Erin woke up to her head throbbing with pain, and her vision was blurry. She instinctively tried to hold her forehead when she felt that her hands were restrained with thick chains. She was sitting on the floor, her wrists were wrapped around a metal pole. Erin could tell that her lip was busted, had a black eye, and was littered in bruises and cuts. There was no need to look at a system screen to know that she was badly hurt, but she checked anyway.
[HP: 3/20]
Realizing the intensity of the situation, she focused up, and looked around frantically, trying to find out what to do next.
Erin found herself on the assembly hall's stage, but she couldn't look out to the seats as there were giant red curtains blocking the view. The stage itself had some stuff littered around, boxes, ropes, and more, but nothing seemed obvious on how to get herself free from this place.
Erin's mind was a little cloudy from being so hurt, but she began recalling what happened.
—
On her way out of her general studies class, she was going to go train with Quinn, but that was when a few students began trailing her. At first she tried to shake them off her trail by walking in strange directions, but they didn't stop.
'The only way out is to fight them off,' Erin thought.
Heading to a secluded part of the hallways, Erin turned around to spot 5 second years. Immediately, they began to activate their abilities, some creating weapons out of earth, others holding whirlwinds of wind or water in their hands.
Getting into a fighting position, Erin readied herself for what came next.
[Quest: Escape]
—
'Those guys were playing dirty. They wouldn't be doing this if I just had my ice powers…' Erin thought to herself, 'To think that's how they treat low levels…'
That was when she spotted a tall man with brown hair wrapped in a ponytail step out behind a stack of supplies. He looked down upon her with a mildly disgusted look. and had an annoying aura around him.
"You know, you were quite the celebrity amongst us high levels, no one would dare touch the ice queen herself with how rare ice was as an ability," Mono began, before squatting down to Erin's height, "And yet, you somehow managed to lose your power. Was it from hanging out with that abilityless idiot?"
Erin stayed quiet, but she spat at his face.
Mono, however, tilted his head, easily dodging the spit, and stood up, "Are you sure you should be doing that? If you want to hang out with the worthless of our society, then feel free to, you're a weak level 1 now. However…"
He turned around to face the curtains, "I could just tell the whole school what happened to you, and they'll treat you just like any other level 1."
Erin glared at him with her one good eye, and gritted her teeth, "You had to send a whole gang to attack me, huh? When I get out of here, I'm going to shove my sword up your—"
Mono ran over and kicked Erin in the face, forcing her head to fling back.
[- 1 HP]
[HP: 2/20]
She spat out a little blood from her mouth, and stray strands of her hair fell over her eyes. She breathed heavily trying to regain herself. Not only that, but the hunger in her stomach grew. She already tried to heal earlier, but they just hurt her again and again. There wasn't much she could do now, other than to message someone.
"You should be grateful that holding your secret is beneficial to me now," Mono spat out, before walking away from her line of sight.
—
As Quinn, Layla and Peter searched for Erin, they got stopped by a couple of second year students. They had levels above that of a 4, and not only that, but they saw other second years instructing the first years to follow them.
"Come with us, or else…" A boy who was a level 5 told the trio.
"What's going on?" Layla asked the student, only to get no response.
Quinn, Layla and Peter all looked at each other nervously. They knew they didn't have a choice in the matter.
"Let's just go," Peter whispered to her, as he hunched his head down, trying not to make eye contact.
Before Quinn could protest, he suddenly got a notification.
[-1 HP]
[HP: 2/20]
Quinn's heart quickened, and a fear of what would happen if Erin went to 0 HP entered his mind. Did it mean she would die? What would happen to the system? Would it disappear? And what about his connection to her? Even though it hadn't been long, he felt like if he lost that connection to her, he would lose something about himself.
{Erin} Quinn!
His eyes widened, she was conscious, and he exhaled a little. A bit of tension left his shoulders.
{Erin} I… I need help.
{Quinn} Erin!
{Quinn} What did you want me to do?
{Erin} Come find me. I see giant red curtains. I think I'm where the assemblies take place.
Looking around, he saw some students get escorted towards the assembly room. Whatever the second years were planning there, Erin had to have gotten caught up with it. Quinn sighed, before following the students.
As they passed through the door, and entered the place, they saw a large room that could easily fit several hundred students, if not more. The walls were a metallic gray with a stage that had a giant red curtain.
A ton of students were standing there waiting for something to happen, and several of them were murmuring amongst themselves. Quinn looked around for Erin in the crowd, but the place was too busy.
"Why are there so many people here?" Layla asked the others, "I recognize a lot of them. They're all first years, right?"
It was then that the curtains were drawn, catching everyone's attention, and people began to quiet down. Behind the curtains was the second year student, Mono. He had his hands behind him, and a smug smile on his face.
Behind Momo, was the once beautiful blonde haired girl, now beaten and bruised. Blood trailed from her mouth, and she looked upon the crowd, searching for the one person she could trust.
"Quinn…" She breathily muttered.
Quinn saw her clearly, dread filling his body as he saw her look so helpless.
'Erin!'