Chapter Ten

As Alem made it through the door, he turned his head and watched it suddenly disappear. "Well, now it begins. First thing I should try and get are clothes." He looked at his bare body and felt a little embarrassed.

[System Notice!]

Suddenly, he heard a sound coming from inside of his head, very mechanical.

[As all Candidates are now on the Survival Continent, the round will officially begin!]

Time Till End: 1000 Years

Leaderboard: …

As he heard all of this, on the top left of his vision, he could see two things. A countdown and a leaderboard. The countdown had already begun while the leaderboard remained empty. "Damn, it feels like a game, and what's with this time? Another thousand years? What the hell!" Alem felt his head hurt just looking at the time limit. "Is this also supposed to test my patience or something? Just kill me instead." Grief filled his mind as he watched the time tick down ever so slowly. The previous time he did a thousand years of combat training, atleast he was distracted by constant fighting, but now? How would he keep himself busy?

Knowing he wouldn't change anything, he decided to start scavenging for things to cover himself with. The leaves were big, which could be used for clothes, but they would also be very itchy. "The best thing might be to use fur pels if possible. But where would I find such things?" He looked around for a while, but couldn't really find any animals. Even food was scarce, with barely any fruits and vegetables in the forest. Luckily, after about half an hour of searching, he was able to find some thick leaves which were also very soft to the touch. "This should be good for now." He began to break them off and also rolled them up. He rolled a few dozen of them, trying to tie them up the best he could before making a type of skirt. Sadly, whenever he tried to make this type of skirt, it would just fall apart. "How the hell do I do this?" He felt frustrated but kept on tearing leaves and trying to do it. However, even after hours of attempting, he couldn't figure it out. "Fuck it, I'm going commando." Throwing the leaves aside in frustration, he decided to walk outside of the forest. This time, there was no map, nothing to kind of let him know where he was. He could only guess and make his way around. Plus, with his body currently being like a normal person, a branch could scratch him, let alone his… bottom area. "I'm actually starving, I need to get some food." He began to search for fruits as he walked out of the forest, yet only a few berries could be found. With his medical knowledge from medical school, although he wasn't necessarily good at identifying berries and alike, he did read a bit about things like wild berries in relation to poison that kids could get. So, he had a small understanding on what a person should generally avoid. "Let's hope that I don't eat something poisonous." With a few berries in his hand, he swallowed about only four. "If these don't make me sick in a few hours, I'll assume they're edible." With something in his belly, he decided to keep searching for anything that could be useful to him.

Luckily, the sun was still up, but he knew it would sink in a few hours atleast. Before nightfall, he hoped to atleast find some water. Maybe even some shelter if possible.

"How the hell is water so hard to find in a forest?!" He walked for so long that he began to get tired. This feeling of getting tired so easily was nostalgic, yet not great either. He didn't miss it at all.

Shhh

"What was that?" As he was walking in irritation, he suddenly saw a bush begin to shake. His eyes narrowed as he lowered his body slightly and focused. He didn't feel any sort of danger from his guts, so he didn't think it was some sort of enemy or harmful animal. Yet, he kept his guard up, nonetheless. Who knew what it was? Plus, his senses could be wrong.

He neared the bush slowly, while keeping his body low. His muscles were tense since he knew his strength and speed were restricted. All his senses were that of a normal human, so he didn't want to act like he could beat anything.

Reaching his hand out, he moved the bush out of the way and noticed a small bunny, nibbling on the grass. It's fur wasn't white though, it was a dark green, blending with the bushes and leaves. It's eyes were also a deep black, and it's tail wasn't small, rather it was a fluffy long tail. If the ears weren't long like a bunnies and it's face resembled one greatly, he might have thought it was something else. 'Why isn't it reacting? Is it a naive species?' This term, naive species, wasn't a random one, but something he learned back in university. It basically meant exactly as it sounded, a term used to describe animals who didn't really understand which creatures were harmful to them or not. Seeing the green bunny not reacting to him probably meant that either it was frozen still out of fear, or it was a naive species. 'If this is a naive species, does that make this place unexplored?' This would make a lot of sense. 'Doesn't matter, atleast I have some sort of food, right?' Reaching his hand out, he quickly grabbed the bunny by the ears and lifted it up, unfortunately, his danger sense spiked the second he did it.

