The Complete Tournament Lineup

My uncle was still in a state of shock, utterly speechless, staring intensely on the metal scrap Ghostdoctor has brought upon us.

Ken was similar to my uncle, whereas Eleanor appeared more composed.

She had her eyes shut for a moment of thoughts before raining down a barrage of questions,

"How does the drone turn invisible?"

"Some camouflage technique, I'm not an engineer I don't know."

"Why did the gamemasters create the game?"

"I don't know."

"How do you know that the game is fake?"

"I broke in here. Everyone else were kidnapped."

"How are we supposed to trust the words of someone like you who takes killing so lightly?"

After all, he did just drag a dead body into our sight without any hesitation or remorse, it's like killing the man that once lived here was just an everyday chore for him.

"That's my bad, I apologize if you are frightened by me at the moment. Nonetheless, my brutality doesn't dismiss the truths in my words."

He's right, I would prefer not to work with him because obviously, I'm scared to work with someone that kills without batting an eye.

But that doesn't mean his points didn't have valid proofs, everything he said is still the truth regardless of what kind of person he is.

"Okay." Eleanor ends her questionings.

"And what if we don't accept you in our team, what if we decided not to work with you? All that you have to offer is the information which you've carelessly given out easily, now there's not a lot of reason why we need you." I asked as I don't see much merits recruiting him for our tournament lineup considering what a ruthless killer he is.

Despite him being the 11th best player and the game and the strongest Support, having an unpredictable killer in our team is a disadvantage enough to outweigh his prowess.

"I saved all of you, and you still won't trust me?"

I see, it's the same tactic I used to recruit Eleanor.

I saved her life to earn her trust, now Ghostdoctor saved us to earn our trust. In both cases, we killed someone to prove our sincerity.

"I think we should allow him in." I suggested to my uncle.

Ghostdoctor's a sharp guy, the fact that he found us before Living Cemetery and saved us from them is incredibly impressive.

Add that with his physical abilities suggested by his high power levels, he'll be a valuable asset in our team.

Of course, we will still have to be wary of his actions. Despite him already saving our very lives, it's still difficult to completely trust a stranger who kills.

"No...no no wait!"

He still can't believe that the game isn't real I see.

"Are we actually accepting that this game is fake? That we're still alive?! I mean that's absurd!"

"Everything he said adds up, Frostbite." Eleanor said with Ken hiding behind her, Ken was still visibly trembling while holding onto the hem of his sister's T-shirt.

"So we've all just been lied to this whole time?! By the telepathic earpiece, it's literally telepathic for fuck's sake."

"Yes, you have all been deceived by the gamemasters, as you've called them."

For me, I have always had my fair share of suspicions that something's fishy about this game.

The fact that everything is so similar to real life, and everything can be achieved with advanced technology made the possibility of everything being fake stuck in the back of my head the whole time.

"We're...we're not dead?" My uncle realises, then dramatically turned to me.

"We're not dead..." He accepted it, he slowly embraced me and teared up.

It hasn't even been much days, I've seen my uncle cry twice within such a short time, a sight that was impossible three years ago.

"I remember vividly I died though..." He lets go of me, then turned back to the Ghostdoctor.

"Might've been a chance I was the one who brought you back into life."

"What do you mean?"

"I worked for the gamemasters before as a surgeon."

Everyone in the room was startled by that confession and flinched, except for me, it was the most logical way he knows so much about the game after all.

"You work for them?" Eleanor asked with a strict voice.

"I worked for them, I didn't know where my patients were going at the time.

I work to secure people in near death situations. For example, a guy fell off a building and 'dies', except that's just what he thought moments before reaching the ground.

If he can be saved, I'm one of the ones that will save him. All the time during operation, he would be unconscious, as far as he's aware, he's dead.

When he's saved, he's shipped right here, into the game. I didn't know that when I was working for them."

"You eventually found out the truth, rebelled and somehow made your way into the game." I deduced that this was the most plausible reason why he decided to break into the game.

"Exactly."

"Why not just report them to the authorities?" I inquired

"They're cautious, they cover their tracks really well. My own experience won't be sufficient proof, it'd just be hearsay if I were to testify.

Worse, I don't even know who's operating these games to begin with, I don't know my superiors. I only know who hired me, but that guy's dead, that's how cautious they are."

"You snuck in here, into the games to find proof."

"Not exactly, but it is indeed what I'm trying to do now, you're really sharp Sean."

I don't like how he went from calling me 'Frostbite's nephew' to 'Sean' out of nowhere, but I guess there's no need for me to care too much about it.

"How do you plan on getting out?"

"As far as I'm aware, the tournament thing is legit, they do wipe your memories and set you free back into human society."

I've guessed that, otherwise he wouldn't have proposed to join our tournament team.

"Even if we win, our memories are wiped, there's nothing we will be able to do about them even if we get out." Eleanor said.

"I just need to modify your earpieces..." Ghostdoctor took out a screwdriver from his pocket. "And they won't be able to tamper with your memories." He said as he spins the screwdriver in his hand.

Modify the earpiece screwed into my skull, sounds gruesome.

"We're the witnesses, we're the proof you want to gather."

"Yes, that's exactly it, Sean."

I understood now, he does sound legit, none of these can be made up, one small lie and it all falls apart.

The tournament thing is legit, he plans to prevent the victor's memories from being wiped, so that they could retain their memories being in this game.

In other words, there will be people that died, revived and tell about it, that's the proof he wants against the gamemasters.

I was not expecting such an information overload tonight, oh man I should've slept more.

"Woah woah woah, we're not letting you do anything to us." Uncle was clearly startled by the screwdriver display by Ghostdoctor, it's easy to be interpreted as a threat or a con.

"Don't worry, I'll demonstrate how it's done first on myself, then you guys do it yourselves."

Ghostdoctor took off his cloak, his inner clothing was a pitch black trench coat. How is he not sweating like crazy wearing that thick?

"So am I in?" Ghostdoctor asks my uncle again.

I can understand why my uncle's being indecisive here, he grits his teeth in frustration and turns to me.

"Gave you the leader spot a while ago anyways, so you make the call..."

He kept his words, he will be trusting my decisions now.

"I trust him." If this was a con by Ghostdoctor, that's one hella elaborated scam, he deserves to get what he wants at that point.

My uncle sighed in vexation and hesitation, but I'm the leader of our alliance that makes the decisions so...

"Player Ghostdoctor has joined your alliance, Dawn Breakers.

Your alliance is now eligible to participate in the monthly Afterlife Tournament with five players.

However, as this month's Afterlife Tournament is less than 2 hours away, you may not sign up for it."

That's a bummer, I would've wanted to join as soon as possible.

Every alliance that I've come across on the leaderboards does have a Mage in their team, and if they all carry a wiretap like Ghostdoctor describe, it makes sense why he chose us.

We're a strong team with already two top fifteen players without any Mages, we're his best shot, so I never questioned why we were chosen by him as his alliance of choice.

Dawn begins to break, warm morning light pours into the room through the glass door to the balcony, making us feel more alive than ever, because...we are, we are alive.

"That's unfortunate." Ghostdoctor says while putting his cloak back into his inventory. For the average eyes, it's throwing the cloak into nonexistence.

His nametag reappeared after the cloak disappeared, it said "Ghostdoctor" as expected. I can see this cloak being extraordinarily useful moving forward.

He looked out through the glass door with an infuriated face.

"What's unfortunate?" Eleanor asked.

"They're already downstairs, Living Cemetery."

That's a question I've been pondering all this time, how did Living Cemetery find us? And how did they just find us again?