As soon as Night Shadow walked inside the ring-like object, the world behind him faded and darkness enveloped him. Night Shadow looked around but he could only see darkness as if he fell into an abyss. Night Shadow looked hard for any clue but found none.
Suddenly, a voice rang, "State your name"
The voice was deep and came from all around Night Shadow. Night Shadow did not hesitate and replied...
"My name is Night Shadow"
The voice went silent. A few minutes later, the voice said...
"Confirmed. Welcome, Night Shadow, to the test platform"
Suddenly, in the darkness, Night Shadow saw a bright white light at a distance. Night Shadow also felt an invisible ground beneath his feet and started walking towards the light. He came closer and closer when he was just in front of the light. Night Shadow did not know what to do but guessed it. Night Shadow reached out his hand and touched the white light.
The white light consumed and blinded him before he felt a suction force pulling him. Night Shadow closed his eyes and did not resist.
Within a few seconds, Night Shadow felt his feet touch the ground. He opened his eyes and saw that he was in the middle of a forest. But a strange one. The sky was red in color and the sun was an even darker shade of red. The clouds were black in color. The trunk of the trees was green in color whereas the leaves were blue in color. The grass also seemed to be red in color. Night Shadow saw that all around him were trees of different sizes and height.
Although Night Shadow did not know why but this planet seemed to be more dangerous than the outer ring. Night Shadow left the thought and started walking in one direction. He also switched on his radar and kept checking for anything suspicious, just to be cautious. Night Shadow removed his clothes and transformed into his Transformer form.
Night Shadow did not meet anything or anyone on his radar until a few minutes later. Night Shadow tried camouflaging himself within the trees and looked at the scene. What he saw was two Aerilians talking to each other. Night Shadow calmed down and started moving towards them. A branch of one of the trees cracked under Night Shadow's feet and the two Aerilians got their weapons out and pointed towards Night Shadow's side.
Night Shadow transformed his weapon back into his arms and raised his arms.
"Hello, my name is..."
One of the two Aerilians moved forward and interrupted Night Shadow.
"What the hell are you?! What do you want from us?! Tell us or else we would make your death a painful one!", the Aerilians seriously said.
Night Shadow became confused.
'What's going on?'
But before he could tell anything, he saw something about to touch him from behind. Instinctively, Night Shadow quickly turned and punched the thing. The thing he hit went back, flying, from where it came from.
Crack!!
Night Shadow also heard some bones cracking and winced at the scream of the agony of the creature. Suddenly, he heard many of the trees rustlings and saw many unknown things coming towards him. They were at least hundreds of them, if not thousands. Night Shadow did not hesitate to transform his right hand into the gun and start shooting at the trees.
Wizz~
Wizz~
Wizz~
Wizz~
While killing, Night Shadow also heard some dinging noises.
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for killing a living being. Gained 750 XP]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for killing a living being. Gained 750 XP]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for killing a living being. Gained 750 XP]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for killing a living being. Gained 750 XP]
.
.
.
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for killing a living being. Gained 750 XP]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for killing a living being. Gained 750 XP]
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for becoming level 73]
[Name: Night Shadow
Level: 73(94,650/112,950)
Race: Carbon-based(Human)
Points: 60,502,600
Attributes: STR 925, DEX 940, INT 850, LUCK 630, SPD 935
Stat Points: 1,740
Skill: Shoot lvl 73(1/730), Deconstruction lvl 50(1150/1200), Absorption lvl 50(1150/1200), Basic Machinery, Basic Circuitry,...
Transformation: Human, Black Demon Jet, Dragon Beast
Storage: Vision sensors, Core Hyphaetalia, Core Drake, metallic crates,...
Wheel of Fortune: 0
Time until war: 14 years 335 days 21 hours]
------------------------------
Night Shadow smiled at the messages of the system. He got so much XP that he leveled up 9 times. Night Shadow shook his head and focused back on reality. He turned towards the two Aerilians and saw them coming towards him with a blade in their hands. But because both of them were close to Night Shadow, he could not use the gun and transformed his guns into his hands. He transformed his right hand into a sword.
The two Aerilians came from left and right and swung their blades towards Night Shadow's head and legs respectively. Night Shadow jumped forward and transformed into a human. Time seemed to have stopped as Night Shadow transformed into a human. Because his human body was small, he passed through the gap between the two blades.
Night Shadow landed behind the Aerilians, twisted his body, and swung his sword towards the Aerilian on his left.
The Aerilian bent his body backward but the timing was too late. Night Shadow's sword cut through the Aerilian'ss head like a hot knife cutting butter. With the head detached, the body became walked for a few steps before falling down lifelessly. Before Night Shadow could turn towards the other Aerilian, the Aerilian already reached Night Shadow and punched him with full power.
Crack!!
The bones in the hand of the Aerilian broke and the Aerilian fell down clutching his hand and screaming in pain. Night Shadow thought it was funny and did his best to hide his laughter.
But the Aerilian's punch was not in vain. Night Shadow moved a few steps back before stopping and looking at the Aerilian. The Aerilian met Night Shadow's cold face and froze. Night Shadow transformed himself and became a transformer. He moved towards the fallen Aerilian, bent down, and used the tip of the sword to lift the Aerilian's chin up.
"I am going to ask you a few questions and you are going to answer them, alright?. If you answer the questions honestly, I will free you", Night Shadow slowly said.
