Warping Into the Unbound Frontier

"Hurry!" Vidia pulled Gian-Luca along after they'd gotten their devices and rations. "Where are we going to warp?"

Gian-Luca looked at the map on his device and scanned the regions provided. There were the main cities of the four districts, but also fields and forests found in between it all. Thinking from a strategic point of view, Gian-Luca decided it'd be best to start somewhere discreet in order to avoid the initial rampage that came with battle-royales. "Let's warp to the massive forest region in between Jenzaya and Enoch District."

Vidia nodded. "Okay," she selected her location.

As Gian-Luca did the same, he realized that certain regions of the map were labelled according to direction. For example, Crete District up north was instead labelled "North City," while Jenzaya District down south was labelled "South City." On the other hand, the other two districts also included in the boundary—Enoch and Vesp District—were labelled normally.

"Interesting…" He said to himself. "The objectives might occasionally refer to these districts as such, so I should keep them in mind…"

As Gian-Luca led on this thought, he was soon interrupted by Vidia who reminded him to "Go to your gate number!"

He realized he was standing at Vidia's gate, which was not his. In a quick panic, he turned around, and began bolting in his gate's direction, checking once more that he chose the same warping location as Vidia.

"See you on the other side!" She called behind his back. He waved over his shoulder and dashed into his gate before time would run out.

Zoom!!!

The world spun around his mind as he stepped foot through the warping portal. In a flash of consecutive colors and intruding sounds, Gian-Luca felt his body transcend the limits of reality. In a quick second, Gian-Luca was suddenly transported into a heavy forest. Going from the pale colors of the tournament's lobby to the ultimately green surroundings of trees and grass quickly disoriented him. He fell to the ground, attempting to reorient himself. A glaze of warm sunlight brushed the top of his head.

"Gula!" He heard a voice call from a distance away. The sound sent a shudder down his back. With nimble footsteps that led to his position, the female always by his side had reintroduced herself.

"Are you okay?" Vidia helped pull him up. Getting back on his feet, he caught his breath and regathered his surroundings.

"What kind of technology is this?" He was impressed. "Since when did teleportation or... 'warping' exist...?"

Vidia shrugged. "I don't know. But I'm glad we can finally have some alone time out here."

"This is an important operation, Vidia. Don't forget that." Gian-Luca took the USB he'd been given and plugged it directly into his tablet's port. His map was quickly updated, producing a red dot that appeared on the screen. It was found in the same forest region he'd warped to, close-by the yellow icon that indicated his own location.

"Reed warped here too?!" He was alarmed.

"What? Really?"

"Yeah, look!" He showed her his map. But before any more reactions could be made, a loud noise shook the sky.

Beep!

"Welcome to the Metatron Tournament. 507 contenders have been initialized and warped into the game's boundaries. Phase 1 will now be initiated; establish all of yourselves as an 'irregularity' if you are not one already. There will be consequences if this task is not met by midnight."

In that moment, both Vidia and Gian-Luca's devices buzzed. Checking their respective screens, each of their objective boards had been updated.

"Establish yourself as an irregularity…?" Gian-Luca thought to himself.

"Aren't we already irregularities? Therefore we've already passed Phase 1 haven't we?"

Gian-Luca nodded. He realized Vidia was right, but was still confused as to why that was Phase 1's task. Giving it some thought, he came up with his own reasoning. "Hey Vidia, remember Midas' Sleep Theory?"

She pondered. "Yeah, the one about how that low noise that plays at 12:00 am every night puts everyone to sleep, right?"

"Yeah, but that it doesn't work on irregularities, hence why we haven't been affected by the sound ever since returning to the surface. Even though that low tone puts everyone else to sleep, it doesn't work on us anymore. Midas' reasoning behind that was that it's because we're irregularities. He said the regular citizens that abide by the Cardinal Nexus' law are docile, while us irregularities have brain patterns that surpass those docile limits. Because of that, the low tone cannot affect us."

"Where are you going with this?" Vidia asked.

"Phase 1 is a matter of transcending those docile limits. If we don't then the low tone will put us to sleep at midnight, making us completely vulnerable to other contenders. I think that's the consequence the announcer's talking about."

"Oh…" Vida understood. "So if we don't do as Phase 1 says, then we're just at a major disadvantage…?"

"I guess."

"But we're already irregularities to begin with, so no need to worry! The same goes for a lot of the other contenders too, right? If people came here willing to get blood on their hands for the prize, there's no doubt some of them already have blood on their hands."

"That's true… Phase 1 is just meant to weed out the weak-minded then. It's probably also meant to start conflict among the contenders, encouraging people to kill one another so that they can become irregularities. In turn, it'll lessen the contender count and allow the tournament to proceed."

"Gula's so smart…" Vidia giggled.

He disagreed with the notion. Gian-Luca just believed that by spending so much time under Midas' ideas, he's learned to think alike. In that moment, the importance of his role re-established itself.

"Reed is nearby, we need to go find him immediately!"

The two began sprinting, following Reed's icon on Gian-Luca's map. They moved swiftly, but approached carefully in fear of being caught. The power difference was a lot between Reed and the two of them, so they had to advance him in a strategic way.

"I think it'd be best if you engaged with your blinding eyes first Vidia."

She agreed. "Just like I did to Overseer Gabriel back at A.X.A…"

"Yeah, plus he doesn't know about your blinding eyes. He won't remember you from our encounter with him at Jenzaya. I've wiped his memories from that interaction."

"Perfect," Vidia replied. Seeing that they were getting close to Reed's icon, she prepared her eyes to unleash its ability. Once Gian-Luca's icon overlapped with Reed's, they came to an immediate stop and looked around.

"Look for the blonde hair," Gian-Luca concentrated his sight. In the green distance, he saw it—golden hair that shone in the sun's light.

"That's him…" he told Vidia.

"Let's go engage this catalyst."