"Today's match consists of Naib Subedar, Martha Behamfil, Emily Dyer, and Eli Clark. Please prepare yourself, the game starts at 7 pm."

The voice of the manor owner surprised Eli Clark. The Seer had to join the match although he was the newest survivor member. For detailed information about daily activities, he has got it from his new friend, Naib Subedar, known as 'The Mercenary'. He must be protected during the match by Naib and Martha because their roles were kiters.

"I'm the savior type, and so is Behamfil. Doctor Dyer might be of the type to support. How about you, Clark?" asked Naib, glancing a bit at Eli.

"Er, I can see the hunter at the beginning of the game for five seconds. Then, maybe my owl will help protect you," Eli replied while giving a wry smile.

Eli could hear Naib sighing heavily. The best decoder at Oletus Manor has just been held by a blind teenage girl, Helena Adams. Of course, there are other decoder survivors, but it won't be as good as Helena. Naib tried to trust Eli to decode during the first match, all to test whether the new survivor could win the match when his three colleagues were trying to survive the hunter's attack.

On Eli's side, he felt his position would be burdensome. This is the first time he has had to work with his new friends. He doesn't know their characters and abilities at all and is now faced with a serious game. In the midst of fear and worry, Eli tried to ignore his true feelings and continued to smile stiffly.

"Look, I'm fine, Clark. Don't think I'm burdened by your position. I'm just exhausted after raising my tier," Naib looked at Eli's face, feeling uncomfortable with the reaction of his new colleague.

"O-Oh, I just ... nervous? P-Please guide me carefully!" Eli replied stammering.

"Gosh, Eli, don't be too afraid like that. Maybe you should talk to Behamfil and Doctor Dyer about your ability so they can come along to think of strategies. They should be ready in the lobby."

Naib left Eli behind, walking towards the lobby the mercenary intended.

_____________

"I have asked Mr. Hastur not to be too harsh on Mr. Clark in his first match. Hopefully, he will consider it carefully," said the doctor, Emily Dyer.

Eli raised his eyebrows at Emily's sentence. His feeling said that the hunter he was going to face was named Hastur. He did not have any idea about the figure of the hunter, still seen from the reaction of Naib and Martha, they were somewhat shrinking to find news from Emily.

"Oh, damn, my wounds haven't healed from the spider-like lady! Hmph, so annoying," Naib grumbled.

"Subedar, stop blabbering!" Martha responds to Naib while hitting the right arm of the Gurkha soldier.

Fortunately, Naib and Martha's quarrel is not serious. They are trying to break the ice their way. Emily chuckled at the behavior of the two as if they were used to hearing their commotion inside the manor.

"Mr. Clark, please understand Mr. Subedar and Miss Behamfil. Manor will be completely lonely without the two of them together. Well, maybe you will get used to it too, maybe you can come to enliven ~" Emily commented, seeing Eli who seemed confused and increasingly panicked.

_____________

Eli Clark's first match was at Arms Factory. The haunted and gloomy former factory area made Eli uncomfortable, especially when hearing from Emma Woods the gardener that the factory was her father's abandoned factory back then.

Surely Emma didn't want to talk much about her past in detail.

When the match began, Eli could see a faint red shadow far ahead of the front gate. Eli's position is now inside a wooden house, and its location is quite far from his calculation. Eli tried to pay close attention to the shadow and found a large figure with four tentacles under his feet. The seer narrowed his eyes, making sure he was not mistaken.

"What is that...?"

Eli's question was not answered when he found the figure of Martha passing behind him. The girl who had the nickname 'the Coordinator' noticed Eli nearby, then approached her.

"Clark, don't just stare here! The hunter will find us later!" Martha commented, surprising Eli who stood still.

Eli was shocked, turning his attention to Martha. His vision disappeared a few seconds after Martha arrived. Eli gives a worried smile, before moving from the place he stepped on. He ran to the nearest cipher machine and tried to focus.

