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

Horas watched Joni weigh his options. The teen was a good man, not wanting to leave Horas behind and escape alone. But this was their only chance.

Joni finally realized Horas was right and he took a sharp right turn while Horas took a left. The red behind them did not hesitate to go after Horas as soon as they split up. Reed was following Horas’s lead after all.

Horas watched Joni flinch and finally press the ‘quit’ button on his system device before he disappeared.

“Shit, we lost one. Hey guys, we are in big trouble now.”

The short girl who had been following Horas and Reed shouted out all of a sudden. It seemed like she no longer cared about keeping her cover and blocked Horas’s path.

Horas stopped running as well. He had been concerned from both sides and doubted he would be allowed to run away. Reed also walked up behind him but there was something wrong with her.

“You all should give up now. My teammate managed to escape and help out be here soon.”

Horas warned as he watched Reed’s dazed eyes. She was not herself right now.

Horas was sure that Reed’s teammates had done something to her. But he did not remember anyone being strong enough to control Reed. At least, no student should be able to hold her.

“Shit. You foiled out a well-constructed plan. How did you see us coming when no one else did? Not even the seniors noticed who attacked them so how did you?”

Horas’s classmate asked the question as she stopped hiding. Her annoyed face clearly showed that she was confused.

“Did you attack everyone secretly and knock them out? Is that why no one was able to report your crimes and call for help?”

Horas wanted to know more. He needed to keep Reed and his classmate engaged so that Joni could call for help in the meantime.

“Won’t you like to know? For now, you should be aware that we have ways of keeping people quiet. I doubt most of our victims even remember what happened to them.”

Horas’s classmate sounded certain. It meant that they had someone with mind-related abilities on their team. But Horas did not remember someone like that being in his class. Was the user from the graduation class?

Horas wanted to ask more questions but the vision of red he had seen before rushed at him.

It was only because Horas was used to fighting Reed and her eccentric ways that he could dodge the attack.

Blood rushed toward him but it missed Horas by an inch and ended up cutting the tree behind Horas. There was too much force behind that attack for it to be a prank.

Reed was rushing at Horas to kill him but her moments were not as full as they usually were. And her body also looked tense and lifeless when it moved. Reed was not herself right now.

“You! What did you do to Reed? She is not behaving like herself.”

Horas questioned as he tried to create some distance between himself and Reed. He was fucked if he got into Reed’s attack range. But it was easier said than done.

Reed had a huge range and she could utilize any blood that had been shed. That was the only consolation Horas had and he hoped his usual sparring knowledge would help him against Reed.

………………….

‘Quit! I need to find the quit button and fast.’

Joni ran as fast as he could back to the camp. He could feel it, someone was chasing after him.

All Joni needed was to find the quit button and he would be safely out of there. But his rushing was making it hard for him to focus.

“Well, well, well, look who we have here. If it isn’t Alicia’s loyal puppy! You must be so happy to be on the same team as your goddess, right?”

Joni’s run stopped as soon as he noticed someone blocking his way. It was Shelly Noin, an annoying existence obsessed with being ‘first’ in the class.

Her father was one of the high-ranking adventurers and Shelly was proud of him.

“Ugh Shelly, what are you doing? Don’t tell that you were responsible for what happened here?”

Joni questioned, wanting to believe in his classmate for once. But he knew in his heart that she had been behind everything that happened. The only question was - how did she pull it off?

“Fine, I won’t tell you that I did all this. But, it will still be your loss since you be booted out of here without your memories.”

Joni wanted to curse at Shelly’s words. It seemed like she knew about Jonu’s plan. And his nervousness to find the back-out button did not help him.

“Shelly, I am sure we can talk about our differences. There is no need for you to be violent-”

“Shut up. I am taking no chances with you. This is my chance to enter the top ranks and make my father proud.”

Sheely took out a small vial and threw it toward Joni. Joni knew he would not be able to dodge the attack on time so he braced himself for the impact.

Only, it never came and something crashed into the ground in front of him.

“Joni, you better have a solid explanation of what is going on here.”

Alicia someone made it in time to him and blocked the vial from reaching Joni. She looked to be in pain and Shelly looked shocked and panicked.

“NO, my plan.”

Shelly cried out which finally snapped Joni out of his daze and he remembered where the quit button was.

His heart sank as he watched Alicia suffering in front of him. His teammate had taken the blow for him just so that Joni would not be hurt and now he was about to betray Alicia’s trust.

“Sorry Alicia, but I swear it’s for a good cause. I will explain it to you later.”

“Hey, what do you mean-”

But before Alicia could finish speaking, Joni was out of the test and back into the facility. He had used the emergency evacuation command and successfully disqualified his team from the competition.

“Great, another one came back. Go and check what is wrong with this one before throwing him in bed. What is wrong with today’s test? Everyone is coming back unconscious and they refuse to wake up.”

Lady Heals sighed as he came over to Joni and she looked started to see Joni awake.

“Holy god, you are awake? This is a miracle at this point.”

Lady Heals tried to calm down her racing heart but Joni could not give her any time to relax. He needed her help.

“T-There is something wrong with the dungeon. There is a team going around attacking everyone and they are drugging others to make them drop out of the competition.”

Lady Heals frowned once she heard Joni’s desperate words.

Usually, it was not such a big deal for adventurers to come in contact with unknown substances since the dungeons were uncharted territories.

However, this was an F-class dungeon that was regulated by Esper’s academy. It was checked regularly for dangerous substances. It did not make sense for students to fall unconscious like this.

But even if Lady Heals was concerned about this, she could not bring this up to the authorities herself. But now it seemed like she finally had an answer to her prayers.

“An irregularity you say? But I can see that there is nothing wrong with the dungeon itself. So that means someone is purposely sabotaging this exam. Shit, a villain managed to slip by.”

Lady Heals had seen almost everything in her life which came with pros and cons. In this case, it caused her to not realize the graveness of the situation early.

Generally, it did not matter what happened in the dungeon, but it was different when it came to a villain.

“Kid, you did well. Now rest and leave the rest to me. I will make sure to investigate this situation properly.”

Villains were a top priority and needed to be reported if there was even an indication of one being spotted. The only reason Lady Heals could think of not having heard such a report was if the handlers had shaken hands with the villains as well.

She hurried past the room and into the principal’s office. Principal Marbel needed to hear what was going on as soon as possible.

If this was a conspiracy, then it needed to be taken care of before someone got hurt.

“Principal Marbel, this is an emergency.”

It had not been Lady Helal’s intention to interfere in the general assembly meeting but she needed to do.

Principal Marbel needed to take only one look at her face to figure out that something had gone wrong.

“Gentlefolks, I am sorry to say that I will have to postpone our meeting to another day. My subordinate needs me and I will have to go now.”

The others in the room looked uncomfortable and annoyed with Principal Marbel’s decision but they also knew that they won’t be able to shake her will.

Lady Heals breathed in relief as she watched the Principal head out with her. Finally, something was going right for her after all this time.