Elsewhere

"Competition Combatant?" From the crowd of people, the one who spoke up was a Caucasian male with a plain two-tone baseball cap and a white T-shirt with short navy blue sleeves. Over his T-shirt was a plaid short-sleeve button shirt, but it was left open.

"Yes." The voice coming from the void responses with joy. "Competition Combatant."

There was a pause, and nobody said anything for a few seconds. There was still a lot of shock and dread about the situation. But the man with the baseball cap spoke up again.

"Shouldn't it be Competition Of The Combatants?"

"No?" The entity responded with confusion. "Why would it be Competition of the-" His tone changed and it became annoyed. "That's a mouthful."

"But... It sounds a lot better." Said the guy with the baseball cap. "It flows way better, if you ask me."

"Good thing nobody asked." When the entity finished his sentence, Suddenly, the man with the baseball caps physical appearance changed, and he grew shorter. His clothes fit to match his new build, and he was now Korean.

Those who were near the man started screaming and panicking. He touched his face and chest before saying."What happened?" He looked dazed. "Where am I?" His voice has even changed.

A woman fearfully asked. "Wh-What are you?"

Another person shouted. "IT'S THE GOVERNMENT!" With urgency in his voice. "I'M TELLING YOU IT'S AN EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM!"

Someone else in a panic asked. "Are you God?!"

Different people began to chime in with their theories. "Are you Jesus? Or Brahma?" Swallows nervously His throat became dry and swollen. "Amaterasu... Shangdi... Odin... Zeus?"

"Yes that's me." The voice responded calmly.

That threw everyone into a frenzy instead of calming their minds, which made everyone more scared and confused. What does that mean? Yes, that's me... He's all of them. Everybody's facial expression changed and became long.

"Let me explain the situation." Within the void appearing before their very eyes, sitting on a throne made of gold and red rubies, is a short 5'2" man with black shorts and long boots that reach up just below his knees. He's wearing a short-sleeve white shirt with a black short-sleeve blazer covering it. A necklace with a golden star, his eyes were just white, no pupils or a soul insight; it was just white. His arms had these long black armbands that covered his forearms. His hair was as white as snow, stylized in a sassy quiff with a drop fade. With a smug expression on his face, he almost looked like he was about to laugh.

"At random, 82 of you have been selected for this competition. It'll be a thrilling life-or-death tournament on Combatants Island; it's a large island designed by yours truly. If I do say so myself, the island is as big as Greenland, with different terrains, environments, and loots throughout the island, as well as dangers. There are wild animals—mystical and otherwise. That leads me into explaining the grand point of the competition." The God cleaned his throat and summoned a bucket of popcorn. "For the next 112 days on Combatants Island, you will all be searching for the Golden Nazar Battu; whoever finds it first will automatically be put in first place. It doesn't matter how many points you have; it can be 0 or 1,000. You'll always be in first place as long as you carry the Nazar Battu. The charm takes the form of a statue that's small enough to fit in both of your hands and be carried by even a child with my face engraved on it. It's a physical item that you must carry around. Other items will be first come, first served."

"There are other ways to win the competition. If nobody has the Nazar Battu when the time expires after exactly 112 days at 1:30 PM, whoever has the most points will be determined as the winner. Collecting an item can award you anywhere between 1 and 3 points. Defeating a wild animal grants you 1 point, but killing them gives 2. Competing in a competition on the island gives you anywhere between 2 and 10 points. Battling participants and defeating them gives you 1 point, but killing them grants you 5 points."

Johnathan heard the words killing, and he's chuckling, and then a smile forms on his face. He doesn't look happy; his eye was twitching, and he was just chuckling frantically. He's preparing to raise his hand and ask to leave this insane place.

Someone had beat him to it. The young boy looked like he couldn't be much older than 15; he had already raised his hand, and he spoke with fear. "CAN'T I JUST GO HOME?!" He was shaking. "Please, I don't want to do this! I want to go home! My mom's probably worried sick about me. My little sister and I were supposed to go to her violin rehearsal!"

