"Open their stomach..."
A black-haired young man, after hearing that sentence, his eyes gleamed as he swept his gaze around, then looked at his own body with full consideration.
"That voice earlier said that the gate to pass is inside the forest. Let's all go in and look!"
Someone had already started taking initiative to lead, walking toward that unfamiliar forest.
This isolated island floated in unknown space, so there was no way to escape. To leave here, the only way was to follow that voice's words to find the "gate" location, there was no other way.
However, there were also people who stayed in their original place, watching coldly and observing the situation's development. They had an inexplicable fear toward that strange forest.
Mysterious and strange—that voice had already warned there were unknown dangers here.
"Quite interesting. This Sacred Ruins Trial Tower seems somewhat different from the Gold List. To get rewards, it seems one must pay quite a large price..."
A man wearing a white lab coat with gold-rimmed glasses slowly curved the corners of his lips. In his right palm, a scalpel slid down silently, hidden by his white coat's sleeve so no one saw it.
"Bro, we need to hurry. Who knows if the good stuff in this trial tower is limited. The faster we pass, the bigger the profit we get!"
Inside the forest, two strange men wearing black hoodies walked in the middle of the crowd while whispering. Under their head hoods, two terrifying monster faces appeared; one resembling a lizard, and the other similar to a spider.
The older brother was named Kupa, and the younger brother was named Filly. They were both monsters, creatures spontaneously awakened by monster cells, but their strength wasn't great—only equivalent to Class C heroes.
They were originally in City J, and when the Sacred Ruins Trial Tower appeared, they immediately targeted this place.
The Gold List's miracles had been shown to the world, and this tower piercing through the sky seemed no less amazing than that list. If they could obtain rewards inside it, they wouldn't need to fear Hero Association members hunting them every day anymore.
When that happened, they could do whatever they wanted!
Thinking about this, both showed cruel smiles simultaneously.
Suddenly, someone in the middle of the crowd screamed in fear.
"Ghost! There's a ghost...!"
A woman pointed toward the bushes ahead with a face full of fear. She staggered backward until her body was stopped by the person behind her.
"What ghost?"
The others looked at those bushes suspiciously, but there was absolutely nothing there.
"There really was a ghost!" The woman's lips trembled, her face deathly pale as if she had just seen something very terrifying.
Someone moved forward and directly parted those bushes; not even a ghost's shadow was visible.
"Did you see wrong? There's no ghost here..." The man turned back with a mocking smile, laughing at the woman's fear.
Indeed, women could only mess things up.
However, his expression suddenly froze. Because the facial expressions of people looking toward him suddenly changed; their eyes emitted deep fear, staring blankly toward behind that man.
Behind... what was there?
The man felt his hair stand on end. He froze in place and slowly turned his head.
A black shadow had somehow already been hanging on the large tree branch right behind him. Without sound, with a strangely distorted posture, that figure stared straight at him.
The man's pupils shrank instantly. He crawled backward in panic while letting out a shrill scream that didn't sound like a human voice.
"Ghoooost...!"
That black shadow let out a strange laughing sound, then in an instant disappeared again.
The crowd immediately became deathly silent.
Some began sobbing, some cursed angrily, feeling desperate to leave this cursed place.
Many of them actually didn't want to enter this trial tower, but the entry process was indiscriminate in scope, so they had no choice.
Fear and anxiety began spreading among the crowd.
"Something's wrong, Bro!" Filly of course saw that ghost shadow.
His vision far surpassed ordinary people, but he realized he still couldn't clearly see that shadow's true face. As if that figure was enveloped by a layer of shadow.
"Be careful!" Kupa also became alert.
The crowd began moving again, and this time they gathered more tightly.
This subconscious grouping could at least slightly eliminate their fear. However, after they walked for about ten minutes.
A scream again broke the silence.
"Murder—!"
In the middle of the crowd, people suddenly scattered.
A figure lay stiffly on the ground with blood flooding the floor. His stomach had been cut open, his mouth gaped open, and his eyes still retained extraordinary fear that was hard to believe. That person was no longer breathing.
"When did this happen...?" Kupa's face looked bad.
The brothers weren't far from that dead man, but they absolutely didn't realize who did it.
The crowd became chaotic.
"There's someone among us who attacked our own people!" A middle-aged man with a sturdy build crouched to examine that corpse. He stood with a gloomy face and said: "The fatal wound is in the neck, one slash and directly dead, then his stomach was cut open. The technique is very professional!"
"What? Killed by one of us?"
The crowd became noisy. They looked at people around them with full suspicion and unconsciously distanced themselves, as if the killer was right beside them.
"How is that possible!" One of them doubted it. "We're all gathered together. If someone moved, how could the person next to them not realize it!"
Indeed that was true. They walked very close; if someone secretly killed, it was impossible not to be caught. This was murder!
The middle-aged man snorted coldly: "In a cursed place like this, anything can happen. Try to think, what did that voice say at the beginning?"
Everyone instantly remembered again. That voice said, hints to pass and weapons... were inside their own bodies?
Was there really someone who because of that sentence had the heart to kill a companion beside them to prove it?
Everyone reflexively looked toward the corpse on the ground. On that corpse, a dim blue gleam began to rise. Inside that flesh and blood, something appeared to be hidden.
The middle-aged man of course realized it too. Just as he was about to reach for that object to see it, the Kupa brothers stepped forward.
Kupa said coldly: "You don't move. Who knows if you're the killer. Seeing how professional you are, it seems you've often dealt with this kind of thing. Moreover, you were the first to jump forward very enthusiastically to examine the corpse, hard not to be suspected!"
"Right, I think you're the most suspicious!"
"I'm sure you're the killer, you did it to get hints and weapons!"
Thanks to Kupa's provocation, the crowd reacted and began hurling accusations.
The middle-aged man's face became very bad. He stood, narrowed his eyes and asked: "What do you mean?"
"What do I mean?" Kupa smiled coldly.
He removed his head hood, showing his ugly and terrifying face. His long tongue licked his own lips while saying hoarsely: "What I mean is, this thing should be handed over to me. What do you think?"