"We are here. I will submit our report now."

The snake man extended his hand toward the door, and it was scanned. Some words appeared on the screen, but they moved too fast for Rin to read.

By the time he realized what was happening, he was already walking back toward the conference room.

"Are you disappointed that you did not get the answers you wanted? I am afraid I cannot help you any further."

The snake man added salt to the wound with those words. Somehow, they only made Rin feel worse about the situation he was in.

’Why is he so tight-lipped? Is it a condition of being a system employee? Can’t I at least meet one employee who is open enough to give me more information?’

Unfortunately, there was no easy help for Rin at the moment.

The snake man took his seat at the front once more and immediately drew everyone’s attention.

"Our proposal has been accepted. It’s time to start the battle royale. You all will be sent back to join your squads as well. May you all survive until the end."

The space started to break apart, and Rin was the only one who panicked. Everyone else around him looked used to what was happening.

"Hey, human! I hope we meet in the free-for-all. I would love to take you down with a single blow."

The tiger-shaped monster spoke before the world flashed black.

Rin had been in the meeting room one moment, and now he was standing in the arena, looking at a group of nervous humans in front of him.

"A-Are we really going to fight?"

"I have never killed anything. I only made it this far through sheer luck. What do I do now?"

People questioned in panic, and Rin realized he needed to get everyone’s attention before things spiraled further.

So he took out the smallest but loudest bombs from his inventory and threw them into the air. They exploded with a sharp bang.

The reaction was instant as everyone turned to look at him.

"Listen carefully. The next round is a free-for-all. If you don’t think you can make it, then keep your head down and let the other factions fight each other first. We should not focus on winning, but on surviving."

Rin reminded everyone, and they looked at each other before nodding in understanding.

Then the walls dropped, scattering humans among different species of monsters. It was time to fight.

__________

"Hey human, look over here-"

Shelly moved like a bolt of lightning, cutting down monsters bigger than her in a single sweep. She was the highest-level fighter among the humans, and it showed in every movement she made.

"Woah! I never knew humans could move like this. She’s not even sparing her own kind."

Shelly was...careful around humans, but if they got in her way, then they got in her way. She was not going to stop fighting just because someone foolishly stood in front of her.

After all, the faster she finished, the sooner she would get to see Rin again.

’I just don’t have time for any of this bullshit.’

It did not take long for the other humans to understand Shelly’s intentions and stay out of her path. Since the other species were so massive, they were easier targets for Shelly anyway.

[Ding! You have reached the required quota to qualify for task completion.]

The message filled the surviving humans with relief, and they looked toward Shelly only to see that she had not stopped fighting.

"This is not enough. I still won’t be able to meet Rin like this....Hehehe...I know. If I reduce the number of people here even further, then the total number will drop too. That way, I’ll get to see Rin sooner."

Everyone wanted to tell Shelly that things did not work that way, but no one had the courage to face her. Just watching Shelly fight was already overwhelming enough.

Ultimately, the system had to put a stop to her rampage by forcing the group into a timeout state.

__________

While Shelly had successfully terrorized an entire group, the others were faring well too. Amelia had ended up with Madam Yao and Melissa, who guided her safely to victory.

Reina had also gotten lucky and ended up with Albus. Their combination worked smoothly, with Albus directing the humans while Reina healed the injured.

The other trained teams either performed decently or hid until it was time to return.

Rin kept an eye on the battlefield before throwing out a large-area bomb that paralyzed the opponents. He tried his best to avoid hitting humans, but it was impossible not to catch at least a few in the blast.

A few humans did try to betray him by intentionally attacking others to lower the overall count, but they were quickly captured and locked away for the remainder of the match.

The task itself was not particularly interesting, but Rin felt like he had learned something new about the system through it.

[Congratulations to those who made it through task six. All of you are strong individuals, so surely you won’t need the system’s handicap next time.]

[But this system agrees that you deserve a small vacation. So there will be no tasks for the next three days. Please enjoy your peaceful stay. The system will return with even more challenging tasks in the future.]

Somehow, those words made Rin feel more uneasy than relieved.

But there was no time to think about the system when everyone had already started returning to the research center.

"For all that hype, task six wasn’t much. I don’t know whether I feel relieved or disappointed."

Albus spoke as soon as he stabilized beside Rin. Others began appearing soon after, and Rin immediately checked his system details.

[Leader (lvl 2 - 450/750 followers). Next Milestone - 2000 followers]

He had lost a few people, but the damage was not too severe. However, their settlement needed to start expanding now. It was time to look for a workforce they could bring into the fold.

[Rookie, would you like to do a side quest? The system promises it’s nothing dangerous.]