I Only Wanted A Class In The Apocalypse-Chapter 18 - The Subquest

I kept walking while not looking back. Despite my urge to have eye contact with that central angel, I refrained from doing so.

I needed to act normal and calm, so that I wouldn't alarm my prey.

"Excuse me," just as I walked to the outside of the field and waited for the response coming from them, the move came from another direction. "Can I join your group?"

I turned and saw a young man who looked normal at first glance. He seemed not to have any special building or aura surrounding him. He was just like a normal youth in a small neighborhood.

"You want to join?" I slowly asked before another youth stepped forward.

"Me too."

"And me as well."

A girl approached my group alongside the other two. I looked at the three with questioning eyes as I didn't know if they were just smart enough to understand staying with me was better than leaving or…

"You said anyone can join your group, right?" the girl added. For some reason I didn't like her. She was full of herself like she was some sort of a celebrity or something.

Standing tall with her slim figure and faint features, she kept moving her fingers across her golden hair like it was a national treasure.

She looked stunning, but beauty had nothing to do in this apocalypse.

"Sure, why not? The more, the merrier," against my instinct I agreed on their request. I could even feel the surprise coming from my own group.

'Sorry, it's just a needed step to reach my goal,' I knew they were suspicious. No one in the new group was trustworthy to be honest.

However…

[Subquest has been issued]

'And here it comes at last…' I tried my best to control my expression and excitement while looking at the details of the new quest.

[Subquest: protect the human group in the field during the upcoming quest has been issued to the human group leader: Hye]

'Oh! He even put my name in red like I'm a criminal or some sort of monster,' I inwardly snorted while the screen flashed again and more details appeared. 𝗳𝘳𝐞e𝙬𝙚𝚋𝗻𝚘𝚟𝗲l.𝑐𝑜ｍ

[Subquest details: The human group led by human Hye is tasked with protecting the other humans in the field.

Success condition: At least one third of the humans here in the field shall survive at the end.

Failure: half of the stats will be gone forever.

Do you accept this quest or not?]

"This…"

"Hye, did you see this?"

"C'mon! Why all of sudden?!"

My team seemed to feel the dirty hands behind this quest at last. It wasn't that bad to make them realize that our enemies weren't just monsters alone. 𝗳𝗿𝐞ℯ𝙬𝗲𝗯n𝗼νel.𝒄𝑜𝘮

Despite all their worry, I was inwardly feeling overjoyed by this. However I still wasn't very satisfied. There was something missing here.

As I turned around, I saw the humans in the field also received the same quest. Despite they had nothing to do in it, it was obvious what the intentions of the one issuing it were.

But I didn't care.

"Hahaha! See? Serves you right, bastard!"

"Just like justice from heaven! You are forced to serve us now!"

"I wanted to see how you'll keep that shitty pride of yours again. C'mon, lower your head and kneel asking for our forgiveness."

As expected, there were few remaining traitors among the group of humans here. However I never cared about their comments or acted against them.

"Let's go," without flinching I turned around again and started walking.

"Oh… Sir Hye…" Just as I did the unexpected, the girl who seemed to show off her beauty tried to stop me.

"What do you want?" she even had the courage to move and block my path away. My team moved and surrounded her as if she dared to do anything stupid, they'd make her pay.

The girl seemed a bit nervous before she said: "T… The quest… We can't drop it. Our stats…"

"I didn't force you to join my group," I simply moved past her while brushing her shoulder with mine, "but as long as you are here, you are obliged to follow my words to the letter without questioning them."

"B… But the quest… Will we fail it really?!!" she turned around and tried to stop me with her words alone this time.

And that was the question I was waiting for.

"The quest isn't obligatory for us," I casually said while getting closer to the broken gate of the field, "we can accept or deny it. Let me reject it for now."

"But the penalty for failing it…" one youth shouted as if he was mistaking me for not knowing what I was truly doing.

"The quest failure or success won't be activated unless we accept it," I stopped while giving the three a cold glance, "and now I'm going to reject it. So we won't get any penalty at all."

The quest wasn't mandatory. There was an option to accept or reject it. Normal humans would mistake the quest to be forced and would act upon that. It was something that would trigger the automatic acceptance of the quest.

"I'll reject it now to make you all relieved," I instantly opened the window of that subquest again and touched the rejection button.

My moves were normal and my expression looked like I really didn't give a damn about this quest. I wasn't violating any rules and was just playing the game as it should be played.

'Anytime now, motherf*cker!' However deep inside me I was so nervous about the response of my enemy.

I did all that just to provoke him, to make him take this step which would cost him… A lot!

[Quest decline isn't available for you]

All of sudden the message that came to every single human here changed before another one appeared.