Rrrrrr

The bunnies mouth opened as sharp teeth became clear as day. Weirdly enough, it was only two sharp teeth, nothing else in the mouth. And they were extremely long, as if they were growing out. 'What the fuck.' His eyes narrowed when he saw the bunny getting aggressive. Using his other hand, he quickly grabbed the throat in order to free right hand. With that right hand, he quickly grabbed a stone and began to bash the bunnies head while squeezing its throat as hard as he could. It didn't matter to him if he looked maniac or not. It was life and death for him. Why else would his danger sense shoot up?

The bunny tried to struggle, sadly with the stone constantly bashing its head, it finally let up and died.

Of course, Alem didn't stop even though it was dead, he didn't know if it was faking it or not. During his thousand-year battle training, some creatures pretended to be dead before attacking him when he was off guard. Using the stone, he continued to smash the head a bit more until he was sure the bunny wouldn't get up. "That was way too grotesque." He spoke while wiping his face that was covered in blood. "Now comes the hard part." He sighed and began to take the bunny apart. He needed some of its parts for food, while other parts for tools. Luckily, he sometimes procrastinated on the internet and watched random videos; some of these actually showed him butchering skills. 'Finally, those videos will come into use.' He smiled as he began to do what the videos showed. Although the bunny was slightly different from the videos, he could try and follow the general process.

About ten minutes passed as he finally skinned the animal with his hands. He didn't have a shear nor a knife, or even a sharp stone nearby, so he used his fingers and just slightly ripped, sadly this did damage the animal a little. "Next."

Time passed quickly and he finally separated the animal into as many pieces as he could. Sadly, he punctured a few internal organs, making fluid leak onto the meat, but if he cleaned it well enough and fast enough, then it should be alright. He reached for a nearby leaf and wrapped the meat into it, including the fur. He also separated the bones, wanting to use them as a temporary weapon, though they weren't super sharp. Taking a deep breath, he began to speed walk in the forest, wanting to find water. He searched before, but now it was even more important. If he didn't clean the meat, he couldn't eat it. The bacteria would probably make him sick, possibly killing him.

The sun began to set, and night was taking over. Haplessly, Alem still couldn't locate water, and frustration was building up. "What the fuc--"As his anger was about to take over, he finally heard a sound which was angelic to his ears. "Water!" He quickly began to run towards the sound. He held the food close to his chest and neared the sound of flowing water. It was so loud, he thought that maybe there might even be a waterfall. Soon enough, under the night sky, he saw a sparkling lake of orts, connected to a waterfall and small stream that led deeper into the forest. 'Woohoo!' He couldn't help but scream internally before closing in on the water. 'Now, I can clean this meat.' Opening up his little leaf package, he kneeled in front of the lake and began to dip the meat into it. Using his hands, he rubbed and washed each meat the best he could, this included the bones and even the fur. When he felt it was clean enough, he got a new leaf and wrapped them up again, but this time he separated everything. He kept the fur in a different leaf, the meat in a different leaf. "Now then, I should bathe a little myself, but not right now. Only, in the morning." He didn't want to risk anything in the night, who knew if he got a cold from it.

Walking towards a darker area near the lake, he placed his items nearby and laid down. It was a little uncomfortable, but manageable. Closing his eyes, he slowly fell asleep.

{Time Till End: 999 years, 11 months, 29 days!

Leaderboard: [First Place - George (2 Points)]}

Morning soon arrived. Unlike the time when he would sleep for multiple days at a time, this time he slept for maybe a few hours at most. Plus, he actually felt groggy when he woke up, his state from before was gone, he was completely human at the moment.