The Aerilian looked at Night Shadow and nodded with a lot of strength.
"Good, my first question is, Where am I?"
The Aerilian got closer to Night Shadow and answered difficulty, "Between...the outer...ring a...and th...the middle ring"
Night Shadow nodded and asked the second question, "Why did I come here after leaving the outer ring?"
"Every...Aerilia...Aerilian must...pass this te...test to e...enter the...middle ring"
With each word, the Aerilian's life seemed to be leaving him but Night Shadow did not stop.
"How do I pass the test"
"Find...the teleportation...device and...touch it"
"Where is the teleportation device?"
The Aerilian used his unharmed hand and gave Night Shadow a map. Night Shadow looked at the map and saw a place marked with X, which indicated the location of the teleportation device.
After seeing the map, Night Shadow killed the Aerilian and "freed" the Aerilian from its misery. Right now, Night Shadow wanted to enter the middle ring however, now that he has come to this place, why not farm XP?
Night Shadow transformed back into the human form and took the longest route towards the teleportation device. Although Night Shadow was surprised to see this place, he did not complain. This place is like a paradise made just for him.
It took him approximately 25 minutes to reach the teleportation device, all the while, Night Shadow could not stop smiling. He had reached level 75(0/113,750) and also distributed 500 stat points to strength, dexterity, intelligence, and speed and 160 points to luck.
While distributing the stat points, as soon as Night Shadow passed the 1000 barrier, he felt power "flowing" through him. It was amazing and addicting to have so much power. Night Shadow in a daze for a long time before becoming more conscious.
The other thing that made him happy was that he got another feature of human - taste. Night Shadow became so happy and started "drooling" upon imagining the delicious-looking food he saw in the outer ring. He could also activate or deactivate "taste" anytime he wants.
Even though Night Shadow got the "taste" sense, he did not get any tongue or anything. Well, after all, he was a robot.
He also got a message from the system to absorb any 200 human beings to make his body more human-like but the humans had to be dead. Night Shadow could only sigh and wait for the time he could come across any human planet. Well, at least he gained a lot from this place.
Right now, Night Shadow was standing opposite an obelisk. The obelisk was completely white in color, contrasting with the surrounding. It was 70 feet in height and drawings were drawn on the obelisk on all the sides. Night Shadow did not understand which language it was and took some photographs to look at them later.
Night Shadow touched the obelisk and suddenly felt as if he was traveling at very fast speeds. Night Shadow also saw some different colored rays of light pass by him and within few seconds, Night Shadow reached the middle ring.
Suddenly, Night Shadow was pushed out of the space and he felt himself standing on a surface. Instantly, a lot of noises hit him. Night Shadow looked around and saw that he was standing in front of a ring similar to the one he saw in the outer ring. He also saw many people going in and out of the ring. Night Shadow became confused but moved out of the way.
Suddenly, an excited voice called out, "Mr. Night Shadow, welcome to the middle ring"
Night Shadow turned around and saw a fat-looking Aerilian coming towards him. The Aerilian was smaller than Night Shadow, had no hair, brown-colored skin, fat arms, chubby(?) face, green-colored eyes, and spoke in a childish voice. It was weird. Definitely weird. Night Shadow smiled and shook his hands with the guy.
"My name is Gnindic. I am the ruler of this city, Kargul"
'What the hell is wrong with the names of the cities', Night Shadow mentally thought.
"Please ask me any question you like, sir?", Gnindic asked with a respectful tone.
"I would like to go to the innermost ring. How can I do that?", Night Shadow did not waste time and asked in a straightforward manner.
Gnindic looked at Night Shadow with his "eyebrows" raised but became his normal self a few minutes later.
"There is only one way to enter the innermost ring and that would be going through the teleportation device on the Middle Ring. I would also have to report this to the king, beforehand, about you. But, there is a problem...", Gnindic said with uncertainty.
"What is it?", Night Shadow asked.
"The problem is that...the teleportation device is under the water", Gnindic said with embarrassment.
Night Shadow looked at Gnindic with confusion. Why would the teleportation device be underwater?
Gnindic looked at Night Shadow and realized his mistake. Before Night Shadow could ask anything Gnindic said...
"Forgive me but the teleportation device is underwater because the king had placed it there, intentionally. He placed it there as a challenge to us. We, Aerilians, are winged creatures. We are not the best swimmers and so, the king placed the teleportation down there and said that whichever of us can reach the innermost ring will be rewarded with a position in the Royal Court", Gnindic started gasping after saying this.
Night Shadow put himself in the king's position and nodded in respect. Although there were many flaws in the statement the king said, those flaws were, probably, purposely there. The species in the middle ring could use these flaws and go there but it was still not that easy. There were also creatures of unfathomable strength the species had to pass through before reaching the teleportation device.
Night Shadow thought about it and asked, "Do you know where the teleportation device is located?"
Gnindic shook his head in defeat.
"It has been too long since anyone has tried it so the exact position of the device is not accurate"
Night Shadow nodded. Gnindic looked at Night Shadow and said...
"Although no one knows the exact place of the device, I have a map indicating the area in which the device might be located in. If you would like to know, let's go to my mansion"
Night Shadow nodded and said, "Yes, please"
Gnindic became happy once again and beckoned Night Shadow to follow him as the duo started heading towards the ruler's mansion.