Chapter 657: Stories

Clyde enjoyed the dinner more than he had expected. The food was simple but it was better than he had experienced so far. After weeks of missions and constant danger, sitting beneath the open night sky with people who were not trying to kill him felt pleasant.

Don kept refilling everyone’s cups, and Samuel eventually stopped trying to tell him to slow down.

Laughter replaced the usual solemness that followed their missions. Even Maira, who usually maintained a serious expression, smiled more often as the night continued.

At some point, the conversation shifted toward their past.

"So, Jack," Don said, leaning back in his chair with a drink in his hand. "You’ve been with us for weeks, but we know almost nothing about you. Tonight, you’re not getting away with that."

Clyde smiled a little. "Why am I suddenly the target?"

"Because everyone else has already shared something." Don pointed toward himself. "I’ll start. Before the Selection Stage, I was an accountant."

"An accountant?" Clyde asked, surprised.

"Yeah. I spent most of my days sitting behind a desk, dealing with numbers and complaining about taxes."

Leyan laughed quietly. "You really don’t look like an accountant."

"That’s because the world turned me into this." Don looked down at his large arms before his smile slowly disappeared. "I had a wife and two children too."

The atmosphere immediately changed.

Don stared at the table for several seconds before continuing.

"I lost them during the Selection Stage. All of them. I couldn’t protect them. I couldn’t even say goodbye properly." He said. His fingers tightened around his cup. "So I swore I’d survive then I swore I’d become strong enough to make sure the beings responsible would pay."

Clyde watched him silently. Hearing him tell it made him feel different. In his previous life, Clyde had treated stories like this as information. Now, sitting beside these people, he could see the weight behind every word.

Samuel lowered his gaze. "I understand that feeling."

Don looked at him.

Samuel remained quiet for a moment before speaking again. "My family died during the Selection Stage too. I was separated from them when everything started. By the time I found them again, it was already too late. I found them after they were killed. I never found out who did it."

His voice remained calm, but his eyes carried something much heavier.

The rooftop became quiet again.

Clyde already knew the story. He had heard it in his previous life, though Samuel had never shared every detail. Still, Clyde acted as if he were hearing it for the first time.

"That’s why you became a fighter?" Clyde asked.

Samuel nodded. "I wanted to survive, but that wasn’t enough. I wanted strength. I wanted to make sure I could protect the people around me."

Don raised his cup. "Looks like we both ended up with the same reason."

Samuel smiled faintly and tapped his cup against Don’s.

Maira eventually broke the silence. "My story is less dramatic."

Everyone looked at her.

"Before the Selection Stage, I was a teenager. I played badminton."

"Badminton?" Clyde blinked.

"Yes." Maira frowned. "What’s wrong with that?"

"Nothing. I just imagined you doing something more violent."

Maira rolled her eyes. Then she continued, "I competed in tournaments. I trained almost every day. My biggest problem at that time was whether I could win my next match."

She looked toward the dark horizon. Her smile faded.

"Then the sky broke. After that, winning the tournament stopped meaning anything and surviving became everything."

Leyan listened quietly before finally speaking. "I was different. I was already a hunter before the Selection Stage. I lived in a forest with my people. I learned how to track animals, use a bow, read footprints, and survive in places where humans rarely went. I suppose those skills became more useful than I ever expected."

Don laughed. "So everyone here had a normal life except Leyan."

Leyan shrugged. "My life was normal for an elf."

That earned another round of small laughter.

Clyde listened to them all while occasionally joining the conversation. He asked questions at the right moments and reacted with appropriate surprise, carefully maintaining the illusion that every story was new to him.

But inside he compared their words with the memories of his previous life.

The people sitting around this table had once been strangers to him. Now they were his teammates.

The night continued beneath the stars, filled with food, drinks, laughter, and more stories.

Eventually, the conversation reached Clyde. Every pair of eyes turned toward him. They seemed curious about what Clyde would say.

Clyde looked around at them and sighed.

There was no way around it now. Everyone had shared something about their past, and if he remained silent, it would only make him stand out even more.

Of course, he had no intention of telling them the truth.

The life of Clyde was not something he could reveal. Instead, he would tell them about Jack.

"I was just a normal high school student," Clyde finally said. "Nothing special. I went to school, came home, ate, slept, and repeated the same thing the next day. I didn’t have many friends either. I was pretty lonely.

"I lived with my uncle, but he wasn’t exactly a good person. He drank a lot, wasted his money, and treated me like a burden. Most of the time, I just stayed in my room."

Clyde spoke calmly, as if he were describing someone else’s life. In a way, that was exactly what he was doing.

Then he looked toward the night sky.

"When the Selection Stage started, everything changed. I know this sounds strange, but... I was happy."

Don’s expression changed. "Happy?"

Clyde nodded. "Yeah. I was happy. I finally had a reason, a purpose, to do something. I just thought that if the world was going to become a place where people had to fight to survive, then at least I wouldn’t have to keep living the same boring life anymore. I thought I would finally get to experience something different."

Nobody laughed. They just listened.

Clyde continued, "Back then, I didn’t understand what the Selection Stage really was. I thought it was just some crazy game where people could become stronger. I didn’t know how many people would die. That’s pretty much my story."

Don stared at him for a few seconds before suddenly laughing. "So you were a lonely high school kid who thought the apocalypse was interesting?"

Clyde shrugged. "Something like that."

"Damn. I guess we really are a strange group."

The others laughed as well, and the tension finally disappeared.

Clyde smiled with them. They believed the story. That was enough.

He could never tell them that the person sitting among them had already lived through all of this once before and he was a man who had fought gods, Demons, Angels, and met beings far beyond them.

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