"What should I do first?" He thought as he sat up. His body was slightly itchy because of the grass. He looked down and saw a few insects crawling on his legs, which disgusted him slightly. "I need to dip in the lake first, who knows what's on me?" He first located his meat and bones, making sure nothing stole them. After confirming it was still there, he walked towards the lake and stood on the edge. He looked carefully at the crystal-clear water. A few fish were swimming around while he could also see bright green algae in the water. It didn't look dangerous, so he jumped right in. "Fuck! It's cold!" He shivered in the water, but he continued to wash himself quickly. Even his breathing was slightly heavy because of the cold. "Holy shit!" He couldn't help but scream again while washing his long hair. Luckily, he cut it in the past, so it was only shoulder length at the moment. "Damn, I don't even have soap or anything. How will I prevent infections?"

Despite not having his previous Origin body, his memory wasn't restricted in any way. He could still remember everything he learned in medical school as if the books were right in front of him. He knew that if he went back and took the test, he would pass with flying colors. After all, it wasn't just memory, but his application skills were much higher as well. Shameless could restrict his powers, but some things were not possible to restrict at this point.

After cleaning himself with just water, he walked out of the lake and began to explore the area around him. "Wait, since those berries didn't make me sick, they're probably edible."' He smiled with this thought and quickly found some near the lake and began to eat them in large amounts. Sure, he had meat, but to get that ready, he needed to start a fire, which he actually didn't know how to do. Not only that, but he also wasn't sure if starting a fire would cause a forest fire, so waiting until he was out of the forest was his goal. "Now then, I just need to gather five pellets and the first requirement for passing should be done. How will I find people?" He was unsure on where to start. He didn't know the first thing about survival nor hunting people.

Not knowing where to begin, he decided to just find a way through the forest. He would walk in one direction until he was out. Unfortunately, the walk wasn't as great as he expected. Luckily, lots of berries were on the path, with a few lakes in between./ He was hoping to find a river since it could lead him out, sadly that never happened.

Days and nights went by as he struggled through the forest. He met a few more weird rabbits, which were slightly different from the one he killed before. Some rabbits had horns on their head, some had cotton balls. There were even a few with single eyeballs in the center of their head. The creatures he encountered were anything but ordinary, luckily most were harmless.

"Fuck! It's been so many days, I need to eat something filling, or else I will die!" He felt extremely irritated because of his hunger. He had the meat, and it was clean as well, but he didn't have a fire. He feared causing a forest fire that could just take him out. Still, without proper food, he could potentially die of illness or even starvation since the berries could only do so much. "Screw it, I'll try and start a fire when I reach the next lake. Hopefully the ground will be wet." He couldn't starve anymore. It had been days and nights of constant traveling after all.

Walking for another few hours, he finally found a small lake. The size reminded him of the large swimming pools back on earth. He quickly placed everything down and began to collect sticks and stones. Although he had never started his own fire, he had seen a few things on television. About a few meters away from the lake, he began to create a circle with a bunch of small stones. He couldn't find big ones, so he had to use lots of tiny ones. The collecting itself took him about an hour or so.

"Now, hopefully I can actually start a fire." In front of him was a stone circle with a bunch of wood in the middle. The most bottom had big pieces, with lots of smaller ones piled on top. Of course, all the wood pieces were obtained much further away from the lake since he needed dry wood, this much he knew. "In physics and chemistry, they did teach us about friction and even in video games they showed us various things that could start a fire. I can rub two pieces of wood, use flint with steel, or find some kind of glass and use the sun. Rubbing two pieces of wood is probably the only method available to me though." The issue with the former two was his lack of knowledge on what flint looked like in the wild, plus where could he find steel? As for glass and the sun? It was a simple method he learned when he was little. Every kid did it at one point. Taking a magnifying glass and letting the sun create the fire, but where would he get a magnifying glass? This wasn't the only issue, from his knowledge, although he could use normal glass, what he needed was a concave type of glass, to allow for a single point of light. Thus, the only method he could use was rubbing two sticks together. "Alright, let's do this." He didn't know how to do it, but he didn't think it would take too long to figure out. It was just rubbing two sticks together.

