Third planet - Day 12

  The little newborn girl, while invisible, arrived at the underground entrance.

  Now she was looking at the hole in the ceiling leading up to the surface.

  She was waiting here for hours to find an opportunity and go up.

  She thought there might be an end to the number of participants joining the hunt here, and she could summon the two elders.

  But no.

  Participants kept coming like tides, and even this entrance was like a 'waterfall of people'; more and more participants were falling down from it.

  Feeling anxious, she finally found an opportunity.

  For some reason, the 'human waterfall' stopped, and she hurriedly rushed up.

  The path was big enough for 5 to 6 people to come down at the same time,

  so she believed, as small as she was, even if they started coming down again, she could somehow squeeze out.

  But surprisingly, nobody came down all the way until he reached the top.

  While puzzled, she paused for a moment and tried to eavesdrop on what was going on outside.

  She could hear some people arguing about something.

  "I don't care if you are a bounty hunter.

  If you are not going down yourself, then don't stop the others!"

  "Friends, I think enough of you are already down there-"

  "Enough of us?

  I just received a message that there are so many Fear shards down there that everyone can have a share!

  What do you mean by enough of us are down there?"

  "Yes, and the rank 1 tycoon guaranteed everyone that he shares the fear shards when they are done with the criminal!"

  The little newborn girl, while still listening secretly, slowly went outside.

  Looking around, she found herself in a forest with dead trees all around and some mountains farther away.

  Then she checked the planet's 'login' history, found the number of bounty hunters, and started counting them here.

  Except for 7 of the bounty hunters,

  The rest of them were here, trying to stop the participants from going down.

  As time passed, more and more people arrived, and the bounty hunters could only let them in, preventing any conflict.

  Not long after, the group of bounty hunters who failed to top the participants left.

  When they left, the little newborn girl followed them secretly.

  After an hour of travel, they arrived at a well-hidden place, and she saw the seven 'missing bounty hunters' to be there.

  One of the bounty hunters from the group who had just come back to their hideout went straight to a female bounty hunter to report.

  "Leader, we couldn't stop them, so we came back as you said."

  The female bounty hunter nodded,

  "I expected that.

  They can't ignore the opportunity in front of them,

  And we can't tell them about the possible Sun card that the other party might have,

  Or nobody would go down there to bait him out."

  Then she opened a map.

  "Alright, listen.

  We already knew the other party had finished the first planet,

  And his inability to use his infopad due to his underworld identity is consistent with the last update we received from the agents.

  But the system crash makes it impossible for us to know about the new developments,

  And at the same time, he can't use his points, even though he now has access to his infopad, with everyone's points locked at zero.

  What we need to do now is to place our traps outside the underground entrance,

  and don't enter by ourselves because he is surely trying to bait everyone in and then blow them up."

  And then she explained the trap formation and where they should hide for an ambush.

  She even showed them where the sun card would be planted so she could detonate it if anything went wrong.

  It was supposed to be installed at the tunnel entrance.

  If the ambush failed or the other party didn't emerge from this entrance, they could act accordingly and retreat immediately.

  After that, she distributed some cards among the bounty hunters.

  The little newborn who saw them going in different directions brought out some invisibility cards,

  merged them with the cards of some little newborns like herself, and summoned a group of invisible 'little stealth experts'.

  Each of the little stealth experts immediately followed a group of bounty hunters in secret.

  When she was done, the little newborn girl ran to a cave she had seen on her way here and summoned the two elders, telling them about everything that had happened.

  The two wise-elderly invited more of their group, and soon they came up with a plan.

  They first formed groups of newborns led by elders, each one with 200 thousand newborn cards,

  and sent them to clear the path to the cities where their boss had shown them the directions.

  They planned to capture everybody on their way to the cities, then secure the city itself secretly,

  and stay on guard there until the right moment comes, and kill the captured participants.

  From the conversation the little newborn girl eavesdropped, they realized these bounty hunters were unaware of their boss collecting millions of newborns,

  And naturally, the participants didn't know either.

