Island T009

Kai tilted his head out of line and counted that there were only 3 more Candidates ahead of him.

After the briefing and the curses, the Systems had directed them towards a corridor, at the end of which there was a cylindrical room. These were the pods that would take them to the island.

Kai saw a woman entering the pod, and then its sliding door closed itself. In the next moment, the cylindrical pod slid down, and a new pod took its place. The process repeated itself two more times before Kai's turn finally arrived.

As the sliding door opened, he entered and looked around. Behind him, the door closed, and he could already feel the pod sliding downwards.

The pod's diameter was bigger than Kai's outstretched hands, he noticed. And it was completely white and empty.

The voices echoed suddenly.

[[Candidate Kai Stormborn, stand at the center of the pod]]

Kai followed the instruction, approached the central area, and stood straight. A gentle force then appeared in his surroundings, pressuring him inward. It seemed like a holding mechanism in place of the usual straps and chairs.

[[Brace for the impact in 9… 8…]]

'Interesting!' Kai thought, gritting his teeth. 'No weightlessness.'

A tremendous shaking of the white casing of the pod followed the countdown. The gentle force around Kai tried hard to keep him in place, but he still slid left and right like a leaf for a few seconds.

Then it all stopped.

The force vanished, and a new message appeared along with the voice.

[[

All pods throughout the island will open after an allowance period of 1 hour

Candidates can familiarize themselves with the Survival Kit and use their Inventory freely within this time

Once the pod opens up, Candidates will lose the privilege to ask questions to the Systems

Good Luck

]]

A timer of 1 hour appeared in front of Kai on the white wall, and a sliding noise reached his ears from behind.

Kai turned around and saw a brown backpack lying on the floor. He sat down near it, and one by one checked its contents.

It had a water bottle and food. Kai estimated it would last him three days if he would be frugal with it. Then it had a mass-produced, Easy-graded knife. An insect net and insect repellent. A sewing and fishing kit. 2 HP Capsules giving 20 points each. It also had matches, timber, and a flashlight.

At last, Kai's eyes landed on the Tablet.

The Tablet was around 15 cm long and 8 cm wide, and its screen was all black. Kai looked for any buttons, but couldn't find one. He turned it over. There was a circular depression on the cover.

Kai nodded to himself and pressed his thumb. The Tablet came alive, filling the white pod with bright colors.

-[Tablet-89]-

The name flashed and disappeared.

It had a few icons on the home screen itself. Map, Points Distribution, and Points Tally had the biggest icons. At the bottom, there were three icons lined up, but in a smaller size. 'Messages, Clock, and Camera,' Kai read and smiled. 'Don't tell me the Systems want us to treat the Stage as a vacation? Haha! Now that's amusing.'

Ignoring everything else, Kai tapped on the Points Distribution. A document opened up, with names, numbers, and points.

-[

Xenomorph:

1. Ovomorph (egg) - 1000 — Points: 1 each

2. Warriors - 20 — Points: 5 each

3. Queenguards - 4 — Points: 50 each

4. Queen - 1 — Points: 300

Yautja:

1. Un-Blooded - 10 — Points: 5 each

2. Young Blood - 2 — Points: 30 each

3. Blooded - 1 — Points: 100

]-

'Hmm,' Kai brooded over the data, squinting his eyes. 'The numbers of Yautja are significantly lower than the Xenomorph. Is it related to their hunting behavior? If I am to take the points as a measure of strength, then both Blooded and the Queen are strongest among their species.'

Kai then went back and tapped the map. It showed an aerial view of the island with terrain, and a blue dot flashed on it, marking Kai's position. He was somewhere southeast on the island, it seemed.

He then opened the Messages, and found a list of Tablets, numbered 1 to 100, written there.

'Does this mean Candidates can contact each other?' Kai asked, tapping his fingers on the floor. He again nodded to himself and opened the Camera now. After checking out the quality, Kai put the Tablet on one side.

-Selene,- he hissed. -Come out.-

A silver mist burst out of him, taking the form of a 6 ft long, lean serpent. Her third eye was shut, and her white, dragon-like scales gleamed with black and yellow ripples as she slithered up to him.

-We both are hungry, master,- she hissed thoughtfully. -Best would be to eat as much as we can before going out.-

Kai agreed. Darcie had to eat a limited and proper amount in Malfoy Manor. And it was nowhere enough to kill Kai's monstrous hunger. The result was that he was always hungry in between the Identity Periods. Not to mention, he couldn't let Selene out and hunt for prey herself.

'But that would change soon,' Kai reflected, recalling his plans for Selene.

His serpent had more to add, though.

-Only if I could do anything for your mental issues,- she hissed affectionately. -I feel like Item-M, master. Useless.-

Kai shook his head and brought out an enormous plate of Gyarados' cooked meat. This was the last magical flesh he had left. Most of it he had already made Selene devour, hoping for her to grow.

