Secure Base A

A group of three people were running as fast as they could, every so often they would smash a tree down to block the path behind them. When they initially fell, they were rather close together so they made an agreement to team up. There were two dantian refinement stage 5s and one dantian refinement stage 6.

Initially, they managed to take down quite a few beasts together, making a hefty harvest. Yet, when the sun was starting to set, they somehow provoked a star level 3 exo beast. When they were cleaning the kills of a few star level 2 exo beasts, the star level 3 exo beast burst onto the scene, and they were forced to flee.

Who knew why, but the star level 3 exo beast acted as if they cursed its mother and relentlessly chased them down. They have been running for nearly 30 minutes. As they almost gave up hope, they saw a rockwall and a pond ahead. There were lights leading up the rockwall with a bunch of rope ladders.

Without any time to question the odd occurrence, they scrambled up the rope ladders as if their life depended on it. When they got to the top they were stunned. Standing in front of them was a massive military like complex. There was a huge metal fence with various turrets placed around it. At the entrance was a sign that said 'Secure Base A'.

They were confused, not expecting this situation. Before they could contemplate further, they heard the roar of the exo beast. They sprinted for the base entrance. When they finally got there, what they found was a robot greeter at the entrance.

While humanity may not be able to build large combat or construction robots as of now, they can easily make some that can do mundane tasks. The robot greeter, dressed as a soldier, gave a salute, "Greetings recruits! You are the first to enter Secure Base A, and you will be rewarded with 500 points and a basic smartwatch each!"

The smartwatches were on a tray next to the greeter, exactly three. As they collected the smartwatches, they heard movements from the ladder area. A guy dressed in the standard issued clothing, covered in a bit of blood came up. He seemed equally stunned as they were about the base.

He walked up to the base and looked at the other three people, before they could speak, the robot greeter once again spoke, "Greetings recruit! Welcome to Secure Base A!" Then it proceeded to go back to its inert form. The three people looked at the new person before commenting, "It looks like this is a safe area setup by the military for the test, let's go in and look." They nodded to the other person and made their way in.

The four people were greeted by a variety of buildings when they entered. Each one had a massive sign on the front. To the immediate left of the entrance was a building called 'Bounty Hall' to the immediate right was one called 'Shop'. They made their way to the bounty hall first. In the building on the left was a large digital touch screen, on the right were a bunch of terminals.

Lastly, there was a counter with a few robot greeters. The group made their way to a greeter at the counter. The greeter looked like a pretty robot girl dressed up in military camo, she greeted, "Welcome Recruits! This is the bounty hall where you can issue or accept quest in exchange for points. We also accept Beast Cores in exchange for points!" She motioned to a pricing list of beast points behind her.

Every exo beast in the universe is classified as such because they have a beast core that acts as an energy source for them, allowing them to exceed their natural limits, every other beast is just an ordinary beast. Some ordinary beasts have the ability to fight exo beasts and are classified as fierce beasts, but they generally do not have energy cores.

In this survival challenge, the point criteria is exactly the collection of these beast cores. The points on the wall coincide to the amount of points awarded for cores in the challenge. The group looked around a bit in the bounty hall before moving to the shop.

The shop was stocked with various vending machines selling items. Everything to basic toiletries to sets of clothing, even military MREs were put up for sale. The group looked around without buying anything, then they left.

They looked around at the other buildings, there were three dormitories labeled A, B, and C respectively. The rooms were small, with nothing more than a single sized bed, a desk, and a bathroom. Each dormitory had an attached mess hall that sold hot food at the cost of 50 points a meal. Each dormitory room cost 40 points a night.

Another building was a hospital, at the cost of points they can heal various problems one might have, and they even dispense various medicines at the cost of points. The next building was one called the 'Warehouse' It rented out various vehicles, drones, and equipment at the cost of points. It also had a trading area where you can put up items one wishes to sell, with a sell and auction option.

The last building to be found was a large one called 'Daliomon Hotel', it seemed like a resort hotel with an attached pool area. The rooms were orders of magnitude better than the dormitories, but they cost 400 points a night.

There was a large lake in the middle of the base, inserted into the lake on the side was a large industrial water purifier, it seemed to be pumping water to the rest of the base. The lake was a murky color, not drinkable.

The group then went back to the bounty hall, the leader of the group of three then spoke to the fourth person who came later, "So, my name is Greg, my team arrived a bit before you did, we got some points and a smartwatch. The smartwatch only has the option to add friends and send messages. The easiest way to get points seems to be beast crystals, how about you join our group, it would allow us to challenge higher level exo beasts." Greg then offered out his hand for a handshake.

The other man, with shining green eyes, stretched out his hand for the handshake and spoke for the first time, "Hello, my name is Jacob."