  They were probably thinking he was just killing everybody on his way here because of his identity and the outdated information they received from agents outside.

  After that, they waited for the 'stealth experts' to send the coordinates of where the bounty hunters were going to ambush their boss.

  Then they sent an assassination group, enough to make the fights 10 vs 1, after each bounty hunter.

  The old lady then gave Little Mortal's handgun to the little girl, equipped with a silencer and sleeping bullets.

  She became responsible for taking care of the leader and also led the assassination group.

  Her attack would be the sign for the rest of them to take action.

  ....

  Around half an hour passed.

  The number of participants entering the underground entrance decreased steadily.

  It shows that the group of the elderly who went towards the cities started their cleanup.

  As the bounty hunters were about to become suspicious, the newborn girl initiated the group assassination by shooting at her target, the bounty hunter's leader.

  When the leader got hit, the next moment, another 5 bounty hunters alongside her fell asleep.

  With the handgun, you can now take down 13 targets simultaneously because of the duplicate card.

  But there were only 6 of them here, so they all received another extra sleeping bullet, and the leader got 3...

  The little newborn girl was speechless.

  In the next 2 minutes, all of the bounty hunters were assaulted by invisible newborns.

  Each of them was bullied by 10 newborns, and captured before they could show much of their expertise or abilities, and the 'Sun card' was secured.

  After clearing the bounty hunters, the two elderly rushed to the now-empty underground entrance and went down,

  while the 'stealth team' hid in ambush at the former locations of the bounty hunters.

  They were responsible for capturing anyone who tried to enter the entrance from now on.

  On the underground path, the two elders went after the participants.

  If they saw anyone on the way, they would release newborns to capture them.

  To not reveal the existence of the Strongest Army, they avoid killing.

  Many of these participants had friends in the ranking list, and seeing one get killed and then change to unborn would be a sign for them that something is off.

  This continued until the old lady received a notification.

  But it wasn't for her; it was for her boss's infopad.

  She checked the infopad, and when she saw the 'system alert' and the [60-second] timer at the end, her heart skipped a beat.

  The old man who saw the message scratched his head,

  "No way he'll back down, right?

  Wait, he doesn't even know about the message..."

  They looked at each other blankly.

  And sure enough, after the timer reached zero, they suddenly received another system notification.

  Noticing that this one was a 'Sent to all' notification, the two looked at each other in surprise.

  They hurriedly read the notification, and when they saw the context, they stopped going deeper.

  They immediately released the 'trap expert' team and then started installing all kinds of traps to welcome their 'guest'.

  They knew all the participants would soon be going back in a hurry.

  .......

  As a secret operation led by newborns was taking place,

  The dumbfounded participants were excitedly gathering Fear shards.

  It didn't matter how deep they went; there was no end to these free fear shards.

  And the deeper they went, the wider the underground path became, as if it were being led to an open area.

  With more than a million participants here, the tycoon had lost control over them a long time ago.

  With so many people in one place, nobody feared anything.

  And with the dark and wide path filled with Fear shards, nobody could ignore the opportunity.

  None of them knew that the 'Fear' of losing this 'opportunity' was actually consuming them.

  This planet could affect the participants with any kind of Fear.

  That's why newborns were useless in a group of more than one, because they feared losing another newborn if there was more than one.

  And now, this hidden 'Fear' affects everyone in a way that makes them ignore it and the changes in the environment around them, too.

  The surface material of the underground path was changed to a crystalline-like surface.

  This change was originally made to be a trap for rank 1.

  If they got greedy and reached this deep, even the slightest Fear could change everything on the surface around them to swarms of crystalline monsters created out of these walls.

  The main purpose of the mechanism in this area was to protect the 'entity' inside and allow her a nice sleep until the start of the main event.

  But in this season, there was a significant problem that prevented this mechanism from triggering.

  The first person who walked past here, Little Morleone, walked to the end without any Fear,

  and every crystalline monster on his way shattered because of his always '0' fear.