He had tried not to be distracted by his mind, amidst the many questions in his head. Eli tried not to think about anything when he cracked the ciphered password. Unfortunately, the shadow haunted him to the point that Eli accidentally blasted his cipher.

Eli's heartbeat began to faint, slowly becoming very fast, even Eli could hear his own heartbeat. Eli could feel his hair stand on end, making the astrologer start to feel uncomfortable and panic.

When Eli turned around, suddenly a dark purple-purple tentacle appeared on the ground facing Eli. Eli widened his eyes, not expecting the hunter to have found him sooner.

"Eli Clark !! Go !! The hunter is approaching !!" shouted Naib, running towards Eli from the east.

Once the tentacles intend to hit Eli, Naib has used his body to push the seer away and let his body become a shield. Naib grimaced in pain, especially when his back hit the ruins of a nearby wall.

"Mr. Subedar !!" Eli tried to crawl toward Naib, but his arm was pulled by Emily first who somehow appeared and took him away from Naib.

"Stay away when the hunter approaches, Mr. Clark! Miss Behamfil and Mr. Subedar take care of it, not us!" said Emily, while regulating her breathing.

Eli realized that he didn't know the rules of Oletus Manor's game clearly. The manor owner doesn't explain much, and many questions remain unanswered. Suddenly he was given many rules and had to know how to play. Eli did not even know his role in the group.

Bang!

From a distance, Eli could see a thin red smoke rising in the air and someone's moans in pain. The sign made Emily and Eli immediately moved away and looked for another cipher machine. Meanwhile, the two container-type survivors were busy taking care of the hunter. It was not time to save the two of them until the hunter lost track of them.

Meanwhile, on Hastur's side, he grumbled angrily because he was chosen to be a hunter that same day. Actually, Hastur did not really question the competition, but because of the chosen group system. Clearly, the god did not want to meet with the new survivor, but he was still elected.

One more thing, the letter he got while still in the lobby of the match. Hastur could not believe he was getting a special letter for that day.

"I totally don't understand them a bit."

Hastur put his hand forward, raised his bluish-purple tentacles in front of Naib and Martha, then made the tentacles hit Martha, giving a hard attack to the coordinator. The plan was that he would target Naib first because taking care of him was more troublesome than the other members, but it was the same to keep the other three members busy with their respective ciphers.

Martha accidentally lured Hastur to Emily and Eli's area while decoding together, either because of panic or not knowing. Hastur knew clearly the survivors would feel a heartbeat, signaling that around them there were hunters approaching or away.

Without further warning, Emily and Eli once again moved away from their location. Emily goes to the area where Naib is looking for them for healing. Eli decided to head for another cipher, as far as possible to keep his distance from Hastur. From a distance, Eli sees Martha who was trying to trick the hunter with her ability.

"What can I do for my group? There hasn't been a single cipher done, and we already met the hunter earlier than I thought," Eli murmured to himself, before finally trying to decode alone.

His attention was distracted by the sound of his loyal owl that perched on his right shoulder. Eli looked at Poppo, the owl then smiled faintly. He thought of providing assistance through his pet so that his friends could survive.

"I can inspect my friends for a while, then provide protection for a while. It seems like it's my job, right, Poppo?" Eli patted the top of Poppo's head, then sent his owl flying to the location of Martha.

Eli's view changed as Poppo was near the coordinator. He kept watching Martha who tried to survive provoking Hastur in the midst of his near-dying condition and whenever he fell down if he didn't concentrate. His breath running, sweat running down his forehead and temples. Martha had no more pistols to fire at the hunter.

Talking about Hastur, finally, Eli could see his own form even with the help of Poppo. His form was terrible, making Eli uncomfortable because there were many red eyes all over his body. Below there are about four large dark-colored tentacles, making an uncomfortable muddy sound in the ear of the survivor. The fishy smell can be smelled through the owl, even though the distance between the two of them is quite far.

"Looks like ... I've seen him before ... but where?"