Her frustration exploded seeing the meat.

-I curse that blue worm,- she hissed, menacingly. -What's good being a magical creature if it couldn't even raise my grade by even one level?-

-Enough,- Kai snapped. -Eat. There are aliens on this island, Selene. Maybe eating them will have some positive effect on you.-

This train of thought seemed to have cheered her up, for Selene paused, turned around, and kissed Kai's chin, her forked tongue flicking out, up and down.

Kai and Selene spent the next 30 minutes devouring the food, their stomachs rumbling with each swallow. When the plate was empty, Kai leaned back onto the pod's wall, and Selene slithered up to his lap.

As he ran his hands across her length, feeling her smooth scales, Kai pondered over which Items to take with him. The sheer mention of Inventory's inaccessibility meant that the Systems didn't think it was helpful for Contestants to travel heavily. And Kai wasn't unfamiliar with jungle survival, either. Most of his previous life had gone into learning about the mutated beasts and their habitats. And no matter how dangerous the forest was on the island, it could never be as heinous as the carnivorous flora and fauna on his home planet, he knew.

-Swords are a must,- Kai reasoned. -HP capsules, Pokedex, the Book… Hmm, these should do. I can't rely on my Glitch, either. The entire Stage is being broadcast to the Primordial Tower. This is a risk I can't afford. I must rely on my Items and Abilities.-

-What about Magic, master?- Selene hissed broodingly, coiling herself in a bundle in his arms. -Now you have Elementary Magical Aptitude, right?-

Kai took a deep breath and shook his head. -Darcie's Mana is like an ocean,- he told her. -As she grows up, she will be able to access it to its full potential. This is called Magical development. After her accident, the Mana that she can access has increased too much in too little time. That's why she is having a problem with Control for puny spells.

-For us Contestants, though, we carry our Mana in a water bottle with us. Yes, this water bottle can become a bucket, a tank, a pool, and even a lake with Contestants growth. But it would never reach the same potential as an in-world character. Of course, I can't say the same about the Contestants above the 13th floor. There is only so much I can infer from Item-M's experiences. So even if Darcie can do mind-boggling Magic, I can't. What I can do are little things like this…-

Kai focused, repeating the same three words in his mind that he had countless times since his reincarnation in Darcie's body.

And then he snapped his fingers, and sparks followed the sound like little fireworks igniting out of thin air.

His MP bar lost 2 points. He snapped again, and a portion of the empty plate shattered, making him lose another 3 points. With another snap, Kai's hair cut around his neck unevenly, and as they fell, they seemed to melt into the white floor.

'No need to have such long hair in this terrain,' Kai reflected, seeing the MP bar dropping by only 1 point.

The Severing-Charm was the best magic he could do and with the least amount of MP.

But Kai had concluded that there was no fixed relation between different magics and MP consumption.

'It's like when I do magic,' Kai thought, taking out his Items one by one, 'my Mana just spill out of the container. Yes, it lets me cast a spell, but most of it just goes to waste. No wonder Item-M told me that Wandless Magic and Non-verbal Spells are useless for Contestants. We need wands more than the in-world characters could ever need them. Tch!'

The timer showed 5 minutes when Kai looked at it.

-Selene- he said, looking at her. -Don't show yourself without my orders. Don't kill. And don't chase the prey.-

-Hahaha!- she laughed maniacally. -What about a loving gaze, master?-

Kai ignored the jape, wondering if her Petrification Skill would even work on these aliens or not. What about Soul Chill and Ghost Neurotoxin? He just hoped they would have a soul.

Kai stood up, and Selene entered his body but stayed inside his left foot.

He tied the two Katanas on his waist to his left, and the third sword to his right. Hp capsules and Pokedex went into his pockets. At last, he held the Book and called out Petyr.

The character bowed and entered him.

Kai threw the bag on his shoulders, took a deep breath, and calmed his emotions down.

The timer hit 0 and the sliding door of the pod opened up.

Kai walked out into the thick of the night, heavy darkness pressing on him from all around. But it wasn't quiet. Buzz of insects and rattle of nocturnal hunters echoed everywhere.

Suddenly, something flashed red behind him.

Kai looked over his shoulder and saw the white walls inside the pod turning red and white in a rhythmic order, like a beep. And the gap between these rhythms was decreasing exponentially.

Kai's eyes widened. 'Fuck!' He cursed and dashed behind the thick trunk of a tree.

The pod exploded with a thundering boom, and a mass of flames leaped to the sky like a balloon.

The Systems had just announced all Candidates' presence to the aliens.

***************

AN: The various stages of aliens and predators wil be explained with Tournament's progression. Remember that Contestants at this points knows nothing about the foes that they would soon face.

A map of T009 island is available on Discord.