If I was going to be among those who passed the exam, it was something I needed to know. I turned my attention to Luna.
"Luna, I need you to hold his hands."
"I-I—w-why?!"
Her voice trembled, as she began to hyperventilate. She clutched her chest and stepped back even further.
"Get a hold of yourself. If you can't do it, then get one of your curses to."
She looked at me with a pleading expression, on the verge of tears.
"Please don't force me to do this."
Before I knew it, tears were streaming down her face, and she slowly backed away to the back of the cave. I took off my mask and stared into her eyes, making sure to articulate every word I said.
"Luna, take hold of his hand."
I didn't need to spell it out; even a moron would know what would happen if she didn't listen. Seeing she didn't have any other choice she held out her trembling hand and muttered a phrase.
"Come forth."
A spiraling mass of purple energy emerged from the palm of her hand, and out of the mass of energy came a creature that I didn't know what the hell was. It was short, muscular, and wore a loincloth to cover its lower half. Its skin was purple, and it had two large fangs protruding from its mouth.
She didn't even have to give it any instructions. The creature moved to the boy on the ground and grabbed hold of his left hand, hoisting it up just right, as if it somehow knew what I intended.
"Please, what are you going to do?!" the boy on the ground pleaded. But then the beast pressed his head down onto the ground with its feet.
I stood over the boy's elevated hand and hoisted my foot into the air but stopped for a moment as I came to a realization.
Why did the beast choose to grab the boy's left hand? Did it somehow know I didn't want to damage his watch on his right hand?
I turned my attention to Luna, who was kneeling in a corner, covering her ears. She wasn't as stupid as she acted. Her behavior was sincere; I could tell and I doubted that she even realized what she had done.
If she stopped acting like a child, maybe she could be useful to me.
I returned my focus to the boy, my foot poised over his hand. Using all my strength, I stomped down with full force.
Krrakk!!
The sound of his bone breaking echoed through the cave. Due to his struggling, it broke in two places instead of one, curving into a 'U' shape with bones sticking out.
"HHRRAAAHHH!!"
"HHRRAAAHHH!!"
His screams echoed through the cave, accompanied by Luna's loud sobs from the corner. But there was also something else—a loud blaring that was annoyingly familiar to me. It was the same warning sound that played around the city whenever there was a dungeon break. It was coming from his watch—the same one that was giving to all the applicants including myself.
BOOM!!
A spiral of blue energy formed right at the cave entrance—it was the same as the gate I had entered through to come here. It caught me by surprise, and I instantly reached for the Middle Finger.
Then a group of masked men dressed in full black stepped through the gate. They paid me no mind and went straight to the boy with the broken arm, who was screaming his lungs out on the ground.
"Victor Longborn, you have been eliminated. Please come with us," one of them said in a cold, detached voice.
"What?!" The boy with the broken arm—Victor—wasn't having it.
"You have to help me!! That monster broke my arm!" he shouted, directing them to me.
But the masked men paid him no mind at all. One of them then proceeded to scoop him up off the ground like a helpless maiden and carried him off through the gate, which closed behind them as they stepped through. I could hear him muttering profanities at me as he left.
That's it?
I'd learned something valuable; a single broken bone was all it took to be eliminated. My experiment bore fruit.
I turned my attention to Luna, whimpering in the corner.
"We should head out now; it's almost time for the supply drop."
She stared up at me with bloodshot eyes.
"Why'd you do that? You broke his arm."
"I'm sure they have healers who can fix him up."
"But still—"
She looked at me warily, as if she wanted to say something more but held herself back. Her gaze reminded me of someone—it was the same way my mother used to look at my father.
It was akin to fear, but it wasn't exactly that. It was more like she was staring at someone who wasn't even human.
Regardless of what she thought of me, she was still useful, hence our partnership. She did as she was told and exited the cave, and I followed behind her. The purple creature she had summoned disappeared too.
I had no idea where the supply drop would be, and it was nearly impossible to guess. That experiment a little while ago also taught me something else—they had easy access to the island. More than likely, they would bring the supplies here using a gate.
With nothing to do, we were left to wait until it was time for the supply drop. At exactly 10 AM, we received a notification for the supply drop. The screen on our watches lit up to show a miniature map, with various red dots indicating where the supplies would be dropped.
It also had a feature that showed our location too. Fortunately, we were close to one of the locations where the supplies would be dropped off. Wasting no time, we dashed toward the location.
When we go there, to no surprise at all, the supply they were giving us was a single backpack. It was sitting on the ground right under a tree, just waiting to be snatched up. I walked over to the bag, ready to pick it up, but just then—
"You're quite the handsy one, aren't you?" a voice said out of nowhere.
I glanced up to see a boy with flowing black hair and a menacing smile on his face. He wore a yellow combat suit that looked almost like a traditional robe, paired with brown leather boots. From his hips dangled a red mask and strapped to his back was a golden spear.
As he appeared, so did a few others, all surrounding us as if they were launching an ambush.
"Who are you?" I asked.
He gave a smug smirk before answering.
"Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Yuan Ming. It's a pleasure to meet you."
My eyes drifted to the others surrounding us; it seemed there were ten of them in total. Luna looked like she was caught between a rock and a hard place. She slowly backed away from those who were closing in, but I could see she didn't want to get too close to me either.
"I'll get to the point," Yuan Ming said. "I'm creating my own faction, and I'm looking for capable individuals to join. Are you two interested?"