Forced to Fight

Eugene honestly had the situation under control, but the newly appeared onlooker thought otherwise, for he didn't know he was an Aura Master.

Actually, except for the one hiding in plain sight, no one knew that Eugene was an Aura Master, not even the one trying to kill him.

If they knew, they would've revered him and never dared to pick a fight with him or his race.

"Who are you?"

Every pair of eyes turned towards the boy who just "saved" Eugene V. Samuel and was being looked at ferociously by Murzzul.

"Why did you help him?"

Murzzul Bogrobo said to the boy, a head shorter than Eugene.

The boy, as noticed by Eugene, looked like a teenager with hair like a cloudy sky with strips of blue and eyes representing the ocean.

He was holding a gun in his hand.

"Who I am should be the least of your worries. You should be worried about what I would do to you." The boy's bright eyes darkened, and Murzzul felt a ravenous beast was staring him down because of how he was looking at him. "Attacking a man's defenseless back after you've lost to him is the greatest shame for a warrior. You committed a grave sin, you know. You broke the very first warrior's code. You deserve to die the most brutal way. But I will give you a chance. Kill yourself."

Eugene didn't know how the boy was, but after he heard him stating the rules a player with a warrior class had to follow till death, he instantly understood that he wasn't from Earth.

The boy looked human, but he wasn't an Earthling.

"Y-You can't kill me." Murzzul bit his tongue and sweated because the boy's terrifying intent to kill was suffocating him. "Do you dare defy this room's manager's rule of not killing participants?"

As if he had heard a funny joke. The boy laughed out loud at him.

"I won't be defying him even if I kill you." The bot turned his eyes to the raised platform. "Am I not right, Mr. Sebastian?"

Everyone, including Eugene, looked at where he was looking, and they saw a man blurring into existence.

The man had a black skin complexion and a mysterious air about him. He came off as lazy but extremely handsome to many because of his head full of messy hair, red ruby-like eyes, sharp jawline, and the tuxedo he wore.

He was none other than the one hiding in plain sight, the one who the blue-haired boy was talking to was the same demon, and also the owner of this White room, Sebastian!

He looked a bit surprised, probably because the blue-haired boy had detected him when everyone else failed to.

"Yes, you're right." After stepping out of stealth, which is an ability shadow demons can casually use, Sebastian sat down on the throne-like chair. He placed one leg over the other. Then, he ignored the crowd and looked only at the ones at the center of everyone's attention. "The first of my rules applies only to those who hadn't tried to kill another. As for this Ogre, even if one among the two of you kills him in an honorable duel, I wouldn't punish you."

He looked at Murzzul disdainfully. "You may participate in a match with either of them. Of course, you can choose not to."

After saying that, he smiled, causing the environment to tense up.

Seeing Sebastian smile, Eugene thought that the Seer who had created the game, The Crumbling World, had seen the right things about him.

Sebastian was truly an eccentric demon through and through, whose rules were a contrast to his innate nature that he wasn't trying to control.

"But in that case, I will personally deal with you."

Now that Sebastian had intervened in their matter and threatened to kill Murzzul if he didn't duel one of them, he had no choice but to fight the one who slapped him insane or the blue-haired boy.

'Which one should I fight?'

Murzzul carefully inspected Eugene and the boy before deciding who to fight.

The blue-haired boy had a weapon he had not heard about nor seen before, but he had experienced its might and knew he was no match against the boy.

On the other hand, Eugene was bare-handed.

While he had outperformed him in ways too many, the Ogre still had a sliver of hope of defeating him by using his real weapon!

"I will fight him."

Thus, The person Murzzul decided to fight was Eugene!

Sebastian said to them with a carefree smile. "You may engage him in a fight to the death after a minute."

Eugene clearly understood that Demon Sebastian wasn't here to uphold the laws and rules of his white room.

He just wanted to see them killing each other and nothing more.

"Young sage, please bless me."

After limping his way to his people, Murzzul begged Sharbul to heal him.

"Tch!"

Sharbul clicked his tongue at the pathetic sight of his tribe leader's son.

"Instead of being grateful to him for not killing you, you tried to stab him in the back. Then, when things got hard, you went back on your words and begged me to heal you. You're really pathetic."

Although he berated him, Sharbul still raised his staff to heal Murzzul.

"If you weren't the son of our chieftain, I wouldn't bother helping a disgrace like you."

A halo of gold appeared atop his staff, attracting the gaze of many people, including Eugene, who couldn't help but desire more to have Sharbul work under him.

They saw it thinning into a single point before bursting like a blinding ray of radiant light that seeped into Murzzul's chest.

