I got back up and walked through the other door and found myself in what looked like a hotel. There was a list with our names there and what rooms we'd be in. I went up the stairs to my room and looked around when I got inside. It was twice as expensive as any place I'd been in. There was no way they'd allow regulars to dirty this place with their lowly presence in here on a daily basis, so I was pretty sure one of the tests was an extra. I actually felt a little grateful to the guy who blew up the maze for making the rankers spend more. I'd make sure to trash the rooms as much as I could without getting test points deducted before I left. There was a TV there and I turned it on, just for the novelty, but I soon got sick of it. Just more bullshit from the ruler. I made my lighthouse do a scan of the room, and there wasn't anything special apart from a deck of cards that I pocketed.

I went back down just in time to see both Cosmos and Nal-Kae come through. When they saw me their faces lit up as bright as the lights on the ceiling of this floor, and ran over to me.

"Gee, why the welcome?" I asked. "You didn't really think I'd fail an easy task like that did you?"

Nal-Kae really looked like one of those pet dogs that the rich kids from the great clans had. "We heard you scream! We thought you died." He looked like he was itching to hug me. Good thing he didn't or I'd have tossed him off. The only person whom I let do that was gone.

Cosmos grinned "Guess that was another one of the admin's tricks."

Nal-Kae nodded his head vigorously. "Maybe there was some trap that we just didn't trigger."

I laughed. "All three of us get lucky and not trigger a trap? Not likely. I take it you guys both went at once?"

Nal-Kae nodded. "Was the test the same for both of you? We had to go into a pit and pop a ball?"

"Yeah." I said. "Good thing I had my lighthouse with me. I could just sit on it and come back up."

"Yeah, just ran down there and back up." Cosmos said as he walked towards the list with their rooms.

"What'd you do?" I asked Nal-Kae. He just smiled and shrugged at me, then followed Cosmos to his room. I wasn't pissed at this lack of trust. I was glad that this kid wasn't as trusting as Yaan, to actually give away his abilities.

Afterwards we went to my room. Would've loved a balcony with a view of the whole district, but I guess that might've been hard since we were underground. We started playing cards. Nal-Kae was terrible at it; anyone could see when he was bluffing or lying. Cosmos always took advantage of this but I let the kid off a couple of times. Even let him win once or twice. There were some drinks in the room as well, and after making sure that they were freebies, we all got a little drunk as we played.

Out of curiousity, I looked at my lighthouse to see how many regulars had come through. Dissapointed to see to see that eight more had made it, and they were all in their rooms. Guess this test might not narrow down the competition that much. Then I looked over to the testing ground and got a shock. The testing grounds had a huge level of su in all of them. It'd be hard to move around in that, even for a fisherman with body strengthening.

I showed Cosmos and Nal-Kae, and we wondered about it for a while. Then I laughed as I figured out the trick in this test.

The pipes were actually pumping in, or gradually compressing the shinsoo in the area. It was one of those tests that tested the balls of the regulars. The more we waited, the harder it'd be. The screams were fake of course, and they were just meant to test who had balls to go in. Probably wouldn't be many fishermen left tomorrow. They always worked as a pack, and there was no way they'd go in unless they all decided to.

For the first time in a while, I felt happy. I drank a little more and kept on playing. It's a good thing we didn't bet money or I'd have owed as much money to Cosmos as I did

It was night, and we'd played and drank, even Nal-Kae, and we weren't thinking that clearly.

Cosmos lounged on the ground and asked "So why were you so harsh about that Yaan kid? You looked like you wanted to kill him when he overreacted back in the first round."

Nal-Kae looked at us. "Who's Yaan? You mentioned him before."

I sighed. "Just a naive kid who's never gonna make it in the tower 'till he grows the fuck up."

Cosmos raised an eyebrow. "So? What's the big deal with one more idiot?"

I glared at him "Want me to tell you a story?" I asked heavily. "Fine. It's not rare, it happens all the time and no one cares about it. Why not tell you guys a story you've all heard before?

Once upon a time there were two brothers, one a couple of years older than the other. They trusted people and they expected to be trusted in return. One day, they trusted someone they shouldn't have and the both of them got taken away into slavery. Then, the younger brother, out of complete fucking altruism, helped the older brother get away, and like a fucking coward, he fucking ran for the rest of his fucking life!" I ended up yelling and accidentally lost control of my lighthouse. It flew about, as drunkenly as I was, and I threw the bottle at the door as hard as I could. It shattered and left an awkward silence.

Yeah. I really was that drunk. Couldn't believe I'd said it.

"Happy now?" I glared at that nosy dick. "Get out of my room. We can still work together, but if you mention this again I'll hack off your head in your sleep."

After they'd left, I remembered that I still had to ruin the room as much as possible, but I just didn't feel like it. Instead, I walked to the bed and collapsed on it. I was probably asleep before the two of them'd gone to their rooms.