Chapter 17: Virtual reality [5]   [Teammate Park Jinho has died - Team points: 4]

"Trash"

"khhhkk…plea…se"

-Crack!

Swiping away the notification, Arnold clenched his hand and the sound of a neck-breaking spread across the surroundings.

-Thud!

"Useless garbage"

Throwing away the lifeless body, which soon turned into light particles, Arnold's mood couldn't be any gloomier.

"What happened?"

Sitting comfortably on top of a large rock a pale black-haired youth with yellow pupils spoke to Arnold with an amused smile.

"None of your business!"

Irritated by the youth's presence, Arnold grumbled and walked away.

"Hey don't be so mean! Just because we are on top of a mountain and Jin isn't here doesn't mean you can ignore me like that!"

Jumping off the rock, the black-haired youth happily followed Arnold, further irritating him.

If Ren was here he would've immediately been able to recognize the identity of the man following Arnold. There was only one man in the whole academy who had yellow pupils.

Rank 18 Troy Derekz

A borderline psychopathic student who in the middle stages of the novel becomes an infamous villain.

He like Arnold was one of the three lackeys that followed Jin, but unlike Arnold who voluntarily chose to be his lackey, he had no choice but to become one.

In reality, his father was a direct subordinate of Jin's father. Knowing that his son was approximately the same age as his boss's son, Troy's father—William Derekz, forced Troy to get along with Jin even though he absolutely despised the man.

Born with a golden spoon without needing to be forced to prostrate towards someone just because of their father's influence, or having a happy family that isn't on the verge of a breakdown because of an abusive father who only thinks about work. Jin had everything.

He had what Troy didn't. Money, influence, power, and most of all a loving family.

Consumed by his jealousy and hatred towards Jin, Troy got approached by Professor Thibaut and was tempted into forming a contract with a demon.

The Demon clans were split into 7 clans, each according to the 7 heavenly sins.

This may seem like some cliche story writing, but for Ren, who at the time was thinking of different ways to approach the concept of demons and villains, the 7 heavenly sins sounded like the most well-matched concept he could come up with. It was the perfect scenario that helped him portray the relationship between villains and demons.

A villain was someone who made a pact with a demon when their desire overcome their rationality.

For example, if you found yourself in despair towards a person who was far more talented than you, an emotion called 'Jelousy' would begin sprouting inside of you. Or when you see a really beautiful girl you want to make yours, what you experience is both 'greed and lust'.

Once you experience such emotion, it either subsides over a period of time or becomes stronger as the distance between you and the said 'target' increases.

And in this case, as your desire/negative emotion increases, the demon clan that is most compatible with you makes their appearance in the form of an agent and tempts you into making a deal with you in exchange for power.

Jealousy(Envy), hatred(Wrath), possessiveness(Greed), obsession(Lust), all negative emotions fall into the 7 heavenly sins.

Once a person experiences such emotions and lets it takes over their rationality, only then will the demon tribe with the respective compatibility step in and present you with a deal.

In Troy's case, who was in his own right incredibly talented, falls into an immense state of jealousy clouding all his judgments, resulting in the demon clan of 'envy' to personally make a move.

Because of Troy's immense talent, the 'envy' clan directly approached him instead of contacting him through a clan sub-branch.

A sub-branch, also known as a collection of minor tribes, was a collective of demons whose bloodline was more diluted compared to the main clans.

A demon's rank was determined by their bloodline purity—ranked from, King, Prince/Princess, Duke, Marquis, Earl, Viscount, and lastly Baron.

The higher the title, the stronger they were. with the Demon King being the strongest.

The consequence of having a more diluted bloodline resulted in the contractee being given a lower amount of power as compared to a cantractee who had made a pact with a pure-blooded demon.

Hence why Troy who signed a pact with a pure-blooded demon of the clan of 'envy' becomes an extremely tricky opponent to face in the middle of the story.

The reason why sub-branches existed was because a demon could only make one pact per human. Unless the human died or became stronger than the demon they made a pact with, the contract will never break.

Because of the limited number of pure-blooded demons, only a select amount of humans could make a pact with them. Only the best, and most talented humans could make a contract with them.

If the human was not very talented, then the sub-branch would step in and offer them a contract.

