Chapter 145: Black Sheep
Chapter 145: Black Sheep
Upon entering 'Rest House 100', Jay's eyes landed on seven others that looked almost similar to Halbor.
As soon as they saw Halbor, they gathered around him and ushered him with a series of questions regarding what had transpired with the Lycanthropes.
With the Rest House being a completely closed space, those seven Rock Magmoids weren't aware of everything that happened outside.
Other than acting as recuperation areas for the Alpha Chosen, the 'Rest Houses' has a pretty useful function that restricts anyone else's entry other than the allotted Trial Zone Team members.
The only possible ways to enter any Rest House were if they were assigned to it or through the permission of the highest levelled individual among the allotted Trial Zone Team members of that respective Rest House.
That was also why the Lycanthropes could only cause commotion outside Halbor's Rest House instead of intruding into it.
When Halbor realised that the Lycanthropes were up to no good, he discreetly communicated with his fellow Alpha Chosen and asked them not to leave the Rest House, lest he implicates them and endangers their lives.
Halbor could have hidden inside their Rest House to avoid trouble, but with just 28 hours to live, he had to try his best to gather Grade-3 Vitality Fruits.
Because of that, he had no choice but to come out and interact with the Lycanthropes, who had something he desperately needed.
Fortunately for Halbor, everything went way better than he expected.
Under his fellow team members' queries, Halbor briefed them on everything that happened outside.
In the beginning, they all had worried expressions on their faces from hearing that their leader was almost forced to sign a slave contract.
Later on, their worries were replaced with utter shock as Halbor's briefing continued.
Once in a while, the Rock Magmoids would sneak glances at Jay, wondering if he was as strong as Halbor described.
Sensing the reverence in Halbor's tone, none of them doubted their leader's words.
Soon, Halbor introduced each of his team members to Jay and insisted them on bowing as a show of respect.
They hesitated but still went ahead according to Halbor's instruction. All except one, the other six bowed to Jay.
Halbor could only sigh at Holt's stubbornness, who was the second strongest in their trial zone team.
He wished Jay wouldn't take offence to Holt's actions, but that was his wishful thinking since Jay shot out four Thunder Flame bullets that blasted apart Holt's arms and legs into smithereens in the blink of an eye.
The other six Rock Magmoids were terrified by Jay's actions. Hearing his shrieks of pain, they couldn't help but shiver upon looking at Jay and didn't dare to make eye contact with him.
Although they have heard from Halbor that Jay defeated the Lycanthropes, that didn't bring much of an impact on them but watching Jay single-handedly incapacitate the second strongest member in their trail zone team left them speechless.
Contrary to the others, Halbor wasn't shocked by Jay's strength but by his ruthlessness. Halbor began to fret if he really made a wise choice by following Jay.
After all, mutilating others' bodies just because they didn't show respect was a sign of ruthless dictatorship.
Even Min-soo was taken aback by Jay's sudden attack. From what he knew, Jay wasn't someone who would do something like that without a valid reason.
He waited longer to see for himself before making any wrong assumptions.
Then, Jay used <SOUL EYES> to telekinetically lift what was left of Holt and brought him closer under the apprehensive gazes of Rock Magmoids.
The previous confidence and stubbornness were nowhere to be found on Holt's face. Instead, it was smeared all over with utter fear.
Jay raised his brows and looked down at Holt with disdain, "You see, I despise backstabbers the most. Whenever I encounter one, I uproot them even if I have to go out of my way to do it. Now tell me, do you still think I did this just because you didn't bow to me?"
Holt right away understood what Jay was talking about, and his pupils shrunk as terror crept onto his face.
Jay then side glanced at Halbor and asked casually, "Have you ever wondered how the Lycanthropes get to know that it was you who placed 'Space Platform' on the <Exchange Market>?"
Hearing that, realization dawned upon Halbor. After all, any personal information of the Alpha Chosen wasn't revealed while showcasing the Spirit Items placed in the <Exchange Market>.
However, Jay was an exception since he could have MJ access information directly from the System itself as long as it was within his Grade-4 System access level.
Since Halbor wasn't aware of that, the only possibility that came to his mind was that someone among his team members must have leaked information about his possessing a teleportation device.
Before Halbor could speculate, he saw a floating baby appear beside Jay and projected a screen that displayed a series of memories.
By the time the projection of those memories came to an end, Halbor and the other Rock Magmoids widened their eyes in disbelief because those were the memories of Holt.
They didn't know how Jay did that but watching those memories was an eye-opener for them since it revealed Holt's true colours.
The first one-third part of those memories comprised of Holt's extreme jealousy of Halbor, and he wished nothing more than to defeat Halbor and become the strongest among their Trial Zone Team.
But Halbor reached Tier-3, leaving a wide power gap between them, which budded Holt's jealousy into hatred.
The two-third part of those memories was about Holt scheming against Halbor, either to dethrone him or kill him in the process.
Although most of Holt's schemes didn't go as he planned, one worked out in Holt's favour.
It was Holt, who lured a pair of Tier-3 Low-Phase snow monsters, the same monsters that inflicted 'Frost Permeation' upon Halbor.
Although Halbor and the other Rock Magmoids managed to defeat them in the end, that came with a cost.
After all, Two Rock Magmoids died in the process, and Halbor was inflicted with the condition that would eventually lead him to death in just a matter of days.
Actually, the condition that the snow monsters inflicted upon Halbor should have been 'Snow Permeation', but Holt secretly used his second Innate Talent Grade-4 <CURSE> on Halbor.
Aside from Holt himself, no one else knew about his other Innate Talent aside from the Grade-6 <Earth Innate Talent>.
Although Holt's Variant Category Innate Talent <CURSE> was just at Grade-4, its lethality was not something that could be looked down upon.
After all, using that, Holt upgraded the not so dangerous 'Snow Permeation' debuff into the deadly 'Frost Permeation'.
In the final one-third portion of those memories, Holt instigated Halbor to use the teleportation devices to exchange for Grade-3 Vitality Fruit despite knowing that just one or two won't be enough to recover from 'Frost Permeation'.
He then reached out to the Lycanthropes, who became the talk of the area since they began to take control over other Trial Zone Teams domineeringly.
With the description of <Space Platform> on the <Exchange Market> as the evidence, Holt sold out intel on Halbor to Lycanthropes.
With that, Halbor looked like a golden goose to the Lycanthropes, and they wanted to enslave Halbor using a Contract Scroll.
That was also what Holt hoped for since he could use that situation to his advantage and take control over their Trial Zone Team while Halbor would work as a slave for Lycanthropes.
But what Holt didn't account for was Jay stepping in and resolving such a problematic situation in a matter of minutes.
On top of that, Jay even revealed all his schemes to everyone in a way that Holt was left with no way to raise an argument to defend himself.