the tragedy befalls 2~

"What is the royal military doing here?" Draven asked the guard, but was met with only a stare. "Don’t they only move on the king’s orders? Is the king inside?" People started whispering amidst the chaos.

Someone clapped from the proctor’s position, catching everyone's attention. “Everyone, we are really sorry for all this commotion. Note that the D30 tournament is still ongoing for teams that are not disqualified. Those who do not complete their given tasks within the specific time, aside from the disqualified teams, will also be disqualified. And as for the disqualified teams—get lost, you weaklings!” Mr. Blue, the superintendent investigator, announced while pointing to the exit. The crowd came under control, with many teams leaving and others going back to their tasks.

The number of people coming out suddenly increased. People started running. “We are safe now,” one of the runners said, but soon a knife shot out from inside at a very fast speed, piercing his heart and throwing him a distance away. “What was that just now?” Mr. Blue said, seemingly surprised. “Close the gate,” he shouted, and soon the guards started closing the gates. “Don’t close the gates, we are coming!” people shouted as they ran towards the gates, bodies trembling with fear, yet still running with everything they had to get out.

Everyone seemed shocked and in despair. People started running away from the exit. “What are you doing? My brother is inside!” Stark shouted loudly. “Who are you? Anyways, I am really sorry for your brother, but we can’t afford to put any more lives in danger,” Mr. Blue replied, hurrying. He seemed shocked by his own cruel yet necessary words.

Stark, silently looking down with tears in his eyes, remembered Vel’s words: “Follow your heart, Stark, believe in me.” He wiped his tears and said to Renard, “I am sorry, I cannot abandon them,” and ran inside while the gate was still closing. “Do not enter, you all will die,” Mr. Blue shouted with a heavy heart and empathy, but his words went unheeded by those rushing inside like madmen. The doors were about to be closed, but at the last moment, the guard seemed to stop, surprised and in awe at seeing a person covered in blood and scratches, his body full of holes. It was already a miracle he was standing with that many injuries, but he was carrying and dragging more than 50 injured people. “What a guy,” Mr. Blue said, observing him from a distance.

As the injured dwart crossed the gate, his balance became unstable, but he was supported by Draven and three other GYA crew members who were present near the gate. While breathing heavily, he reached into his ragged jersey, took out a G-token, and fell down. “You really are a great guy,” Draven said, “but that thing is no more useful for us,” he finished while looking at the ranking board. “Boss might be about to explode,” said another crew member with tears in his eyes, and Draven just nodded.

Phase 1 (1 hour ago)

“What am I doing here?” Guta thought while staring at the roof with no spark in his eyes. Amidst the whole noise, Guta might have been the only one who had moved this far from the field and was simply lying on the ground, using ore as a pillow. “Why?” His face spoke a single question. “Sir, do you see that guy? His ore is quite good and big, and he seems to be alone,” a guy with a bald head and a heavy beard said to one of the rankers. “Just call me Richard, and do you think we can take that guy?” the top ranker among the alliance made up of five teams said. “He is alone, we are five, and if all of us aim for the ore together in a coordinated attack, I think it is worth a try,” Beardy said. “Hmmm, you are right, cautiously and lethally,” Richard agreed.

As Guta observed the roof, he kept thinking about the reason for living, giving reasons like to eat, to get rich and wealthy, to fight, but all these were just words for him and led to no conclusion. The next instant, he sensed five people. “Looks like an ambush,” he thought and stood up. “That was unexpected, I thought we didn’t make any noise,” the person with a beard muttered. As Guta took out his straight blades for the first time, he viewed his enemy's faces, who were so desperate that Guta felt inferior. He started wondering, “Should I let them? It would be nice if it finished in one go,” he thought and lowered his sword.

Suddenly, Richard jumped with a javelin and threw it. Guta waited to see it pierce his heart, but the direction of the javelin was the ore, so Guta quickly slashed the javelin with his left-hand blade in half. “Sorry, that is not mine, I cannot give you that,” Guta said with a serious face and dashed to cut all their weapons in one swift flow in seconds. “What happened? I didn’t even see that,” Beardy thought while sweating and looking at his sword with no blade. “Aaahhh, sorry, we are completely outclassed. You can have our ore, but don’t kill us,” Richard said. “Not interested, now begone,” Guta said and started walking with a bent back and lay down on the ground again.

Meanwhile, in the center of the field, it was like a war but against a single person who seemed to overpower everyone alone with sheer strength of punches and kicks. “What the hell is wrong with that woman? Why is she so strong?” someone facing her said. “Boss seems to be carrying about 20 kg of her ore on her back, tied with the mat,” Momo said to Balloon, who seemed to be free now as everyone was busy defending against Vel. “She really is enjoying it,” Balloon replied. “Look at the ranking now; she is already at the top,” Draven commented to Balloon. “But other top rankers also seem pretty strong,” Gigi replied, who had moved his mat near them and joined them in conversation while sparring with Momo.

“Weak!” Vel shouted and punched a man in the face, sending him flying into the wall with his ore. She jumped on one of the blond guys who barely blocked her kick with his rod. “Haha, let’s see what you got,” she said as she dashed towards him with a barrage of punches, which he blocked while being pushed back. A sudden spinning kick to the abdomen sent him flying, but he somehow regained his balance. “Become strong and come again,” she said as her eyes diverted to Guta, who seemed to be resting, and grabbed a large stone and threw it towards him. “Why aim for it?” he said irritably and broke the ore into pieces in split seconds before hitting the ground and standing in a fighting pose.

As she was leaving, the blond-haired guy took the protective sheath on the road and ran towards her with unique steps, throwing it towards her while holding the hook from the end with his finger. But she simply held it, and another blond jumped from the side with dual daggers in hand, aiming for her ore. Suddenly, both their teams were disqualified at once, and they fell back. “Thank you, sister, but it looks like it is over for us this time,” the blond guy replied after quickly grasping the condition and started looking at the board while exhaling and barely holding back his tears and cry.

[^15] The military is divided into 3 category the brigade military for border security, internal military that replace police and royal military under king there are also regimen of each higher order that is independent of anyone aside from the higher order themselves.