He searched for two sticks and walked back to his stone circle. The first stick was placed on the pile facing up, while the second was placed right against it, forming a 't' shape. Holding tightly to the first stick, he began to move the second one forward and back. As if he was working with a saw, his hands rubbed the sticks.

"Shit!" He hadn't even rubbed for a second before the 't' fell.. He put it up again, yet it collapsed again. "I need to stabilize it somehow." He shoved the first stick deeper into the pile until it was much more stable. He began to rub again. 'Patience is key.' This was something everyone said when trying to start a fire, so he didn't expect it to be a quick process.

Seconds turned into minutes, then hours. The sticks would break at times, sometimes fall apart. He even accidently fell into his own pile a few times, trying to rub the sticks as hard as he could. "What the hell!" After dozens of failed attempts, he stood up in irritation and began to pace around the stone pile. "What am I doing wrong?" He calmed his mind and began to think of possible issues. 'Either the sticks are wrong, or my method is off.' Although he felt the latter should be an issue, it wouldn't be anything major. Any show he had seen used this method. If it was only a single one, then it would likely be wrong, but if many use the same method, there has to be some viability. In the end, Alem decided to try different types of sticks, some varying in size, others in color.

Like this, a week went by. He ate his berries, bathed in the lake, and then attempted to start a fire. He would even explore at times. Even though he was getting frustrated by his hundreds of failed attempts, he kept his composure. A thousand years of battling taught him patience.

Fortunately, during his many failed attempts, he did pick up on a few issues. His method of rubbing was changed from creating a 't' to placing wood on the ground and directly rubbing it with his might. He even discovered a few wood pieces which could possibly allow him to create a fire.

'This is it; this has to be the way.' Taking a deep breath, he placed two dry wood in front of him, one being large, the other being about half the size. Still, they were thick. Using a sharp stone, he scraped the bark off and flattened the surface just enough on the larger piece. On the small one, he removed a bit of bark and then flattened the tip at an angle. Taking a deep breath, with sweat all over his body, he began to rub. 'C'mon, c'mon.' He rubbed for about ten seconds when he finally saw a bit of smoke! "Fuck yeah!" His face was filled with a smile as he continued to rub. He could see a smoky pile of wood gathering, which excited him even further. Alem rubbed only for a few seconds more before carefully picking up the larger piece and taking it to the stone circle. Carefully placing the ash into the centre, he went back and rubbed more and more.

A few minutes of rubbing later, he had lots of wood ash in the stone circle. Luckily, he understood the next few steps. He went to school! 'I will blow a little, until the smoke increases.' Fire needed oxygen, and that was what he needed to provide it. Still, he needed to be careful in case he blew the whole pile away, ruining his efforts.

Starting off slow, he blew on the ash and the smoke actually began to increase in size. Alem's eyes brightened, and he continued.

Cough Cough

'This isn't good for my lungs, luckily once I have fire, I can slowly cleanse the smoke.' He studied medicine, so he knew what needed to be done. Despite all that information, he was still vigilant. Although a bit of smoke can be cleared, if too much entered his lungs, that was anything but good.

A few minutes passed. 'Finally!' An orange light appeared from within the pile. The small twigs around it didn't catch it for a while, but a few seconds later, they began to emit the same orange. Seeing the orange beginning to spread, Alem finally relaxed. He fell on his back and heard the crackling of the mini fire. It got loud and louder, while his face became more relaxed. 'I've created fire, an essential need.'

Resting his eyes for a bit, he finally got up and began to prepare other things. "I need to cook this meat so let's make a kebab of sorts." He found a stick and removed the bark before sharpening it a little. After that, he washed the stick a little, and began to place pieces of meat onto it. Holding the stick over the fire, he waited patiently for the meat to cook. It was a slightly long process since he wanted to make sure that the meat was properly cooked from the inside. A while later, a smoky scent came from the meat. Alem could see fat appearing and a few other things, but overall, it looked cooked. He brought it over and took a small bite. When it entered his mouth, the texture was dry and chewy. It wasn't soft and easy to nibble on, still it wasn't terrible. Better than the berries by a lot. "What about this one?" His little kebab didn't only have one bunny meat, rather it had various kinds. He mixed and matched, including a few berries on it as well.

