Currently, at a fair, Bawl eats a lot of black-and-white cookies, while Alexander and Eonni eat only a few.

  The monarch is sleeping on Eonni's head, comfortable where he is, as opposed to being with the person who beat the ever-living crap out of him.

  “I finally managed to create my skill. This will be very useful.”

  Eonni looks at her hands, a star appearing on her palm, insinuating her skill is currently active. She looks down at her clothes and is only now realizing that she really needs a wardrobe change.

  Yes, while the clothes themselves are fine, she really only wore them during her mercenary days and would rather leave that behind.

  She now has a new sibling to care for.

  Looking around, she sees a shop that is selling clothes.

  “Let's see.”

  Taking out her phone, she sees that she has enough money for a cheap outfit. She wants a simple outfit, while also being able to carry support items for herself and Bawl.

  She walks to the stand, looking around for what she likes, and sees exactly what she needs.

  A sleeveless reddish pink qipao dress that would reach her upper thighs with white trimmings, a black obi with multiple pockets coming along with it.

  Simple torso wear with multiple pockets, just what she needed.

  She also found black female sports shorts, elbow and knee protectors, and black sneakers. Good for flexibility and protection, just what he needed.

  And to add some fashion, she gets a black headband with the words "Big Sister," which is perfect for her and rather convenient, too.

  She used her money to buy them all and went to the bathroom to change.

  Coming out of the bathroom, now in her new attire. She carries her other clothes and throws them into the woods, not needing them anymore.

  Walking back to Bawl, she sits down and starts scraping at her nails to get the nail polish off.

  Alexander notices her change of attire, liking the change.

  “I see you changed, not bad.”

  “Hm? Yeah, those other clothes weren’t going to be helping me, I had to change into something more simple.”

  “Makes sense.”

  Alexander falls back into his thoughts. He thinks about the real reason why he’s here, and he looks around.

  It seems he’s expecting someone to be here, but they're not currently present.

  “Where are you?” whispering to himself.

  Nicolas and Roth are sitting on a tree, eating some chicken nuggets.

  Roth has gotten better with her English. In such a short amount of time, using her language book, she was able to speak simple sentences, nothing too crazy yet.

  “This is good, Nicolas.”

  “SEEMS YOU GOT BETTER AT SPEAKING ENGLISH!”

  “Yeah.”

  Everyone looked up in their direction.

  “Don’t scream.”

  He gave a thumbs up.

  The next day had come, and everyone was brought to a forest area.

  The monarch was holding onto Bawl's head, Eonni was now more confident, and Alexander kept looking around for someone.

  “Alright, this is the next test. Everyone, take a band.”

  Everyone went to grab a band, Alexander immediately knew exactly what kind of game this was, seeing as there were only three of one color.

  He decided to take three blue bands extremely quickly and brought them to Bawl and Eonni.

  “This is definitely a team test, so I got us all the same color.”

  Eonni was impressed that he had immediately figured out the test despite the little information.

  Bawl wasn't listening at all and took the band.

  After everyone took a band, a man walked out of the forest.

  He was quite tall, he had long dark brown hair with dark pink eyes and pale skin.

  He wore a white-collar shirt that had baggy sleeves with a black suit vest, black pants, and black shoes.

  His most prominent feature was the large smile on his face.

  His presence raided evil and strength, anyone around him could tell at first glance, not to mess with something like him.

  “Greeting everyone, I am another candidate participating in the test.”

  He takes the single black band that was in the crate and puts it on.

  “Would one allow me to demonstrate my power?”

  At first, no one volunteered, remaining silent.

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  What is this guy's goal? Is this an intimidation tactic?

  Eonni thought, nervous for what was to come.

  “I can volunteer.”

  A random man in the crowd said, stepping forward.

  “Nice, nice.”

  The random man stood at a distance, waiting for the demonstration.

  Is this guy going to do it alre-.”

  His train of thought was cut short, feeling a sharp pain in his shoulder.

  He saw a card stabbed into his shoulder.

  He tried pulling it out, but that was a foolish mistake.

  Once he pulled it out, he began disintegrating into butterflies.

  “HUH! WHA, WHAT!”

  The man screamed, watching as his body slowly changed into butterflies and soon enough, the man was gone, leaving only his clothes left.

  Wow, that’s dark.

  Alexander didn’t really care for that man’s life but how brutal his end was.

  He wondered if it was painful or if the man was only screaming because his body was disappearing.

  Bawl quickly forgot about the whole scenario.

  Eonni was terrified by what had transpired but remained determined to get through this test.

  Everyone else had mixed reactions, some were scared, some indifferent, and some sadistic.

  “Now that’s over. Time to start the test. In this test, you’ll be forced to survive in these woods for a week. And if you’re wondering what’s the point of this test, it’s to test if you are capable of surviving if you ever get stuck in a dungeon.”

  A man raised his hand.

  “Why would we get stuck? Isn’t it just kill all the monsters, collect the loot then leave?”

  “I should be yes, but sometimes someone may get stuck for a variety of reasons such as being separated from your group and the portal closing before you can reach it or you fall into an unknown section of the dungeon with no way to get out of it.”

  “I see. But then what’s up with these colored armbands?”

  “Your teammates are the people who have the same-colored armband as you.”

  Just as Alexander predicted, the colors represent your teammates.

  “Wait, most importantly, how come you are the only black armband?”

  “Simple. While you survive and fight the monsters lying in this forest. I will also be hunting you, killing you off one by one.”

  Everyone was shocked by this.

  Why was he the only one to have to kill them all?

  What was his quota to pass?

  I didn’t make sense to any of them and nobody was happy, minus Alexander and Bawl.

  “HEY, HOLD ON! WHY IS HE THE ONLY ONE TO KILL US? I THOUGHT HE WAS A PARTICIPANT!”

  “You are correct, he is. He was requested as the perfect person for this task and to pass himself, he has to kill 25 participants.”

  “I’ll see you. Hehehehe”

  He was enveloped by pink smoke before disappearing as if he was performing a magic trick.

  “Now introductions are out the way, please begin.”

  Everyone began running into the forest with their partners.

  Bawl carried Eonni, the monarch, and Alexander by himself and was ahead of everyone else, disappearing into the woods in front of everyone.

  “How is that kid so strong and fast?”

  Bawl managed to run to the edge of the other side of the forest and dropped everyone there.

  “Wow, you really are useful.”

  Alexander said he looked at Bawl stretching on the ground, getting on all fours, and climbing up a tree.

  He felt nostalgia.

  Despite not being away from the forest for so long, he felt a home once again, in a familiar environment.

  Bawl seems very comfortable.

  How could he be?

  The forest is so dirty.

  Eonni didn’t like the forest at all.

  She wanted this challenge to already be over.

  Alexander was already getting ready for the night.

  “Eonni, let's prepare a text first.

  “Right.”

  “Monarch.”

  The monarch turned towards him, interested in what he had to say.

  “Hunt for some animals for us to eat.”

  The monarch obeyed his command.

  Unlike Bawl who he still didn’t like all that much, Alexander was much more friendly, so he was willing to listen.

  “Bawl.”

  Bawl didn’t hear.

  “BAWL!”

  Still no response, he climbed up the tree to see Bawl asleep.

  Seriously, oh my gosh.

  Annoyed, he decided to leave him alone and with that, their challenge had begun.