The panels that were the typical entry and exit way from one test chamber to another swung open in a familiar way. After entering, he expected a run down and dark basement but instead was greeted with yet another white room. Yu felt odd about being relieved to find himself back here.
"Congratulations on passing the previous trial."
The typically mechanical voice, that belonged to ARC echoed through the room again. Yet another odd relief.
"You have successfully cleared all solitary trials in terms of intelligence, strength and psychological influence."
Ah, that's what it was? Was that a fancy word for traumatising escape room?
"You may now rest in this room before proceeding to the next round of tests. For your convenience there are various amenities, such as food, a bed and more. The next trial features combat so it is recommended to make the according preparations for it. When you hear the announcement, please go ahead through the exit door."
The cackling indicated the end of the announcement. The room indeed was filled with various pieces of furniture and food. It even had a toilet. Overall, it would have a pretty welcoming look if not for the white walls that made it seem like Yu was in an asylum. What tripped up Yu though, was the fact that there was no mention whatsoever of the red telephone booth smack dab in the middle of the room. It didn't fit with the visual theme of the entire rest of the decor at all. By Yu's knowledge this was a red telephone box one would commonly see all over the United Kingdom.
Carefully, he took steps toward the phone box. Something told him that the fact that this booth was here was not normal. It just seemed so out of place.
He put his hand on the handle and swung the door of the box open. Entering the booth, he analysed it but everything was as he'd expect it to be. There was nothing more than a landline phone hung across the door. He grabbed the silver coloured phone receiver and held it to his ear. Did this landline really work? He thought of calling home, or calling Lia. But before he could even enter anything on the dial pad, he was startled.
"Helloo my favorite character."
For some reason, the alarms inside of his head all went off simultaneously. Despite that he kept calm, not answering. It was a female voice, with the intonation of an excited teenage girl. Still, the voice gave him the chills.
"At last we finally meet, hihi."
Keeping in character of an overly excited teenage girl. the mysterious voice giggled.
"You must wonder who I am, don't you? Ah, the intrigue of mystery, the blossom of revelation."
Yu did not immediately know how to respond to that. Who was this girl and how was she connected to the tests? Why did it feel so out of place to talk to her? He decided to investigate.
"I do" was his simple reply, which was met with yet another giggle.
"Well, my dear friend, let's just say I am someone who has been observing you for the past few trials so far. Oh, but I'm not part of whatever they're doing with you there."
What was that supposed to mean? She had no connection to the ARC? Who was she then?
"No I don't. To answer your latter two questions, I am not connected to the ARC and I am a neutral observer that doesn't interfere with the matters of this world. Well, one can argue what I'm doing right now is meddling. But this is a special exception, I just HAD to talk to you."
Yu shuddered. He didn't speak his questions out loud, did he? Did she just read his thoughts? Who was this girl?
"I'm sorry I usually don't invade someone's private thoughts like that but I can't help it."
She said that in a genuinely remorseful tone, which made it even less believable for some reason.
"So, to quell your curiosity, I'll lift the veil. I go by many names but, to not spoil anything, you can call me 'Admin' I suppose."
Admin? Weird name but sure. What was she?
"You can view me as sort of a god in your terms, or something akin to a system administrator. I am the highest animal in this hierarchy and I control everything in this world."
Yu very much disapproved of the grave invasion into his own mind. But this answer left a lot more question than actual answers.
"I know but don't worry, it will all be answered in due time."
What a weird girl. He disliked her even more. What did someone as high as a system administrator want from someone like him?
"You don't seem to like me very much but that's fine. I'd chalk it up to first impressions but I wouldn't be able to view a god looking down on me whilst I was in a helpless situation in a favourable light either, so I don't blame you."
...Sure.
"In any case, I'm actually here to help you. I decided I like you and as my favourite character so far, I'm allowing one intervention to make this story more... interesting."
Yu didn't know what to expect when she said that. Was this a good or a bad thing?
"You may note your little skill that looks like a math formula, right?"
Yu indeed had the formula. Initially he didn't know what to make of it so he left it be for now.
[x=n%]
Appraising it didn't yield any results, as it always told him that this entity didn't exist.