He continued trying the different meats, making himself a bunch of kebabs. Soon enough, he had his fill, and the sky began to darken. 'This fire will likely attract different animals; some may not be good.' Though he wanted to keep the fire going for heat, it was dangerous. Atleast until he had his own shelter. 'Maybe this place could be where I settle? It has everything I need. Food is still a little hard to find, but it's here. Clean water is everywhere, and a shelter can be constructed slowly.' Food was a small issue, since he could hunt for rabbits. 'Still, a thousand years here would not work out well. I will likely run out of food because of over-hunting. Plus, the forest is kind of dangerous since anything could appear from anywhere.' He didn't know if there were bears in the forests or any sort of wild cats, but if they were here, he could not handle them. Sure, he had fighting skills and a bit of strength, but could his strength surpass a bear? Wild cats? His powers were restricted, so it was a simple no. "Optimally, I need to find grasslands of sorts or plains. If not these, then if I can atleast find some sort of large open area in this forest, that could work too." Knowing his next goal was to find a place to stay, he grabbed a few cooked meat and wrapped it in a leaf package. Next, he took his sharp stones and tried to make a sort of spear. Luckily he had a few clean tendons which could be used to assemble a somewhat usable spear.

It was difficult, many broken attempts, loss of good stones and wood, but a few hours later Alem finally made a usable spear. "This should last me for a while."

"Shameless, why did you put that one in such a bad situation? You didn't even give him clothes!" In a room, many people of varying looks and ages, sat looking at a clear screen. The screen looked at a large continent in a zoomed-out perspective. Yet to the people in the room, everything could be seen to the minute details.

"I wanted to add a little fun to this test, so he got it much harder than the rest." Shameless spoke with a smirk. "He wasn't even taught survival skills before being sent in. He doesn't know anything aside from some medical knowledge, yet all of that is only useful to a small extent. Without tools, he can't even do anything with medicine." The few watched Shameless laugh in the room, yet they all carried frowns.

"Isn't he the one though? This is super risky, are you some sort of idiot?" An old man stood up in anger, looking at Shameless furiously. The few in the room were the only ones that knew about Alem. No one else knew about his responsibility. "If something happens to him, we all perish, how could you not prepare him?!"

Shameless didn't turn his head and sat in his seat with a smirk. "I do what I feel is correct. You don't like it, bite me."

"You moron!" The old man didn't make a move, just pulled his own hair. He knew how important Alem was, yet the boy was struggling to scavenge food, how would he survive the whole test? "Shameless, this is the dumbest thing you could have done. Everyone here is betting on him, and we know you're the best at teaching, but this is dangerous." The old man calmed down, but was still furious.

"I know what I'm doing. You're right, he could potentially die, but if he doesn't then that is much better. If something like this will kill him, then how will he complete the task?" Shameless shook his head. "Keep in mind, he could do this test easily. We could blind him and throw him into this world without any power, and he would come out on top. Alem needs to measure up to his capability, or atleast the Vir's in order to defeat the Cloud Sovereign. You know as well as I do, Vir could do this test without any issue as well."

When Vir was mentioned, the room became tense. He was the leader of not only the Humans, but everything. He was the previous him.

"Alright, stop arguing both of you." A stunning woman stood up from her seat. Her skin was bronze, with three horns behind her head. She had golden hair and purple eyes. Rather than standing, she was instead floating off the ground, her feet dangling in the air. "Shameless, we trust you so please do what you see fit." She ignored the old man and focused on the screen. "Alem is a precious human, the only person that matters, so his survival, skills, everything need to reach the highest level. Surpassing all of us. After this, I want to take him under my wing and teach him as well. We all have our specialties, though Shameless is the best teacher, that doesn't mean he surpasses us in our specialties." Hearing her words, everyone nodded their heads.

