A chilling silence filled the air, thick and suffocating, as we stared at the dark mansion, a single question clawed at everyone's mind:
'Who will go next?'
Even though there were prideful people and battle maniacs like Long Wei, Master Kai, Zorath and the demon with four arms — they weren't stupid to risk their lives blindly.
Even though there were kind and self-sacrificing people like Celestina and Braham — they knew it wasn't about sacrificing their own selves, but also their teams.
So the same question echoed in our minds again: 'Who will go first??'
All of a sudden, someone broke the silence.
"Let's make a voting system." Michael said suddenly, taking our attention. "Everyone would write a team number on a piece of paper or anything. The team with the most number of votes would have no choice but to fight the boss. If they… lose, we will vote again."
After he closed his mouth, the silence returned with everyone thinking about what he said.
For everyone, their agreement would decide their fate.
If they were lucky, they wouldn't get chosen at all.
If not, then they might win.
There was a chance that some members of the team would die.
And in the worst case scenario, none of them would survive.
Additionally, by voting to another team, they may survive, but the price would be another team's death.
Honestly… I didn't want to vote at all. If I chose a team and it ended up dying — I would feel like I was the reason behind its death.
"I agree." The demon with 4 arms raised 2 right hands in acceptance.
"I disagree." Celestina raised her left hand in refusal.
"I agree."
"I agree!"
"Buhaha! Definitely agree!"
"I-I disagree!"
"I agree…"
The hands kept rising to the sky, either with agreement or disagreement. But some people —including me— didn't raise their hands at all.
Eventually, the result became clear.
From 67 challengers, 43 of them accepted the voting system, 15 didn't accept and the remaining didn't raise their hands.
The result was clear. The majority decided to make a voting system.
Some people were satisfied while the others gritted their teeth in anger or fear.
I sat on the ground with a knife and a piece of wood in my hands.
I kept looking at the knife hesitatingly, unable to decide anything.
'Shit! Should I just write 9?!' I inhaled slowly, rubbing my temple gently to calm myself.
The next moment, my gaze shifted to Braham.
"...."
He wrote 9…
The number of our team...
Yeah, I was seriously considering it now.
But what if someone died because of me?
What if—!
*BONK!!!*
"Just do what you think is right. No one would blame you." Master Kai said calmly — as if he didn't just hit me harder than usual by mistake.
"O-okay." I nodded, trying to ignore the pain and carved the number 9 in the wood before putting it in the middle where they collected our votes.
I sat on the ground, eating melon while waiting for everyone to vote.
Eventually, the voting process was done.
Michael, Braham, Celestina and a member of team 3 started reading the votes to see who got the majority.
A suffocating silence filled the air. Everyone held their breaths, waiting with nervousness and fear.
It was especially visible with some teams with high numbers because they had the highest chance to be chosen.
Team 8 and 5 still had 10 members.
Team 9, 3 and 7 had 9 members.
Team 2 didn't exist anymore.
Team 1 only had 5 members left.
Team 4 had 8 members.
And team 6 had 7 members.
Logically, the people would choose the teams with 10 or 9 members.
All of a sudden, the team 3's lips curled into a bitter smile.
Michael patted his shoulder, his face showing some sympathy before announcing: "Team 3… I'm sorry."
Some people sighed in relief. Some just looked at team 3 with pity and some people had complex feelings about the result.
And team 3?
They simply accepted their new reality and started making their preparations.
"Well, it's time to show that ugly spider its place, right?" one of them raised his hand to the sky, trying to lighten the mode.
"YES!" they raised their hands and answered him together.
Looking at them, I… wanted to help, but I didn't know how.
But suddenly I got an idea.
I started moving to one of them. He was a bald orc wearing an eye patch on his right eye, only showing his sharp, green left eyes.
"Cough, sir." I called him and he looked at me with confusion.
"Hmm? What?"
I summoned a throwing knife, then started taking off one of my rings and gave them to him.
"This ring increase the regeneration and the knife is poisoned. I hope they help you." I bowed slightly before returning to my team.
The orc stared at the items in his hand with wide eye, then his lips curled into a soft smile.
Suddenly, more people started moving forward, with each one giving some a different item.
"Wait wait one by one. That's too much!"
Some people gave potions.
Some people gave magical scrolls.
Some people gave weapons.
Someone gave egg bombs… with a warning.
"Stand as far as possible from the impact. Never underestimate these cursed eggs!"
"Y-yeah."
Eventually, everyone was done, leaving team 3 with a small mountain of items.
One of them — a beautiful human woman with red hair and green hair — opened her mouth and said:
"I think we need some time to… make a plan with those items if you don't mind."
We just looked at them silently which they took as an acceptance.
Having nothing to do, I decided to check the gloves I got earlier from the parasite.
I looked at them using my mind's eye and summoned them instantly.
"That's… not as imagined."
A pair of dark, black leather gloves appeared in front of me.
The gloves were shining slightly as if wet by blood, but they were soft and smooth on touch.
In the end of each fingertip, small bloody red runes were inscribed perfectly without affecting the gloves' look.
I wore the gloves immediately and started channeling my aura to the thumb finger.
'Please don't be mana artifacts. Please don't be mana artifacts.'
Fortunately, it worked. A small, thin, red tentacle shot out of my thumb.
*SLAP!*
Accidentally, the tentacle slapped Cecil who I was hearing courting Aurelia from the start.
Yeah, definitely an accident.
"You son of—!" He tried to get close to me, but the tentacle accidentally moved and slapped him again.
"Can you move it by will?" Master Kai suddenly asked, ignoring Cecil that fell to the ground.
"Yes, but it's hard." My brows narrowed slightly slightly as I tried to control 3 tentacles.
I was already having trouble controlling 2 extra hands while fighting, but now I got an item that gave me not only one but ten tentacles!
TEN!
Just thinking about moving 4 arms and 10 tentacles together in the middle of a fight was giving me a headache.
"Grrr, they are done." Zorath suddenly said, pointing at team 3.
They stood up while leaving around 70% of the items they got on the ground.
Celestina and Braham gave them buffs using their spells and artifacts.
The next moment, they stood in front of the mansion and took the first step at the same time, and as expected — they all entered without anything stopping them.
With unshakable determination, they looked at the darkness that was revealing the mansion slowly.
And for us?
We only watched, hoping that they would win.