"That's because, technically it didn't exist until very recently."
"Huh?"
Yu was all the more confused.
"This was a special skill I developed and granted you and two other individuals within the system. I won't tell you everything about it, as that would very much spoil the fun. But I had to give you this skill for the simple reason that you as a regular human wouldn't be compatible with the full extent of the system otherwise. Sure, you could remedy that by using just runes but this way it's more fun."
Yu didn't say anything and instead tried to process what she was saying.
"Another side effect of this compatibility thing is that you seem to be gaining experience points at a much more elevated rate compared to the rest of the beings in the system."
A regular human? What did that mean? Were there... non-regular humans?
"Haha you're amusing. Well, all has its due time. For now, just keep me entertained. I don't think you'll hear from me for a while but I have really bad restraint when it comes to things like these, so who knows. I have high hopes for your upcoming character arc, hihi."
And with that, the line was cut. Yu tried talking into it but no dice. The other end was not there anymore.
Yu had to process everything that happened so far. So, there was this being that was a deity or something similar of that kind, calling herself "Admin" and was annoying in Yu's opinion. Definitely not a friend. Or was she?
He tried opening his appraisal panel, which now seemed to work again. He entered the skill list and checked for the formula. Appraising it, still yielded the same result. Yu didn't know how to feel about all of that. Deciding to forget all of this for now and to focus on his current predicament, honing his chances at combat.
Yu already established that he wasn't the physically fittest or strongest. But the Umbranium helped him make up for it by a lot. First, the Umbranium by itself granted him extreme defensive and offensive capabilities, making him significantly stronger and granting him armour in a way that was hard to break. Whilst he was so far only able to properly channel it defensively as a big and ugly shield, he was now working on a way to fine tune it more into a form of armour. Working on various means of size, form and shape, he landed on a black, Umbranium coat that, when touched, felt like it was made out of lightweight fibre. The catch was, he could harden specific areas at any point, almost instantaneously. This gave him a lot of benefits; The coat was extremely lightweight, giving him great mobility whilst at the same time giving him pinpoint precision in his defence. As of right now, he had to manually harden the areas of protection but he could find a way to automate that later on.
Regarding his offence, Yu thought for a long time what would be a good idea. He had a surprising amount of options, considering he could form the Umbranium however he wanted it to be. That's how he fought so far, especially against the Mannequin. His main weapon of choice in that fight was a Katana, a japanese sword, which in itself wasn't a bad choice at all. He decided to analyse and fall back on it for close quarters fights. For distance, he decided to refine his Umbranium bullets further and train, so he could fire them with as much of ease as he could. He also wanted to be able to aim as much as he could without relying on the "Select" and "Aim" skill.
With his current strategy set, he decided to indulge in some food and rest before the announcement arrived.
"Subject 128, please prepare to enter the trial."
"There are others here too?"
That was the first thing Yu heard as soon as he entered the trial room. Yu didn't know what to expect, but neither did his opposition as it seems. The first human other than Yu.
"I'm just as surprised as you are."
The person standing in front of Yu was a girl around his age. She reminded him of a so-called "Gyaru", a category of rebellious and hip looking teenage girls prominent in Japan, both in visual looks and lifestyle.
"Welcome Subject 068 and 128. You are now in the first round of the 'One On One' battles."
The girl stared into Yu's direction, locking eyes with him, visibly distressed.
"I have to fight you now?"
"Seems like it."
Yu was pretty indifferent about this. None of this came as a surprise to him. Judging by everything so far, he couldn't have been the only one in this trial system. Or that was at least his assumption. He was glad to see it confirmed. The metallic voice of ARC continued.
"As soon as the siren starts, a timer of five minutes will start running. There are two conditions to winning. The primary condition is to win by reducing the opponent's HP to zero. The alternative is to have a higher percentage of HP left than your opponent when the timer runs out."
068 seemed to cower now. Poor girl. A loud siren blared, signalising the start of the battle and a timer running down from five minutes appeared on a screen attached to the wall. Yu almost felt a bit bad for her. She seemed to be completely overstimulated by what was happening. Maybe he'd go slow on her?
Harsh pain.
And suddenly Yu was on the ground. What did just happen?
