As Cordelia moved around in different directions in a random manner with no specific path, trying to find a monster or majorly goblins for her individual mission, other youths weren't faring any different.
After all, everyone knew that subjugating, or rather killing, a monster would bring about the blue window to assign them their individual mission, so a lot of them were actively looking for monsters to hunt.
It was a given, considering many of them had been trained by their families, elite schools, guilds, or clans.
But, even with all that, the majority were untrained and from poor families or even orphans who didn't have access to a lot of information.
That didn't stall them, however, as they were the ones who had faced the true hardships of life and fought for their survival the hardest, as living every day was nothing short of toiling for their lives.
Naturally, with their persistence, perseverance, and resilience, such youths wouldn't be left behind in the dust by the well-trained examinees, but there was a high chance of some even catching up to the so-called elites of society and a selected few natural-born geniuses even surpassing them.
However, the sad and harsh truth of society awaited them should they show off their talents. No way would the power-hungry elites allow anyone deemed a threat to their power to rise, as they swiftly dealt with such anomalies before they could grow to show their full potential.
Now, one might wonder why anyone would do that when their planet faced the threat of extinction? It was simple, really. They had grown accustomed to the power and authority they wielded, not wanting to lose it to someone they deemed as inferior trash.
Hence, came such a scene where a certain pair of siblings who had saved a few humans with their capabilities out of kindness were getting 'repaid' for their kindness.
"Why..."
A weak cry leaked out from the mouth of a boy with auburn hair, dirtied by blood and dirt as he held his unconscious twin sister, who had similar features to him, save for longer hair, in his arms.
"Why are you doing this?"
He spat through gritted teeth with tears bubbling in his eyes as he stared at the once helpless elites he had helped on his sister's persistence to help them out of her kindness despite his stern refusal, but he gave in to his sister's stubbornness.
"Hahahahahaha"
"They are asking... Hahahahaha..."
"Haaa..."
They all burst into laughter at his indignant voice before one of them wiped the tear at the side of his eye before grinning.
"Do you even need to ask? How dare measly pests like you think you're above us? You ought to help us. Now that you've served your purpose, you must die."
The four men surrounding the speaker laughed while the speaker smirked, reveling in the misery filled eyes of the auburn-haired boy.
"Boss Huo, what about the girl? She should be a virgin, no?"
"Hah! Does it matter? Even if she's not… hehe"
"Heh. You even need to ask Boss Huo?"
"Of course, we will keep her alive. Hahaha"
"How long have you been serving Boss Huo? He's a magnanimous person, he'd give her to us after getting bored."
"Hahahahaha, you're right."
Hearing their words, the auburn-haired boy's face paled even more as he tightened his grip around his sister in protective manner while clenching his fists to the point his knuckles turned white and gnashed his teeth in anger.
'If not for their sneak attack, I would've long gotten rid of them...'
He cursed himself for not being cautious around strangers and listening to his naive sister's insistent words about helping others.
"Alright, alright. That's enough. Let's finish this fast. We have to get into the ranking too, you know?"
Hearing Boss Huo's voice, all of them had devious smiles on their faces and started to move toward the helpless pair of siblings but just then,
Bang
Puchak
Accompanied by a loud sound of whistling wind, the head of one of the four men moving towards the twins exploded, spurting blood everywhere in the surroundings.
"W-what?"
"W-who d-dares!?"
"Lin! LIN! NOOOOOOO!!!!"
"Be alert!! It's a magic bullet!"
Boss Huo shouted to warn his followers, alas, it was meaningless as he was too late,
Bang
Puchak
The same scene repeated itself. The one who had shouted the name of the dead man and was moving towards the body met his end swiftly.
"Be alert! It's just one enemy."
Boss Huo warned once again. His composure indicated that he was used to such situations but that didn't mean he wasn't angry, quite the contrary.
'You fucker! Just you wait! I'll rip you to shreds when I find you!'
"Yea, Boss Huo is right. W-we can do this!"
"Bastard! Show yourself! Do you have a death wish to antagonize Boss Huo?"
Despite the voices, no response came from the assailant.
'Did they leave...?'
Just as the thought had started to take root in their minds,
Bang
The same scene repeated itself to dispel the notion of their assailant leaving.
"Arrgghhh"
Boss Huo grunted in pain as he barely dodged the bullet aiming for his head, but it still scraped by, peeling his skin.
"Boss Huo!"
"Boss Huo!"
Both his followers shouted in worry at the same time and tried to come by his side but,
Bang
Puchak
With these sounds, another one met the same fate before the fourth one followed behind in the next second.
Bang
Puchak
"W-what do you want?"
Boss Huo shouted despite his pain because he was left alone now.
However, to his dismay, he got no response.
Thinking that the assailant was letting him go, he started running away, leaving behind the twins, out of which the conscious the male looked at the entire scene with a dumbfounded look on his face.
Whoosh
Suddenly, something wheezed past him and just as he turned,
"Ahhhhh,"
He saw Boss Huo getting hit by something and screaming in pain before he decisively ran away.
'I can't trust whoever helped us. What if they have the same purpose?'
The boy wore a solemn expression as he looked around warily in vain hopes of finding his helper but to his deep surprise, he found no one.
Wheewww
Only the sound of wind could be heard in his surroundings.
Using the chance, the boy held up his sister in his arms and limped away from the scene with a bitter, resolute expression.
Tch
The sound of clicking the tongue sounded in the desolate area filled with corpses as a young boy with dark-black hair and his characteristic red eyes shook his head with an apathetic expression.
His focus was brought back to the chiming sound that had rung when he let the last man escape.
Ding!
[Individual Mission: Save 10 Humans]
[Mission Progress: 10/10]
[Mission Reward: 100 Points]
Ding!
[Mission completed]
[Reward: 100 Points]
Ding!
[Hidden Condition Fulfilled!]
[Reward: 2X]
[Final Reward: 300 Points]
The boy arched his eyebrow in slight surprise as he read the message but he didn't mull over it for long before moving away from the location.
...
After another hour, someone came near the same place and disturbed the serene deathly atmosphere with their cursing.
"Darn it! Where did all those lil' shits come from? When I was looking for them, they were nowhere but now they're freaking everywhere!?"
The one cursing was naturally Cordelia. She had already killed 6 more goblins in the past hour and all of them had sneak attacked her rear.
Luckily, she was careful and extremely attentive in regards to her rear this time and easily defeated them, but damn was she tired?
"Who wouldn't be tired? Having to protect your rear from getting attacked all the time? Ughh–"
Just as she was grumbling, her entire body froze suddenly as she looked at the headless corpses of the four humans, causing her to spit out bile once more, vomiting disgracefully.
Uwack
Retch
Only after calming down a little, she dizzily mumbled under her breath, "Isn't this the same way the first goblin was killed?"
"But who...?"
She frowned as she tried to look for someone in the surroundings but she found no one. In the end, it remained a mystery to her who her savior was and why did he end up killing humans? The mere thought of meeting that person sent shivers down her spine.