  And the second group, at least temporarily, because until now they hadn't faced any monsters and their numbers grew, were locked at '0' fear too.

  So the place didn't react to them.

  This situation continued until everyone suddenly received a system notification simultaneously!

  "!!!"

  .....

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  A while ago.

  Around 500 meters deeper, Little Morleone, with his hand still in his pocket, was now standing in front of a huge throne.

  The throne was at least 4 meters wide and 6 meters tall.

  On the throne was a woman, made of crystal, the same material as crystalline monsters.

  The way she was leaning on her throne indicated that she was sleeping.

  From the tip of her fingers, crystalline monsters were 'dripping' like rain, landing on the ground.

  After taking different forms, these monsters were supposed to go towards the territory they belonged to,

  If a certain person with 0% Fear wasn't on their path, and force them to shatter on the spot.

  The 8-meter-tall crystalline sleeping lady on the throne was naturally The Hollow Queen.

  The entity that the crystalline area outside was protecting, so she could have a good 'sleep'.

  The same entity that the System introduced as,

  'A planet-wide, looming presence — never seen directly', and the source of crystalline monsters.

  In normal circumstances, she was supposed to wake up after another 480 days, let go of the restrictions on her crystalline monsters to invade the surface, and start the chaos for 30 days.

  And then she would join them on the surface on the last day.

  By then, those with enough fear shards to boost their power were ready to face her,

  and those who lost to their Fear and turned to 'unborn' were ready to join her side and declare the final winner of the planet's event.

  It was even possible that those who changed to 'unborn' win alongside their Queen.

  This game of Fear could be fun and exciting, especially the part where you need to always watch your fear meter and control your emotions.

  But a certain rank 1 arrived here ahead of time, in the area that was supposed to be off limits, and changed everything.

  At this moment,

  A system alert was sent to Little Morleone's Infopad, which was with the old lady, and she received it in his place.

  [      - System Alert -

  Special Event Triggered: "He Who Fears Nothing"

  You are fearless.

  Your Fear Meter remains at 0% despite the looming presence of the Hollow Queen.

  Except for the only Fear shard you registered with, you did not use any Fear shard to enhance your power.

  In the face of absolute fear, you did not waver — and the System has noticed.

  A unique path has been unlocked:

  Option 1: Leave this area within 1 minute.

  The special event will end, and the cycle of fear will continue unchanged.

  Option 2: Remain in the presence of the Hollow Queen.

  By doing so, you will be undergoing your final test.

  If you succeed, you replace the Hollow Queen.

  You will become the new Enemy of All Participants.

  Your Fear Meter will invert — you no longer resist fear; you inflict it.

  All Unborn will see you as their new leader.

  Your teammates will share your fate — marked as Enemies of the Cycle.

  Warning: Once chosen, this path cannot be undone.

  Time remaining to decide: [00:00:60]

  Will you leave — or embrace the fear?]

  And naturally, Little Morleone, who didn't even see the message and was oblivious about it, just silently watched the sleeping Queen.

  It seems he was enjoying the unique beauty of this crystalline figure and the unreal environment, all made of crystal, around her.

  The 60 seconds passed in silence.

  And then,

  *Crack*

  A deep, resonant crack echoed through the crystalline underground as the Hollow Queen stirred.

  Shards of light scattered across the walls as she slowly woke up.

  Every ripple across her surface reflected more than just light. It reflected fear.

  Distorted faces twisted within the crystal body, each one a flickering, pained version of those who had once stood before her. Some cried. Some screamed. Some simply stared, paralyzed by terror.

  But as she rose to her full eight-meter height, the reflections disappeared, and the countless faces melted away.

  Little Morleone watched the changes with interest.

  As if confused, the Hollow Queen looked around, looking for the person who had interrupted her sleep,

  until she saw the little gentleman a couple of meters away from her, watching her in a relaxed manner while smoking Fear shards.

  The Hollow Queen seems to be momentarily stunned, and then a creepy smile appeared on her crystalline face!

  At this moment, with a unique voice emitting from her, she said,

  "Interesting...

