Richard leapt into action out of concern for his friend.

  “Fang!” Richard shouted.

  The dark figures stopped hurting Fang and turned. Richard tried to identify these two people. He ran toward one, trying to barrel into them, but found himself stopped short. It was like he had tried to ram a brick wall. Instead, two pairs of hands grabbed him.

  “Richard!” This time it was Fang concerned for him.

  The two figures said nothing. Richard tried to identify them, but they were silent, like they knew if they spoke they would be immediately identified. Richard could only guess that the one person he tried to barrel over was a man. Were they monsters who had broken over the wall? That was impossible because the guards would have rung the bell.

  But the other option was far more ludicrous. That meant that these two people, who were scrambling to catch Richard, were members of base two.

  “Fang! Get Dmitri! Now!” Richard said.

  Dmitri was Richard’s only chance. Every single survivor of base two was dozens of levels stronger than Richard, even if he was one of the highest levels among the newbies.

  One of them caught Richard, slamming him to the ground. He groaned as his head cracked against the floor.

  “Let go of me! You can’t do this!” It seemed like the right thing to say. He certainly didn’t know what else to say, as he couldn’t recognize who was trying to capture him.

  Someone grabbed his neck and squeezed, and Richard’s air was cut off. He grabbed his assailant’s arms, clawing at them with his fingernails. His hope faded because he knew how strong the system was. He didn’t have any hope of breaking the skin.

  “Richard?”

  It was Leylah. Richard tried to call for help, but he struggled to breathe, let alone talk. One man toppled to the ground, and Richard hoped it was because Leylah had joined the fight.

  He then remembered he had a powerful punching ability. Richard focused on the arms holding him, then activated his punch, bringing it down hard. With a satisfying snap, the man trying to kill him bellowed in pain. More importantly, his grip on Richard’s neck loosened. Richard scrambled out from underneath and kept backing away until he hit a wall. The man was already on him again, and Richard cursed the healing ability that everyone had.

  A powerful punch made Richard see stars. He coughed and sputtered when another punch came to his side, breaking a few ribs. He mentally chose his healing ability and felt a small dent of relief from the pain. Another kick crumpled his collarbone into his shoulder, and he screamed. The punch to his head cut off his scream as he saw a flash of white light.

  He wouldn’t survive if this man hit him again. Blood covered his eyes, even though it was too dark to see anyway. Vital bones were broken in his body, including his skull.

  Richard braced himself for the last punch that would cave his skull in when the door flew open.

  “FREEZE!”

  A wave rushed over Richard, and to his horror he found every molecule in his body listening to those words that ordered him to freeze. After a moment, light filled the room, but Richard still couldn’t see with the blood covering his vision. People rushed into the room, talking in low whispers. A hand grasped his shoulder.

  “Richard, move.”

  It had been Dmitri who had spoken, both to freeze him, and now unfreeze him. He must have some ability to do that. Once Dmitri unfroze Richard, though, he had a bigger thing to worry about. Pain slammed into him on every side, and he wanted to do nothing but curl into himself and succumb to it.

  “Close your mouth, Richard, I’m going to pour this on your face.”

  That was Timick. Richard obeyed and was relieved to feel the liquid splash on his face, going to work in an instant. He gasped for air once the liquid stopped, and he opened his eyes, relieved to see Timick over him.

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  Elwyndor was tending to Leylah’s wounds while Izzy, Marcus, and Dmitri dragged two people into the corner of the room. Richard tried to sit up, but a sharp pain in his side forced him back to the ground.

  “Yeah, you’re not moving for a while there,” Timick said as he made sure Richard was back on the floor.

  As Timick started pouring healing potion again over Richard’s head, Dmitri walked over to the two men with cloth bags over their heads, still frozen in place. One man was frozen with his fist held high, and Richard breathed a sigh of relief for Dmitri’s fast action. Fang and Amber were in the doorway, frightened.

  Dmitri pulled the sacks off to reveal Dennison and another farmer named Ike. Dmitri’s frame slumped in defeat. Marcus and Izzy both held the men, waiting for Dmitri, who walked behind to touch the back of their necks.

  “Truth,” Dmitri whispered to the two men.

  Despite the rest of him being frozen, Dennison’s mouth opened.

  “Richard is a bad omen.”

  “Dennison convinced me Richard is a bad omen,” Ike said as soon as Dennison finished.

