[3RD POV INITIALLIZE]
One of the masked men, distinguished by a sun cross golden emblem on the center of his mask, sat in a black chair within a well-lit chamber. This room served as an oversight hub, monitoring the activities of every survivor in the skyscraper.
The golden-masked man contemplated silently as he observed the holographic display before him, which flickered with static.
[Once the narrative energy reaches 80%, I will be able to harvest some of it when it fully awakens,] He muttered to himself.
Surrounding him were twenty individuals wearing the same mask, though theirs lacked any emblem, meaning they were just minions of the golden sun cross man. They diligently worked at their holographic displays, monitoring the survivors and reporting any unusual activity to their leader.
Each of them held a crucial role in the operation of this survival game. Meanwhile, the masked man with the golden emblem focused his attention on one particular survivor who was fast asleep after his first victory against the lion encounter.
This game had been designed to evoke strong emotions, as participants would often betray and sabotage each other to advance to the next floor. However, Einsamer had made a different choice. He had chosen self-sacrifice, which had caught the masked man off guard. That was why he had allowed Einsamer and his team to escape.
However, he prepared another game with his mind, a game that would break Einsamer's mentally and push him to the limit. As he was pondered, one of his underlings shouted from the other side of the chamber.
"Code A1790 in the report, game venue 3 is being destroyed." One masked man said in a rush.
The atmosphere of the chamber got heavier as the man with the golden sun cross mask stood up and yelled.
[This is impossible, how can they destroy an entire game venue in just one day?] He tightly squeezed his hand and said in anger.
He pondered -Perhaps, someone already awakened their narrative energy, a regressor or reincarnator."
After all, one of the Ten Highs, number 10, was also defeated by an unknown person. Therefore it wasn't surprising to him that such a powerful individual must have hidden themselves just like the 10 high and now they finally show themselves.
The golden-masked man realized this harvest season must not be going as planned as he initially thought.
However, he had a divine mythical device that could open a portal through space alongside his twelve noble knights. He didn't feel threatened at all.
His underling replied, hesitantly "Sir, it is a group of rankers led by a girl. Their identity is still unknown. But from our latest footage, the girl seems to know how to use magic."
His underling showed him the footage of a girl who wore a battle armor created from blue particles and casually killed every masked man she encountered with her spears, she moved with incredible speed and every one of her strikes caused the ground to tremble and her surroundings instantly cut in half followed by a huge explosion.
The footage ended, and the golden-masked man stood rooted in frustration.
[She must be a regressor or transmigrator.] He murmured.
After that, he commanded, "Increase the difficulty in the Singa sanctuary continent, particularly sectors 1 and 2, and release all the A-rank creatures through the portal."
He pondered -A genetically modified creature such as a giant python and an Eagle wouldn't be an easy creature to take down even if she awaken like me.-
*
[1ST POV INITIALLIZE]
The thunderous sound of the explosion from a far away yet observable skyscraper awoke me from my dream, the dream in which I saw the mysterious red-haired girl.
The bright light shined through the window, temporarily blinding my eyes.
After I woke up and was fully aware of my surroundings, I was the first one to swiftly run through a door toward the balcony to observe what was really going on, the scale of the explosion completely engulfed the skyscraper and its smoke covered the blank sky, illuminating its surrounding area like a house light.
"What the fuck is going on?" I murmured.
Not to mention this holographic display appeared out of nowhere even without a projector, it felt like I was in a video game.
[World system: The world narrative energy is awakening]
I attempted to touch the holographic display, but my hand passed through it as if it were a water surface. I wonder where this phenomenon originates from, I glanced around and saw no projector to be found.
Does the text I see in this system have a connection with the explosion?
I never heard of the words narrative energy in my life! Things were getting complicated.
The explosion released smoke conjured into the sky in the shape of a mushroom and slowly burned down the skyscraper, I could see many people, from my view they seemed like ants escaped from the almost collapsed skyscraper toward a tiny floating island next to the building, the size of a small town but the bridge was also caught fire, therefore they were racing against a flame that pursuing them.
Nonetheless, the island automatically defied the earth's gravity. They were made for this purpose in order to ensure that even though the world lost its electronic energy to function in daily life, the floating island would still hover above the surface.
As I observed the absurd event before my eyes, I heard many people's footsteps heading this way.
I briefly turned to look at them, they were Shan, Setsuna, Geralt, and Yuffie. As for the other three girls, they didn't even dare to come out and crawl with their hands above their heads facing the ground.