When Yu tried getting up and oriented himself, he barely made out the voice standing in front of him.
"I'm sorry, I really don't want to die."
That was her? Man she packed a punch. She was incredibly fast. A speedy type utilising momentum.
...don't want to die...?
Of course. Dropping the HP to 0 presumably meant death. Yu didn't know for sure but it was very likely that, just like it video games, depleting those meant a game over. And there was no way to know if that was permanent or not. The girl went on.
"Just stay there and let the timer run by. You'll likely live after it's over. Probably. Maybe."
Yu stared at her with an annoyed look. She now held a hammer in her hand, which he did not notice before. A bit too many uncertainties for his liking.
"And why should I do that?" he replied.
The look on the girl's face was one of fear upon hearing that.
"Please, I really don't want to do this."
What was Yu's guarantee that he lived onward, even if he lost by having less HP after time ran out?
"Look," Yu muttered whilst getting back on his legs, extending his arm, "I don't want to do this either."
He materialised his sword.
"But in the end, it is survival against the fittest isn't it?"
Not even a split second after finishing that sentence, the girl rushed towards him, swinging her hammer. Yu parried it with his sword. Good, he had enough power to withstand her simpler blows.
"Why... I don't want to do this, I don't want to die!"
The girl started crying, tears dripping down as she took a swing after the other. Yu was pretty secure in his defence, parrying all the attacks and occasionally dashing away.
"Well, neither do I," Yu replied sternly.
In response, she let out a scream. Instead of taking a swing at him now, she took hold of her hammer and smashed it into the ground. Whilst the ground itself seemed to be undamaged whatsoever, a quake rippled throughout the entire room, unleashing a wave of wind. Yu was thrown against the white wall.
"Wow, you do not hold back your punches," Yu noted with a smile, whilst checking his HP. It went down by a fifth. He noticed the recovery being a bit faster than before though. Likely due to his HP-Recovery having levelled up. He bit his lips. This was actually rather contra-productive at the moment. Eyeing the timer, which was now at around three minutes, Yu got himself back on his feet.
"Time to go on the offence then."
Yu, gripping the sword in one hand, extended the other, materialising multiple bullets out of Umbranium. Whilst watching the girl closely he fired all of them off, which she dodged perfectly. What she didn't expect was the bullets, that she dodged, stopping and coming back at her. As they caught her by surprise, she was only able to block a few of them, whilst the others hit some vital points on her body. Yu glanced towards the timer, which was close to hitting two minutes.
"You're playing dirty," the girl muttered.
"To be fair, you are trying to murder me."
"Ah, I hate you!"
She started swinging the hammer around her axis, then throwing it at Yu. If that hammer hit Yu it could leave more than just a dent. He lifted his hand, to which a wall of Umbranium started building in front of him, just in time to fully tank the hammer's hit.
"Wh- what are you? Why do you have such an overpowered skill and I only get a hammer and some super strength?"
"Maya, you haven't figured out appraisal, have you?"
"W- what?"
Appraising
[Maya Kelch LV8]
XP: 31%
HP: 59%
SP: 78%
"Maya Kelch, Player Level 8, 59 percent of health left."
That was right. This was his first ever opportunity to appraise another human since he had it. He was curious about what kind of information he could see. As of right now, Appraisal on level two seemed to be only capable of showing him the name, level and surface level stats.
"Wha- What do you mean by appraisal? I don't know what you're talking about!"
Yu was genuinely dumbfounded. So, Maya did not have an appraisal skill? How come? Yu always thought it was baked into the entire system thing.
"I can only appraise myself... Don't tell me you can see my stats too? How overpowered are you? This is unfair!"
Yu realised some serious implications of this. This Admin figure likely had her hand in this.
"Tsk," Yu exclaimed.
"What do you mean 'tsk'? I am the one that is at a disadvantage here!"
Yu did not reply. Instead he checked his own HP.
Appraising
[Yu Kaedehara LV9]
XP: 21%
HP: 76%
SP: 89%
His HP was automatically healing. Hers wasn't. Unless she's healed or damaged, it would stay that way. He glanced at the timer. Twenty seconds left. He had exactly one shot at this.