  Richard glanced at Timick, who momentarily met his gaze before lifting Richard’s shirt and pouring a healing potion on his chest. Richard grunted as his bones snapped back into place.

  “Things are different around Richard,” Dennison said.

  “Our lives have been uprooted ever since he showed up,” Ike said.

  “My first clue was the system took too long.”

  “Richard spent much longer at the orb than anyone else.”

  “The excuse Dmitri gave smelled more of a made-up story, but I let it pass,” Dennison said.

  “I accepted the story. It seemed believable enough,” Ike said.

  Richard slowly sat up, feeling sick to his stomach.

  “Not long after, Death attacked us,” Dennison said.

  “Death devastated base two,” Ike said.

  Dmitri rubbed his chin as Dennison and Ike kept talking. It was their chatter that made Richard so sick to his stomach. They were spilling everything. They couldn’t stop. Whatever Dmitri did to them when he whispered ‘truth’ made it impossible for them to speak anything other than the truth, and Richard saw this as a violation.

  “The two have to be connected,” Dennison said.

  “Dennison brought to my attention the strange connection,” Ike said.

  “Chaos swirls around the boy. It was evident when I went to the forest.”

  “Dennison talked about his time with Richard in the twisted forest.”

  “We fought a chaos beast.”

  “He fought a chaos beast.”

  “Those creatures are rare, yet this one was easy to fight.”

  “Chaos beasts are rarely so easy.”

  “I believe Chaos wants this boy.”

  “Chaos is using Richard.”

  “When the Mols attacked after Death struck us so soon, I knew Richard had to be behind it somehow.”

  “We asked around. No one had done anything that would attract a Mol. Something that big with Mols constantly pouring in? Richard had to be behind it somehow.”

  “Richard reached level nine.”

  “No newbie had reached level nine so quickly before. Chaos was blessing him.”

  “Chaos gave him a weapon.”

  “Dennison told me Richard was given a weapon from the loot of a Chaos beast.”

  “We had to take matters into our own hands.”

  “Richard needed to die before he got his class. Dennison and I strongly believe Chaos will intervene and give him a gift instead of Order.”

  “We had to stop him.”

  “For the safety of base two, Richard must die.”

  The two fell silent, and Richard didn’t need Dmitri to tell him to freeze for him to remain rooted to the spot. Dmitri paced the length of the room, rubbing his chin. Richard kept glancing at everyone, trying to read what they thought of this. He wasn’t even sure what he thought of this.

  “If released, would you try to kill Richard again?” Dmitri asked.

  “Yes,” Ike said.

  “Without hesitation.”

  Richard glanced at Timick, trying to keep the horror from his face. Dmitri nodded toward Marcus and Izzy. Izzy pulled two metal irons out of her inventory and tossed one to Marcus. Handcuffs was the word that popped into Richard’s mind. The two of them grabbed the men before Dmitri waved his hand. The freezing disappeared, and the two men collapsed. Marcus and Izzy quickly cuffed the men before helping them to their feet.

  “Into the armory basement,” Dmitri said before turning to the door. “We will have a base-wide announcement before breakfast.”

  Marcus and Izzy nodded before leading Ike and Dennison out of the room.

  “Wait, what’s going to happen to them?” Richard asked.

  No one said a word. Dmitri, Marcus, Izzy, Dennison, and Ike were already out of the room before Richard finished his sentence. Instead, he focused on Timick, who didn’t meet his gaze.

  “What… what…” It slammed into him, cutting off his speech. He kept staring at Timick, eyes wide.

  Dmitri will punish you, and it usually ends in banishment from base two, and subsequently, a visit from Death. Don’t do it. Don’t even try.

  Those were Jace’s words, his lecture about how survivors don’t get experience points if they kill other people in base two.

  “They… can’t,” Richard said instead.

  “They knew the rules, and broke them anyway,” Timick said.

  “No, we can’t lose more people.”

  “No doubt that’s why they tried what they did. But the fact remains, they broke the rules. Dmitri will announce his verdict in a few hours. Until then, I will take you to Lucy’s,” Timick said, helping Richard to his feet. Richard felt physically fine, but the entire thing made him sick. There was something so jarring about being frozen in place because someone else said so. He also couldn’t shake the unease from listening to Dennison and Ike both spill their secrets to everyone in the room. He didn’t know why, but the only thing he could think of was that it wasn’t fair. More than that, Richard got a glimpse of just how much power someone like Dmitri had, and he hated it.