Transmigrated as a Third-Rate Villain in a Doomed Novel-Chapter 36: The Real Show [II]

The death game lasted for around half an hour.

All 99 were dead, bodies littered around with their parts torn apart brutally.

Sitting in the middle of the warzone-like area was a man. He had muscles and looked healthy—which was the reason he was still alive—but his actions, oh, they were far from it. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Sniffing drugs thrown by the audience, he sat covered in blood.

The red haze of crimson that had covered the Colessum ground didn’t deter him from acting like a junkie.

The bodies that were thrown around and the parts that were littered around like decorations didn’t stop him from acting true to his nature.

Thrill had still not died from the audience’s stream as some of them still screamed.

"Yeah, I won. Can you guys see? I fucking won! Hahahaha..."

"Tsk, why the hell did I even bet on that bitch?"

"I told you to bet—"

"Shut the fuck up, man. You also lost. You lost more than I lost."

Crunch crunch

Walking through the screams and the thrilled chaos of the audience, the man, the host, once more appeared.

His boot crunched on the bodies and parts thrown on the ground, his soles wetting in the crimson liquid.

The man styled his black hair with his fingers and adjusted his tie.

Crunch crunch

Walking through the gore, the man looked pristine, untouched, and unbothered by his surroundings. His coat and pants gleamed under the haze of crimson as he reached near the junkie.

"Did you all like it, dear patrons?"

The host spoke, enthusiasm lacing his tone.

"Hell yeah, brother. I don’t know about your wife, but I give a fuck about you, brother."

"You like men?"

"It’s called respect. Respect!"

"Haha," the host laughed, matching his energy with the audience before turning his face to glance at the man loitering in the middle of the blood-soaked ground.

Coughing, he stole the attention of the audience and pointed his fingers towards the winner of the deathmatch.

"Dear patrons, as you know, he had won our game. And now, he is free! He is loaded with not only the drug but also money! But—"

A smile crept across the host’s face, and the audience felt their hearts race.

"—As we said, today we have a VIP present with us. So, we can’t just let it end this way, can we?"

"Yes, we cannot!"

"Brother, you know what we want, don’t you?"

The man, oblivious to the new game taking shape to make his life more hellish, kept on with his addiction. The drug was more important than whatever the reality had to offer.

"Yes, that’s why we have prepared something more entertaining." The host spoke before clapping his hands.

Clap

Following this, a woman was dragged inside by a knight.

By the way she looked, she didn’t look like a junkie. Nor did she look like a slum dweller.

Tear stains were present on her cheeks as she followed—well, was dragged by—the knight. Her eyes couldn’t help but roam over the area as shivers of fear passed through her body.

"So here’s the game we are playing now," the host said. He clapped his hands once more.

A worker with a platter came.

The gold lining on the silver platter shone as the host pointed to it, where 3 different boxes were kept.

"I have drugs that have been newly developed by us. This drug is quite addictive; however, the game is not this; the game is whether this man will consume this drug or not."

"What a dumb game?"

"Yeah, of course he will, can’t you see?"

The audience sneered at his words.

"Haha, dear patrons, the game is not this simple," the host said. His lips pulled up. "Two of the boxes have cyanide mixed in the drug."

Silence. Before the audience went fucking crazy.

"Yeah. Is it a guessing game? Fuck yeah!"

"Let’s start it already; I am itching!"

"Still no, the game is not that simple," the host answered. "The first game will be the guessing game, where this woman," he pointed towards the woman who was brought by the knight, "will guess which box to consume. If she dies, we will tell the man the reason behind her death, and then we will present him with the box. We will also tell which box has cyanide and which doesn’t. If the man only consumes one box and leaves the second, he wins; if he consumes both, well..."

The host only gave a smile.

"What if the woman doesn’t die?"

Someone from the audience asked.

"Well," the host glanced towards the shivering woman and saw a ray of hope in her dead eyes. "She will be free from the debt her husband has taken and will also be set free."

The woman’s eyes lit up. She clasped her hands and bowed her head, muttering thanks to God.

"Thanks, Solar—"

However, the next second, the disgruntled voice of the audience cut through.

"Lame."

"Yeah, so lame. Do something with her!"

"Yes!"

The woman shivered as she looked at the people who were screaming. She could also see people from her own gender wanting something else to happen to her. Something that could excite them!

"Wha... ?"

She couldn’t form words. How could she, when she herself felt that she was seeing the demons themselves, those who have been purged by God?

"Well, we can’t just snatch the things promised, can we?" the host laughed. "However, for that she had to win, dear patrons. If she does, she can always leave or maybe earn money for her family that could last a lifetime."

The woman blinked and looked at the smiling face of the host. She wasn’t doing anything; the second she won, she would leave. She missed her family.

Her husband’s addiction to gambling had put her here, and she hated him for that. However, this didn’t mean she had no one to go to. She had.

She wanted to meet her daughters and son and escape with them before the man she married for love did the same with them.

However, her brooding didn’t last for long.

"Start it!"

