As the door opened up, so did the tunnel behind it.
As the woman had intended for them to go in, the children did as she wanted, going into the tunnel as a group. After some time they had entered the tunnel, Cylius heard footsteps, indicating that there were another group of people near them.
And indeed, just a while later, they had encountered another group of orphans.
Cylius didn't know any of them. In fact, he only knew a handful of orphans that could be counted on two hands. They weren't noteworthy enough for him to remember.
However, it seemed like a person from this group seemed to know him as she looked at him in a strange light. It wasn't in a good light, it was as if she was staring at a weirdo. Well, it didn't bother him one bit.
She might have just been one of those common orphans in the orphanage that had neither the guts nor the ability to make it to the top.
Well, not that he was proud that he had been remembered by others. It was just an annoying matter altogether. All because of a single accident that happened.
It wasn't much of a sunny day when the accident happened. The sky was dark when the officials gave them the free time they had exactly been waiting for.
So according to plan, he went out to the trash dump and was lucky enough to find a gun. But when he did, a group consisting of six children suddenly came out and demanded that he give the gun to him. Of course, he didn't follow their order instead, he retaliated.
He shot down four of them quickly. It was just as if it was natural to him. He just shot and the bullets hit their target. It was easy with his sharp vision not to mention that they were clumped together, making them an easy target.
After at least four of them were killed, they suddenly realized their situation and tried to escape. One girl and one boy. They seemed to be close friends.
Well, he had the chance but he didn't let them survive.
He shot them in the back of their heads.
At the time, he didn't think of anything. It was just a normal occurrence in the trash dump. Orphans would die every once in a while and this time wasn't anything special either.
Besides, it was self-defense. They threatened to kill him if he didn't give the gun to them. They probably thought he didn't know how to use it.
Poor children didn't even manage to use the gun they had in their pockets. Maybe fear had just overtaken them.
He didn't think anything of the situation but unfortunately, other orphans had caught him in the act. Then, they spread a rumor about how he was cold-blooded and such. In the end, the rumor grew to become even larger in the end, describing how he would kill anyone that displeased him a bit.
But he didn't have any choice. If he had given the gun to them, they would've probably killed him.
...
Soon, their group also met the other eight groups. In total there were about twenty five, six or so people. If judged by the initial hundred people, one person every four people got through the same route as them.
When they came to the end of the tunnel, a lounge appeared before them.
Behind it, a man was sitting on a chair reading a book. It was a rare sight as almost everything had turned digital nowadays. Well, he might have just liked the feeling of real paper books too.
The man didn't say anything. Instead, he just reached out his hand and lifted his finger which resulted in a series of tokens floating into the air and shooting towards them.
Every person in the group got it just that his and Garen's were especially more luxurious than the others.
The man didn't spare a glance towards them as he pointed towards a direction.
This was considered rude by the orphans as they acted quite displeased. After all, this man wasn't radiating any dangerous aura like the robed man from earlier so they had automatically labeled him as a weak target to pick on.
"Hey, old man! Are you fucking deaf. Oi, look at me, you think you're someone mighty huh. If you don't then I'll fucking shoot you" said a kid who apparently owned a gun.
With his gun, he might have been able to rule in the orphanage he was in but here, it was a different story altogether.
The old man who had insults coming towards him suddenly turned to look towards the group. As soon as his eyes met, Cylius knew that he was someone to not be provoked.
Then after that, the old man turned to look towards the boy who had insulted him. Upon having their eyes met, the boy froze in fear just like prey would in front of its natural predator.
Before anyone knew, the boy had already been lit up with fire. He was getting burned alive. However, it wasn't him that got incinerated. Instead, it was his belongings. From his clothes to his hair. He was just bare naked now.
But strangely, his body wasn't affected by the fire. It just stayed white as it was without any burn marks or anything.
But in the next second, everything changed.
"AAAAAAAAAAHH" an ear-piercing cry came out but this cry wasn't heard by them. It seemed like a certain barrier was limiting his speech from the outer world, making him nothing but a mute to them.
But still, through the barrier, they seemed to have the illusion of hearing the boy's painful cry seeing that his mouth had opened to the extreme. He was sure that the boy's jaw muscles had already been torn apart.
From the barrier, they could see the boy's slow death, with each layer of his skin and muscle slowly getting incinerated into flames.
Not even a minute later, the boy was no longer to be found.
The gun was no exception, leaving nothing behind.
No burnt marks on the floor either.
Realizing his situation, Cylius suddenly pulled up his gun and shot at the man that had just been accompanying the boy. The boy just stood there, shocked to his core.
And not just a second later, a bullet had come drilling into his head.
Then, Cylius bowed down to the old man. He was obviously picking sides with the old man. He was quite clever so he had chosen to kill the friend of the boy that just died due to the old man.
Seeing him do this, not much expression was on the old man's face. In fact, it stayed blank the whole time. But it was obvious that he had been pleased with Cylius' actions as he threw a card at him, one that was even more luxurious.
Cylius knowing that it might really be a good thing caught the card before it fell to the ground. He didn't know its use but if he dropped it he could really enrage the old man.
Just now did the others around him also reacted to the situation and also bowed to the old man with sweat dripping down their cheeks. But this time the old man didn't care about the others as he continued reading his book. The group didn't feel offended this time as they continued on their way to the direction the old man pointed.
After going to the direction for some time, they reached the place. There was an elevator there with a miniature robot beside it. After looking at them and their clothes the robot said "Thirteenth floor" with a mechanic voice.
The elevator was large, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that it was a house on its own. The thing was, there was a writing that said "7H elevator miniature version".
There was a series of holographic buttons in front of them. The highest was the fiftieth floor while their destination was the thirteenth floor.
They pressed the thirteenth floor and nothing happened, they didn't feel anything but through the glass, they could see the elevator moving up steadily. Soon the doors to the elevator opened up with a number thirteen on top of the door.
They had reached the thirteenth floor.
They walked out and another robot was waiting for them there. "The number on your room card would display your room number. There are three main sections, A, B and C. At the back of your room card there will be the section you belong in.
If its C on the back of your card you will go this way, if its B, this way and if its A, you will go this way. The treatment would get better in ascending order. After walking for a while you will see doors with numbers on top of it."
"That will match the numbers you have on your card. If it's the same number, then that will be your temporary room until reaching the destination. You can unlock the room by pressing the card onto the identification section, other than that there is no way to unlock the door. If you have any more questions, please ask the room's AI." the robot explained to them.
When Cylius looked at his section it was a B, when he glanced at others it was a C. The second stone must've influenced this decision considering it. His perception ability shouldn't have been known since the woman didn't seem to know anyone among their group.
The only reason left was that the result of the second stone must've influenced it, but it may be that the woman was acting.
If the 'second stone influencing the result' guess was right, Garen should also get the B grade section. Seeing Garen' card number, it really was B. Moreover, the number on it was right above of his number.
Thinking this, his mood instantly soured. That could possibly mean that they would be stationed together with Garen bothering him at any time.
He wouldn't allow that to happen though, the robot said that only the owner's cards could access the room, if he locks it up that extroverted person wouldn't be able to bother with him.
Garen bothered him a lot on the journey, it would be great if he could just sew his mouth shut.