  None of my children had the power to form your fear?

  Then let me test you myself."

  And started walking towards him, while her form started changing, seemingly to Little Morleone's fear.

  Lilith, the crystal, and the notebook watched with interest.

  They were really curious to know what this 'calm on the surface', but 'raging inside' personality of Little Mortal really feared!

  As the Hollow Queen got closer to him, her figure became smaller and smaller.

  Until the moment she arrived in front of him, and finally formed his true 'Fear'.

  The Hollow Queen was now around 1 meter tall.

  Her face was exactly like Little Mortal's.

  But not the one everybody knew.

  Not the playful, mischievous, and full of energy kid who always pretends to be a monster,

  But in reality, he was a kind-hearted newborn like his kind.

  This one was Cold, Empty, and Merciless.

  Every subtle shift of his expression was mirrored perfectly by Mortal, but in a darker, twisted, and more evil manner.

  This was not a simple copy of Little Mortal's appearance.

  It was the version of him that the Queen believed he feared the most.

  A version where all his humanity had rotted away.

  Lilith and the two birth treasures nodded.

  That was a good assumption if this guy was really a psychopathic minion from the underworld.

  But in reality, he was a newborn, so...

  *Fwoosh*

  Little Morleone, after a strong puff of purple smoke to his Fear's face, said,

  "Nice try..."

  And shook his head in disappointment.

  Then, with a slow, almost casual motion, he reached up and placed a hand on his Fear's shoulder.

  Under his touch, fine cracks spread across the crystal surface, radiating out from the point where his hand rested — spreading like veins of black ink through glass.

  And after a brief silence,

  The sound of crystal shattering echoed through the underground area as the Hollow Queen broke apart — exploding into thousands of jagged shards as her fear-reflecting form collapsed into a glittering pile at the feet of Little Morleone.

  The reflections within the broken pieces no longer showed twisted faces or cruel smiles.

  They simply showed him — unchanged. Unbroken. Fearless.

  It was at this moment that everyone on the third planet, except Little Morleone, received a notification.

  [      - System Alert -

  Special Event Has Been Triggered:

  "He Who Fears Nothing"

  He did not leave.

  He did not flinch.

  He did not fear.

  He has become the new Source of Fear.

  The Fearless One, The Harbinger of Dread, Mortal, has replaced the Hollow Queen.

  Cool-down time has expired.

  All participants on the Third planet, the season-end event has been triggered ahead of time.

  Choose your side, Survive for 30 days — or eliminate all opposition.

  May fear be your weapon.]

  Little Morleone, who didn't know anything about the system notification or what kind of panic his action started,

  looked at the special kind of Fear shard left behind from the Hollow Queen.

  With the tip of his shoe, he tapped the crystal, and it jumped into his hand.

  It was obvious what he was going to do with it.

  Lilith was going to say Don't crush this one, but something interesting happened.

  Something like a liquid crystal dripped from this unique Fear shard the moment he caught it.

  The single drop of crystal, before reaching the ground, changed.

  Little Morleone smiled while raising an eyebrow.

  What this crystal drop transformed into was a Little Mortal in a martial arts outfit.

  Even if it was made of crystal, it was clear that it was him.

  More crystal drops started falling from the unique Fear crystal, and more Little Mortals appeared in different appearances.

  Little Mortal in a suit, in underworld armor, in a judge's robe with a big hammer in hand, in sleepwear, in a suit but with a bald head,

  and even a bunch of him on horses, holding scythes, like when he acted as the angel of death, Azrael.

  It was as if any version of himself that he imagined could become a real crystalline monster!

  And this continued until the Fear crystal 'finished'.

  There were now thousands of Little Mortals all around, looking at Little Morleone, as if waiting for him to lead the way.

  Little Morleone nodded and walked back towards the path he came from.

  The Little Mortals opened a path for him and followed behind him.

  And as though they affected the fear crystals around them, all of the Fear shards on the ground, as if receiving a signal, pulled the shattered crystals around them and turned into Little Mortals themselves, following the 'army'.

