Chapter 9: One Chance, One Opportunity
- Two days Remaining -
Room 55 / Cafeteria / 6:55PM
"... You got to be cheating. " Igna says with utter disbelief. His mouth agape with horror in his eyes.
On the other side of the table, a burst of maniacal laughter ensued, resounding through the hall.
"Underestimating anyone, regardless of their disabilities can result in an undesirable outcome." A deep voice echoes out.
Iguanas eyes twitched as he snaps out "THIS IS FUCKING CHESS, SOL! I LOST TO A BLIND GUY, SOL! MY SELF-ESTEEM IS LOST IN THE ABYSS, SOL!"
"Life ain't fair, kid. Take what happened here as an example. Chess against a blind man would give you an advantage, especially in time-loss, and here you stand, a loser. " Sol speaks as if he aged considerably and had 4 grandkids.
"Don't get philosophical with me!" Igna snapped back with rage comparable to a poked hornet's nest.
Hearing the commotion in the cafeteria, Ryn looked at the time. '10 minutes until the trial. Ugh'
Getting up from the chair, he sets off.
"As long as I have the kitten, I'll have an anchor. Any dissociation caused by emotional instability from the trial will hopefully be undone. Ah, crap. If not for the fact I'd get my entire body broken apart, I'd try to skip this one. " Ryn scornfully complains.
Leaving the room, a short girl stands in front of him. Her eyes and hair are black, though not on the level of Ryn's.
"Can I ask you a-" before she could finish her sentence, Ryn immediately cuts her off, "Sorry, I have a trial in 10 minutes."
Without waiting for a response, he begins to jog away as fast and inconspicuous as possible so she doesn't think he's purposefully running.
...
"Ehhh, he has a trial?" Servyn thinks to herself "Well, I can't decapitate him now then, I'll come later." Skipping down the hallway, she hums to herself an old folklore song.
...
Barely arriving on time, Ryn takes a small breather and looks at the trial in front of him. "Parkour? I thought I was denied these?"
A rather large lady in front of him speaks in a bored tone "Gonna be honest, I've got no clue. Your last trial was also strange as hell. If not for the fact Vile Oni didn't reject them, I would've suspected someone was fuckin' with the records."
Sighing, the lady looks at her watch, then looks up at Ryn. "Wanna pretend you did this trial? I know, I know, 'this isn't allowed', look, you're as good as you can get at parkour, its why we stopped doing it. Your private training room also confirmed this. You have no reason to do this damned trial. Save us both the time, and just return to your room. I'll say you passed it flawlessly. And no, it isn't unique. I oversaw its creation, it's the same damn thing as before."
Hearing her rant, Ryn immediately gets suspicious 'Oni didn't reject this? Hmm... Is someone supporting me from the shadows?'
Turning away to leave the room, the parkour manager's eyes light up, and sighs in relief. "Oi, thanks for saving my time kid." Getting up from her chair, she leaves through a staff-only door and disappears into the darkness.
'Might as well head back and discuss how we're gonna escape then. ' Ryn states as he jogs back.
...
Walking down a hall, a young girl exits a staff-only room. In this gigantic hall, countless doors litter the right side, with many words written on them all ending with Trial. Moving towards a parkour trial, she opens the door and appears in a small room. Looking at the size difference from entering and exiting, it's outright mind-boggling. It's clear there was some sort of teleportation involved with the doors. Just as she enters, she bumps into a large lady.
"Soulless Servyn? How may I assist you, Madame?"
"Oh. You're Ern, right? I need to go, maybe we'll talk later~" She cheers out, radiating positivity.
"As you desire." Ern replies. Seeing Servyn fully exit the hall, she runs down to the gigantic hall before slowing and catch her breath. 'Is that human!? Was that really a human being!? Certainly didn't fucking feel like it! No shit she's called 'Soulless'!'
Taking out her phone, she begins to call someone. After a few seconds, the call was picked up and an ethereal voice slowly spoke out "Yyeeess, Ern? Did something happen?"
"Vile Oni, Soulless Servyn appears to be in a hunting state. Is this even allowed? " She questions with uncertainty.
"... Hunting? Where was the last place she entered? " Oni speaks with rare concern.
Hearing his voice getting serious, Ern no longer hid anything. Explaining the parkour trial, Ryn's appearance, and how they came to a consensus, Oni went silent.
After what felt like years, the ethereal voice resounded once more "And this is why I don't rely on batshit crazy women. I'll give her a call, Ern. Call the Private Chamber in Room 55 and deny all unknown variables from entry. Lethal force permitted."
