Monica.
Sian blinked before grinning from ear to ear. His grin seed to be screaming I’m about to be insufferable. "Oh, the massssskkk."
"Sian."
"Relax, broski." He swung off the bike, stretched his back with a loud crack, then pulled out the mask from his pocket. "I chose the best one in the stall earlier. Here."
Ren took it. The fabric was cheap polyester, and sure enough, there was a silver skull pattern across the mouth area. "It’ll do."
"It’ll make you look like an edgy teenager."
"I’m fine with that."
Sian snorted but didn’t argue further.
Ren pulled the mask over his head. The elastic bit into his ears a little, but the fabric covered everything below his eyes. The skull pattern sat right over his mouth, silver teeth grinning against the black.
Ren caught his reflection in the bike’s mirror. ’I can’t let my identity be revealed in front of Xen, right now. It’s very unlikely that he’ll let have that slave if that slave had truly saved Ren’s grandmother.’
"Ren, look! There’s Monica and Alex." Sian’s excited yell pulled Ren out of his thoughts as he looked up with eyes desperately searching for a glance of Monica.
However as soon as Ren’s gaze landed on that familiar lustrous black hair, he witnessed a very familiar man with twelve bodyguards trailing behind him approach them.
’Xen Loaine.’
[Countdown To First Mission: 1 Hour 10 Minutes]
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