"I understand what you're saying, but whether you are better than me in some fields doesn't mean you could teach him better." Shameless folded his arms and spoke with his eyes staring at the screen as well. "No offense, but he tasked me with this task because I'm the most suitable. I can teach him the best, and only I'm capable of getting him to the highest peak in the shortest time. You people are not good enough."

"Using him as your backing? Truly 'shameless'." The woman frowned. "You need to understand that we can teach him things that you cannot."

"I disagree." Shameless shook his head while smirking. "What you guys can teach; I can teach better. Sure, you can produce better items, but items are different from students. Tell me, which of your students have reached the level of even my casual ones?"

The room went silent once again.

"Exactly." Shameless stood up from his seat and walked to the front of the room. "You people will not interfere with my methods. He will one day appear in the cultivation world, and whatever he does, none of you will interfere. You will also make sure that aside from us, no one, I mean no one, knows his real identity."

"You mean to say, even if he is threatened by one of our people, we can't step in?" The previous old man asked in shock. "We won't expose his identity, but we need to make sure he isn't killed wantonly."

"If he dies this way, then so be it." Shameless' eyes sparkled with a bright purple as he looked deeply at the screen. "I care for Alem, more than just because of his responsibility. I watched him grow, I know his personality, I know his ambitions, his inner thoughts, everything. Yet even I will not stop him from being killed by random people, whether they're way above him or not. Luck is just as important as strength."

"Agreed." A few people nodded their heads. "To beat the Cloud Sovereign, luck will be a huge factor."

"Now then, let me give you people a run down on the other events inside this test." Shameless changed the screen, showing three categories. "We have three groups in this test. There are the candidates, which include the highest-level talents from various species, sects, and clans. There are also criminals, the most dangerous being those from Earth."

"Why are these guys more dangerous? Not much has been shared about this place 'Earth', so enlighten us." An older woman with no eyes spoke.

"The biggest difference between Earth criminals and our criminals is the environment. What makes a criminal in the cultivation world? Someone who rapes? Kills? Creates genocide? None of these. Criminals are just the ones that are disliked by the majority, thus branded as such. We don't have laws in our world, no common way to differentiate between a criminal and an innocent. Sometimes, a criminal is someone who dies, while the one who murders is innocent. Yet, Earth is not like this." His eyes flashed as he forced on a few hundred participant names. "On Earth, criminals are easily identified. People who steal, murder, rape, harass, etc."

"I see." These old people were not dumb, they caught on quickly.

"As most of you understand so far, the reason Earth criminals are the most dangerous is because they broke laws in their world. They stepped out of something that was considered normal. And not just stepped out, but completely ignored the system and went against everyone in their world. Not a single criminal in the test is a simple one. They aren't accidental murderers, rather they sought out blood. They hid, planned, and deceived. They understand survival, and none of them are dumb." Shameless stopped his explanation there about rh Earth criminals and moved on. "Anyways, the candidates are simply fighting for rewards. They survive, they get rewards, they die, then that's it for them. Now then, the second category consists of dangers for the candidates ...."

"Before you go on, why are they called candidates? Why this term? You could have used anything else." The gorgeous woman asked in confusion. The whole event was set up by Shameless, everything was hidden so they didn't know a thing.

"Because that's what they are, candidates. Other than Alem, everyone else is a candidate for three things. But I will explain this much later." He didn't go into detail and continued his explanation. "The danger category consists of wild animals and beasts, climate, natural disasters, traps, etc. Each of us will have control over a single danger type, or region. Our job is to increase the difficulty as time passes. I will explain all of that after this though, so don't worry." Shameless then pulled up the last category. It was different from the rest. Unlike the others, it was empty. "Now then, this last category is the rewards. The reward system is literally going to consist of things that could boost their development. Maybe a drop for food, or a single sword. Maybe a food recipe, or a recipe to forge something. Anything."

As Shameless explained, everyone nodded their heads, understanding the gist of the system. The concept was simple and easy to do.

"Now then, let's continue spectating." Shameless sat down.