The all-knowing Player (Solo Leveling)

Massacre (2)

I stare at the corpse of the hunter, once again unable to take my eyes off it. She's dead. And we will soon be, too. These statues all have the power to kill us with a single blow. But why didn't they do it? The ones on each side of the hallway can only reach hunters to a certain point since they also are pillars, but what about the warrior? Why didn't it kill us?

"The statues seem to obey a certain set of rules." Yool observes. "But which?"

"If we do, too, will we be able to leave safely?" a hunter asks between two sobs with a spark of madness in his eyes. "I- I just want to get out of here. Please. I'll do anything, just let me go!"

"Probably."

"The text on the board that was crossed out. These were the rules." I realize. "But we can't read them."

"No. There are other rules." the hunter announces, pointing at the runic letters engraved on the floor in front of the statue that holds the board. " 'You will fight until only one is left. Only then will you be free.' These are the new rules. We need to fight."

"How do you plan on beating those statues?" Seon-Ji contests. "They will attack us as soon as we start moving."

"I didn't mean 'fight the statues'." The hunter lifts his sword, menacing us with it. "I meant 'fight the other hunters in the room'."

"You can't be serious! We're not killing each other!" Seon-Ji yells.

"N-No. He's right." another hunter says with a face full of despair, joined by the last one. "This is what they want. And I'll do it."

With these words, he takes his own weapon and slices the throat of the first one. I want to scream, but no sound comes out of my mouth. The shocked expression of the hunter as he falls forward, choking on his own blood, prints itself in my mind. But the one I will never forget is the face of the hunter who killed him.

"Ha... Hahaha... Hahahahaha!" he laughs wildly, his pupils shrunk until there almost isn't color anymore. "That's right. I'll live! I'll make it out of here alive!"

He rushes over to us, ready to end our lives, too. Seon-Ji blocks his sword with her gauntlets, gritting her teeth as a crack is heard. Equipment infused with mana is extremely costly, even if its quality is low. Her gauntlets are the only piece of equipment we could afford for the three of us, but they still were one of the cheapest on the hunter's market, meaning that they wouldn't last long against the blade of a sword.

What should I do? How can we force them to calm down? Is there a way out? Should we really... kill each other? No! I can't. I'm the weakest of all of us here. Wouldn't it make sense that I would be the first one to die? No. I can't die here. But I can't try to kill someone, either. What should I do? Isn't there another solution?

"Stop it!" I yell, squeezing my head with my two hands.

"Why would I?" a menacing voice behind me asks.

I turn around immediately, but it's too late. The last hunter who isn't fighting with Seon-Ji throws an explosion at me. I barely have the time to protect my face with my two arms until it hits me mercilessly. I am projected to the other side of the room until something hard ends my flight.

A striking pain flows through my ribcage as I hear something break within me. But this pain is nothing compared to the one on my arms. Tears swell up in my eyes as I stare at my burnt limbs. The explosion didn't only burn them until they resemble coal. It tore apart the flesh on my arms until the bone. The sight of my arms gives me a sudden nausea and I bend to the side to throw up, ignoring the stinging pain in my chest. I would have been dead if I didn't protect my head. The mage is only D-rank. That is how weak I am.