  Little Morleone took out his sunglasses from his pocket to differentiate the newborns from the participants and led the army into the darkness of the underground path.

  .....

  The gathering of participants.

  The moment the system notification was received by the crowd, the 'fear shard party' stopped.

  One glance at the message, and the crowd started panicking.

  Everyone knew that any kind of 'special event' wasn't a good thing.

  The outcome was always unpredictable; it wasn't uniform, and the system's goal of including it in each planet's event was unknown.

  That's why everyone avoids triggering it, even if there was a known one.

  And now, the wanted criminal actually triggered one, replaced the Hollow Queen, and became a team by himself?

  The participants didn't know if they should be happy or not.

  This guy was alone, so they only needed to deal with him, or....?

  As the sense of uncertainty appeared, some people's fear meter slightly went up, triggering the hidden danger around them, which they were unaware of until now.

  *Crack*

  The wall, the ground, and the ceiling around those who feared suddenly started making cracking sounds!

  "What's this noise? It's not the normal shattering sound!"

  "Wait, what's that above your head?"

  "There is something forming on the ground, too. Be careful!"

  "Oh no! Everything around us is made of Crystal!"

  "Keep your calm, everyone, or it gets worse!"

  "Light up the place!"

  The crowd reacted quickly, bringing out torches, flashlights, and anything that could help them see their surroundings better.

  But when they saw the scene around them, they wished they hadn't lit it up.

  "Why are there so many of them?"

  "Our fear meter isn't even at 10%. Why are so many 'crystalline monsters' manifested?"

  "It should be the environment itself!

  We are too deep!"

  "Destroy them! Destroy them while retreating!"

  A fight between the manifested Fear and the participants took place.

  They knew if their fear meter went up to 100%, or if they got killed, they would turn into Unborn.

  In normal circumstances, they could play on the Queen's side for the rest of the event.

  But the Queen title now belongs to a psychopath from the underworld.

  Nobody saw anyone else except him coming here from the second planet!

  It was clear that he killed everybody there, and obviously, joining his team wouldn't end well.

  So nobody wanted to change teams!

  Soon, like a chain reaction, the fear spread from the participants at the front, who faced their 'manifested fear', to the participants at the back.

  And as everything became chaotic, the sound of 'marching' of a group with crystalline feet echoed from the depths of the darkness, adding to their pressure.

  Everyone’s heart starts beating faster.

  Who could it be if not the guy with the 'Hollow Queen' title? The one who replaced her...

  And sure enough, a gentleman in a black suit, with a smile that wasn't a smile, while smoking his Fear crystal, walked out of the darkness.

  If it were only him, that was fine.

  But row after row of little crystalline soldiers in different clothes with different weapons came out of the darkness behind him.

  The crowd in the front row turned around, and the moment their eyes and the little gentleman's eyes met, all of their fear meters jumped to 100% in a moment, and they turned to 'unborn' on the spot.

  While dumbfounded, others tried to look at what they saw, and the same thing happened to them!

  Some veterans start shouting loudly,

  "Everyone! He is here!

  Don't look at him!"

  "The reason no one can look at the Queen directly is exactly because of this!

  All those who saw her at her peak power became unborn on the spot!"

  "What should we do then?"

  "Run! Run!

  He is the same with her title!

  We need to separate him from his 'team', and destroy them all to weaken this effect first!"

  "Retreat to the surface!

  Don't look back!"

  "But they are coming!"

  "Release your newborns! All of them!

  They don't turn to unborns!"

  "Good idea!"

  And so, the crowd starts throwing newborn cards behind them while running back to leave the underground.

  Little Morleone waved at one of the cavalry units.

  A little angel of death came to him immediately and jumped down from his horse.

  Little Morleone brought out two invisibility cards, placed one on the horse and one on himself.

  Then a couple of crystalline monsters came beside the horse, and made a staircase for him to go on the back of the horse.

  Little Morleone went up and, while standing on the back of the horse, the two became invisible.

  Only a sentence was left,

  "Take it easy on them."

