Vermont ran as fast as he could and disappeared behind the many large boulders that broke Beatrice's view of his back.
The land they were standing on was one of the many cubes that were floating on the lava ocean, but only barren.
Till her eyes could extend, only large stone boulders and dunes existed on the other side of the breathtaking lava ocean.
From what she could see, it wasn't clear whether he would be able to survive the heat that even Biohackers were feeling despite their thick skin.
It was still dark, the black blanket of the sky without moon and stars felt like the world had been swallowed by a Giant.
Thinking about it, it wouldn't have been strange if the lava was the giant's saliva and the tile-like cuboids of land floating on the horizon were his fangs.
Beatrice was too dumbstruck to follow behind Vermont immediately, her mind was still stuck on the last statement he had whispered before leaving.
'Let me tell you something Ms Akio', he had said revealing her real Japanese name, '... Hell's Kitchen is not a Seed, but a Herb ~hehe'
She had no idea what Vermont meant by Hell's Kitchen or a herb, but she knew that there was a deeper meaning to his words.
Her only problem was whether it would help or destroy her. She just couldn't guess Vermont's intentions at this point.
She wanted to go full-throttle behind him but was immediately surrounded by several bulky men who didn't look like they had good intentions.
They were the Prison Guards, led by a guy named Marcus.
"Mr Marcus, what is the meaning of this?", she had already familiarized herself with the guards last night.
Marcus was the only person with a gun before, but now he faced Beatrice with an empty holster around his waist.
Being from a military family, it was ingrained in her blood to quickly learn and adapt to their situation. She glanced at the 10 people that had surrounded her and assessed their strength.
She sighed internally as she remembered how things turned out this way. From a princess to a criminal, her image had been ruined in a matter of minutes because of Vermont's vicious tongue.
"Don't misunderstand us miss Beatrice, but you can't leave right now! We need to act together in order to survive this ordeal"
"Stop bullsh*ting me. What we need is to catch that boy, don't fall into his traps. He definitely knows something!!", she said as a matter of fact, but her words only fell on deaf ears.
It was easier to believe that it was her who was hiding something rather than Vermont. After all, she was the only one with any possibility of having essential supplies in her Aura ring.
"Huh-? You think we don't know that you just want to keep your supplies to yourself. Stop with this Spooner rant or we will really have to take some unpleasant steps."
GRR...
" you really are stupid", she gnashed her teeth in annoyance. To let Vermont go might even turn out to be their biggest mistake in this life.
"Unlike you, I don't discriminate against unawakened but even I know that he is as good as dead now that he ran to the dessert."
All the other guards agreed to Marcus's logic.
"... Moreover, does it make any sense that a 15-year-old will know more about our situation than all of us combined?"
"... Or is it that you think he will somehow live more than 12 hours in this heat that is even making a 3★ like me sweat buckets?"
It was natural for Cadets to simply refer to themselves by their star rank rather than explicitly mention that they were Cadets. They were the lowest in the hierarchy.
Beatrice was reluctant to let Vermont leave but she knew that Marcus's assessment was also logical. After all, even she didn't have any concrete evidence to rely on while talking of Vermont's secrets. It was all instinctual for her.
The title "Eye of Providence" hadn't yet been conferred to her as she was only a Biohacker and not a Ravett. The miraculous powers obtained from absorbing Monster genes are still far off in the future for her.
Moreover, it indeed looked suicidal to run in this heat, especially for an unawakened human being. She didn't know what Vermont was thinking but her instincts screamed at her that she must follow him if she wants to survive.
WHOOSH!!!
Suddenly Beatrice released all of her Urja at once and the 15 or so guards that had her surrounded stepped back due to the sheer force of her strength.
Although the difference between a 3★ Cadet and 1★ Lieutenant was a meagre 1 rank, the strength difference was almost double.
"I know it might sound ludicrous, but I'll suggest you also leave this place at once. God knows what lies beneath the lava ocean"
The 100 Rave participants had appeared on the edge of one of the tile-turned-cube that was as big as 500,000 km² in area. It was almost double the size of the state of Uttar Pradesh.
Beyond the edge where the world seemed to end and only a burning Hell of lava was visible to the opposite side with an endless desert, the only direction in which the group could move was already clear. Sooner or later they too will have to follow Vermont.