In mere moments, under the eyes of everyone, the injuries on his face and his knees vanished as if they never existed in the first place.

Eugene felt extremely jealous of Sharbul and the Ogres for having someone like him by their side. One must know that owners of healing skills were as rare as Diamond. Otherwise, he wouldn't have shown Hunter any pity. However, those who owned powerful versions of a healing skill without even selecting a class like Sharbul were even rarer. He really wanted Sharbul to become his underling or his teammate, and he was ready to work hard for it.

"Do not let the last trace of pity I had for you go to waste."

"I won't disappoint you."

After saying that, Murzzul picked up his weapon, which was a huge ax, before charging toward Eugene like a bull.

"I will have you pay with your life for all the humiliation you've caused me."

In silence, humans, Ogres, and a demon watched Murzzul bridging the gap between him and his opponent with a mighty jump that devastated the spot he was a moment ago.

"Bring it on, you dumb Ogre!" Eugene, though, shouted back at it and even gave it a middle finger.

As if angered by his words, the first thing he did after that was trying to split Eugene's head with his Ax.

Whoosh!

Eugene remained unmoving as if he had no attention to evade the Ax cutting through the wind and approaching him.

His calm, unflinching demeanor in the face of death horrified many humans.

Did he really intend to die at his hand just like that?

Where did his earlier confidence go?

Had he given up?

No, he didn't!

Everyone missed it, but only three people with sharp eyes noticed the exposed parts of his body, such as his face and palms glowing blue.

[Info: You've infused mental energy into your entire body to strengthen it.]

Before Murzzul's ax could reach him, Eugene used half of his remaining mental energy to increase the force he could generate using only his physical body.

He became so strong that what he did next caused every onlooker, whether they were in the same place as him or viewing him from somewhere across the cosmos, to gape at him speechlessly.

Some were so shocked by him that their jaws literally touched the floor!

[The 'Lord of Infinity' is looking at you with an ever-warming gaze]

[The 'Master of 72 Transformation' trembles in excitement at the sight you've coincidentally presented to him when he was nearly bored to death]

[The God of Face-Slapping, 'Inferno-Hands Divine Princess,' is considering becoming your short-time Sugar Mommy.]

[The God of Ogres, 'Twin-Headed Demon With a Short Temper,' promise to forgive you and bless you with ten miracle points if you can kill this disgrace of an Ogre before you]

[You've gained the interest of 'Little Green With a Pocket of Gold']

What had he done that even the Supreme and Mighty were going nuts?!

He had stopped Murzzul's ax an inch away from his head by applying friction to its sides using only his hands!

"I refuse to believe this!"

Murzzul's muscles bulged as he used all his strength to bring the ax down at him.

"You need to have more than just words to twist reality into your favor."

However, as if the universe was working against him, Murzzul's ax didn't budge even a single inch downwards and remained in the middle of his opponent's palm.

[Your mental energy has temporarily decreased to 45 points.]

This notification that rang in Eugene's mind told him that he needed to end this fight immediately or he would really die at the Ogre's hands.

He kneed Murzzul in the guts with such strength that he let go of his weapon to clutch his stomach and drop to his knees.

Eugene took a step back from his opponent but not before catching the giant ax from mid-air.

"Goodbye."

He drew a red line across his neck with the ax.

[You've killed a Level 0 Ogre Warrior, which is a race physically stronger than humans, before selecting a class.]

[As a result, you've gained the title 'Fierce Newcomer']

[Fierce Newcomer: Increases all your stats by +1]

Murzzul's head detached from his body and fell to the ground, where it rolled while blood spurted out his neck and splashed the clothes and face of Eugene, who had a ruthless look on his face.

At the moment, everyone looking at him found him extremely horrifying.

They didn't know he was doing his best not to puke his guts out.

This was his first time killing someone.

Even though it wasn't a human, he was still physiologically affected.

He wanted to shit his pants and hand himself to the police!

However, he didn't let his true emotions show on his face as he dared not show his weak side to anyone.

The physically weak didn't have a place in the tower.

The mentally weak couldn't subordinate to anyone, much less get a friend.

The only way to survive in the tower was to come off to others as physically and strong from the start and make the truly powerful avoid you like the plague!

Eugene was finding it hard to keep up this facade, but he tried his best to hold on for a few moments longer as he knew that he had met the condition necessary to activate his passive skill because of the great fluctuations taking place in his emotions.

[You are facing great fluctuations in your emotions.]

[The skill, Mental Fortitude, has helped you regain a stable state of mind.]

Thankfully, the passive skill he had obtained in the Hidden Realm kicked in at the right moment and made all the thoughts bothering him and the complex emotions haunting him disappear from his heart and mind.