Surviving as the Second Main Lead: Second Lead's POV

Reed had a feeling that his team was planning on doing something against her but she had no idea what it could be. She decided to keep an eye on them as she realized.

But nothing happened the whole day. It was the same routine of killing the monsters and gaining points. No one was acting suspicious but Reed could still not help but find it all too suspicious.

‘My teammates are acting too suspicious. Should I confront them about it? But then again, they will not give me a straight answer to my questions.’

Reed decided to give up in the end. These children were not worth her notice anyway. It would be better for Reed to focus on herself.

“Here, your food. You should be grateful that we are still feeding you despite your attitude.”

The leader handed Reed her food as if she was doing a great service which pained her greatly. The disgusted look on the leader’s face caused Reed’s appetite to fall.

But despite Reed’s lack of appetite, her body needed nutrition and she ended up taking the offered food. It tasted weird and Reed found herself wondering at the unpleasant taste of her food. But she managed to finish it anyhow.

And then her nightmares began. She could feel herself moving but Reed’s body was not complying with her mind. She was moving under someone else’s control.

…………………

“And we are done with today’s hunt. How are you feeling Joni?”

Horas watched from the sidelines as Alicia handed the food out. Their team had a rough start but they had finally settled down into their roles.

And despite Alicia’s initial hesitance of letting Horas come with them, she allowed him to hunt in the end. And Horas had proven his abilities by shooting many of their targets in the legs.

Horas might lack the raw firepower the other ‘mana-conducting’ weapons gave off but he was swift and his range made up for his lack of mana in this dungeon.

“Hey kid, hurry up and eat as well. You must be getting hungry by now.”

Alicia handed over a bowl to Horas as she made he was around the camp. She had finally chilled down and began respecting Horas once he had started contributing to their team.

“Man, I cannot believe me are not last. I thought we were a goner for sure.”

Sylvia, the girl from Yohan’s class, exclaimed. They had not talked much before but Horas had seen her around. From what he remembered, Sylvia was a dual-sword user and a decent one at that.

Horas shook his head to not let Sylvia’s words get to his head. He watched Joni eat his soul with a dazed expression. The elder teen was out of it ever since he had almost been killed off.

The dinner passed in relative silence until a flare snapped into the sky. It was the sixth one for the day.

“Looks like another team decided to bail out. Man, there are too many people quitting this time around. And that team was ranked 8th overall as well.”

Tyson, another first year in their team exclaimed as he checked the system. It contained information about teams and their current positions.

Horas quickly checked his team position and it sat somewhere around 10th right now. It was a comfortable position to be in, not too high and not too low.

But it was only because a lot of other teams had called it quit today. Something fishy was going on around for sure.

“Hey, do you think someone is deliberately going around and making teams call it to quit? So many disqualifications don’t seem normal to me.”

Sylvia asked as she looked down at the ground. She was a good fighter but she was also the second-weakest link in their team. She would be the target of the other team since Horas was well-guarded by the others.

She could not help but worry about her future.

“Don’t worry. I am sure that it is nothing. Let’s decide our night shifts and go to sleep.”

Alicia distracted everyone else as she took out slips to decide who will petrol when. It was a dual system of petrol where shifts would change every hour alternatively.

Even Horas was expected to participate and he had no problem with that. He was just worried about all the unusual things happening around the exam site. Especially since this was ‘the exam’ which pushed Reed off toward the ‘dark side’.

……………………..

Horas tried to sleep but something was bugging him. His mind was not allowing him to fall unconscious and Horas just pushed his covers aside and stood up.

There was a restlessness in his blood that wanted him to move around. He could not keep himself still.

*Yawn*

“Horas, are you awake? You should sleep while you still can. Your turn to petrol is not until the next two hours.”

Alicia’s voice scared Horas and he almost jumped in his place. But his beating heart somewhat calmed down once Horas realized that Alicia was just here because she was patrolling along with Joni.

Joni looked concerned about Horas as well but he kept his distance.

“I woke up because of body needs. I will be back soon so don’t wait up for me.”

Alicia looked a little embarrassed once she realized what Horas was indicating and she backed off as well. But there was still worry that shined in her eyes.

“Joni, can you go with Horas? I am not sure if we can leave him alone in the dungeon right now.”

Alicia looked worried for some reason and Joni did not cut her words. They both seemed to be in some kind of agreement which Horas was sure he would not be able to guess.

Besides, the worry he was feeling seemed to not go away even when he tried to calm himself down. So maybe being with someone else would make Horas feel safer when he did his deed.

Joni stood up and the pair walked out of their safety camp.

“Did something happen while I was asleep? Both you and Alicia seem to be on edge.”

Horas asked the question that he wanted to for some time. Joni took a little take aback before his eyes flashed with conflict.

In the end, Joni decided to tell Horas everything. Horas might be a kid but his intelligence seemed to be on par with theirs. It would be insulting to hide things from him at this rate.

“Two more teams dropped out in the last hour. But, weirdly, the teachers are not interfering during our exams. We are just worried about what is happening.”

Horas had noticed it as well. It had been weird that the teachers had not caught up on what was happening. What was the control center doing while this dungeon was acting weird?

“I guess we will never know what will happen and - look out.”

Horas grasped Joni’s hand and dragged him down to the ground. The teen barely missed the small needle heading his way when he was pulled down.

Horas spotted a flash of red heading their way and he instinctively dragged Joni behind him as he ran. His bad feeling was evolving rapidly right now.

“W-What is happening? Are we being attacked right now? But why whom?”

Joni questioned as he ran after Horas. They were both trying to get away from the monster running after them. Its red eyes were focused on Horas and Joni right now.

There was something familiar after their hunter but it was difficult to figure out what it was. Why did their hunter feel so familiar to Horas?

“W-We need to change directions. We cannot go back to the c-camp.”

Joni exclaimed and Horas agreed with him. Not to mention, they were currently unprepared to face such a huge challenge.

Horas was about to take out his gun when he noticed another figure closing up around them. He immediately pulled Joni to run the other way and he finally got a clear view of who it was.

It was a student from his grade, a shot girl at that. Horas had seen her around but he had never paid enough attention to her before.

‘Are the attacker's students? Wait for a second! That red, it could not be!’

Horas’s brain suddenly stopped working and then gears started to turn inside it. He had a solid idea about the identity of his chaser now.

‘Shit! Fuck! It’s Reed! The one who is trying to kill us is fucking Reed Whinstone!’

Horas did not know what happened to push Reed this far but he knew he needed to help her out. Otherwise, everyone in here would die because of Reed’s blood manipulation.

“Joni, we need to split up. Once we do, drop out of the competition and call the authorities.”

Joni looked startled at Horas’s suggestion.

“B-But we will be disqualified and-”

“Our lives are on the line Joni. The teachers will not take it seriously if I went back.”

Horas had no idea why the teachers were not taking ‘other’ students seriously but he was sure that he would not be taken seriously because of his age.

It would have to be Joni who will have to go back and call for help. Horas just hoped that it would come before something terrible ended up happening.