After some time, they had encountered two Type One traps, and thanks to the experience they had gained from overcoming several traps of the same type, they had barely managed to keep up with the new strategy and survive.
A short while later…
They had drawn extremely close to the first massive pillar.
As they passed beside one of the cracked pillars, the same thing suddenly happened again…
A slight disturbance in the movement of the air.
The faintest sound of cracking.
The slight sound of a few fragments of rock falling.
A massive warning of mortal danger struck Ryota’s mind.
His pupils contracted to their utmost.
Immediately, without looking upward and without wasting even the slightest fraction of a second considering any other possibility, he shouted at the top of his lungs:
“Get to the intact pillar! Hurry!…”
He pointed toward the central pillar and ran toward it.
Before he had even finished speaking, they were already following him, running toward the intact pillar.
The silent pillar collapsed with a loud impact.
Ryota looked toward the rubble as the dust cleared, and smiled…
No casualties…
That was more than enough for him…
Silence…
A long silence…
They looked at the rubble.
They looked at one another.
They looked at their hands, which were still trembling.
Shock filled their faces.
No one could believe it.
Voices gradually began to rise:
“We’re alive…”
“Everyone survived?”
“Was this even possible in the first place?”
Suddenly, the voices grew louder:
“We survived! We survived!”
“Long live the commander! Lord Ryota!”
Hitoshi looked toward the rubble, his pupils contracting to their utmost, and thought:
“He did it…” This story is hosted at novelping.com.
“He really did it…”
“Searching for the impossible, he found the only strategy capable of balancing both traps and allowing everyone to survive!”
“Was this even possible in the first place?!”
“Was this the solution?!”
“Was this strategy even within the logic of the test?!”
“Did the designer of this test even anticipate something like this in the first place?!”
“No! Absolutely not!”
“This test was fundamentally designed for individual survival. Only monsters who possessed the highest talents, inhuman senses, and instincts that surpassed logic could barely survive it alone.”
“This test was never designed for group survival!”
“What Ryota did was an unprecedented miracle!!”
“He did not break the rules of the test. He broke its very purpose!”
“If the designer of this test discovered this, he would have stopped Ryota from entering and awarded him a perfect score in advance.”
He looked toward Ryota and stared at him for several moments before continuing:
“Geniuses like him…”
“Were they really supposed to exist in this world?…”
Ryota took a deep breath, stepped forward a few paces, and raised his hand.
The crowd immediately fell silent and listened intently.
Ryota spoke firmly:
“Let’s not celebrate too early. We’re already on the verge of the first massive pillar…”
“Let’s keep moving…”
………………
A short while later, they had advanced considerably, until the first massive pillar came into view.
It was clear that it had a few slight cracks.
Ryota’s instincts kicked in, and he sensed something strange.
He stopped and carefully looked around.
Evander asked him:
“What’s wrong?…”
Ryota narrowed his eyes and spoke:
“Since the last Type Two trap we passed, we’ve traveled a considerable distance—far enough that we should have encountered at least two or three traps—yet we haven’t encountered anything so far.”
“Also, the atmosphere is suspiciously quiet…”
“I can barely sense any sound of cracking, let alone the sound of falling pillars. And what’s even stranger is that this is happening over an extremely wide area.”
“Even the cracks on the massive pillar aren’t few enough to be nothing more than natural imperfections in the construction of something this enormous, nor are they numerous enough to predict its collapse.”
“But…” This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
“The only thing I’m certain of is that its structure is nothing like that of any small pillar…”
Evander’s expression tightened.
He remained silent for a few moments before speaking:
“Then what should we do in this situation?”
Ryota smiled sarcastically and said:
“Since when has there ever been an obvious danger, let alone an obvious solution?”
“As usual, our only weapon is caution.”
“There is no use in worrying without reason.”
As he said this, however, he was already clenching his fist so tightly that it was nearly bleeding, while the words echoed in his mind:
“Yes, there is no use in worrying without reason…”
Mizushi noticed Ryota’s tightly clenched fist and looked at him, staring intently as his gaze grew sharper…
Ryota addressed the crowd behind him:
“We’ll slow down a little.”
“Be ready for the slightest signal!”
………………..
They gradually approached until they were only a few meters away from the massive pillar.
And suddenly!
Without warning…
The cracks on the massive pillar multiplied, producing extremely loud cracking sounds!
The sight of the cracks spreading, accompanied by the deafening noise, was so terrifying that it made everyone believe the massive pillar was certain to collapse.
Faced with this terrifying sight, everyone stood frozen in shock.
Some of them had even begun instinctively taking steps backward.
As if one shock wasn’t enough…
While everyone stared in shock at the massive pillar, another catastrophe was growing in secret…
The distant small pillars began collapsing one after another, following none of the previous patterns and at an accelerating pace!
Fortunately, this was happening relatively far away.
Unfortunately, the sound of the massive pillar cracking was so loud that it drowned out the sound of the small pillars collapsing!
But Ryota, who had already been prepared for the worst, continued scanning their surroundings despite the shock of the cracks spreading across the massive pillar.
He continuously swept his gaze across the area and noticed the distant small pillars collapsing, as well as the chain of falling pillars gradually drawing closer to them!
For a moment, his eyes widened until they nearly burst from their sockets, and he thought:
” Could they be…
turning this into a total annihilation ?!