It has to be noted that a demon could never break a contract once it was made, as their soul was directly linked to the contract.

If they forcefully tried to break the contract, they may be at risk of having their soul pulverized.

In the end, only someone of Troy's level of talent could tempt one of the main clans to make a move.

"Stop following me"

"Oh come on! Why do you want to get rid of me so badly?"

"You know why!"

"I told you many times already, it's not my fault she likes me better!"

-Crack!

Suddenly, Arnold stopped and the ground beneath his feet started cracking. Below his feet, countless minute crevices started extending from where he stood.

With blue veins bulging out from the top of his head, Arnold turned around and glared in Troy's direction, who was leisurely walking behind him and coldly said

"Just because you are ranked higher than me, doesn't mean I won't hesitate to attack you here!"

"Oh, chill out man! I was only stating the truth!"

Raising his hands in a sign of surrender, Troy took a couple of steps back.

"Hmph!"

Clenching his teeth, Arnold turned around and ignored Troy.

"It's not my fault I was born this handsome"

"I'll Ki—khhh"

-Roar!

Suddenly just as Arnold was about to lash out against Troy due to his stupid remarks, a large shadow emerged from behind a couple of rocks and pounced him.

Raising his shield, which was his main weapon, Arnold barely managed to take the full grunt of the attack not before being pushed back five steps.

"Guukhh!"

A split second after he managed to stabilize his body, Arnold stared at the ferocious creature whose features started becoming discernable.

Orange fur, muscular upper body, fangs that extended from its mouth to the upper end of its arms, and blood-red eyes. A beast that resembled the long-extinct 'saber-tooth tiger'

"fuuuuu, didn't expect the famous D-ranked 'Metal-fanged Smilodon' to make its presence here today…this test sure is harder than I expected"

Reading his stance, Arnold raised his shield and roared.

"Huuuu!!!"

Provoked by Arnold's spirit, the metal-fanged Smilodon similarly roared and dashed towards him.

-Roar!

-Klang!

The sound of a collision could be heard from the distance, as a flock of birds escaped from the nearby trees.

As soon as the dust settled three large claw marks appeared on Arnold's shield. However, if one looked carefully, Arnold remained rooted in the same spot he was before the clash.

"Gaaaah!"

-Bam!

As the Metal-fanged Smilodon tried to assault Arnold once again, Arnold dipped his body and shoulder tackled the incoming beast.

"Graah!"

Being tackled by Arnold, the Metal-fanged Smilodon lost its previous momentum and felt its body being raised a couple of centimeters in the air.

-Boom!

Taking advantage of the opening, Arnold swung his shield, in a punching motion, towards the beast's stomach sending it flying towards a nearby tree.

-Thud!

Back first, the Metal-fanged Smilodon wailed in pain as its back crashed against a nearby tree.

"huu…huu.huuu"

With heavy breaths, Arnold stared in the direction where he sent the beast flying.

-Roar!

Before Arnold had the chance to rest, he saw the Metal-fanged smilodon appear from the side of his view.

-Klang!

Skilfully switching the shield to his left hand, Arnold felt a tremendous momentum being transmitted to his body sending him staggering backward a couple of meters.

-Klang!

"Grruuu!"

Before Arnold could have a chance to catch his breath, the beast relentlessly attacked him from every direction.

"Basta…khh…rd help me d.ammit!"

Turning his head towards where Troy was leisurely standing, Arnold cursed as he kept on withstanding the continuous onslaught of attacks coming from the beast.

"Oh? So you can't hold it any longer?"

-Klang!

-Klang!

-Klang!

"Qui…khh… I might ac…khaa…tually huff…huff… die!"

"Say please?"

"QUICK!"

"Ah fine jeezzz"

Extending his right hand forwards, a bow suddenly appeared in Troy's hand.

Pulling the string back, a translucent blue arrow suddenly materialized on the bow.

"Let's make this quick"

Licking his lips, Troy closed his left eye and aimed at the Tiger's head.

Just as he was about to release the bowstring, suddenly a notification appeared in Arnold's view, completely stunning him.

