The girl that appeared before Stanley was no taller than him, with short black hair and a face that wouldn’t be considered either pretty or ugly. She looked as average as average could.

However, there was one thing about her that made her stand out from other average girls. Stanley couldn’t tell what it was. Was it the way she stood? The way she carried herself?

Her tiny smile looked dangerous as well.

"Answer me!" Stanley shouted, seeing the girl not speak. "Why did you attack me?"

The girl’s smile slowly widened and her hand flashed open.

Stanley saw a vision of something hitting his head. He ducked at the right moment and heard a swish go above his head. Crouching, he used the position to boost himself forward, instantly arriving in front of the girl.

The girl panicked and tried to run back, but she couldn’t move away before Stanley arrived next to her.

He reached out with his left arm, only to realize nothing moved forward. He switched to his right hand fast enough that the mistake didn’t matter in the end. He grabbed the woman by her throat, and landed on top of her, letting his entire body fall on her.

They both stumbled onto a sheet of snow, and Stanley stopped her from moving. "Answer me!" he demanded, letting his hand loose just enough that she could speak with grunts.

The girl was in pain. She tried to move her body, but she couldn’t. Stanley was heavier than her.

"Get off me, your bastard!" she finally said, her voice hoarse.

"Then answer me. Who are you and why did you try to kill me?" he asked her, letting go slightly more.

"What... the fuck else am I supposed to do?" she asked. "It’s kill or be killed, bastard."

"What?" Stanley asked, confused. He remembered the words on the card. A Game of Death.

"Where am I?" he asked. "What is this?"

"Huh?" the girl looked confused. "Did you hit your fucking head somewhere? How could you not know?"

"Just answer me," Stanley asked.

"You’re playing the fucking game of death, obviously," the girl shouted. "How did you survive 3 weeks without knowing that?"

"What? 3 weeks?" Stanley asked. No, could it be 3 weeks? It couldn’t be. He knew he wasn’t so hurt that such a long time could have passed. He could tell from just looking at his body.

"Where am I?" Stanley asked.

"I just told you, bastard. We’re playing the—"

"No!" Stanley cut her off. "Not the game. The location. Where am I?"

"I don’t fucking know," the girl said, struggling to move her hands under Stanley, but Stanley made sure to keep them pinned.

"You don’t know?" Stanley asked.

"No," she said. "Shit, you really don’t know what is happening, do you?" She found the situation to be quite comical it seemed. "How the hell did you even get here?"

Stanley frowned. How did he get here?

"You said 3 weeks," Stanley said. "Do you know about any explosions prior to those 3 weeks? In East Vanli, precisely."

"Huh? Where’s that?" she asked. "I come from Pandene."

"Pandene?" Stanley thought. That was far away from United Voras. That was all the way in the South.

He looked around. "We’re not in the south," he said, seeing the snow. "So we’re not in Pandene."

"No, we’re not," the girl said, grunting to take her arms out, but she couldn’t. She stopped. "Can you get off me? You’re hurting my arms."

"You tried to kill me," Stanley said.

"I won’t anymore, I promise," she said meekly.

Stanley didn’t trust her. "Tell me more about what this game is. Why are you playing it?" he asked.

"Whoever wins the game gets a lot of money in return and is allowed to evolve their power," the girl said. "I came here for that."

Stanley’s eyes widened in surprise. Evolving their technique. Had he really stumbled his way into one of Silent Nexus’s events?

’I can get to the person from here,’ Stanley thought. That would be the best thing to do.

"I’ll let you go," he said. "But don’t attack me afterward. I have no intention to kill someone who might have mistaken me for a threat." He pulled her head closer up. "But if you try it even after I said no, I will kill you."

He let the girl’s head thump back on the snow and slowly stood up. Only now was he feeling the pain that wrecked the right side of his body? He needed to see what was up with that wound.

Hopefully, it was something that wouldn’t be a problem for long. The girl hadn’t known about East Vanli, so there was some hope that not much time had passed. The explosion would have had to be too great for anyone to miss it.

Stanley felt the right side of his stomach and wondered if it was bleeding somehow. He hoped it was not. ’Right, I have to pee too.’ That reminded him of the blasted clothes again. How did he open it?

The girl would know certainly.

"Hey, how do you open this—"

He had only just turned around to ask when he saw a massive pile of snow being forged into a spike right in front of her.

The girl saw him turn around and realized she couldn’t take her time with this attack. Without hesitation, she let it go.

Stanley dashed to the side, rolling on the ground as the attack flew past where he had been. The girl’s eyes went wide in surprise that he had dodged yet another attack.

Stanley glared at her from the ground.

"I..." the girl tried to speak. "I’m sorry—"

A large wooden splinter flew at her faster than the speed of sound and blasted open the girl’s head. Red sprayed on the snow behind her and Stanley looked at the falling corpse.

He felt disgusted to have to do that, but he would do what he had to. He wanted to leave her corpse alone but sighed in the end. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

He would have to check her body and see what he could find. Maybe there would be somehting helpful with her.