A few minutes passed…
As they cautiously made their way beside the cracked pillars, Ryota glanced back from the corner of his eye and noticed their tense expressions, their trembling bodies, and their violently shaking eyes.
They were eagerly awaiting his orders.
Ryota’s expression tightened slightly as he thought:
“With every passing moment…”
“Things are becoming stranger…”
“No traps, not even a single pillar has fallen since we passed the third massive pillar.”
“This silence…”
“Extremely strange.”
“Extremely suspicious.”
“And perhaps…”
“Extremely dangerous…”
“It was impossible for me to believe that the sole purpose of it was simply to increase psychological pressure !”
“Wait!”
“What if its true purpose really is to increase psychological pressure, but for a deeper reason?!”
“If we connect this to that mysterious pattern, could the purpose of this suspicious silence be to increase psychological pressure, then cause distraction, and thus prevent us from detecting the real danger?!”
“This…”
“Is a bad omen…”
Ryota stops.
His body freezes.
His hands tremble.
Sweat beads across his forehead.
An expression of shock completely overtakes his face.
He screams within his mind:
“No… Impossible…”
“There is a mistake…”
“There must be a mistake…”
“But…”
“Again…”
“And again…”
“It is the only difference…”
“It can’t possibly be nothing more than a guiding sign pointing toward the correct path. The designer is not that generous.”
“It’s a warning sign…” Enjoying the story? Read on at g.com.
“A warning of great danger!”
“But…”
“By the heavens and the earth… what is it?”
“There is no other obvious sign of a nearby trap. The small pillars in the distance are falling at the same speed and in the same manner.”
“There is no different pattern!”
“Could it be a sign that the massive pillar itself is going to fall?!”
“Impossible!”
“There is no other way to avoid the massive pillar, because the small pillars are collapsing from every direction. In that case, the only trap left is the collapse of the massive pillar itself, and if that is the case, there is no way to survive, even by using Yurvana!”
“This test is standardized throughout the entire kingdom. Even members of the royal clans participate in it. There is no way its purpose could be extermination!”
“Could I be wrong?!”
“Could the sole purpose of these cracks really be nothing more than distraction through increased psychological pressure?! And by thinking this way, am I actually falling into the trap?!”
…
The pillars draw closer…
…
Silence…
The pillars are now extremely close, and expressions of terror have already filled their faces.
Evander approaches Ryota and whispers to him anxiously:
“Ryota… we have to move…”
The pillars are collapsing less than ten meters away.
In a matter of seconds, they’ll crush Them!
Evander shouts at him:
“Ryota! We have to move! We’ll die!”
Ryota grits his teeth and thinks:
“Damn it!”
“No other damn options!”
Then he suddenly raises his hand and shouts at the crowd:
“No need to worry.”
“It’s just like the previous times.”
“Follow me! Quickly!”
The moment they move, the pillars surrounding them begin to collapse!
They run toward the massive pillar, and as soon as they are only three meters away…
Ryota notices…
A slight change in the wind. The source of this chapter is g.com.
The faintest sound of cracking.
He glances upward from the corner of his eye…
A small stone falls from the top of the massive pillar.
For a few moments, it is as though time itself has stopped…
For a moment, Ryota’s eyes widen until they nearly burst from their sockets as he thinks rapidly :
“As I expected, it is impossible for the massive pillar to collapse, but…”
“The rocks are what’s falling!”
“Then those cracks… all this time, they meant that…”
“And now…”
“What do I do?”
“This realization came far too late.”
“No way back! No way to escape!”
“No way to survive!”
“At least… not everyone.”
“Not only does this require pure individual skill, but they aren’t even psychologically prepared!”
…
A terrifying voice whispers inside him :
“Are you pretending to be stupid again?”
“You already know the solution…”
…
A shiver runs through his body.
One moment passes…
Then another…
Gradually…
His face goes pale…
He has already made his decision…
…
Before even the first of the falling stones touches the ground, Ryota addresses the crowd in a tone filled with coldness and, at the same time…
cruelty :
“No matter what happens, don’t look up…”
“No matter what happens, don’t look around…”
“No matter what happens, don’t stop running…”
“Run! Run as fast as you can!”
“This is your only path to survival !!”