The Demonic Games (Disgardium Book #7): LitRPG Series Dan Sugralinov (top 100 books to read .txt) 📖

Aegis, the orc not only turned most of the group to his side, but on the way up the stairs he brought in a few more strong players from smaller groups.

“Tomorrow’s going to be even more fun,” Marcus commented on his achievement. “We’re going to skip fifteen floors, even more. Our raid is strong enough to start at floor forty. Enough prancing around the Threat, it’s time to end this game.”

Amazingly, I wasn’t even featured in the highlights! Scyth was shown for just two seconds, sitting in lotus pose and meditating. That was it! They didn’t show my conversation with the demon, or the moment when he covered the dome with his hands, or the battle. They’d finally written me off, I realized. To avoiding causing an uproar, they had presented Scyth as a cowardly wimp who was afraid to leave the Aegis even without a worst-player penalty!

Before the voting started, when I saw that Octius was finishing up his overview and nobody would see my battle against Abaddon, I waved a hand in despair. I wanted a chance to speak, to talk about the day myself, but the gamesmaster didn’t even seem to notice me. When I tried to get to the stage, security droids moved to block my path and politely asked me to return to my seat.

Unsurprisingly, I was named the worst player of the day. As far as the viewers knew, I had spent the whole day beneath the shield.

Octius didn’t ask me for comments. Instead, he requested silence and declared sonorously:

“Don’t hurry to leave, we aren’t done yet! Before I make an important announcement, allow me to show you a recording that was taken this evening through the badge of former Snowstorm employee Kerry Hunter. For those who do not know her, she is the former assistant to Alex Sheppard, aka Herald Scyth.”

The holocube started to show the table where I was sitting. Kerry stood nearby. The viewers saw me asking her to contact my friends, and next came that moment in the bathroom in my room. My assistant asked what exactly I wanted to know and from whom. The recording cut off.

“Today, Kerry Hunter was arrested,” Octius said. “Her personal communicator contained two records of contact with Edward Rodriguez, a friend of Sheppard’s. The first was around midnight yesterday, the second — early in the morning. Hunter was unable to pass on the information she received; security intercepted her outside her contestant’s room this morning.”

For the contestants, my disqualification wasn’t news, they were just waiting for the official announcement, but the hall still broke out into chatter. The reason was news to them, and a surprise.

“According to the contract, players of the Demonic Games cannot make any contact with the outside world,” the presenter continued. “By decision of a specially created ethics commission, Alex Sheppard has been disqualified from the Demonic Games for life!”

Octius fell silent, cast a heavy gaze across the hall, found me and continued, his eyes locked on me:

“The decision… The decision is final. But before I go on, I suggest we listen to what the accused has to say in his defense. Alex, come up onstage!”

In dead silence, staring straight ahead and feeling hundreds of eyes glued to me, I walked up onto the stage and stood next to the gamesmaster.

“Speak,” Guy Barron whispered to me. “They’ll hear you.”

I took a step forward. The stage was in the center of the hall, and I couldn’t face everyone at once, but anyone looking at the holocube above could see my face.

“Good evening! There’s a lot I’ve thought about telling you while I watched the highlights. Like the fact that Snowstorm really didn’t want me to win, and did everything they could from the start to stop me from getting here. Did you know that the day before the Games began, the Celestial Arbitration sentenced me to trial by ordeal? I know you didn’t know, because I’m not Mogwai, I don’t stream. But I passed the gods’ challenge. Have you seen my Ghostly Talon? That’s a reward from the ordeal. And I won it without my Threat abilities, which I didn’t have there. But I didn’t win because I’m special or gifted either. No! I won because I had help from people I would call friends, but who I’d never heard of before the gods’ trial began…”

I fell silent, remembering Navalik, Lil’ Star and Mano’Hano. Octius patted me on the shoulder encouragingly and I continued:

“That’s always how it is. Most of my achievements are all thanks to the support of my friends. For obvious reasons, I can’t say who they are, apart from the ones you already know. I’m grateful even to Melissa Schafer and Malik Abdualim…” Several camera drones buzzed over to them, and the holocube showed close-ups of their stunned faces. “But as for Snowstorm… We have some serious differences of opinion. Unfortunately, I don’t have the right to reveal what they are, but the fact is that the corporation is actively working against me. It’s no secret to anyone that other contestants have always found ways to exchange information with the outside world. There are plenty of proven examples, and if you want to find out more, you can search online. None of them were disqualified, even those who got intel on their competitors…”

“Careful with accusations like that, Alex!” Octius interrupted. “They are mere supposition!”

“Fine, anyone interested can find it themselves anyway. The point is, I wasn’t trying to get an advantage through non-game methods. But Snowstorm couldn’t miss their chance to get rid of me…”

“Alex!”

“Does it not seem strange to you that the recording shows only the request to make contact, and not what exactly I wanted to learn from my friend Ed Rodriguez?”

“Mr. Sheppard!”

“I was asking about divine artifacts in the clan vault. Yeah, we have so many that I don’t remember them