My Evil System

[Amara's POV]

I just have to wait for this practical in the Woodlands to finish and finally get out of here tomorrow.

I couldn't expose my decision to anyone to join Trinity Kingdom for the risk of Edward knowing. I made sure that the people around me believed that I would be going to Edward and stay in the Holy Kingdom.

Who knew what that man would do once he found out that I wouldn't be going with him?

The only safe bet for me was joining Trinity tomorrow at the graduation ceremony. By then, I would not only be protected by the Trinity Kingdom but as well the international law, which stated no kingdom or town was allowed to snatch or force players to join them who had already made a contract with another land.

BUG players were coveted.

I was so sure that I would get a contract offer from Trinity as well. It was only a matter of time.

I took a silent breath and looked over at our exhausted team. We have killed numerous boars, wild jackalopes, and Ferocious Stags along the way.

And so far, things have been pretty smooth for us. We didn't lose a single member. Our leader was Roger, with his ATP already in the seventies. He was a fighter and good at what he did.

Yuji was a hunter, and his ATP was in the fifties. Nira was a Black Mage who got things done despite her lack of ATP, and I was the healer of the team. This was a pretty balance lineup, and the only odd man out was Thomas.

He was a Black Mage, but until this time, I hadn't seen him doing anything but watching us from the side with closed lips.

Many times that Roger and Yuji wanted to kill him off for how useless he was, but I was vehemently against it.

Cross is friends with him. I saw them together most of the time.

"He's just a noob. Don't mind him," I often said to pacify the intense situation in the group.

Thomas only glanced at us and looked away like he couldn't care less what we thought about him.

"It's going to be six soon," Nira said.

"Let's go back," I suggested. If we go back now, then it would be exactly six in the evening when we reach the entrance of the woodlands.

"No," Roger said.

I paused and looked over at Roger with a slight frown.

"We're already here, so we might as well take a peek at the middle part of the forest," Yuji seconded.

"Take a peek?" I asked in incredulity. "The middle and deeper part of the forest is off limits to students."

Roger ignored me and walked ahead. "If you want to go back, then go back. I will press forward and check what lies up ahead.

"I'm not like you, princess. A BUG player who doesn't need to go such length to get a contract. Us normal players don't have that privilege and have to exert extra effort to get one."

"I'll come too." Yuji shot a gin my way as he placed his hands at the back of his head.

I knew Roger was ambitious, but I didn't know that he was an idiot too.

There was a reason why students were forbidden to venture into those parts. What use of their effort if they ended up dead?

I wouldn't deny that I got it easy because I was a BUG player, but it didn't mean that I didn't have any problems of my own.

"Nira?" I was surprised when Nira went with them too.

Nira avoided my gaze, and she bitterly smiled. "I need those contracts."

Even though she wasn't stating it, I felt to the bones the thick hate that laced in her voice.

I was already used to this kind of treatment. Being me, I was subjected to a lot of envy and jealousy since young, so I wasn't foreign to such behavior from other girls.

My attention shifted to Thomas, who was just standing at the side like usual. His face was the epitome of calmness. His gaze met mine, but he didn't say anything.

He was starting to creep me out, to be honest.

Though Thomas was a noob, my instincts told me that he was dangerous and that I shouldn't be alone with him.

It was either going back together with Thomas or pressing on with the others. It would have been fine if Thomas had gone with the others. I had no qualms about going back alone.

But I felt like Thomas was purposefully after me. I could feel it from his occasional stares. His eyes didn't contain anything. I didn't even feel any malice from him.

But one time, I found him licking his lips and gulping his unending saliva as he watched the others murder a beast. I even saw him licking the blood that splattered on his face.

I surely didn't want to be alone with such person, even if he was Cross's friend.

That guy couldn't distinguish friends and foes to begin with.

I didn't have much of a choice and went after Roger and the others. As much as I didn't want to venture deeper into the woodlands, I also didn't want to be alone with Thomas.

I stumbled upon Roger, Yuji an Nira squatting on the grass. Their faces were grim, and when they noticed me approaching, they quickly signaled me to be quiet and pointed to go down on my knees.

I did what they said, for I knew they weren't joking based on the severe expression on their faces.

Thomas did the same, and I was glad that he was obedient, at least.

Looking at what the others were looking at, I restrained a gasp and risked exposing our hidden location.

About twenty meters from us, there was a beast lying hunched in the brooding forest on the borderline between the middle and deeper parts of the Woodlands.

( . . . continuation on NOTES)