Even if Cadet-rank biohackers could survive a week on a hungry stomach without affecting their physical health, water was still a necessity that they couldn't skip.
Marcus also understood this very well and that was why he had gathered a group of his guard friends to ambush Beatrice for whatever supplies she must be carrying in her Ring.
"... also if you threaten me again, don't blame me for not being kind"
Saying that she too disappeared in the direction of the endless desert.
She glanced once more at the endless lava on her back and an urge to quickly run away appeared in her heart.
*****
(10 hours later)
HUFF... HUFF!!
Vermont hadn't kept a straight face since he ran away from the cliff. Breathing heavily he sat beside a yellow boulder and looked behind him to see whether somebody was following him.
He was not only looking out for other Rave participants but also any dessert monster that might have been attracted by his sweat.
'This is really one of the worst Rave Dimensions for an unawakened'
He had grossly overestimated his unawakened body. If not for it still being night and he was running away from the lava ocean towards the cold dessert, he would have already died due to the heat.
The human body was no better than smartphones in that sense, it just couldn't function in either extreme temperatures. Too hot, the body won't have energy for long, and too cold, the body would just not move.
SQUEAK... SQUEAK...
Suddenly he heard a noise and got up in fright.
When he looked back at the boulder, a mouse head popped up from the small hole exactly where Vermont's hand was a second ago. A mouse had buried through the thick stone to get out.
"huh? am I already near the location?", he wondered aloud.
With his overpowered eyes, he scanned all of his surroundings and saw multiple burrows scattered all around the area.
A realization hit Vermont and he slowly started to backtrack his steps to get out of the ant-colony-like habitat.
A large mouse exited the boulder; dumbstruck, it looked at the 15-year-old that was also looking at it with a penetrating gaze and tilted its small head in a way that showed intelligence.
Except for the typical head, moustache, and four legs, the mouse was anything but ordinary. Its neon radioactive skin was glowing with a green tint, its size was almost thrice the size of a typical mouse, and instead of using its teeth, it was using its claws to dig through the stone.
"No, it is devouring the stone with its claws?", Vermont realized as shock appeared on his face.
"Wait! How is a mutant appearing outside the radioactive zone?"
It was when Vermont was wondering about the magical mutant creature affected by the Strop Energy, that he suddenly heard a loud rumbling noise that was coming from beneath his feet.
"Shit Shit Shit!!!", a frightened Vermont didn't wait for a single second and using all the force he could muster in that split second, turned around and ran with full speed.
RUMBLE... RUMBLE...
Hundreds of boulders and burrows collapsed due to the weight of tremors which seemed to be caused by hundreds of giants dancing underground.
But Hell Kitchen wasn't an easy dimension where intelligent species like Giants could slumber, and Vermont knew this fact very well.
So the only possible conclusion was that a giant monster must have awoken due to the appearance of "food" in the area.
'Aura, What is the time now?'
[ Server disconnected. ]
[According to the last synced time, it should be 2034 Hrs ]
"Shit. I forgot about time dialation"
According to Earth's time, since Vermont had been in Hell's Kitchen for almost 11 hours, it was already night on Earth.
However, the Hell's Kitchen time was different. When Rave participants arrived here, it was already night.
The only reason, it was so hot at night was because the participants had arrived at the edge of the tile and they were too close to the lava ocean.
'Aura, create a second clock, deduct 10 hours, reverse AM and PM, set 48 Hrs/day as the base, save it as HK Time. Default to HK time from here-on.'
One by one, Vermont gave Prison AI instructions as he ran at full speed. AI didn't respond back and executed his instructions.
Vermont's previous standing orders were still active as it had not been more than 11 hours since he asked AI to shut it.
'Tell me the time now?'
[ 3235 Hrs ]
"so it is really rush hour", Vermont gruntled as he spoke.
He had miscalculated the time. Rave started at around 1000 Hrs Earth time, but because the AM and PM were reversed, the participants arrived at Hell's Kitchen at 2200 Hrs.
Since Hell's Kitchen had 48 hours in a day, it meant that Vermont was close to the midnight hour ~3600 Hrs.