Thirteen thousand two hundred and forty-seven.
The number flashed on the screen at Demon Hunter Guild headquarters for three seconds before being replaced by the next document.
Only a concise notice remained on the screen: Those who have passed the third round of screening, please arrive at the designated location within twelve hours to attend the final trial briefing.
The North American Theater briefing was held in a hangar at the Kansas base.
More than three thousand people crowded onto the empty concrete floor, looking up at the expressionless examiner on the temporary stage.
The hangar doors stood half-open, revealing a gray sky outside and the occasional military transport plane passing overhead.
Isaac stood in the third row of the crowd. To his left was the scruffy middle-aged man, and to his right was the girl as thin as a reed.
He had only just learned their names. The middle-aged man was Harris, from Detroit, and his family was gone too. The girl was Michelle, eighteen years old, from New York. She had sheltered underground with nineteen others for thirty-one days.
"Quiet." The examiner's voice came through the loudspeaker.
The hangar fell silent at once.
"You have passed the first three rounds of screening. Congratulations." The examiner paused. "But that is where the congratulations end."
The large screen behind him lit up, displaying only a few lines:
Final Trial Location: Dead Zone Trial Type: Trial of Life and Death. Withdrawal is impossible once it begins. Expected Survival Rate: One in a Thousand Rules: No rescue, no pauses, no withdrawal. Die or pass.
A suppressed commotion rose through the hangar.
"One in a thousand?" someone shouted. "There are over three thousand of us. How many will survive in the end?"
The examiner looked at him.
"We only need ten