"Start it!"

The audience, simply bored, started to scream at the thought of the next game that could bring them uncontained excitement.

The bets happened, and the woman was given the choice to guess. After guessing, she consumed the box.

Sniff

The white powder invaded her system as her body quaked.

Tick-tock

Ba-dump bad-dump!

It seemed the whole world had held its breath.

All waited for the reaction. The second hand on the watch turned.

Was she safe?

The woman thought as she didn’t die instantly.

’I am safe—’

However, the next second, the woman’s ecstatic expression crumbled. Her body quaked.

"Wha... ?"

Before she could finish her words, her eyes rolled back, and she fell back.

Thud

An eerie silence covered the whole Colosseum before, once more, the audience broke out crazily.

Following this, the host told the man about the drug. He explained everything to him, not once but twice.

And as the game started, the junkie, without a second of hesitation, consumed the first.

After consuming it, he fell on the ground, his expression turning extreme.

"Hehe~"

"Yes, don’t take the second box or you will die!"

"Take it! Just think about the hit!"

"No! Don’t!"

The audience fought within themselves as they continued to scream at the man who was now standing once more.

Was he going to take the second box or not?

Many waited, and many screamed, giving out instructions.

And—

The man took it!

Thud

***

Games like these continued.

After the second game of guessing, duels between different age groups and different body weights happened. Each had its own extremes, but death was the minimal thing that happened. The blood soaked the ground more and more over time, as the games went on.

’When is he coming?’ Elias wondered, tapping on his armrest. ’Did I make a mistake somewhere? No, it doesn’t seem so. Then why is he not coming?’

The wait for Kade Blunt was going on for too long. Elias didn’t want to wait anymore.

The scenes that he had seen today were enough to give him nightmares for months, if not years. He didn’t want to see more.

This was not the only reason. Even Evelyn was getting more and more restless.

As Elias started to think about whether he needed to do something more, a knock echoed.

Knock, knock.

The way Evelyn had already turned towards the door told that whoever he had been waiting for had come.

Kade Blunt was here!

’Finally.’

However, Elias didn’t respond immediately. He turned towards Evelyn, who, feeling his gaze, looked at him with furrowed brows.

Elias, gaining her attention, shook her head, signaling that she should control herself.

Following that, he spoke. He didn’t need to babysit Evelyn; he knew that she had a brain enough for situations like these.

"Come in."

***

Moments prior—

Step step

The sound of the footsteps echoed as Kade walked, followed by Julius.

"Do I look presentable?"

"Yes, my lord," Julius answered for the nth time.

"Are you sure that the woman with Elias is only [C-] rank?"

"Yes, my lord. Knight Karman said that he didn’t find her threatening. And we can trust his intuition, as he is one of the most experienced knights we have."

"Hm," Kade hummed.

’Weird. Why is someone from the organization with someone this weak?’ He wondered. ’She must be hiding her strength.’

Kade concluded, however, in the next seconds, the old thoughts on which he had been brooding for hours surfaced again.

Kade, even though he had believed that Elias was someone from the organization, considering that he himself had come. He was still a bit skeptical somewhere in his heart.

Not that somebody could leak information about him. Considering even in the organization "Velvet Hand," very few low seats like him knew about others.

Only people with a high seat in the Velvet Hand knew information about others. And only those people could contact others apart from the annual meetings of the Velvet Hand members, where every low seat met.

But even then, high seats didn’t do it. They roamed around very little, and most of them kept their identity secret. Even Kade didn’t know who his master was, as if needed, the low seats would go around if high seats wanted to do any talking with other high seats.

This was rare too, as most used magics for conversing, but still sometimes happened.

However, this also didn’t mean that Elias was a low seat. The thing was that Kade had no information or any orders about any upcoming meetings or so.

So, if Elias was a low seat, how could he be here?

This was also the reason that Kade believed he was excluded from the operations.

But that didn’t last for long. As Kade thought of his situation, there was no way he could be excluded.

So, a bold thought took place in Kade’s mind.

’What if Elias was from the organization?’

This thought was nearly impossible. The organization, minimally, in fact, seldom came to the surface. All the things happening in the Radiant Empire and the things planned were taken care of by the Velvet Hand.

However, this didn’t mean they could not come.

Kade has heard from his master that sometimes, low-wing members of the organization come themselves. And when they do, a huge change of plans was promised.

Kade knew that he was thinking something very absurd, but nothing else came to his mind.

There could be only two possibilities. The first one being that Elias was a low-wing member of the organization, or he was someone supported by the low-wing member.

’The latter is more believable, and I think it is the truth. For no one knows that I run the underground arena. Only my master does.’

But yet, the stuffy feeling—what was it?

’Eh, maybe I am just nervous.’

Kade shook his head and styled his hair with his fingers.

"We are almost there," he muttered as he saw the room approaching in his view.

Coming before the room in a few seconds and nodding to the attendant for her to leave, Kade knocked on the door.

Knock, knock.

Ba-dump!

"Come in."