It was then Geralt told me "It seems like someone exploded that skyscraper on purpose."
I asked, "Do you think it is them?"
He replied, "Probably not, their stupid game hasn't begun yet, so it must be another group who rebels against them."
He had a point, the night was so peaceful and quiet without the scream of agony, so I assumed the game of life and death didn't even begin yet. That means someone out there must have fought back these terrorists.
Later Geralt told everyone to ignore the burning skyscraper to focus on collecting food, healing our injury, and packing necessary items into the bag pack.
I put a bunch of chicken sandwiches wrapped in dissolvable plastic into my bag pack and waited for everyone in front of the store. Meanwhile, I looked at my damaged knuckle that was now wrapped in a bandage, I hoped it could heal faster, or else this injury would weigh me down.
After a while, I saw Shan walk out of the store with his backpack. At that moment, I was curious about his sister's whereabouts.
"Have you got in touch with Baohu?" I asked.
He sighed with a downward gaze and responded "Lately she is busy with her works, I barely talk to her. However, I realized how important she is when I am in this situation, I just hope she is doing fine as long as she doesn't leave the house."
I patted his back to comfort him, and said calmly "I will help you find her once we can escape."
He smiled at me and nodded, but I had one more question to ask him.
"Do you see the holographic display before you just like I do?"
Shan responded "Yes, it mentions the narrative energy, but I am not sure what it is.", He added "More importantly, how can a display be projected without any device nearby... I can't wrap my head around it."
He had a point, I was thinking of the same things about how this display just casually hovered before us without any projection from devices such as VR glasses and tablets, and additionally, I never saw a tech like this that interacts with users in a real environment from everywhere I walked, the holographic display followed me. Is this a new tech?
A few minutes later, Geralt and everybody including the three survivors from yesterday also followed him.
I saw Geralt's body was wrapped in a bandage, his injury from yesterday might slow him down in the upcoming survival game.
After everyone exits the store, I pull out my tablet to display a map I obtained from yesterday, the map reveals the exit and we immediately head to the escalator that took us to the upper floor where the gate is located where the map guides us.
Once we arrived at this floor, we were greeted by another high-security metal gate ahead that needed verification from the authority.
"We can't go to the lower floor nor proceed forward, what is going on?" Setsuna said, frowning.
Shan asked me "Are you sure this is the entrance to the upper floor?"
I responded, "Yes, the map shows me this is the only way."
Setsuna footed ahead to touch the gate, but there was no verification system popped up.
Everyone looked confused and glanced around, however a moment later, a distorted creepy voice could be heard broadcast through the stereo equipped in the gate.
[Welcome, the 2nd group survivors of 89 floors in section 3.]
Then the gate slid open, revealing an entirely new world, I had never been to this floor before, and in amazement, I looked at the dense forest before me stretching beyond this gate with a faint light emitted from the aluminum ceiling engulfed in vines, an entirely new ecosystem reminded me of the Jurassic park I went to when I was a child.
The distorted voice continued:
[Welcome to the game venue "Jurassic Park", alongside 2364 survivors from the 89-90-91 floors, you will participate in a game called the Lower and Higher of the food chains.]
After hearing his words, the two girls seem to be uncomfortable and step backward from the gate.
"I don't want to play this game..." One of the girls said with a low voice.
I responded "You can stay on this floor and repeat the same game, or you can move forward and clear every game with us. The choice is yours."
The truth that the mysterious avatar told me must be beyond all of this nonsense game, therefore I must participate in this game to reach the artificial garden at all costs.
I took a long, deep breath and moved forward, I was the first person who stepped inside the gate. Immediately I heard the sounds of birds chirping, and water flowing, followed by a system voice
[The first players from sector 3 registered, the gate will close in the next 5 minutes]
After I entered, Setsuna was the second person to walk in, followed by Shan, Geralt, and Yuffie. Importantly, the map that I obtained stopped showing further areas which meant I wouldn't be able to use the map anymore.
Geralt seemed to notice my concern, he arrived beside me and patted my back as he said "It is fine, we will find another way to explore this park."
The old man and the two girls exchanged a pensive glance, at the end, with hesitation they entered the gate as well.
The system voice announced:
[95% of survivors from the 3-4-5 sections of the 89 floor have registered for the game. Survivor of this floor: 578]
The metal gate gradually slides close behind us, leaving us no choice but to move forward.
While we were roaming along the path filled with gigantic trees, it was only then I realized this jungle was built at the height of three-story buildings combined together, no wonder why they mentioned survivors from the 3 floors to participate in this.