[The guides decided to intervene for the wellbeing of the humans. They paid the needed price of the blessing to enforce this subquest over the leader party Hye]

[The subquest is now active until the end of part two of the first main quest]

[Group leader Hye can't decline the quest]

"D… Damn!" the girl cursed while I noticed that her face was so much nervous unlike the other two around her.

'Is she different?' I couldn't tell and wasn't interested in that. To make the show perfect, one of the three angels in the sky spoke in loud tone:

"Humans… This is the best we can do to help you here. Sometimes strength doesn't mean goodness and kindness. These virtues can't be purchased by strength or coins. Make sure to do your best to survive. See you after the quest."

Yeah, this would be the best finale for this little show of yours. I watched the group behind shouting and even cursing at me just like I was their deadliest enemies and they just scored a victory now.

Pathetic! This scene here proved to me that people were easily fooled! I, a human who came from the future holding the sole spark of hope for them was branded as a traitor.

And traitors among them and enemies like those damn guides were treated like heroes and leaders to idols! Since when this world was so f*cked up like this?

However I maintained the most bitter expression on my face until the three angels left and darkness prevailed.

"Now you can't leave us, hahaha!"

"I dare you move away now! Let's see how you'll do when your stats are penalized."

"The angels are really merciful. God bless them and curse you demons."

More and more praising words and curses began to spread in such defiance. Humans were really easy to fool. I watched all this unfolding in front of my eyes before slowly opening my mouth and said in low voice to my team around:

"Open your gazes wide and see for yourselves how twisted and dark this world we live in is."

The team was all nervous. I could relate to their feelings pretty well. They felt like they fell into a deep trap with no way out.

However this all happened according to my will and plan.

"Listen up," I added in such a low tone, "you'll stay here and keep guarding those fools. Don't stress yourselves and don't get scattered. Stay together and Isabella will act as the leader for now."

I threw these words before calmly turning around and leaving.

"W… Where are you going?" Isabella was shocked to see me walking away simply like that. "Won't we come with you?"

"No need," I raised my hand before one of the two youths who joined my group before all this happened said in loud tone:

"Stay where you are! You can't be this damn selfish to leave us all behind and make us fail the ques…"

"Slash!"

"Slash!"

Without waiting for him to say anything, my sword swayed fast and decapitated his and his friend's head. The two heads rolled while my sudden speed startled everyone here.

"Hye…" Isabella came to me while looking at the two dead boys on the ground, "why?"

"Traitors," I said in disbelief before giving a last gaze towards the girl who joined them. Till now I haven't made up my mind towards her yet. These two were too obvious to reveal themselves to me so they died first.

"Make sure to watch out for traitors," I said while putting my hand over Isabella's shoulder.

The meaning of my words was obvious. I was warning her not from the sneaky bastards in the large human group but from that girl who joined us at the last moment.

I could understand the reason behind that. After all these angels wanted an eye inside my group. Even if they forced my group to remain behind, analyzing our actions and strength would help to kill us later.

I just tasted how patient and cunning these traitors were in Arnold's case. Arnold didn't make anything suspicious and waited until he saw an opening. Such a traitor was so dangerous to deal with and had to keep our eyes open all the time.

"Didn't you accept the quest?"

"Where are you going now?"

"Loser! Go and curse your entire team with your selfishness."

Many angry shouts came from those fools behind. I didn't owe them any explanation, but I had to clear things here to my team.

From the look of things, the trap I laid wasn't that easy to comprehend after all.

I didn't do all this just for nothing. If I wanted to leave the field I could have done it earlier when the group arrived, or perhaps after killing the traitors.

However there was something I desperately wanted from this park. The central park was just like a few scattered places around the world, hiding some sort of a secret weapon that I needed.

But if I went directly there, I would fall into the trap of my enemies. So I had to take the trouble of laying this trap just to lure them away and make sure no one of them would stop me from getting what I wanted.

But as the angels were gone and they already bit the bait I laid out for them, I had no objection in revealing a small part of what really happened here.

"Don't worry about the quest," I said to my team while my steps never halted or faltered, "the quest is a group task which can be done by any part of us, by even a single person. You just keep yourselves here and do what we did earlier. Use light and fire to fight and weaken the monsters, and keep your eyes open for traitors."

And I kept myself walking away before the darkness outside enveloped me while leaving behind a deadly silent field.

Yeah, that was the simple fault in that subquest. And it wasn't thanks to luck. There was nothing like that in my life. I aimed to trigger hatred from those angels so they would be totally focusing on getting at me.

And at the time they thought they got me for good, I was the one who laughed at the end in their bitter faces.