He held up his hand, forming Umbranium bullets directly above him.
"Wh- what are you doing??" Maya asked with a mix of confusion and panic.
"Equalising our chances."
He shot a bullet straight into his left shoulder. Yu let out a light scream in pain. Checking his HP, he was now at 58%.
"Three."
The metallic voice of ARC started counting down the remaining seconds. Maya screamed in confusion of what was happening.
"Two."
Yu stumbled, bending down on his left knee. He lifted his head and directly locked eyes with Maya.
"One."
Then, he smiled.
"Perfect."
A siren blared again, signalising the end of this round.
"This round of the tournament is over. The winner is..."
Maya closed her eyes, as to avert herself from the truth. Who could blame her?
"...inconclusive."
"What?"
Maya opened her eyes again, in confusion. Yu decided to let her in on his plan.
"The winning conditions are either a game over of the opponent or having more HP as the opponent. I just did something that wouldn't considered to be a win neither a loss by having the same amount of HP as you do as the timer ran out. We'll either both live... or both die."
"But.. that doesn't constitute a win! Why didn't you just finish me off! We'll just both die like this."
"Subject 068 is incorrect."
Arc spoke up again.
"The withholding of this vital information was an intended plan of this test. Subject 128 has invoked a so-called 'Secret Clause'; by neither fulfilling the winning nor losing condition, it is up to the ARC to judge your performance."
"So, ARC," Yu voiced himself, "what is your verdict?"
"You have both passed this round and may advance."
Two panels opened, unleashing new paths ahead.
"Please each pick one path to go ahead. The next opponent is ready."
Maya sacked down and started crying. Yu eyed her for a second but decided to leave her be.
"I'm gonna pick a door and go ahead."
No response. He picked the left one and entered the new chamber.
The moment Yu entered the new chamber, something felt immediately off.
"Look at who we have here."
Yu's eyes widened. He recognised the voice. One he hadn't heard in a while.
"Yu Kaedehara."
Yu froze. He hadn't looked at the source yet. He heard the person making a step towards Yu.
"The prodigy that got all the glory."
Another step.
"The friend without morals."
And another one.
"The worst scum I have ever met in my entire life."
Yu snapped out of his freeze and finally lifted his head, locking eyes directly with the source of these statements. It was a boy his age, with blonde, disheveled hair. His dark brown eyes pierced Yu's own with a glare filled with pure hatred. The piercings and earrings he had made him look much more threatening than Yu actually remembered. Clothed in the exact same white clothing as when Yu started out, he was standing mere metres away from Yu. This was none other than his former best friend that stopped talking to him. This was Kouji Akashi.
"Kou..."
Kouji laughed.
"To think that you were also here. At least I can end you once and for all in this hellscape of a game or whatever this is."
"I don't think that's what you want. You're not that coldhea-"
Kouji's sarcastically happy demeanour suddenly disappeared.
"You stopped knowing what I want the moment you broke my trust."
The siren blared. The timer started to show five minutes.
"So there is no need to hold back in showing you what I really want."
What followed flabbergasted Yu. Kouji started unleashing a substance, similar to Yu's Umbranium, to coat himself with it. He made himself a thick armour, completely enveloping his armour to the point where he looked like a muscular monster. Whilst the way the substance looked and behaved was very similar to Yu's Umbranium, unlike his dark purple substance, Kouji's was bright orange and red, almost like flowing magma. Yu very quickly appraised Kouji.
Appraising
[Kouji Akashi LV12]
XP: 43%
HP: 100%
SP: 64%
Yu was stunned to see Kouji already at level 12. Was his skill similar to Yu's own?
"Prepare to die, Yu."
The flaming monster that was Kouji jumped at Yu, readying a punch filled with flames. Yu lifted a barrier of Umbranium to counter it. Whilst that proved effective against the blow itself, the residual magma-like substance gnawed at the wall, slowly burning away at it. Kouji's skill could burn through his own. A horrifying revelation.
Yu dashed, through Kouji and behind him, so he was at the other end of the chamber, far away from Kouji. In response, Kouji pointed his hefty arm of magma at Yu and extended it with blazing speeds, resulting in even Yu being caught off guard, ramming him into the wall. Kouji himself hasn't moved an inch during this action.
