—Seth Thorn
Seeing my name on the list for the expedition, I had to blink several times in order to make sure I was seeing correctly.
However, regardless of how many times I blinked, my name still remained on the paper.
Kyle’s voice reached me a moment after.
“What the hell did you do? Don’t tell me you asked for this to be the reward for your—”
“No, of course not.”
I cut Kyle off before he could finish his sentence.
“I’d rather have some sort of monetary compensation than ask for something like this. Are you crazy?”
In the first place, I was just as lost as him. How in the world did—
“Oh, about that…”
A sheepish voice echoed as both my head and Kyle’s head turned towards the source of the voice.
Rowan smiled a little bit while scratching the side of his neck.
“This might actually be my fault… The Team Leader asked me if I wanted to participate, but I’m in no condition to do so, and when asked who could replace me, the conversation headed in a direction where I just ended up recommending you. If you’re part of the squad, then—”
“You…”
Kyle cut Rowan off, his fist right in his mouth. It looked like he had many things that he wanted to say.
However, I stopped him before he could.
“So you recommended me in your place?”
“Oh, no.”
Rowan shook his head.
“Like I said. The conversation headed in a different direction. You’re not on the same level as me. Recommending you would be stupid. I recommended you for the support squad. I feel like you’d do a very good job.”
“What? Him…?”
Kyle looked at me with a doubtful look, mouthing things like, ‘What the fuck did you do? What drug did you feed him?’
I was a little offended, to be honest.
There was no drug involved. Just a lot of gaslighting and a very powerful recording from a high-class anomaly.
I wouldn’t stoop low enough to use drugs.
“Kyle, you should give it a try when you have time. I think it will help you a lot. I know that you go through a lot too, so—”
“Well, maybe some other time.”
Though he said this, Kyle didn’t look interested at all. That was fair. I didn’t really want to do any more therapy for now.
Especially since I was still unsure of whether it would even work on stronger people. It worked on those of the Second Order down, but I wasn’t really sure about those of higher order.
I needed to tread cautiously.
“Whatever the case is, you need to reject this. The Guild is quite flexible in these types of things. They won’t force you, and we’ve got plenty of other supporters that can go in your place.”
“…Oh.”
I was already aware of this.
I knew that I could just reject the call and be done with the situation, but staring at my laptop and looking at the quest, my lips pressed together tightly.
It had been a while since I had found the crack, and yet… nothing came out of it.
The quest had yet to be completed.
What did this mean?
‘Could the quest be related to me needing to go into the strange crack?’
A heavy feeling built up in my chest.
I was still unsure of what the crack did, but from speculations, it was some sort of gate.
I’d normally be worried and even terrified, but staring at the quest window and seeing the [Second Order] part on the difficulty section, I started to wonder if perhaps… the crack was a lot easier than people assumed.
Perhaps the anomaly wasn’t very strong?
No, maybe it had some sort of weakness that no one was aware of that made it easy to handle?
All sorts of thoughts drifted into my mind at that moment.
There were many voices that told me not to take the mission, but looking at the quest window and seeing the Second Order part, I almost felt certain that my previous thoughts were correct.
Either the anomaly we were handling had a serious weakness, or perhaps… the weird crack was some sort of small trial set up by the anomaly?
Whatever the case was, I needed more time to think about the situation.
Trrr—
At least…
That was what I thought until my phone vibrated and I looked at the message that suddenly popped up on my screen.
[Meet at the building in ten minutes. Do not be late.]
The message came directly from a number that I didn’t know, and looking up, I saw Kyle staring back at me.
“You better not even think about it.”
I forced a smile while getting off my chair.
“Do you really think I can just not show up? I still have to go, but I’ll see if I can reject the offer.”
“Will you really?”
Kyle’s eyes narrowed, his face filled with doubt.
“What? Come on… You know I hate scary things. If it’s too creepy, I’ll just quit.”
“I’d have believed you if it were the past, but I’m starting to doubt you. You’ve changed.”
“Come on…”
I looked at Kyle sincerely.
“You know very well I don’t lie about this stuff. You even saw me puke before coming here.”
“That’s true…”
Kyle seemed to be a bit more relieved after hearing that. Eventually, with a sigh, he nodded his head.
“Alright, let’s go.”
He moved out the door, and I followed right behind him.
Closing the door behind me, I scratched the back of my head. I could’ve sworn I was forgetting something.
A faint, muffled sound came from behind the doo,r and I ignored it.
—Wait, hold on! What about my session?
Right, right…
***
The house was even more packed than usual. Coming into the place with Kyle, we were immediately escorted to a certain room where several people appeared. The atmosphere was quite tense as all eyes were focused on a certain tablet on the table.
“Oh, Kyle, you’re here…”
“You’re just in time.”
Immediately, everyone greeted Kyle while I stood by the side, completely ignored.
I didn’t really mind this sort of treatment. In fact, I preferred things to be this way since I liked to avoid attention.
I was just about to slip away and lose myself in a quiet corner of the room when my eyes landed on Zoey, seated in one of the chairs, casually eating and playing some kind of game on her phone.
She looked to be really into the game.
…The same was for the chips. Looking at her shove several of them at once while playing the game with one hand, it was a very interesting sight.
Especially when…
‘Talk about not liking normal flavor. Just look at her. No one would believe her if they saw this si—’
My thoughts suddenly paused.
As if sensing my stare, Zoey casually raised her head, and our eyes met.
Her entire body seemed to freeze, her hand suspended mid-motion with a few chips still clutched in her fingers.
“Ah…”
That was the only sound that came out of her mouth in that moment as I hastily turned my head away, trying my best to hide the slight curling of my lips.
But as if she spotted it, her entire face changed, and she dropped her phone on the table.
She pressed both hands against the table, starting to rise when—
“You—!”
“Good, it looks like everyone is here.”
The Team Leader arrived, and all noise ceased.
Without paying any attention to the atmosphere, the Team Leader moved towards the central desk and sat down, his face incredibly grim.
“I’ll start this meeting off simply.”
His voice trailed off, his gaze pausing on each and every person in the room.
“If you don’t want to die, quit now. This is your only chance. Because…”
The Team Leader paused.
“…You won’t be getting a second chance once you’re dead.”