[Your teammate Rank 1750 Rank Dover succeeded in completing the hidden task (Lake trial), awarded +1 point. Team points: 5]

That one split moment of time where Arnold was stunned was enough for the beast to seize the opportunity and break through his defense.

"Wha…khuu!"

"AAAGHHH!"

[You have died]

[Rank 75 Arnold Kane has died, team points: 4]

Those were the last words Arnold saw before his view suddenly became dark.

-Swooosh!

-Splat!

-Roooar!

Soon after Arnold died and his body turned into light particles, a blue arrow dug its way into the tired beast's eye.

-Swoosh!

-Swoosh!

-Thump!

Before the beast could recover, two more arrows quickly dug their way towards where the first arrow hit, killing the beast completely.

"Fuuu…"

Seeing the beast turn into light particles, Troy bitterly laughed.

"Oops!"

…

"How are you guys holding up?"

Standing on top of a large boulder, Kevin looked behind him where a small group of people had gathered.

"Could've been better"

-Thud!

Grumbling, Emma jumped off from the top of a tree.

"We should be safe for now so let's get moving"

Walking ahead of Kevin, Emma turned her attention to Amanda who was a few meters ahead, quietly observing the area.

"What are you doing?"

"…Observing"

"Observing what?"

"Everything"

Letting out a sigh, Emma walked up to Amanda whose face was expressionless, and hooked her arm around her fair slender neck

"What am I gonna do with you?"

Startled by Emma's sudden action, Amanda looked at Emma in confusion.

Finally, after noticing Emma's cheeky grin, Amanda realized she was messing with her and tried to free herself from Emma's arm.

"Let go"

"hehe, let's see how strong the almighty Amanda is"

Gripping even harder, Emma laughed as she enjoyed seeing Amanda's expressionless face slowly turn red due to what seemed to be either oxygen deprivation or anger.

While Emma was busy annoying Amanda, some of the male students around them couldn't help but fix their sight on them.

"Seen enough?"

Leaning against a tree, Jin glared at the students who were mesmerized by the two girls playing around. He seemed to be in an especially bad mood today.

Flinching, the students who were busy admiring the girls, looked at Jin in fear. Overwhelmed by his glare they hurriedly backed off.

Kevin, who saw this scene from afar, couldn't help but lightly grin as he walked up to Jin.

"Still salty about your loss?"

"Tch…you were just lucky"

Clicking his tongue, Jin clenched his fists and looked away.

Previously, Kevin and Jin were fighting to get the extra point from the hidden task.

Their hidden task consisted of finding a certain flower that was located in the mountain region they had spawned.

Because the task relied on pure luck, once he lost, Jin couldn't help but feel his mood plummet to the ground.

If Kevin had managed to win based on his skills then Jin wouldn't have made a big deal out of it, but since this win purely came from luck, Jin felt as if he was robbed.

Unfortunately, rules were rules, and no matter how salty he was, he could do nothing about it.

"Ehm…excuse me"

A slightly timid voice disrupted their conversation, prompting Kevin to turn around.

Following his line of sight, a small timid young girl with adorably large eyes looked at both Kevin and Jin with a red face.

Holding the edge of her shirt, her eyes drifted left and right as she struggled to find the right words to say.

Looking at the adorable girl in front of him, Kevin couldn't help but chuckle.

"Yes?"

"Ehm…ehm…"

"Quick say what you need to say!"

"Eeek!"

Jin, who wasn't as patient as Kevin, immediately raised his voice causing the young girl to lightly flinch.

"Ohi, what was that for?"

"Hmph"

Slightly glaring towards Jin's direction, Kevin looked back at the young girl and spoke in a kind tone.

"How can I help you?"

In a voice that was almost inaudible, the young girl looked at Kevin and said.

"Ehm…I am in your team"

"…Eh?"

Freezing for a split second, Kevin's smile momentarily faltered as he tried his best to remember the faces of his team members.

Previously when Kevin spawned in the waiting room, everyone kept their distance from him. Several factors may have caused his team members to avoid him. Most likely, due to their inflated ego, they couldn't help but become jealous of him who displayed an astonishing level of talent despite coming from a poor background. Of course, this may not be the only reason as to why they ignored him, but Kevin wasn't too keen to find out.

He was simply used to being alone.