The adults were stunned to see a child here, and he spoke up. Others started to notice there were two other children, and one of them looked younger than the one that spoke up. It wasn't just adults that were grabbed up in the batch of 82 people; there's young children here as well in this death game. What's this sick cruelty?

"Holy schnitzel, I can't believe you tried to play that card on me." The God sounded genuinely shocked, as he didn't expect that. Without a moment's hesitation, he snapped his fingers, and he slowly vanished, beginning at his legs.

The boy smiles, believing his request had been accepted. But as his legs fully disappeared, his smile faded. "This doesn't feel right..." He realized what's going on. "Please STOP! NO! AHHH! HELP ME!" He tried desperately reaching out. "SOMEONE HELP! HELP ME, SOMEONE PLEASE!"

Jonathan watched him disappear into nothingness, and he put his hand on his head. He got a massive headache thinking about how close he was to getting erased. They can't ask to go back home, but now he's concerned because of his mommy. This competition is expected to take place for 3 months, 2 weeks, and 5 days. What is she going to do all that time he's away from her? What about that job he just got? He can't afford to be here. Battling his mind and the reality of the situation, he looks insane because of his smile. Others are thinking he's happy about this, but he's hurt, saddened, confused, and directionless, like a chicken with its head cut off.

The god would use his powers and effortlessly replace him with someone else to take his spot.

"Wh-Where am I?" She turned left and right.

"Nice, back to 82 people, just like I wanted it." The god clapped his hands, admiring his work. "You guys are going to participate; there's no way around it. How you choose to play is entirely up to you. But there will be a champion, and I know you're scared to ask. But someone is thinking right now, What'll happen if you win? There's a reward. It's not a competition if you're not playing for some type of prize."

A Chinese man asked. "Can we ask what the prize is?"

"I didn't finish my explanation." The God ignored his question. "There's something you all should know before I start. You all have been given a power; it's random to make it fair; it can range from all sorts of things to running really fast to shooting fireballs, anything in-between. Even things you wouldn't believe or expect to be abilities To use these powers, you are given something I invented myself called Kosher."

Kosher Is the power supply that everybody on the island has, and without it, they won't be able to trigger their abilities or powers. All powers come with a cost, either a drawback or a certain amount of kosher to perform an action, most of the time both. If you don't have the sufficient amount to perform a task, it'll either fail outright or be significantly weaker than normal.

"I won't tell you how to use your ability or how to trigger it; you'll have to figure that out on your own. But everybody starts off with 20 Kosher you can increase this number to allow you to use your powers more often or more extreme versions of your powers. I think that wraps up everything I wanted to say."

Someone raised his fist in vexation. What's the point of doing all of this if you aren't going to at least tell us how to use our powers? That person thought everything was unclear. There was too much energy when he was talking about Kosher and powers. Then there are challenges and beasts on this random island that he created.

The man intends to raise his voice. I was immediately teleported in a bright flash of white light, including everybody else that was inside the void.

Jonathan has his hand down on the ground, inspecting the grass. The more he's touching it, he's starting to realize he's in a steaming hot rainforest. He looks up, and the sun glares back into his eye. "GAH!" Feeling warm, he just sits down with his back up against a tree with a defeated look on his face.

"Mommy." Smiling and shaking his head. "If I had raised my hand I would have been the one killed." His hands on his face. "UAGHHH!!!" Shouting out, he's trying to collect his emotions with no idea what to do or where to go next. However, in the middle of his emotional tangent, he noticed something. "Huh?" A stylized blue wristwatch attached to his arm.

[Jonathan Daniels]

- HP (5)

- Kosher (20)

- Combatant Score (0)

"Hit points?" Johnathan lowered his arm. "Is this a game?" He is dreading everything and decides to get up and move. As he's standing up, he hears some hissing.

Turning his head around quickly, his left leg was gripped just as quickly. He was pulled off his feet.