"As you desire, Vile Oni." Closing the phone, Ern wipes her sweat 'Well, that's over with. I'm going to get a second serving of lunch.'
...
After entering Room 55, Ryn takes out the squashed cube device and calls for a team meeting in his room. Jogging over, he waits patiently for everyone to arrive.
After a few minutes, everyone is seated on the floor.
"Alright, so we need to plan for what we're going to do. To escape, we need to get Vile Karn, Vile Ern, and Soulless Servyn in one area. They cannot be near us when we attempt to escape just in case the window in Storage is a fake one. If they are far, it buys us time to escape back to our room."
Hearing Ryn's words, all the members fall into thought. Sol speaks up first "Well, let's go over their abilities. Maybe speaking them out loud will help us concentrate and formulate a plan better."
Hearing this, Yeren nods. "Alright, so, first we have Vile Karn."
"She's 49 years old, ability - Breakdown at Tier 2. Nearly Tier 1 but seemed to have reached her end before advancing."
"Her ability allows her to break anything within 10 meters of her, regardless of the type. The only exception is 'forces', such as gravity. For this reason, she has no way to deal with Jil. " Facing her, Yeren states "Should we meet her, apply as much gravitational force as you can. We're escaping, not having a walk. Whether she dies or not is not our concern."
Jil nods understandably. "If I kill her, will I get anything?"
Not bothering to think about what she said, Yeren immediately replies "Ryn'll fulfill one request of yours or something, alright now for Vile Ern."
Jil's face blushes as Ryn gets an ominous feeling 'I need to keep Karn from dying. As much as I'm fine with it, Jil is showing a face that she'll so definitely regret later on!'
"Vile Ern is a tricky one. Her ability is Devour, Tier 3. She can eat anything, and either digest or store it. Her upper limit is 3000 kilos, meaning she can spit out multiple auto-tracking tanks or a thousand mini-turrets. Her most glaring weakness is the fact she takes a whole second to spit it out and requires her mouth to be open during then. I'll just run up to her, and crush her mouth shut. I would say we can then wire her mouth shut, but from what I've heard, she's the kindest Vile, so I'd rather not have her punished excessively."
"Finally, we have Soulless Servyn. I have many consistent sources stating she can conjure anything out of her own imagination, but she apparently can't create complex or large things. Her ability is probably related to Imagination or Creation with the possible Tier around 7 to 9. Whether she's withholding her ability to cause a false sense of security is unlikely. Her mouth is extremely runny. Even when given explicit orders from Oni to keep silent about the security training event, she managed to spill the beans before it was even announced to us."
"Any ideas?"
Hearing the description regarding Servyn, most of the team breathed a sigh of relief. Knowing an enemy is far less dangerous than an unknown enemy after all.
Thinking hard, an idea clicks in Ryns head. A smile creeps up his face as he says out "I have an idea. It's crazy, but if it works, this'll be good.
...
"Whyyyy?" Servyn cries into her phone.
An emotionless and terrifying voice broke out "No means no Servyn. Keep up this behavior, and I'll see to it that your dreams will remain as such, no matter how hard you work or develop your ability. Understood?"
Sniffling up her barely kept-in tears, she states wobbly "O-Okay..."
Groaning, the voice continues "You're far too chaotic. You need to calm yourself. Just because you can't kill him, doesn't imply marriage. Now, prepare for after tomorrow. We have a ton to do."
...
Leaving Ryn's room, Yeren stays behind "You realise that this is a large risk, right?"
Looking at Yeren, Ryn's eyes grow dead "It's the easiest way so far."
Noticing something wrong, Yeren immediately puts two and two together "... She's dissociated, isn't she?"
Nodding, Yeren groans "Well, that makes sense. Yeah, if I were you, I'd do the same. The chances of her recovering somewhat are pretty high. Good luck."
After Yeren left, Ryn feeds Dura and heads out to the training room.
Meeting with the Flesh, Ryn nods once. Without needing a reason, the doors fling open.
...
Not much occurred that day, nor the day after.
Ryn constantly trained, getting more and more used to his withered arms and timing with his aura reset. Unfortunately, he couldn't do anything with the manual reset.
Jil kept talking to herself throughout the day and played with the kitten.
Yeren performed many muscle exercises without a break.
Igna and Sol played chess. That's it.
For every nightfall, they would all gather, re-discuss the plan, confirm various parts, and memorizing their roles.
Before they knew it, the fateful night arrives.
Their time to escape has come.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
SoullessWendigo
SoullessWendigo Every chapter after 10 will have a fun fact either regarding the novel or something in real life. Stay tuned for them
Also I was REALLLY tired making this chapter in case it wasn't obvious
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