Their breakfast had finished yet there''s no shadows of either Francais or Frederick showing up inside the room. They thought it was a good idea to not wait them or else they''d be starving.


    The time to gather in the stadium came. The first game won''t be held there though. It was going to be held somewhere and all the yers were on the way there. The arena was their gathering location for the participants and their families.


    The venue was more like a medium torge scale stadium arena that had a seating capacity of minimum fifteen thousand people.


    When they arrived, thepetition was about to start and the seats were almost upied. On the center field was a huge white screen that would disy the happenings on the games. And at the same time the score.


    If the eventst night was attended by those in the middle to higher ranks of every mercenary factions, this time, it was attended by everyone together with their families, thus the venue was packed even though the first batch participating on the first game were already not there.


    A representative approached their group and led them to their seating spot inside. They were given to upy a full block of seats on the audience.


    The remaining people on their group were Asia, Francais, Mr. Alinsky, Jaime together with two other female servants and his security escorts. The rest of them, including Frederick were already boarding the buses that would bring them to the location with blindfolds on.


    "Ladies and gentlemen today marks the first day of our seven-day-conference." The announcer announced on the speaker.


    "I hope for those who are left to wait for their rtives, friends, families and faction mates are all prepared as the first game willst for hours depending on how fast they can finish this. And when the rules are going to be read to the yers, no one is allowed to leave the arena unless given the permission. This is for security reasons." He continued.


    Asia looked at Jaime who had a big bag behind his back. Probably, they were food and other stuff that they needed while waiting. Maybe someone had given Jaime a tip that something like this would happen so he came prepared.


    The huge LED screen positioned at the center field then lit up to show the yers for the first game.


    They were inside a white room full with capsule like bed. On top of the bed was a helmet game console that they had to wear.


    The participants were wearing a white pajamas like that in hospitals and they were blindfolded.


    Each factions were given enough screen time. As for Mr. Alinsky''s people, they werebeled as the ''GUEST Team'' since they met the minimum number of people per faction.


    Then, the announcer exined thepetition rules for the audience and the participants to understand. At the same time, it was shed on the screen with differentnguage trantions for everyone to understand.


    "Wee to the game of virtual reality and role ying games!"


    As the name of the game was announced, everyone yelled in delight because they thought this was easy to win.


    Of course, these types of game concept was popr among the youth and young at hearts. Almost everyone id this type of games.


    Like any other virtual reality and role ying games, the participants were asked to logged in the game using the helmet that they had to wear on their head.


    "You''ll be given one mission inside and you have to do it to pass and continue. That is, ''To clear every levels and reach the top on a given time''. If not, you will lose. There''s no limit to how many will win. But there''s a catch and I am going to exin thister on."


    But they didn''t know what''s in store for them once they logged in the game.


    It was going to be a mass elimination round for the lower ranks. Those who would be eliminated would lose one of their chances to move up in their mercenary ranks as the seding games continued.


    They would stay on that level unless they''re able to defeat a rank higher than them. The second chance they got was if they had taken the minimum number of missions to rank up.


    Majority of the participants on this round had aplished fewer missions and so they had already lost hope on the second option, thus this was theirst chance to rank up.


    "yers, please wear your virtual reality game helmets and get inside the capsule so we could begin." The announcer said.


    Asia could see Frederick wearing his helmet and hurriedly entered the capsule. He seemed very confident.


    The screen inside the arena then changed and they could all see the greeting message that the participants saw in the virtual world and it said, "Wee. I hope you have said yourst words. Goodluck!"


    Well, that was weird.


    As soon as the contest begun, the audience had finally realized why the message was like that.


    The main door was then shut off and was locked from both the inside and the outside. No one was allowed to either go out or enter.


    Then,sersing from every direction started pointing at every family members of every yers.


    Weirdly, twelveser beams were pointing towards Asia. Mr. Alinsky had ten of them, too. Unsurprisingly, Francais only had one.


    "Is this some kind of joke?" Asia mumbled to herself. At the same time, she started chuckling as she thought they were so childish.


    "Ladies and gentlemen, before thepetition started, we have asked the yers to write down the person whom they didn''t want to die among theirpanions in the audience. And the number ofser beams pointing at you means the number of people who didn''t want you to die." The announcer exined the weird rules.


    Should they lose the game, they would not only lose the chance to rank up but also, they''d be given the final test. This test would measure if they''re really fit to being a mercenary or not.


    Their final test would be, killing the people they didn''t want to die or choosing to kill themselves instead.


    Should they chose the former over thetter, bullets would fly and shoot the person chosen. Should they chose the other way, they won''t be able to wake up as an acidic gas woulde out from the gas chamber inside the capsule, killing them in the process.


    Then, the screen on the field changed once again. This time it showed what was going on inside the Virtual Reality Game.


    Just like in any virtual games, they were given the chance to choose their characters or avatars in the game. The only catch was that they''d only recognize them through character names and not their real names. Even their rtives on the audience could not recognize them from one another.


