"Ugh!" Leon groaned from pain. Each time he used the simulation sharp pain in the head came with it. The longer he survived inside simulation, the more information he received, the bigger the headache was. The pain form overwhelming amount of information this time was splitting his head open.
'So being a Gladiator is not an option either,' Leon realized.
'If I end up in prison, I could still use the simulator many more times,' Leon thought.
'This would be my final attempt for now. I can't survive another two of such headache.'
[10 Energy Units Consumed.]
[Starting Simulations...]
[As soon as the teacher was defeated, suppression my headache, I jumped from the balcony, then again to the ground below. Without looking back, I kept running to the side. I hid myself on the other side of the castle. Because there were men in armor guarding, I couldn't run freely.]
[I spotted a wooden barrel, half-filled with water, and in desperation I climbed inside. It was cramped and cold, but it offered cover.]
[Moments later, a man in a red cape appeared, flanked by soldiers. They surrounded the barrel with unsettling precision as if they had put a tracker on me. With this, I could finally confirm that my exact location had already been known. From this, I realized that no matter where I ran, the man in the red cape would always know.]
[Realizing there was no escape, I surrendered. I was imprisoned in a cell alongside Anna.]
[Since knocking her out had failed, I changed my approach. Maybe because we are in a different world, some sort of kinship ignites in their brains as time passes. I decided to take advantage of that. I remembered that she became more docile with each passing day in the simulation. So this time, I feigned surprise at being locked in the same room with Anna and immediately offered her the bed. She scoffed, saying the bed was too tame for her tastes. I expressed deep regret that there was only one bed and nothing could be done about it. After a pause, she reluctantly took it.]
[I began praising her adaptability, her calm under pressure. I indirectly complimented her strength, her elegance, her upright character. Each time I spoke, she stiffened slightly, trying to maintain her image, also trying not to show how much the words affected her.]
[I mentioned her family's Esper ability, how mesmerizing it was to see weapons conjured from their body. In response, she demonstrated a few techniques. Blades shimmered in and out of view, ethereal and deadly. I watched with practiced awe on my face.]
[By the second day, she had warmed to me, a lot more than what I expected. Her tone softened. She spoke freely about her family, her training, her childhood. Stories poured out of her. She told me about her pet cats, their names, their favorite snacks. Once she started, she didn't want to stop. I started regretting my decision on trying to befriend this chatterbox. Not like I expected a psychopath like her to have such a side.]
[By the third day, Anna grew restless. She paced the room, anxious and silent. Her eyes lingered on the door more often. She struck it twice with her conjured axe, but the wall did not budge. I asked what had happened to her and why she was suddenly acting impatient. She snapped at me. Then suddenly apologized. Her face was pale, she looked grim. I don't remember it being like this in the previous simulation. Something was not right with her. I don't know what it was. But I know she was mentally vulnerable. And I had to take advantage of that.]
[That evening, I confessed that I had long harbored a huge crush on her. That being locked in this room with her didn't feel so terrible to me.]
[She fell completely silent. No reaction. No response. Just quiet. The kind that lingered.]
[That night, I couldn't sleep. I lay on the cold floor, staring at the ceiling. Then I heard it. Soft, almost muffled. Weeping. Anna was crying.]
[I approached her. She admitted she was hungry. I offered her the bread the captors had given us. She refused.]
[Then she told me her family's ability came with a hidden cost. The conjured weapons were only one half of their power. The other half was a monstrous alter ego, an entity that lived within. Every three months, her alter ego had to be fed. Raw flesh. If not, it would go berserk.]
[Tonight was the third month.]
[Anna turned to face me. Her eyes glowed faint crimson. She said that once the transformation began, she wouldn't be able to stop herself. I would die.]
[She admitted she had originally planned to sever my arm before losing control to feed her monster self. But after spending these days, she no longer believed she could go through with it.]
[It came to me as a surprise. While I did find it weird how easily she became fond of me, I never expected her to be so weak. What has to be done has to be done. And I need to make sure I survive.]
[When morning came, Anna had no memory of what happened the night before. But when she saw my missing left hand, the truth became clear to her. I told her not to dwell on it, saying it was for the best for both of us.]
[Anna said nothing.]
[Later that day, we were taken out of the cell. If my estimation was correct, this was after all the abductions carried out by the Gladiator King had happened.]
[In a large hall, my remaining classmates and I stood in the center, surrounded on all sides by people in armor. I could feel that the atmosphere around my classmates was different from before. They used to be strong and arrogant. Now they looked worried, yet still arrogant.]
[It was obvious to everyone by now that in this place, Esper abilities didn't work the same way. So every one of my classmates had grown weaker than before. And I, who used to be the weakest, was now even weaker.]
[In front of us stood the man in the red cape. Beside him, a man in a robe chanted something, glowing energy gathering around him. When it fully formed, it targeted the man in the red cape. Then he spoke. And when he spoke, we could understand his foreign language.]
[He introduced himself as "Alexander McQurim." He said this was the 1109th year of the Imperial Age and that we were currently in the Kingdom of Veylaria. The Kingdom of Veylaria had no king upon its throne. Instead, power rested in the hands of the High Houses, the Council of Crowns.]
[There is a ritual in which they summon heroes from another world. These people receive very powerful blessings when they arrive in this world, so they hold great value. Their plan this time was to summon a group of heroes, but the ritual failed for some reason. That was normal, as the ritual has a very high chance of failure. When that happens, there is a chance for wormholes to open and allow dangerous otherworldly creatures to enter this world.]
[But what appeared instead of monsters were humans from a completely unknown world. From their observations, although we possess special powers of our own, they are not the same as the blessings that heroes receive when summoned.]
[They received orders to capture and observe us. However, information leaked. Alexander explained that those summoned with blessings are saviours of this world. But things do not always go well for them when they arrive here. Because heroes or not, otherworldly beings hold great interest for different types of people. Influential figures behind the scenes managed to take some of our classmates away. We were originally supposed to be kept under observation for a month, but they were forced to change their plans.]
[Alexander gave us two options.]
[First, we could leave and fend for ourselves. Unfortunately, this world has no way to send otherworlders back to their original world, so the first option meant leaving secretly and living however we wanted in this world.]
[The second option was to play the role of heroes. The ritual had failed, but not everyone knew that. We still possessed different, otherworldly powers. Even though we were nowhere near the level of true heroes, if we agreed to play the part, we would hold strategic value.]