"Yes. Yes!"
"We... we might actually have a chance to win this even with the Echo Smith on their side!"
"Calm down! Everyone, please calm down! We need to rethink and solidify our strategy!" The IBAA man's voice cracked with strain as he fought his own urge to celebrate. Sweat cutting clean lines through the grime on his face, he gesticulated wildly to recapture everyone's attention.
"Now that we've destroyed their Middle Crystal, their strongest Heroes will likely converge on our lane. Or worse—they'll start ganking us with superior numbers! We must be prepared! Heroes, please join us so we can formulate a strategy!"
"Shall we go?" Paik stood behind Bjorn, placing a calloused hand on his shoulder before joining the animated cluster of creeps. Bjorn, however, remained motionless, his gaze distant.
Everyone had reason to celebrate, he thought.
This was only Bjorn's third time being summoned into the Game as a Hero in the past six years. First came immediately after his rebirth as a Hero—that summons was guaranteed for all newly ascended. The second came four years ago, and now this third call.
But like all Heroes, he had served as a creep countless times before his ascension—and from that blood-soaked experience, he knew one unsettling truth:
It shouldn't have been this easy.
Some Heroes dismissed the importance of creeps during the Game. Bjorn never understood that arrogance. Creeps were as vital as Heroes—perhaps even more so. Without them, destroying the crystals would be impossible. The living battering ram of flesh and bone that made victory attainable.
This was why the more merciless Heroes slaughtered creeps whenever possible. Of course, such massacres were rare, as enemy Heroes would intercept and counter.
When Heroes were locked in their godlike duels, it was the creeps who ultimately decided the Game's outcome.
True, Paik was the dominant force in their lane, but even then, the two of them had expended considerable time and energy eliminating Dr. Syrio and Dexter the Chained Killer.
Perhaps even more than Paik, the one who had tilted the balance in this battle was the creep Bjorn had found fighting the ratatusk alone.
Bjorn turned, searching for him. It wasn't difficult—of all the creeps, this one had the most corpses trailing in his wake, an invisible thread of death connecting fallen enemies like macabre bread crumbs.
In desperate games, veteran creeps would eventually reach a breaking point where they'd swarm enemy Heroes to protect their crystal, offering themselves as willing sacrifices. None of that had manifested here.
Because Bjorn and Paik weren't the only ones drawing the enemy creeps' attention—Adam did too. The others might not have noticed, too consumed with their own survival, but Bjorn had seen it. And Paik almost certainly had as well.
Adam had killed more enemy creeps than all others combined, and it wasn't even close.
But no—that assessment wasn't quite accurate either. Adam hadn't actually killed anyone.
Instead, he had immobilized and paralyzed only those who attacked him, then delivered them to the mother-daughter pair fighting behind him. Bjorn had never witnessed such a technique before. It was... unsettling.
Was he genuinely trying to protect the mother and daughter?
Or did he harbor some darker purpose that required remaining a creep for as long as possible?
Bjorn focused on Adam, and right now, he was only talking to the mother and daughter, not celebrating with the rest of the creeps.
"Adam…" Grace stood close to him, holding his sleeve as she looked at the pillars of light on their side of the Dome, and all of their Middle Crystals were still alive even though two of their Outer Crystals were already destroyed,
"We… we might actually have the chance to win this. Thank you, thank you so much."
"Thank you, mister!"
Samantha hugged Adam's leg, also showing her gratitude.
Adam didn't really say anything, only placing his hand on Samantha's head as he looked at Grace.
"Everyone! Please, gather! The Heroes and I have already devised a plan!"
Adam and Grace remained locked in each other's eyes even with the IBAA's loud voice bouncing across the tall buildings. But with a nod, they also approached the crowd.
"One of the Heroes will leave us!" The man from the IBAA shouted, and the creeps all quickly voiced out their concern.
"W…what!? We'll die! You saw what happened to these people when they didn't have a Hero!"
"N…No! Please, we're doing so good! Why!?"
"Do you want us to die!? We have the chance to win this! I… I don't want to die!"
"Everyone, listen! Listen!" The man from the IBAA's voice drowned everyone else's due to the special megaphone he was holding, "Bjorn will return as soon as possible—he's not leaving to abandon us, but to get a buff! We're close to the enemy's Verdant Serpent, Bjorn can steal it if they haven't gotten it yet! It will improve our chance of winning!"
The creeps all looked at each other for a moment. Their faces were still filled with doubt and fear, but they all soon nodded in unison. They hesitated, but they all still agreed.
Adam couldn't help but compare this group to the Middle Lane with Muzan and Hilda, who didn't even support or give them any strategy to work on, or even orders—they only told the creeps to die for them or stay back.
Bjorn soon left, and their group began marching forward to the light of the Inner Crystal.
Everyone was quiet now, and no one was whimpering or crying anymore, save for a few people.
How easy was it for humans to become so desensitized to death when they know that they are marching to brutality and that they do not have a choice?
"What… are you thinking about?" Grace asked, only glancing at Adam before focusing her attention on Samantha, who was walking slightly ahead of them while holding her hand.
Adam also glanced back, letting out a small sigh as he whispered,
"I just… feel sorry that everyone has to experience something like this."
"You're… still thinking about other people in this situation?" Grace's eyes widened, "You… really are a kind person, Adam."
"...Aren't you thinking about your daughter too?"
"That's different. She's my daughter," Grace sighed before walking closer to Adam and nudging him on the arm, "And she's not the only person I am thinking about now."
"Who?"
"Seriously? You. I'm also thinking about you."
"Oh."
"Ooh!" Samantha looked back as she smiled and pointed at her mother with the sword she was holding, "Mommy likes young boys!"
"Samantha Miller!" Grace raised her voice and glared at her daughter, "What did I say about pointing that sword at people!?"
"O…only poke the people with blue lights on their head?"
"No!" Grace gasped, "And Adam's not young, he's 27. He… he only looks young!"
For a moment, their conversation seemed normal. And it wasn't only them—the other creeps who didn't even know each other before the Game were now chatting with each other.
At least, for several minutes, everything felt normal.
But of course, that didn't last as they finally met with the creeps of the Inner Crystal.
And to everyone's surprise—
They didn't have a Hero within their ranks.
Again? They all thought.
What… exactly was happening here?
Perhaps… a trap?