    They''d only know who that person was behind the avatar should they lose and be eliminated in this level.


    "yers and people in the audience, good luck."


    The yers were oblivious to the additional rules since only the losing yers had to make that difficult choiceter on.


    Now, the audience were on a tight position. Their lives were on the hands of their family members who were now battling with their opponents inside the game.


    Everyone desperately cheered on the participants as if they could hear them.


    At this point, who would want to lose? No one. Everyone wanted to live. Majority wanted to go home with aplete family. Yet it seems like it was going to be a dream at the end of this conference.


    All of them seemed to have forgotten how cruel the world they chose to live and even had families to raise. And now, they''re going to suffer. Not only them but even their little children.


    If this was the first game, then, what about the rest of the games?


    As for Asia, she was not surprised about this. Even if she had twelveser beams pointing towards her, she was unaffected by it. Instead, she was bothered to know who dared to write her name on that damn paper.


    They better dare not to choose to kill her or else she''de back from the dead and drag them down with them one by one.


    Meanwhile, President Williams sat down on his seat inside the control room. The ten strongest mercenaries in the world were also there with him.


    They were seated ording to ranks.


    With an devilish smile stered on his face, he said, "Good. Now let''s see how everything will end."


    "Right! I like this idea President Williams. I believe that there are so many of us and this group is already over saturated. What a good n to eliminate the useless ones!" The mercenary on the tenth seat said.


    Everyone agreed to what he said aside from the one on the fifth seat and President Williams was quick to notice that.


    "Are you upset over something?"


    "Why should I be upset when this idea was originally mine to begin with?" She sharply answered taking away the credits from him.


    Right. She suggested this and she let them borrow the technologies needed for this contest.


    The game started and everyone saw the environment changing and they were all lining up on the starting line. In front of them was a huge upside down building and they had to clear the lowest level then climbed to the top.


    A word then shed in front of them urging them to walk and enter the door in front of them.


    Everyone entered the big door and they were surprised to see what was inside.


    They were stepping on a cliff and below the cliff was a scorching hotva. Looking down, they were actually boiling and bubbles popped up on the air indicating how hot it was down there. The temperature in the ce was so hot that all of them were sweating heavily. Even their clothes were starting to melt.


    Then the instruction popped up on the screen in the stadium and at the same time in front of the yers.


    They had to reach the other cliff on the other side which was a hundred meters away to clear the level. They have to cross to the other side or the cliff that they were stepping in at the moment would copse when the time ran out and they''d fall on theva and die on the game.


    Everyone watched as the game clock marked thirty minutes and then the game officially begun!


    "Are they insane? How can we cross to the other side when there''s nothing we could step on?!" One of the contestants yelled.


    "We have to find something. Some triggering switch hidden somewhere that could activate something here. This is a virtual game, nothing is impossible here, right?"


    Everyone looked at the other side of the cliff which had a steel door which would be the exit to this h*ll ce.


    After hearing him, they checked on their items to see if there''s anything that could help them in crossing.


    Most of them cursed because the items inside were pretty useless. Tape measure, a bottle of water, a rope, a bag of pebbles, a bag of marbles and some other useless stuff.


    To make things worse, their killing weapons were locked for the second level. How were they going to clear this?


    Outside the game, instead of being upset, Asia decided to focus on the game. She herself was trying to solve on how to cross to the other side and finish the level.


    She thought this game was familiar. No. Actually, she knew this game. She and Eunji once draw this concept on a paper. Hoping one day, they''d be able to make a virtual game out of this.


    Asia looked at one of the camera and she shed a knowing smile. She knew that someone would see this smile in the control room but she didn''t care.


    Inside the game, the yers were trying their best to find ways to cross to the other side.


    Some of them asked their rope item and tied them together and when it was long enough, they tried tossing them to the other side.


    However, their ideas failed miserably because the rope rope melted due to high temperature.


    There were a total of two thousand lower ranked mercenaries. And they didn''t know that the more they stayed their total weight would make a toll on the soil and it would start copsing even before the time ran out.


    And it was toote for them to realize that.


    At least a foot length of the soil copsed and fell on the scorchingva together with a few participants five minutes after the starting time.


    They thought that those who had fallen would not really die but to make things more interesting, the pop-up screen in front of them showed what had happened after they got eliminated.


    All of their eyes widened in horror as they saw what had happened in the real world. They saw some of the rtives being shot to death.


    Now, they realized the consequence of this game. And so some of them wanted to quit. Never mind ranking up. They wanted to save themselves and their families.


    They pressed the pop-up screen but unfortunately for them, there''s no turning back. They could not log out.


    This made the atmosphere in both the arena and the virtual game to be tensed. Oblivious to them, outside the arena, a ck car was driving near.


    Nathan who was on the driver''s seat got his phone and dialed someone else''s number. As soon as the call connected he spoke to the other line, "I''m here. Where are you?"


    ***