Chapter 124 Cooperation and Betrayal
It was as if a thin white veil was covering Aiwas's eyes. When he could see the world clearly again, the surrounding environment suddenly became dim and he could not see anything clearly.
But he could clearly feel that he had been tied up.
It wasn't a method of restraining prisoners with handcuffs, shackles, or other torture instruments, but rather a tough rope thicker than an adult's arm, wrapped around the shoulders and then looped down to the ankles, literally twisting the person into a dumpling.
Aiwass felt a powerful force filling his body, a body far stronger than his own. However, in contrast to this power, he felt extremely hungry and weak.
He needs food.
But when Aiwass tried, he found that he could not break the rope with brute force - it seemed to have some special elasticity, which dissipated the force of its outward expansion.
At this moment, a low, hoarse, magnetic and charming voice sounded in Aiwas's mind.
He quickly stopped trying and focused on listening to the dungeon description that would only appear once:
"You wake up with a headache and realize you've forgotten your name. But it doesn't matter. The few memories you have left are all about why you came here.
"This is your second day imprisoned here. The nine of you are strangers to each other. You were all trapped while searching for the Holy Lance and captured by the giants Pancord and his wife as winter food. Your only common denominator is that you are all strong warriors.
"The giant couple has divided the nine of you into three storage rooms. In an hour, they will go to one of the storage rooms and select one person as their ingredient.
“The selection of ingredients is completely random. But if the giants find that someone is dead, they will cook and preserve all the dead humans.
"The giants' collection showcase contains a powerful holy spear, a trophy they obtained after slaying an apostle of the Path of Devotion. They also possess a magical cauldron, a gift from the Supreme Heavens, that allows dead food to be reborn and grow larger. Therefore, even if a human is small to them, they can still feed them for a day."
"Although you are both strong, it is impossible to fight against the giants. The giant couple is protected by the Supreme Heaven and cannot be harmed by any means other than the Holy Lance.
"But giants are afraid of the cold, so unless they are disturbed, they will stay in their beds. But if a giant hears a noise, he will go to investigate.
"That's all you know. You don't know if you can get out, but you want to at least survive today."
The next moment, the mission of this ceremony emerged before Aiwas's eyes:
[Necessary Task——]
【Survive (Points: None)】
【Additional Task——】
[Unnecessary Killing: Killing other people (Points: 300 per person)]
[Escape from the crisis: Leave the storage room you are in (Points: 500)]
[Keep Hidden: Don't be discovered by the Giant until the end (Points: 500)]
[I am a Saint!: Possessing the Holy Spear (Points: 50 per minute)]
[I Can Also Be a Saint: Kill the one holding the Holy Spear and take it (Points: 500)]
[Feeding Machine: Let the Giant finally choose to cook the person you killed (Points: 1000)]
[Nature of the Transcendent: Actively attack the Titan and cause effective damage (Points: 1000)]
[Successful Escape: Find the key and escape from the Pancord Temple (Points: 2000)]
[The Supreme Heaven is No Longer Existing: Use the Holy Lance to smash the Demon Cauldron without being discovered (Points: 1000)]
[Courage to defeat the strong with the weak: Kill a giant with the Holy Lance (Points: 3000)]
Aiwass narrowed his eyes slightly and fell into thought.
Obviously, this is a task specifically issued for transcending the path.
This was completely different from the style of missions Aiwas had previously been promoted to.
...Of course, it is also possible that this task was given by the Snake Father, so it is different from the one issued by the Lord of Scales and Feathers during the last promotion ceremony.
Necessary tasks must be completed, otherwise you will be eliminated. Since everyone has the same necessary tasks, there is no point in them.
And in the remaining missions... there is a lot of murderous intent.
I'm not sure about the others, but the three missions, [Escape the Crisis], [Stay Hidden], and [Escape Successfully], should be universal. The text style of the mission names is clearly different from the other missions.
From this perspective, this ritual actually has the potential for collaboration, because no matter how many people escape, only one key is needed to open the door.
In other words... without counting special victories, it is possible for three people to find the key and escape together.
Nine people are divided into three storage rooms. Each storage room has exactly three people, which makes them natural allies. If one person is missing, the efficiency will be lower than that of the other teams.