"Glad to see that you're not all that of a mastermind you make yourself out to be."
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Kouji's smug grin disappeared and in its stead, pure hatred exuded from his eyes.
"You know exactly what I'm talking about."
Before Yu could react, Kouji rammed his extended arm into him again, smashing him even harder against the wall. Even titanium should have shattered by now. Whilst within his tight grip, Yu checked his own stats.
Appraising
[Yu Kaedehara LV9]
XP: 89%
HP: 22%
SP: 64%
This might be it for me, Yu thought. Kouji's skill was so similar to his own. Maybe he had other skills, like appraisal, that Yu also had. Or the formula. Did he maybe also talk to the Administrator?
"Have you talked to a weird teenage girl with a god complex perchance?"
"What?"
Even Kouji seemed to be thrown off by this random question.
"I'm out here torturing you," Kouji said whilst removing his arm and using it to slap Yu's entire body to the side, "and you talk about some girl? You have balls man."
Yu's body flew right into another wall, crashing against it. His HP now said 13%. This was bad. He checked the timer, which had around a minute left. What was gonna be his strategy? How would he fight an upgraded version of his own ability like that?
Yu noticed that although their abilities were similar, their use of it was very different. Whilst Yu opted to be more technical and strategic with his ability, using the Umbranium to create tools that aid him in battle, Kouji seemed to be all about its raw strength. Kouji coated himself in it, giving him this super armour that hit hard and tanked a lot. Additionally, he had the exclusive ability to control its thermal state, able to infuse fire into it to turn it into a kind of magma. To be fair, Yu thought for the way his ability worked it was a genius way to use it and wildly more effective than to fight like Yu.
"Around forty seconds left. Any last words, traitor?"
There it was. The one word Kouji used over and over to describe Yu after their fallout.
"Yes."
Kouji grinned.
"You don't seem to have a thermal resistance skill, do you?"
And so, Kouji's grin disappeared. And all of a sudden, Kouji was on the ground, his armour shattered. No, that was the wrong word, it wasn't shattered. It was sliced? All of a sudden, a sharp pain hit Kouji from the back. Quickly getting himself back on his feet, he noticed that he got burnt by his own, shattered armour. How did he do that? When Kouji turned his head towards Yu, he then saw it: Yu was holding what looked like a scythe made out of his Umbranium. With his black coat that had purple accents and the scythe in the same color scheme, he looked like a reaper.
"You little-"
Kouji lifted his hand, commanding the shattered pieces of magma to fly towards Yu with unfathomable speed. Yu threw his scythe, controlling it to spin around its own axis at an even faster speed, creating a circular shield. It dispersed the pieces of magma even more. But Kouji couldn't get to picking up the pieces again, as not even a second later Yu was already in front of Kouji, dealing a significant blow to him using the scythe, this time making Kouji the one to smash against the wall.
"Yu- You play dirt-"
Without any armour around his body, Kouji suffered a huge loss to his HP and all of a sudden fell unconscious. The timer showed eight seconds and stagnated.
"The winner of this battle is Subject 128. Please pass through the door ahead."
Yu didn't feel triumphant about this win. Neither did he feel like all the experience points he received helped the way he processed what just happened.
How he beat Kouji despite his fate looking grim? He noticed that Kouji didn't have any protection towards the heat he himself produced. So, Yu surmised that the inside of his weird magma suit was cooled to offset the heat. Smart move really, he gave Kouji that. So, Yu thought of a way to break that armour. But anything he would throw at him would just get burnt. He needed a way to break the armour without this own Umbranium going up in flames. So, instead of having something hit it and immediately dissolve, the best way to approach this would to have as little matter touch it as possible. So, something like a slice.
What would be the best way to inflict one? It would have to have enough reach and distance to Kouji but also had to pack a punch.
A spear maybe? Probably good for poking but not that great for a cut like that. But if the blade were to be inverted... A scythe.
That was it. The most optimal weapon type for Yu.
And so, Yu defeated Kouji. Not by sheer strength but by being strategic about it. A pattern, that plagued the duo in the past. And likely would in their future.