“Logically speaking, the higher your score, the more survival points you get during settlement. Of course, if you can complete extra special tasks, your survival points will also increase.” Blond Holy Son appeared thoughtful. “This should also be a universal rule for Thriller Trainee.”

If you want a high score, just risk your life and take on dangerous challenges.

But thinking about it another way, since it’s possible to increase your score and get a large amount of survival points, it seems reasonable.

Henry Clark's eyes flickered.

If he wanted to quickly regain the flexibility of his fingers, he would inevitably have to pay a price. Nothing ventured, nothing gained—this is always a universal truth.

Since there was a path laid out before him, naturally—

Henry Clark casually grabbed the ballpoint pen beside him.

Hearing the sound of the newspaper being put down, Messiah looked up in confusion. “Where are you going?”

The white-haired young man waved his hand without looking back. “Just going to the bathroom, I’ll be right back.”

“I’ll go with you. It’s not a good idea to be alone right now.” Blond Holy Son frowned disapprovingly.

“No need to trouble you, senior.”

A clear voice came from the far end of the dim corridor.

“I’m not in the habit of peeing with others.”

Chapter Six

The long corridor was pitch black, with old-fashioned light bulbs hanging on both walls, casting a dim glow and making visibility extremely low.

The trainees who had taken the medicine huddled together and split into two groups, each led by a C-level veteran. The other members forced themselves to stay alert, pairing up in twos and threes to go to their own rooms and move their quilts and sheets to the group leader’s ward to make beds on the floor.

Glasses was assigned to the second group.

He followed behind the group members, working together to move the bedding to another ward.

Looking at the quilts on the floor, Glasses gave a wry smile. “Looks like we’ll have to squeeze in to sleep tonight.”

The single wards were already cramped and narrow. Even if the bedding covered the entire floor, it was only the size of two or three beds. But their group had nine people, all squeezed into this small ward for the night—it was really tough.

“...Actually, it feels safer this way.” Matthew Green squatted nearby to comfort him. “Everyone’s sleeping together, so if anything happens, at least we have numbers on our side.”

Indeed.

All these newcomers had been scared out of their wits. Just thinking about being in an environment where you could die at any moment—let alone lying down—they’d rather stand here all night than go back to their own rooms to sleep.

“True.”

Glasses didn’t say much more, curling up with his quilt in the corner.

Maybe it was because he’d had an extra bowl of soup earlier, but he felt the urge to pee as soon as he lay down, curling up his legs.

Of the nine people in this group, only three were F-level like him; the rest were E-level and D-level.

The group leader clearly favored the higher-ranked new trainees, pulling them aside to chat and probably hoping to recruit them as his own followers.

Glasses had been a corporate drone for years, with daily social interaction limited to the office and his boss. Even latching onto someone for support had taken him ages to work up to, so now he didn’t have the courage to approach anyone—he could only quietly talk with fellow F-level Matthew Green in the corner.

Although everyone was wearing the same hospital gown, the latter was a whole head taller than Glasses, with a still youthful face, like a newly grown bamboo—green and immature.

“How old are you?”

“I’m a senior in high school this year.”

Matthew Green finished laying out his quilt. “I was so tired yesterday morning that I dozed off in class, and when I woke up, I found myself here.”

Glasses said sympathetically, “Well, at least you got out of taking the college entrance exam.”

Matthew Green forced a smile, and both fell silent.

Coming to this hellish place, it would have been better to just take the exam honestly.

Under the effect of the medicine, people became weak, even too lazy to talk. But for some reason, even though they were so tired when standing, once they lay down, their nerves tensed up again, making it hard to sleep.

Especially Glasses—he squinted, trying to sleep, but the urge to pee just kept getting stronger, making him extremely uncomfortable.

He stared at the crooked, barely recognizable letters on the wall, trying hard to ignore his physical discomfort.