A loud noise of a bell began to be heard throughout the forest, a huge screen appeared before everyone as well.
[Game: The game master releases different species of dangerous predators across the jungle.
Hint: Survive the deadly beast of the jungle until the survivors reach 100, or find the executor and eliminate him to clear the game.]
I see, the only way to end this stupid game quickly was to find the executor.
"This bastard really goes all out on killing us." Setsuna groaning.
This time around would be different from the previous game, after all each one of us had adapted to this survival game and accepted the reality we were in. After I grasped the overall concept of this game, I gathered my courage and called out everyone to shift their attention to me.
I wasn't much of a great talker but I needed to propose my plan to them.
"There are around 1000 survivors in these 3 combined floors which means they will also find a way to eliminate each other in order to be the top 100 survivors," I said with a serious tone.
"You make a great point. But let's avoid fighting other survivors if unnecessary and focus on finding the executor." Geralt nodded and extended his idea.
Setsuna uttered with amazement "Does that mean our enemy is not only the beast but also other humans?"
I slightly nodded and replied "That is correct, moreover, we don't know yet if the executors are human or animal.", I added, "I think we should split into two teams, the explorer and the backup party."
Just like in the game version of Dawn, we had the trinity archetypes of magic caster, damage dealer, and assassin. Those three were often the ones assigned to the explorer party.
The world of dawn was vast, it had no boundaries and every new map we came across was almost like a different dimension to us, therefore it was essential to have an explorer party.
By sticking together, we would all be taken out all at once if the enemy we faced were stronger than our guild, but by splitting into groups, we could share information and even call for a backup while laying out traps.
Shan and Setsuna immediately knew what I was up to, and they just kept silent while they focused their attention on what I was about to say next.
I got straight to the point "Geralt, me, and Yuffie will be in the explorer team."
The reason why I chose Yuffie was because she had the ability to cloak herself which was suitable for exploring, it was such a rare body modification in the world that I would like to learn more about.
"Let's go then, we have no time to waste." Geralt turned around and walked forward. I followed behind him alongside Yuffie, while Shan and Setsuna were stationed at the same place we first arrived.
They also brought a few portable tents with them and set them up for the elder man to rest while the two girls examined a nearby plant. Along the muddy path aligned with trees on each side, Yuffie suddenly picked up her pace and arrived before Geralt, she said "I now know this park, this is Jurassic Park, the third gate section."
Geralt asked, "How do you know?"
She looked up and said "I used to go on a date with someone to this park, but I entered the first gate. But this is the third gate so I am not completely sure where we are as well."
She pointed to the ceiling 60 meters high above us, the gigantic number [3] carved on the ceiling was visible indicating we were at the third gate. I never knew such a big Jurassic park was built within this skyscraper, and to think this was the 3rd gate, how many gates are there and how big is this park?
Geralt also grasped how big this park was, therefore he lifted his hand and slashed the nearby tree as a mark, so we could find our route back when we returned.
"I will leave a mark here so we won't get lost when we return," Geralt said in his stoic voice.
Arriving at a path blocked by a thick vine filled with thorns, on the left side was a flowing river and a well-built bright, connected by a paved road to the other side, but we wouldn't take that route as other survivors might station there.
"Why do you take this thorny path?" I questioned.
"It is the only way to find out the shape of this park, if the other side is a dead end without a curve, that means it is either in the shape of a square or a maze, if it is built like a maze, then....." He stated as he cut through the vines with his sharp modified hand moving with tremendous speed.
"Then?" Yuffied uttered.
"Then we won't know." He mentioned.
Yuffie chuckled and said, "You should tell me earlier, I know the shape of this park."
Geralt and I looked at her with our narrowed eyes filled with disappointment.
"Well... You don't even tell me our goal so how can I know?" Yuffie shrugged her shoulders.
"Our goal is to move to a safe place, we cannot stay in one place for too long. No survivors or animals would cross this path which was filled with thorns and dense vines." Geralt replied.
Only then did I realize the shape of this park would be crucial and if it was made in the shape of a circle, then the other survivors group who wanted to invade another group didn't need to move to the center, the invader group only needed to circle the jungle and battled anyone they came across.
I swiftly turned to Yuffie, and asked "Do you know the shape of this park?"
Yuffie pondered for a moment, then responded "It is created in the shape of a circle if I remember correctly."
I clutched my hand and immediately turned back to the direction we came from, I sprinted ahead of Geralt and Yuffie, as I shouted: "Setsuna and Shan might be in danger."