Adam's jaw tightened. His shoulders, losing strength with each drop of blood that dripped from Samantha's sword.
What… a cruel world.
Why… why do children need to go through these things? Why should they experience the things I did?
For a moment, his thoughts drowned him. But then, he shook them off and stepped toward the mother and daughter.
Adam was about to help Grace up when she suddenly raised a finger and tapped at the air.
"Oh…" Adam muttered as he realized what was happening. "Did you… level up?"
Grace didn't respond immediately. Instead, she clenched her teeth as her veins bulged and etched across her skin. For a few agonizing seconds, she stood there, body trembling—until the shiver finally eased. With a long, deep sigh, she straightened up on her own.
She sniffled, wiping the tears from her cheeks, but in doing so, only smeared the blood on her face. "I… I chose to increase my Strength."
"How about you, Samantha?" Adam knelt and gently took Samantha's hands, wiping them clean. "Did someone talk to you? Are there numbers floating in front of you right now?"
Samantha sniffled, her lips trembling before she shook her head. To be sure, Adam glanced at the halo above her head—there was no change in its brightness, unlike Grace's.
"Did… did I do wrong?" Samantha stammered, "But those people… they hurt you. They would have hurt Mommy and me."
Adam and Grace both wanted to tell her that it was wrong—that hurting and killing people was never the answer.
But in this world, saying that would make them the ones who were wrong.
"Of course not," Adam sighed, shaking his head. "You did… what you had to do."
Still holding Samantha's hand, he carefully stood up, his gaze shifting toward the corner of the building. The roars and cries on the other side continued endlessly.
"Now… you just have to do it again."
Without another word, the three of them started moving, Adam and Grace each holding one of Samantha's hands. Blood clung to them, painting their skin and clothes, mixing with the dust in the air. The dim, fractured light filtering through the smoke above cast long shadows over them.
They looked like a perfect portrait of everything wrong with the Game.
But what awaited them beyond the building? That was something else entirely.
It was chaos.
Adam and Grace couldn't even comprehend what they were looking at. The battlefield was a writhing, tangled mass of bodies—screams and wet, sickening crunches filling the air.
Bjorn was nowhere to be seen.
Blood sprayed in every direction. People yanked at each other's hair, tore at each other's faces. Some swarmed together to take down a single person, while others accidentally killed members of their own team in their blind frenzy.
A man near them was repeatedly slamming another's skull into the ground—though 'skull' was a generous term. The head had long since been reduced to pulp, yet the man kept going, his hands slick with blood and bone.
Perhaps that was true for everyone here. None of them were stopping.
Grace clenched her jaw, instinct screaming at her to shield Samantha's eyes from the horror before them. But instead, she gripped her sword.
She took a deep breath, then let go of Samantha's hand and stepped back.
At the same time, Adam handed his sword to Samantha and stepped forward. He didn't need to say anything to her, she knew what she needed to do.
Everything was so, so fucked up. But it had to be done.
Adam stared at Samantha for a few more moments, touching her cheek before placing her between him and Grace.
A heavy silence fell over them. Then, with one final breath—they marched forward.
A figure from the Blue Team spotted them first. He charged, swinging a rusted metal pipe toward them with a feral roar.
Adam stepped in immediately, taking the full force of the blow on his shoulder.
Adam wrenched the metal pipe from the man's grip, then grabbed his arm and shoved him back, slamming the back of his head in the process. The moment he hit the ground, unconscious, Samantha let out a scream—then stabbed him.
Again.
And again.
And again.
It was… fucked up. Truly, irreversibly fucked up.
But they marched on.
With the chaos unfolding around them, no one even noticed that Adam's wounds were healing right before their eyes. He wasn't looking for a fight, either. He only retaliated, only killed those who tried to kill them first.
Unfortunately, that meant almost everyone.
They moved forward, leaving a trail of bodies in their wake. Adam took the blows, using himself as a shield, while either Grace or Samantha finished the rest. Grace, with her enhanced Strength, wasn't standing idly by—she fought, killing those who lunged at them from behind.
It was brutal. Horrific.
And then—after what felt like dozens of bodies—
"Ah!"
Samantha's sudden cry snapped both Adam and Grace to attention. "I… I hear the voice!"
Their eyes met, tension crackling between them. Without hesitation, they dragged Samantha to the side—pressing into the shadows of a nearby building where the fighting was less intense.
Grace crouched in front of her daughter while Adam kept watch. "I need you to choose Agility, okay?" she said, her voice firm but gentle. "Do you know what the letters look like?"
Samantha nodded hesitantly, her eyes darting around as she struggled to make sense of the glowing words before her. Grace had already made the decision—Strength would be useless to a child her size. Even if Samantha increased it, a grown adult would still overpower her.
"Do you see it?" Grace pressed, keeping her voice steady. "It—"
"Grace!"
Before she could finish, she felt a sudden force yank her away.
Not just her—Adam had grabbed Samantha too.
And then—they were flying.
Grace barely had time to process what was happening before she hit the ground, rolling to a stop. And then—
A crash.
The sound was deafening.
Her breath caught in her throat as she looked up—an entire car had just slammed into the wall.
And Adam…
Adam was trapped between.
"Adam!?"