Min-ho and his team watched helplessly as the Z-Streamers slaughtered themselves. He and Jang-book wanted to help, but everything had happened so fast they couldn't react in time. Furthermore, they were afraid to.
No one knew what had just happened or why, but they feared it was the work of some Affinity, and joining in would possibly make them act the same way.
Everyone who could stood and stared in disbelief. Each one of them feeling like they were in one of the pits of hell, doomed to watch some of the most horrifying things imaginable as punishment for a grave sin they committed.
"Let's get out of here," Jang-book said, finally breaking the silence.
He was the first to make his way for the exit.
"We can't… we can't just leave like this," Min-ho said, still cradling Sae-wee in his arms.
"Then what do you suppose we do?" Jang-book asked, genuinely curious.
Min-ho was brought to silence. He turned his gaze in every direction, forcing himself to endure the horrific sights.
There were so many people here, each one of them turned into nothing but piles of flesh and blood. It wasn't right, nothing about any of this was right.
"Let's go, before whatever happened to them happens to us too," Jang-book said.
No one said anything anymore, they just did as Jang-book said. Dok-su and Ji-su followed, leaving Min-ho and Im-hee behind.
"It's okay," Min-ho said to Im-hee, who was trying to get Sae-wee onto her feet. "I'll carry her."
She hesitated, but gave him a nod before struggling onto her feet.
Though he was greatly fatigued, he bit down on his wounded lip and wrapped his arms around Sae-wee, lifting her up.
She was much less heavy than he had initially anticipated. Without giving it much thought, he followed behind.
They made their way through a ground muddled with blood, making each step slush with an unsettling feeling. Most of them sped up their pace, eager to be away from here as fast as possible.
On their way out, the group made sure to steer clear of the corpses that brought about their own needless demise.
Dok-su's gaze lingered on them for a second or two, as he wondered to himself where their Gems went.
This thought drew a frown on his face as he made his way out.
'This wasn't normal,' he thought, stepping onto the clean floors of the outside.
Min-ho stopped at the exit, staring at the corpses.
His throat tightened as he looked at the torn flesh, the blank stares, the silence so loud it screamed. Amidst all of this, the only thing he could think was:
'We were supposed to be past this.'
Steeling his nerves, he walked away from the scene, stepping onto the outside.
The sights of the broken-down city had never looked more appealing. Comparing the horrors they had witnessed in that Event hall, this by contrast was a utopian paradise.
He tried not to think too much on everything that had just happened. Now was not the time. Leaving the Event was just exchanging one threat for another, as now they would have to watch out for Spectors lurking about, waiting for prey.
Luckily, Ji-su was with them. He managed to make things easier for them last time; hopefully it would be the same this time.
Saying nothing, the group moved with sunken demeanors as they walked toward the Safe Zone, the only sound present being their irregular yet rhythmic footsteps.
Not long into their walk, the sky thundered.
All eyes shot up as they began to dread what was coming for them now.
Fortunately for them, it was nothing more than the weather changing. In that same moment, the thundering sound erupted in the skies once more, and without warning, it began to rain.
Lifting his gaze to the sky, Min-ho shut his eyes and took the moment to soak in the cool and soothing caresses of the heavens' tears.
Everyone did the same, using this opportunity to wash away the physical manifestation of pain staining their clothes in shades of crimson.
---
"Are they gone?" a man in a blue robe with a hoodie obscuring his face asked.
He, along with two others equally adorned in robes and hoodies colored in pink and red, stood on top of a building opposite the hall where the Culling Games Event took place.
One of the hooded figures in a pink robe had been watching. Once she saw a group of survivors leave, she wasted no time summoning her peers.
"They are," the female amongst the trio responded, her smile the only visible thing under her shadow-enshrouded hoodie.
"Then what are we waiting for?" another member said—this one in a red robe, much taller and broader.
Stepping toward the edge of the roof, he stretched out his right foot into the air, as though expecting a platform to appear under his feet.
Without thinking twice, the taller red-hooded man leaned in, letting gravity push him to the ground.
After falling ten feet through the air, he landed on the ground with a thud, then stood straight, indifferent to the height.
Behind him, his comrades fell one by one. The man in blue landed with a thud, while the girl in pink barely made a sound as she fell with the grace and elegance of a flower.
They walked in silence to the entrance of the Event hall. When they witnessed what the inside had to offer, they barely reacted to it.
"This was a Treasure Hunt Event?" the man in blue robes asked.
"Something must have gone wrong," the taller red-robed man said.
"Or perhaps they killed each other for the spoils," the girl said, with a sadistic glee in her voice.
"No matter," the taller red-robed man turned to the direction the wounded survivors went. "We'll follow them, and steal their Coins when they least expect."