Chapter 195 (1/2)

Orangey glared around at the surrounding participants. ”Don't let this delusional bitch sway you. The only way for us to make it out is to let someone win. Let me win, and then take turns.”

”We could just embrace the challenge of Tarnak,” Another participant near Randidly muttered under his breath. Randidly glanced at the frail man, whose arms were already trembling under the strain. Even Randidly was starting to feel it, really feel it, feel the limit of his strength. In a way, that pressure was motivating. When it  pressed down, grinding away at his muscles, that huge, monstrous stubbornness inside of Randidly's heart rose up, viciously flailing to resist the force. He refused to be oppressed, to go quietly under the influence of it.

Yet at the same time... he had to suppress that vicious, angry impulse, pressing it further down. Because this was an endurance competition. If he were to expend too much of his strength too quickly...

The muscular female competitor glared at Orangey. ”I will never let you be the one to seize the reward for the first completion. Your greed is clear.”

Orangey was furious, but there was a chorus of agreement from the other participants. Like Randidly, they did not have a very favorable impression of his words or actions. For his part, Randidly was mildly interested in keeping the outcomes positive for the group, but also, his eyes were locked onto the prize for the individual with the longest endurance.

That was the one compliment that Divvit had given him, that he had the mentality and resiliency to put himself through anything. And god dammit if he wasn't going to earn a reward for it.

He still had plenty of reserves left remaining, and he was only relying on Physical Fitness and the passive boost from his other skills to support the weight. Randidly still had plenty of methods to withstand increased weight if he had to.

Orangey was grinding his teeth. ”Well someone has to go first. If it has to be someone-”

”It cannot be you.” The woman intoned, to nods of agreement. Had his arms been free, Orangey would likely have torn out his hair. As it was, he simply breathed heavily, glaring at them all.

There was one main drawback to this method, Randidly knew, although he was a little leery about admitting it. The cutoff was 80% failure rate across the groups. If that many people didn't fail, people would continually struggle just to survive, where they would otherwise collapse, relieved at passing the first stage of the preliminaries. This would drag things out for him, who was trying to reach the reward for bearing the weight for the longest.

But perhaps that was wishful thinking. There would no doubt be others with their eyes on the same prize, Randidly knew. And they would always be his true competition.

”We should start with the people who are struggling the most!” The scrawny man near Randidly said. Randidly almost snorted aloud at the foolish man, but he didn't even need to. Orangey gave the man a scathing glance.

”It is too late for that, fool. Can you really increase your strength output by 20%? Just obediently act as the pillar you are.”

”You-!”

The muscular woman coughed lightly. ”It should be me. I will then direct the rest of the passage of this trial.”

Orangey's eyes bulged dangerously, but everyone else seemed to agree, and they calmly nodded their heads. Well, almost everyone.

”No! I need to pass now.... if I don't...” The scrawny man had begun to shake. His eyes were red around the edges, and his whole person reeked of desperation. ”If I have to go back to that place-!”

The muscular woman snorted, saying nothing. Slowly, everyone else turned away, looking at the ground rather than at the struggling man. Then the muscular woman gave orders, and most everyone lowered their physical output, making it easier for her. Orangey didn't like it, but seemed to accept that he wouldn't be able to force the issue, so he complied.

Randidly maintained his current level of support, mostly just for consistency of the workout, but he was just one of many, so he didn't think it would affect the outcome overmuch. They were still far below the level where the weight would increase.