This ceremony was markedly different from Aiwas's previous full moon ceremony... If the previous one was primarily about plot, this one was more about strategy. The plot was even vague; Aiwass didn't even know the name of the body he was using, and there was no need for him to act.
The only thing Aiwass knew now was that this place was called "Pancourt Temple".
All they had to do was be careful not to make any noise and find a way to leave quietly...
……wrong.
Aiwass suddenly realized that this was not a full moon ceremony, but a competing new moon ceremony.
If everyone escapes, then no one escapes. The amount of points itself is meaningless; it is the ranking that determines promotion.
This ceremony can only promote three people, but it comes with two special victory conditions. Therefore, the only person who can definitely be promoted is the person with the highest points... The second and third places are likely to be squeezed out.
Unless the person who has completed both victory conditions happens to be first and second in points, then the third place will be promoted.
Therefore, it is actually unsafe to earn points together in a group of three.
No one knew the content of the others' missions, and there was no published, updated leaderboard. Even if the three of them always worked together, their scores would inevitably be high and low.
I see.
——No wonder the first mission is called "Unnecessary Killing".
This ritual didn't require killing others... It wasn't a life-or-death struggle like in the Colosseum; instead, it required a certain degree of cooperation. However, since they didn't know their temporary teammates' current points and their complete missions, they might become suspicious and kill each other.
Because of the existence of those two special victory conditions, a team of three is inherently unstable and one or two spots may be taken away at any time.
Because of this, the more sincere and efficient the cooperation between each other, the more necessary it is to kill each other in the end - because the more tasks they complete together, the higher the points their teammates are likely to get.
This is a ritual of cooperation and betrayal.
——Help me, Shadow Fiend.
Aiwass called out in his heart.
Thick shadows silently seeped from his body, easily corroding the rope. He struggled hard and broke the rope, turning over and sitting up. He was wearing few clothes, only a piece of clean linen with no buttons.
From the perspective of the ingredients, it's more like a diaper than a robe...
There was still no light around, and Aiwass could not see anything.
But at this moment, a pale blue light suddenly appeared in the darkness, which attracted Aiwass's attention.
He quickly saw that it should be a dense array of phoenix-shaped tattoos on someone's body.
The next moment, a blazing flame burst out from the tattoo, burning away the ropes on his body, but not the linen cloth on his body. By the light of the human-shaped torch, Aiwass guessed who the man was.
This should be the monk who had been silent and taciturn before.
Although the body he was using now had hair and clothes, his silent temperament still allowed Aiwass to recognize his identity.
The monk looked at Aiwass, who had silently broken free from the ropes, and nodded slightly.
Then he slowly raised his right hand, and the flames rising from his body flowed along his body like liquid, gathering in his palm. Just like that, he became a lamp, illuminating the dark storage room.
Aiwass's eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness and he took the opportunity to look around.
I felt so small - the huge bronze door was about thirty meters high. Judging from this angle, the giant should be at least twenty meters tall.
——About half the height of Ultraman.
Isn't this too huge? It's truly insurmountable for the warriors...
To the giants, a human wrapped in linen would be about the size of a pancake. So, how big could this cauldron make a human to feed a pair of giants of this size in a single day?
The other person in the room saw that the other two had broken free and quickly called out, "I'm Hong, help me!"
Aiwas turned around and found that the Red Lady was not using a female body at the moment - but a young male warrior with muscles all over his body like them.
Hong was also being tied up like a dumpling, but she didn't seem to be in a hurry. However, unlike Aiwass and the monk, she didn't have the ability to break free from the ropes... or perhaps she wanted to conserve her magic power and didn't want to use her supernatural powers to escape.
Aiwass prefers the latter.
Want to hide your strength right from the start?
——Then you might as well die here.
"Okay, Ms. Red."
Aiwass narrowed his eyes slightly, walked over slowly, and said in his own voice, not the Shadow Demon's, "I am Aleister..."
But before Aiwass could get close, the monk suddenly stretched out his other hand to block him.
"Don't save him."
The monk said briefly, "Kill him."
His voice was filled with murderous intent.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