  The army of little mortals nodded, dropped their weapons, and attacked the newborns barehanded.

  The newborns were stunned!

  These Crystalline monsters were different from the normal ones.

  These little monsters were attacking to beat them up, as if they didn't care about their fear meter and didn't want to kill them!

  'And why are they so good in martial arts?'

  They didn't know these crystals were made by the system, using information from previous planets and the user's imagination.

  So while the appearance was designed by Little Morleone, their fighting style was a copy of what Little Mortal's Skill from the first and second planets.

  Either way, while more and more newborns appeared and started fighting the little crystalline monsters,

  The participants used the opportunity and started running back full speed.

  Unbeknownst to them, a certain gentleman, standing behind the back of a crystalline horse, was following them in his invisible mode.

  ......

  Farther away from the fleeing participants,

  The elderly group received the news about the chaos from their 'spy units' farther ahead in the path.

  "Alright, no need to keep anyone captive.

  Get rid of them."

  Seeing many participants dying and changing to unborn, the elderly group knew there was no need to keep the captured participants alive anymore.

  Soon, they killed everyone twice.

  The second time was because they would become unborn after you killed them once.

  A recently joined newborn asked,

  "Aren't these unborn in our team too?

  Why are we killing them?"

  One of the old men chuckled,

  "You are new, so you don't know.

  Our Boss is only looking for one kind of teammate.

  And that is us, the newborns.

  The rest are the target of robbery- *cough* I mean sinners who need to be punished!"

  The crowd nodded in approval.

  Soon, 90% of the newborns who went outside to clear the cities and the path leading to the underground entrance, joined them too.

  They turned back to their card, ready to be deployed again.

  In front of the trap tunnel installed by the group of trap experts, two rows of newborns were in ambush on both sides of the underground path.

  100,000 newborns on the right wall, all standing.

  100,000 newborns on the left wall, all sitting.

  Their job was to become invisible when the participants got close to them on their way back to the exit, and shoot them down.

  One side was sitting to fire their shots upwards, so they don't hit the newborns at the other side, which were supposed to fire straight.

  They didn't want to waste their invulnerability cards and didn't want to let those special trap cards be used too much either.

  The invisibility cards could be useless on higher planets, too, so they needed to use them while they were still useful.

  And from their test on the participants they just killed, they found out that after turning into an unborn, they became teammates, and the other party won't attack them.

  So even if they killed a percentage of them in this underground path, it was enough; after the transformation, the unborn would do the rest of the job.

  Soon, the sound of hurried footsteps came.

  They could even hear the sound of chaos behind them.

  Little Morleone finally emerged from his invisible state when these participants threw most of their newborn cards.

  Now his presence alone in the back was enough to turn them to unborns, and the newly transformed unborns were attacking their former teammates from behind.

  "What is happening at the back?"

  "He is behind us!"

  "How? Didn't those newborns stop him?"

  "It doesn't matter how! If you have more newborns, it's time to use them!"

  Because the underground path was sloping and curved endlessly to the right and downward, it was hard to see what was happening far behind or in front.

  That's why, even though everyone tried their best to keep the environment bright, you simply couldn't see everything.

  *Bang* x 200,000

  It was at this moment that the sound of gunshots echoed through the underground path from everywhere.

  The crowd, who suddenly saw both sides of the road become filled with armed men and women in suits and sunglasses, were dumbfounded!

  "Can someone tell me who these people are?"

  "What in the world is happening?"

  "Is this still the third planet? Why do they all have invisibility cards and guns!"

  "Push forward! Why are you stopping!"

  "Because they are everywhere! From the back to the front! Both sides are filled with them!"

  "Use your Fear shards and boost your power!

  Don't be scared of transforming into the unborn!

  There is no point in saving them for the season point now!"

  But despite their 'bravery' and 'sacrifices',

  It didn't take long for more and more participants to die and turn into unborns.

  Now they were getting attacked from behind, both sides, and inside...

  It was at this moment that they knew they F- *cough* That all hope was lost.