"OOF!" Jonathan facesplants and goans in pain. Flipping over onto his back, he looks down his leg, locking eyes with...

A slender, large-eyed, olive-green snake was crawling its way up his leg.

Jonathan was tensing up, dry and smooth. It feels like an encroachment on his personal space. He's never felt anything like this before, with all the muscles working under their scales. He threw a slap and then a punch, trying to pry the snake off his leg.

The snake bit underneath the side of his hand.

"OUCH!" Jonathan rolls around in the grass, getting it on the back of his head and shirt. Before driving his leg into the tree, he repeatedly tried to get the snake.

The snake continued traveling up his body. Jonathan accidentally kneeled the tree, and he shouted in pain before clenching his right leg. And he fell down onto the ground. There were a few cuts and a little brush. He's rolling around, trying to get some relief. He was grasping for air before picking up a rock that was beside him. The snake was still coming up, and it made its way to his face, going to bite him.

"HAAAAAH!!!" Johnathan gave out a mighty shout there was panic in his voice and he was shaking. Repeatedly, he'd bash the rock down onto the head of the snake while it was on his chest. Then he would slide it onto the dirt, and then he would press it down onto the snake's head.

The mud on his hands griffy and slimy he thought it would feel dry. But it was like Johnathan had put his hand in some cold pie. He swiped his hand in the grass then on a tree as he stood up feeling tried.

Jonathan looks at his wrist. "3 HP." That's concerning. He thought, How can he restore his health? And what caused him to lose two already? The snake only bit him once. He feels weak and vulnerable. "Combatant Score 2." He continues traveling through the rainforest.

Jonathan is taking his time, ignoring the little pain. Right now, he's troubled. He just got into a fight with a snake, and there's no worry about it. The only thing that's on his mind is his mother. What's she doing right now? Probably calling out his name and dialing his phone. He won't be able to answer, and then there's Kenny; he was on call with him before he disappeared. The rest of his friends and these status things on the wristwatch. He looked and saw that his health was still at three.

Jonathan looked up, and then suddenly he saw something swing from one tree branch to another. There was a puzzled expression as it moved so fast that he couldn't even make out the blur.

Behind him, something pulled back its arm, revealing its long, sharp, yellow, curving claws. Then the creature was drooling from the mouth, preparing to slash right through his neck.

Jonathan stood still, not realizing the creature had already gotten behind him. His eyes twitched as he heard the sound of the creature murmuring in pain. He turned around immediately and took two steps back. The creature was a red wolf with green eyes, and underneath its belly was yellow. His facial expression was one of disbelief. But what's even more shocking is that the wolf was already on the ground, slain. There was electricity in the color green discharged throughout its entire body.

"Jon." A familiar voice called out to him.

Jonathan knew only a handful of people who would shorten down his name, and he hasn't met any other person here to introduce himself or give his name out to. "Ken!"

"Jon!" Kenny shook his head in skepticism, but he still ran over to his best friend and gave him a hug.

"Bro I can't believe it's you." Jonathan hugs him back without a second hesitation.

"I thought it was you." Kenny pulled back from the hug. "But I thought, just fuck it, we ball; if it's you, then we chilling. Even if it weren't you, I couldn't stand those bitches."

"What the heck are they?" Jonathan asked. "It's nothing like a wolf. I've seen that it's like something out of Resident Evil."

Kenny shook his head. "I was thinking the same thing. But let's just hold onto our thoughts and go somewhere we can talk. Because I know there's more of them lurking."

"But where are we going to go?" Jonathan started looking around.

"I got the perfect place come on." Kenny lead the way.

Jonathan and Kenny would walk for a while inside the rainforest. Jonathan was on edge, just looking around. He couldn't keep his composure, but Kenny looked focused. Until they reached their destination, it looked to be a cave. It was empty, with nobody or anything inside.

Kenny smiles before sitting down. Leaning against the cave wall. "Okay, Jon, let's now talk."